Lydia's Baptism

 Look at our beautiful, beautiful 8 year old daughter! We are so excited for her! I love this age and opportunity for these 8 year old children to start making grown up choices. We have spent the last year talking about Jesus Christ and his example to us of getting baptized.

 Lydia decided that she wanted to get baptized, too.
Working in the Primary is such a great constant review to me about what we are promising to do when we are baptized. Lydia promised to follow God's commandments, to always remember Jesus Christ, our savior, to stand as a witness, and to lift and comfort those around her. Then she is promised to have the Spirit to be with her, to guide, direct, warn and comfort her. What a great promise and something so wonderful to strive for.

 Look at the world all dressed in white, just like Lydia, for her baptism!

 I hope Lydia felt loved and supported on her special day! She was surrounded by loved ones, friends and family!

 Mimi and Pa and Hilarie were there. Pa gave the closing prayer, and Mimi gave an amazing talk about the Holy Ghost. It was such a special talk, all for Lydia (she was the only one getting baptized from our ward). The Spirit was so strong and special.

 Grandma and Grandpa Sam and Shawna were also there to support Pearly. Grandpa Sam gave the opening prayer in the meeting. Also, Richard and Laura (just days away from having baby boy 4) brought Ethan, Gabe and Logan to support us, too!

Lydia and her Daddy right before the meeting. Such a wonderful day!

Lydia is 8!!

 Of course the highlight of Lydia's actual birthday was her birthday party. We had a pretty fun day all around.

 After hours of party-ing with her friends we had a family party that night!
Cake, presents, and grandparents and auntie to boot!
She got some canvas's, acrylic paints, paint brushes, and other art stuff for her birthday. She was pretty excited. Mimi and Pa got her scriptures, a scripture bag, and mini Children's Songbook, so she was all set for the baptism.

 We also made a trip to the mall, where she had some money to burn, AND she got her ears pierced. I am not sure why this is such a coming of age in my mind. I guess because I will only let my daughters pierce their ears if they are old enough to take care of it themselves. I can't even get my kids nails cut, I don't have the time to clean her ears.
She was very brave. Not too excited before, but after she was glad she went through with it.

It's Great to be 8! Birthday Party

 Breakfast in Bed!! Lydia loves breakfast in bed! She got pumpkin bread, nutella and strawberries, yogurt, and tropical punch.
I had to kind of throw it at her while I was busy getting ready for her party. Decorations, food, last minute pinata paint. Thank goodness I had Mimi and Hilarie here to help!

 All the kids got into the theme!

 Notice the coconut bra!

 Preparing the tropical drinks.

 Mimi made a gorgeous treat table!

Zoe was in charge of all the games. We did hula hooping, limbo, a tacky tourist relay, and lots of food! For details, of course you can look at my craft blog.

38 years young

 Travis is an expert at celebrating birthdays. Expecially his own. He gets his day off and makes very specific requests of what he wants to do. It is great! I don't have to wonder. And since he is very easy going and non-demanding for the other 364 days of the year, he deserves to be specific!

 He wanted to go play mini-golf. I am not sure it turned out like he planned, what with 4 kids tagging along. I think everyone had fun. Felix loved it, and actually got a hole in one by himself!

 What a handsome gentleman!

 He also requested "chocolate bricks", which are the thickest, densest brownies you can imagine dipped (drowned) in chocolate ganache. Our meal of vegan lasagna, salad and veggies made a perfect contrast to the brownies.

A day of shopping and lunch with me, babysitting provided by our dear eldest daughter was the perfect end. The kids and I had decorated everything with Jamaican flag colors (because Travis thinks he is Rastafarian). Did I really not get a picture?

Travis has an amazing view of life. He doesn't worry about things he can't control. He has unlimited patience and a listening ear. He is vibrant and excited. He is thoughtful and introspective. He has many amazing talents that come very naturally to him, that I like to call "gifts". He really was born with an athletic ability that I can't even begin to fathom. His ability to empathize is truly unique. Travis is hilarious, fun, goofy, and can easily loose dignity to entertain those lucky enough to be around when this happens.
Amazing man, amazing friend.

Felix's Candyland party

Felix's passion right now is games. He loves board games. It is all he wants to do. For his birthday we decided to do a Candyland party. True, it seems a bit girly, but he loved it. It is candy, right? What kid wouldn't love it?

We are off to deliver the invitations to all the little friends in the neighborhood.

The cake was SO fun to make and really quite simple. Other than the candy road it was just a matter of sticking a bumch of candy into the cake-bam-crowd pleaser!

 Candy pinata. The cellophane held the pinata together until everyone got a few good smacks at it.

 

Zoe made a rainbow road and the kids took turns drawing color cards (from the game) moving from square to square until we got to the different activities.

My lovely family with the birthday boy.

There were quite a few older kids there, so we assigned each older kid to a younger kid so that they would have to help the little kids get candy before they could get any. It worked out great!

Felix had so much fun! He was actually under the weather and not feeling too well. But he really enjoyed himself and didn't get over stimulated, which I thought was inevetable. In fact, one of his friends came a little later and he took her around and introduced her to everyone!!!I was so impressed!
More about our darling boy in his birthday post.

Lydia's birthday

 We had an early birthday party with Grandma and Grandpa Sam before they left. It was a combined one, since Lydia's birthday and Grandma Sam's birthday are just a few days apart.

 Lydia wanted to go swimming at the YMCA for her birthday. I think the kids had a lot of fun. I was freezing.
We came home to pizza, cake and presents.

 I think she enjoyed her special day. I say "I think" because you can never be sure with Lydia. I am not even sure she knows when she, herself, is happy.

 She did get some fun toys and lots of attention.

 Our little Pearly. Lydia is getting so big, it freaks me out a little. Okay, not so big in stature, but just grown up in attitude and age. Of course, she has always had a grown up attitude (meaning she acts older than she actually is).
She is beginning to loose teeth. 4 on the bottom, with some loose on top! She has started reading more fluently. She struggled at the first of the year but is doing so great now. She is still drawing and coloring obsessed, but mostly she LOVES being with people. She really can't get enough attention and love.

That is one reason that she and Felix do so splendidly together. She has a minion and he has an entertainer. Roles that they are both happy with. Occasionally, on a day that she has little patience I have to separate them but they are usually as thick as thieves. It is so great!
Lydia is imaginative. Her stories and pictures are detailed and elaborate. She loves music. She loves to dance and sing and is surprisingly really good at both. She got a guitar for Christmas and likes to pretend she is a rock star. She has that attitude to go with it. She loves hugs and wrestling with Dad.

The whole kit and caboodle

 If you know my husband at all, you know he spoils me rotten. Especially when there is a great excuse, like my birthday. He got both my birthday, and the day after my birthday, off work so we could be together. Felix has school both days (as did the other kids) so we got two full mornings together.
About 8 weeks ago Travis and I decided to make some dietary changes. Based on the books Eat to Live, and The Green Smoothie Diet we created a meal plan that we have been so excited about. We feel amazing! Food tastes good! This meal plan is something that we can do for a lifetime and it is all whole foods. It makes a lot of sense to us. I don't know why I hesitate to talk about it. Maybe I wanted to see if I could do it (it IS a very strict way of eating) or just let results speak for themselves.
One reason I mention this change is because I was able to reach my goals (both weight and full 8 weeks) so I want to celebrate! Also, I needed new clothes! So we decided to go shopping for my birthday. I won't go into details about what I got, but I will say we were successful! I feel like a kid in a candy fruit :) store. I was spoiled and had an amazing time with my man!

 The kids were so cute about some little gifts they made for me. They were so excited about giving them to me! This is the Statue of Melissa-liberty made from play-doh from Zoe.

 This is something she made from cutting and pasting images she found on the Internet (how did she know how to do that?).

This is what Liam made for me. A "town" with stores for all the things I like. There was also a book store and a sleeping store on the other side of the "street". In the middle is a pond and fountain with Iron and Wine singing in the middle. Adorable!!!
Lydia colored me 8 pictures. She is quite the color er.
I was showered with love and well wishes from all the amazing friends and family that I have been blessed with.
I realize that this post could seem like a boastful post, but I don't feel bad about talking about my blessings, my accomplishments, and my loving family. Thanks for sharing with me.

Monarch of all she surveys: Zoe's birthday

 Because Zoe's birthday was on a Wednesday and they leave way too early in the morning to open presents BEFORE school, I wanted to do something to make it special first thing. I taped up this plastic table cloth and filled it with balloons (something I had seen on Pinterest). When she opened her door in the morning she got showered with balloons.

 She was excited about it and had a great attitude about waiting to open gifts until Travis got home from work.
Mimi and Pa were still here so that made it extra special.
She wanted bow tie noodles and Alfredo sauce (from the can) for her dinner.

 Yes, we had the T.V. on while she opened presents. We wanted Felix with us, but sometimes it is impossible for us to enjoy it unless he is distracted.

 I found some duct tape that had mustaches on it. Liam made (with help) Zoe a wallet out of it.

 She is getting to be such a big girl! This year for her birthday she wanted an ipod touch. I told her last year that if she wanted one she would have to save up half. She saved the entire year and had enough when the time came. She even opted to NOT have a birthday party this year so she could have more gifts (clothes). We are really proud of her being able to work so hard to save that much money.

 Right here she is probably saying, "Daaaaaaad!!!" They love to tease each other.
She has always been sassy and observant, but it sometimes surprises me how quick and clever she is (especially in social situations).
Not only did she work hard to save money, but she has thrown herself into a really difficult 5th grade class with so much determination. She spends hours working on homework and doing a really great job. School has never been of much interest to Zoe, academically, but that has changed this year.

Zoe really is delightful. She knows how to push my buttons better that anyone I have ever known (and I have 3 younger brothers!), but I am constantly amazed by how great she is about wanting to understand and be understood. When she is understood and feels loved she is so sweet. I am excited to see what this next year brings for our little girl/young woman.