Sweet Man Cub,

Today you are 2. You have changed so much over the past year... I feel like so much growth occurs between 1 and 2. It is a bittersweet time for me. I love watching you become you- developing an opinion, determining your likes and dislikes, but oh how my heart aches for the days when I was your everything.

These days, it is all about Dad. You seem to recognize that the two of you need to stick together as the men of the household. When Dad isn't around, you still need me to help you get a snack or find you a toy. But if Dad is around, I am chopped liver, at best. I miss you wanting me over anyone, but it has been so much fun to watch you become Daddy's little shadow. You want to be like him in every way. I especially love watching you mimic him as he gets ready for the day. It is not unusual for me to find you in the master bathroom, getting into Daddy's drawer. You'll pull out his deodorant and attempt to put it on. Then you grab his electric razor and hold it to your cheek. You grin at me, as if to say "See! I can do it too! I'm just like Daddy". I hope you want to be like your Daddy for the rest of your life. He is a good man- a wonderful husband and loving father, a hard worker and a faithful Priesthood holder. You could not have better ambitions in life than wanting to be like him.

You are such an active little boy. From the time you get up until the time you go to bed, you want to play. And you tell me that with enthusiasm! "Play! Play! Play!" You cry when we pull you away from your toys, especially your collection of Disney Cars. You also love planes and trains, but if the opportunity comes to go outside, you drop everything and run. You love to climb on the playground and go down the slide. You love digging in the dirt and soaking yourself with the hose. You are busy, all. the. time. But when you crash, you crash hard! You sleep a solid 12 hours each night with a good 2 hour nap each day. You rest well so you can play hard. You need every drop of energy you can find.

You are also eating us out of house and home already. I have heard the stories of teenage boys... if your appetite now is any indicator of what is to come, we are in big trouble. You love food and you can pack away a lot of it. Once again, this comes from how hard you play. You've got to fuel the little tornado that is Man Cub!

You love your big sisters... they mean the world to you. You recently came up with your own special name for Sunshine. You call her Yaya and she absolutely loves it. When we drop her off for school in the morning, you wave until the school is no longer in sight, saying "Bye Yaya! Bye Yaya!". And your excitement when she comes home each afternoon just makes her day. You and Beebs have an interesting relationship... you fight like cats and dogs, you are partners in all sorts of mischief and she is the one you cry for when I put you down for your nap each day. It breaks my heart to hear you call for her from your bedroom. You love that girl, even if she does try to take your toys!

You are such a sweet boy and we are so blessed to have you in our family. We love your cheesy grin and your squishy hugs. We love to play with you and chase you around (unless we are chasing you because it is time to leave the house and you are refusing to come with us!). We love your excitement for life. We love you, Man Cub, and we are so glad you are ours.

Enjoy being 2, little man!
Love Always,
Mommy & Daddy

Touch The Temple

In June, I was in charge of teaching Sharing Time, and the theme for the month was "Priesthood Ordinances and Temple Work Bless My Family". It was such a fun month to teach and one of the weeks, I felt impressed to share a talk I had recently read by President Monson called "Blessings of the Temple". In the talk, President Monson shared the story of a man who took his granddaughter on a special birthday date, but instead of taking her to the zoo or the movies, he took her to the temple where he had her touch the walls and the doors of the temple. President Monson said "She had touched the temple, and the temple had touched her. As we touch the temple and love the temple, our lives will reflect our faith. As we go to the holy house, as we remember the covenants we make therein, we will be able to bear every trial and overcome each temptation. The temple provides purpose for our lives. It brings peace to our souls—not the peace provided by men but the peace promised by the Son of God when He said, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”"

At the end of the lesson, I challenged our Primary children to find a time to touch a temple over the summer and then to tell me about it, and many of them have. The girls and I, knowing that we were heading to Utah where temples are everywhere to be found, made a personal goal to touch five temples on our trip. Surprisingly, this turned out to be much more difficult than I had imagined! Several of the temples we stopped by were closed for cleaning, meaning the gates were locked and we were unable to get close enough to touch them. But we still managed to accomplish our goal (though we did have to touch three temples on our drive home to make it happen!)

We started by touching the Twin Falls, Idaho with my best friend KJ and her family. (An entire post about that awesome visit coming soon!)

We then tried to touch the Provo temple (closed!), the Brigham City temple (closed!) and the Salt Lake temple (closed!). We also wanted to touch the Payson temple, but it wasn't completed yet, making that a no go as well.

Towards the end of our trip we made it to the Logan temple and were very excited to finally find a temple with open grounds. We were able to get up to the temple so the wee ones could touch it and admire the beautiful stone and the gorgeous flowers. I could not get enough of the breathtaking view of Cache Valley. Cache Valley might just be my dream home location.

On our drive home from Provo, we managed to touch our final three temples. It was the first day the Provo temple was opened after it's yearly cleaning, so we stopped there first, on our way out of town. Then we hit St George and Las Vegas. Bruce wasn't too keen on that final stop as he was anxious to get home, but I convinced him we needed to do it and the girls were beyond ecstatic when we pulled up and they realized where we were. Even Man Cub had caught on to what we were doing and said "temple", then ran up to touch it's doors.

We are all loving this new tradition of "collecting" temples and we are excited to add several new temples to our list in the coming months. Touching the temple is helping our children to recognize the importance of these sacred buildings, especially when we go out of our way to visit them. They feel the Spirit  as they touch the walls and they are excited to seek out other temples to touch. Touching the temple is certainly touching our lives, and this is only the beginning!