Happy 8th Birthday to Emily!

It is always fun to celebrate this special birthday. My Mom and Dad come out for the baptism and we are able to do them right near (or even on) their birthday so it is extra special. Emily's birthday fell on a Saturday, which would normally be perfect. Unfortunately, Kevin had to work until 7 pm, so the baptism and birthday celebrations were moved to Sunday - he had that day off! We did have the ice cream and pancake breakfast on her birthday, and I remembered the balloons, too!

We enjoyed working together outside - the usual, splitting and stacking wood - but with extra adult hands we got quite a bit of work done. My Mom worked for a little while in the garden but it was already in the sunshine so it was too hot. Other than that we just kind of hung out.

Sunday was nice. The baptism wasn't right after Church so we just hung out, at some lunch that we had brought and waited until 2:30. Emily had invited a couple neighbors and some showed up! It was so nice to share this with them. The program was nice, the baptism was special, but I kept forgetting that I had things to do - like offer the opening prayer, be ready to give Emily a towel, you know the Mommy type things. She was dressed quickly and we took before and after pictures.

We went home for dinner and then Grandma and Grandpa Nichols showed up with the cake - a horse! Well, the head of a horse. It was really cute, of course. She had a bit of trouble blowing out the candles and she made some strange looks through out the presents, so if she looks weird in the pictures, that's just the way she was being. She was excited to get all the things she asked for: remote controlled car, construction paper, scissors, glue sticks, colored pencils, Nerf gun (Nichols). And she even got some things she didn't ask for: Lego set, 2 small cross stich projects to work on with her Mom.

Lunch at the Park

The week that my husband works night is always really challenging. He sleeps during the day and I feel like we should be out of the house so he can get the best sleep possible. I like staying home so finding things to do away from home is not my favorite thing to do. One day we met some friends at a McDonalds playland, and she provided some lunch (so nice). One day we went to the pond, which I previously blogged about. Tuesday is our Library day so we just went to a park afterwards. I remembered to grab some food before we left so we wouldn't be hungry and we all had a great time. We went to this park when we first moved here, 2 1/2 years ago, so my kids were a lot smaller. It was fun to watch them play. The extra nice thing about this park is that it had a grassy area with a path around it so I could walk around with the stroller while the kids were playing. I should do this every day!

I have a picture of these three from the first time we went to the park and I'm sure it looked a lot like this, with smaller kids. I wish I could have retrieved it from the external hard drive so that I could have posted it, but oh well. It was fun to see them doing the same things they used to do.

Party at the Pond

A family in our ward owns their own pond. They bought some land that had a big hole in the ground so they filled it up, built a little cabin, and invite all to come and enjoy. The Elders Quorum in our ward decided to have a gathering at the pond yesterday, then an investigator decided to get baptized as well. It was a wonderful afternoon. We were running late, but so were they so we actually made it to the pond for the baptism. Grandma Nichols (Sister Nichols to everyone else) gave the talk on baptism. She had a container of water that she added food coloring to representing sin. She then put a hard boiled egg - us - into the water. Then she peeled the shell off and washed the egg in clear water - us after baptism. It was neat and all the kids were paying attention. After the baptism we had hamburgers, hot dogs, fruits, etc, and the kids enjoyed swimming. A couple of my kids enjoyed fishing - Xiomara and Ben each caught a fish! They also enjoyed the paddle boat, swimming, fighting, canoeing, eating; and I enjoyed watching, photographing, talking, and sitting! It was a wonderful afternoon - all the way to 6:15 when we finally left.

He went all over the pond by himself, just like this.
I told him he needed to remember what he did so if his arms hurt the next day he would know why.

Proud fisherman. He used his hand for a comparison so he could measure to know how big the fish was later on. It was quite exciting. (Xiomara's fish was released before I could get a picture of it but I'm thinking it looked a lot like the one below.)

Ben also enjoyed watching his erosion demonstration.

He watched the water cut away at the sides, digging deeper trenches.
He explained how the sediment was increasing other end.
He was so excited about it - I loved watching him!

Here fishy, fishy! Here's a nice worm for you!

She loves to get her toes, and it shows!

Domonique stayed out of the water up until the very end.

Then she realized it was lots of fun!

As they were trying to dry off, and drink some juice, they played in the pile of ice that was left behind from the activity. They counted to see who could stand on it the longest.

It was a really fun activity and we totally stayed the longest.

Oh the memories!

I made cookies with Kemiah on Thursday. It brought back memories of when I was a kid. I always loved to lick the beaters or the bowl or the spoons. Frankly, I would clean up anything my Mom would let me. It has always been one of my favorite parts of making cookies, cakes, etc. I still enjoy doing it now that I'm older. So it's actually hard for me to have helpers in the kitchen because, believe it or not, they enjoy licking the beater and having as many tastes as I will let them. I am trying to be better about sharing so that I can help create memories for my kids that they just might remember when they are older. I couldn't pass up capturing this moment because it was pretty much perfect.

Does she know something I don't?

Marissa came into the house to wash the dishes and she was a bit grumpy about it, so I was talking funny and hugging her and trying to cheer her up. She eventually smiled, and laughed, so I picked her up in a hug. When I put her down she said, "Soon you won't be able to pick me up." I confidently said, "Oh, I'll always be able to pick you up." She confidently replied, "Not when I'm 30. You'll be in a wheel chair."