Rebecca's Baptism

My oldest was baptized on December 1st.  My induction date was set for December 27, which isn't too close to the 1st, but I was still a little concerned that we might have to postpone the baptism due to a baby arriving.  We didn't, and everything went really well.

When we got there, no one had a key to the closet with the baptism clothing.  President Seager showed up with a key that opens every lock in the building and saved the day.

It was a stake baptism, but there were only four kids getting baptized.  The organizer asked us to find a musical number.  Rebecca's Aunt Emily sang "Baptism" and my mom accompanied her.

Congratulations, Rebecca!  We're so proud of you!

Leaving AHA

Rebecca graduated from 1st grade and William graduated from preschool at American Heritage Academy this year.  I sent Kevin to William's graduation at the park due to morning sickness, so we don't have any pictures.  But we loved his teacher Mrs. Devito, and we will miss her.

I got a few pictures of Rebecca's last day in Mrs. Walker's 1st grade class.

Here I am with the high school teacher from 2011-12.  We had a crazy year switching from BYU Independent Study courses to the AHA curriculum, but we made it work, and we had a great year.

We'll miss being a part of American Heritage Academy, but we enjoyed the time we got to spend there.

William and Spencer's 5th Birthday

William and Spencer's birthdays are about two weeks apart, so my sister and I have a combined birthday party for them every year.  This year we had their party at Pump It Up.

Here are most of the cousins watching the safety video before the party started. 

(from left to right: Hannah, Rebecca, Abbey, Braden, Kennedy, Gage, William, Ryder, Spencer, Tyler, Brooke, and Whitney.)

Here's Avery

This is my cute sister Jodi going down the slide.

And Whitney with her broken ankle wasn't supposed to be playing, but this little gymnast couldn't resist.

Birthday Boys

I love these two boys.  Happy birthday, William and Spencer!

Mother's Day

I've had a great Mother's Day this year.  All three kids came home from church with something special for me.

Rebecca:

William:

Braden:

And this morning from Kevin I got breakfast in bed and THREE candy bars.  Chocolate is always my favorite gift, and my husband knows me well.  I hope everyone had a nice Mother's Day!

Request for the Tooth Fairy

Rebecca has been losing a lot of teeth lately.  She's lost eight teeth altogether, and she's working on her ninth.  Every time she loses a tooth, she writes a note to the Tooth Fairy requesting what she would like to get for her tooth:  

It says, "Pleas give me a doll a Barbi doll and four $ pleas thank you and I want to keep my tooth"

She's so specific about what she wants the Tooth Fairy to bring her.  I wish I had another note she wrote that said she wanted "ten buks."  And I'm not sure why she always wants to keep her teeth.  They're pretty gross.

This was the Tooth Fairy's response to her on the back of her note:

It says, "I usually only give one dollar per tooth, AND I usually take the tooth.  But here's two dollars and I gave your tooth to your mom.  Smilingly, The Tooth Fairy"

I thought I had kept all of her notes, but I can only find one.  They are all so funny to me.  I'll try to keep the note for the next tooth she loses.  She has a loose silver tooth, and she thinks the Tooth Fairy is going to give her $50 for it because it's silver.  We shall see about that.

#4

We're having baby #4, and it's a girl!  She's due January 1st, but my doctor usually induces me a week early to make sure he can be there when I'm in labor.  So she'll probably be arriving between Christmas and New Years.  We're all excited, but I think Rebecca is the most excited of everyone.  She can't wait to have a sister!

Book Review: Running Barefoot by Amy Harmon

I recently got a text from Amy Harmon, who I used to work with, letting me know that she is selling two new books on Amazon.com.  Each book is only $1.99 if you have a Kindle or the Kindle app, so I downloaded my free Kindle app, and then I bought her two books for less than $4.

I finshed Running Barefoot yesterday, and it is the sweetest story I've read in a long time.  I started reading it Saturday morning, and I let Amy know that I loved the beginning.  I picked it up again on Sunday and stayed up until 3:00 am to finish it because I did not want to put it down.

Running Barefoot  is a Young Adult novel written by an LDS author, which is a double plus for me.  I like to read a good story without being distracted by bad language and/or morality issues, and this book is just that.  It's set in Levan, Utah which is near Nephi, and it is about a girl named Josie who is forced to grow up way too fast.  I thought I had the ending figured out from the beginning, but after a lot of unexpected twists and turns, I ended up being dead wrong.  I give this book 4 1/2 out of 5 stars. 

If you read my blog regularly, you know that I don't do book reviews.  But I was so impressed with this book that I want to share it with my friends.  I think you all will love it just as much as I did.  It's not available at the library yet, but you can't beat $1.99!  

The other book she is selling is called Slow Dance in Purgatory.  I'm starting to read that one today.  If you end up buying either book or both, let me know what you think!