Mother's Day photos and Nauvoo

Disclaimer: There are no actual Mother's Day photos in the following post.

I love my husband, but he's not great at thinking and planning ahead for gifts. So usually I just tell him what I want. 

So for Mother's Day I let him know I wanted photos taken of the girls together.
I made an appointment at JCPenny portraits, for Friday. 

Things started out ok... until the photographer put the girls on their stomachs next to each other and Eva (sweet thing that she is) grabbed Ellie's hand. 

"Eva's SCRATCHING me!!!!" was the shriek heard 'round the mall.

Things went downhill from there. A couple other highlights:

-Eva drooled on the cloth background, and so then Ellie refused to go anywhere near the middle of it (which is where she needed to be for the lighting and whatnot.

-Ellie was asked to sit behind Eva and hold her up (since Eva can't sit up by herself just yet). Ellie scooted back in disgust as if her sister had the bubonic plague and let Eva fall every time.

It was awesome. But there were a few (3, to be exact) pictures that turned out okay.

Saturday we were planning on going to the Nauvoo temple.


So, funny how the adversary works: Ricardo and I got on each other's nerves and fought pretty much from Thursday to late Friday night/Saturday morning. I'm sure he would not appreciate me sharing that fun fact-- BUT, I'm sharing it for a reason. 


See, there is very important work that goes on in our temples. And Satan would love nothing more than to stop us from doing that work. And so he will try as hard as he can to drive contention between couples and families so they don't get to the temple. It was happening to us without us realizing it. 


Long story short, we made up and started our journey at 7-something this morning. We didn't give in to the devil and his shafts in the whirlwind.
We went to the temple and did proxy work with Allen and Lorena. It was beautiful and spiritual, and just like a tall glass of water, it was exactly what we needed. It put things back into perspective. Ricardo and I received revelation, both individually and as a couple. 


And, Ellie got to see the temple! I think she loved it. They had a Primary activity that didn't quite go as planned because it was a bit nippier than anyone imagine it would be--- so she spent most of her time with Grandma while we were inside the temple. 


Which is another story-- Grandma is pretty awesome. She originally was going to do a session with my dad at 2pm, and so they were gonna watch our kids for us while we did a 10am session.

But my dad had to work. And Gloria, a new member who my mom was planning on taking, did not end up going.


So she drove the 2 and half hours there all by herself just to watch our kids so we could go to the temple, and then she went home! In that time she fed Eva, changed 2 poopy diapers, endured Ellie asking her in a loud voice (in front of some elderly missionary coupled), "Grandma, did you just FART??", etc.... 


She is pretty darn awesome. We didn't know until afterward at the ward picnic that she was not planning on staying to do a session, and that she had literally traveled over 2 hours just to watch our kids. I felt bad. But I felt so grateful at the same time. We needed the spiritual uplifting that going to the temple provided us today.


And now I'm even more excited to present her with her awesome (Kayleigh and I think, anyway!) Mother's Day gift tomorrow. 


On the way home from the temple, Eva started to cry so I unbuckled and turned around in my seat to try to get to her take a bottle as we drove down the highway.


Ricardo--who had fought with me all weekend-- said the sweetest thing: "Sweetie, I'm worried about you doing that. Turn around and buckle up. I would much rather listen to Eva cry, than for me to cry for the rest of my life."
 
Looooooove going to the temple with him. I think that there is nothing that brings couples closer together.