I Love to See the Temple

I took the kids to the temple the other day. P1 loves to look at pictures of the temple, so I thought he would love to see one in person! He was pretty excited to be there.

He thought it was pretty cool to touch the temple. I told him how his great-great grandma got to touch the angel Moroni that is on the Salt Lake Temple.

He loved to look up at the angel Moroni. Now all he talks about is how Moroni is on top of the temple.

So small compared to the temple:

"I found the door, can I go inside Mom?"

I love that my boy loves the temple! During the night when I was up with P2, I heard P1 talking to himself "Temple...Moroni...top of temple...Jesus". He is such a sweetheart. I hope that he always loves the temple. I'm glad that we made the time to go see the temple.

Brought to You by the Number 2!!!

My little boy turned 2!!! So hard to believe it has already been two years since he came into our family.

P1 enjoyed opening his presents this year. We wrapped his presents in Christmas paper because that was all we had!

P1 loves "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" so we added some to his Duplo collection. One of the sets came with a crocodile and a little blanket for Jake. P1 spread the the little blanket on the floor, put the crocodile on it, and whispered to us "Crocodile sleeping." It was pretty adorable.

I made an Oscar the Grouch cake for P1. He thought it was pretty neat, and he still asks to see pictures of his Oscar cake.

We invited family over for cake and ice cream, and P1 was spoiled with more presents. It ended up being a Sesame Street party, because everything except the Duplos had Sesame Street characters. He got books, coloring books, a shirt, pajamas, stuffed animals, and Elmo utensils.

  

 He was so excited about his presents, that it took us a while to convince him to come eat his Oscar cake. I think before the night was over, he had read his new books more times than I can count.

(I love how shy he gets when we are all singing to him! I was that way when I was a kid and people would sing "Happy Birthday" to me)

He definitely enjoyed his cake a lot more this year!

P2 wanted to eat some cake too!

Showing off his new pajamas! He was very excited to wear his Cookie jammies!

I made Cookie Monster cupcakes for a birthday play date we had for P1. It took me a few tries to figure out what to do for the eyes, but I finally just ended up making them out of frosting and mini chocolate chips. P1 was also very excited about his Cookie cupcakes.

"Why does Cookie Monster taste like cake?"

 P1 had a lot of fun with his friends that came over for his birthday. One family brought him a balloon and pumpkin, and he just loved that! He carried them around all day.

P2 sleeping during the play date:

And it wouldn't be a fun birthday if we didn't play in the dirt!!!

We love you P1, and we are so blessed to have you in our family!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Ice Cream

Yesterday I made hummus for dinner. When P1 saw it in the blender, he said "Ice cream! Ice cream!". I never thought about it before, but it does actually look like ice cream. He was very excited, and he asked for a bowl and a spoon. I think he was pretty disappointed when we finally sat down and gave him some "ice cream" and it wasn't quite what he expected. But at least he didn't cry about it!

Thumb-sucking and Rolling Over

P2 has recently found her thumb, and definitely seems to prefer it to the binky. 

Yesterday, she was chasing her thumb and came pretty close to rolling over.

Today she managed to roll over by herself. She got stuck on her arm, but finally was able to pull it out. She wasn't too thrilled about being on her tummy.

She's rolling about a month earlier than P1. I'm not ready for another mobile baby! 

Bugs and Sibling Love

Our entrance-way attracts a lot of bugs, so anytime someone knocks on the door and I answer it, 10 bugs will fly in the house (most are box elder bugs). We have a really pesky fly that got in, and I wasted 20 minutes trying to get him with our bug zapper the other morning. I finally gave up and went to finish getting ready. When I came back out of the bathroom, P1 had found the ping pong paddles and was walking around with them saying "bug, bug!".  We still haven't been able to get that fly, but whenever P1 sees it, he yells "bug, bug!" and goes for his paddles.

Today, P1 fell asleep coming home from the grocery store. I left him in the truck while I took P2 and the groceries inside. I was out by the truck when he woke up, and he was really startled and confused. He started crying, and I got him out and was carrying him inside, when he cried out his sister's name and pointed back at the truck. I had to go back and show him that she wasn't in the truck and tell him that she was already inside. He was still worried, but when we came up the stairs and he saw her, he finally smiled and ran over to her. I think P2 has a pretty awesome big brother already looking out for her!

Prophets

We had the great opportunity to listen to living prophets this weekend during General Conference. During the week before, I spent time teaching P1 about the prophets. When we watched it he actually recognized President Monson, and he did a pretty good job of sitting through the morning sessions (nap time during afternoon sessions!). He also liked to call anyone in a suit a prophet, including the choir. And whenever he saw the Conference Center he would point and yell "Temple!." This morning, he grabbed the remote and said "Watch prophets!", and I had to explain that they weren't on the TV today. Maybe we'll have to watch some more online. :)

I really enjoyed Elder Richard G. Scott's talk. He spoke about using the 4 simple tools of prayer, scripture study, family home evening, and going to the temple. He said that scripture study is more important than sleep. I decided that I need to try to wake up before my kids do so that I can have some uninterrupted study time. And I want to go to the temple more often. I went last Tuesday, and truly felt peace, love, and power. I felt more enabled to be the mother my children need me to be. So even though it is hard to go with young children, it is definitely worth going.

I am grateful for the inspired counsel from living prophets!