Katia's Baptism

March was an extra-special month for Katia because she turned 8 and was baptized a few days later on March 29, 2013, which was Good Friday. 

 



I took these baptism pictures of Katia in our back yard a few days before her baptism.  The snow around the weeds on the big pile of topsoil that we still haven't spread around yet made a nice backdrop!

 

Our Bishop told us that he'd had an incredible baptism interview with Katia.  When we asked her about it, Katia told us that it was really nice.  That she felt the Spirit and felt really good and happy, and even cried - happy tears of course!

 

Katia worked out her program and did all the asking to all those who would participate in the program.  Then she printed out her program and we photocopied it, added a few stamps, folded them and attached her baptism picture to the front.  The only change to the program was that Uncle Greg was a witness because Uncle Kevin couldn't make it.

 



 

So, our ward mission leader told us previously that he cleans out the baptism font and starts filling it up with water about 2 1/2 hours before the baptism.  Then he stays around and sets up chairs and things, and if we could show up sometime in the hour before to pick out Katia's white dress and get her ready, that would be perfect.  So we went to the Stake Center about 45 minutes early.  There was a car in the parking lot, but the doors were locked and no one was responding to our knocking and buzzing.  So Rich went to his parents house because they have a key.  By the time we got in, it was about half an hour before the baptism was scheduled to begin.  Everything was dark, no chairs were set up, and there was not a drop of water in the font!  So, Rich went to the controls to see if he could figure out how to get the water running.  I ran to the foyer to call someone, but the phones were disconnected as the building had been getting its phone/internet lines worked on that week.  Neither Rich or I had our cell phones - didn't think we'd need them for a baptism!!!  Our stake president was in the gym playing basketball with his son and he tried to help Rich figure out the taps, but neither of them had done it before.  Luckily, Jas and the rest of our girls showed up then and Jas had her phone.  And luckily one of the few phone numbers I have memorized was the bishopric counsellor who would be attending the baptism.  I called him and he came right over and we got the water going.  But it takes two hours to fill the font and our baptism was supposed to start in 20 minutes!  Anyway, everyone was happy and family was arriving, including people who travelled far like Uncle David's family, Auntie Denyse's family and Auntie Rebecca's family.  We got Katia dressed and decided to start half an hour later than originally planned.  When we went to take pictures, my camera wouldn't work because I had forgotten to put the memory card back in after printing her baptism pictures.  Jas ran home and got that for us.  But it was okay - we had lots of time to spare while the font was filling!

My favourite - Katia and her daddy.

 

 

We always line our girls up in order for baptism pictures, and in the past they've made pretty good stairs.

But now we have five that are almost the same size, and then the two littlies.

So they crouched or tippy-toed in the appropriate manner so we could get a good stair picture!

The whole family!!!

 

So by 4:30 we decided to begin Katia's baptism.  By this time, the water was just reaching the top of the bottom step.  Richelle gave a wonderful talk on baptism with an excellent reminder of how we can remember our baptism covenants.  She gave Katia a KitKat candy bar with a new wrapper on it that explained that the KAT part stood for:

K - Keep the commandments

A - Always remember Him

T - Take His name upon you

Since it's also the first three letters of her name, it should be pretty easy for her to remember!

 

One of my favourite parts was the musical number by Katia and her sisters, accompanied by Grampa.  They sang "I Come to the Water" by Janice Kapp Perry.  They all sang it together until the very last phrase, which Katia sang by herself:

"Dear Father please help me remember this day -

I cov'nant thy will to obey." 

It was absolutely beautiful, especially as you could see Katia (and her sisters) feel the meaning of the words she was singing.  I think everyone in the room could feel the Spirit.

 

Then it was time for Katia to go to the water.  The water level was almost to the second step so it was about a foot and a half deep and almost reached Richard's knees.  But Katia is a petite little thing and Rich was confident that he could get her fully immersed in the water.  He said the prayer and then pushed her all the way to the bottom of the font, checking her up and down to make sure her dress and hair were all immersed at the same time.  I've never seen any one in the water for so long, but Katia did great and gave her daddy a huge hug.  Then she came up the stairs to me and I wrapped her in a towel and my arms!

 

While I was helping Katia get changed, everyone else wrote little messages for Katia to treasure.

I especially like the one on top from her friend Keagan, who noticed the bumps on the bottom of the font!  I guess when the font is filled all the way, you don't notice the bumps!!!

 

Continuing on with the rest of the program, we had Jasmine giving the talk on the Holy Ghost.  She talked about some of the roles of the Holy Ghost, including being a Comforter.  Then she wrapped Katia in a new fuzzy blue blanket and compared that to how the Holy Ghost can make you feel - warm, good, comforted.

Then Katia was confirmed by her daddy and received the gift of the Holy Ghost.  I've been to a ton of baptisms over the years, and I've never seen an 8 year old child be so touched by this as Katia was.  She was very emotional as she shook hands and hugged the men in the circle.  She assured me that they were happy tears and that she just felt so good!

 

After the baptism was over, we all came back to our house for Taco-in-a-Bag.  Time for visiting with family and for cousins to enjoy each other again. 

At the end of the day, we have Katia snuggled under her new fuzzy comforter, sharing a futon with cousins.  It was a very special day for our special Katia!

 

The next morning, our ward mission leader phoned and said, "Are we all ready for a baptism today?"  When I told him that we had actually done it yesterday, he felt awful, and so did his wife - she was practically crying.  He just had it in his mind that the baptism was Saturday the 29th - instead of Friday the 29th.  They were so sorry and sad that they missed it because they know Katia well and wanted to be there.  And it turns out, that even if the phone lines had been working and I'd been able to get through, they were on the phone for about an hour then, dealing with a family problem.

 

When I think back on Katia's baptism, all I remember is that it was one of the most spiritual baptisms I've ever attended.  The Spirit was there in great abundance.  I remember that we had lots of little problems on the way to her baptism, but I have to think really hard to remember them now:  scheduling, photo problems, photocopy problems, song practice glitches and the glitches of the baptism day.  The greatness of the day made everything else seem minute.

 

Katia had an incredibly spiritual baptism and she also has the story that she was baptized in 30 inches of water!!!

Jenna's New Beginnings

We've been attending New Beginnings for quite a few years now - nine years in fact!  And we'll be attending them for about another fifteen!  I have pictures of me at my New Beginnings, just before I turned twelve, but of my daughters, this is the first time we've had pictures!

 

Jenna will be our fifth daughter entering the Young Women's program, and she can't wait!  Daddy got to introduce her and tell everyone a little bit about how wonderful she is.

 

 

Our theme for the evening was the new youth theme for the year:

"Stand ye in holy places and be not moved, until the day of the Lord come: 

for behold, it cometh quickly, saith the Lord."

Doctrine & Covenants 87:8

 

We tried to decorate one corner of the room to look special - like a holy place.  (It was nice to be able to reuse lots of wedding decorations!)  And it was so nice that someone in our ward already had the theme on an old window in her home!

The front of the room we decorated in the value colours.  We assigned eight girls to each do one table . . .  Faith, Divine Nature, Individual Worth, Knowledge, Choice & Accountability . . .

. . . Good Works, Integrity and Virtue.  The girls did a great job and the tables looked so pretty.  The value colour scarves and framed words were already in the YW cupboard - we just reused things from the past!  Simplify is my motto!!!

Richie and I with our soon-to-be three YW.  Jordyn and Carlee are both MiaMaids right now.

 

Our four new Beehives each got a lovely little bouquet.

 

Some of the YW after they had decorated their tables and helped with the chair covers and sashes.  Some were decorating and some were preparing food, and then they visited while waiting for New Beginnings to start.

 

We had a lovely program that the Beehives were in charge of.  Every girl was either in the program or did a table - we used them all and they all did wonderfully.  I gave a talk on the new theme.  Laurels were in charge of decorations and MiaMaids did all the food.  Secretary did all the little details like invitations, theme bookmarks, photos, etc.  Our deligation of the responsiblities worked really well - I recommend it!!!

YW Value colours fruit Kabobs - so pretty and delicious, especially with the fun fruit dip!  There is a gold ribbon tied at the bottom to represent Virtue - it's hard to find gold coloured fruit!!!

And there's our new Young Women's presidency - they're all amazing women who I love dearly!

Tammy, me, Cindy (also my VT comp) and Olivia.

 

That was our New Beginnings for 2013.  We did it on a Sunday evening, Jan. 6, because our first girl was turning twelve on the 10th.  It was a simple yet fun and spiritual evening, and the girls really enjoyed helping.  None of my daughters have ever been asked to help before (apart from setting up their own display at YW in Excellence).  I think it meant more to the YW because they helped - and as we train future leaders, they need to learn how everything works - from the planning, setting up, the actual event and the clean up! 

 

And now Jenna will always remember her New Beginnings - it's been blogged about!!!



Christmas Day

Our Christmas morning always starts at 7:00am - one tradition I really like!  This year I actually woke up on my own at 6:57am - I must have been excited or something!  We all gathered in the living room to see what Santa brought.  Let me say here, I don't know how these girls do it.  I was so curious in my younger days {actually, I still am!} and had to dig into my stocking in the middle of the night and then carefully pack it back up.  These ladies don't even touch their stockings until we're all gathered - all they do is look, from a distance.  Is this normal?

Mackenzie was still sleeping and who wants a grumpy three year old, so Katia got to go first this year.

I took this picture to show something in the top left corner of the photo, right in front of the wreath in the corner of the dining room - it's the BIG surprise for this year.  Do ya see it?  You can also see our new snowballs, and our Gifts from the Savior under our Nativity tree.

 

 

 

So then it was Jenna's turn to open her stocking.  First, she was thrilled to get the fuzzy blue socks because her sister's in YW's got socks on Sunday.  They were wearing them, and when Jenna realized how soft and comfy they were, she told me she wanted some, to which I replied "It's a little too late to be adding things to your Christmas wish list now."  So with the help of an elf named Tammy, Jenna got her socks!!!

 

Jenna had written "Bird" on her Christmas wish list.  When she opened her stocking, she found two bird toys - a ladder and hanging chew toy.  She just kind of laughed about them when she found them.  When her stocking was empty, we were kind of joking about what to do with the bird toys.  Rich said, "Why not put them in the bird cage?" to which she replied, "What bird cage?"  Then he nonchalantly responded, "The one over there in the corner."

 

This was where it got funny!  Four girls rose at exactly the same time, with their eyes pealed to the corner, all exclaiming variations of "What?!?!"  They got to that corner so quickly and found . . .

. . . a bird cage - with a cockatiel inside it!!!

It's very tame and immediately stepped onto Jenna's finger to be carried out of the cage.

They were all so thrilled and shocked!!!  The tag on the cage said "To Jenna and her family".

What a perfect surprise!  The "secret fowl" as Richelle called it, did it's part in the surprise by not making a sound - no sudden chirping!  Richelle and Jasmine were in cahoots with us.  Richelle and Logan bird sat for a week and kept playing with the bird to keep it tame.  Jas helped the girls stay focused on their stockings and kept them away from the bird corner, turned on certain lights only to keep the bird corner dark, and kept them in the bedroom last night when Rich went to pick up Secret Fowl.

Carlee with Benny - such a handsome bird!  Jenna named the bird King Benjamin because the head feathers look like a crown.  I suggested King Herod since it was Christmas, but Benjamin was her choice, to be called Benny, because it sounds good with our others pets - Lacie {dog}, Honey {hamster} and Louie {fish}.  The plan is to teach King Benjamin to quote scriptures!

 

Eventually we got back to the stockings . . .

. . . and Carlee got a fake lemon!  "Is this some sort of joke?" was her comment.  Further down in her stocking she did find two real lemons, so then we had a happy Carlee.

 

Strawberry syrup is one of Jordyn's favourite things to get from Santa, and nuts!

 

Jas and her loot - the daisy is actually a shopping bag!

My turn - got my Bounty Bar and my new Polestar Family Calendar - so all is right in the world!!!

 

Richie with his chocolate cherries, and he got the most amazing head massager too!

 

So we were finished but there was one stocking left, and we had one less stocking this year as Richelle is now in her own home with her husband.

 

Time to wake up Mackenzie!!!

She was focused on her stocking but would keep glancing over at this bird thing.  Her new Dora panties were a big hit and she really wanted to wear them.  However, I wasn't interested in toilet training on Christmas Day!

 

After her stocking was finished . . .

. . . Jenna introduced her to Benny.

 

Benny stepped on to her finger, crawled up her arm . . .

. . . and perched happily on her shoulder. 

 

As we were preparing our Christmas breakfast of Belgian waffles with berries and whipped cream, we all just visited and played with Benny around the island.  The tap actually makes a nice perch. 

This picture is not posed at all - this is exactly how people were standing and and acting!  I thought it was so cute - so I took a picture.  My spot was at the sink!

 

After breakfast, we opened our Gifts from the Savior.  These are things that will help us remember Him.  There were two CD's, three DVD's, two pictures of the Savior for their rooms, and a quiet book.  This is the part of the day when we actually remember our Savior Jesus Christ, as we celebrate His birth.  It's one of my favourite parts of the day, as we feel the spirit together.

 

Once we were all dressed and we'd cleaned-up a bit, we went down to the family room to tackle the gift pile.

We started at 11am and finished just after 1pm.  We had a lot of beautiful and thoughtful gifts packed under that tree.  Jenna had the role of distributing the gifts this year.  The girls thought they had figured out their secret gift names so perfectly, but none were right!  Haha - ya can't beat Momma!!!  They were:  Jas - Little Match Girl {because that's the name she suggested}

Jordyn - Nutcracker {because she likes to crack nuts}

Carlee - Jacob Marley {because her nick name is Marlee}

Jenna - Bob Cratchit {because she was a Cratchit in the school play}

Katia - Sugar Plum Fairy {because she loves to dance around like a fairy}

Mackenzie - Cindy-Lou Who {because she's cute, little and blond}

All so obvious - they were looking at letter patterns like I'd done last year!!!

 

Later on, Richelle and Logan came over for a few moments to exchange gifts.  Then they left to spend Christmas with his family. 

 

We just lazed around for the rest of the day, watching some new movies and eating tons of goodies.  Carlee got sick again as the day went on, and others were still recouperating too, so a lazy evening was a good thing.

 

On Boxing Day we had a fabulous ham/turkey family dinner at Gramma and Grampa's house.  They had five of their eight children there and all or parts of their families.  I must say I have never had such delicious sweet potatoes before!!!  And we all enjoyed having another sing-a-long led by Jack.

 

Christmas is wonderful!!!

 



Christmas Eve

Our Christmas Eve celebrations began with the feast!!!

This year we had both sets of grandparents with us, and Richelle and Logan.  We were just waiting for them to arrive so we could begin to dig in and pig out on all this deliciousness . . .  

 

 

My personal favourite . . .

. . . bacon wrapped water chestnuts!!!

 

After eating way too much, we gathered in the living room to act out the Nativity.  Mary and Joseph were assigned but the rest of us drew names to see who we would be.

 

Grampa was the Innkeeper and the Narrator.

Mary and Joseph with their donkey named Jenna.

See the sweet mother, Mary - so fair,

Joseph who guided the donkey with care.

See the dear baby of Bethlehem,

Little Lord Jesus the Savior of men.

 

These are the shepherds, humble and mild

{Gramma, Grandpa, Jasmine, Carlee and featuring Lacie as the sheep}.

The angel appeared to them, and they were sore afraid.

These are the angels {Rich, Katia, Jordyn} proclaiming His birth,

Singing Hosanna and Peace on the Earth.

And they came with haste and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.

These are the wisemen {Mackenzie, Delle, Grandma}

Who followed the star,

Frankincense, gold and myrrh brought from afar.

 

After we were finished our Nativity, Mackenzie really wanted to be Mary . . . 

. . . with Katia as her donkey!

 

Then we sat around and sang a gazillion Christmas songs - and there was lots of lovely harmonizing going on!

After that, I read a story about what was happening on the American continent at Christmas time, as the Nephites were waiting and praying for the sign to be given.  Always a nice reminder and time to reflect on whether we'd be a believer, right to the end when our life is at stake.

 

 

Some years we open pajamas on Christmas Eve.  But no one really needed any new ones this year.  Mackenzie opened a pair of slippers, and the rest of us opened . . .

 

. . . snowballs!  Eight snowballs and a bucket!!!  So then, of course, a non-wet and non-cold snowball fight began - my kind of snowballs!!!  {My pillows are grateful there are now new things to be tossed around in the house!} 

 

The guests started heading home after this.  Our middle five girls settled into one bedroom downstairs for a sister sleepover - but mostly to keep tabs on each other through the night and in the morning!  Rich and I worked on whatever it is that parents work on on Christmas Eve - like washing dishes while waiting for girls to fall asleep and reading facebook Christmas greetings!  It was after midnight before more of them drifted off to dream of those sugar plums.  Then Rich and I hopped into action - he had to go for a little drive to pick up the secret something, and I tackled other projects!  Can't wait for Christmas morning . . .