It's great to be a terrific 2!

Levi is officially 2! He made it! I think that calls for a celebration no matter whether it's his birthday or not!

Levi was excited to see a raspberry cocoa cake with chocolate fudge glaze on it. Who knew he would be such a connoisseur of cake?

(I really love when kids are too young to ask for funfetti cake out of a box and instead I get to make what I want!)

Blowing out the candles. He didn't need any help. There may have been a teensy bit of spittle on the cake, but I cut him the piece closest to him.What a happy 2 year old!

Opening presents, with everyone's help, of course.

P.S. As a side note, I'm potty-training Levi. "Why do I do this to myself" you may ask? It's like torture, no matter how you go about doing it. But I guess I just have to stick with it now, too late to go back to diapers.

Temple Trip

We took the children down the the Columbia South Carolina Temple with us this weekend. It was our first trip there (even though it is the closest!) and boy, did we have a fun time. The first fun thing was the 4 1/2 hour drive through the mountains. And our van decided that it didn't want anything to do with driving. Which is really unfortunate. We just kept praying though, and it made it by the skin of it's teeth.

Spencer took the children swimming at the hotel that evening while I went to the temple...and then in the morning I took the kids to the park while Spencer went. I took some pictures at the temple. They just look so cute and innocent!

Very cute, and very friendly. Look! None of them are fighting!
Another cute picture. Levi is trying really hard to be reverent.

It was a successful weekend. Spencer and I enjoyed our time at the temple, the children enjoyed the pool and the park. Score!

Quote!

We went on a hike today in honor of Labor Day (I think Spencer and I labored the most with children on our backs)! I just wanted to share a conversation we had with Ella-marie whilst on the trail.

Ella-marie finds a beautiful specimen of an acorn and asks...

"Can we crack it open and find out what's inside?

What is inside acorns Mommy?

I think there's a baby squirrel inside."

At which point we all start laughing hysterically, especially Ella-marie, even though she may not have understood why exactly we were laughing.

Overall it was a great hike, only a few scraped knees, a few tears and some delicious granola bars. Who cares that we didn't actually make it to the end of the trail to see the overflow from the lake, it was still a beautiful day.