Eternal Families

Both Nicholas and I have had a lot of emotions thinking about this last week.  Looking back, our last two years have been dramatic, chaotic, full of anxiety and stress, and complicated.

Compare that to the simplicity of being in the Temple on Friday, October 15, 2010.  It was peaceful, quiet, simple, and beautiful.  It was real.  It was powerful.

And now, Eliza is ours no matter what.

Thank you to all of our family and friends who have shared with us in this event.  We are so grateful.  It was wonderful to see so many of Nicholas family members at the temple.  Especially his Grandmother Empey. 

We chose the Provo temple because 38 years ago my parents were married there.  Their ceremony was also simple and quiet.  No family accompanied them since they were the only members of the Church.  But 38 years later, all 7 of their children sat there in the sealing room to welcome the newest member of this eternal family.  Thank you all for coming.  It meant so much to see you all there.

Here are a few pictures from the event. 

First are my idiot brothers (and brother in law).  They decided to play a joke on me and grow mustaches.  I don't know why.  I don't hate mustaches.  But they knew it would bug me, so they did it.  It worked.

Here we are just missing Damon, who grew a mustache too but didn't make it in time for the pictures.  Until the next day at the temple, but I don't have copies of those pictures yet. 

Doug really wanted this image.  So here you go Doug.  Just for you.

This is Eliza on the day of our Sealing.  She was really tired by this point and really ready to be done.  So we didn't get very many pictures of her in the beautiful dress my sister made for her.

Here are some of the details of the dress that Teri made for me.  Everything about this dress is beautiful.  I wasn't sure what Teri was going to make for Eliza and I would never have imagined this.  But when I saw it, and how lovingly it was made, and how beautiful it was on Eliza, I realized it was perfect.  For so many reasons.  Not only is it beautiful, and made so well, but it was made by my sister.  And that makes it even more special.  Thank you Teri.

We had to make a second trip to the temple to get pictures done since we didn't have time the day of the sealing.  So we made another trip to Provo.  Eliza fell asleep in the car and was not very happy getting woken up.  She didn't smile once in the pictures!  Oh well.  Thank you Monica for taking a few of us!

I will post more of the whole family when I get them.