Priesthood Ordinations

The second Sunday was a very special Sunday for us. Three of our boys were ordained to the next office in the priesthood.  Instead of being ordained after their birthdays, they are ordained in the January of the year they turn 12, 14, and 16.  So Jared was ordained a Priest.  Zach was ordained to a Teacher.  And Branden received the Aaronic Priesthood for his first time and was ordained a Deacon.

Jared blessed the sacrament for the first time and sat at the sacrament table with Jesse and Craig. Zach helped prepare the sacrament, and he and Branden passed the sacrament.  I sat on the pew looking over at them and was just overwhelmed with gratitude and love for my children and the priesthood they are worthy to hold.  I'm so grateful for the opportunities they have to serve and bless so many.

It was wonderful to have my mom here with us.  She and my dad have always been here for these special times for our family.  It was wonderful she could still come and be with us.  And we could feel my dad's spiritual presence with us during this sacred time.  What a wonderful day.

Now that Branden was ordained to the priesthood as well, he could go to the temple for the first time.  We met up with Jesse to watch Devin for us, and I went in the temple with the four boys. It was sweet of Jesse to give me that opportunity since he serves in Young Men and is usually the one who gets to go to the temple with the boys.

It was so special to go to the baptistry and spend time with my sons there.  I loved watching Craig and Jared baptize each other and their younger brothers.  It was so sweet to see Branden's excitement for going and have his brothers teach him how to do it.  It was also my first time since women have been able to also be witnesses that I was able to do that.  It was such a great experience.

And just for fun, here are some of the silly photos taken while trying to get the serious pictures.

New Year, New Experiences

January 2020 came right in with a fresh start and ready to take on new experiences and adventures. Jesse and I stumbled across a new virtual reality place while we were out on a date night.  They were offering a great deal of just $20 a person instead of their usual price of $45.  So we signed up Jesse and the four older boys to go try it out on New Year's Day.  They had a blast. A few weeks later, Zach went back with a few friends.

Branden went to a week of 6th-grade camp.  He went with our charter school, which, since we homeschool means he didn't know the kids he was going with.  Fortunately, he had one friend that goes to our Discovery group on Thursdays that was going too.  We really missed him.  He went out to Cuyamaca Outdoor School.  They had a lot of outdoor nature walks, classes, and science exploration. He said it was really cold there (just in the 40s during the day and more like 20s at night). He had fun.  But he was definitely exhausted when he got back.  And then after a couple of days back, he started throwing up and was sick for over a week.  That was the bummer part.  But it was awesome he took on this new experience.

Devin learned to ride a bike!  He has been pretty resistant to learning.  If we took off his training wheels, he felt really scared every time the bike leaned just a little to the side.  We were starting to wonder if he'd ever want to learn.  We were all setting goals at the start of the year, and Devin set a goal to learn to ride his bike without training wheels.  He got out there and it didn't take long for him to start riding without help!  It was so exciting!  He just needed to be ready, I guess. He was so excited.

 And Zach went to his first stake dance!  Fun to have his brothers take him.  I'm not sure it was quite the experience he thought it would be, but hopefully, he'll go again.