Family Baptism

Last weekend we were invited to be a part of our niece's baptism in Hermiston.  We can't believe that Eliza is already eight years old but we were thrilled to witness it.  Plus, Todd and his family along with Tracie made the trek from Utah to be with family.  We had Todd and his fam with us on Friday night and we had such a fun time reconnecting.  Unfortunately I was so caught up in the visiting that I neglected to take any pictures!!!  On Saturday morning we traveled from La Grande to Hermiston.....in a snowstorm.  We made it safe and sound and went straight to the church.  The baptism was very special and then we spent lots of time visiting and taking pictures.  Here is Clara having some laughs with Aunt Hollie.

Jon and Natalie are wonderful parents and have such cute kiddos!

We had lots of cameras to take pictures with and we couldn't miss the opportunity to have a family photo taken.

We had to include a special picture of the grandkids for Gramma and Grampa who are still in Mississippi and couldn't be here for the occasion.  Six of the grandkids aren't here but we had 11 of them together!

We always look forward to the baptisms and any other opportunity we can find to spend time with family.  We hope we can all get together again very soon!

Emma's Caravel Ship

In Emma's fifth grade class, they have been studying a unit on Exploration.  One aspect of the unit was learning about the difference sailing vessels that the explorers used during their time.  As a class project, the kids were assigned to "build" their own ship - they could choose which ship they wanted to duplicate and it could be built any way they wanted to, as long as the ship existed between the years 1300 and 1700.  Emma chose to make a "Caravel" ship and decided she wanted to make it out of rice crispy treats. :)  So we went and bought Cocoa Krispies and chocolate marshmallows so that the ship would be brown and got to work.  Here she is melting the marshmallows to add to the rice crispies.

She also had to create some masts and she decided to make them out of white parchment paper and kabob spears.

Her dad helped her shape it into a ship.....

.....and add the rigging and masts.

This is what a Caravel Ship looked like.  It is what Christopher Columbus used in his exploration.

Here is Emma's finished product.  It turned out really cute and hopefully she'll get a good grade on it.

And thankfully for us we had lots of rice crispy treats left over to munch on.  Good school assignment!!!

New Beginnings

Two weeks ago the Young Women in our ward held their annual New Beginnings program.  Part of this nice evening is dedicated to introducing the new Beehives who will be joining the Young Women some time during the year.  Emma will be turning 12 in December so she was invited to come and participate.  Each new Beehive was introduced to everyone in attendance and received a special rose.

It meant so much to me to attend with her.  She becomes lovelier and lovelier by the day and she will be such a wonderful addition to the Young Womens program when it is her time.

Trip to Boise

Several months ago our girls became intrigued with watching BYU gymnastics on the BYUtv Roku channel.  They would watch the meets over and over and then began researching each of the gymnasts and learning about them.  It has been a fun hobby for them since La Grande doesn't have gymnastics facilities.  So we decided to plan a trip to Boise to see a gymnastics meet.  We were hoping that BYU would be at Boise State this season but they weren't.  So we chose a meet that was Boise State versus Southern Utah University and made plans to attend.

We came early to the stadium and found some great seats.  We got a program and made ourselves comfortable as we waited for the meet to begin.

The girls made signs ahead of time to hold up when their favorite athletes performed.  Even Clara was getting in on the action and cheered and clapped and hollared.

Here is a picture of the team when the meet was over....

And this is when it was announced that Boise State had won the meet!

We all had a really nice time there and hope that we can do it again next year!

We went back to our hotel and hunkered down for the night.  However, Mark and Emma started getting sick with colds and none of us ended up sleeping very well.  We got up in the morning for breakfast and then hit some stores.  The girls had gift cards from Christmas to use so we went to Target and Deseret Book.  We also spent some time walking around Cabellas.  We had a fun day around town but we were all tired and not feeling well so we headed home a bit earlier than planned.  Clara crashed in her carseat and slept most of the way home.

Emma and Samantha kept quiet with movies and books to read.  You can see how tired they both are....

Despite not feeling well, it was so nice to have a little family getaway and spend time together.  Plus, Mark gets the "Dad of the Year" award for sitting through an entire gymnastics meet and shopping....the things he does for his girls. :)  Fun trip!!

Another Birthday

Recently it was Mom's turn for a birthday and I wasn't happy about it.  I suppose I just don't look forward to being older.  My family tried hard to boost my spirits and help me have a happy day.  I received a gift certificate for a massage (which I loved), I was given breakfast in bed, and then Mark made a nice dinner for me with dessert.

My gift this year was a Jam and Jelly Maker from the Ball canning company.  We go through lots of homemade jam in this house along with our yearly canning so this was a perfect addition and will make my jam making very easy!  I also got a gift certificate for a hair cut which I am REALLY looking forward to in a couple of weeks! :)

Happy Birthday to me - another year older but hopefully another year wiser!