Our Forever Family

It's fair to say that the best days of my life have all involved my family and the Temple. Now I have another day to add to the list. Today, our eternal family grew by one more as Spencer was sealed to us and became an official part of our forever family.

We came to Oakland to have him sealed to us because my parents are serving a mission here. They couldn't come to us, so we went to them. James and I were also married in the Oakland Temple so it seemed fitting that we would complete our family here as well. But while we were blessed to have several close friends and family members here with us, we did miss many of our wonderful Utah friends who have become like family to us.

We've been trying to prepare the boys for this day by talking to them about what would happen and what a special day it would be. I'm not sure how much of it sunk in but Spencer kept singing "I Love to See the Temple" all day. It was very cute.

When they brought him up to the sealing room, he was a little apprehensive. He looked around the room and didn't see me, so he started to hide behind the nice sister who brought him up. Then he peeked back out and looked around and finally saw me. He ran across the room, launched himself into my lap and buried his head into my shoulder. I couldn't see it, but apparently he flashed one of his famous Spencer smiles on the way to me.

After the Temple, we all headed to my brother Eric's house for Spencer's Blessing and lunch. James blessed Spencer that he would make correct choices in his life and grow up to be an honorable man and priesthood holder. It was a wonderful blessing.

And Eric really out did himself with the food and festivities afterward. I'm lucky to have a brother in the party planning business and he was gracious enough to let us use his backyard and his brother in law as top griller. He even got the squirt guns out so the boys could get wet and cool off on this hot summer day.

Today has also brought up wonderful memories of another wonderful day six years ago when our Bubs was sealed to us. I will never forget when he came into the sealing room, he looked around at all the people and just beamed one of his famous AJ smiles. He was feeling a bit bent out of shape because of all the fuss over Spencer today. I tried to tell him that we made just as big a fuss over him back in the day, but he was just too young to remember.

And now we have two wonderful boys who are all ours -- forever.
I know this post is missing some of my usual writing style. I think it's because I am so tired but I really wanted to get these pictures and historical record down today, while it is still fresh. I promise to be back to my sometimes-snarky self soon.