First Talk

Yesterday Natalie gave her first talk. She decided to do it on Daniel and the Lion's Den. I went over the story with her several times, probably with too many details. Finally Sunday morning I had her tell it to me. It was pretty close, so we went with her version. I did go up and hold the picture and was ready to help if she froze. I have had talks back fire before and ended up giving the talk myself when a child refuses to speak because they might die. That's when I realized that when you thought you couldn't be embarrassed any more you could when you least expect it. Back to the talk. Natalie told it like this: "There's Daniel and he prayed to God three times a day. and the king made his own law and that he can't pray except to him. Bad guys saw him praying. So, they put him in the lion's den and the king was sad and Daniel kept praying and then God sent angels and then to close the mouth of the lions and the bad guys were put in the lion's den and the king told everybody that Daniel's God was the true God and I know that we should pray.

The best part was when she came home from church she said," Mom, M said, "That was a really good talk. Can I borrow it for when I give a talk. " Then the other kids. " Yeah can I borrow it, yeah me too. I want to do that for all my talks." So according to her they all wanted to borrow it. I'm still not quite sure why they liked it so much , but I could tell she was so pleased. Then to top it off her teacher told her she had a cute dress. Basically Natalie had a great time at church.

Smells Take Me Back

Today I was in Deseret Book waiting for them to engrave on Kristen's new scriptures and Natalie wanted to smell the Salt City Candles. So, to entertain, I opened the lids to avoid any accidents. The first candle was lilac, nothing, then we smelled watermelon and a flood of happy feelings came over me. I bought that candle when Kyle, Kate and Anna were 4 and under, when I lived on the west side. I picture a blue counter top and everyone around the kitchen table, or the girls doing dances on the blue carpet. I didn't even particularly love that candle, which is why we had it so long. 

Then Fruit Slices reminded me of the end of our stay on the west side when Kristen was a baby and the others were a little older

My absolute favorite Salt City Candle is Christmas Trimmings. For some reason some of my siblings feel the same way. It reminds us of getting out the ornaments to put on the tree. It's a mix of citrus, old tissue paper and old pine needles, or a new Christmas tree. I have no idea how they did it, but it takes me back.  Some other smells I love are plumeria, it reminds me of my semester at BYU Hawaii. Honeysuckle reminds me of running around in the back yard as a kid as well as the after rain smell. I have so many with this one. Drakar reminds me of dating Jeff. I could go on and on.

Baptism

Saturday our little Kristen was baptized. Now it doesn't really seem so strange because Kristen has always talked like a big kid. Her experience was a little different than the others because she got to have the missionary discussions. We were able to participate in the discussions with our neighbor. Our neighbor M didn't want the missionaries to only be talking to her, so Kristen was given them as well. Since Kristen has always wanted to receive the lessons, it worked out well. It was such a great experience to learn and make commitments to prepare her. M was baptized in the summer. Kristen has been looking forward to this moment for a long time. Another thing about Kristen is that she loves people deeply. So, it matters for her to have people be with her on her special day. It was a beautiful, wonderful day! Thank you for those who were able to come. Because only two people in our stake were getting baptized that day, we did half of the program. I gave the baptismal talk, about being a follower of Jesus. Kristen sang "The Family is of God," which is a new song the kids are learning in primary. It is her absolute favorite song, and even though it wasn't a baptismal song, she sang it from her heart and it turned out just right. I have given the baptismal talk 3 times now, so if anyone needs a talk on baptism I'm getting quite the collection. Kristen's dress was made by her Grammie Jones. She was baptized by Jeff. She wrote about her experience in her journal and had a really good feeling when she was baptized. Yesterday she received her certificate of baptism from Bishop Jones. He is listed on her certificate as her Bishop. That will be special for her someday. It has been a lovely last couple of days and I'm so thankful to have such a sweet daughter.

C'mon Admit it. Don't We All Want to Be a Princess.

The other day I was babysitting our neighbor R. She and Natalie pretended to be princesses all day. I mean literally from 8:00am to 5:00pm. It was funny to eaves drop as they pretended to get invited to a ball. I heard the knock on the door and the excitement of receiving an invitation to the funnest ball in the world. Then it was the hugest ball in the world. What would it really be like to go to a ball. I have to admit, I'd like to know. Then later on that day I was talking to my sister about the Twilight phenomenon and she mentioned that the reason so many people love it is because it's a Cinderella story with a twist ( a vampire). Who wouldn't secretly love to find out that they were the one the prince wanted. I know I have my prince, but it would have been fun to have met him at a ball, when he saw me across the room and out of all the girls he chose me. Actually, when he saw me washing my windows at my apartment complex, he knew out of all the girls in the ward and Park Plaza apartments. I was the one.

I Love my Seasons

Today I walked into JoAnn's fabric with the goal of finding a cute pattern and fabric for Kristen's baptismal dress. My mother-in-law is the expert seamstress in the family and had a 50% of coupon for the fabric. While we perused all the white fabric that they had to offer, I couldn't resist the spring easter egg colored fabric. I ended up buying some easter egg green fabric for Natalie and Olivia. There was a day when I sewed matching dresses for Kate and Anna partly to save money and two cute girls in matching dresses is hard to beat. After a while that fabric can get old after a child wears theirs and then the hand-me-down sister's as well. I had to do it anyway. Last year I got the spring fever too and never sewed the dresses. Jeff's mom ended up making the dresses for the girls. So hear I go again.

 There is nothing like a little opposition in all things (long, cold winter) to help you appreciate the Spring. Last week Jeff's mom also surprised us with bright green and yellow, daffodils. I couldn't help but smile. It's not that I need spring to be hear now, I just love my seasons. Right when you are about to be sick of white and grey, tulip bulbs pop up, and green shows hear and there. Then when you're really sick of the rain, the sun comes out and kids can play outside. Then when you're sick of mowing your lawn and running like crazy, it cools and leaves start to turn and you think of Halloween costumes. Then Fall does get cut a little short, but you gotta have a white Christmas. So, I can't really decide which one I like best. Whichever one is next is the one I want next. I wouldn't want Summer now or Fall, just Spring. Besides the Mini cadberry eggs only come out in the Spring. What more could you ask for.

This is not a commercial

A few weeks ago, I discovered a miraculous cleaner for the shower floor. This is how it happened. I noticed a snow white spot and wondered what could cause this reaction I had not dropped any bleach. So after everyone had taken a shower and it was dry I left a bar of soap on the floor some conditioner and some shampoo in different places. As a side note. My shower floor can get really dirty. The reason is because everyone wants to use this shower. It is in the master bath and has a door. The shower is plastic, nothing special who knows why. OK, so I left it over night and the bar of soap left a snow white spot and so did the shampoo. So the next day I smeared Suave Wild Strawberry shampoo all over the shower floor. I put it on thick Suave is good for that. The next day, when I washed away the shampoo, my shower floor was snow white. It really works, not as good on the walls, but any flat surface. It works better than any other cleaner I've tried including bleach, and no scrubbing. So good luck and let me know if you tried it.

Good Morning Sunshine?

the other day Olivia woke up from a nap and we all started busting up. The girl has some crazy hair in the morning or after a nap. She is different from every other girl in our family because she's 2 1/2 and doesn't have long hair. I don't mean down to her waist, but the other girls have had long hair for their age. Now we only have curly hair when it's short, so we have been loving these wild curls. If we let it go on too long, please politely inform us that it's not cute anymore and we need to start doing her hair. I also remember before I had children having someone describe how their child acts when they wake up. I think the morning person thing, we are born with. In other words we give Olivia a few moments to herself before we bombard her with attention. I personally am not sure what I am. I can stay up late, but not after 12:00am and I get up fine, but not before 7:am. What does that make me?

What are you?