eleven years later

Rob and I had the great pleasure of going to a very special sealing in the temple yesterday. Our friends (Tate and Andi) were sealed to the cutest little boy that they adopted a couple of months ago. It was a wonderful way to spend our anniversary--and a great reminder of our marriage covenants and how thankful I am for our children and that we are sealed to them for eternity.

My lesson in Young Women today happened to be on "Temple Marriage" and it was fun to share with them feelings from my own temple wedding, and also tell them about our neat experience yesterday (one of the girls happened to ask about "adoption" and it was a great segue).

Rob and I went out to lunch afterward. Sort of funny side note: We saw a McGrath's fish house on our way toward home and decided to eat there because we had never been there before (and fish sounded like a different and somewhat healthy choice). It had just opened and was pretty quiet--just us and several senior citizens. Rob made some comment about how "we know we're old" because we were eating where his parents like to eat.

While I spent the evening at home with the kids (even sitting and building Legos with the boys for over an hour), Rob was able to get back together with Tate and his friend Dan who flew in from North Carolina to attend the sealing. This was a surprise to both Tate and to Rob. These three were best friends freshman year and have continued to be good friends (occasionally gathering) through the years. It happened to be Dan's wedding anniversary as well (Happy 12th Anniversary Tricia and Dan!) and we joked that Dan and Rob were going out for their anniversaries together while their wives were at home with the kids!

Here we all were 11 years ago at our wedding luncheon:

Eleven years later:I love this photo of Tate, Rob and Dan. It makes Rob and me laugh because he is usually the shortest, but is standing a step above the other two guys.

In other news of the week, Tosh went to his very first friend birthday party--at "Build a Bear" no less. He picked out an interesting swimming suit and baseball hat combo for his bear he named, "Chocolate."

The party was a lot of fun, and the excitement and outdoor mall-walking was enough to actually wear him out:
Tosh was wearing this cute pajama shirt the other morning and I thought it would double as a great "pirate" shirt so I cut up a pair of his old jeans and Tosh got to be a pirate for the day--which he loved. This would be a perfect Halloween costume for October in Arizona (still very warm out). Maybe he'll still be interested by then and then I can get some photos with the cute eye patch (not pictured here).

Liv is finally crawling up on her knees 90% of the time. She is eating mostly table foods now and walking along the furniture. Her naps are getting a bit shorter although I put her to bed at 5:45 pm last night and she slept until about 7:15 this morning!

I followed her around with the camera for several minutes the other day and got some cute shots. Well of course I think they are all cute, but I will try to limit what I post here...

Rob thinks this next one looks very "Dunning." Is that why it's one of my faves?:

This last one is of Liv last Sunday right before church (and before my camera died so I only got one shot). I just love this skirt and her sweater is a little "shrug" type sweater that ties in a knot in the front. Dressing a little girl up is so much fun!

I think that about sums it up for the week. I can't believe that May is almost here and with three of our kids' birthdays, Burke's baptism, and my niece's wedding, I'm already feeling very busy and like there is a lot to plan for and things to get ready.