Hannah’s Magical #8

Hannah turned Eight on Wednesday. She was lucky that her birthday fell before the first Saturday of the month so that she could be baptized today.

It seemed like August was going to last forever to her. She was very excited and couldn’t wait for September to get here. I promised her that we would go shopping for a white dress towards the end of August, and she would not stop asking me when we would go.

When we finally did go shopping, we had a little trouble finding a frilly white dress – there were quite a few in the spring when I was out shopping, but not so many at the end of the summer.

Finally, at the fifth store that we visited we found a wall full of pretty white dresses. We looked and discussed and decided on a few to try on. She knew right away which one she wanted – but of course, it was too big and they didn’t have one in her size. So we tried on a few more – nope, she wanted the first one.

I had a bit of a flash forward to us trying to pick
out a wedding dress, and I’m not sure if I’ll
be able to cope when the time comes.

After trying on every dress – some even twice, she finally picked out a different one. Whew!

Wednesday the 2nd was her Birthday – she got a new outfit to wear to school and I made rice crispy treats to take to her class at school. When school was out, we decided to go to the Kamas pool and swim for a couple of hours and then come home for dinner and cake. So we loaded everyone in the car and made the 30 min drive - just to find out that the pool was closed for maintenance.

(I did check online before we went, but silly me, I was looking on the POOL HOURS page, not the Rec Center front page with the small red print at the bottom that said the pool was closed.)

So we were all bummed and drove home in sulking silence.

However, when we got home there were presents to be opened and we forgot all about the pool.

Along with her new dress, she got her own set of scriptures, some art/craft project books and new clothes and shoes for school.

She asked for a lemon cake with strawberry frosting. I was not sure of the combo, but I tried my friends recipe for strawberry frosting and it was quite a tasty cake.

Luckily Thursday and Friday went by quickly and today we all got dressed up and headed to the Baptism. It is so fun to see all of the kids dressed in white on the front bench. Hannah was a little worried, but she did great.

Tonight we continued our Baptism Tradition, and took her to The Roof down at Temple Square – Just Steve, Me, and Hannah. We all enjoyed dinner very much, and then we walked around Temple Square.

Tomorrow she will be confirmed, and that will be her last special day for a while. I hope that her memories of this weekend will keep her smiling for a while.

Hannah is a very high maintenance girl. She knows what she wants and won’t stop until she gets it. This is both good and bad. We battle a lot of the time, but I think it’s because we are very similar – neither of us like it when things don’t go our way. She is very good to help me with Jack and Henry. I am very proud of her today.

And Another One – Libby Turns 6

Libby had her 6th birthday on July 18th. We started off her Magical Birthday Weekend with a trip to the Kamas pool on Friday. It was Jack’s first visit, and he loved it. Steve even took the day off to come with us. We all enjoyed the morning swimming and then headed to the pizza and ice cream place to have lunch. We had never eaten there before, and it was surprisingly tasty.

 

On Saturday Grammy dropped by with presents for everyone. The weather was beautiful and so we decided to have an impromptu water party. We invited a few friends over and they ran through the sprinklers, threw water balloons, and ate tons of popsicles.

 

She got a razor scooter, a pet shop doggy and some hair accessories. She asked for chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and chocolate sprinkles. She didn’t even eat it. I had a feeling that she wouldn’t like it. I don’t think she has ever really liked any of the birthday cakes that we have had. Steve liked it though, because I used chocolate mousse instead of frosting. I didn’t like it, so this is the first birthday cake that I didn’t eat – all in all it turned out well for all of us.

Libby is just getting used to the fact that she is not the baby anymore – it only took her 2 whole years to figure it out. She loves to play with her friends – she is not happy to just stay home. She always lets us know when she is being good. She always wants to give and get hugs. We can always make her laugh even when she is on the verge of tears. We love her happy smile.

Rewind – Thomas Turns Ten

Thomas turned 10 on May 19th, but since my camera was missing, I didn’t get any pictures on his birthday. It has taken this long for me to get the pictures from my mom’s camera.

There is a reason why you should write things down when they happen, because I don’t really remember what we did for his birthday. I was hoping that the pics from my moms camera would jog my memory but I have just looked, and there are a total of 5 pictures of Thomas with his cake – that’s it.

So here is what I do remember. . .

Even though it was

against my motherly instincts,

I let Steve buy Thomas a Pellet/BB Gun. We laid down the rules and set him loose in the backyard to shoot at paper targets taped to a piece of plywood propped up against the fence. He was very good at following the rules, though it wasn’t long before he was out shooting soda cans and army guys.

My mom and dad came for a visit and they brought their dogs. Thomas loves them and he spent most of his time outside playing with them.

We had chocolate cake with strawberries and ice cream. It was too good and I couldn’t stay out of it. It’s really not a good thing that we have a birthday to celebrate 8 months out of the year – I will forever be snacking on cake.

Even though his birthday was on a Tuesday, we celebrated it on Monday because we had a special Enrichment activity/challenge on Tuesday that I  absolutely  couldn’t miss.           

 

Thomas is pretty easy going.
He tries very hard not to laugh when you tickle him, but we know his weak spots. He hates it when you pretend that he is a girl, but he acts like it doesn’t bother him.
His nickname is Lou because one day I was calling him Tommy Loulou to tease him and it just stuck. He has always been cuddly and loves to curl up in a blanket even in the summertime. He has a hard time keeping his showers short and could stay in there for hours if we let him.

Hopefully your Birthday wasn’t too boring Thomas – we will have to have a fun one next year.