The Choice to Be Baptized

Phoebe spoke in Primary on Sunday, which was a fun Mother's Day treat for me. When I asked Phoebe about what she wanted to say in her talk, she told me she wanted to share some of the things my brother Jordan had said during the talk he gave at my niece Clara's baptism in February. Jordan was kind enough to send us his notes.

On Sunday morning Phoebe and I looked through the notes and talked about what she wanted to say. Then she dictated while I typed and asked questions. I expanded and clarified a few of her thoughts, but she wrote the majority of the talk. Here it is, for your enjoyment and edification:

The fourth Article of Faith says: We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost. When we choose to be baptized and confirmed, we are making a good and righteous choice.

When we are baptized, we promise to take Jesus’ name upon us, to always remember Him, and keep the commandments. The first promise that we make means that we are members of Jesus’ church, which has His name in the title, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The second promise means that we will always remember Jesus in every choice that we make. The third promise means to remember the commandments and obey them.

I remember when my brother Cooper was baptized last year. My dad said a special prayer, then he helped Cooper go all the way under the water. This is called baptism by immersion. Immersion means to be completely covered. My dad baptized both of my brothers.

After you are baptized, you are confirmed a member of the church. This is done when a Priesthood holder puts his hands on your head and says a special blessing where he gives you the gift of the Holy Ghost. If you are baptized, but not confirmed, it’s not complete. In February I went to my cousin Clara’s baptism. After she was baptized, she was confirmed.

I haven’t been baptized yet because I’m six years-old, and you have to be at least eight years-old. I have made the choice to be baptized when I turn eight next year. I feel so excited to be baptized and confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I close in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Clara's Special Day

We made the drive down to Maryland yesterday for a very special occasion. My niece Clara chose to be baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Her dad, my brother, performed the ordinance.

She asked our family to sing, which we were happy to do. Sophie, Phoebe, and I sang When I Am Baptized, then our whole family was joined by my nephew Henry and niece Aeva while we all sang I Am a Child of God.

Thanks go to my sister-in-law Sherlin for taking and sharing these pictures.

The kids were all well behaved, especially considering they had been stuck in a car for three hours before the baptism. And when the baptism was over, we hugged our family goodbye and gathered ourselves to get on the road back home. Bryan had to work today, so we had a six hour round trip yesterday. Being there to support Clara was worth the drive.

Sometimes You Make a Five Hour Round Trip to Run Through a Fountain With Your Cousins...

...and then you spend the rest of the evening telling anyone who will listen how completely awesome it was.

Family Pictures 2015

On Thanksgiving Day we delayed dinner, donned our fancy clothes, and gathered in our living room for pictures.

My favorite might be this one where no one is looking at the camera.

We also have several where almost everyone is looking at the camera and almost everyone is smiling. These are the best two from that batch.

The last time all of my siblings were together was almost four years ago at Paige's wedding. That is simply too long. We need to figure out how to see each other on a more regular basis.

The best picture of the session was made possible by the promise of fruit snacks if everyone smiled and looked at the camera. It totally worked.

Family Time!

We have a house full of family this week. Gathering from both coasts, my parents, my Grandma, my siblings, and their families are converging on my mid-western domicile for this holiday week. So far we've had days of playing with cousins in the snow, an afternoon coloring with Nana, and a delicious trip for authentic Chicago dogs.

We're looking forward to deep dish Chicago pizza, family pictures, and a gigantic Thanksgiving dinner.

Huzzah for family time!

Birthday With Brothers

I had a few people ask if we had an adventure for my birthday. As a matter of fact, we did. We spent the entire week leading up to my birthday in Atlantic City. Now, you may be asking yourself, "What could a girl who doesn't gamble or drink possibly find to do in Atlantic City?" Quite a bit, as it turns out.

I'll talk about our Atlantic City adventure tomorrow (or the next day). For my actual birthday we drove from our fancy hotel by the ocean to visit my brothers near Baltimore. It rained pretty much the whole time we were there, but that was fine with us. The stormy weather just meant more family time inside.

The cousins had lots of fun playing together. And eating together. And being slightly mischievous together.

These two had lots of girl time. They had a cousin sleepover in the guestroom and Uncle Ian even french braided their hair. It was appropriately fancy considering I overhead Phoebe say to Clara at one point, "That's what they do at Princess school!" Or something like that.

Uncle Jordan took on a baking project with the kids which resulted in delicious banana-strawberry birthday muffins. He also supervised Peter in making decadent chocolate chunk cookies. They were popular with everyone that could consume sugar.

Sophie loved Ian's cats and dog as long as they stayed a respectable distance away. She did not care for them as much when they came within arms length.

The boys played together too. Henry always starts out shy, but I think he had warmed to us by the time our two-day visit was over.

Thank you Ian for letting us stay at your house, eat your food, and monopolize your washer and dryer. And thanks Jordan for orchestrating the visit. Spending time with two of my brothers made for a great birthday gift!

More Cherry Blossom Fun

In addition to seeing our brothers, we enjoyed the Cherry Blossom Festival Parade and visited the National Museum of the American Indian. Serendipitously, we were there for Cherokee Days, so my brothers and I got to learn a little about our ancestry. We also flew kites on the lawn by the Washington Monument with the cousins, which was pretty cool.

Parades in Washington DC are old school.

And pink.

This is how to watch a parade if tall people are in front of you.

And this is what happens when you're watching the parade but your mom keeps trying to take your picture.

Cousins!

Kites!

A cousin with a kite!

And just in case you're having adventure overload, don't worry, I'm not planning any more exciting escapades for at least a few weeks. Phoebe did ask where we're going on our next adventure. I said I didn't know. She made a request: she'd like to go to Paris next.

Maybe someday, Phoebe, maybe someday.

Family Fun

My brother Ian and his kids spent the weekend at our house. We had a grand time staying indoors (with the windchill, it was 25 degrees below zero outside) and playing. I was so focused on having fun that I didn't pull out my camera until they had been here for almost a day. That means I have no pictures documenting our fun Valentine's Day party or our fancy lunch of chocolate waffles and fresh strawberries. I took lots of pictures the next day, so that makes up the difference, right?

Henry, showing me treasures from his Valentine's Day bag.

Clara, reading to Ian and Phoebe before bedtime.

We watched our digital copy of Big Hero 6. The girls were exceptionally cute during the viewing.

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We had a cousin photo shoot shortly before they went home. I'm not sure if we got any pictures with everyone looking at the camera and smiling, but we sure tried.

This is how Ian smiles for pictures. Don't worry, I make up for it with my gigantic grin.

See?

I made sure to get a picture of me and my little brother.

Thanks for visiting guys! Come back soon!

Homemade Zoo

In the days leading up to Christmas I spent lots of my time making gifts for my family. When they were done I wrapped them up and sent/handed them out.

What I failed to do was take pictures.

My sister-in-law sent me a picture last night of two of the gifts, so I can show you at least a few of the things I made with my mad skills.

The turtle was for my nephew Henry (I made one for my nephew Nathan too) and the pattern came from here. The flamingo was for my niece Clara, those instructions are here. I wanted the beak and legs to be sturdier so I sewed two pieces of felt together and stuffed them before I attached them to the body instead of using a single piece of felt as the pattern called for. You can't see it, but the flamingo has a wing on the other side that doubles as a pocket.

I think they turned out beautifully, especially for a non-sewer.

Letting My Inner Wedding Planner Out

My sister Paige and my newest brother-in-law Eugene held their wedding reception at my parents' church building. We, as the work crew, were scheduled to decorate the day before the wedding. The night before we were to decorate I asked Paige what decorative elements we were using.

It wasn't much.

One woman in the ward was lending them hurricane jars and tall battery-powered candles, but only enough for half the tables. Another woman was lending small mirrors and small round jars, again only enough for half the tables. Paige had little candles for the second set of jars.

And that was all. No runners. No ribbons. No flowers. No color.

I asked if she wanted anything else. She said yes and I asked if she cared what we got or if she just wanted us to make the decisions. Spoken like a girl that is tired of wedding-planning and just wants to get married, she said "Sure." And that's how I became the puppet-master of the reception.

The morning that we went to decorate, my newest sister-in-law and I stopped by Michael's on our way to the church. We wandered the aisles for a few minutes looking for inspiration. After settling on small glass stones to put in the jars, we paid and left. As we exited the store Falisha veered sharply to the right and went to investigate the Christmas clearance that we had passed when we first went in.

She reached into one of the bins and extracted her prize: a small sparkly blue tree branch. We went to work, digging through the boxes, searching for blue and green. Our mission resulted in about twenty blue branches and twenty-five green branches, some with leaves, some with needles, one feather. We found blue and green ribbon that matched beautifully and said prayers of thanks that Paige's tables wouldn't be barren.

Once we had our supplies in hand, it took some time to figure out how to make all the pieces come together in an aesthetically pleasing way. Neither of the pictures that I have show the complete centerpiece. The hurricane jar had a sage green square of material under it and the mirrors had some blue ribbon that came out from the edges, but this gives you a good idea.

Considering we had no idea what we were going to decorate with, I think the whole thing turned out beautifully.

We also spent time rehearsing. My mom had asked me put together a handful of musical numbers for the reception. Eugene's sweet younger sisters were excited to sing. Here I am giving my unsolicited feedback on their duet of Love Changes Everything (this is a mildly bizarre group performing the song, but it was the best I found in my thirty-second YouTube search) from Andrew Lloyd Webber's Aspects of Love. They were nice and didn't tell me to leave them alone and let them sing. And remember, I was the puppet-master, so at this point in the day I had been telling everyone what to do anyway, so I think they were used to me by then.

Grandma Bonnie, Bryan, and a revolving door of familial helpers took care of the kids in the nursery. It was a great chance for the cousins to play together. As far as I know they were happy for the most part, I don't remember any reports to the contrary.

Wedding Teaser

Bryan and my sister-in-law Falisha gave me the pictures they each took at the wedding. I've been itching to post some of what went down last week, but now I'm faced with a small dilemma. Do I post all the pictures in one giant wedding blitz? Or do I spread it out, make the pictures last, savor the experience and tell the stories behind them.

Well, when I put it that way...

This is my favorite picture from the trip. Phoebe and cousin Clara were outside the San Diego Temple with the rest of the group, waiting for the bride and groom to appear. Clara was graciously sharing her crackers with Phoebe, which was good because Phoebe's mom was in constant motion that whole day and completely forgot to bring snacks for her children. Also, aren't those dresses darling?

Enlarging My Talents

I feel like my to-do list has a major deadline. I must have all projects for the year done by September 1. There are a handful of things I've been working on. So far, one of them is done.

I crocheted this afghan for my niece. That blue color is actually lavender in person. It's the biggest thing I've crocheted so far. I learned a lot while doing it, and now realize some things that I should have done differently. I think the next one I make will be much better. Oh well, I've got to learn somehow, right?

Sweet Sweet Baby

Remember this? Well, now she's a big sister. And I have a nephew!

Meet Henry. I think he's beautiful. Or handsome, if my brother doesn't want me to call his little boy beautiful.


And this is my favorite picture of Henry and Clara together. Apparently she doesn't like to hear Henry cry. And she really wants to hold the baby.

Cousin Pictures: A Valiant Attempt

At least we tried...