Forever Ours

Clara's adoption was finalized on September 11th, but because of family schedules we went to the temple on November 4th to have her sealed to us and Tyler gave her a name and a blessing in church the next day. It was such a great weekend, and I'm so grateful for those who made the effort to come and be with us. Being in the temple with Tyler and our three kids was one of best moments of my life. I'm so glad Clara is my daughter forever. She is the perfect addition to our family and we love her so much.

 It was very cold and windy that day, 

so I'm glad we were able to get a few pictures before the kids broke!

 

My amazing mother made these beautiful booties for Clara. We will cherish them forever!

Fall Fun

The days are long but the years are short...

In so many ways having three kids under three has pushed us past what we thought we would be able to handle. Our house is always a disaster. Someone is crying at least once an hour (sometimes once every 5 minutes). Taking the kids anywhere leaves me sweating and exhausted.

But in so many other ways it has filled our home with so much joy I can't even comprehend it. This sounds totally cliche, but sometimes when I'm in bed trying to fall asleep I think about my kids and I feel like my heart is going to burst with how much I love them. I love seeing their little personalities develop. I love hearing the funny and clever things they say. I want to take pictures and videos of every little moment because I don't want to forget anything, but I have to remind myself to just sit back and enjoy it. For family home evening on Monday night we turned off all of the lights and we played with flashlights and shadows for 45 minutes. It was so funny seeing them try to understand why their shadows wouldn't hold still and why they would disappear when they moved the light. I love being their mom.

 It has been a very busy fall with concerts and a busy work schedule for Tyler, but we managed to do a few fun things together as a family. We went to two different pumpkin patches and the boys had a blast! We lucked out both times and showed up when the crowds were very small.

I'm a little bit obsessed with Halloween. Not the gross scary stuff, but I love dressing up.

I have been planning this year's costumes for about a year. Alice in Wonderland, the Mad Hatter, the Tweedles, and the White Rabbit. Tyler rented his costume from campus, and I made the rest. I thought they turned out pretty good! The boys' costumes were so fitting for their personalities. :)