I am a Daughter of a King, and this is my Castle

We went to the Brigham City Temple Open House yesterday.

It was Beautiful!!

Everyone of all faiths and all ages are invited to go.

There were seven children with us under the age of 6 and I loved being with them as we walked through.

They seem to understand better than anyone that this is a special place.

I heard comments like 

"Wow!"

"That went way too fast!"

"That's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen!"

and my personal favorite from Leilani,

"Is Heavenly Father going to be there?"

She loved going into the Sealing Room or the "Princess Room" as she called it and looking at the "sparkly lights."  

She was sure there was a princess around every corner.  

After all, what would a princess be without her castle?  

I can't think of a better castle:)

My sweet little chillins.

(Targhee had to work or he would be here too.  And, by the way, when he saw this picture he said, "Awe, it looks like she loves you" lol we definitely have our moments:)

Grandma and Grandpa Fuzzy and cousins

I love this picture

The Fowers (Targhee's older sister, Bri, and her family)

Riding the bus back to the car

I am so grateful for temples!

I know because these beautiful buildings are here on the earth that my family can be together for eternity. And as the Apostle Elder Jeffrey R. Holland states, "Heaven would simply not be heaven without my spouse and my family." 

Click HERE for information about the open house

(ps don't be deterred from going if you weren't able to get tickets...there was no place they asked or checked if we had a ticket, so just go:)

and click HERE for information about why we have temples.

It's a Love/Hate thing

See this

It was a total life saver when TJ was a few weeks old.

He had trouble getting to sleep and then staying asleep.

This fixed that.

Now...

I want to take the darn thing and snip it into little pieces with my sheers.

He can not sleep without it.

He's getting big enough that he can break out of it.

Well that's great! He should just put his cute little chubby arms over his head like all babies do and go to sleep right?

Not even close!

His arms start flailing and then

He screams!

And then screams some more!

He is currently screaming which is why I am awake writing this.

He is not consolable

Does not want to be cuddled

But yet cannot console himself.

Death to the swaddle.

I seek revenge to whoever decided using this was a good idea in the first place:)

I end my Saga.

HAFB

Today I needed to get out of the house so I asked Leilani if she wanted to go see some airplanes.  She was quite enthusiastic about it so she must have needed to get out of the house too:)

Pointing to each and every airplane.

The usual from TJ.  I'll go where you want me to go dear mother.

"See that crazy girl over there?  Ya, that's my sister."

"Look it's just my size"

They don't let you walk in to any of the planes anymore and it was killing her. But she was very obedient and stayed on this side of the fence.  She also went potty in the restrooms.  Such a big girl:)

This was her favorite.  She called it Daddy Shark which means she was the baby shark.  She is having a conversation with it in this picture.

Land of the Dinos

When I get to Heaven, one of my first questions is going to be, "So...about the dinosaurs...?"

We decided to take advantage of Targhee's break between semesters and step back into the Jurassic period. 

These ones moved and Leilani was a bit concerned about all the growling.

Feeding the ducks. A little less intimidating.

Trying to get a shot of the huge rainbow fish giving the ducks a run for their money in the food market, since I think it got more food than the ducks did.

Just a Raptor having some lunch

He never misses a slide opportunity

My two birds of one feather

"World's Most Dangerous Creature"

I wish you could see Leilani drooling:)

Targhee had to get a family photo with his favorite dinosaur

TJ likes LOUS's

(lizards of unusual size)

Strange display

A large flock of quails just making a house visit to some carnivorous friends

Leilani didn't think this was very funny:)

Good thing he's behind a fence or they'd really be in trouble!

Perspective

While cleaning the seemingly never ending windows and mirrors in this house, I realized that someday I'm going to miss these, the hand-prints that is, not the mirrors and windows:)

The Letter B

Another letter done by you and Dad

B stands for Bell (Tinker Bell, that is:)

Bike

Boat

Ball

Bat (Both the animal and the stick. Although, I don't know where you and Dad saw any bats around the house...it could be Batman, a symbol you have recently become familiar with since Dad has been watching every batman movie ever made in preparations for the newest one in theaters:)

and Bee (we've had a plethora of bees hanging around our house this summer) 

Lakin'

We went to the beach for a little outing with my sisters.  I didn't snap very many pictures because there was too much water fun being had:)

This girl is in complete heaven when water and a beach come along.

TJ knows about chill mode when we go to the lake:)

It looks like he's saying, "Chill out Ammon." (cousin)

"Hit it, Grampa!"

The water was perfect glass, a rarity indeed at Willard Bay, so the boat was a little missed at this outing.

Three Cheers!!!

Leilani's going on the potty!!

I could not be more pleased or surprised with how this potty training thing has gone.

It's something I have been dreading ever since she turned two, but she was finally showing signs of being ready so I went for it.

She already tells me when has to go and only had two small accidents the first day.

I can handle that!

I guess I was just anticipating the worst so anything better than that was fantastic:)

Also I've been unexpectedly patient about it so three cheers for me too!

My happy little potty goer.

I think she especially likes all of the individualized attention from Mom and Dad.

We're making a pretty big deal about it.

I love seeing her little bum in her princess panties lol, it's too cute!

I just googled potty training charts and stole someone else's...thanks someone else:)

I never let her use markers so that was her medium of choice to fill out her chart.

When she reaches the end of each row she gets a treat and when the whole thing is filled in she will get a pretty princess dress (she is hoping for Rapunzel:)

It has been 4 successful days now so here's hoping the good streak continues.