Eden's Baptism

Eden has been waiting for this day for three years. Ever since Maya got baptized, Eden has be anxiously waiting her special day. She got to wear the dress I made for Maya, we just changed the sash to Eden's favorite color and added a flower.

Getting baptized is a big deal. Something we don't take lightly in our family. It's so important for my children to understand what it means to be baptized and make sure they are making the decision because of their own testimony of Christ not just because it's what you do when you turn eight.

I like to think that we have been preparing Eden her whole life by going to church, reading scriptures, praying and teaching her the doctrines of Christ's church. The past couple of months we have focused our scripture study and Family Home Evenings around preparing Eden for the covenants she was going to make.

I have no doubt that she was ready to make the commitment to become a follower of Christ.

One of the things I love about these special moments in life, is that is when our family really comes together.

My grandma isn't a member of my church but she won't miss a baptism or baby blessing. This means the world to me.

We decided to take this opportunity to take a four generation picture.

Tia Ines, Felipe and Manuel drove three hours to be here for only 24 hours! Yeah, they are awesome.

My brother Eric flew out from Portland.

Aric's parents and brother came out from North Dakota. It was the first time we got to meet baby Kohen.

Mom and Joe are always present at these special occasions. My mom made the dress Eden was baptized in. My niece Olivia also wore it.

Edee with my sister and her family. 

My cousins Monica and Leah came out from Utah. They actually stayed for almost a week. I LOVE THESE GIRLS!!!

My niece Zoe, flew out from Portland.

My Tio Marco and his family got off a plane from Argentina and then less than 24 hours later they were  here with us. 

Eden has been blessed with some very sweet friends. I was only able to get pictures with two of her friends that came...

Eden and Kate 

Eden and Kaylee

This was the program...

 Eden and I have been clashing a lot lately. Her eight year old complaining ways have been driving me crazy! It was so good for me to stop and focus on all of the reasons why I love her. She has such a compassionate heart. She wants to do the right things. I never catch her deliberately disobeying, in fact she is such a rule keeper she honestly doesn't know how to be sneaky. If we could just get the complaining thing under control she would be the perfect kid.

Eden loves Jesus. She believes that Jesus Christ is the son of God. She knows that she is a child of God. She knows that Heavenly Father and Jesus love her. She knows that keeping God's commandments will keep her safe and bring her peace and happiness. She knows that she can repent and live with God again.

Her testimony is simple, but it is hers. As the years go on she will understand more fully what the gospel of Jesus Christ means to her and she will have experiences that will strengthen her testimony even more. This is just the beginning of her spiritual journey. I am excited for her. I hope she remembers the spirit she felt that day. I hope she remembers the special moment we shared right before she went into the font. I know I will cherish it always.

I am so proud of you Eden Elisabeth!

Eden turned Eight

Eden wanted to go to IHOP for breakfast instead of going out for dinner.

Eden wanted a camping themed birthday party this year. I hate camping but I thought it would be a fun theme. I had grand plans of a tent shaped birthday cake and super cute invitations but life got a little nuts when Aric informed me that we were having all of the carpet replaced a four days before the party. Thankfully Eden's expectations were not as lofty as mine.

She thought the lame invitations were cool...

She had no idea how awesome the tent cake was in my mind, she thought these sleeping bag cupcakes were awesome...

She had a blast playing Chubby Bunny with her friends...

Making s'mores...

Getting her face painted...

Having three legged races...

And opening her gifts, of course...

Summer birthday parties are tricky because so many people take off for vacations. Last year we only had five girls able to make it. This year we had ten! We sang camp songs and made camp t-shirts, I channeled my old camp counselor days, it was awesome. I couldn't have pulled it off without Maya and two of her friends helping me run the show and my sister helping out with Camden. The party was a success!

That night she got to open her gifts from us...

Thank you Target for having American Girl knock off stuff on clearance last month!

Catching Up

Honestly how is it the end of July? Especially when it's only felt like summer for maybe seven days! My days have been ridiculously full. Mainly full of preparing for house projects, doing house projects and cleaning up after house projects all while keeping up with regular life tasks. It's been exhausting but worth it.

So here is some stuff that we have done in between all the house projecting...

Father's Day

Aric is a fabulous dad and he certainly deserved to be celebrated.

He got lots of homemade cards and lots of love.

We had our friends, the Hall's, over for a yummy dinner. Garrett and Aric are toasting with their favorite beverage Mello Yello...Rachel found a special edition version "Mello Yello Dark"

Trip to Pendleton, Oregon...My Hometown

My mom and Joe took our kids for a few days so that Aric and I could tile the laundry room. One of our many, many projects.

This is the chapel that I grew up going to church every single Sunday with my family.

It was built by the LDS members there a long time ago. Isn't it the coolest chapel ever! It reminds me of the Harvard chapel.

 My girls are growing up so stinkin' fast I couldn't help myself and took a couple of close ups of them.

 We celebrated a belated Father's Day with my step-dad Joe.

We celebrated an early birthday for my baby brother Ben.

We love you Tio Benny!

We also got to spend some quality time with my Abuelita H.

Fourth Of July

I love celebrating the Fourth in my little town...

We rode our bikes down to the local 20 minute parade.

Here are the cutey boys...

Here are the cutey girls + C...

And here are the cutey momma's...

Camden and Faith still haven't quite figured out the whole candy gathering part of the parade. Camden cried whenever someone sprayed him with a water gun and Faith would run out and get piece of candy then run it back to Jessica and eat it. Yeah, those two kiddos need to be schooled in the ways of parade etiquette.

I love this picture of the kids waiting and watching.

This was the most elaborate float we had. I'm telling you this is small town America where we live.

They let anyone into the parade...even these yahoo's. 

I love seeing our friends in the parade.

Emma bit Aric while fighting over a piece of candy. Aric pretty much brings out the best and the worst of people.

Later that day we had our poor friend Garrett over since he was homeless and family-less.

The kids enjoyed their five minutes of pop its...it took them longer to clean them up than it took for them to throw them.

 That night we went to our most gracious friends, the Shenneman's, lake house for the fireworks show.

It was a long day, but it was a lovely day. The weather was perfect which was all I could ask for.

Swimming

So far we have only been able to go twice...stupid, stupid weather. But I did manage to take pictures one day...

I love watching my kids in the water. This particular day it was just us at the pool. Maya and Eden played so good together.

Camden preferred to watch for the first hour. The last 30 minutes he finally decided to get in.

 Okay this post is way longer than I wanted it to be so this will have to do for now. I will have to do another catch up post another day. Eden's birthday is in two days and her baptism in six days. I'm a little busy these days but how can I even complain? It's all good stuff.

GOOD STUFF!