I love to see the Temple!

I remember over 4 years ago when this temple was announced I was at the library and everyone was looking it up and it was so exciting and I cried.  I couldn't believe we were going to get a temple in our backyard!  Now we are a few minutes farther away, but it is still our closest temple.  As long as the girls can remember, and for Owen's whole life, we have been talking about going inside this temple.  Every time we got on the freeway we would see it and many times I sang the song!  We watched it be built. I threw the kids in the car and rushed to Payson when I heard the Angel Moroni was going up-- I was super sick pregnant with Maris (this was pre-Zofran) but I made it happen because I wnated the kids to have that moment.  Owen used to ask to drive by the temple all the time.  And frequently I sing " I love to see the Payson temple" to make the kids laugh.

This is our temple.

And it was finally time to go inside!!!

 We all loved the open house except Whitney, who couldn't get over the itchy booties and complained the whole time. :(  It was beautiful beyond description, and peaceful.  We got to be alone a few times as a family and just whisper about things.

I am so grateful to have this temple so close to us.

Also, Owen is obsessed with fire hydrants.  He points them out everywhere we go!

And I got to go to the temple with Raycelan when she got her endowment, it was so beautiful and special!  She and Derek are adorable.  This is a bad picture of Kent, Allison, Raycelan, Derek, me, and Jonathan at the Oquirrh Mountain temple.  But one of the best parts was definitely when we all thought Jonathan wasn't coming because he had to work, but then he just showed up in the endowment room right before they started!  He had gotten an ride with Raycelan's roommate, funny kid.

Random May

Gorgeous shot I got, with no filter, of the sunrise over our neighborhood pond one morning while running.  I love all the sunrises I get to see when I'm training for a race!

 The Cravens minus Phillip stayed with us for a couple of days and it was so fun.  Whitney is good at getting every one to laugh!

 and they all wanted to see baby Hazel.

 Maris is getting into coloring, it's so cute to watch her scribble!

 Owen took this picture of me in a typical pose. :)  Sometimes my arm aches after a long day!

Maris Asparagus likes to try to eat with a fork like a big kid.

 her nose scrunch is my FAVORITE!

 copied from instagram:

These two. Are cracking me up lately. They are starting to play together more, real playing, and Maris obviously adores Owen. She gets so concerned whenever he cries, and he talks to her in the cutest little voice. I told Owen he gets to be her superhero and he puffed out his chest real proudly. BFFs in the making. smile emoticon

 I am loving me the Spanish Fork River Trail!  I have a feeling we're going to have a long, happy friendship like I have with the Provo River Trail!

 I am finally done coaching; it ended sadly with the 6th grade met being cancelled because of thunderstorms.  I went to see the 6th grade relay kids and I was like,"I guess you'll just have to do junior high track!" and they said they don't even have that here. They are killing me!  Because I could totally make that happen for them if I had the time. :(

 Anyway Maris was obsessed with the batons, another steal from facebook:

She's like "Mom, you go down there and I'll run and hand it off to you."‪#‎futuretrackstar‬

 and here she is shoving her face full of Cheetos!  

 and laughing and laughing on the swing. She LOVES it!

Also Katelyn did an awesome poster report on Japan.  It was well written- she is GREAT at research, summarizing her research, and keeping the reader's attention through fun writing styles.  and she happened to have a bunch of great pictures from her Japan trip and cute scrapbook stuff Grandma gave her= WIN.  I was SO happy when her teacher said she could do her report on Japan!

Whitney Mae's B-day!

Whitney's 7th birthday excitement began the Saturday before her birthday when she got her ears pierced!!!  She had been talking about wanting to do it for a while, and we decided to give it to her as a birthday present.  Here she is without any holes in her body for the last time!!

 And here she is after!!  She didn't even cry or squeeze my hand, she just said, "OWch?!" each time.  Eric wouldn't even watch; he took the little kids to wander the mall. :)  Whitney loves to wear jewelry so this will be so fun for her!  And her little sparkly earrings look so cute. :)

On her birthday morning of course she got up early and wanted to open all of her presents. Here she is with her earring packs she picked out.  And yes her hair looks like that EVERY MORNING.  (Eric teases her that elves come and mess up her hair in the night, or that birds make a nest in it, etc.) and every morning I have to fight her to do something in it before she goes to school! 

 opening a pig popper from Grammy!

 And right after school it was time for her party!  Here are her friends gathered around the Stone Table decorating swords and shields, which they would use in becoming true kings and queens of Narnia!

 She had quite the mix of friends there: Damon and Porter from Santaquin, Rachel from her church class, Abby, Brianna, and Katie our neighbors, Maddy and Emily from school, and Natalie and Caleb our cousins!  (plus a bunch of younger cousins!)

But before that, they all had to enter Narnia through... the wardrobe!  "Lucy" showed them how to get in...

past the coats....

 through the snowy woods....

 to the lamppost where they were met by Mr. Tumnus and escorted to the Stone Table.

 Next we had the "Dawn Treader obstacle course"!

 part of which was scaling our new climbing wall--

 and coming down the rope ladder.

they also had to run through the pool and fight the sea serpent (sprinkler), go through the tunnel and over the picnic table.  Here is Whitney finishing!

 Then we had Mr. Tumnus' Tea Party.

 Complete with the awesome Narnia cake that I made (based on the amazing cake Allison/Melissa made a couple of years ago for Natalie!)

 And we were able to use our awesome unfreezing game AGAIN!  We have done Han Solo in Carbonite for the Star Wars parties, Anna and Elsa for the Frozen party, and now a bunch of animals frozen by the White Witch for the Narnia party. :)

 And then they were all crowned kings and queens in Narnia!

 After the party we had a fun pizza dinner with our many family members in attendance!

 And then Eric and the kids went to see Cinderella at the movies while I sat down and hung out with Maris, so relieved to have the party over! 

I love my Whitney Mae.