our trip day 5, our sealing

The most important reason for taking our trip was to have family with us when Layla and Perry would be sealed to us for time and all eternity in the Temple--a house of the Lord. On February 18 we got to do just that. It was a beautiful day at the Newport Beach Temple.

I can't even put into words how peaceful and happy one feels gathered with family in a temple of God. To have all four of my children with us in the sealing room, two of them dressed all in white, like Eric and I, for the ceremony, was a beautiful experience that I don't think I will ever forget!

The sealing ceremony is pretty short, but I had no idea how Perry and Layla would act. I remembered 3-year-old Kacin, after he was sealed to us, climbing up onto the alter and jumping off before we could grab him, so I was a bit nervous as to how it would go. :) I had no need to be because Layla and Perry were both so calm in the sealing room. When it was time, the children came right up and placed their hands on our hands as we knelt at the alter. After those beautiful words were spoken to seal Layla and Perry to us, we were able to gather all of our children into hugs. I felt such joy and such love for each of these sweet kids and a wonderful husband to call my forever family.

We were so grateful to have some of our family there with us.

I just love candid shots of getting ready for the big smiles. :)

I am apparently signing to one of my kids to stop doing whatever crazy thing they are doing, so no matter how ridiculous I look, I have to post the only picture my dad made it into. He's pretty important.

We had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory right after the sealing.

It was a perfect morning for our family.

More about temples here.

bowling

Guess who beat Eric bowling on our date night over the weekend? ;)

F for Faye (me)!

 all because of the lucky ball I used

I made everyone play Wacky Bowl, too.

Which taught us that some people bowl better with their eyes closed and under their legs than others.

First the Chick

It's time for more chickens!

Picking out new chicks was a much anticipated event.

Each of the kids picked one out so we came home with four baby chicks in a box.

We got them settled in their box in the garage.

These three love to check on them in the mornings and give them some snuggles. 

Our current chickens are slowing down on their egg production so we will be really glad in a few months (up to 6 months) when these guys start laying their eggs.

One of our new chicks is an Ameraucana and will lay blue eggs!

our trip days 2 and 3 and 4

We did about 9 hours of driving the second day of our trip to CA. Except it took much longer than that to get to the next hotel because every stop took at least 20 min. and we stopped more than we planned because someone wasn't feeling well in the morning. One of our stops ended up being at a mall. We walked our kids across the mall to the play area. and Perry refused to play. So that was that and we walked ourselves all the way out again. But I did run into a store and made a purchase so not a complete bust of a stop.

On Sunday, we finished up the last 6 hours. We stopped at a rest stop along the way for a picnic, a game of red light green light, and riding a bike down a hill. Not a comfortable hill either, mind you. That bark was very, very poky and probably not made for games with kids.

We were so excited to get to our hotel and have the Schlinks in the room next to us! Natalie, Cheston, and Nancy came over to our hotel, too. We all got dinner and some of us went swimming.

On Monday, we spent the morning at Newport Beach with the Schlinks.

 Eric's family joined us in the afternoon.

Then we headed to our Disneyland resort hotel to let the Disney magic begin!
We walked around Downtown Disney and got checked into our hotel.

That evening we gathered together in our hotel room and Eric and the other Melchizedek Priesthood holders who were there layed their hands on Layla and Perry's heads in turn and Eric gave them each their "baby" blessing. It was a happy, special time for our family.

Mommy's Girl

I can't get the video to upload properly, 

but it doesn't capture all of her cuteness anyways.

This little sweetie pie melts my heart each day, multiple times a day,

while we are in the car, out visiting teaching, in the middle of a store, and at home playing

she smiles at me

and announces

"I'm mommy's girl."

Yes, she is.

Swirly Tree

famous artists:

Monet, Bob Ross, Picaso, Van Gogh, Laura Allred

ok, maybe I don't rank up there with the likes of those guys, but it sure was fun pretending!

We donned our paint smocks on a Friday evening.

I sat down with a blank canvas before me, sprite to sip, and a few munchies.

I gathered my paints and step by step an instructor showed us what we could do.

I had so much fun even if I have lots of imperfections and it didn't turn out quite exactly how I wanted.

I loved sitting alongside so many other painters each creating the same {completely different} piece.

Hard to tell from a picture, but we got to glitter it up, too.

 I am so not an artist, but I had such a great time. I definitely want to try this again sometime.

Proudly hung in Perry and Layla's room.

While the official painting title is "Swirly Tree",

Layla called it "a tree with bubbles."