Taking Rose to the Temple

On Saturday, November 29th, we were able to take Rose to the temple to be sealed to us as part of our eternal family.  It was such a special, sacred day for us, just like when we took Clara to the temple to be sealed to us almost 3 years ago.  We had wonderful friends and family join us at the Oakland temple for the ceremony, which went well.  Rose was a little upset when she and Clara were first brought into the room for the sealing because apparently a temple worker had offered to carry her up and had taken her from Paul's mom who had been in the nursery with the girls.  Rose was none too happy about that but calmed down a bit once they got in the room and I was able to hold and comfort her.  My favorite part of the ceremony was when the sealer mentioned Rose being sealed to her father and Rose turned and stared at Paul for a few seconds, as if on cue, and then the sealer spoke about Rose being sealed to her mother and Rose turned her head to look right at me.  It was so sweet and like she knew exactly what was happening and what it meant. 

 

Afterwards we took a few pictures in front of the temple in our white temple clothes.  Clara was so excited about her white dress that Grandma Cece had brought for her from Utah.  Every Family Home Evening for a month now we have been talking about what it would be like to go to the temple as a family or why temples were so important, so hopefully Clara was prepared for the experience and maybe she will even have a memory of it as she grows up.  Rose was going to wear the dress that Clara wore when she was sealed to us but when it came down to it, that dress was just so tight on Rose that my mom found a new dress for her in a larger size that fit her so much better.  Both girls looked so beautiful.

We were so grateful to have so much support, especially over Thanksgiving weekend, with friends and family coming to join us.  We only wish we could have had the rest of our family members there too. 

 

Our good friend Lisa took photos for us afterwards.  She was my visiting teaching companion for years in San Jose and is a budding photographer in the South Bay.  She did such a great job and we really appreciate her talent and generosity in getting these images for us to help us remember our special day as a family. 

 

We are so very and eternally grateful to have our little Rosie as part of our forever family. 

Christmas Extras

On December 27th, we drove up to Salt Lake with Clara and Paul's parents to visit temple square.  More to see the temple than the lights, which was good since it was FREEZING (I didn't already mention this - it was 69 the day we left California for Utah and it was 18 degrees when we drove in that night.  At one point during the week we were there is was 4 degrees.  And it "warmed up" to the high 20s partway through the week.  I was a popsicle the whole time.). 

 

Anyway, the 27th is the anniversary of the day that we were sealed as a forever family in the temple so we have been able to commemorate that special day the past two years with Clara and we really love this tradition.  Afterwards we walked around the indoor portion of the City Creek Center and went out to eat at Bombay House (the service was horrible but the food was amazing).

 

 

I snuck this video of my dad on Christmas morning while we were waiting for the other girls to wake up (Adelaide was up first, bless her heart.  A niece just like me.)  He didn't realize I was videoing him which is why I sound all quiet when I asked him to retell a story he had told us the night before about one of his earliest Christmas memories.  I love that I captured this story and hope I can get many  more like it from him and my mom and my siblings, especially now that I have my new audio equipment for the camera.

 

Paul and I wanted to go to BYU with Clara since it has been a while since we have had a chance to visit campus so a couple days after Christmas we headed out in the morning after breakfast.  First stop was the law building where Clara ran wild through the carrels, which really do look like a giant maze.  I got all nostalgic there (and I'm not even being sarcastic - I love, love, loved going to law school). 

Then it was on to the Wilkinson Center where Clara was afraid of the cougars in the entrance at first.  I won't lie - we are totally going to do whatever it takes to convince her to go to school at mom and dad's alma mater.  I may be a little heartbroken if it doesn't happen.  (Is that putting too much pressure on her?  Probably.  Sorry, sweetie.  I'll be proud of you wherever you choose to go to school.  But "go cougars!" is all I'm saying.)

 

Paul was pretty much beside himself over the fact that a Chick-Fil-A has been installed in the CougarEat.  We totally had lunch here and even though eating Chick-Fil-A on campus was a new experience, eating in the Wilk brought back SOOOO many memories.  I started at BYU when I was 17 years old, after all, and more than any place in the world, BYU campus feels like home to me.  Isn't that weird? 

 

We spent some time in the BYU bookstore where I found some awesome kid books about adoption (love adding to our adoption library - I should post about those some time) as well as a couple of kids books for Clara that are perfect for church (one about Jesus and one about the Holy Ghost). 

After that we went to the Harold B. Lee Library (the HBLL) and explored.  Paul and I used to study together here as undergrads when we were dating.  We would go there together and then I would make him leave my alone so I could focus and I would go find a secret corner and hide from him because otherwise he would try to distract me constantly.  We laughed about that while we were walking around.

On the 4th floor of the HBLL there is a kids section and an awesome mural depicting characters from fairy tales, nursery rhymes, and other fiction.  We sat on the floor there with Clara and played "I Spy" for a while, which she loved. 

Then we wandered over to the Eyring Science Center where the Pendulum Court Café is during the semester (it is a food nutrition lab that serves lunch for part of the semester and it is seriously my favorite place to eat on campus when it is open).  We showed Clara the dinosaurs and crystal exhibit and played with the hands-on science experiments in the atrium that teach about vortexes, density of different materials, and magnets.  We really made a day of our little BYU trip and I was glad that there was so much to keep Clara entertained the whole time and I still have a bunch more ideas of places to take her for future visits.

Our friends, the Liebers, bailed on us and moved from San Jose to Highland, UT earlier this year and built a beautiful new home.  Clara and Claire were buddies so it was fun to see them play together while we caught up with Peter and Melanie.  Clara was really enraptured with the toy curling iron, blow dryer, and brush set that Claire got for Christmas so I am on the hunt for an inexpensive set.  Melanie said she got it at the dollar section at Target but I couldn't find one at ours so if anybody happens to stumble across one, let me know, okay?

Oh, and here is a video of Clara caroling during December.  I filmed whatever snatches I could whenever she started singing and this is the best I ended up with.  She knows quite a few songs now though and I never could catch her singing "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town". 

 

This has nothing to do with Christmas, but it was filmed in December so I am posting it here too.  I love watching Clara and Paul play together.  Swordfight is one of Clara's absolute favorite games.  Listen closely at the end where Paul's sword breaks.  Clara says "oh dear" which is one of my very favorite phrases of hers.

And finally, just to prove that everything isn't always all hunky-dory for us (which I know the past few posts have probably seemed like), here is a video of Clara throwing a tantrum on December 8th when I was trying to get her to sing Happy Birthday to her cousin, Emma. 
 

Oakland Temple & Ice Cream at Fenton's

Saturday was our stake temple day.  Somebody had the genius idea to send around a sign-up list the week before during Relief Society meeting asking if anybody needed babysitting or would be interested in volunteering to babysit.  There is a huge stake center on temple grounds and our ward reserved a room for the kids to stay in during the temple session and it worked out perfectly for us because it meant that we were able to drive to the temple and spend some time on temple grounds together before dropping Clara off to play with toys, eat her snacks, and watch a movie while Paul and I did a temple session together with other members of our stake.  There were four other kids besides Clara and two of them are her little friends Silas & Liesel from around the corner, and the babysitters were a girl who lives a couple houses down from us who is home from college and one of the young women in the ward.  We snapped a quick family photo before going into the temple for the session.

 

I posted this photo of Clara on Instagram.  She loves looking at the fountain in front of the temple and we played here for a few minutes.  She was so happy to be wearing her "pretty church dress" which she usually only gets to wear on Sunday to church. 

The session was wonderful.  I felt so happy and it was the fullest session I have attended in a long time, which makes my heart swell.  The new version of the temple film was absolutely beautiful.  I loved it and learned so, so much and had so many insights that I had never had before.  I can't wait to go back again soon.

Afterwards, we went to Fenton's Creamery for dinner (but really for dessert).  Fenton's is mentioned in the movie "Up" and I think I have blogged about it before.  Fenton's is 119 years old and was founded in 1894 in Oakland.  Clara was VERY excited to be going for ice cream. 

Clara and I split a cheeseburger while Paul had a crispy chicken salad.  We were trying to save room so we could split a junior size banana split (which despite its name is actually enormous - how anyone eats a full size banana split is beyond me). 

The kids get little paper hats to wear.  Clara kept hers on for all of five seconds to pose for this picture with me but then wanted nothing to do with it.

Our friends, the Fischlis.  We enjoy hanging out with these guys.  We were told that the wait for a party of 7 was over 45 minutes but if we split into two groups it was only a 15 minute wait.  But we were lucky that we were seated as separate parties right next to each other so we could just pull our tables together.  Way to beat the system, right?

I meant to take a photo of us (and our banana split) before we started eating it and completely forgot!  Once somebody sets a giant dish of ice cream in front of you with hot fudge dripping off the sides and nuts across the top it is practically impossible to resist digging right in.  We always modify our banana split and get the hot fudge on the vanilla ice cream and marshmallow topping on the chocolate ice cream even though traditionally the vanilla is topped with pinapple topping.  I love it this way.  Oh, and I love that Clara couldn't be bothered to put her spoon down for the photo.  She just kept going at the ice cream. 

I tried to take a picture of what was left of our banana split at the midway point.  Clara had her spoon in the strawberry and Paul had his spoon in the chocolate, surprise, surprise.  I had to take the picture quick and get back in on the action before it was all gone.

We didn't make it home until 9:45 p.m. but Clara stayed awake for the entire drive.  It was the perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon and evening.