I Love to See the Temple...

Last night we met up with Karl's family and were finally able to take the girls to see the new Brigham City temple before it is dedicated. 

(After the temple is dedicated you have to have a special recommend that allows you to enter the temple because of it's sacred nature)

What a wonderful experience!

If you have not yet been, I would encourage you to try and make it happen. Visit website here for more details. The temple is so beautiful! I love how every detail has purpose and meaning and not just religiously. They did a wonderful job at incorporating historical and local traditions of Brigham City as well.  One of my favorite pictures in the temple was of a woman picking peaches out in the fields, a famous Brigham City peach, I'm sure.

And did you know that all those beautiful designs on the carpet are actually hand cut by a person once the carpet has been installed? Seriously, can you imagine if you made a mistake? And the windows. So impressive. And the marble floors. Oh my.

 And in case you were wondering where Aubrey is, we decided to leave her at home with my sisters. Although she is acting 100 times better, we figured it would be best not to bring her out in the crowds of people. I don't think she minded too much.

 When we asked these little princesses what their favorite part of the temple was they all answered with "The Wedding Room."

Honestly, I don't think anyone was surprised by this answer.

Although I do think Brooklyn was somewhat surprised to find that the wedding room was actually in the temple and not outside... considering every picture of any temple marriage she has always seen has been outside the temple. 

 Maybe we should make sure they see pictures like this that show us coming out of the temple as well. :)

Thanks to our family for a wonderful evening!

Seriously, in August???

This little girl has

Pneumonia!

Or RSV...

The doctor and the x-ray tech had differing opinions.

The tech thought it looked more like RSV but her doctor thought it looked more like pneumonia.

Since the treatments are basically the same, we are treating her for both. Antibiotics and breathing treatments.

Seriously this is the weirdest thing.

Before bedtime on Sunday, Aubrey showed no signs of discomfort or being sick at all.

She has been teething (still no teeth visible yet... but her gums are swollen and you can see the teeth trying to break free) so when she had a restless night of sleep that night, we didn't really worry.  Then yesterday her nose started running like a faucet...

But other than a runny nose she still had no signs indicating a problem. When bedtime came around last night, it was the same sleepless story as the night before.

Then this morning happened.

When Aubrey woke up I couldn't get her to stop crying. She screamed if I wasn't holding her and screamed if I was holding her...

I could tell she didn't feel well but it wasn't until I took her pajama's off to change her diaper that I saw her stomach was completely sucking in with every breath that she took.

After a two and a half hour visit to the doctor, filled with chest x-rays and breathing treatments, the doctor sent us home. Oh and let's not forget the 2 times she threw up all over me while we were waiting...

Let's just say, it's been a rough day.

Here's to hoping the medicine starts working quickly!

A Candy Land Birthday...

Can I just start by saying how grateful I am that we made it through this week?

Holy Cow, has it been crazy!

I hosted three different parties this week.

Two birthday parties for Mads- One with my family and one with her friends and a neighborhood cookie party- which wasn't actually held at our house but it was still a lot of work.

I'm exhausted!

Also, can I just say how much I hate taking pictures indoors???

I took about a million pictures at Maddie's party but the coloring drives me crazy in all of them! But I still have to share them, because they are worth preserving anyway.

The fun all started when Maddie's best friend Maleah arrived on Friday night with her mom and sister. Since Maddie and Maleah are only 8 days apart in age and have been friends since pretty much the beginning, we like to try and get together every year for their birthdays. We figured a sleepover would be a great way to celebrate.

Oh and did I mention that I didn't actually start preparing for her party on Saturday until late Friday night... I mean I had ideas of what we were doing, but hadn't started a thing.

It's a good thing I had Kaylyn and my sisters to help make it happen. All things considered, I think the party went off without hitch.

 Coloring and Balloon toss while we wait for guests to arrive

Gramma Nut Peanut Toss

(We threw this one together Saturday morning but it was the biggest hit with the kids)

Licorice Forest- licorice eating contest

Who can eat their licorice the fastest... without using their hands.

Gum Drop Pass

Opening gifts

The whole crew

Candy Castle

We had Cake and Sprinkles ice cream in cones instead of cake- my girls only eat the frosting so we figured this was a better solution.

Aren't birthday's just so much fun?

But I must say, I sure am glad these birthday celebrations are finally over.

Book Wall...

The book wall is complete!

Did I mention that I have the coolest, most talented Dad ever?

Isn't it awesome? 

Oh how I love it.

Thanks Daddy!

A Bear Lake Birthday!

556.

The number of pictures I took of our adventure.

327.

The number I cut it down to after deleting similar pictures.

39.

The number of pictures you will find in this post.

Considering what I had to work with, I think that number is pretty impressive. :)

Yesterday we were able to go to Bear Lake with Karl's family to enjoy one last summer day at the beach and celebrate Madison's 5th birthday! Karl's dad rented some paddle boards (big surf board looking things that you use paddles to row around the lake- the Utah alternative to surfing) we were able to play with that added an extra element of fun. All I can say is, what a perfect day this was! But I'll let you see for yourself.

 Synchronized posing...

 Synchronized crawling...

 Aubrey absolutely LOVED the beach. Seriously, this girl was in heaven the whole day. 

While the girls were out on the water playing, Aunt Lacey and Katie set up some decorations and pulled off a wonderful surprise party for Maddie. She was so surprised! Later she told me that she didn't expect to get all those cool birthday presents today. 

Thank you Lacey for pulling off such a great surprise!

 This is Aubrey's excited face. You will notice she was doing it a lot yesterday...

 This is Madison's "what did I do?" look. We see this a lot these days too...

 Since Katie and I were both stuck behind our camera's (by choice, of course) we didn't happen to make it in to very many pictures...

 I really think it's impossible for us to get a family picture with everyone looking at the camera at the same time! Oh well.

Thank you Nielsen family for such a wonderful day at the beach!