Ashlyn's Baptism Day

  

I really couldn't have asked for a better day for Ashlyn on her baptism day. It was such a wonderful day. Everything went so smoothly and I think Ashlyn will really remember and look back with fond memories of the day she was baptized. 

                Ashlyn was a lucky girl and got to start the day out with a manicure and pedicure with her Best Friend Grace, whom she also got to get baptized with today. The girls are only one month apart in age, so at the beginning of the year, her mom and I decided it would be so fun to have Ashlyn wait one month to get baptized so that they can share in their day together. I'm so glad we did because I think they really loved having each other. At least, I know Ashlyn took comfort in knowing Grace was going through the same things she was that day. My poor little girl was just so nervous. She did such a wonderful job though and I am so proud of her. 

             I got to get up at the end of her baptism to say a few words to her. I know I THOROUGHLY embarrassed her with my crying, but through choking back my tears I think I managed to tell her how much we love her and are proud of her. She is such a good and sweet little girl. Ever since she was tiny, she has always wanted to do what is right. She is sensitive and kind hearted. She hates to see others get in trouble and she will do just about anything to not get in trouble herself. She always makes sure we say our prayers and read our scriptures and you can tell she has such a genuine interest in learning about and knowing her Savior, Jesus Christ. I hope she always keeps that desire. I just love her to pieces and I hope she is able to look back on her life someday and feel that it was a pretty good one.

Brandon got in trouble for not putting his clothes on, so he had to sit in time out. Not five minutes later, he was out like a light. We had to really work hard to wake him up. Poor kid has been running non stop lately.

Practicing for their song, "When I am baptized". They did such a beautiful job.

 Paul's parents flew out from Iowa to be here for Ashlyn. I was so glad they could come.

                                     

                                                                 The Waldron family.      SO very glad we could share this day with them.

After the baptism, and after much indecisiveness on my part, we decided to have the family and a few friends over for dinner. We had so much help from my parents and in-laws that it all went so smoothly and I think everyone had a good time. I know I did anyway.

On a completely unrelated note: Here is a picture of Paul with a "mugtuk" doll; the IPhone app he and some friends worked hard on for months. So proud of him. And we really hope it does well. In the background you can see on the TV that Paul put together a slide show of pictures of Ashlyn from the time she was just born up until now.

My beautiful nieces, Kylan and Khloe. I cannot believe I didn't get a single picture of my family at the baptism. I'm SO sad about it. 

At least Heather took a family picture of just them and sent it to me. Otherwise, I would have nothing.  I'm so grateful so much of my family could come. It really meant a lot to us. 

Some friends and family that were able to come out to the baptism were:

Beth Tait with her two kids Tyler and Audrey.

Tina Phillips with three of her kids Braden, Ashlynn, and Ethan.

Brooke and Jason McCoy with her family.  Luke, Darby, Baylie, Paisley and Ivy.

Becky and Hyrum Osmond and her family. Dewy, Timmy, Ellie and Baylee.

Jenny Fogg (The Primary President) and her husband Daryl. 

Jeanyce Klivans (Ashlyn's primary teacher).

Tanya Pascua (a counselor in the Primary who also gave the talk on the Holy Ghost) and her three kids, Tala, Taden and Tadgh.

Carolyn Snow (the Primary President in CC2nd ward and who also gave the talk on Baptism).

Bishop Stratton (who conducted).

President Lindberg (The Stake President).

Ryan Livingston (a little boy in Ashlyn's primary class).

My mom (Dana Briggs) and stepdad (Ron Briggs)

Paul's Parents, Gary and Kathy Schoeni

My brother Tyler and my SIL Heather and their kids. Blaike, Kamron, Kylan and Khloe.

(I hope I didn't forget anyone)

Ashlyn was also baptized the same day as a friend from our old Canyon Country 2nd ward, Tanner Lyche. So that meant Michelle and Camille (good friends of mine) and their families were also at the baptism. It was nice to get to share the day with Tanner too. 

****(added the next day)****

I asked Ashlyn if I totally embarrassed her when I got up at her baptism and she said, "no, it made me happy". Bless her sweet little heart. I just love that girl. She also said she was kind of sad her baptism day was over because she had such a good day and felt so happy! 

A Night at the Range

The shooting range that is. Paul's parents are in town and his Dad brought us a gun. It's a pretty cool little 22 rifle. It comes in pieces that are stored in the base of the gun. Then you literally screw it together when you want to use it. It's a survival gun and is water proof and will float in water. I like that it's not pre assembled. Seems a bit more safe to be keeping it in the house. We'll definitely still be getting a lock box for it and storing it in an out of reach spot of course (with the bullets in a different location for sure. I'm not against guns, but I definitely want to be safe with them). We decided it would be a good idea to take it out to a range to practice with it. We found this place up in Saugus that is quite...primitive, but it worked. I really just felt like I was in the middle of nowhere in some barren field, than at a shooting range, but whatever. I have to admit it was fun. Maybe I'm weird, but I like shooting guns. Reminds me of when I was a kid and we'd take my Dad's guns out to the backyard and shoot them (we had a lot of property and no rear neighbors). 

We were only there for about an hour, but we went through quite a few rounds. And the targets were steel, so you could hear when you hit it. 

Safety first!

Just call me Annie Oakley.

Paul wasn't much into shooting guns when he was a kid. That was definitely his younger brother's forte, but he wasn't bad. Maybe some of his brother's navy seal"ness" rubbed off on him or something.

See. Quite primitive. I definitely wouldn't want to live on the other side of that hill. I don't think anyone does. This place might be in Saugus, but it took us a good 30-40 minutes to get there from our house.

Pink Day

My little Leah was a BIT excited for pink day at school today. She is decked out from head to toe. Literally!

No pictures today

I have no pictures to post because honestly, not much is going on around here. School is back in session and we are now busy with homework, piano, projects, girl scouts (nut and magazine sales are coming up. You will probably be hearing from me about them), you know....the normals of life. Brandon and Leah have been on a major fighting binge lately. Lucky me huh! Carter is 10 1/2 months and has been seen taking one or two steps all on his own. However, I'm sure he won't be walking until at LEAST October (or at least he better not, or I will lose the bet me and Paul have going. I think Paul has secretly been trying to get Carter to walk when I'm not paying attention). It's been blazing hot here lately, which means I've been home more, which is probably why Brandon and Leah are fighting so much (although today was nice and I actually ventured out to the park). I had a fun weekend hanging out with some good friends. But I ended up sick with some kind of food poisoning on Sunday. That was "fun" (will someone please invent sarcasm font?) I'm feeling much better now though, so that is nice. Although my house really shows the lack of care from over the weekend. I must get moving on that since both sets of Grandparents are flying in for Ashlyn's baptism this Saturday (with the exception of my Dad who will be missed).

Speaking of Ashlyn's baptism, it has been a big pain in the booty trying to find a nice dress for that sweet little girl to wear after being baptized. Sure wish I knew how to sew right about now. I could have made one to fit her perfectly. She's so tiny on top, but yet not short. I ordered two dresses online. Both were too big. So we hit the mall in search of SOMETHING to wear. After a couple of hours of trying on dresses (I must say I was greatly disappointed in the amount of "hoochie" dresses in her age range. I can only imagine how much harder it's going to get as she gets older), we finally found an adorable dress at Janie and Jack. It's a size 6 so of course it fits great in the top but is a bit short. I came home and ordered her a size 7 from their website (the store only goes up to size 6). So I'm going to keep both and see which one fits better. Then I'll return the other one. She had her interview with the Bishop yesterday before church. She was SO very nervous. I felt so bad for her. Paul came home to get her and take her to church (since I was sick). He told me how she was telling him to drive slower and then once they got there was seeing if there was anything they needed to do before having to go talk to the Bishop. The poor girl is just so painfully shy. I know she is so nervous about getting baptized too. Doesn't want people watching her and making a big deal about it. I told her the good news is that she doesn't have to say a single word if she doesn't want to. I know she'll do great. She's very happy to have Grace (her BFF) get baptized with her. I know lots of her friends will come to support her also. And while I know she'll act shy, she'll be glad to see familiar faces.

Other than that, we are just chugging along. I better get to cleaning while Carter is still napping. Otherwise, my house might still be a mess when the family gets here in a couple of days. Pictures to come next week probably (after the baptism and I have something to actually take a picture of).

Swing Domination

Good thing there is another swing set at this park because we took up one whole set!

We also took an outing to "The Grove" this morning to visit the American Girl Doll store. The girls have been saving their money to be able to buy some things for their dolls. They had lots of fun, but boy oh boy is that place crowded.

Ashlyn walked away with an angel costume, a "feel better" kit, a raincoat and boots set,  Julie's Calico Dress, and a suitcase. Leah got a wheelchair. So yes, one of them is a better saver than the other. But in Leah's defense, Ashlyn DID just have a birthday and got a lot of birthday money from family. They came home and played together all afternoon.

Rainbow Chasers

Brandon spotted a rainbow this evening while playing in the backyard. We couldn't see it very well, so we all jumped in the car to try and get a better view. The sun was going down quickly, but we got a few shots of it before it faded away. What a beautiful night it was. Makes me so glad to live where we do. It may be dry and deserty, but we have some gorgeous skies and some pretty amazing views. 

The kids were ready for the chase! We didn't have to go far to see a better shot of it. 

Carter was excited and ready too! Can't you tell?! Haha...

There's a little tiny piece of it right in the middle of the picture. But what I love about this photo are all those clouds with the mountains just below. 

No rainbow in this picture. I just loved how orange the sun made all those puffy clouds look.

And then just for fun, the kids jumped out of the car to run around a school parking lot for a bit. 

In jammies and shoe less even!

Vasquez Rocks

Ashlyn has a report in school where she has to have visited one of the four regions of California. She chose the desert, so we thought it would be a fun family outing to head out to Vasquez Rocks, to hike around and take pictures. Seriously, it didn't take us more than 15 minutes to get there and the kids had so much fun.

Vasquez rocks was named after a bandit who use to hide out in the rock formations many years ago. Once he was finally captured, he was put on trial and hanged for his crimes. Vasquez Rocks is also the location of hundreds of film including Star Trek (with the biggest rock formation being named after Captain Kirk), CSI, The Flinstones, Holes and many many more. Pretty fun huh! We only walked around for about an hour and then headed back toward home for some yummy Pico Rico Dinner. But the kids had so much fun, that I'm sure we'll be out there again in the years to come. It's a great family outing.

We were hoping to see some good desert wildlife, but no such luck. Not even a lizard to snap a photo of.