Steven's Baptism

Steven's baptism helped me to realize how blessed we are and how many good friends we have here. Leading up to the baptism I had so many people offer to help that I ended up having others to make the cookies that I had previously planned to make myself. That meant all I had to do was bring something for people to drink and since that felt like too little, I ended up making my bean salsa just so I could feel like I was doing my part.

We got there nice and early which meant I wasn't stressed out and it gave me time to mentally prepare myself for the talk I was giving. We ended up with a good turn out, not too many people that it was overwhelming but not so little that we felt unloved.

We kept the baptism simple. We were lucky to have Tyler's friend Chris Chappell presiding and conducting (he also works at GM). The opening song was "I Know my Father Lives", then Grams Hatch gave the prayer and then Poppy Hatch gave a talk on baptism. Poppy directed his talk at Steven. In the beginning he asked Steven what the purpose of baptism is and Steven said it was to wash away your sins and get the Holy Ghost and when Poppy asked for another reason Steven said, "That's all I got!" Poppy did a good job helping Steven to understand why he was getting baptized and what he was promising and he also did a good job expressing his love and pride for Steven. Made us all teary. 

Then it was time for Tyler to baptize Steven. His friend Mark Brandley and Poppy Hatch were witnesses. After he was baptized we all returned to the room to watch some LDS videos while we waited for Steven and Tyler to dry off and change back into their church clothes. The movies we watched: a depiction of John baptizing Jesus, "I am a Child of God", and "Families can be Together Forever." 

After they came back it was my turn *gulp* to give my talk on the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost definitely came to my aid and I didn't feel super nervous. Maybe it also helped that I had Steven come up to read some scriptures for me and Penny kept coming up insisting that I hold her.  Our sweet nonmember neighbors had come and I told a story about how she had been an answer to one of my prayers for comfort and I got her crying which got me crying. Despite my tears and troublesome Penny, I feel like the talk went well and I hope Steven got my message. If not he can read it here again sometime or maybe be reminded by the things I gave him during the talk: choose the right, know the Holy Ghosts voice and then he came help comfort (blanket), guide (lantern) and teach you (scriptures).

It was then time for Tyler to confirm Steven a member of the church and give him the Holy Ghost. In his circle he had: Poppy Hatch, Mark Brandley, Mike Hansen and Chris Chappell. He asked Heavenly Father to bless Steven with a good memory of this day and what he felt and what was spoken. He blessed him with a desire to get to know our Heavenly Father and to speak to Him and to do what is right. Tyler blessed Steven to have the knowledge that our Heavenly Father loves him and that he will turn to his Heavenly Father when he is in doubt.

Then we sang "When Jesus Christ was Baptized", and Grams Brady gave the closing prayer and it was time to eat and socialize and take pictures :)

Ben and Lucy claim they were squinting because the sun was in their eyes but the sun was not in their eyes...

And here are the Baptism pictures my friend took:

Fun Times

Last week the kids had off Monday and Tuesday for mid-winter break so after getting the grocery shopping and house cleaning out of the way Monday, we went and had some fun at Chuck E Cheese on Tuesday. Steven was obsessed with getting tickets and would play any game that gives him lots of 'em. I was quite impressed with how many tickets he made from skee ball. Penny loved riding on all the vehicles, although she always had a deadpan sort of expression, except in the picture below...

Wednesday school was back in session and that evening the kids got a visit from their Grandma and Grandpa Hatch, they were excited to have them here! Only the girls were a bit weary of Poppy Hatch. When he tried to talk to her for the first time she said, "Sorry, got to go!" and ran away from him. It was pretty funny. Thursday and Friday the boys ditched school so we could have some fun with their grandparents.

On Thursday I left Penelope with Grams Brady and the rest of us went to the GM Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit. We grabbed a bite to eat there. While getting food I dropped my wallet without even realizing it and someone was kind enough to use my driver's license to find me and get it back to me. I am so stinking lucky! After eating we went on a free tour of the building. The tour guide had a monotone voice and he tried to cram too much information into one tour. Needless to say the kids were not entertained (Lucy spent most of the time rolling around on the floor at every stop) but they did enjoy the view from the 71st floor, even if Steven was a bit nervous about the height.  

The kids endured the unexciting tour well so we rewarded them with some ice cream:

After eating the ice cream we took a ride on the people mover:

Despite the cold we took a look out over the Detroit river at Canada. The kids thought it was cool that their was a patch of ice on the river and Steven was desperate to try and break it with a rock, only he couldn't find a rock. When we got to the street he finally found a rock and he had to run back to throw it at the ice. He was very disappointed to find out his little rock had no affect on the ice.

We headed back to our house after that and Tyler's dad was so disgusted by the dirty state of our van that he and Leslie went and got it detailed. It really was disgusting, apparently so disgusting that the staff at the place fought over who would have to clean it. I must say though that I am quite enjoying driving in a clean van right now. I just wonder how long it will stay that way.

Friday morning we went to on the Ford Rogue Factory Tour. You take a bus to the factory and the first thing you do is watch a movie on the history of the factory. Penny was trouble during this movie but the rest of the kids did really well. Next there was a 360 all senses movie about the process of making the Ford F-150. It was really interesting and visually stimulating but it was also really loud. Lucy about fell out her seat at one point because a loud sound scared her and Penny got to crying over the loud sound. 

After the movies we went to the top floor of the building and got to look out at the whole factory and learn about their living roofs. Then came my favorite part, seeing the factory in action! It was cool to see the assembly line, how they have everything timed down to 1 minute tasks and the kids especially loved watching the robot arms put on the windshields. The only bummer was when we were halfway through we found out the factory would be closing down in 5 minutes for lunch so we had to rush through the last half.

Pictures were not allowed for most of the tour, except at the top of the building and in the lobby where they had some cars on display.

When we were done with the tour we grabbed a bite to eat at the Henry Ford Museum. This was not the most pleasant experience because it was Penny's nap time and she was cranky and she also decided to become part monkey and kept trying to do risky climbing moves on chairs and high chairs alike. As punishment we had Poppy Hatch hold her ;)

The weather was so nice when we got back home that we decided to take a walk to the bakery and then go to the park. 

That night Tyler returned from up North and so we celebrated all of us being together with some dinner at a local restaurant:

Birthday Fun

Last Saturday Grandma came to town! She came just in time for Steven's first ever Blue and Gold Banquet. The food was good and the company was fine but those are not the most exciting things ever. Tyler and I both were in charge of running a hero training course at the end of it and that was definitely the highlight and most fun part of the event. 

On Sunday the kids got in some good snuggle time with their Grams:

Monday and Tuesday were pretty uneventful but Wednesday Steven turned the great big 8! That morning he HAD to open his presents and could barely handle waiting until after he had eaten breakfast. Between both sets of Grandparents and us, Steven was spoiled: 

Benny, without any prompting, even made a sweet note for Steven (it says "I love you. You are cool.") and insisted on giving Steven one of his own dollars:

I volunteered in Benny's classroom that morning and then went and took Steven out from his class and out to lunch at Subway. He was not feeling very chatty and was super quiet but then he was introduced to emoticons and had a blast sending every single one to Tyler.

That night I made Steven's favorite "white noodles" and then Grandma took him to DQ for dessert. It was such a cold day that they were the only ones there. To reward them for venturing out in the cold, they gave them a balloon:

Thursday we took Penny to the Doctor, she had been acting super cranky, had a fever and a runny nose and was not sleeping well at all. I thought maybe she had an ear infection but she didn't. Turns out it's just a virus and we have to wait it out. I'm so tired of waiting it, I miss sleep :(

Saturday morning was Steven's Minecraft super duper party! 4 friends from church and 1 neighbor came (Max, Liam, Gavin, Coloton & Dallin). The beginning of the party was chaos! I had the boys make Minecraft faces to shoot with a Nerf gun and I was also letting them make Creeper faces on green balloons and doing this apparently made them cRaZy!

So when most of the kids had arrived I we played Minecraft BINGO to try and calm things down. Thankfully that worked perfectly! They all calmed down and they really enjoyed it so we played 2 rounds. 

After BINGO we did the Creeper bean bag toss and pin the tail on the pig. Steven had a meltdown when we did pin the tail on the pig because he didn't want to be spun around or blindfolded.When he finally let us blindfold him and spin him, he then cheated because he could see under it and then was upset when we called him out for cheating. The whole situation was aggravating but at least his friends still seemed to have fun.

After all the games the kids played with Minecraft Lego's and they played Minecraft on the XBOX. Steven was still being a stinker and was upset that he couldn't have a controller the whole time. I really hope his friendship skills improve soon....

 After play time was food time! Steven's favorites: Corn dogs and Cheeto's! 

And then cake and present time:

This kid was seriously spoiled rotten and he was not super appreciative of it all so this may be his last big bash for awhile... But despite his stinkerness, the other kids seemed to have a blast so...go me :)

Naughty Kids...

Penny was a naughty little munchkin this week and she was persistently proud of her naughtiness. Naughty things she enjoys doing: putting food in her hair, spilling yogurt throughout the house, running away from me, getting into the fridge, screaming when it's time to get dressed or get in her car seat, and fighting with her sister over toys. Oh man, the toy thing is a constant battle. 

This week I hit up Salvation Army in hopes of finding some Cub Scout attire for Steven. I had no success with that but I found this cute dinosaur ride on toy for only $3. The girls already had one ride on toy they fought over occasionally so I thought I was being brilliant buying another one. I can't believe I made such a rookie mom mistake. Now they could care less about the other one and all they care about is who get's THIS ONE:

In a desperate attempt to escape the battle over the dinosaur, we took a walk to our favorite spot- the bakery! This was the perfect escape, the weather was sunny and perfect. This has seriously been the most mildest winter ever, I am loving on El Nino! Us girls took a "selfie" to document this lovely expedition: 

Since we are on the subject of Bakeries, let's talk about my sugar addiction. With all the woes of single parenting it these last 5 weeks, I have started using sugary foods to drown out my sorrows. This has led me to become quite the baker. A couple weeks ago I made cinnamon rolls from scratch for the first time ever ever and they turned out pretty darn good. So good that I literally made another batch just a couple days later. Then this week I made some super delicious snicker doodles. The kids are clearly enjoying all my baking:

And on a totally unrelated and depressing note, I got an email from Steven's teacher letting me know he cheated on his spelling test. It was such disappointing news. He is such a smart boy and I wish he didn't put so much pressure on himself to do well. We had a talk and he lost Minecraft time (had to study for next weeks spelling test instead). I hope he learns his lesson and it doesn't happen again.

Speaking of school...I got to help set up a Valentine's Post Office in Ben's classroom. The girls had to come with me but luckily Kindergarten has a Community Room (which is kind of like a play area for snowy days). They still made matters challenging as they now had lots of new toys to fight over but I still managed to enjoy being at Benny's school and it was fun getting to peek in on him and see him at work. Penny also had fun because anytime she wandered into Ben's classroom she got loved on by all the little girls.

And let's end this post with an incredibly cute and sassy picture of Miss Lucy: