Corbin's Baptism

Corbin was baptized this past Saturday by Spencer. It was a wonderful experience and I'm glad that he was willing and ready. Spencer's parents and brother and his family were there as well as family friends.

Corbin and Spencer before the baptism
Ella-marie, Spencer, Levi, Corbin, Hunter (the happy one) Amber and Miles

It was a great day and we're so glad that Spencer's family came to celebrate this exciting time with us. And we're so happy for Corbin and proud of his choice to be baptized.

Happy Birthday!

Corbin turned 8 yesterday and it was a very exciting day! He chose chocolate fudge cake with orange frosting and Halloween sprinkles.
Levi managed to blow out all of the candles whilst I was trying to put the cake in front of Corbin. The picture above is lighting #2. I physically moved Levi out of blowing range for this picture, and he was upset.

Corbin's favorite present of the night was a Swiss Army Knife from Uncle Brice and Auntie Breann. They certainly set the bar high for 8 year olds, and Miles is already counting down the days until he turns 8.

Here are some of the comments about the knife:

Spencer- "Wow, now I need a knife so that I can teach him proper knife etiquette." (Yeah right!)

Corbin- "Awesome, a Swiss Army Knife!"

Amber- sharp intake of breath, "Oh dear, at least they included bandaids too."

Miles- "When do I turn 8?"

Bonus picture...

I just wanted to add an additional picture for your viewing pleasure. Levi really has a lot of funny faces to share, this is just one of them!

Family Pictures

It was such a beautiful day yesterday. We decided to try and take pictures of the children at the park near our house. It really does change exponentially when you add more children to a picture. Nearly impossible to get all of them looking/smiling/sitting still/not touching each other, at the same time.

Miles, Levi, Corbin, Hunter and Ella-marie
CorbinMiles

Ella-marie

Hunter Levi

It's always a good time when you put five children together to try and get a happy picture!

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.