Today...

Celebrations
Well yesterday was a packed day of celebrating. Here's a few layouts of our fun day. Here the girls are eating their snow cones after a very hot morning walking around looking at booths, getting fingernails painted, making fourth of July wands, etc. It was a packed but good morning.

Later that night we lit a few sparklers at our house. The girls would touch them or even get within 5 feet of them. They were just too scary. Isaac on the other hand couldn't get enough of them. He wanted to hold one and would just sit and watch it burn while squealing and then once it finished go for another one. He got too excited about some very simple spinning fireworks too that Beau lit off in the road. He is definitely a boy. What is it with boys and fire.

Layouts
My sister called today and was talking to me and then asked me, where do you find the time to scrapbook a layout. How did you already have time to scrap one of Caitlyn. Well. The answer is 4x6 layouts. I'm serious they are fast, easy and I can get one done in about 10 - 15 minutes. It's one of those things that I enjoy, doesn't require lots of thought and I can use it to wind down at the end of the day. I usually scrap them at the end of the day, when the kids are in bed and I'm exhausted. Beau has lots of church meetings sometimes, so I'll do it then. Or sometime during the slow part of the day when the kid are playing, I can sit down for 10 minutes and do a fast one. Between the 4x6 templates and the 4x6 Assemble Your Own's I can get one done quick. The kids love them, and are always asking me to pull out the 4x6 album and wanting me to read it to them like a book. The only difference is the story is about them.

Temple Sealing
This morning Beau and I were able to go to the sealing of his cousin the Mt. Timpanogos Temple. It was such a beautiful and amazing ceremony. It reminded me so much of my wedding day and the amazing feeling of gratitude I felt during the whole day to be marrying Beau.

I believe that God has provided a way for families to be sealed beyond this mortal life. I believe that this life is not the end, but that life goes on after this life as well. That we can have the same wonderful and amazing relationships that we have with our spouses, children and parents beyond the grave that we have here. Today I realized even more so how amazing it is to know that we have been sealed to each other for time and all eternity and not until just "death do us part" like the civil marriages. Many people do not have this amazing blessing, nor do they know that it is available, that God did not intend for our family to end at death.

Today I have been overwhelmed by gratitude and thanksgiving to the Lord for the Priesthood. For temples. For sealings. For my family. For Beau. For the atonement of Jesus Christ that made it all possible. I left wishing everyone wanted to be sealed together, wishing everyone knew that they could be sealed together for eternity, and wanting everyone to know that there is more out there available than just what many believe will end at the death of their spouse, children, or families. God has a plan for mankind, and it's all about families... his family - you and me.

Supplies used in Fourth of July Layouts: Freedom Collection Mini, Digital Stickers: Freedom, Planes, Trains and Automobiles Collection, SS Digital Layout Templates - 4x6: Years, SS Digital Layout Templates - 4x6: Blessings, Stamped Date Brush Set.

Supplie Used in Covenant Layout: Assemble Your Own - 4x6 pages: Sealing, Assemble Your Own - 4x6 pages: Painterly.