Baptism

In our church, we believe in Baptism by Immersion.  The Savior was baptized by Immersion, and in order to become more like him we should follow his ways.

Immersion is symbolic of the death of a person's sinful life and the rebirth into a spiritual life, promising to be dedicated to the service of God and His children.

We also believe in being baptized at the age of 8.  We believe that is the age of accountability.  That’s the age that children become accountable for their actions, before then Satan cannot tempt children.  We believe that little children are redeemed through the mercy of Christ.

Our sweet Isaac turned 8 this year.

He chose to be baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. 

We believe that in order to become a member of the LDS church, you must be baptized.

He wants to be a part of this amazing church. I couldn’t be more proud.

He was baptized by his father a few weeks ago in our church building.  Each church building has their own font, allowing for baptism by immersion.

After the baptism, he received the gift of the Holy Ghost.  Remember when Jesus promised the apostles that he wouldn’t leave them comfortless?  That he would send them a comforter?  We believe that gift is a gift for all who receive the gospel into their lives.  Isaac was given the special gift of the Holy Ghost, also known as the comforter.

I am so thankful to have the Holy Ghost in my own life.  I rely on him daily.  God really doesn’t leave us to walk through our life alone.  He is there, and he sent a comforter to be there too.

After the special ordinances that took place that morning, we celebrated the day with family and friends.

I loved having people that mean so much to Isaac be there with us to celebrate his choice.

(CTR-stands for Choose the Right)

I know it helped him recognize how loved he is, and just how important this decision is.

We had a delicious waffle bar back at our house, and enjoyed every moment of celebrating such an amazing young man.

For more information about what we believe about baptism and the Holy Ghost; click on the links above.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is the greatest gift I have, I am thankful to share it with my family. 

I am thankful to share it with Isaac, and I am willing to share it with any one else who may want to know more. If you ever have any questions, please feel free to ask me. 

Oh happy day Isaac, we love you!!

Woodland Themed Baby Boy Shower

It’s been a long time since I got to host a Baby Shower.  All of my friends are mostly done having babies.  I really can’t believe I am out of the baby stage.  When you are in the trenches of it, you think it will never end.  Since we moved to Utah, I have adored getting to know the sweetest girl at church.  She is one of the kindest, most amazing women I have ever met.  She has a way with children.  She is an elementary teacher, and made the most wonderful nursery leader for our church. 

When she became pregnant, we as a church were so excited to think about having a little baby around.  Then during her pregnancy she had some complications that made it hard for her, and was very scary for a time.  She spent a good chunk of time on bed rest. 

Then they bought a new house right before the baby was due.  This meant they would be leaving our church boundaries, and now be going to church in a new building, at a new time.  So…. We decided to have a baby shower when the baby was born.  That way she would be off bed rest, and our church could meet adorable baby Beckett. 

Can I just tell you that I had so much fun planning this?

Well I did.  Here is a picture story, so you can see all the fun little details:

This is the invite I  created.  When I added the fox, I knew I had to do a woodland themed shower.

On a little trip to Hobby Lobby, I stumbled upon these awesome woodland pom-pom creatures.

I have been dying to add feathers dipped in gold to some sort of festivity.  I knew this was the perfect one.

I bought a package of white feathers.  I laid them out on some cardboard, brushed the top half with watered-down glue, and sprinkled with glitter.  I used fishing line to hang them from the ceiling.

My favorite part of the whole baby shower was making this woodland themed onesie banner.

I designed the t-shirt design in Photoshop. Then I used some transfer printer paper.  I made sure to reverse print them so they would transfer the right way, making sure the words wouldn’t be backwards.(believe me when I say I have made this mistake)

Then a little ironing on to the shirts and wa-la; you have a banner and a gift for the mom to take home.

Tip: You can buy the transfer paper at Walmart(make sure to buy the one for stretchy fabric.)  I buy the onesies at Hobby Lobby. 

I hung these up on a banner I already had on my mantle.  I just added the shirts with clothes pins.  When my friend was ready to leave, we took the onesies down, and she took them home for baby Beckett.

I used my island for all the goodies that we served. 

I really wanted to have a fun statement piece above the island.  I pulled out my trusty scrabble banner.  I love this thing because the letter stickers are removable and reusable.  It was so fun to see cute baby Beckett’s name in lights.

I had some fun making the utensils and napkins into a fun bow tie.

They were used to eat all the delicious food.

I am so lucky because I have so many great friends from church who offered to pitch in and help with the food.

I have to say that we had a pretty amazing spread.

I had fun experimenting and making up a deliciously yummy peach drink.

…and to take home, a delicious chocolate cupcake with cream cheese frosting.

Stella helped me add the little Thank you note to each cupcake, and we made sure that everyone knew they were to take home.

 

I used chalkboards all over to give details about the food and the cupcakes.

All in all… it was a great night.  It was so fun to see all the support and love for my sweet friend Brittany and her new baby.

…and I?  I was in heaven, planning a party again.  I do love a good party.

Stella throws a party

If y’all remember, 3 of my kids have August birthdays.

Sometimes that poses problems when they want to have a birthday party. 

It is very difficult to throw parties, and follow through to make 3 days extra special.

We have so many traditions that happen on their actual birthday.

Those things are so important to me, because those are the things that make the kids feel special.

I want my children to be able to have parties, but not at the cost of sacrificing traditions that celebrate them.

This year, we decided that we would just host a party for a holiday or just host a fun get-together sometime during the year; in lieu of a birthday party.

Jex had a small gathering close to Halloween.

Stella decided to do something around Christmas(which next time I will try to avoid, and do a little more persuading that Valentines is a better time?)

Isaac will maybe do a little summer kick-off party?

We will still have the occasional birthday party for big birthday’s, but this compromise to host another sort of gathering has been a win-win all around.

This also makes it so parents don’t have to spend $$$ on birthday presents.  Which I love.  I hate asking parents to bring a present to my kids all the time.

Oh, and I hate finding a place for all those presents.

The other fun thing this did for my kids was teach them how to put together a party.

Stella really helped me put this together.

We made the plan together, decorated together, cooked together, and put all the details out together.

It was nice to do with her.

At one point she said, “this is a lot of work.”

It was good for her to realize how much effort it takes to have friends over.

Here is a peak at what we put together:

The invite

The decorations

I tried to tell her that our house was already decorated for Christmas so we wouldn’t need much.  She insisted that we do a little more.  So… I went through my party storage bin and found a few fun hangy things and we added them to our already decked out house.

The Food

Stella really wanted a hot chocolate bar so we decided waffles, bacon, and our favorite raspberry fluff side-dish would be the perfect items to pair with the hot chocolate.

Stella made all the waffles.  I was so proud of her. It was so helpful to me.

We also made her favorite kind of syrup to go along with it; cinnamon syrup.

And the best part is seeing all the cute girls hanging out together.  It was fun because we invited a variety of ages from 6th graders to 3rd graders.  I love that they all got a long so great.

Here is the breakdown on one of my families favorite recipes:

The Photo Booth

…And we can’t leave out Tessa

The games

We came up with 5 or so games.

Here is a link to each of them:

drawing on your head

guess who I am

saran wrap candy

Christmas trivia

We gave prizes out to the winners.  They liked picking something out of our prize basket.  These were just items Stella had picked out at the $store.

The girls favorite was the relay to turn one girl into a snowman using toilet paper and snowman features cut out of construction paper.

The Crafts

We thought it would be fun for the girls to take home something they had made.

We came up with the idea of making a snow globe.  They made this out of a clear solo cup and some small Christmas trinkets I had found. 

We glued them on a circle of Christmas scrapbook paper and then filled the cup with fake snow.  Then we but the paper on the cup and glued it down. 

These were so cute, and super fun to shake.

We also thought it would be fun to make an ornament for their tree.

I hope to do a tutorial on these fun ornaments soon.

The party favor

Stella made an adorable necklace for each of the girls to take home.

You may remember seeing them at Tessa’s Belle Party.

This was Stella’s little Merry Christmas to each of her friends.

All in all it was a great evening.

It was fun to have a little party planner side-kick.