Candy dishes and the temple

We took the youth to the Ogden Temple open house. I've been pretty lucky to have gone through eight temple open houses {that I can remember}... Las Vegas NV, Bountiful UT, Mount Timpanogos UT, Nauvoo IL, Orquirrh Mountain UT, Draper UT, Brigham City UT, and Ogden UT. I love seeing all of the different and unique features in the temples.

The Ogden temple was beautiful. I loved the vintage white color of the granite. It was just gorgeous against the blue sky.

And the before and after renovation on the Ogden UT temple can't be beat!

 

{Image curtosey of the Desert News}

Not only did I get tickets for the Young Women and Young Men, but I drug my own family along. And yeah, we can't get a single picture of the four of us all looking or smiling at the camera or in this case, with the actual temple in the background.

My parents were married in the Ogden temple on November 17, 1978 on a very snowy wintery day! My Dad's family wasn't active in the church and the Logan temple was closed at the time. So he drove down to the Ogden Temple with a friend for his own wedding. When I found out the open house was happening and that the re-dedication was going to happen on my Mom's birthday, I took it as a heavenly sign to get them tickets for the open house.They don't have any pictures of them at the temple on their wedding day, so I told them this was their chance!

Cole was so funny about the open house. He kept asking what things were and Jeff obliged his many questions with answers like, "that's a door. Those are stairs. Yes, that's a picture of Jesus." Cole was super pumped to know the temple had drinking fountains on every floor and in every spot a little boy could get thirsty. When we got to the Celestrial room, he asked us, "Why is there no candy in the candy dishes?" Meaning the fancy, decorative, well, candy dishes. It was HILARIOUS! And when he found out Grandpa, Grandma, and Uncle Kurtis has finally made it, he decided we were going to go through the temple again. So back we went with Cole as our personal tour guide {now that he'd seen everything}. He explained to my Dad that you get to watch a movie in the temple {the endowment session}, there were lots of drinking fountains, and that there was no candy in the candy dishes in the Celestrial room. We laughed! And to be quite honest, it's a very good question/observation... in fact, I submitted a comment card for President Monson to see.

Kurtis and I decided to send Kimmy a temple selfie so she knew she was missing out on the fun. Oh, did I mention she up and got married?! What the?! To a guy none of us know? After she moved to Colorado? Yeah. Kind of weird but it made me laugh and smile... so Kimmy. Oh, and so she wouldn't feel bad about not being with us, we also took an ice cream selfie after the open house. You know. When we walked over to Farr's Ice Cream for a treat {along with everyone else in town}. And stayed too long, having our car get locked in the temple parking lot! Oops.

We watched the "super moon" rise over the mountains behind the temple... it was a beautiful way to end a lovely evening!

It drives my mom bonkers

It drives my Mom absolutely bonkers when Jeff pulls his socks up to his knees. He says it's more comfortable that way but I think he does it to just bug her. 

And now the 2nd generation of sock pullers is here. Like father, like son I guess. I hope my Mom laughs at this picture because I took it just for her.

Morning tea

I'm pretty sure my niece and brother-in-law find us to be uncultured American pigs after discovering we did not have the proper English breakfast tea on hand this morning, let alone a proper drinking mug or kettle. An emergency run to the grocery store and borrowed mug from the neighbors, and all was well with the British Invasion.

And on a totally unrelated note. That sweet Union Jack background? Yeah. They're leggings my SIL gave me.

Temple stowaway

Perhaps Jeff can explain how a lizard ended up in my temple bag.

How long this little guy has been stashed inside my temple shoes is beyond me. Jeff didn't even remember putting a lizard in there. And how I completely missed feeling him in there until well into the session is also a complete mystery. But I can assure you the look of sheer terror as I looked down and saw a lizard on the floor and then trying to contain a huge smile and laugh was enough to get a few stares from the temple workers. 

Let's hope Heavenly Father has a sense of humor too.

Premature sparkulation

My sweet cousin, Nichelle, got married today in the Brigham City LDS Temple. I haven't been to a wedding, let alone a temple wedding, in a long time. It was a beautiful, although windy, day!

My Grandpa Allen was the temple sealer. For those wondering, LDS folk like myself believe that one can be sealed to their spouse {and family} for time and all eternity in the temple. A temple sealer is called of God to hold the Priesthood keys {or power} to seal couples and families and bind them together forever and ever and ever and ever and well you get the point. You can learn more here.

Anyhoo, Jeff and I were the first grandkids my Grandpa sealed in the temple. So I like to tease him that's he has improved since our wedding 12 years ago. In a temple marriage, the sealer can give the couple advice before performing the actual sealing or ceremony. When we got married, my Grandpa told us that as long as you had one good saver and one good spender, you'd be OK. He also said that when we fought about something to use these three words, "You're probably right." I'm terrible, but those were the things that my foggy brain remembers after 12 years even though I know there was more.

He told Nichelle and her husband, Eric, to love each other for who they are... the good, bad, and ugly. It really struck me that I too need to love Jeff for who he is, even his "faults" that sometimes I wish he'd change. I do love that husband of mine! And if I'm honest with myself, his "faults" keep me on my toes and make life exciting and different. I mean, who'd want to be married to me :)

The infamous "wedding socks" that get worn to every single wedding. When we got married, Jeff thought for sure his tux would come with a pair of black socks. Well, they didn't and when he got to the temple, the only pair he had was the ones he had on... cream with a checkerboard pattern in them. My Uncle Bob, who was our photographer, about DIED when he saw them! Jeff had broken the cardinal rule of photography... never, ever, under no circumstances wear white socks, especially when you are wearing black from head to toe! It's been a joke ever since and I'm pretty sure we have a picture of Jeff and his wedding socks at every ceremony we've been to.

Oh, I forgot to say that before the wedding, Jeff and I ditched the kids with Jeff's parents {THANK YOU!!!} for a nice, quiet, adult-only lunch at Maddox! Oh we gorged ourselves on steak, rolls, raspberry butter, shrimp, salad..... yum yum yum. We showed up at the temple fat and happy. This is important for today's story because my parents who were supposed to go to lunch with us BEFORE the ceremony didn't make it in time. But my Dad was starving, near "ugly hour" as we call it, and offered to take us to Maddox to eat. Well. You can't turn down Maddox! So back we went for round two {desserts and rolls this time}, sitting in the booth just across the from where we had sat two hours earlier. The waitress said if we made it back for round 3at dinner time, it was on her.

We didn't make it back because we stayed at the reception too late. I loved how Nichelle had decorated for it. It was so her and I'm thinking Jeff and I should have a redo and hire Nichelle to decorate the party.

I asked for one nice picture of me and my love......

 

Seriously?

SERIOUSLY!!!!! {Thanks for the photo bomb Kurtis}

The most hilarious part of the night was right before Nichelle and Eric left. They handed out sparklers to everyone. The idea was to lighte them and have Nichelle and Eric run through us on their way to honeymoon bliss. Well, Jeff was standing by my Grandma Allen {who can be a bit sassy herself} and said he didn't want any premature "sparkulation." My Grandma about died! On his birthday a few weeks later, she sent him a card that said, "Jeff Happy Birthday! Don't have any premature sparkles. Just steady as she goes." To which he then gave her a box of sparklers for her birthday a few weeks after that.

Now that's a wedding!

He's not very good at cooking

The traditional Father's Day ugly tie trade-in for a box of free Krispie Kreme doughnuts.

Dad's favorite!

And the traditional Primary class creations to help the kids tell Dad what they most admire about him. {My personal favorite, Pearl's answer to what he always says, "Oh snap!" Ha! So true! He's also got the four wheeling fun down too.)

And what he needs to work on.

In Jeff's case, cooking.

The kids have no idea the irony behind them both saying he isn't very good at cooking. Because truth be told, of the two of us, Jeff is the better cook. For the first five years of our marriage, I probably cooked three different meals. And they all sucked. But things changed when the kids came along and now I've got them convinced I'm the better cook!

Ha! Who knew Father's Day would turn out to be the best Mother's Day present I've ever had!

Now this is my real family!

Stay off the road

I walked out to my truck tonight to drive my YW home and FREAKED OUT when I saw a busted taillight! I came home and blurted out to Jeff that I promised I didn't break the truck. He sat there emotionless, which was not the reaction I was expecting from him especially considering our recent car repairs. And then he looked up at me, smiled, and confessed he already knew because he had broken it loading the 4 wheeler on the trailer! 

What? 

First of all, how clueless am I to my surroundings when this happened on Saturday. And two, Jeff is no longer allowed to drive anywhere while taking sinus medications.

Epic mom fail

Guess whose awesome mom forgot it was picture day today AND didn't feed their kid or husband breakfast? I suck.

Tooth Fairy fail

When Pearl lost her front tooth at dance class tonight, the Tooth Fairy thought she would enjoy a dollar and her tooth in her ballet slipper {the Tooth Fairy remembered the last time she took her tooth it caused a few tears the next morning too}. 

Apparently not.

Pumping your own gas

I remember stopping with my Grandma Jewkes at a gas station. She drove her fancy Riveria and was out of gas. The only problem was, she didn't know how to pump gas. Grandma had me get out of the car and asked me if I knew how to fill the car up with gas. I bet I was no more than 10 and of course, like Grandma, I didn't have a clue what to do. I remember asking her why she didn't know how to put gas in the car... I probably laughed too. She said growing up, that's what the boys at the gas station did for everyone. And once she married my Grandpa, he always made sure her cars were full. Talk about true love {or spoiled}. 

Anyway, we stood there staring at that gas pump for a few minutes when my little brother, Jesse, told us to get out of the way, that he would do it. Apparently boys pay more attention to these kind of things than girls. We filled up, Grandma went inside to pay, and then we laughed all the way home. 

Every once in awhile that memory hits me as I'm pumping my own gas. I miss my Grandma terribly. 

Today was a good bleeder day

Shortly after my Grandma died, my Grandpa got a new "job" {aka a calling} at church as the stake blood drive coordinator. 

Well, he suckered me into signing up for his stake's blood drive so he could be done with filling donor slots. But after poking around for a vein in both arms - multiple times - and 45 minutes of squeezing those little stress balls later, and I still hadn't filled up my bag! I was sick to my stomach and dizzy. The poor phlebotomists were trying everything they could think of to get me to bleed {heat pads on my arms, more stress ball squeezing, tapping my arms} but they finally gave up. I was in tears telling them my Grandpa needed me to do this! They kept telling me it was ok, but I was so upset that I couldn't help my Grandpa {grief does weird things to you sometimes}. 

So every time I donate blood I think of my Grandpa and say a silent prayer that today I'll be a good bleeder. Today was a good bleeder day!

Hey kids... have fun

My Dad and his sisters often reminisce about a time they had stayed up a little too late {as adults, mind you} playing games while the family was camping. Growing up watching them play cards into the wee hours of the morning, I can imagine how "quiet" they probably were in the heat of the competition. Well, I guess my Grandpa had had enough of the noise and yelled at them, "Hey you kids!..." Then stopped suddenly, followed by a "uh" in pain. And another shout of "Have fun!"

My Grandma had elbowed him right in the ribs to let him know to keep quiet and let the "kids" have fun.

Well, every once in awhile I get the elbow jabbed in my side reminding me to just let the kids have a little fun.

The only problem is, those times often involve me getting tricked by two little pipsqueaks to open the curtain, followed by getting soaked by two little spray bottles and two giggling kids.

{The best part about this particular bath time, was Pearl giggling at me, "Oh Mom! Have some fun!"}

Fern bite

Hmmm... it looks like I have a little Fern bite in my peanut butter {no jam} sandwich.

 

Occupation Day

It was occupation day at school last week. Not job day. Not career day. Occupation day. Or as Pearl called it "occudation" day. But definitely not job day. Sheesh mom, get it right!

Since our dress up supplies are limited and she was supposed to dress up as her dream occupation, Pearl told us she wanted to be either a cheerleader or a sandwich girl. 

We're glad she's aiming high. It makes us feel good as college educated parents knowing Pearl thinks a career - excuse me, occupation - at Subway is the way to go. Since her cheer leading outfit was a little too short to wear to school, that first choice was out. And after some discussion with her dad about her future aspirations, Pearl decided to be a professional baker instead.

She did make a cute baker. Maybe we can combine all three occupations and Pearl can get a cheer scholarship to college and then work at Kneader's to make ends meet.

Fart Party

If you visit our household long enough, eventually you will be subjected to a darker, more unpolite side of us.

Farts.

Now, mind you, it's not me. I don't fart. I'm a lady.

But the kids, Jeff, and dog? That's an entirely different story.

And apparently flatulance is pretty funny when you're 2 and 5. Heck, even when you're 29 give or take a few years. Except when it's a dog fart. Those are definitely not funny.

Anyway.

The other day at dinner, Cole was telling us it was almost his birthday. Just like the day before. And the day before that and every day for months that he has thought it's almost his birthday. Then Cole told us he wanted to have a lacrosse ball party for his birthday. Which, by the way, I have no clue why he has decided he wants a lacrosse ball party.

Well, out of the blue - and in the middle of a bite of dinner - Pearl tells us, "Oh yeah? I'm going to have a fart birthday party!"

Oh my.

Jeff and I gave each other one of those parent looks. You know. The look where you're not really sure what just came out of your kid's mouth but you're pretty sure and you're thinking it's the other parent's fault and you don't know if you should laugh or discipline the kid. Yep. One of those.

And then we all erupted into laughter.

I laughed so hard I was crying. Cole kept asking me why I was sad and I finally squeaked out that if I didn't cry I was going to pee my pants from laughing so hard. Jeff laughed so hard that he did his little head shake and covered his mouth with his hand. He always does that when he finds something really, really funny.

And Pearl? Oh my gosh I wish everyone could have seen the look on her face {and I wish I'd have had my camera in hand... luckily farts are a pretty easy subject to bring up for a second round of laughter once I did have my camera ready to go} the moment she realized what she had said. The poor kid spent the next 30 minutes in the bathroom complaining that her stomach hurt so bad from laughing that she was going to throw up.

I guess you had to be there. 

Just trust me though. It was funny.