It's great to be 8!

Dallin turned 8 a couple weeks ago. With Maryruth's family in town, we had a family party of 25 people.

Brennan is just so excited about this one! Note the pink princess gift bag. That's what happens when you have a baby sister.

  

My kids' love Heath (ice cream, candy bars, etc.), so I made him a Heath Bar Cake. After poking a hot chocolate cake with holes, I poured sweetened condensed milk mixed with a jar of caramel over the top, let it cool, covered it with Cool Whip and topped it with crushed Heath bars. It was super yummy! 

Then on his actual birthday we had tacos and watermelon (his favorite dinner) and more cake. Good thing I made 2 of them.

Then of course there were lots of jokes about the diaper box he unwrapped.

Inside the diaper box was this awesome black and red tool bag (his favorite color combo) filled with a bunch of little presents.

Rope + red sheets + big and little clamps + flashlights = a fort kit!

My kids are always making forts, but it's hard to get the heavy blankets to stay up. Plus they always sag in the middle. This way they can clamp onto furniture and tie the rope to various things and clip the sheet to it. They get really creative.

They've made some pretty amazing forts!

Of course the best part about turning 8 is getting baptized. He was looking forward to this for a long time, and it was lovely. Grandpa gave the opening prayer, Spencer gave the talk on baptism, Tyler played his violin (Families Can Be Together Forever), Dave performed the baptism and confirmation, I gave the talk on the Holy Ghost, and grandma gave the closing prayer. And as I mentioned earlier, everyone took turns holding Chloe. 

Afterwards we gave Dallin the option of either going out to lunch or going to the movies. He chose to see Ice Age. Then Levi screamed as we approached the dark, loud theater, so I got a refund and took him home. Luckily the boys brought me home a big bucket of popcorn. It was a great day.

Tyler's baptism

3 Nephi 11:38 And again I say unto you, ye must repent, and be baptized in my name, and become as a little child, or ye can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God.

Tyler was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints last Saturday, May 1st. We've spent the last few family home evenings preparing him for this big step.

He was so excited, literally bouncing off the walls. Then he didn't want to get out of the water. He tried to start swimming around until we let him know that wasn't really appropriate. Plus there was a little girl waiting to get baptized after him. Then while he was changing out of his wet clothes he told Dave he felt "warm and peaceful inside."

My parents were able to come up for the baptism, and Tyler asked my mom to give the talk on the Holy Ghost. Unfortunately Kristen and Ellen were still in Utah, but the rest of their families were there. Afterwards Dallin said, "Now I want to get baptized. I thought it would be scary, but after seeing Tyler do it, I want to do it too."

Jacob's baptism, Dad's birthday

Saturday was my nephew's baptism, and he was so cute and excited. They did this thing I'd never seen before but really liked. While they were changing out of their wet clothing, we wrote messages on little note cards to the 2 children who got baptized. Wouldn't that be a cool thing to have from your baptism day? Then the whole weekend felt like a holiday - what with all the family around and not feeling like we had to do anything but eat and hang out. The baptism was in the morning so my dad could be there before heading off to work. Then we went over to Kristen's house for pizza. The kids played together happily all day, the men played sports and games, and the women visited and copied our favorite recipes to give to a friend for her wedding. Whenever one of the husbands came into the kitchen, he'd say, "You're still doing recipes?!" Actually, it was a lot of fun, and we only stopped because we had to get dinner ready before leaving for the reception. The kids hung out all evening watching movies while the men played more games (it's a good thing they have each other or else they'd never get to play their games) while the women enjoyed a beautiful wedding reception. It felt like girls night out, and we decided we need to do that more often. Then yesterday was my dad's birthday, so we all got together again after church for french dip sandwiches and cherry pies. You'd think by this point the kids would be sick of each other, but we went to the park this morning with a mom's group from church, and they were all excited to see each other there. Cousins are awesome.

Spencer's Baptism

Dave performed his first baptism.

Today was Spencer's baptism, and it was wonderful day. This morning we gave him his own set of scriptures with his name engraved, which he was really excited about. Mom came up (dad and grandpa are both sick). I gave the talk on baptism and mom gave the talk on the Holy Ghost. Spencer said he couldn't stop smiling afterwards, and he told Dave he felt free. I sang a duet with a friend, which was an interesting story. A few days ago Dave asked me if we were going to do a special musical number, but I didn't want to sing alone and couldn't decide who to ask or what to sing. Then last night when we were on our date, my friend called to see what time the baptism was. We sang together in a quartet Easter Sunday, so I knew she had a beautiful soprano voice. I'm an alto. So I asked her if she would sing a duet with me today. She said she'd be happy to, so we talked about it and decided to sing Baptism ("Jesus came to John the Baptist,...") I always loved that song, and it turns out it has a pretty harmony. I practiced last night and this morning, we ran through it a couple times before the baptism, and it came together nicely. There was a good turn-out, and it felt good to see our friends and family there to support Spencer. Afterwards we ate cookies and visited in the cultural hall. I made a batch of chocolate chip and a batch of snickerdoodles, and one man told me they were the best chocolate chip cookies he's had, and he is not a young man. Then we (our family and Kristen's family) went to see the new Narnia movie, Prince Caspian, in the theater. It was also a very good movie, and the kids did great. Even Brennan sat still for the first hour and forty-five minutes. After that he got pretty antsy. We picked up pizza on the way home. We're all going to bed early tonight. Spiritual experiences are always exhausting.