Sadie's Baptism

March was a special month at our house. Our baby was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
How she got to 8 so fast, I have no idea.

We found her dress at Target. Then an awesome seamstress in my ward added cap sleeves and some length to the bottom (because we had to buy an extra small for the width).
Our sweet little peanut. 

After the dress was done, we went and took some pictures at our beautiful temple.
 






Then we went to a popular nearby park, where people take a lot of pictures, to take a few more.
 



This might be my favorite since it's got so much of her fun personality.
She just might be the most expressive child alive.:)

Her primary class sits in the front row right in front of where my counselors and I sit. They just crack up at her faces and antics and I sit there trying to give her subtle reprimands to sit still and listen. She definitely helps me not become a slouch at this parenting thing! But she's really hard not to love. She's got a strong sweet side to match the fiery one.

Preparing for her baptism was fun. I've always done a luncheon but this time I found some cute printables and ideas on Pinterest that I was excited to try out. And afterall- this was my last one! Oh and in case you thought I meant preparing for the ordinance or something meaningful like that, we also had a special family home evening and did our best to help Sadie understand what covenants she was making and why we get baptized. She was very excited.

It was a wonderful day. I LOVE the way the church is strict about keeping it simple and focused on the ordinance. No decor, no recordings, no fluff. The Spirit is always so strong at baptisms. Alison, my 1st couselor, gave such an amazing talk. Which is no surprise because she is a truly amazing girl.


I'm glad I was able to capture this last minute "practice".
 
This girl loves her daddy.


We felt a little spoiled this time having all these wonderful priesthood holders there to confirm her. We usually just have G'pa and Uncle Dan and Daddy, but this time Uncle Eter came out and Cousin Kristy's husband Jeremy who live in Gilbert came!


The Grandma picture is always one of my favorites :)


Sadie and her BFF, Campbell




Our growing up family


And here's the group!


So half the reason I felt like the luncheon looked so amazing is that we had our new white cabinets done :) But those are coming in a separate post.


This paper doilie banner was the easiest and cutest thing. You just get those cheap paper doilies from Walmart and some string and fold them over the top. They looked so cute!


I loved these little printables...


And it's not the greatest picture but the framed picture of a baptism dress was part of that same printable set that some talented person created and put on pinterest. And I got some white tulips from Costco.

We had a another table out back with drinks and some more flowers.

For the food we had 2 types of soup, rolls, and pizza for the kids (or whoever wanted some). And then treats of course.




Food everywhere=happy dog


More guests...



And this sums up how I felt by the end of it all too :)


It was a lovely, memorable day.

February Extras

Dana and the girls had a wonderful daddy-daughter dance at HP around V-day :)
 
They look forward to that all year.

Emma had a dance show. She's in beginning dance and has really liked it.
 

These girls did such a great job!!

We picked a lot of citrus- ate the rest of the oranges, ate some more grapefruit, but probably gave about 20 bags of grapefruit away to friends :) Emma got up on the wall and got the ones we couldn't get with the picker.


We found a GIANT grapefruit. The regular sized grapefruit is in the middle...


I subbed. Including a 3-day job. I just LOVED how organized the teacher was with her plans! Seriously so awesome.
 

Sometimes when I sub there are assemblies going on. Of course I always look for my children when I'm at one of their schools (which is 80% of the time). I found Emma at HHS one day and had to take a picture :)

She's in the upper right section.

And....drumm roll...the most exciting thing of all.... We got our kitchen cabinets painted!!!! It finally happened!! 10 and half years later.
After picture coming soon!

Teenager #2

Can't believe my little boy is now a teenager! He has done such an amazing job in Jr High this year. I'm so proud of him:)

Dana is a very thoughtful gift giver and remembered that Eli had said he wanted dog tags. Like military style. Who knew you could get them on Amazon! He was super happy to get those and is still wearing them everyday.


Did I mention his birthday was on Sunday?
 

I also got to pick him up and take him out to lunch. First we tried a sushi place because he's been really wanting to try sushi (I know he'll love it), but that wasn't open until 4pm :( So we went and tried out new restaurant called "Mod Pizza". It was really good!
 
(Yes, lucky kid had a sty on his birthday)

And finally, he had a great family party. He chose angel food cake for his cake-
boy after my own heart.
 

Dall's practicing for his cake time in a week or so... :)
 

It was low-key but I think he had a great birthday and felt how much we love him and appreciate having him in our family. He's so good and kind (for the most part), loves stuff blowing up, loves to laugh and has a cute sense of humor. He's also going through another "Star Wars" phase right now. We love our growing boy!
And he's definitely growing and eating us out of house and home. Just not sure where it goes...?

Emma Turns 15

Emma really wanted a long board for her birthday. Well since Dana and I are now "Ramsey"-ites and have semi-strict financial goals, a long board wasn't really in the budget. It was hard though because Emma is a pretty content girl (and does not swoon over new clothes like I did at her age) and didn't really have much else on her wish list.

Anyway, Dana got lucky at a yard sale (per usual with Dana) and scored this long board for like $10.
 
It rode really nicely but as you can see, not super cute.

So Dana decided to take every minute he could when Emma was out of the house and refinish it and make it cute. So he looked at some ideas online and came up with a design. He had to take off the wheels and sand down the wood and make it really smooth first, which was a lot of work. Then he started painting it.
 


He had to let sections dry and then paint the new sections one at a time. This is the underside. Have I mentioned the kids don't get their artistic skills from me?
 

The big chunk of time Dana got while Emma was at youth conference...

...gave Dana the opportunity to get it all finished up.

It turned out awesome and I think Dana was just as excited to give it to Emma as she was to receive it! He could not wait. And as you can see- she was pretty happy and completely surprised!

 

And I'm happy to report that she rides it almost everyday. She also plays her guitar she got for Christmas almost everyday too :)

She also got picked up from school and taken out to lunch :)



And my brilliant idea to frost warm brownies and serve it with ice cream didn't work out so well with
blowing out the candles...

#momfail.

I'm convinced Emma is the the most even, easy to live with, sweet, kind-hearted fifteen year old within a 10 mile radius. We are so lucky to have her!