Baptism Day

We shared such a nice day with Emma last weekend. Her baptism was last Saturday. I loved to see how excited she was to be baptized, and how well she understood the whole experience. The service was very nice. She was baptized with three other girls from the stake and all of our families were able to participate in the program. Aunts Monica and Debbie said prayers, cousin Rebecca led the music and uncles Don and Allen, and Mark and Steve (cousin in laws) stood in during the confimation along with our home teacher, Randy Lang, our Bishop Brian Rhodes and a few friends. Emma was eager to get baptized and felt lucky to be first. When I took her to the font to meet Mark she was so happy. After her baptism she beamed and said that she wished she could be baptized over and over again. She felt the Holy Ghost tell her that her choice was correct and that made her very happy. All evening she smiled. After the meeting was over our family who attended the baptism came over for a BBQ. Emma felt so much support--imagine being surrounded by thirty family members on such an important day! It was great to be able to relax and enjoy the family after such a busy day. After everyone left, Emma wanted to get down to business and record her feelings in her journal. It was a sweet experience to hear all that she remembered and felt. What a wonderful day!

It's Now Officially OVER

Whew... our summer sure went by fast around here. I had to laugh that my last post was on the first day of summer, because sadly (for Emma at least, Abbie has two more weeks) summer has come to an end. We have teacher assignments for the new year and everything. Monday morning marks the beginning of school, soccer, violin, piano, tennis, art, activity days, mutual, etc., etc. . Not to mention a new baby being thrown into the mix. But, I digress. Let's talk summer one last time.

Mostly our summer days were spent here at home. We went to the beach alot, we swam alot, saw some movies, Abbie went to Girl's Camp, we all went to Cousin's Camp, continued with some lessons and had swim team practice, and also went to the fair, etc., -- all without my camera. So, needless to say our summer won't be well documented. I did, however, take pictures of the girls birthday's and a trip to the strawberry fields. So here goes...

Here's the handsome man that I married 13 years ago in July. In this picture he is in the backyard setting up for Abbie's 12th B-day party. Our anniversary was on the 16th. We went to Coronado and had a great dinner, spent the night, window shopped, etc. It was the best 24 hours of my summer.

Abbie had a great birthday party this year. They had a BBQ, played fun games and watched a movie on this giant screen once it got dark.



Nothing says happy birthday like our traditional ice cream cake--I mean nothing.

The party girls.

The girls played "Bigger or Better" after dinner. Each team started off with a plastic fork, and at game's end one team was carrying a dog crate back to our house and another team had a hamster!


Birthday squeeze for the birthday girl. Don't mind the paint swatches all over the walls. Mark is painting this very minute!

The kids are always really excited for breakfast in bed. Abbie choose home made hashbrowns, blueberry muffins, sausage, and strawberries and whipped cream.

Emma turned eight!

At her party we decided to tie dye t-shirts for one of the activities. The girls did a great job and made some really cute shirts.

Pass the parcel...

A little excited about opening her presents this morning.

Fresh squeeze OJ from our trees toppped off Emma's breakfst of sticky buns, hashbrowns, sausage, and fruit.

The kids like to pick their own strawberries every year. This time we were a little late in the season and the berries weren't at their peak. But you can't deny that anything off of the vine is better than the store. We still loved them.

They paid the price for these fresh berries with some very muddy feet.