number six & seven.

last week we went to two temples. on friday we picked cory up from work and headed downtown. we went on the conference center tour, it was pretty amazing! that is a beautiful, incredible building. we found the painting of grandpa, a bronze sculpture by uncle ken and even got to go on the roof. years ago just before the building was finished, as a ysa, i planted prairie grass up on the roof. i haven't been up there since. so it was pretty fun to be up there with my own family. we snapped a family pic from the roof in front of the temple where it all began. kinda crazy how much our family has grown in 10 years.

then on saturday, after connor had a baseball game in salt lake, we ventured down to the draper temple. it was pretty busy with weddings cause it was the weekend, but still fun to walk around and see the beautiful flowers. 

miss else.

our sweet elsie turned four last week. she brings such a joy and life to our home. she is our free spirit who loves life, wearing pajamas, her buggy blankies, yellow, polka dots, having her hair down, the zoo, playing with her sissy and ruff housing with her bros.  

for her fourth birthday celebration she requested we go to javier's for dinner so she could order her favorite, rice & beans. she even was spoiled with a birthday song and fried ice cream. thursday we went to the zoo with cousins, a few days before the big day because of baseball games. luckily we were watching 4 cousins for a few days and so that made elsie's bday even more special. we got to see the new safari park at the zoo. and...best part of elsie's birthday zoo trip was the train is working again!! wahoo! 

on her birthday she requested blueberry muffins for breakfast, which she doesn't really eat, just the sugared muffin top, mini corn dogs for lunch, and waffles for dinner. we went to 2 baseball games that connor said he won for elsie. after dinner we had water world with cousins. she requested an umizoomi cake, which we accomplished by printing off umizoomi pinwheels and putting them on top of the cake. i made her favorite, carrot cake, which is almost all of the siblings cake of choice. 

for presents she got a suitcase, 2 new buggy blankies and a skirt. she was also spoiled with presents from grandmas & grandpas, aunts & uncles and cousins. it was a great day indeed. 

elsie, we sure do love you!

passport sticker number five.

this week we visited the brigham city temple. this is one of my favorites. i think a lot of it has to do with all the family history we have in brigham. we headed up with sara and kids on wed afternoon after naps. connor wasn't too excited to do another temple, but quickly changed his mind when we got there. we've loved taking pics next to the water feature at each temple. we've figured out they are always on the east side. we also noticed little pepper plants in pots and also planted throughout the flower gardens. also, two clumps of corn stocks in the flower beds along a rock wall. also, many, many fruit trees throughout the grounds. most of them the fruit was still very small, but we thought looked like pear based on their shape.  the peach blossoms on the stained glass windows and on the carved into the rock on the sides of the temple were beautiful. they are also etched in the fence posts.

afterwards we drove over a few streets east to the cemetery and found some packer graves. the kids' great~great grandparents grave on the packer side. we looked for smith ones, but didn't have success...next time... we also found lorenzo snow's grave.

temple passports.

this summer as part of our summer fun list we got the kids temple passports. they are a little blue book that lists all the temples in ut and has a sticker to put on each temple page when you visit that temple. we're determined to do as many as we can. some may be too far to travel in the short few weeks of summer, but we're gonna try! :) so far we've done 4. bountiful, logan, jordan river and oquirrh mountain. it's been really fun to learn a few new facts about each temple and also for the kids to visit and hopefully begin to realize how special these buildings are and how blessed we are to have so many so close to us. 

bountiful temple ~ we visited last wednesday 6.4.14 around lunch time so cory could come along during his lunch. we packed a lunch and had a picnic on the grounds. but first we went to visit grandma shirley's grave. that day marked the 5th anniversary of her passing. we sure miss her. will must miss her a lot because he face planted on her headstone and imprinted the 'a' on his forehead. poor boy. :(  

logan temple ~ connor had 2 comp baseball games in logan on saturday 6.7.14, so we drove over to the temple after the games. it was pretty crowded cause it was a saturday, but still so nice to be there. the kids loved the huge hill in front. they each rolled down, except else {she was worried it would hurt her tummy}. not too reverent, but fun for sure! we learned that the logan temple used to be painted white. 

jordan river ~ today 6.11.14 we ventured down south and west with sara and cousins. we stopped here first. we learned this angel moroni is one of 5 that carries the gold plates. it was pretty cool to see. we also liked the little strawberry plants throughout the flower beds. they were quite pretty and looked yummy! :)

oquirrh mountain ~ 6.11.14 after we visited the jordan river, we drove through mcd's, got lunch, and drove a mere 7 minutes down the road to visit another temple. south jordan is the only city in the world to have 2 temples in it. we also thought it as cool that the granite came from china.

we're excited to see what other adventures our temple passport will bring!!

a full heart and a busy weekend.

mother's day was extra special this year. we spent the weekend very busy with a baseball tournament in pocatello, id and a dance recital for each of the girls. it was chaotic, stressful, windy, cold and tiring. but at the same time it was filled with love and gratitude and such joy watching the kids excel in things they love to do. plus we have another little bun in the oven {coming this november} and that adds to the overwhelming feelings of gratitude.

{warning: this novel is for me & my terrible memory}

friday: connor's team had been playing well, but we weren't sure how the tournament {their first} would go. we drove 2 cars up for the 2 games on friday. they won the first easily. it was pretty cold and very windy during the games. the other kids spent a lot of the time in the car watching movies {the girls} or taking naps {will}. we knew the second game would be tough and we were down 5-1 in the 3rd inning. we ended up rallying to win the game 9-8! it was so, so fun to see the excitement on those boys' faces and also their coaches! everyone was super excited! we had dinner and then headed back to the hotel {mabel's favorite part of the trip}. we hardly ever get to stay in a hotel, so this was a pretty cool thing! :) the kids swam for a bit. not too much, connor needed to get to bed and get ready for his early game in the morning. cory went out and bought the prettiest tulips for the dance recital girls, knowing that he'd probably miss seeing them dance. 

saturday: in the morning, we sent cory and connor off to their games. we cleaned up and started the trek back home to be able to their 10am dress rehearsals. the drive was thankfully easy, popped a movie in and the kids were content. thank heavens for the dvd player in the car! connor and his team won the first two games despite the bitter cold and wind. poor boys played so hard in less than ideal conditions. connor played catcher a ton and pitched some too. i was a pretty proud mama watching him on friday. i've never seen him play better! they had a 5 hour break between their last game and the championship game. so cory and connor drove up to the idaho falls temple to walk around the grounds. then about the time for elsie's dance recital they headed to mcd's for their free wifi to facetime and see elsie dance. i'll admit, that i got pretty choked up as her dance started and looked at cory and connor watching on the phone. they couldn't see very well {quality wasn't that great} but so touching that they wanted to be a part of it, just like i wanted to be a part of connor's big game. after elsie's dance the big game started. cory was a pretty proud papa watching his boy as the starting pitcher for the championship game! thankfully, i didn't know he was pitching or else i would have been a nervous wreck! cory made arrangements {he usually coaches first} to be able to facetime during mabel's dance. both the girl's dances were precious! they were so excited to have their big day finally come. the boys played hard, and ended up the runner-ups. could not be prouder of those boys!

it was pretty heart breaking to feel so torn at needing to be in two places at once. it's never happened to us before, but i'm sure it is just the beginning. but all ended well and cory & i were where we were supposed to be and both feeling very grateful.

cutest little dancerinas. so proud of my girls!

my little rockin robin.

ms. mary poppins.

couldn't resist snapping this one of these two. mabel is all about her dad lately. could care less about her mama! :)

cheer after the big comeback!

pitching at the championship game. he's been working so hard at getting better at pitching. he goes out just about every night and pitches to cory. so proud of my boy!

a happy easter.

we had a lovely easter a few weeks ago. connor decided {after they hunted for their baskets and eggs} that easter was his favorite holiday. the kids were precious and waited until after 9 o'clock church to do the hunting. in the days and weeks prior, we talked a lot about christ & his resurrection and the endless blessings that gives us. connor, mabel & elsie sang a beautiful primary song "did Jesus really live again?" with all the primary kids in sacrament meeting. it is always so special to lead the kids as they smile and sing to their parents and especially as they sing about their older brother, Jesus. i hope that they feel of the greatness and love that the line, "he lives" brings.

had to do the obligatory easter clothes pics...not super cooperative this year...

more smiles after the hunt!

field of dreams team.

{warning} picture overload!! proud mama in the house. connor's baseball team had the incredible chance to be the field of dreams team at the sl bee's opening game last night. connor and all the boys were suuuper excited! they got to go down on the field and introduce themselves and their position. then they stayed on the field while the national anthem played. then they got to go tour the facility and see what's underneath everything. it was fun to see connor our there, so excited by it all.

the cute girls.

bumble had quite the swarm around him. connor had him sign his hat.

will was a champ the entire night. thankfully we were on the first row and he was content to sit in the stroller for hours on end. i know, he's a pretty great boy!!