Temple Saturday

One Saturday we decided we needed a family trip to the Columbia, SC temple. 

Our 3 wonderful kiddos

Emmalynne took this picture of Carman and I. She's gotten pretty good with the camera!

This is Clara's most recent pose. She says "I'm just being cute."

This is how Emmalynne likes to pose and Clara joined her.

The girls were looking at the angel Moroni. I had them hold Benjamin's hands so I could get a picture of the 3 of them looking at the angel. But then the girls wouldn't stop adoring their brother.

Here the girls are peeking in. The temple was just closing and when the lady came out to lock it up she invited us into the waiting room. She showed the girls the pictures on the walls and asked them questions. I was proud when she pointed to a picture of Joseph Smith and asked the girls who it was and Clara replied "Prophet!"

Photo Recap

Here's my lame 2 month catch-up. 

 For Halloween, the kids and I all dressed up as Minnie/Mickey Mouse. Carman would have done it with us if he didn't have to work. And, if I hadn't packed up the family and drove to Illinois to visit my parents.

 We fed Benjamin something sour. I don't even remember what it was. He wasn't as disgusted as he could have been.

 Grandma made skirts with the girls while we were there and they really enjoyed it.

 Poor Benj was exhausted but couldn't seem to stop staring at Grandpa.

 We went to a mexican restaurant for my Mom's birthday and she was shocked when they came out to sing to her. (I ordered in Spanish and at the same time I let them know it was her birthday) As you can tell, her friend Julie got a kick out of the whole thing too!

 Everyone tried on the sombrero.

 On our way home we stopped at my friend Melanie's house. The kids always love playing there and it breaks my drive in half. We stayed for a few days and totally renewed the girls' drive for playing dress-up since we hadn't had ours out in awhile.

 Clara is quite observant. Before she put my running shoes on she put on the ankle brace. Then she pranced around the house for awhile singing, "I'm running, I'm running..."

 Here we are on a lazy Sunday afternoon. I slept on the couch with Clara. If only someone could have taken a picture of all of us :)

 We had a good time putting up the Christmas tree. The kids have all been really good this year about not taking all the ornaments off. Benj takes them off every now and again but Emmalynne always puts them back on!

 Carman and I ran our 1/2 marathon on December 8th. It was great! I was dreaming of averaging a 10 min mile and came really close with a 10:10 min mile. We ran together the whole time. I'm sure I would have gone a lot slower if it weren't for my amazing husband! Total time was 2:13.

 The kids came to cheer us on. It was great knowing they'd be there to see us. They've all been very patient throughout our training.

 My awesome sister came along with all my kids. She even ran to bring me new ear phones around the 10 mile marker because mine broke at the 3 mile marker.

 Later that day Carman and I volunteered at the Community Nativity Festival. The girls (especially Emmalynne) loved looking at all the nativities. Carman and I decided after running a half marathon we should not volunteer ourselves to stand up and greet people for 3 1/2 hours.  Lesson learned!