We had a baptism

When you turn eight years old, you have the opportunity to be baptized. This was a day that Leah was looking forward to and fearful of all at the same time. She was nervous of her interview with the bishop, but came out smiling. Leah surprised both Chad and me by reading (and finishing) the Book of Mormon all on her own. She beat her older brothers!

We made Leah a pretty white dress for her baptism. And then we bought some footless tights to keep things private...just in case! ;)
The nervous girl and her Daddy. There was a small bit of humor when Chad and Leah did a bit of a dance in the font while trying to figure out which way to stand. But the ordinance itself went smoothly and nothing popped up when it wasn't supposed to.

We don't get a whole family picture very often, but a special day like this calls for one. The kids have grown a bit since Nathan baptism two years ago!

Grandma Black was able to come for the event. Leah was glad to have her there! Grandma and Grandpa Collett would have liked to come, but Grandma took a spill the week before and was home with a broken ankle. We missed them!

After the baptism, we returned to the house for taco soup. We had some friends stop by and enjoyed visiting with them. At one time, we had 13 kids around our table!!

Leah got her own scriptures and a scripture tote to read from. No more fighting over scriptures for her!

Congratulations, Leah! We are proud of your good choices!

Nathan's Busy Two Weeks

Whew! Nathan has had a lot of activities that put him smack dab in the middle of the spot light. Nathan is a little guy in a big family...it's good for him to get all the attention for a change.

Nathan's birthday was on Groundhog's Day. Not many people know when Groundhog's Day is, but Nathan does!! Nathan is the second child, the second son, and he was born on 02/02/02. Even more fun, he is part of the 2020 graduating class!

This year Nathan turned 8. We had a family party with presents and frosted brownies. (Nathan didn't want a cake and I was glad to be freed from the task of creating something fabulous.) Our family tradition is to go out to eat at the birthday person's restaurant of choice. Nathan picked a place called "The Hard Hat Grill."

Pictures of the party are below.

The brownie cake. I haven't put this little effort into making a "cake" in a long time! It was nice.

Presenting the "cake" while everyone sang "Happy Birthday." No, I'm not pregnant...too bad my gut doesn't know it.
We get to cut our own cake on our birthday. No one was going to rob Nathan of that privilege!

Daniel was the official videographer. It's nice when the kids start to be HELPFUL. But why do they always have to sit on the table?

There were some characters there, too.

Leah: Nathan thinks he's in charge, but I'm really the one running the show. Why does he think I sit by him, anyway?

Rebekah: Put some brownie right here!

Sarah: I'm telling you, I KNOW I'm ready for chocolate!

There were presents.
Some were easy to open.

Some were near impossible.

Joseph took advantage of his small size to sneak away the best presents!

Nathan also had his first birthday party ever. He's a deprived child, I know. I had to talk him into this one as it was, then I had to convince him to invite more than one friend. He invited 5, 4 came. You'll notice Joseph at the side of the picture...plotting the right time to sneak away more presents.

Since I narrowly avoided making a birthday cake, I was more than willing to buy one for the party. It was handy that the Super Bowl was the next day. I found a cake/cupcake combo with football rings and a goal post design. When we were picking it out, Nathan didn't recognize the design and said, "But I'm not 4." We are not a big sports oriented family. :)

And of course, turning 8 means getting BAPTIZED! Nathan has been looking forward to this. Yesterday was his big day. Our stake doesn't host baptisms; it's up to the individual families. We started at 11 AM and were done in 30 minutes. It was a nice, quiet, unhurried event.

This was our best picture from the morning. It's getting harder and harder to get a good shot with these crazy kids! Pay attention to what Sarah's doing and you'll know what part of our problem was.

Or you could just look at these snapshots.

Four of Nathan's five grandparents were able to be to his baptism. We got some shots with them and now he has their pictures in the back of his BRAND NEW SCRIPTURES!

Some shots as we waited to begin.

Joseph woke up with a fever (102.6) that morning and wasn't feeling too social. It climbed to 103 before the day was out. Rebekah was sick, too. Her fever was a lot lower; it hovered just under 100.

I stayed home with Leah, Rebekah, Joseph and Sarah today while Chad took Daniel and Nathan to church. Rebekah and Leah sound sick, but Joseph really is not feeling well. He hasn't eaten and just lies around, crying. Poor guy. He can't keep anything down (and all he's really had is water) - Chad and I have both been thrown up on.

Hopefully, tomorrow will be a better day for him. I'm hoping it is better because there is no school tomorrow and these kids CANNOT be in the same room without something going wrong. (Like just this second. Anyone need a 9-year-old boy and a 6-year-old girl?)

Doing my best

I have a subscription to the feed for "Daily Gems." It's a feed that comes from here, a part of lds.org. This was the message for today. I especially appreciated this one.

Doing Our Best

"The Lord doesn't expect us to work harder than we are able. He doesn't (nor should we) compare our efforts to those of others. Our Heavenly Father asks only that we do the best we can—that we work according to our full capacity, however great or small that may be."

Dieter F. Uchtdorf, "Two Principles for Any Economy," Ensign, Nov. 2009, 56


This morning, I am trying to clean up the house a bit. The library and kitchen are looking much better now. :) Too bad that's not all that needs some work.

Nathan is getting baptized in 24 hours! His will be a small event, but he should have a few friends come to support him - which will be a good memory for him. I hope the forecasted snowfall doesn't create problems for anyone traveling in the morning. Remember: everyone is welcome.

I finally took a step I'd been avoiding for a LONG time. I created a facebook account. Sheesh. I can't believe I finally succumbed. My dad (of all people) was the one that made the final push. I used my maiden name though. I would like to keep my maiden name and married name unconnected if I can. I do a lot online, but I still don't trust things completely. I'm the only Arlyn C. that I've been able to find. My maiden name seems to be quite popular. Strangely, I never felt that "Arlyn" was a popular name at all. So, for now...the account is there. I don't know how much time I'll spend with it. (I still have a bit of a block against it!)

Nathan's Baptism

You are invited. :)


We are waiting to see how many people are coming before we decide where to have the luncheon. It's cold outside and we have a small house. Do I need to explain any more?

So please let us know if you plan to come. :) Our friends are also invited!

You're invited

This Saturday is the Spring TaVaci concert. You are ALL invited to the performance! It starts at 4pm and usually lasts about an hour. It's free. If you're actually interested in coming, let me know, and I'll give you directions.


Also,