Payson Temple Open House

Our family had the opportunity to tour the Payson Temple today.  We had to be quick to snag our tickets, but we reserved six for this evening. 

 We started the tour in the church adjacent to the Temple.  We watched a short video on temples (only ten minutes, but Guard still didn't make it through all of it).  We then walked to the Temple.  We got our shoe coverings and started our tour.  Guard thought the booties were awesome and kept telling us loudly through the entire Temple that he had slippers on his shoes.

 The Payson Temple is beautiful!  The colors are rich, the stained glass windows are stunning and the chandeliers are so sparkly (said Kate).  We enjoyed seeing all the rooms, but we all especially enjoyed the Celestial Room.  Guard walked in, spun in a circle and said, "This is my room!  I love it!"  So sweet - it brought tears to my eyes. 

 Enoch had a lot of questions about the bapistry and baptismal font.  Greg answered all of them well.  I appreciate Enoch's questions - means he thinking about things - important things.  Greg asked Guard what animals were holding up the font.  After much thought, he yelled, "warthogs!!".  Just use your whisper voice, Guard.

There is such a special feeling at Temples.  I'm so grateful my children have the chance to experience that - even before they are 12.  It is amazing!

After the temple, we went out for ice cream.  We had ice cream after the Ogden Temple open house and Guard insisted we do it again.  We drove to American Fork and went to Sub Zero, Enoch's favorite!  It was so yummy and a great way to end our evening.

Scattered Thoughts

1.  Guard must be eating Oreos again - only the cream.

 

2.  Our bees swarmed again.  This time they hunkered down in the apple tree.  Greg is always so good to gently take care of them.  Guard thinks it is a show.  He gets out his chair and snacks and watches Greg get the bees back to their hive.



3.  When I got out of the shower today, Guard told me he had made a sandwich.  With a lid.  Huh?  Sure enough, he had made a strawberry cream cheese sandwich, with two slices of bread (not open-faced).  His sandwich had a lid.

4.  It must be spring!

Eye Balls

I love toddler's views of their bodies.  They are figuring out how their bodies work, identifying body parts and trying to make sense of it all.  Guard is hilarious in describing his body:

1.  "My eye balls can see those deer in the field."
2.  "My eye balls!!  My eye balls!!"  (Screaming this is after he rubbed shampoo in his eyes during his bath.)
3.  "I have blood in my body.  See my blood."  He opens his mouth as wide as he can.
4.  "Mom, can I sit on your lap?  I'm bony, but its okay because you're squishy."  (This is my favorite!)

Kite Flying

 This is such a great time of year.  The  sun comes out.  It's warm - or somewhat warmer than is has been.  The spring and summer toys come out.  We can't wait to get outside.
Today, we flew Enoch's Easter kite.  And had an incredible time.  And got sunburned.  Got to get back into that habit!

 Guard got out his Easter present and had the most wonderful time.  He loves to be so free and independent.  And big - boys don't feel any bigger than when they get their first bike.  He always remembers to wear his helmet, which makes his mom very happy.  He is so cute!

 

 Awww - we love spring!  So much fun!

 

Tulip Festival

 

Isn't spring amazing!  Isn't spring fabulous!  We are loving the warmth and beauty of spring this year.
We were able to enjoy the Thanksgiving Point Tulip Festival today as a family.  So stunning!

The flowers were stunning, but the best part was being with our entire family.  Gavin was able to join us and that meant so much to us.  We haven't seen him a lot lately.  We had a wonderful time with him and our family.



We had smiles all around.

We loved exploring.  The kids always gravitate toward the water - the Monet pond, the Secret Garden fountains and the waterfall.  The weather was warm enough that the water felt great.

We ended our outing with ice cream.  How could we not?



It was one of those perfectly lovely afternoons with our family.  Times like this don't always happen in families.  When it does happen, you thank your Heavenly Father for all you have.

Scattered Thoughts

 

1.  Greg, Guard and I were able to attend the fourth grade Utah program today.  The kids did great!    They sang songs, told stories and shared with their parents what they have learned.  Enoch did his state report on Duschesne county and he loved learning new facts about Utah and it's history.  Performing in the program wasn't his favorite thing, but I did catch him singing a few words here and there!

2.  All of us wearing blue for our cousin, McKay, on rare genetic syndrome day.

 



3.  We love spring flowers at Thanksgiving Point Farm!  We are ready for summer!

4.  And just when we thought it was spring - snow!  Why am I always surprised?  It always snows in April and May as well.  It's just such a shock after a glorious weekend of sun and warm.

Easter Flowers

This Easter season, I've been wanting to teach my kids more about the Atonement and how it works in their lives.  How they can really use the Atonement to better themselves and become closer to their Heavenly Father and Jesus.  It's a big and important subject and I wasn't sure how to present it during FHE this week.  After a lot of prayer and a bit of Pinterest surfing, I came up with Easter Flowers.
Our family sat around the kitchen table and talked about how we can feel Heavenly Father and Jesus with us always, how we can grow closer to them through the power of the Atonement.  We talked about things we can do to invite them into our lives.  As we listed those important, personal things we can do, each of us put one drop of food coloring into a jar.

We heard ideas like going to church, praying, reading scriptures,

being nice, going to the Temple, taking the Sacrament,

getting along with siblings, paying tithing, serving.

Pretty soon, we had six jars full of colored water.  We talked about how the water represents Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.  We each took a turn putting a bunch of white carnations in a jar.  The flowers represent us.  We asked the kids to commit to doing these things to bring themselves closer to their Father in Heaven and Jesus.

We lined up our flowers on the window sill and asked the kids to keep an eye on them for the week. 

The kids were so excited and amazed to see what happened to the flowers over the next few days.  As the flowers began to change colors, Enoch told me, "Just like when you do good things, you become more like Jesus, like the flowers are becoming more like the colored water."  Success!!  They understood!  Such a great feeling!

I think this will become an Easter tradition.  The kids really enjoyed it, they got it, plus, seeing my rainbow flowers made me happy!