Four Jingle Bells

 Blake hurt his back helping someone move so he told the kids to walk on his back to help it.  They were happy to help.  Interesting chiropractic practice.  We visited the Nauvoo temple for a long weekend to get away for a little bit.  We hadn't gone away since October and it was so nice to escape.  The tulips around the temple were amazing.  There were so many and it smelled so good!  There are no sunsets as beautiful as the Nauvoo sunsets! The fields were covered with these purple flowers.  They were everywhere!   I hope so much that someday we will all be in the temple together.  We made a goal to get to the temple once a month, rain or shine, summer or winter.  We live three hours away but we really want the kids to understand the importance of the temple and it's never too far to serve in the temple.  They all wanted individual pictures this time.  And then they said I needed...

Watch out, there's a bug in the house.  The kids have discovered the panorama on my phone.  We went on a Sunday walk now that the weather is pretty great.  There is a cool grove of trees I saw on my run one day.  The kids always fight me to do new things, then they end up loving it.  Blake had a bad back that day, so we left him in peace.  Lots of fun things to discover out here and now it is greener than ever!  Brooke was so happy to see these flowers.  Check out her adorable teeth.  Brooke fell in the mud.  And it's a huge step because normally she would have a meltdown because it was wet and muddy.  She got mad at first and said we had to go home and change, but then she calmed down and was pretty proud of herself for making it through.  Spencer did a great job of keeping track of William while we were out there.   The first of the wildflowers!  We love this area because there is...