Abby's Baptism

Abby was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day saints on Saturday, February 4th at 10:30 AM.  It was a great day and we had lots of wonderful family members there to share the day with us.  I'm so proud of the young lady that Abby has become.  She really tries her best to make good choices and to be a good example to her little sisters.  Abby is so earnest and really wants to understand things and teach other people about them.

I'm afraid I wasn't very good about taking pictures at the baptism - hopefully I can get some pictures from some of the other family members with cameras.  We couldn't figure out a very good place to do a luncheon afterwards (our house just isn't big enough and our church building was booked) so we kind of pooped out on that end.  We invited Abby's grandparents' to lunch at had a nice meal together at Ruby River.  They even gave Abby a gigantic mud pie ice cream dessert for celebration.  Abby enjoyed the day and wrote ALL about it in her journal.  Way to go Abby!

My little 3 year old

My baby is three now!  I love this kid.  I think I've been able to really enjoy her more since I have a few mom years under my belt now.  It's easier to relish the little things when you have a bigger perspective on life as these kids' mom.  I probably wanted my other kids to grow up faster and be more self-sufficient since I had another baby to care for at this point.  But I'm perfectly fine with Alice staying my "baby" for a while.  Nevertheless, she still was determined to get a little older and become an all important three year old.  She surprises me all the time with the things she picks up from her sisters.  She wants to play with big girls toys and sing weird made up songs like them.  Alice is so tolerant of the hundreds of kisses she has to endure from me every day.  I'm so glad she's mine!

We haven't had much snow this year, so Alice was VERY excited to run around in it and make footprints all over.

No breakfast in bed for this kid yet, but pancakes with whipped cream sure hit the spot!

Alice's designated present opening spot was on Daddy's lap

Sophie helped decorate for Alice's party - she made this crepe paper version of our little Alice for the window.

Alice got lots of fun things for her birthday - but Sophie seems to be taking possession of whatever suits her fancy. 

Alice is really good at blowing - but not so good at directional blowing.  It took her a while to get all of her candles out.

Alice and her little cousins (along with big cousin helpers) had fun playing Bingo during the party.

My Abby is 8 years old!

Abby had her 8th birthday a few weeks ago. It's hard to believe she's that old! Abby really has been such a blessing to have in our family. She is so responsible, thoughtful, and kind-hearted. I expect so much out of her and she is so grown up for a little girl.  She wakes up to her alarm every morning and gets in the shower and gets dressed.  If I'm not around, she gets herself breakfast before she needs to get on the bus.  Abby likes to think things out and reason why people feel the way they do.  Abby is an amazing child and I'm lucky to have been sent her spirit to help me grow and learn to be a good mom.  I hope I don't put too much pressure on her to grow up too fast.  It's hard to think of her as just an 8 year old when she is the size of an 11 year old.  She already wants to be such a teenager!

Abby has bugged me for years to get her ears pierced, and I finally gave in to her pleas.  I drove her to the mall to get her cute little ears pierced.  She was very brave and it turned out to be a fairly painless process.  :)

Sophie got to join Abby for the traditional birthday breakfast in bed.  It's a pretty fun way to start out the day!

Abby invited a gazillion girls to her birthday party, so we ended up having to do it at our church building.  She thought it was great!

Abby's current obsession - stuffed animals with really big eyes.  She has lots of them now!

All the girls with their blankets and pillows setting up for our movie party! 

Abby at the Jensens' for more cake

Sophie Doo turns 5

Sophie turned five years old last month and I neglected to report on it.  (Among others things I have been neglecting!)  Sophie such a funny little girl - she is always making faces to let me know how pleased or, more often, displeased she is with something I am doing or saying.  She always tries to sit on my lap during Primary, but not any other time.  Sophie is moody and emotional and loving and kind.  Sophie tells me often, lately, that she loves me even when she's mad at me.  She is my sneaky child still and tries to find a way to do what she wants no matter what!

I'm going to steal an idea from my sister and do a little Q&A with Sophie:

What is your favorite color?  pink

What is your favorite food?  raviolis

What is your favorite song?  Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam

What is your favorite thing to do?  Play Barbies

Who is your best friend?  Meghan (the neighbor girl)

What is something you don't like?  worms and spiders

What is your favorite movie? Princess movies

What is your favorite show?  She-Ra

What do you want to be when you grow up?  A ballet teacher

It's funny what  answers kids will come up with when they are put on the spot!

Sophie had about three birthday parties this year and she loved it.  It was so fun to watch her close her eyes to make wishes before blowing out her birthday candles.  She's just such a funny kid!

The kids were super excited when Dad FINALLY came home and Sophie could open her presents!

Abby and I made this pinata, but I didn't really think the whole hanging part through very well.  We had  to wrap a rope around it to secure it after our first kid took a swing at it.  (And re-wrap it after every kid)

Make a wish!

Christmas

"Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat . . ."  Tom introduced me to that Christmas Carol and the Muppets' version is our most listened to Christmas song.  Alice decided to sing it during the prayer at church the other week.  I wish putting my hand over her mouth actually made her get quieter.  It just seems to rile her up more!

Anyway, the Christmas season has come and gone and now it's time for me to make a report.  If I can remember what went down, anyway.  Maybe just a pictorial report.  We were with my side of the family for Christmas Eve this year, rather than Tom's side.  

Jeff tries his best to be photogenic

Tom is caught candidly picking his nose, or pointing the way to his brain.  Not sure which.

Here's a taste of some of our Nativity.

 

Ethan shared some Christmas tuba love with us

I sure hope Laura got a better picture than I did?  Can't they just sit still and look at the camera??

The kids were awesome and did really well sitting through church rather than tearing through their presents in the morning.  They got some fun stuff and made big messes and played all day with their new acquisitions.  I hope everyone else had a great Christmas too!

Primary Revisited

I'm just going to post really quickly.  I'm feeling better about Primary now - probably because I haven't had to do Sharing Time this month!!  I think I have been holding myself to a bit of an unrealistic standard.  It helps that the other Sharing Times I've seen haven't been super spectacular either.  I'll keep trying to do fun things that keep the kids attention, but maybe I won't be so disappointed when a few kids look bored.  Thanks for the encouragement everyone!

Primary

I was in the Young Women's organization for 4 years (pretty much the whole time we've been in this ward.)  Now, I'm in Primary!  I was called as the 1st Counselor a bit over a month ago.  This is proving to be pretty foreign water for me.  The only time I really feel like I know what I'm doing is when I go in to help in the nursery.  Our president has been gone for the last couple of Sundays and the 2nd Counselor has been home with a sick kid - so it's just me and the Secretary winging it each week.  Hopefully I'll feel better with the President back, but it sure seems to be taking us a while to figure out what we're doing.  The hard part for me has been teaching Sharing Time.  I know, it's only 15 minutes.  I just want to be good at it - but I'm not there yet.  Coming up with creative and fun ways to teach the children isn't as easy as it seems like it should be.

We combined junior and senior Primary (at least for now) to streamline things a bit.  I like having the 3rd hour to help out where I'm needed, or to meet with the other presidency members to plan things out.  But I'm sure I could reach the children a little more if they were split.  But then it might just be more stressful for me to plan two different lessons and have to do it twice during church.  I wish I had been able to observe some sharing times from the previous presidency to use that as a gauge of how I'm doing.

Abby and Sophie haven't complained that it's been more boring than usual - so that could be a good sign.  Or maybe they're sparing my feelings.  Sometimes they are nice that way.  :)

Anyway, I needed to vent a little.  I guess I've been on autopilot in Young Women's since it's been my calling for the last 7 out of 10 years or something.  I probably need this challenge so I can grow in different ways than I have before.  I just hope the growing pains aren't too bad and the primary kids don't suffer them with me!