To be or not to be private...

...that truly is the question my husband and I have been pondering about my blog. I have kept it public for a number of reasons. The complication of sending out the invites to everyone who reads and looks at the posts I blog, that alone seems like no fun for me. Also there are a number of people who read this blog who would not be able to read it if I went private. But I feel like keeping this blog public has caused some problems....the blog has been abused. What do you think I should do?

FHE at the Park

My camera had no batteries left by Monday in Utah. We had scheduled to go to the park for FHE with my brother Paul and his friend that is a girl, TJ. (By the way TJ is awesome and super adorable) Soon our little group of 5 turned in to a big group of over 15 people. It was fun to have everyone at the park. The only picture I got taken before my camera completely died was this of Sariah and me. Sariah is eating a pretzel. Thanks to everyone who came out to the park. I enjoyed being with so many of my siblings and their kiddos. It was a good night.

Easter Dress

Sunday, Easter morning, I did a little photo shoot with Sariah in her easter dress. Justin was at Grandma's house and didn't want to get his picture taken. He wanted to play with Uncle Luke. I am going to get more pictures of them together this next week.

Hunting the Eggs

Saturday morning before we went up to the temple we did an Egg Hunt at the local high school. Justin was hanging out with Grandpa at the big kids section and James and I were with the little guys. We had my nephew Sean with us. He is 3 and so adorable. It was rainy and cold so the kiddos were freezing. But they had fun.

Sariah trying to take stuff out of Sean's basket and AJ is wanting some of his candy.

Running away AJ

Mom can I please have some candy AJ asks.

Squished up against Sariah they finally all looked at the camera.

Happy baby girl with her Daddy.

Later that night we had an egg hunt with just Justin and Sariah.

Sariah's eggs were thrown in the middle of the floor.

Sariah just wanted to do what Justin was doing.

It was so cute that she kept copying him.

Temple

The whole purpose of our quick trip to Utah was for our family to be sealed in the Salt Lake Temple. A sealing is an ordinance performed in the temple eternally uniting a husband and wife, children and their parents. It was such an amazing experience to be in the temple with my husband and 2 children. The reason we got sealed in Utah was so that my extended family could attend the ceremony as well. Such an awesome feeling to be with those you love in the temple.

I was such a stress case all morning long before we were to be at the temple. As we drove to Salt Lake my heart was beating seriously like a jack rabbit. I kept thinking that something was going to go wrong right up to the point when they finished checking all our paper work. Once the paper work was done the stress was gone, my heart rate dropped and I was calm. I must of been worried that they were going to find a paper missing or something and not let us get sealed. Anyway, it was such a great feeling to get sealed to my sweetheart and an even more precious moment to have my beautiful children at the altar.

I was so worried that Sariah would cry the whole time but she was a peaceful angel as she slept in my mom's arms. It was so precious to watch her sleep as my mom held her. It was such a cute moment I will remember forever for sure.

Justin was as happy as a clam and so cute. It was hard for him to contain his excitement in a reverent place but he did great. I am so lucky to be his mom. He is an awesome kid!

Oh the memories are good ones for sure! We had such great support from family and friends. The following pictures were taken by my wonderful friend Jenny. She did an awesome job, Thank you!

This was seriously such a beautiful experience to share with my little family. We are so grateful for the power to sealing families together forever.

You can see that it was a cloudy rainy day but there was so much sunshine in our hearts that even the clouds couldn't spoil our day.

Families are Forever

These are some of the missionaries that we love at our house. Actually Sister Malia Horton is probably our all time favorite, she is the one standing next to James. She is one of the reasons why James decided to get married again...maybe I will have him blog about it on another day. Just know that we are eternally grateful for Malia in our family!

Sariah sure does love her daddy!

Siblings

Oh my tough little man

Her expressions are priceless.

Wahoo!!!

My dad was able to come up from AZ and attend the sealing as well, thanks Pops and Honey!

Clapping for her family

There are a few people who are missing from this photo but this is the crew who came out to support us. You might notice that my mom is also dressed in white. She got to be a part of the sealing as she held a sleeping Sariah at the altar...it was such a precious moment.

Thank you for sharing in our happy day.

Playing with AJ

While in Utah Justin begged to stay with Grandma Ladybug and Uncle Luke, Sariah and I stayed with my sister Tallie and her family. While it was hard for Sariah not to see her brother a lot during the trip she had fun playing with AJ each morning. AJ is Tallie's little boy who is 6 months older then Sariah.

Mr Cuteness!

It was fun to watch them play together. AJ is really great at sharing his toys for being an only child. He rocked at playing along with Sariah.

We got the tunnel out one day and they had fun in it together.

It was hard to get a picture of AJ, he was just to fast for my camera.

Here they are together.

Miss Cuteness

Airplane Ride, 2 kiddos and 1 Mom

So traveling with 2 kids can be adventurous, especially when one of those kiddos is 10 months. All I have to say is thank goodness for nonstop flights on Delta and friendly passengers.

Sariah making friends with one of the ladies before we get on the plane.
Justin missed a few days of school for this trip to Utah...he of course did not mind. Here he is doing some of his work. I had to sneak this picture because he really didn't want me taking one.

On the plane before we take off Sariah is getting acquainted with her surroundings.

My smiley boy, he was such a great helper on the plane!

Please mom can I crawl all over the plane. It's hard to contain a crawler.

Mom went a little crazy.

Trip

Our trip to Utah was wonderful. I promise to upload some more pictures and tell you all about it when I finish getting unpacked and back on schedule. For now you will have to be happy with this picture I took with my phone while at my sisters.

Climber

It's probably been about a month since I took this picture with my camera on the cell phone. Sariah seriously has been getting into everything and she was wanting to climb into this drawer on my pantry. It was so funny to me that she got stuck in this position. Am I a mean mom because I stopped to take a picture before helping her out?

Today is the day!!

Today is the day that my family will be going to the Salt Lake Temple to be sealed together as an eternal family. As Latter Day Saints we believe in an ordinance done in the temple called a sealing. A sealing is what eternally unites husbands and wives, children and parents. We believe that families can be together forever. That these bonds don't end here on earth with death. While I sit here writing this blog post 4 days before the actual day (I love scheduling blog posts), I can hardly wait for the opportunity to have my little family be eternal. I love them all so much and don't know what I would do if I couldn't be with them forever!

Easter Eggs

The night before we left for our trip to Utah we colored some easter eggs to surprise Dad while we were gone. We wanted to make sure Dad wouldn't miss us too much.

Here is our egg handler with all of his colors.

Some of the eggs before they get dipped.

Coloring in progress

I love this smile.

Although Sariah was unable to play with the colors she was still present roaming around on the ground and getting into stuff.

Entertainment while we wait for the eggs to get dark enough...blowing bubbles.

Sariah loves bubbles.

The finished product