Bria's Baptism

It's hard to believe that Bria's birthday was at the beginning of November and I literally have no other pictures of that month! I know we were busy, but I suspect we were busy with Christmas projects, Thanksgiving, school, and life.

After waiting almost a whole month, we finally made it to Bria's Baptism day. She's been SO excited all year long! It was such a special day for her and our whole family. I was amazed at the love and support she received that day.
 

Bria was able to get baptized by her dad. I'm so grateful that our kids have such an amazing father. I'm grateful that Bria and Dave got to share this experience together. 

The whole fam.

Grandma Martin came all the way from Albuquerque to celebrate this special day with Bria.

Bria with Grandma and Grandpa Webster. Grandma Webster gave Bria (and me!) a really special gift. I really wanted to sew Bria's baptism dress. I got the pattern and material but soon realized it was WAY above my sewing level. Thankfully, Grandma volunteered to sew it and she did AMAZING! Even if I had been able to somehow throw together a dress, it would never have been this beautiful and intricate. She did quite a bit of handsewing to get all of the detail work done.

Good thing Bria has some talented relatives! I cannot French braid to save my life. But, I really wanted Bria's hair to be French braided so it would still look pretty after she got out of the water. Luckily, Aunt Andrea kindly helped in that area. Andrea is a French braiding wizard.

She even added some ribbon.

Bria also got her very own scriptures from Grandma Martin. They're a really nice set that should last her pretty much forever.

It was such a special day that I hope Bria will remember for the rest of her life.

Bria's Birthday

Bria's birthday was really over a month ago. I can't believe she's 8! She is growing up to be such a lovely young lady. It always amazes me to watch her get older because she's the one who made me a mom. I remember dreaming for so long about my first child and now she's already 8!

We skipped out on a birthday party this year. She had one last year and we also wanted her to have more focus on her upcoming baptism. Ironically, though, she ended up having a whole birthday weekend.

Friday, we sent treats to her school and she celebrated with her class.

On Saturday, we decided to have a family activity at the movies. We saw Dolphin Tale. I think the only one that didn't like it is Logan (with his two-year old attention span and all). We went to the show with some of Dave's family. One of Bria's favorite cousins has her birthday only a few days after Bria so we had a combined celebration. Grandma was so nice and baked a cake, too! It was tons of fun.

Sunday was Bria's real birthday. We saved the presents from Mom and Dad to open then. Plus, Bria got recognized in Primary.

Phew! We really felt like that was A LOT of celebration. Then Monday came around....

Bria was very surprised when she came home to TWO packages in the mail for her! One from Grandma Martin and one from her best friend Ellorie.

A few things about Bria at age 8:

• She is learning to love reading. Not just being read to. She started out the school year a little rusty, but has since gotten to almost a 4th grade reading level!
• She loves, loves, loves Selena Gomez and Wizards of Waverly Place. Her dream is to go to New York to meet Selena.
• She is a great big sister. (Sometimes she's almost too good and forgets that she isn't actually the mom). She'll make a great babysitter when she's older.
• She loves anything to do with art. Drawing, painting, crafting. She can spend hours on her projects.

We sure love our Bria!!!

Life's been busy 'round these parts/Halloween

My blog is my home page. I made it that way so I wouldn't forget to update it. Every time I get on the internet, I see our blog. And, up to this point, I've seen TWO cute kids in their Halloween costumes at the Trunk or Treat. But, we have three kids and I am reminded that I haven't updated our blog. But, we've been busy. And it's really just being busy with life. Laundry, cooking, homework, our businesses, etc, etc, etc. I look at ALL of November and I can hardly tell you what we did. Nonetheless, time continued.

Anyway...on to the post at hand. Halloween.

I realize that Halloween is actually in October, and it is already December. But, our blog really won't be "complete" without the major holidays and birthdays. So, as I'm listening to Christmas music, I'm blogging about Halloween.

Captain "Max" Sparrow - pirates are his FAVORITE!!

"Bria"-patra - Bria loves Cleopatra, but she was really concerned that I was putting TOO much make-up on her.

"Lo"da - I'm not a huge Star Wars fanatic, but I couldn't believe how many people asked "what's that guy from Star Wars, again?"

We had a really crummy Halloween this year. Don't get me wrong, the kids were adorable. They got tons of candy. And, they will even probably have good memories. But, our poor kids were sick. Logan missed the Trunk-or-Treat because he was throwing up. Max had it the next day. And, I really thought Bria would skip out. A few days went by with no throw up. Until Halloween. She complained that her stomach hurt. She really didn't want to miss trick-or-treating; she really toughed it out. So, Halloween night came and we went trick-or-treating. It was crummy outside. There was a cold, hard wind. It seemed like every house we went to was empty. It got to the point that we didn't feel like it was worth it. Instead, we went to the grocery store to get donuts making supplies. It didn't take long for us to realize how sick Bria was. We decided that instead of having her walk around the store, she should sit in the car, so I took her out. On the way, I told her to dump out her candy as soon as we got in the van so she could use her Halloween bag to throw up if she really needed to. But it was too little, too late. As soon as we got in the van, she threw up. Thankfully, in her Halloween bag. But, also all over ALL of her candy. Poor girl!

We got home and she went straight to bed. Meanwhile, the rest of us had fun making donuts and drinking hot chocolate.