Houseguest

Last Wednesday our niece Mikala came to spend a few days with us....we are so glad she did! She is an amazingly beautiful and talented girl...not to mention super sweet... and we LOVE spending time with her. Since the other girls were at school during the day, Lily claimed her as her own, and convinced her to play such things as "horsie"and "hide and go seek." Lily had her read countless books and help her with her letters. She is so patient and kind with Lily (actually with all of them) and Lily absolutely adores her. Lily is already asking when she is coming back.


Thursday and Friday, we spent marathon nights at the gym (from 4-9:30 both nights, that would be 5 1/2 HOURS!!!) for the last basketball games of the regular season. I was sooo thankful to have her help wrestling kids in the bleachers and running them back and forth to the bathroom and concessions...not to mention having someone there to explain what's happening in the game. (Seriously, I'm neither coordinated nor competitive, so basketball is not my strong suit. I'm getting smarter, but I really appreciate having someone nearby to fill me in.) By the way, Lovell boys (both jv and varsity) won all their games last weekend and we are off to regionals this weekend......GO BULLDOGS!

Thanks so much for coming Mikala!
We Love you and hope you come again soon!

Mormon Messages

I just stumbled across a blog with one of these videos on it and I am totally copying her idea and putting some of these videos on our blog because I think they are so awesome. LDS.org has created a channel on YouTube called mormon messages. Each week a video segment is added about the church's beliefs as well as other inspiring clips. You can even subscribe to receive email updates when new videos are added. Here are a few of my favorites...but you really should check them all out, I also really loved the Gordon B. Hinkley one "Lessons I Learned as a Boy."

As always, not all the "related videos" that pop up on YouTube when these get done playing are Mormon messages...so proceed with caution unless you know for sure.

Poor Baby

I just wanted to post a happy, get better soon picture of our baby Owen. We just came home from the doctor where he had to have a breathing treatment to help with the congestion in his lungs. He has had a nasty cold and they want to take precautions so it doesn't turn into pneumonia...The good news is that the doctor says the breathing treatments act like an adrenaline rush, so he will get an energy boost 4 times a day for the next week....lucky me.

Sweet Lily

My Lily turned four in November, she is a little ray of sunshine and is so happy all of the time. She always tries to be helpful and she is constantly saying and doing things that bring a smile to my face. Here are a few of my favorite Lily moments:

*Last summer, Chris went to go umpire a baseball game in Cowley, when he returned, Lily casually asked him, "Did you get any blood, dad?" Chris looked at her bewildered and said, "no?" It took me a second, then it hit me, she thought he was a vampire!...the funniest thing about it was that she wasn't the least bit concerned that her dad was a vampire, she just wondered if he got any blood.

*My brother and his wife have a baby girl they named Aimee Lynn and shortly after she was born, we were at Chris's parents house and the girls were telling his mom about the baby. Chris's mom asked what they named her and Lily said very matter of factly, "Alien."

*During her dance recital last year, she waved and blew me a kiss. It was so sweet, it made me cry.

*She LOVES babies and is forever watching out for Owen. She makes sure he never has "chokeable things" and promptly brings any "chokeable things" that she finds to me. Although she is the youngest of the girls, I have way better luck leaving her in charge of watching him than I do either of the older ones. She always says, "Do you want me to keep care of him?"
She always holds his hand in the car and has ever since we brought him home from the hospital. The funny thing is Owen hates hand holding and will never let anyone hold his hand....except her.
She was always telling us she was going to marry him, after a lot of dicussion, we convinced her that even though she really loves him, she can't marry her brother....so, we were in Billings the other day and Chris's brother has a little boy the same age as Owen and Lily loves him too. She kisses him and tries to hold his hand and while we were visiting, we overheard Lily telling him she is going to marry him. I guess it's time to have the "who you can marry discussion again."

*Yesterday, she hucked a baseball across the living room. Chris calmy asked her if that was a good choice and she replied without skipping a beat..."But dad, I'm not wearing my CTR ring."

*Every time she says the prayer at mealtime she says, "Bless this wonderful food mommy made."

*Chris left the fireplace doors open a little the other day when he was lighting a fire to give it more air to get started. Lily quickly noticed and prompty went and shut them, telling Chris, "Dad, you shouldn't leave this open, you were almost gonna fire our house down."

*She came home from Joyschool today (3/2/09) and told me the letter of the day was H. And began a list...house, hand, horse, hop, happy and....Bunny!..oops

*The other day, I was snuggling Owen on the couch and Lily was across the room, I smiled, signed "I love you," and raised my eyebrows up and down at her....She did the same back to me, but it took her a lot of concentration to get the eyebrow moves down...It made me laugh, and she asked me what I was laughing at. I told her she was just so cute. She said, "But why are you laughing?"
"Because you're so cute," I said again.
"And I make you happy?" Lily asked
Yes, Lily, you make me happy!!!

What's a fancy girl to do?

Emma came home from church, yesterday, with her hair done like this.....

Her dad wasn't impressed. Evidently, she smuggled the veil and the sparkly hair band in her scripture case and once she was in class....where her parents couldn't stop her, she fixed herself up. She asked if she could wear her hair to school like that today. I didn't let her wear the veil, but I did have to laugh when she left for school today, she wore a very fancy dress. I used to not let her wear her nice dresses to school, but she was always begging, so I figured what could it hurt?.....most of them are from Costco and cost less than $20, so as long as they are machine washable, they're fair game.

HELP!!!....updated

UPDATE: I have tried every imaginable stain removal tip (except the lady at the hardware store's suggestion of bleach....seriously?) and I am slowly resigning myself to the fact that I'm just gonna have to wear sunglasses for the next little while so I'm not blinded by the neon light radiating from the center of my living room. It would take every ounce of my patience not to unload my frustration on my oh so sweet children at the moment, but I have a sick baby on my lap reminding me of what really matters.

HELP!!!

UPDATE: I have tried every imaginable stain removal tip (except the lady at the hardware store's suggestion of bleach....seriously?) and I am slowly resigning myself to the fact that I'm just gonna have to wear sunglasses for the next little while so I'm not blinded by the neon light radiating from the center of my living room. It would take every ounce of my patience not to unload my frustration on my oh so sweet children at the moment, but I have a sick baby on my lap reminding me of what really matters. HELP!!! We've just had our first official carpet casualty!!!

We have lived in our house for 2 years and up until now, our carpet has been stain-free. Don't get me wrong, we have had a lot of accidents....frozen costco berries, dr. pepper (a whole can...thank you Owen), strawberries, various candy, even gum....but I have been able to get everything out with hot water and persistance. Yesterday, however, I noticed a faint orange spot right smack dab in the middle of the living room (where no piece of furniture will ever cover it). I vacuumed it first, but it was still there, so I attempted to remove it with hot water...big mistake. The spot grew and turned even a brighter shade of orange! NEON....if you will!!! And it shows no signs of budging despite my vigorous scrubbing. (I know you're not supposed to scrub carpet, but what do you do after you've blotted and blotted to no avial) AHHHH...I am not sure what it is exactly, but my suspicion is that it is valentine's candy...more specifically...fun dip??? You know, with the little stick that you dip into the colored powder. Anyway, I think that is why it got WAY worse when I got it wet because the color in the powder radiated and now I'm not sure what to do.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to get this out? If you have any ideas or experience in this area...........please help me out!!!

Back To The Stone Age

So, yesterday, we had our land line and our cable TV shut off. Brave Huh? We've been saying we were going to do it for a long time. We rarely got phone calls on our land line (except from the warranty dept. telling us our vehicle's warranty is expired...what is with that?) And as far as the TV is concerned, I never watch TV. My kids would watch Noggin or Disney every once in a while. If the television was ever on, it was usually Chris watching sports, but some of the commercials were so raunchy and it seemed like my kids had a radar for the bad ones and would stop whatever they were doing and stare open mouthed and wide eyed. So, we decided we weren't really benefiting from it. I never had cable growing up and I turned out normal...more or less. So we took the plunge and had it shut off, I'll let you know how we fare. Until then, if you'd like our cell numbers, leave a comment with your email address and I'll email them to you.

An Only Child

When Owen got out of the bath, Monday, he helped himself to some cereal.

My mom came and got the girls Sunday afternoon and took them to her house in Powell for a slumber party. They had a blast!!! Thanks mom! While they were away, I hardly knew what to do with only ONE child. So, naturally, I followed him around with the camera and photographed his irresistible cuteness.

Tomato soup for lunch.

It ended up being quite messy.

He loves to mop

....and vacuum.

Being Busy

(Lily and her Joyschool buddies)

What a busy week! We (or maybe just I) are breathing a sigh of relief around here now that activities of last week are over.

Wednesday was New Beginnings for our ward and although I'm not in YW anymore, I was invited to come talk about personal progress at the meeting. It shouldn't have stressed me out as much as it did because I've done it before, but public speaking is really hard for me. And to make matters worse, our computer would not work at all that day, so I could not reference any of my materials from speaking previous times. (I know, that's what I get for procrastinating!) I kept myself busy during the day Wednesday putting together Valentines for the girls to hand out to their classes, and getting things together for Joyschool at our house Thursday and Friday. I stopped periodically to check if the computer was working, but as it got later in the afternoon, the realization sank in that the computer was not going to work. And panic had set in by the time school was out. I had 6 children (my 4 and 2 boys who come everyday after school until their mom gets off work) to keep tabs on and a talk to write before my husband would get home at 6:30 and I would need to go running out the door to my meeting.
And....to top things off...Emma was not impressed with the Valentines I made for her class. That story is coming later.... Anyway, I am stressed to the max because I cannot speak in front of people without having a very clear outline of what I need to say and I could not get any thoughts down on paper because I kept getting interupted by one child or another tattleing or telling me how hungry they were (and for some reason, they weren't excited about granola bars and fruit snacks for dinner...come on, every other night, they beg for them). So time keeps ticking by until I am on my knees and in tears and seriously considering calling in sick.... Long story short...my testimony of prayer was strengthened that day. I went to my meeting and all went well. I so miss those young women....every one. They are amazing girls and I just love being around them. Traci Kannard planned the meeting around a pirate and treasure theme and it turned out so fun.
.........About Emmas valentines... it was pink playdough cut into hearts and individually bagged, with a scrapbook paper tag; and our conversation about them went like this:
Me, "Look what I made for your Valentines."
Emma, "I can't bring playdough to school."
Me, a little confused wondering if there is a new rule I don't know about, maybe play dough is banned. "Why?"
Emma, "I have to bring candy."
Me, "Why?"
Emma, "Because I want to."
Me, "Well Emma, we are already bringing treats to the party, so I thought it would be fun to bring something different. Besides everyone will be bringing candy and there will be lots."
Emma, "I know... I just want to bring candy."
Whatever....so I decide we will just use the playdough for Joyschool the next day and when I get home from my meeting, I dump out all the hearts and smoosh them back together. I did recycle the tags I made though, I just took them off the bags and punched holes in them and stuck a sucker through them. They certainly weren't the cutest, but she was happy with them.

So, Thursday morning we had joychool at our house. In case you are wondering, several of us moms take turns holding preschool in our homes for our kids. There are normally 5 kids, but our group includes twin boys who happened to be out of town last week. They are all really sweet and it has been a great setup.
Thursday afternoon, I whipped up treats for Grace and Emma's Valentine parties and figured out the next day's joyschool activites. Thursday night Chris was gone coaching.
Friday morning, Chris took off with the basketball team for the weekend, and we had a little joyschool Valentine's party here. As soon as the party was over, I ran treats to the elementary school.

Now that I type all of the events out, it doesn't seem like I was really that busy, but in the midst of it all, it was a little crazy. I promise.....or perhaps my time management skills are lacking. hmmm. could be.

more joyschool pics...aren't they just the cutest preschoolers you ever did see?

50 Reasons...

To celebrate Valentines Day this week, I thought it would be fun to list 50 reasons why I love my hunny. I want him to know how great we think he is. I love you babe.... for all these reasons and countless more! Thanks for all you do! HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!

1. He doesn't care what kind of car he drives, or if it's dirty.

2. He is loyal.

3. He doesn't buy things for himself.....unless Dr. Pepper counts!

4. He gets up with the kids in the night without me asking him to, sometimes I never even hear them!

5. He is an awesome father!

6. He is a hard worker and works through the night sometimes so he can spend time with us during the day.

7. I can leave him with all 4 kids (sometimes even more) and not worry in the least..... And I usually come home to the house cleaner than I left it!

8. He forgives easily.

9. He cares about others more than he does himself.....and he is always looking out for them, even when they aren't looking out for him. (sometimes this drives me crazy)

10. He doesn't care what kind of clothes he wears.

11. He is a peacemaker.

12. He is never grouchy when he comes home to a messy house, no dinner and me sitting on the couch with the kids. He just asks me what I want for dinner and cooks it!

13. He changes diapers....even the dirty ones that go up babies backs.

14. He doesn't mind being on clean-up duty when the kids have the flu.

15. He looks handsome when he coaches....actually all the time;)

16. He doesn't mind having the baby in the bed with us....or when the kids come in and want to snuggle.

17. He can get more done in an hour than I can all day.

18. He always hugs me.

19. He calls me at least 5 times a day just to check on us.

20. When he is working out of town, he always calls to make sure I get up on time and that the kids make the bus.

21. He irons everyone's clothes on Sunday.

22. He loves babies.

23. He lets me warm my frigid fingers and toes up on him.

24. He always does the dishes when we have company so I can sit and visit.

25. He catches all the bugs and spiders at our house, so I don't have to.

26. He hates breaking rules..... like making u-turns, sneaking kid snacks into the events center, turning without a blinker.... (when his left blinker burned out, he made right hand turns until he could get where he was going instead of turning left without it, I teased him mercilessly)

27. He doesn't mind when I tease him

28. He almost always wins no matter what game we play, but he never rubs it in.

29. He tells me we can have as many kids as I want to have ;)

30. He always stops what he is working on at the shop and takes the kids to and from activities so I don't have to pack up the baby.

31. He loves to travel with us.

32. He can't carry a tune...at all...but he still sings along with us at FHE.....and sings our babies to sleep.

33. He almost NEVER cries......but he cried at Grace's baptism.

34. He has put up with my mood swings through 4 pregnancies and never once complained.

35. He has a testimony.

36. He honors his priesthood.

37. He is good at talking to people and making them feel comfortable.

38. He always tries to comb his girls' hair when they get out of the bath. He's not very good at it, but it's so sweet.

39. He didn't care in the least if we would have had all girls....but now that he's here, he sure loves his boy too!

40. He always encourages me to be social and go to enrichment activites and in-home parties.

41. He's not afraid of germs. He would share a water bottle with any one of his kids, even if the quality of it's contents are compromised.

42. He does the laundry, dishes, picking up, sweeping, vacuuming, any housework really, just to help me out sometimes.

43. He is handy. He can fix almost anything. (except cars) He just doesn't think he is, so sometimes he is afraid to try.

44. He is a picky eater, but he ALWAYS eats whatever I cook and tells me it's delicious.

45. He loves popcorn with LOTS and LOTS of salt and Chex mix with extra seasoning, but he tries to tone it down when he knows we might be eating it with him.

46. He can always make the kids laugh harder than I ever can. Why is that?

47. He has never left us overnight to go hunting. (I guess he knows I'm not a big fan of hunting)

48. He loves his mom and it breaks his heart to see her lose her mobility....It's the only other time I've seen him cry.

49. He lets me stay at home and watch my babies grow and he never makes me feel like I don't do enough.

50. His Family is the most important thing in the world to him and he lets us know it everyday!

Canning...

Our storage room. Chris built the shelves. (Way to go, Babe!)

The other night Chris and I pulled an all nighter (ok, not an ALL nighter, we wrapped things up about 1am) canning a big batch of powdered milk. We usually make canning a family affair. Our kids love it. Funny huh? They love scooping things into the cans and pouches...they think it's so fun. This time we did it without them though because milk is so messy. The powder flies everywhere and it's sticky too. Even without their help, my house is covered in a layer of white powder, I can't believe how far it spread. But I did save the labeling for them to do the next day.....they absolutely think it is one of the funnest things...I suppose because it's the only time they are allowed free reign with Sharpies and they love those big sticker labels. The labels are usually upside down and sideways and some are even ripped, but we can tell what the contents are. And everytime I get something from our storage room, I just have to smile at the flower drawings on the flour. Anyway, this milk was the last thing we needed for our year's supply...woohoo! I wish you could see my happy dance! We can now officially say we have our year's supply of the basics and a little extra (like freeze dried strawberries (yum) and extra oatmeal mmmmm...) Anyway, our next big project is going to be our water.....so I told our food storage specialist because she was putting in an order to Emergency Essentials that qualified for free shipping and I wondered if we could add 55gallon barrels to the order and if they would be shipped for free too. Anyhoo...she wasn't sure, but called me back within 24hrs and said that she had just stumbled across the information that we can get 55gallon barrels from the Pepsi bottling place for $10 each!!! (they were going to be more like $85 from EE) So, if any of y'all need to get your water stored, call Pepsi in Powell or Worland. If you are feeling discouraged and overwhelmed by the whole process, don't! You can do it! We were overwhelmed when we started a few years ago, but it feels great to finally have it in place. And we have learned and saved a lot along the way. I use powdered milk quite a bit now when I am cooking...or making macaroni and cheese...you cannot tell the difference. And I sneak wheat into rolls, muffins and pizza crust, my family actually prefers whole wheat pizza crust now!

Pictures Finally!!!

Since my computer is working at the moment, I thought I'd post a few pictures from the last week. Here is one of the girls reading before bed.....sometimes they are the best of friends....I love those times!

Lily wearing her sister's hundredth day of school glasses with her best nerd face on!
Owen's very favorite pastime is climbing on the table and the counters, actually climbing anything! This time it was to help himself to some Chex.

Still no pictures. I have been posting with our laptop. Our regular computer is on it's last life and only works when it wants to (which is rarely) and all our pictures are on it. Hopefully sunday I will have the time and patience to post some pics.

Family Home Evening

This week our FHE lesson was entitled "The Lord looketh on the heart." I found the idea for it on the website familiesinzion.com. (I have referenced this site many times for FHE lessons and have been impressed with them.) I prepared two gifts beforehand. One was a rock wrapped up in a sparkly gift bag that I knew would catch my girls' attention. The other, I originally planned to be a little treat, but since we had already made cinnamon rolls for our FHE treat and I figured they didn't need anymore sugar, I wrapped up 3 little lip glosses....one for each girl....in a plain brown paper bag. At the beginning of our lesson we talked about which gift they would most like and naturally they chose the one in the fancy gift bag. I told them we would open the gifts a little later and we had a lesson about people's outside appearance and what happens when we judge. We watched a little video clip about an amazing and talented young man who doesn't look like the world's view of successful. If you would like to check it out here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qTiYA1WiY8 There is so much pressure on girls...and moms...(all of us really) to look beautiful and have fancy things. I see them already noticing outward appearances and I really want them to look past people's outward appearance, including their own, and seek out what's inside.
Anyway, we discussed all of this including the story in the 1Samuel where Samuel is told by the Lord that one of Jesse's sons will be the next king and while Jesse had many strong and handsome sons, the Lord didn't choose them. He chose David because, "The Lord seeth not as a man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart."
Then I let them open the gifts and asked them now that the outside wrapping was off, which one they liked better. My sweet Emma immediately said, "the rock. the rock...because it really doesn't matter what we look like and we don't really need to wear lip gloss." She had out-thunk me! She overanalyzed my object lesson! I explained what I really meant by the object lesson...that even though the one gift was fancy on the outside, it didn't have anything valuable on the inside, just a plain old rock. By the same account, the gift that was plain and may have seemed boring on the outside had something of value and fun on the inside. I also expained that while outside appearances aren't the most important thing about us, there is nothing wrong with lip gloss. Afterall, it can help our lips when they feel chappy and dry! I told them that they will meet people in their lives who look fancy, but aren't kind or good friends on the inside. They will also meet people who aren't fancy and might look different, but are kind and true friends once we get to know them....We also talked about the kind of people they want to be and about pressure to have fancy things and be fancy.....and that while being fancy isn't a bad thing, it's not the most important thing. (we use the word fancy a lot at our house...we love the Fancy Nancy books) The most important thing is that they are kind and help those around them and that recognize and seek out other people's talents beyond their outward appearance....
I think it all made an impression on them. They were very insightful during our discussion and we all felt the spirit which is something that doesn't always happen during family home evening. I already see so much social pressure around them and they are still so young. It is frightening for me knowing what they have ahead to face. It is my hope that they will find value in themselves beyond where the world places its value.

A Sick One

Our little Emma has been sick! Last Thursday evening Emma started running a fever. I wasn't too alarmed since we have had a nasty cold going around our house, but that's how it began. The next morning she was still running a low grade fever, but didn't have any other visible symptoms......until......her bath. While she was in the bath I noticed a rash beginning on her feet and ankles (where it was the worst) continuing up her legs to her knees. I wasn't terribly alarmed at first and decided to watch it and see if it was going to get any worse. A few hours later, it had indeed gotten worse. Her poor little feet were swollen and the rash was slowly spreading above her knees. (I only took a picture on the first day before the black and blue set in.) I called the clinic to get her in to see the doctor.....they didn't have any available appointments left for the day, but squeezed us in at 5:00 with Jack Carpenter. By the time we needed to leave for the clinic, her little feet were hurting her so badly she couldn't wear socks and it was painful to walk. So....I loaded up my four kids and headed out to the doctor. (Chris was with the basketball team coaching in Cody)
We were seen by the nurse first who said she hadn't seen anything like it and then by a med. student who was also stumped. Jack came in and said he had no clue what it might be and confirmed that she had all her immunizations up to date.....which she had. I had brought a few snacks to try to pass the time, but had no clue what we were in for. Jack studied resouces on the computer while the med student studied her book, but to no avail. He kept studying her legs and then comparing what he saw to images on the computer. All the while my sweet children were becoming more and more anxious. (by anxious, I really mean climbing under the table and chairs, arguing, playing in the garbage(owen), whining about being hungry etc. etc.) He finally saw an image that looked similar....and said to the med. student, "It almost looks like this Henoch Schonlein Pupura." To which I immediately asked, "what did you just say?" I instantly remembered the term from when I was younger. My brother had it when he was 2 or 3. It was an auto immune thing that made him extremely sick. He vomitted blood and bled internally into his joints and organs. The doctors could not figure out what it was. It was quite a blessing that when it had hit it's worst, and my parents had him in the emergency room, a doctor from out of town recognized it as the "worst case of henoch schonlein pupura" he had every seen. Once he was diagnosed, they hospitalized him and gave him large doses of steriods to stop the internal bleeding which likely saved his life.

Anyway, you can imagine my alarm at that moment, wondering if that was what Emma really had. Jack left to phone a pediatrician to confirm the diagnosis and discuss what needed to be done. While he was on the phone, one of the littles naturally thinks they need to use the restroom which inspires them all to do the same, by this time they are all out sprinting up and down the halls and playing hide and go seek in the clinic....nice. Chris texts to check in and spreads the word to Wolvingtons who save the day. Dan came and picked up all the kids except Emma and took them home with him..... Thank you! I cannot thank you enough!..... Because once Jack had spoken with the pediatrician on the phone, there was labwork that needed to be done. We had been at the clinic for roughly two hours by now and I cannot imagine how much more fun the little kiddos would have had playing tag in the lab. So, Emma and I headed to the lab for bloodwork and urine samples. She was one brave little girl! They stuck her in the first arm and couldn't get a vein, so they had to try the other arm. She didn't even scream.. little sweetie. They needed to make sure she wasn't bleeding into her organs. (kidneys and digestive system mostly, I think)
Anyway, turns out, HSP is in no way hereditary or contagious...just a weird coincidence. I feel like seeing Jack was such a blessing because I know other doctors probably would have told us they didn't know what it was and sent us home with instructions to "watch it" and let them know if it got any worse. I am so thankful he took the time to study it out and give us a diagnosis. If I hadn't known what it was, I am sure I would have had her in the emergency room on Saturday because by Saturday morning her ankles were black and blue and she was barely walking on them. Like I said earlier HSP is an auto immune disorder where the immune system essentially overeacts to something and it causes swelling and bleeding into the capillaries (this is what was causing the appearance of a rash) and joints. It can also affect the digestive system. It generally lasts about 30 days.

We are so thankful for all the prayers on little Emma's behalf and truly feel like they led to her quite miraculous recovery. By Sunday, she was walking much better and even made it through all of church wearing shoes! By the time we were home from church she wasn't walking much and none at all by evening time. The rash had also spread to her arms and all the way up her legs. Monday, she headed off to school, although I warned her teacher about what was going on, so she would send her home if she was in pain. She made it all day!.... although by 2:00 in the afternoon, she was having joint pain in her ankles and the swelling had spread to her knees. Once she was home, she never walked again that evening, but by the next morning was feeling much better. She made it through all of Tuesday, only complaining about pain mildly by bedtime. And has been doing awesome the last few days. We have been warned that there could be more flare-ups over the next 30 days, but we feel like thanks to the everyone's prayers, she has already exceeded everyone's expectations. She refers fondly to her rash (which now looks like little bruises all over) as her "polka dots." -and is happy to show them off to whoever would like to see them. She did show a boy in her kindergarten class who responded by running away scared. She told me about it later and was annoyed by his reaction. I love kindergarteners!

My aunt Melanie and cousin Larissa and her little ones came to wish her well the other day and brought her a puzzle to do in her down time. Thanks, it was so fun seeing you!

Grace's Baptism

The week before Grace's baptism, we went to Billings together....just she and I. It was so fun! We don't get a lot of one on one time together and it was great to just enjoy being with her. We did a little shopping and intended to take pictures of her outside the temple in her baptism dress. BUT we went on Monday and the gates were closed....I knew better, but it just slipped my mind. Anyway after deciding that crawling under the gate was not a real great plan, we took a couple shots of her on the hill above the temple and made plans to return a few days later to finish. We went to lunch at Red Lobster (Grace picked) where she had potato soup and I had a chicken Caesar salad. (Yeah, we aren't big seafood fans)

We went back to Billings on Wednesday and finished the picture taking and picked up food for after the baptism. We were so lucky, it was beautiful that week...in the 60's. However, by the day of her baptism, snow was flying and we considered postponing it since we weren't sure if family would be able to make it safe and sound. Grace really wanted to be baptized on her birthday, so we went ahead with our plans not sure who would be able to make it. We held the baptism in Byron on Sunday, January 25th. We needed to hold the baptism there so we could have it earlier in the day and give our family who were traveling time to get home before too late. The Lovell building has wards meeting in it until 6:00pm, so it would not have been available until late.

It turned out wonderful. We had a full house. Chris's sister, our niece Mikala, and his parents all braved the snow and made it. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! We LOVED seeing you there and your presence meant so much to Grace! My family also came in spite of the snow. My sister, Marsie, lead the music and my mom and my brother, Bryce, put together a slide show with pictures of Grace from the time she was born to the present. It was beautiful. She is growing so fast it makes me a little sad, but we couldn't be more proud of her. My mom spoke to Gracie about baptism and choices. Emma said the closing prayer without help.....Way to go Emma! We were so proud of you! Grace asked my aunt Ruby to speak about the Holy Ghost, so she was there with her family as well as my aunt Melanie and her husband John. We are so grateful for our family's support and willingness to participate in the program. In addition to our family we can't forget the many great friends who came to show their support and love. Kisha McArthur played the piano and brought her children. I served with her in the primary presidency in 4th ward and they have become dear friends. I also served with Jen McArthur (another dear friend and inspiration!) and she came with her family and 8 kids! I have to give credit where it is due....Jen has brought all of her girls to Billings for a special day with mom and taken pictures outside the temple before they were baptized. Thank you for the wonderful idea! It is a memory I will treasure! We are so thankful for the sacrifices each of you made to be there. All of our friends from 4th ward were skipping out of ward conference to be there and show their support. And from what I hear were reprimanded just a little for doing so! Aubrey, thank you so much for coming and for your help in the kitchen. We love your sweet little family! Grace's friend Natalia and her family also came and Grace was so excited to see them there. There are more of you. Tashie and Kaitlyn and Brenden...Bishop... Sister Checketts... but this post is getting extremely long. THANK YOU TO EVERYONE! It was such a special day!