Blessing Day

B blessed Mystery Baby today.  In attendance, the P family from Richmond and both sets of grandparents.  Participating in the blessing were B, both grandpas, Uncle G and our friend S. J. 

 

Buddy's Baptism

On Saturday, May 19th Buddy was baptized.

Santa at the Church

Our ward had a Christmas breakfast/brunch Saturday morning complete with a visit from Santa (and then ending on a more spiritual note with a nativity play and Christmas songs). The girl in the picture is Princess Sparkley's friend... you might recognize her from PS's party this summer. She wanted PS in her picture and Buddy refused to be in a picture on his own. That's how all three ended up with Santa.

When Santa was announced, the kids all ran to get in line. Once Little Guy figured out what the line was about, he decided he definitely didn't want to be there. A bit later he discovered that Santa was handing out candy canes and he talked Daddy into getting back in line with him. Then he wasn't so sure again. After he finished his candy cane he told me he wanted to go see Santa again (for another candy cane).

Primary Program 2010

This years Primary Program was a HUGE success. It was a great program, but also, this year, Buddy went up there all on his own and SAID his part. He barely whispers a word or two when we help him read a scripture, give a talk or say a prayer in Primary. He went up there and said the first sentence of his part without any help at all (he sort of said it from memory/read it) then his teacher helped him with the second sentence. He said afterward that he went blank. I didn't expect him to even try to do it from memory. Yea Budd! And, my friend in the Primary presidency said that he's their big singer for junior Primary. He says it's because he's annoyed that no one else will sing.

Princess Sparkley did a great job as well. She wrote her part (I'm not sure if Buddy wrote his or not). She also sang very nicely. The senior Primary had a lot of songs just for them where the girl and boy parts were broken apart.


Buddy: I like the prophet. I like it when he tells us things he wants us to do.

Princess Sparkley: Jesus' example helped me by being reverent. On my baptism day I tried to be more reverent like Him. When I got out even though the water was cold, I felt warm from the Holy Ghost.

General Conference

It was General Conference weekend. So after soccer games, we headed home, watched the afternoon session on Saturday and that night I made pumpkin cinnamon rolls to eat the next morning. Sunday, I think only Little Guy and B stayed in their PJs all day. Buddy was the first dressed and as the day progresses, PS and I joined him.

We helped the kids make a fort under our big desk and they had one computer down there where they watched conference. B and I watched on our other laptop computer while sitting on the couch and we hooked up speakers to it so we were all listening to the same soundtrack. Otherwise, one computer was always a few seconds ahead of the other.

Princess Sparkley's Baptism Day

In our church, children get baptized when they are eight. With two sets of grandparents, one set of aunt and uncle, parents, brothers, two cousins and friends from church, Princess Sparkley was baptized yesterday.








*dress made by Grandma M, pattern picked out by Princess Sparkley.




PS with Grandma and Grandpa L who are here from California for 2 weeks!


PS with Grandma and Grandpa M who drove over from Ohio.


PS with her brothers.


PS with the Richmond relatives.


PS with cousin G... the next to be baptized.

Buddy's Primary Talk

Buddy gave a talk in Primary a few weeks ago. He's never actually said anything when he's been assigned a prayer, scripture or talk... B and I say everything he quietly stands next to us freaking out. This time, we promised him TWO different types of milkshakes/smoothies if he'd say it. And HE DID! There was an entire story to go along with it, but we only had him say the last paragraph.

There can be no greater example of a good shepherd than Jesus Christ. He knows each of us by name. He suffered for us because He wanted to provide a way for us to return to Him and Heavenly Father. In return, we can be good shepherds.

Saturday Was a Busy Day

Our Saturday was busy. We started off at a baptism for I, a boy in Princess Sparkley's Primary class who we hear a lot about because he's so funny, etc., etc.

We changed into picnic clothes at the church and headed to a ward/Primary picnic followed by a concert by the Mormon Choir of Washington DC.

At the picnic, there was a "potato" sack race. B and the kids participated.


B is on the far right.





Buddy is the second kid from the left, PS is next to him talking to her friend A.

Orange Rolls

In college I started the tradition of making cinnamon rolls for General Conference. My dad has since changed our aebleskiver tradition to be Christmas and New Year's mornings, as well as General Conference. I haven't jumped on that boat yet, but we do sometimes make aebleskivers as part of our "breakfast for dinner." This year, with General Conference falling on Easter Sunday, I made Orange Rolls instead since they are also an Easter tradition my brother-in-law started. Yum!!



Ingredients:

1 square butter
1 cup milk (scalded)
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 pkg. dry yeast
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 cup warm water
3 eggs (beaten)
5 cups flour

Directions:

Mix together butter, milk, salt and sugar. Cool.

Separately, mix together yeast, sugar and warm water.

Let stand.

Add yeast mixture and eggs to first mixture. Then add flour gradually and beat well. (Mixture will be slightly sticky).

Let rise until almost doubled in bulk. Punch down and separate into two equal portions. Using a bread board that is heavily floured roll out one portion at a time to about a 12x18 rectangle.

Orange Filling : Mix together ½ cup butter (melted), ½ cup sugar, grated rind of one orange.

Spread on the orange filling with a knife and beginning at the long side roll up, as for a cinnamon roll. Slice off with dental floss/thread in about 1 inch pieces and place in well greased muffin tins. Let rise until light. Bake 375 for 10 to 12 minutes, or until lightly browned.
Ice with powdered sugar mixed with orange juice to separate consistency.

Makes 2 dozen.
*My recipe says, "easily doubled," except for the 10 cups of flour... yikes. My mixer can't handle that. Darn.

Reverence

Baby X is learning to close his eyes during prayers and I think it's adorable.





Here's hoping he keeps this up... right now he's making his way to being our most reverent kid.

He also LOVES nursery. When I start dressing him for church on Sunday mornings, he picks up on it being a nursery day once I put on a shirt that requires buttoning. This morning, I got the kids all dressed but there was still a couple hours to go until church. Baby X showed up in the kitchen as I got dinner in the crock pot and started chanting, "church. church. nursery. church."

Nehemiah

For our Family Home Evening lesson on January 11, we learned about Nehemiah. Buddy was in charge of the activity, and B was sure he'd like this idea.... we constructed a wall around the temple out of Legos.

Prop 8 in California

A family friend who is an officer for the LAPD and whose area covers the LA Temple wrote this article for Meridian Magazine about all the craziness that is going on there.

Primary Olympics

Our Primary activity last Saturday was an Olympics combined with one other ward's Primary. I wish I had pictures of some of the events, but I was helping kids flip jumbo marshmallows at a poster of Goliath.


Princess Sparkley with her gold medal (a cookie wrapped in gold mylar).



Buddy showing off his gold medal.



Our two gold medalists.



The whole group... if you enlarge this picture, I circled PS and Buddy in red.

President Monson wiggles his ears

Conference Weekend

Daddy and Baby cuddles.

Visit from Grandma and Grandpa L

Luckily while all of this was going on with Baby X my parents were in town to meet him, and be here for his blessing (which ended up taking place at the hospital). And as soon as my parents had to leave, my mother-in-law jumped back in to help out until Baby X came home.

Decorating heart shaped cookies for Valentine's Day.

Baby X's blessing at the hospital w/ G and G L.

G and G M and Uncle B.

Our not so little any more family.

Goodbyes.

Blessing

We blessed Baby X at the hospital since we'd planned on doing it at church on Sunday with my parents in town and the long weekend for B's parents to drive over. Then it turned out church was canceled due to snow, so we'd have had to come up with an alternate blessing plan even if he wasn't in the hospital.