Special Day for our Family!

Jace was baptized and Brynn was blessed on the same day! It was such a beautiful and memorable day.

Jace was ready for baptism and knew the answers to all of the questions the bishop asked him. He was ready and excited and I couldn't believe he was ready to take on such a big responsibility. but he was. I was so happy with his decision to become baptized and I knew it truly was his decision. I was very careful when talking about baptism that it was something for him to decide, not an expectation Casey and I had for him.

His Baptism program was very nice. It was just him and one other little girl from our stake who were baptized that day. The other little girl happened to have the last name Hinckley and was part of the family of one of our church's previous prophets, Gordon B Hinckley. So even with just two kids, it was quite a large group. My mom gave a talk on baptism. Then my sister and I sang the song, Beautiful Savior. (Just an FYI here, I don't recommend singing in front of people on a day when you have one kid getting baptized and your baby is getting blessed. It's kind of a hectic time anyway and giving yourself more stress by volunteering to sing is NOT a good idea. Unless of course you love singing in front of other. In that case, go for it!) The speaker who gave a talk on the Holy Ghost was Richard G Hinckley. (He's a son of Gordon B Hinckley, Once again, the singing thing, not a good idea.)

After the talks, Jace went to the baptismal font and was baptized by Casey. Now that may seem like the mos obvious choice but it took some deciding on Jace's part. When talking to the bishop in preparation for baptism, the bishop asked Jace if he knew who he would like to be baptized by. Jace kind of thought about it for a minute and then said, "Well, I'm not really sure, I do have a lot of uncles." The bishop laughed a little and suggested that maybe Casey would really like to be the one to baptize him. Jace said he hadn't really decided and he would have to think about it. So I'm sure it was quite a relief to Casey when he made the cut and got to baptize Jace.

 

We waited in the primary room for Casey and Jace to change into dry clothes. During that time I also put Brynn in her blessing dress. Casey and Jace's uncles and grandpas confirmed Jace a member of the church. After Jace's blessing was done, the chair he had sat in was moved, And Brynn was taken to the front of the room. Casey gave her a name and a blessing surrounded by the same men who confirmed Jace just moments before. It was a beautiful and very spiritual time for everyone who was there. 

Jace's 8th Birthday

(Disclaimer: This is for Jace's party last year, a couple months after Brynn was born. When I get to his birthday this year we'll be almost caught up. See how behind I am?)

 Jace is growing up so fast! I can't believe how big he's getting and how mature. I used to think that 8 seemed like too young for children to decide about joining the church. But after seeing how much Jace grew and matured in the year before his8th birthday, I get it now.In fact, I remeber one night he stayed up really late reading (I wonder who he gets that from) so I told him not to do that anymore. He told me he was just reading his scriptures and he wanted to keep reading. I couldn't get mad at that.

Jace wanted cupcakes for his party and he got to invite some friends over for pizza and swimming and then cake and ice cream. It was a fun (and slightly exhausting) party. But he really loved it and that's what birthdays are all about!

Where Do I Begin?

I can't believe how much time has passed since my last post. Let's just say that life with 4 kids and working 20 hours a week is quite time consuming. I haven't meant to be away for so long. And once again, I will be catching up on past stuff before I get to current happenings.

One thing I remember thinking about after having Brynn, was how much I loved her. Of course all mothers feel overwhelming love for their new babies. And I felt the same types of emotions after the births of my boys. But somehow this felt different.

I guess if I give a little background, it might help. To put it mildly; I was terrified of having a little girl after three boys. I had the mom of boys thing figured out. I felt good about raising boys, and I loved saying, "I love my boys!" and feeling like it covered not only my kids, but Casey too in one simple statement. I love how little boys love their moms. I love being included in boy stuff when we all go hiking or other activities. We had all the boy clothes, toys, blankets we needed. And we make really cute boys. I felt good about having boys and raising boys. I guess I identified myself as a "mom of boys" as if it was a title, and that felt right to me. So expecting a little girl gave me some anxiety.

Well, when Brynn was born, I loved her right away. And I remember saying to Casey, "She's so pretty!" over and over. We fell in love with our little girl very quickly and suddenly it didn't matter that I was no longer a "mom of boys," which I had always though of as an important distinction.

Once I was home with our little girl I felt a connection to our baby that I hadn't expected. And a thought came to my mind. Now this is probably a line from a cheesey movie from the 80's but the phrase, "Something I never knew I always wanted" came to me. And it so perfectly describes how I felt about Brynn. I guess part of it was that prior to finding out if Brynn was a boy or a girl, I repeatedly had people tell me that I "needed" to have a girl. And I didn't like that. I felt like I would have been just as happy with a boy. And I guess in a way, I hoped it would be a boy so that I could prove it.  But to tell me I needed a girl really bothered me. And maybe that's why I was so nervous about having her. In many ways I didn't think that having a girl would really be so different. But since so many people said I "just had to have a girl," it made me nervous I guess.

Once Brynn was in our family it all made sense. I understood what all the excitement over girls was about. and I can't believe how fun it is to have a little girl. I love being able to say, "my daughter" and buy pink things and skirts. Now don't get me wrong. Being a girl mom is a lot different than being a boy mom. And I don't always have Brynn's hair done or shoes to go with each and every outfit. But The fact that I love having a little girl is the thing that's important to me. She's something I never knew I always wanted.