Peter's Baptism April 2017

My little Peter Pie is old enough to be baptized.  I took him out for a 5 minute photo shoot.  I don't know why I can't get myself organized enough to actually set up a good time to do these things but such is life sometime. Peter was really funny during his photo shoot.  He had a lot of ideas about how he should pose and what his background should be.  I just had to let him have his say with somethings and then he would do some of my suggestions.  Thankfully the day was a beautiful day.  If I had prepared better I would have done it with different light settings but sometimes as a mom you just do what you can do in the time you have to do it. He is a pretty cute kid and he loves his sweaters so instead of a suit like my other boys Peter just had to wear a sweater.  I am more than okay with it.
As far as his baptism goes we had to delay it for one month.  We originally planned to share a baptism with his cousin Roxy because they were born on the same day and their baptisms were scheduled on the same day AT the same time.  However our Bishop wouldn't consent to allow Peter to be baptized up at his cousins building.  (We chose hers because she had more family than we have)  He told me to just go with our set time and allow my family to choose.  I thought that was a horrible idea.  Why do we have to make our family choose who they were going to support on their baptism?  At first I was really mad.  I still can't understand why he wouldn't allow it.  It has been done many times. All they have to do is send a representative or a letter allowing their consent and he wouldn't do it.  I must add that our baptism is in Lehi and Roxy's is in Sandy.  only about 15 minutes drive apart. After much pondering and prayer I decided to not throw a fit about my bishops decision and instead use it as a teaching tool to show my children that I can support my priesthood leaders.  I was still a little mad about it but knew with time my heart would soften.
Peter's baptism was fine scheduled a month later.  It didn't matter either way. Let that be a lesson to us all not to sweat the small stuff. Scott gave Peter the Holy Ghost with a sweet blessing attached.  As he said amen I saw him wipe away a few stray tears and my heart was so full.  Full of love for my wonderful worthy husband,  full of love for my children, and full of love for the Spirit that so greatly blesses my life and now my son would have those same blessings.  I hope he always remembers to listen to the Spirit.

Provo City Temple with Grandma Feb 2016

When they opened up the Provo city center temple I knew I wanted to make sure this was one my children got to see. We also invited my mom to come with us.  I was grateful I had the forethought to book an extra ticket so she could join us. We watched it go from a tabernacle to an empty shell to this amazing temple.  This temple was one like I've never seen before.  I LOVED that they tried to keep everything true to its original architecture.  I also loved that this temple had tons of color.  Most of our temples are white and white inside.  They are all beautiful but this one was different.  the wood work was superb and the upholstery they used was so uniquely beautiful.  It was floral and colorful in the most elegant way.  This temple is quite a bit smaller than most but the craftsmanship was something else.  I loved that I was able to explain what happened in each room.  

I love to see the temple!

Abinadi Dec 2015

Scott got asked to be Abinidi for a primary sharing time.  Originally Ryan Arbuckle was asked and he declined offering up Scott instead.  Not afraid of a challenge he accepted and totally played the part.  He put on his Jedi robe we found some chain and borrowed a white beard.  The kids thought he was the real deal.  He stayed in character the whole time

Brennen Baptism May 2015

I am so happy that Brennen decided to get baptized.  This guy is truly and old soul and I love to seem him grow into that.
It was a snap decision when I went to do his pictures for his announcement.  The date really snuck up on me and I had very little time to get it all done.  I had an hour and told Brennen to put his suit on we have to go take his pictures for his baptism announcement.  Thankfully he was very cooperative.  We lucked out that his is a natural in front of the camera.  I took plenty of great pictures in only 10 minutes.  He is such a handsome guy.
For his baptism I really wanted to do the song called Glorious.  I had to get special permission because ours was being held in the chapel.  For the musical number we had Scott and Brennen do it as a duet.  I originally was just going to have Scott sing it but Brenny loves music so I agreed to let him learn it.  It was such a sweet duet, it fit perfectly.
Ellie's drama teacher was being a super stinker and wouldn't let her miss her matinee performance because she had a main part and there was no understudy for her.  We were going to have her give the talk on baptism but when her teach refused to be reasoned with we had William give it.  I had William write it all by himself and then practice it with me.  When he gave the talk he didn't have it actually written down (against my nagging) He told me he had it all in his head.  I was a little nervous about what he would say but he did a great job.  I love ti when my kids surprise me like that.
The baptism was sweet and Brennen was so proud.  What a great day to be able to celebrate it with all our family.

General Conference ideas Oct 2014

For conference this time I got rid of the pennies for words.  My kids are getting to the point where a few pennies doesn't mean much anymore.  I had to either increase the coin amounts or try something new.  The cheapskate in me won over and I tried something new.  I put out 3 bowls of candy each with a different word.  If they heard the word they could have 1 piece of that candy.  They could either save it or eat it right then.  This actually worked for them.  We also had the traditional BINGO.  Ellie created her own ahead of time but I printed some off for the boys.  The other new thing we did was salt dough temples.  I made batches of salt dough for each kid and had them mold and create a temple of their choice.  The older 2 loved this idea.  The younger 2 opted to make their buildings out of Lego's which then turned into making ships and robots but at least they were mostly quiet.