Bailey's Baptism - March 7, 2009

Our Bailey was baptized today. Lots of people came to his baptism to celebrate his decision and example. His cousins and friends sang, his Grandma Rigtrup and Great Aunt Louise spoke (great talks on Baptism and the Holy Ghost), his sister gave him lots of hugs and everyone enjoyed a banana split or two. The spirit was so strong. I'm so thankful he made this covenant and promise. We will never forget - it was truely a beautiful day!

Child of God
Bailey & Dad.

My Sweet Bailey!

Family Picture

Waiting for the program to begin.
Cousins and Friends sing "I Am A Child Of God."
Grandma Patti with Bailey

Grandpa and Grandma Rigtrup

Aunt Beth having fun with the kids....

Banana Splits - Yum!

Everyone enjoying and socializing after the baptism.

Bailey's Announcement and Invitation

Bailey's B-day Party - February 14th

What do you do when you ask your son "What kind of a Birthday party do you want to have this year?" and his reply is "Mom, I think I'd like to have a Abraham Lincoln Birthday party." You make it work after you pick yourself up off the floor! LOL!

I had to get really creative but we had fun and even Honest Abe himself showed up! Hee, Hee, Hee!

Decorating the house! Red, White and Blue were the colors of the day!

Abe storytime. Yeah, the boys were REAL interested....

Penny Toss

Party On!

Good old Abe!

Grandma Patti and Gabriella at the party!

Penny Cupcakes! This was a stretch - I had to hunt for chocolate pennies!

Party Favors

Bailey turns 8!!! February 12th

My baby boy is no longer a baby....he is now at the age of accountability! Bailey turned 8 and I found myself wondering where all the time had gone! Seriously, it seems like we just had the kid blessed and now he's on to baptism!

We have a tradition with the kids of going out to dinner (anywhere of their choice) on their Birthdays but Bailey had asked me to make a crab dinner. It was an awesome request that we all enjoyed! We then headed out to a movie to top off the night.

As Bailey was born on Lincoln's Birthday, another tradition for Bailey's day is that he gets an Abraham Lincoln book on his birthday. He has quite a collection!

Welcome to 8 big guy!!!

"I Love You Roxie"

Roxie is well loved, especially by Gabriella. I'm amazed at how much love toward animals Ella has. It would not surprise us in the least bit if she grew up to be a Vet or a Zookeeper or lived on a Farm. Regardless, I know she'll have a ton of animals in her care someday (just not at our house \"/).
I came downstairs one day to find that she had made Roxie a picture and posted it up right by her bed. She loves her wanted her "To be happy and always think of her (Ella) when she looks at it!" Since then Roxie's art wall has been growing and she now has 5 or 6 pictures tacked up to look at. I can't bring myself to take them down. So they'll stay there till they fall down. I really love watching my children's personality unfold - I really love being a Mom.

Winter Writer's Cafe - January 16th

Bailey has the neatest 2nd grade teacher this year - Ms. Faire. She's young and vibrant and really willing to go the extra mile for her class!

The kids wanted a Christmas party but with all the having to be politcally correct crap, Ms Faire was told she couldn't have one. So in an effort around this, she decided decided to have a Winter Writers Cafe as an alternative. The kids were told to write a poem or a story that they were going to get to read to their parents at the Cafe. She sent home cute invites and had cookies and hot chocolate. This was supposed to take place December 12th, the last day before winter break, but the snow came with a vengence and the kids started their winter break earlier. So it got rescheduled to January 16th. Bailey had wrote a poem and a story (which he tried to finish but it was really long). He read the Poem at the Cafe. I'm a proud Mom!

Bailey's Poem - The Snow Man:

The snow was falling

My bad sister was drawing

A snow man was walking

He filled my stocking

With a bunch of candy

And his name was Manny

This is Bailey sitting next to his good friend John. Bailey thinks John looks like Slash from Guns N' Roses. He calls him that! (LOL! But I think he does too!) Bay wishes his hair was like this - Oh No- I think we may be raising a little rocker!

"Mommy, I WANT TO BAKE SOMETHING RIGHT NOW!!" January 5th

Gabriella has been enjoying spending time with me in the kitchen. She loves to cook and do anything bake wise! She's usually attached to my hip in the kitchen. The only thing she wanted for Christmas this year was an Easy Bake Oven. I remember wanting one so badly when I was her age! So my little Chef received one (amoung other baking stuff) from Santa Claus this year. (I definitely want her to love to cook and bake.) We had so much going on after Christmas that we didn't have time to do the Easy Bake and use her new cupcake decorating machine (which by the way, was a complete piece of junk and waste of money). She also had been playing with her other new toys.

On the first day back to school (Ella's a Kinder so she goes to school in the afternoon) that morning she came to me and told me that she wanted to bake something using her new oven. I told her that the next day would be better but she wouldn't have that! "NO! Not tomorrow, I WANT TO BAKE SOMETHING RIGHT NOW!" Now usually I don't tolerate the temper tantrums well but I could tell she really wanted to do this and I felt bad that we had waited so long to do it. So I put my plans on hold and we had a morning in the kitchen baking. She baked a little round cake and frosted it. She thought it tasted perfect. (I thought it tasted disgusting! But that's Easy Bake cake mixes for ya!) We then baked more cupcakes from a regular cake mix so she could use her frosting machine to decorate them! I really enjoyed my time with my daughter and I'm really thankful she LOVES to cook and bake.

Happy 2009 New Year!

We celebrated the new year at our good friends, the Bakers, house with a large group of people and kids. It was so fun! I'm grateful to have such good friends! I usually get a picture with all of us on New Years Eve and then the New Year! This year, I have no idea what I was thinking, but I forgot. So Happy New Year! I hope 2009 is going to be a good year!