Baptism Day

I can't believe this day came and went so fast. I knew it would be a special day, but I was surprised how amazing and spiritual it really was. I arrived at the church with Eliza, Zach and Mimi just a few minutes after Paul and Grant got there. When I walked into the church, I looked down the hall and saw my sweet little boy all in white walking toward me. I immediately was over come with emotion and felt tears filling up my eyes. The baptism and confirmation went beautifully and smoothly, Paul's parents came for the special occasion, my parents wanted to but my cute sister Bonny was due the very same day with her first baby. We had many friends come to support Grant on this special day.

I truly felt the spirit confirm to me over and over again that Grant was doing the right thing. This experience helped strengthen my own testimony of baptism and I feel so blessed to be apart of this church. Grant was just cute and smiley. It really was a beautiful experience. Afterwards we had refreshments then went to get root beer floats with Mimi and Papa, then ate pizza...what a day! Later that day I had Grant write in his journal (I have kept one for him that I've written in since the day he was born) I had him write his first entry. I told him just to write down his memories of that day and how he felt. My favorite line he wrote was,"when I came out (of the water) I felt holy inside of me, and Ben and Karen gave me $10," he traced his hand in the journal and wrote inside the hand "I be leav in the holy gost" (his spelling).

One of the things that's hard for me to grasp is that I still look at him like he's my baby, just a little boy. But I remember being eight, and I can still totally remember how I felt. I felt big, I was definitely not little in my mind, so it's weird to think that Grant really is growing up, and he feels big. It really does happen way too fast. I guess this means Paul and I are old now, we have a child that's been baptized...wow! We feel extremely blessed and are so happy Grant is in our family! Yeah for Grant!

Mimi and Papa in Austin!

Mimi and Papa (Paul's parents) came into town for Grants Baptism. We had so much fun taking them to all the Austin hot spots and just enjoyed spending time with them. We went to County Line for dinner one of the nights they were here and sat next to the lake and the kids fed the turtles. We went to Mt. Bonnell, played at the park, went on a little hike on the hiking trails next to our home, played games and just hung out. Papa as usual made his famous chocolate chip cookies which is always a huge hit, nobody eats anything else once those cookies come out of the oven...I'm not joking. I took Mimi to Town Lake early one morning to go for a 5 mile walk and we watched the sun rise on the lake with the Austin Skyline reflecting on the surface of the water, it's definitely one of my favorite places here. One of my favorite things we did during their stay was going kayaking on Lake Austin. It was 90 degrees that day, a little warm for some, but totally perfect for me. We saw all sorts of birds and vegetation along the sides of the lake, it was beautiful. Anyone who really knows my kids knows that they are part fish. All Eliza talked about the whole time in the kayak was,"can I jump in yet, when can we get in the water?" As soon as we got out of the kayaks the kids jumped in the water. I think it was a little colder than they had anticipated since they climbed out rather quickly, but then they just kept jumping in over and over. I love that it's March and my kids are already jumping into the lake! We were so happy that Mimi and Papa could come and share Grant's special day with him, we love them and can't wait to see them this summer! Thanks for coming you guys, we loved every minute with you!

Papa and Eliza

Mimi

Paul and Grant

Z-z practically fell asleep while in the kayak, it was so peaceful and

relaxing.

Grant and Eliza jumping into the lake

Camping in March

Have I mentioned that I love Texas? It's been in the high 70's low 80's the whole month of March. All the trees are blossoming, everything is turning green again, and people everywhere just seem to be a little more upbeat and happy. Yes, Spring is in the air and I am loving it!


With this perfect Spring weather we decided to take a little camping trip with a great group of friends (the Evans, Schellhouse, and Page families) and had a fabulous time. All of my kids had a playmate and the weather was perfect. It did get a little chilly at night though, but we were only gone one night so it was no big deal. Grant and his friend Will had a great time playing catch with a baseball or football and loved hiding from and being chased by the girls. At times they were a little too obsessed with the fire so we had to keep an extra watchful eye on them. The girls, Eliza, Aubrey and Jane loved chasing the boys and spent plenty of time in each others tents playing with games and just being girls. We'll definitely be planning another camping trip soon.






Grant and Will, totally look and act like brothers.

Eliza, Aubrey and Jane. The best little buddies.

Happy little campers...most of the time!

I just found this two second video, it's literally seconds after I crossed the finish line, I thought it really captured the moment(s) Paul thought he was taking a picture but realized it was on video. Brings back memories...