Bardo Christmas

Every year it seems to get harder and harder to coordinate schedules and get together with my siblings and their families for a Christmas celebration. However, it is totally worth the effort. I have such fun memories of celebrating with my mom's family - aunts, uncles, grandparents, and - most importantly - cousins! Andrew's family is so spread out that it's just not realistic for us to all get together like that very often, but most of my family still lives in Texas so I figure we should be able to make it happen.

The kids always have such fun with their cousins...

Hopefully, we can always make the time for these fun gatherings!

Baptism

Today was the big day!
Leah decided to be baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
She was beautiful in her white dress - and so excited for everything!

She woke up this morning to a "sweet" message of support from her family.

We managed to get everyone dressed with Lisa's help (thanks so much for coming up early!) and got up to the church to get things started.
The service was beautiful - she had asked me to give a talk on Baptism and her grandma gave a talk on the Holy Ghost. We sang some of her favorite primary songs and she braved the somewhat cold water to be baptized by her father.

Thank you to everyone who was there to help and support Leah on this special day!

We are so proud of our beautiful girl. She really does try to be helpful and make good choices. She sets a great example for her brothers... when she's not trying to get under their skin :).

After cleaning up, we headed on back to the house to warm up with homemade pizza and birthday cake and more presents of course!
It was fun to cozy up in the warm house with grandparents, aunts, and uncles.
Thanks everyone for making the drive to Austin for the day!

It's Great to be 8!

Our awesome little girl is not so little any more... in fact, she's almost as tall as I am!

And she turned 8 today!

Since it is a school night, we decided to hold back on the festivities until this weekend, especially since we have family coming into town on Saturday. But we did let her choose the menu for the day - and for posterity's sake, here it is:
Breakfast - eggs, sausage, toast
Lunch - macaroni & cheese, blackberries
Dinner - spaghetti, green beans, okra, asparagus

We did, however, receive instructions from the Grandmas to let her open their gifts tonight

A testimony glove - to help keep things straight when you get nervous.

(I might have to borrow that one sometime)

An American Girl dog to whet her appetite for all products American Girl - aahh!

But the most exciting event of the night was that
we finished reading the Book of Mormon!
We started last year on her birthday with the goal of finishing before her baptism... and we did it!
(18 verses per day in case you were wondering)

Thankful

...for healthy bodies
(running in the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning)

... for yummy food
(clearing out Thanksgiving leftovers)


... and family to share it with


...for birthdays to celebrate
(Andrew requested blueberry cheesecake for his birthday)

... for cousins to play with

... for grandparents who love us

... for good books to share

...for girly girls

... for mischievous boys

...and for all those who love us and will hold our hand
to keep us safe and moving in the right direction.


Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Peter, Peter - Pizza Eater!

Our sweet Peter is four years old!

We celebrated by spending the morning at a bouncy house.
We got there right when it opened so he and Eli had the run of the place for about an hour.
They thought that was pretty special!

After lunch at Chick-Fil-A, it was time to head home so I could make the pizza Peter wanted for dinner - "with no corn and no tomatoes - just pepperoni Mom"
We usually load up our pizza with veggies so this was a very special request.

I also needed to make the dinosaur cake - shaped like a Parasauralophus of course!

After dinner, everyone was excited for presents - and cake and ice cream.
Peter was thrilled with everything he received
... from Legos to dinosaurs to a guitar.

Thanks to everyone who remembered his special day!
Peter is such a smart clever boy - he definitely keeps us on our toes.
He loves to smile and laugh and play with his brothers and sister.
We're so happy to have this loving little boy in our family!

We love you Peter!