Swimming!!

Ever since I found out I was pregnant with Maris, the one thing I was sad about was that the kids wouldn't get to do swimming lessons this year.  The original plan was to have a baby in July--well that was MY plan anyway, and then we could do some fun summery things like swimming lessons and camping before the baby came.  But alas, it was not to be and I got pregnant in September instead of October. :)

So anyway, I thought there was no way I could handle swimming lessons with a baby.  I didn't want to let the girls do it and not Owen-- who wants to torture themself and their 2-year-old and baby out in the heat every day for 2 weeks?  And Owen isn't old enough for regular lessons; he had to be in the mommy and me class.  And I knew I couldn't swim with Owen and the baby.  So no lessons this year.  

.....Aaaand then Maris was born and I quickly realized we would never survive the summer without swimming at all, and lessons were an easy way to get to go lots, and I really wanted to get a tan myself :) and I thought maybe Maris would be able to survive it..... so I called for some backup, and wonderful Mary volunteered to come down 3 times in the 2 weeks of lessons, and my Mom would be here for one time, and I hoped the girls would be able to take care of Maris for the rest of the times??  I figured even if she cried a few of the days so much that Owen and I had to get out, it would still be worth it.

And OH MY GOODNESS I am so glad we did it!!

The girls improved hugely in their skills- here is Katelyn doing the backstroke, 

 and the "front crawl" they call it- she was in Level 3 and trying to learn side breathing... poor girl kept sucking in water!  But she is a stronger swimmer and can tread for a couple seconds now. :)

 Whitney at her class,

 backfloating, and I didn't get any pictures of her swimming but she was in level 2 and did GREAT.  Apparently this weekend when Eric took the kids swimming she was jumping off the diving board and swimming to the side all by herself!  Wow I was impressed to hear that!

 And Owen and I had a BLAST in the Mom and Me class!  It ended up being so much more than swimming for us-- it pretty much cured him of the new baby sister blues!  Having that half hour every day for 2 weeks of me holding him, singing and playing and trying new things and being silly and praising him like crazy for everything, it was like magic.  So cute and so perfect.  I loved being with my sweet boy and watching him go from clinging onto me the first day and refusing to jump off the side or try to blow bubbles, to jumping in and going under before I would catch him (on purpose), and even trying to let go of the wall and swim to me!  He wasn't very good at it, but I was amazed that he wasn't afraid to try!  It was so much fun.

This is the wall where he liked to blow bubbles and practice kicking.

 This is him trying to swim to me, he could go about 2 feet haha

 jumping to me!

And Maris was a CHAMP, of the 5 days Katelyn and Whitney were in charge of her (they did great by the way!), 3 of them she slept the whole time in her car seat, one she was awake the whole time and happy, and only once did she cry enough that we got out early!!  Awesome. Thanks baby girl!

 The last day Mary and Elizabeth were there and Eric met up with us after and we got to all go swimming together during regular open swim time, and it was Maris' first time in a swim suit!

 Cutie.

 She even tried the water for a few minutes-

 and loved it!!  So funny because our other babies have screamed when we put them in a cold pool!

 Family picture at the pool.  We love swimming, I'm glad we haven't let a new baby stop us from going! :)

Maris' Blessing Day

It seemed a little crazy to me to be blessing a baby so young- she was exactly one month old!  But it made the most sense to do it when everyone was here for katelyn's baptism.  So here's our pretty girl, with the blessing blanket made by her great-great-grandma Cobb.  Great-Great Grammy passed away a few days ago, which makes this even more sweet! I'm so glad Grammy got to see pictures of Maris Amanda, since Amanda was her mom's name!  Oh and I need to post pictures of the quilt my Grandmom made Maris- from handkerchiefs that belonged to this Amanda, her 3rd-great grandmother!  Amazing!

The guys all vetoed the giant flower shown above, so she got this smaller one and the big one went back on Kate. :)  Here's Eric with his baby girl.  So special for him to perform this blessing the day after baptizing and confirming Kate!  He's such a sweet Dad.

Two of my girls in white, the baptism girl and the blessing girl!  Precious.

Love this family pic with Whitney finally happy, Owen squirming, and me wearing clothes that do not make me look huge like the ones I wore the day before haha.

Maris with her grandmas that she is named after!  Lucky girl.

And this one from the day before with Grandpa Jamie and Grammy.

Maris was lucky to be blessed by her Dad, with her Grandpa Jamie, Uncles Ryan, Derek, and Jonathan, and Great-uncle Von in the circle.  It was a beautiful blessing and apparently she was smiling the whole time!  So cute since she was barely learning to smile at that point, she must have seen angels. :)  

My parents and Jonathan had to leave right after to get back to California for Girls Camp, but Mary, Elizabeth, Ryan, Cortnee, Cleo, Melissa and Derek came over for some yummy dinner after church, and we had a fun time visiting.  It was a great weekend with family!

Katelyn's Baptism

Our Katelyn.

We've had 8 years to teach and train her, and now that she's suddenly accountable she seems so grown up!  I know that she does know right from wrong and that she wants to follow Jesus Christ and be like Him.  

 She was so excited to be baptized!

 It was really special too, because her friend/our neighbor had been taking the missionary lessons at our house the last few weeks and she got baptized the same day as Katelyn.  It was cool during the lessons to see how much Katelyn knows about the gospel and the scriptures, and she was really excited that she could help her friend be baptized too.

 Her baptism day was a little busy, but we got everyone looking good including the elaborate "16 twists into a bun" hairdo Katelyn had picked and we practiced twice beforehand. :) Also in a classic move Whitney decided to be very emotional and jealous :)  Right before the baptism started I was in the bathroom feeding Maris and trying to comfort Whitney as she cried "Why do we have to wait until we're 8 to be baptized??"  Poor girl.  

 Later when I asked Katelyn what her favorite part of the day was, she said "being with Dad". It was so sweet for them to get to sit together and be together and do such a special thing.  He got to perform sacred ordinances for his little girl!  What an amazing thing.

 When they were in the font together they were both just beaming. :)  Eric did a great job, and then hugged her, it was so cute.  Then she came up the stairs saying the water was way warmer than she thought it would be, and I was a little teary and so happy to hug my big girl and go into the bathroom with her and her friend Allison and Allison's mom Susie and help her change.  She couldn't stop smiling. 

 I'll never forget walking back down the hall to the chapel with Katelyn.  She was twirling and skipping and grinning, and I couldn't help but think of the next time she'll be in a white dress, so happy and twirling and beautiful--when she gets married!  It's going to come in the blink of an eye, I know it!  She'll be all grown up and making her next covenants with God and it will be so wonderful--but my little girl will be gone!  While I watched her I got a lump in my throat and took a couple of quick steps to catch up to her and held her hand and kissed her. :)

 Her Confirmation was also really sweet.  Having all those men around her who love her, and Eric blessing her to be able to understand and recognize and use the Holy Ghost in all the ways that it can help her, very cool.

I am so grateful for the sacrifices my parents made to be at their first granddaughter's baptism!  She was also lucky to have Derek, Jonathan, Melissa, Katrina and Phillip, Lydia and Ryder there!  Sadly Grandpa Murray had to be in Japan and couldn't come, but Grandma was there and gave a great talk :), and Elizabeth, Ryan, Cortnee and Cleo came.  

 We had treats after and our friends the Shaws and the Bishop joined us.  

It was a great day!  And me and Eric had our first baptism as a companionship. :)

Katelyn's Epic 8th Birthday Party!!

We've had a lot of fun parties in our family the last few years, but this was definitely the best one yet, and I don't know if it can be topped!  The whole world of Harry Potter is just so rich with detail and cool unique things, we had plenty to choose from.  I try to let the kids control, as much as possible, the direction of their party, and I think I had as much fun, or more, planning this party as Katelyn did!  We looked at everything on the internet together and some things that I thought would be great, she didn't want to do--but most things we were unanimously super excited about!  

The first was the invitations:

personalized Hogwarts acceptance letters, signed by Professor McGonagal and including a ticket for Platform 9 3/4....

sealed with wax and addressed Wizard-style...

and delivered by owl!!  

obviously this was SO fun, Whitney has a stuffed owl named Hedwig and the girls loved delivering the invites, even though most of the kids didn't really appreciate how cool and appropriate the owl post was haha!  But several of the moms loved it :)

Here were some of our preparations, including the only picture I got of the butterbeer.

Our front yard was transformed into Diagon Alley, where the kids all got their school robes, wands, and spellbooks at the various shops...

Like Flourish and Blotts

and Ollivanders- me and Kate made all those wands!

Then they were ready to get on the Hogwarts Express!

They had to go through the "brick wall" to get to platform 9 3/4...

so cute!

The students arrived at Hogwarts and went to the Great Hall to be sorted.  At this point I had to go feed 3-day-old baby Maris :)  so Grammy asked each kid the questions that would determine their House and Eric did a GREAT job as the voice of the sorting hat. :)

Each kid got their house badge and scarf! 

Then Eric took them outside for a snitch hunt (here he is explaining what a snitch is, he was so awesome!)

Whitney with her snitch!

And a rousing game of Quidditch!!

I love this one Katelyn really looks like she's flying!

Then we came back in for some lessons!

They had Charms class and practiced spells...

and then Potions class by Grammy and Aunt Elizabeth- they came up with such a cool fun potion for the kids to try that bubbled everywhere, it was perfect!

Then the kids went back out for the "Triwizard task" Obstacle course, which included rescuing your partner like in the second task, and using Expecto Patronum to chase away a dementor (pop a black balloon hanging in a tree!)

And lastly, the kids came back in to "Hogsmeade" and had owl cupcakes and the snitch cake, butterbeer and pumpkin juice, and then they got sweets from Honeydukes to take home: Chocolate frogs, Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans, and Acid Pops.

The cute big 8-year-old Hermione/Katelyn :)

Katelyn opened her presents and then they went outside to wait for their parents/duel with each other. It was SO FUN and Katelyn was so happy the whole time, which made it all worth it. :)  It was totally insane to do right after Maris' birth, but thanks to hours/days of work by my mom, weeks of advance preparation by me and Katelyn, Eric stepping up and taking charge of tons of the party, and Mary and Elizabeth coming to help, it all came together!!  Harry Potter Forever!