Lydia's special day

Lydia turned eight on January 5.  She was excited to be eight and be baptized.  She asked David to baptize her.  January 26th finally came and she was excited to be able to make covenants with Heavenly Father and receive the Holy Ghost.  She looked so pretty in her white dress.  Grandpa Sharp gave a great talk on baptism complete with a quiz.  He helped the kids out with the answers.  David did the baptism and they only had to do it once. I wasn't sure if Lydia was going to stop moving around long enough to be immersed, but she did.  Neil confirmed her.  Grandpa Sharp, Bishop Jeide, and Brother Lobstein stood in the circle with him.  Lydia's friend Ellie Long and her family came to support her.  Wendi and MaryKate Stovall, Alan and Ena Mercer where there to witness the baptism also. They are all contemplating being baptized soon and wanted to witness a baptism. It was a great day! 

We love you and are proud of you Lydia Lou.

What a difference a little sugar can make

Last week I was baking bread like I usually do. The bread just wasn't working out. It was heavy and not rising much, if at all.  I went ahead and baked it just to see if it would somehow rise in the oven.  It didn't.  I decided to try again. This time I tasted the sugar in the jar before putting it in.  I found my problem. The sugar jar had accidentally been filled with salt.  I used sugar and the bread turned out beautiful, even though it was way past lunch.

Moral of the story for life: It takes a little sweetness to make life enjoyable. I am trying to answer more cheerfully and kindly in my home. I am working to be the sweetness in my family's day.  I recently read Sister Craig's talk from October 2018 General Conference.  I love this quote and am truly striving to have it become who I am.

"But peace comes in knowing that being more does not necessarily equate to doing more. Responding to discontent by resolving to follow promptings changes the way I think about “my time,” and I see people not as interruptions but as the purpose of my life."

I hope to be the sweetness that helps each member of my family grow to what they can become with the help of the Lord. That is one of my goals for this year.

Oh the hikes you will go on

Dallin has been working hard on scout requirements lately.  He needed to go on a 5 mile hike or a 10 mile bike ride using a map and compass. Dallin chose to do the 5 mile hike.  Usually, I let Neil take the boys on these activities and I hold the fort down at home.  I decided that I could go along and let the older kids hold the fort down.  Dallin and Neil came up with the plan of when and where. I just went along.  We went on Saturday, January 12th. There was a really heavy frost from the fog that morning. Everything was really beautiful but slippery.  We hired Bethany to take us out to where we wanted to start so we could leave the other car where we were going to end up.

Dallin did a good job taking charge and leading us on our hike. We went out be the Hecht's house and walked back the five miles to the car.  The only hard part was coming down off the bench at the end. I think once will be enough for me. It was steeper and harder than I had anticipated.  We all made it though. It was a fun day to spend with Neil and Dallin.

When we got back to Powell we were going to take Dallin out for ice cream, but McDonald's ice cream machine was broken.

I hope Dallin will remember these activities and know that we did things with him because we love him.    Here are some pictures from our adventure:

Christmas cookies

I love December and all the fun things to do for Christmas, but sometimes it can also be a hard time of year.  The kids can get a bit stir crazy and excited. On Saturday evening we needed something fun to do. I decided it would be fun to bake cookies and decorate them.  We made sugar cookies that were shaped like houses.  I gave the kids frosting and candy to decorate with.  Some of them put so much candy on their cookie that they probably couldn't even taste the cookie.  We also did hot chocolate with fun things to mix in.  We had a fun evening together. I am so grateful for family time.  Sometimes, it is hard to get everyone to get along and have fun doing the same thing, but it is always worth the effort.  Heavenly Father gave us families to help us become what He wants us to be.  What a blessing families are in my life.

Christmas 2018

Merry Christmas!! I love Christmas the whole Christmas season.  I love the goodies, the music, the trees, the lights, the nativities and having everyone home together. 

It was fun to decorate the new house this year.  We had more room for trees and decorations. I wasn't ready to take it all down because it didn't feel like it was in the way. 

I loved going over to the community Nativity celebration in Cody that our stake put on. I sent several of my nativities over to be on display. It was beautiful!

This year all the kids couldn't wait together for Christmas morning because their rooms aren't all together anymore. The girls waited up in the tower and the boys waited in the barracks. I made the younger kids fun pages to do if they woke up early. It worked very well. No one got to loud and crazy before 7:00.

Here are a few pictures of the kids in the morning:

It looks like Neil stayed up too late or got up too early for Christmas morning.  Sure love him and was grateful for all his help with Christmas activities.