Grandma and Grandpa come visit!

 Everyone always loves it when grandma and grandpa come to visit.  My parent's came just before Christmas.  It was fun having them around.  And a big thanks to my dad for always helping with little projects around the house.  This time he fixed our fridge that hadn't been working right for a few weeks.  Luckily we had a second fridge downstairs to save our food, but it was an inconvenience walking up and down the stairs every time we wanted something from the fridge.  My snacking was at an all time low!  ha ha.  He replaced a part that didn't seem to be working and it worked...for a few weeks.  Then it started getting really cold (like 20 degrees) and then it would get warm (around 50 degrees).  You never knew what the temperature would be.  We moved the food up and down a few times until we decided to bite the bullet and just get a new one.  So now we have a new fridge.  Thanks for the temporary fix dad! He also fixed Sadie's bike brakes, and filled in some holes in the drywall in the basement.  :)  And Finley just loves grandpa.

 She is so silly.  

 The classic picture with grandma and grandpa.  Finley wasn't really in the mood.  

 One day Riley said she wanted to make a parachute out of her blanket.  Grandpa spent a while working on it with her.  They got it all tied and set up.  Then they went outside to see if it worked.

Here it goes!  I don't think it worked.  But it was a fun experiment.  She tied her unicorn to the bottom. 

Grandma always brings a fun little craft or project for the kids to do.  Here they are working on it.  I had to be sneaky about how I took the picture because Zac kept ducking out.  

Playing Sorry.

Great visit!  See you guys next time!

Emery's Baptism

Last Saturday, Emery chose to be baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  She was a little bit nervous so she and Rob practiced the night before how things would go.  There were 10 kids being baptized that day, 4 from our ward.  It was pretty neat that she got to share her special day with a few of her friends.  She just barely missed the other stake baptism day because her birthday was the next day.  So she had to wait until January. There were so many people there that they had to open the gym and set up more chairs so people could sit down.

 Sadie got to give a talk on baptism.  Her very first talk and she wrote it all on her own.  She did a great job and I told her she's ready to speak in stake conference now because there were more people there that day than come to our regular Sunday meetings!  I was sitting with the kids by myself because Rob sat up front with Emery.  They got to demonstrate what it was going to look like to get baptized.  Finley was a little bit of a handful during the meeting but we managed.  Then we moved to the room where the baptism would take place.

It was a smaller room and I knew there weren't enough chairs in there to accommodate everyone that was walking toward it.  So I just pulled my kids along to make sure we would at least get a place to sit.  We scored some 2nd row seats, but then I realized I was going to have to go help Emery get dressed after her baptism. Oh well.  I would just have to step across everyone else in my row.  No big deal.  Zac and Sadie got to be the witnesses for Emery and I walked over so I could see as well.  I left the bag of dry clothes over at my chair.  Doh!  So I walked back across to grab it and went in the door next to the baptismal font.  Finley wouldn't stay there with my friend so she was in my arms and thought that she was going to get to go in the "pool"  she sat right down and started yelling "I want to go swimming!! I want to take a bathers!!! (That's what we call a bath) while trying to take her shoes off.  I was so flustered because someone was in there about to be baptized, so I rushed her and Emery into the bathroom while she started crying because she wasn't getting to go swimming.  HA ha.  It was crazy!

But we got in and got Emery dressed and went in to the next room so she could be confirmed a member of the church and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.  We were sitting there and they were about to call the first person up to be confirmed and I asked Rob if he had asked anyone to be in the circle to bless Emery with him.  Usually we ask family and friends to help, but we didn't really have any family or friends there specifically with us, so we totally spaced asking anyone to help.  Rob quickly ran around the room to ask a few people who were there to stand with him so crisis averted.

Overall, it was an excellent experience.  We felt the spirit as those 10 cute 8 year olds were so excited to be baptized.  I think Heavenly Father is just so happy when children are so excited to become members of His church. We ended up going out to Red Robin after for lunch and then we relaxed a bit at home.  Here are some pictures

The day before her baptism I ran over to the temple with her to take a picture of her with the Book of Mormon.  There were so many kids getting baptized that there weren't going to be enough of the white jumpsuits for all the men.  So Rob got to bring his own white clothes.  

My friend Rosalyn, who is also a photographer, and whose daughter also got baptized that day, brought her good camera and got this photo of us.  Thanks so much!  She always makes us look great.  :)

And the standard family picture in front of the picture of Christ.  

At Red Robin.  So yummy.

Zac wore shorts and short sleeves.  IT was so cold outside.  Crazy kid!  Also, those chairs look like hamburgers.  I thought that was so clever!

One more of dad and Emery.

And we had to get the classic family in front of the garage picture, which is actually pretty hard to do with my phone.  We had to park the car in the driveway, and balance my phone on my backpack, then put the timer on and run into place.  But we only took one picture and everyone was looking and smiling!  Yes!!

Remember my friend Rosalyn?  She offered to take pictures of Emery when she brought Stella out for hers.  We went way back in November so it was super freezing.  She got some great pictures that show Emery's true personality and beauty.  I love them all!

The Salt Lake temple and temple grounds will be closed for 4 years for renovations.  The grounds will be really different too when it opens again.  So I'm so grateful for these pictures that we got before that all happened.

Our Anniversary- and temple lights

 We decided to spend our anniversary playing in the gym at the church.  It was so cold outside, and the kids needed to get some energy out.  We brought a bunch of balls and the kids brought their walkie talkies and played with them.  It was a fun time and we loved that our friends came to play with us for a bit.  We have been married for 13 years and I've been alive for 2 years now after finding out about my brain tumor.  :)

 We went to see temple lights before they closed the temple for 4 years.  They were beautiful as always.  And it was not crowded at all.  Note to self-always wait until after Christmas to go to the temple lights. 

 Sadie nailed the picture of Rob and I.  :)  And a kind couple offered to take our family picture which was so nice. 

Library fun

We love going to the library!  And they got new blocks there.  They are really light weight so we can build really tall towers.  Riley built this one all by herself. 

Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning

 Christmas Eve started out at our friends the Green's house.  We decorated sugar cookies and talked and played for a bit.  It was a good time.  Then we got home and the kids talked us into opening the Elf chart gifts in the morning time. 

 So we opened those and the kids enjoyed it.  It was especially fun to watch Finley open her presents.  She tore tiny pieces of paper off and throw them on the floor even if we had our hand there for her to put it in.  

 That evening Crys and Alan came over for dinner and to hang out for a bit.  We watched Home Alone and chatted.  Riley especially loves when they bring Ponyo.  She makes sure to give her a good pet while she is here. 

 Sadie loves trying to win Junie over.  I think she finally did by the end of the night.  :)

After Crys and Alan went home with Junie, the kids were so excited to give each other the gifts they picked out for each other that we let them exchange gifts before they went to bed.  I love how excited they are to pick gifts out for each other and then see them open them. 

 Zac got Riley some Hatchimals.  Riley got Zac a lightsaber, some kit kats in a candy cane container, and a small Harry Potter Lego set.  He was so sweet and when she asked if he liked it he responded "I really love the Kit Kats!"  ha ha.  

 I think Riley loved her gifts!  And Zac did too. 

 Sadie and Emery both loved their gifts.  Emery got Sadie some bath gel, and a bath bomb advent calendar.  And Sadie got her this big Squishimal.  

They all were excellent gift givers and receivers.  What a great way to start Christmas.  We read and acted out the nativity and then sent them to bed. 

We told the kids they had to stay in bed until 7 the next morning (they all slept together in the basement).  They negotiated down to 6:59.  Ha ha.  So we got to "sleep in" on Christmas.  We all got up and looked through our stockings and then took a break to eat breakfast.  We were completely out of milk (bad planning on my part...we realized on Christmas eve around 9pm, but we ran to the store and it was close.) So we ended up making eggs and toast.  After breakfast it was time to open presents.

 Emery with her gingerbread socks. Zac holding all of the large Squishimals they all got.  They are pretty big, but they are so soft.

 They all love them.  And they all (except Finley) got these one piece jammies.  I made them put them on right away.

 I love how Finley does everything her older siblings do.  

 I got these new jammies.  I love them and wear them all the time!

 Sadie and Zac both got new socks in the form of advent calendars.

 Here's Finely checking out her new doll house.  She loves it.

 Sadie's primary teacher brought this over for her.  She loves it.  It's her favorite kind of candy bar.

 Finley all snuggled up with her new froggy.

 Here is Zac trying out his new battle bots.  They are really fun.  

 I can't help but take a million pictures of Finley.  She's just adorable.

 She played a good long time with the doll house.

Here is Rob at lunch time trying out all the hot sauces I got him.  He was a little disappointed that they weren't hotter, but he still had fun trying them all.

Christmas is always such a magical day filled with excitement, fun, and tons of other emotions.  So we tried to take it easy and just relax the rest of the day.  I am so grateful for Jesus Christ and that he was willing to come to earth as a baby and experience a mortal body and provide and example for all of us to strive for.  And for a way back to the path when we go astray.  Repentance is pretty awesome.