Quilting, Horses and More

Yet another update...  Sunday was a pretty good day.  Aaron was on call, and had several patients to see in the hospital, so he left before the kids even got up.  We were still able to read scriptures, and eat breakfast in time for me to take a shower before "Music and the Spoken Word."  I painted my nails again - which is getting harder to do.  Of course that meant that Amy wanted hers done too.

Amy was fretting about going to Primary as soon as I asked her to get her dress on. Oh boy!  I was surprised to see Aaron arrive to church on time.  The kids were pretty good during sacrament.  David was upset about something, but I can't remember what.  And Amy wasn't always cooperative.  I loved the talks on the pioneers and the priesthood.  It was a little odd to have the entire bishopric gone, but our High Priest Group Leader and his presidency did a great job taking care of things.  Aaron took care of Amy once again.  He sat with her in Primary, and in her class for a little bit.  Sis. S* is still gone on the weekends.  I enjoyed Sunday School.  Cheryl came in and told me that she was going home, so Julianna and I would be on our own.  That was fine.  I set out hymn books, and got people to say prayers, but I couldn't find Julianna to ask what songs she picked.  i found someone to lead the music, and I was about to just pick some songs on my own, when I found the print out of the lesson and music schedule.  Whew!  So I was a little frazzled to start, and I forgot the teacher's last name, and a couple other things, but it was fine.  Julianna came in a little late because her Sunday School class went way over time.  Oh well.  It all worked out fine in the end.

After church was lunch and nap time.  Amy didn't nap of course, but I dozed off a bit.  Aaron came home to eat something and then had to go back to the hospital.  Then I started on dinner.  I made dolma, which is an Eastern European dish.  We have an Elder from Armenia serving in our ward, and that's the dish he misses the most.  So I tried it out.  It was very simple, but I had to combine a few recipes because of the ingredients, and one had me bake it and one was boiling on the stove.  I didn't want the oven on for 90 minutes so I opted for the stove top version.  Sadly I ran out of cabbage leaves before I was done with the stuffing, so I read that people also use grape leaves, so I grabbed a few from the yard (our neighbor's grape vines have traveled about 10 feet down our fence).  The last four or so were wrapped in grape leaves.  I thought they were delicious, although the grape leaves were a little tougher, and not as tasty.  Then we had FHE.  Aaron texted the missionaries and asked them to come over and try them to see how authentic they were.  So after their mission prep class was over they stopped by for a few minutes.  Elder A* said that a few other families have tried to make dolma, and this was the most authentic.  Woohoo!!!  Let's hope I can replicate the recipe.  Elder A*  said the trick is to find thin cabbage leaves.  He remembers his mom spending ten minutes looking through cabbages at the store trying to find the perfect head of cabbage.  Also the grape leaves is more of a Russian style for dolma, so he prefers the cabbage leaves.

Monday Aaron was still on call, and got woken up at 4:30 with a page, so he was out the door before 5:00 am!  As for me and the kids we had a few things to do around the house, and then I had planned to go to the city for some shopping.  The kids really didn't want to go.  So I gave them the option of going right then or waiting until Tuesday.  They opted for Tuesday, so I agreed.  So we ended up spending the day at home.  Nothing too exciting.  I made cinnamon rolls in the late afternoon.  It thought it would be fun for Pioneer day.  Aaron went to bed early with his really early morning.

Tuesday we did do some shopping, and got back late for lunch.  While I was driving back I remembered about the work frolic that was planned for that afternoon and evening.  So instead of putting Amy down for a nap after lunch, we went over to the church.  I sent the kids to the nursery and started helping Teri with tying a quilt.  Pretty soon David came back saying he was bored, and wanted to help with the quilts.  I told him he needed to watch Amy, so he left, but them came back a couple minutes later and said, "Amy said it was OK if she and Timothy stayed in the nursery by themselves."   Well, I guess I couldn't say "no".  So I had him help Myra Faye with a quilt.  I was amazed to see how well he interacted with her.  He really can make friends with anyone, no matter their age!  Soon after Teri and I finished with the first quilt Timothy came in wanted to help too.  I was a little hesitant, but he insisted he wanted to help.  So we set up the next quilt and he and David helped me tie it.  David sat underneath the quilting frame, and Timothy would push the needle down, and David would push it back up.  They were a pretty good team.  I wish I had brought my camera.   I had no idea my boys were going to learn how to tie quilts that day.  Amy was back and forth, and I had to go to the nursery a couple of times to help her.  David was a little bored after the second quilt was done, but Timothy wanted to keep going.  So we started another quilt while David played with Amy and helped her clean up the nursery.  Timothy and I worked until we both ran out of yarn the first time.  I had to help him fix a few mistakes, and then we headed home.  It was 3:30 and we were all a bit hungry.

That evening after an early dinner we headed over to the church for Cub Scouts.  Sherry has a friend with horses, and they coordinated an activity where the boys could earn their horseriding belt loop and pin.  There are a lot of people out of town right now, so she needed me to come along for two deep leadership.  So Amy and I joined them.  There were only 3 scouts, but they had a lot of fun.  Here are a few (maybe a lot) of pictures.

 Heather giving some instruction

 Amy and Caleb playing on the flat bed trailer

 David and Timothy waiting their turn

 Levi is up first

 This was Ziggy, smaller (16 hands) and older (24) and a bit cranky

 Timothy and the others rode Benjamin (17.5 hands - pretty tall) and 14 years old.  He was very gentle and well mannered.

 Timothy all saddled up

 He was a little short, so his feet were above the stirrups.

 David's turn

 Ready to go!

Sherry's kids also got a turn, but Amy was in flip flops, and wouldn't even go near the horses.

 the scouts after their ride

 The scouts and Sherry's kids

After the rides they had a little worksheet to fill our to show what they learned.

A pretty good way to spend Pioneer Day.  We got home a little after 8:00 and Aaron hadn't even made it home yet.  It was a really long, and awful day for him. I hoped Wednesday would be better.

Wednesday was a hot day.  We spent the morning trying to pull all the weeds by the pumpkins.  After the kids were done, I finished up by the watermelons.  We have a good sized watermelon out there.  I'll have to post some pictures next time.  When I finally came back in I debated whether or not to jump in the pool, or take a shower first.  It was getting close to lunch, so I waited on the pool.  I made David's favorite - veggie quesadillas for lunch.  Lately Amy has been asking the boys to read her books before nap time instead of me.  They all enjoy it.  She hadn't napped for three days, so I suspected she would sleep on Wednesday, and I was right.  What I didn't expect it that I would take a nap too.  The laundry was put off, and I got about an hour nap.  We all went swimming after a quick snack, as soon as I put the potato salad in the fridge.  It was nice to cool off.  Then it was dinner time.  While I was fixing dinner the kids ran through the sprinklers, and Amy found a muddy spot, and got really dirty.  Oh well.  She went straight to the tub after dinner.  Aaron was on call again and got home around bed time.  At least he was able to stay home, and not go back to the hospital, in fact, I only remember him making one phone call that night.  

So on to today.  Nothing really exciting, oh except for the 10 lbs of apricots we picked from Tamera's back yard.  I've got a bunch in the dehydrator, and the kids have eaten about 10 each.  I still have a huge bowl full, that we'll probably go through quicker than I think.  Amy's nap time is almost over, and I think the kids want to go swimming again - it's over 90.  The pool water was 82 degrees yesterday, and probably warmer today, since it didn't cool down a whole lot last night.  So that's it for now.

New Things in the Garden

Friday and Saturday I took some more pictures of the garden.  Well first of all this was what I harvested on Thursday.

 I loved that our dinner was completely from the garden - well except for the cucumbers in the salad.

bean, lettuce, cherry tomatoes, potatoes, onion, Swiss chard.  I don't have a picture of the kohlrabi we put in the salad for he zucchini I had picked earlier.

 the big tomatoes are starting to grow, but are not getting red yet.

 we get a few cherry tomatoes everyday

 kohlrabi looks great!

 on bell pepper growing - it's almost 2 inches long

 one pumpkin

 two pumpkins - I have since found several more

 Our volunteer pumpkins and squash are taking over

 I still don't know what kind of squash this is.

This is what the fruit looks like so far.  Round and green. Hmm

 I love the sunflowers

 The sunflowers, squash and corn in the back

 one of my crookneck squash plants is dying

 The butternut squash plant is thriving, but this is as close as the flowers have come

 The most mature corn is getting bigger

 The neighbor's grapes are getting bigger

 more strawberries are coming

we even have some watermelons that are growing.  So far I've found 4

More Camping and Swimming

I'm a week behind once again.  Sunday was great as usual, even though Amy refused to go to Primary.  She also didn't nap.  We had our hometeacher come over and then Aaron took the kids over to Mirna's to meet some puppies.  They were 5 weeks old, and needed some socialization with kids.  Then we had FHE and dinner.

Aaron went to scout camp last week, well for a couple of days anyway.  A few weeks ago their medical person could no longer work for the rest of the summer so they were asking for people to fill in for him/her.  So Aaron rearranged his schedule so he could go up for a couple of days.  Then it turned out they found someone.  Aaron decided to go anyway, just to help out.  The night before he left he got a call from Sis S* (the medical person - Amy's primary teacher - over the weekend) letting him know that he would indeed be the medical person for those two days.  They had no cell phone service up there, so she couldn't call to let us know until she found a signal on the way back home.  So early Monday morning I dropped Aaron off at the church and then came back home to sleep.  I was hoping to sleep in, but Amy woke me up just before 6:00 am.  I kept dozing until 6:20, when I couldn't ignore her anymore.  So I got up and we played for a bit before I made breakfast.  The boys were up by 7:00.  We had a few things to do that morning, like can more cherries.

I did 4 quarts of Rainers and 3 quarts of Lamberts

Then we went up to the city for some shopping.  We did a lot of school shopping.  I can't believe that stuff is already on sale.  We still have 6 weeks of summer left.  Wait I take that back, now it's only 5 weeks.  Wow it's going fast!  We got a later start than I had hoped, so we ended up at Costco at noon.  I was starving, so I treated the kids to lunch, and then we did our shopping before we went home.  I think I got Amy to take a late nap, and then we went swimming in the afternoon.  We had leftovers for dinner, and then ice cream sundaes for dessert.  David had finished reading the 4th Harry Potter book, so we decided to watch the movie together Monday night.  I didn't realize that it was PG-13 until part way through the movie.  David was fine through the movie, but afterward he was startled by everything.  I think it freaked him out a little.  When the cat meowed he was certain she was in trouble, so I had to go out and check.  He wanted the light on in the hallway, when he usually wants it off.  He's started reading #5, but I think it might be a while until he watches the movie.

Tuesday we slept in a little bit I think we got up at 7:00 I can't remember what else we did it's been too long.  I'm sure there was swimming, and playing, movies, and such.  Aaron was supposed to get home around 8 or 9 that night.  I had our monthly Relief Society meeting that night.  Because the young women were helping out with the meeting I decided to take care of the nursery myself.  Literally 2 minutes before I left there was a knock at the door.  It was Aaron back a couple of hours early!  I was so relieved.  I made sure he was OK with me leaving the kids with him, and then I got to go to the meeting alone.  Surprisingly there were no kids that showed up for the nursery, so I got to attend the meeting which was all about relaxation and reducing stress, man did I need that. At the end the Young Women treated us to hand massages.

Wednesday Aaron had to go back to work, unfortunately he was a little late, because I couldn't find the car keys.  I had used the car to drop him off at the church for camp, and I thought I had put them in my purse, but I looked all over for them.  He ended up using the spare key, but it doesn't have the wireless remote, so I desperately looked all over for it, and asked the kids to help me.  Eventually David said he remembered seeing it in my church bag.  I hang them on the same hook in the closet, so I must have missed my purse and dropped them in my church bag.  I was so glad David found them.  We decided to go to a new library that morning.  There are a couple that are bigger and open at a more convenient time, but they are further away.  So we chose one and had fun in a new place.  Even though there were so many more books, the boys didn't really know where to look, so they prefer our local library.  I think if we go back again and take time to show them where to find the books they are looking for they will enjoy it more.  We got back in time for lunch and then nap time.  We did more swimming.  But I can't remember what else we did.  Aaron came home with these flowers:

Thursday I had my latest OB appt.  Rebecca came over to watch the kids. Amy was crying all morning.  I had to have David take her hand and lead her back into the house. I got there a little bit early because I had my glucose test.  I'm guessing it's because of Aaron, but instead of me arriving an hour early and sitting there waiting for them to draw my blood, they had me take the glucose drink home and I drank it about an hour before my appointment.  Then I called to let them know what time, so they could get a timer going in the lab.  So when I showed up I sat for about 5 minutes and Aaron came in and said "hi".  They called me back for weight and urine check (Aaron had to go back to see patients), and then I waited at the lab for about 2 minutes and got my blood drawn.  Then I waited only a few more minutes before they put me in a room and checked blood pressure.  Dr. I* was a little concerned that I'd lost 3 lbs, but then when I looked at the chart I realized the nurse had switched the last 2 digits, so really I had gained 6 lbs.  I guess a birthday party, 4th of July and the Family Reunion did me in.  We talked a bit, I was concerned about my hands swelling, and experiencing Braxton Hicks contractions so early, but she said everything was fine, probably just the heat.  Then she said she'd see me in 2 weeks for a 3D ultrasound.  That's new for me.  I've never done one of those.  I also realized that I will have appointments every two weeks from now on, since I'm almost 28 weeks!  It just hit me the other day that I am 6 months along now.  I keep measuring in weeks, and I just now realized I have less than 3 months left!  That night when Aaron got home we quickly ate dinner and then we went up to the city to use the Baskin Robbins gift certificates that Timothy received.  We all enjoyed some ice cream.  I got a no sugar added pineapple ice cream, and raspberry cheesecake frozen yogurt.  It was delicious.  Amy saw the picture of the Ore n; chocolate, and knew what she wanted.

After I got back from the appointment we all went over to Rebecca's.  I knew the kids would love to see the new kittens (about 3 or 4 weeks old) and I wanted to talk with Carol.  We had a good chat, and then I had to run a quick errand, and then we went home for lunch.  We also made some cookies.  I'm pretty sure we went swimming that afternoon, the kids just love the pool.  Aaron was on call Thursday instead of Wednesday, so it was a late night for him.  He told me about a recruiting dinner for Friday, so I asked Rebecca to babysit again.

Friday I don't think we went anywhere all day.  We mostly played at home, I did get a nice long nap though.  I was still tired when I woke up.  Before dinner David was looking through one of the experiment books we have and found one for making rock candy.  So we mixed up a couple of batches, and now we are waiting for the sugar crystals to grow.  I'm not sure I did it right, because not much is happening.  Oh well.  Amy of course was not happy when Rebecca came over before dinner.  I couldn't find my keys again, this time I had made the bed with them inside.  I had to rip off the covers to find them.  I met Aaron over at the restaurant.  The recruitment dinner was for a new OB.  He is practicing in Utah right now, and brought his family.  We had fun getting to know them.  It would be quite a change for them.  They are from Vietnam, and have lived in big cities or at least large communities since coming to the US about 20 years ago.  Aaron had to go back to work since he was on call, and had a lot to finish up.  I got home before 8:00.  Amy was happy, David wasn't though.  I was glad it was still light, and Rebecca could walk home, so I didn't have to get all the kids in the van to take her home.

Saturday wasn't really exciting, just the normal cleaning, weeding, and playing.  After Aaron finished rounding on patients he went to help the the ongoing Eagle Scout project.  I'm really trying to remember what else we did.  Aaron and the kids went swimming, I was working on a few things inside, and didn't join them.  Aaron had to go back into the hospital, and got home just after dinner.  He ended up taking a lot of calls throughout the evening, but didn't have to go back in.  It seems there were a lot of babies born over the weekend.  Including my cousin Jen's out in VA.  She gave birth to her first (a beautiful baby boy) on Saturday, two days after her birthday!  Congrats Jen and Abe!!!

I guess if I think of anything else I'll have to put it in my next post.

Amy Update

Amy let me take a picture of her with all of her crazy accessories

There were a few things I neglected to mention about Amy in the last few posts.  This girls loves to count.  Wonder where she got that from? ;)  The problem is she always gets stuck at 11.  I try to have her say "10, 11, 12" several times so she can remember what comes next, but she still forgets.  On our trip to Montana she wanted to count with me.  I was hoping she'd stop after 20, but she kept asking if there were more numbers.  So we counted to over 100 with her repeating every number after me.  I think we ended up stopping around 120 when she decided she was done.  I tried to have her guess what number would come next but she didn't get that they repeated.  Until Sunday night when we were driving from Aunt Goldie's back to the hotel, she finally caught on.  I would say 20 and 21, and then she could count all the way to 29, then I'd say 30 and 31, and she could make it to 39.  Yay.  Now if I could help her remember what comes after the nines - a couple time she did say "thirty-ten" or "fifty-ten", too cute!

Amy's Primary teacher is helping up at scout camp on the weekends so her daughter Trina can take some time off - they are both nurses.  So Amy is refusing to go to Primary again.  I couldn't handle it on Sunday, and I told Aaron to take her.  I felt bad, but I was just in no mood to have a clingy daughter on my arm while I was trying to conduct the Relief Society meeting.  She is still crying when I leave her with a babysitter.  It doesn't last for very long, especially when David helps out and "keeps an eye" on her.  Luckily our babysitter is totally OK with this.  She isn't offended, and does a great job of letting David take care of her, and slowly letting her warm up to her.  

Amy keeps saying she scared of things.  She's scared of the dark, even with the night light I got her.  This week we've had a few thunderstorms and all of sudden Amy is scared of thunder.  That's never been a problem before.  I really don't know where all this fear is coming from.  I don't dismiss her fears, but I don't make a big deal out of them either.  Hopefully this is just a phase, but it's been back and forth for a couple of months now.  She keeps saying that she wants to go to a dance class in the fall, and I'd love to have her do that, but I'm worried she just cling to me and never actually go out and dance.  I guess we'll just try it and see.

Other than that she is having fun with her brothers being home all day. She wants to watch way too much TV.  Granted it's usually PBS or some Disney movie, but she thinks she can watch it all day long!  And complains when I turn it off after 90 minutes.  She still loves to play with the kitten, who isn't so little anymore.  She is still very playful though, sometimes too playful.  She likes to pounce on my hand when I am weeding, and it bugs me so much.  Anyway, back to Amy.  She is doing great with the pool, just holding onto the ladder.  She loves her stuffed animals, and often plays with them.  

I think that's about it right now.  I can't believe she will be 4 in less than 2 months.  I better get started on planning her party.

Family in Town!!!

When we got back from Montana it was time to get the house ready for visitors.  We were excited when Nathan and Amy said they were coming to stay with us to attend Timothy's baptism.  So we took our time getting ready.  Tuesday the kids had swimming lessons again.  They were pretty much in their swim suits all day.  After we got home from lessons we did a little clean up around the house (like putting away everything from our trip we neglected to do at 1 in the morning).  After lunch we went out to the pool because it was just too hot to do anything else.  I did have to drag them inside to put Amy down for a nap.  However they wanted to go swimming again after she woke up from her nap.  Aaron had a meeting in the morning even though it was his day off, and then he had a Dr. appt for himself in the afternoon.  So he joined us in the pool after Amy's nap.  We swam until it was time for dinner, and Aaron then had to go to scouts and the boys had cub scouts, which was swimming, so they really never got out of their swim suits until bedtime.

Wednesday was another day of swimming and cleaning and laundry.  We picked blueberries that morning as well.  I can't even remember what else we did.  Oh well.  We've had some really hot weather.  Over 100 most days, and high 90s for he rest of the days.  Thursday was another day of swimming lessons, and swimming at home, and more cleaning of course.  About 3:30 or so the power went out.  I kept all the doors shut as much as possible, and let the kids throw water balloons.  Eventually we decided to cool off in the pool.  When Aaron got home we grilled some hamburgers, and the power came back on just as we were about to serve dinner.  I was amazed to see that the temperature in the house hadn't changed.  We must have good insulation for it to be 95 outside and not change inside without the A/C for 3 hours.

Friday Aaron had the day off, so after helping us pick blueberries he went to help with an Eagle Scout project while I took the kids to their swimming lessons.  It was their fun day, and I ran over to the store quickly while they swam.  After lessons David was invited to a waterpark for Jonathan's birthday.  He just turned 12 and rather than have a birthday party with a lot of friends they took David to the waterpark for a day of fun!  It was a fun outing for David.  Amy was also invited over to Aleya's house, and oddly enough it took some convincing for her to stay.  But as soon as they mentioned the new kitty she was ready to say bye to me.  I wish Timothy and I had played while she was gone, but instead he had to finish his chores, and I had plenty of cleaning to do, and freezing blueberries.  After we picked up Amy we had lunch and nap time.  Aaron came home about that time.  He had some things to work on, and we were anticipating the arrival of Nathan and Amy and their family.  Aaron took Timothy and Amy swimming.  Amy is really funny about the pool.  Last year she would just sit on the floating mat.  This year she doesn't want to sit on it - I think it's more of the control issue.  However she will climb down the ladder, and stay there for a while.  She'll hold on and kick her legs, and splash around, or blow bubbles in the water.  It helps that the water is warm right now.  With sunny 100 degree temps the water is typically between 83 and 88 degrees! I don't think she would like the colder water.  When Nathan and Amy arrived around 5:00 they unloaded their things then Nathan and Evelyn joined the kids in the pool.  Amy and I chatted while we got some dinner ready.  We raided the garden and had carrots, fresh beans, zucchini, a salad, and Aaron grilled up the steak I bought that morning.  David arrived at 6:15 just before we served dinner, so we set another place for him.

After dinner Evelyn and Lucy went to bed, and our kids did soon after.  We played some Bohnanza.  We miss playing games with them, we used to do it all the time before we moved away.  Amy refused to go to sleep, and was constantly calling for me to come upstairs.  I think it was close to 10:00 when she finally went to sleep.  After the game we stayed up late and talked.

I got up early to work on my talk, however Amy woke up about 10 minutes later, so I didn't get much done.  She helped me make blueberry muffins.  She insisted that she didn't want any blueberries in her muffins, so I left 3 of them plain - she is so odd!   It was nice to use fresh blueberries.  After breakfast we read scriptures, and then Aaron headed off to the Health Fair.  We had hoped to go swimming before lunch, however a thunderstorm rolled in and cooled things off a bit, and it wasn't really safe to be in the pool with all that lightening around.  So we mostly played games inside, and chatted on the porch where it was a bit cooler, but still muggy.

After a simple lunch the younger ones went down for a nap.  Evelyn and Lucy slept, Amy didn't.  I picked strawberries and raspberries, which I had been neglecting.  I got a lot, and felt bad for having to toss several that were overripe. At some point Aaron returned from the health fair, and we all hung out for a while before getting ready for the baptism.  I had to run to the store on the way there to get ice, and pick up some things for dinner.  Then I realized I forgot the drink mix, so I went back home, on my way back to the church Aaron realized he forgot his white tie, so I ran back to get it.  I got there with only a minute to spare.  I already covered the baptism in my last post.

When we got back home we quickly put together a dinner of quesadillas and a corn and bean salad.  I was glad my avocado was still green enough to use.  Aaron added some spices to our minute brown rice and with chips and salsa it was a great meal.  I opened my last quart of salsa *snif*.  I'm not looking forward to the store bought salsa that we'll have to buy until my tomatoes are ready for canning salsa.  Obviously I need to make more this fall than I did last fall.  We were sad to say goodbye to Nathan and Amy, but we took some cousins pictures before they left.

We had a great time!  Thanks for coming and sharing that special day with us!  We hope to see you again soon!  And that goes for anyone who wants to come visit.  We love having visitors.

Timothy's Baptism

I'm skipping a week, but I'll go back I promise.  I just wanted to get down some thoughts before I forgot them.  Timothy's baptism was a wonderful experience for our family.  I had to run back to the house a couple of times for a few things, but I didn't want to arrive in a panic, so I said a quick prayer, and was immediately calmed.  Aaron and others were already at the church, so all I needed to do was show up.  We snuck out for a couple of pictures before it began.

 The lights were messing with my camera

 That's better

 Amy wanted to join them too

Timothy planned the whole program.  We had to make a few changes along the way as some people weren't available.  Saturday afternoon at 4:00 we started the program. Br. A* conducted the meeting.  Timothy chose "Baptism" for the opening song, and Aunt Amy said the opening prayer. Then I had the opportunity to give the talk on baptism.  Mostly I asked him questions that he knew the answers to.  We had our neighbor and Aaron's coworker Mirna there, so I wanted it to be informative for her as well.  We talked about the steps to get ready for baptism, why we get baptized, and what a covenant is.  I read a couple of scriptures that listed the covenants we make at baptism.  I also talked about how we can remember the covenants that we make at baptism.  I steered him toward the answer of reading the scriptures, and then I presented him with his own set of scriptures, a tradition in our family when the children are baptized.  I concluded with a short testimony, and tried not to cry.

We walked to the font room, and Aaron performed the baptism ordinance, and a few tears fell.  My little boy was baptized.  As we sat listening to the beautiful songs on the piano, Crystal K* came to chat a little.  She said that Timothy was a special boy.  I agreed, and I couldn't keep the tears from falling. What I felt was overwhelming love for Timothy. Even though he tries my patience often, I love him so very much, and all I want to do is love him, and make sure he knows that I love him.  I also felt how much Heavenly Father loves him, and how I need to make sure he knows that too.

When Aaron and Timothy returned we sang, "When I am Baptized".  Then Crystal gave a talk on the Holy Ghost.  It was geared just for him, and she did a great job.  Not only she a great friend to me, but she is an awesome Primary President.  She had a little object lesson, where she put two toys in two socks, and had him feel them and guess what they were.  Of course he knew the first one was a car, and the second one he "totally" knew was a LEGO.  She talked about how he knew those without seeing them because he was familiar with them, he spent time with them.  It takes practice to be familiar with them, just as we need practice to be familiar with the Holy Ghost. 

Aaron did the confirmation, and Uncle Nathan, Daren K*, Michael K*, Br. A*, and Br. D* joined him in the circle.  It was so wonderful to feel the spirit there.  Br. A* spoke for a few minutes and welcomed him to the ward, then we sang "the 4th Article of Faith", and Uncle Nathan gave the closing prayer.

Many people helped out with the refreshments so I could be with Timothy.  Crystal gave him a present from the Primary - a small picture of Christ and an Articles of Faith card.  Mirna had asked what kind of a gift she could get him, but Aaron had said, "just a card."  Well, she got him two things "to support him in the good things he likes to do".  Baskin Robbins gift certificates to spend time with family, and a gift card to a local bookstore, because he loves to read.  It was so thoughtful and generous.  

When I asked Timothy what he wanted for refreshments he said, "One of Sis. P*'s cakes".  So Carol made this beautiful cake for him.  

He also wanted brownies, and after I had made the brownies he decided he wanted them to be BYU brownies, so I added the mint and chocolate icing to it.  We served raspberry lemonade as well.  There were four families in attendance, as well as two members of the bishopric (Bishop was out of town), Br. B* the cubmaster, and Mirna.  It was the perfect size attendance, and we had a few leftovers when we were done.  We cleaned up quickly as there was another baptism scheduled at 6:00 for another ward.  Nathan was happy to take some pictures of our family on our way out.

 The boys did a good job of hiding my belly :)  

 Timothy proudly holding his new scriptures in their case

I have an awesome family!  And a wonderful 8 year old newly baptized son!  Congratulations Timothy!