Apple Picking

We got a bunch of yummy apples today from Lynd's Fruit Farm.  We also picked a bag for the food pantry, as well.  I love this time of year.  :)

Emily Rose 8 Years Old

Emily's Baptism

Today Emily was baptized.  She looked darling in her little white dress and it was hard for me to hold back the tears. She wanted a very small baptism and so we only announced it to family, and it ended up being very sweet and special for her.  Her Nana gave a talk on Baptism and Grandma gave a talk on the Holy Ghost.  Daddy baptized her and she looked so sweet as she smiled up at me.  Alexis played "I Am a Child of God" on the piano for Emily.  That was really special because two years ago when she started taking lessons, Emily asked her if she would learn to play "I Am a Child of God" at her baptism.  She asked her teacher if she could learn that song at the first lesson and she assured her she would be able to by Emily's baptism and she did.  After the baptism we headed back to the house with all the family and had pizza, a vege platter, and dirt.  Everyone played and visited and it was a nice afternoon.  We are so proud of Emily's decision to be baptized and we love her so much.  :)

Beautiful Afternoon for Riding Bikes

We were outside one beautiful afternoon and Ashley wanted to ride bikes in the street with her sisters so I parked a chair in the front lawn and she had a blast riding around.  I feel so lucky that we can live in such a pretty, quiet neighborhood.

Emily's 8th Birthday

  

Our sweet Emily turned 8 years old!  We had a fun CTR party for her with us and grandparents.  We decorated with pictures of Christ with children and CTRs all over the walls.  We played a sunbeam game where I hid the sunbeams with situations on them the girls had to find and then tell how they would choose the right.  We blindfolded them and they had to listen to the "Spirit" aka Mommy, to find their way to Daddy, who had a treasure for them.  Then they had grandparents "tempting" them to follow them and get candy.  The two older girls stayed on the straight and narrow but Ashley yielded to the temptation of a KitKat.  ;)  But the girls reasoned that it was OK, since she's not old enough to be accountable anyways.  :)  Then we played musical scripture stories.  She received many wonderful gifts and we had yummy cake and ice cream.    Emily has matured a lot in the past year.  She has always been scared to get up in front of people and just a couple of months ago she got up and bravely gave her first talk in Primary.  We were so proud of her.  She loves playing make believe games like "Baby" and she loves taking care of her dolls.  She puts them to bed every night and treats them like her own children.  She LOVES doing art and is very talented.  She will sit for hours drawing and she loves making homemade gifts for everyone in the family for every special occasion.  She is very thoughtful and considerate of others and loves helping out.  She has such a sweet gentle spirit and we are so blessed to have her in our home.

Playing With Matches

We had a science lesson that used candles one day.  I was feeling rather nauseous with morning sickness so when the girls just wanted keep playing With the candles and matches I went ahead and let them.  That's right.  I let me children play with matches. ;)  They played for probably an hour and a half.  Alexis was the one to do all the lighting, although Ashley really wanted to.  She kept telling us she was 10 years old and would stand on her tip toes to show us how tall she was.  They melted the wax and made new candles, using the burnt matches as wicks and then burned those, too.  This is the mess we had left over when they were finished.