The BIG weekend- Mothers and 40

"The second weekend in May was a BIG one for us. Everyone was coming to our home to celebrate Kobe's baptism,

Mother's Day,and Greg's 40th birthday!!"

Sunday- Mother's Day AND Greg's 40th Birthday!!!

Even with the Avery's headed home, we still had a lot of people to get ready for church. It took me the longest to get to church with Jackson in tow. He'd been coughing a bunch that morning due to a little cold. It's always worse when you just wake up though, so I brought him to church.

Toward the end of Sacrament Meeting Jackson started coughing really hard and started gagging on the phlegm. Instinct kicked in and I stuck my hand out under his mouth as he vomited into it. Lovely...Happy Mother's Day to me. Out of no where people were handing us tissues. Reagan grabbed a Pull Up out of the bag for me to try to wipe it all into. What a mess. Jackson was upset that his shirt was a little messy and my dress was too. Off to the restroom we went to

 wash up a little and then home to change. I figured no one would want me to bring him back to his Primary class so we got in cozy clothes and stayed home.

{Pretty tulips Sheryl got me for Mother's Day}

Dad and Greg made a YUMMY dinner for everyone.  (Yes, poor Greg had to cook for his mother, wife and mother in law even though it was his 40th Birthday today!!)  Greg grilled steaks and chicken.  Dad made a homemade salad dressing and low(-er) fat version of fettuccine alfredo.  (Some recipes he learned to make in a cooking class we got him for his birthday.) 

{This is not a great picture of Dad, I caught him mid sentence.  I just wanted to include a picture of him creating in the kitchen.}

 There was pasta salad, green salad, potato salad, asparagus, fruit, rolls...  

It was all so good!  

After dinner we had a little present time for Greg (and the mom's too.)  Then it was time to get ready for the big  birthday present- a trip to Hawaii!!! I still had laundry to do and put away.  I had to finalize the week's schedule for my parents who were staying home with the kids. I had to pack. Busy, Busy.  

Soon it was time for us to say our goodbyes to the Colorado family.  The kids especially were bummed, not knowing when the next visit with their cousins might be. Even Kobe hugged Jake and Kyle goodbye.  (Well, it was more of a hug turned into a painful tackle... poor Scorse boys!)  Greg took Sheryl and the boys to the airport late that afternoon, only to get a call from them a little later because a flight had been cancelled. The kids cheered!  More play time! :)  This meant though that Sheryl and the boys would need to leave for the airport around 4am.  So, while I finished up packing, etc most of the night, Greg slept a bit, took them to the airport and returned to get me to catch our flight... The excitement of the BIG weekend had passed and now we got to seriously relax!

The BIG weekend- Baptism Day

"The second weekend in May was a BIG one for us. Everyone was coming to our home to celebrate Kobe's baptism,

Mother's Day,

and Greg's 40th birthday!!"

Saturday- After staying up until 5am due to a slow computer and too much left to do, I slept in letting the rest of the adults in the house deal with kids in the morning. Awesome hostess aren't I?! (We were up to 16 people under our roof now.) There was lots of playing, some practicing by Reagan and Jillie for the baptism,

and some swimming in frigid pool waters by "the middles" (Kobe, Saroya and Kyle) Jaleigh put her suit on too because she's just beautiful in it. :) I finally got Kobe's program printed up and slide show done about an hour before the baptism. That slide show... that was work.... or at least picking out the pictures was a HUGE chore! We got our first digital camera when Kobe was born. I take a lot of pictures- thousands since he's been born. Going through all of the pictures for each year of his life took so long and there were so many good pictures. I tried to narrow it down as best I could so the slide show wouldn't just go on and on. I'm happy with it though. (I'll post it after this post.)

I am so grateful for all the help I got from everyone that day. My Mom and Dad, Sheryl, Nathan, and Holly helped so much to get everyone and everything ready to go on time. It wouldn't have happened without them. Thank you! Thank you! A million times, thank you!

The Grandmas.

Holly & Nathan (had to post this one because it's so rare to catch Nathan in a real smile!)

So the baptism went on without a hitch. Kobe was a little nervous I think, but he was happy too. We are so proud of him making such a good choice.

(the inside of the program)

Ethan and My Dad spoke at the baptism. They both had Kobe come up in front for an object lesson as part of their talks. I loved this so much. I'm sure it really helped Kobe to understand better the concepts of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost. (Dad even used Reagan, Jillie, Ethan, and Jacob to help with his object lesson.)

Jillie and Reagan did a duet that was awesome! I'm a proud Mommy. The both saw Kobe's baptism as an opportunity to share their musical talents. I'm glad Kobe was fine with that. They did the song "I Am A Child Of God". Reagan played it through first on her cello. Jillie sang the first verse as a solo (with our friend John Melling on piano). They sang a duet on the other 2 verses, with Jillie singing the descant on the last verse. It sounded great and the bishopric even asked if they would do that again in sacrament meeting sometime soon. :)

Greg of course baptized Kobe.  He also confirmed Kobe with the assistance of my Dad, Nathan, Shawn Christensen, Nick Brandt, and Bishop Christopherson.  The spirit was strong.  In the confirmation blessing Greg said that he felt his own father's presence there as well.  (Greg's dad passed away 14 years ago.)  Kobe received a wonderful blessing from our Heavenly Father and now the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost.

We had so many great friends come out in the middle of a busy Saturday afternoon to support Kobe in his decision to be baptized. We are so thankful to all of them!

After the baptism we served a little snack of ice cream sundaes and fruit salad. My friend Marilyn Chambers was so sweet to bring some mint brownies to serve too! Oh my goodness I forgot to mention some more service I was the recipient of this weekend. On Thursday night, my friend Marielle Melling showed up at the door as we were having our pizza party dinner with a huge tray of WARM cinnamon rolls. Oh my goodness. What a sweetheart and what a surprise! I wish I was more thoughtful like those girls!

So, back to Saturday... We returned home to make dinner for the whole clan. Our friends Nick Brandt and Shawn Christensen joined us too for steak, chicken scampi, hamburgers, hot dogs, and more. Sheryl made 2 delicious cakes that I can't believe I didn't take pictures of. (I took so few pictures this weekend! Thank goodness Holly did. I do love having pictures!)) Sheryl made a lemon cake for Kobe's baptism and an amazing chocolate cake for Greg's 40th birthday.
We had a nice visit with everyone. Sadly Holly, Nathan and kids had to leave to drive through the night back to Michigan. (Nathan had to work at 6pm Sunday night.)

Before going to bed I saw Kobe looking through his new scriptures, so we took a little time together talking about them. (Dad grabbed my camera and took pictures.) It was a nice moment to end a great day on.

(Sorry these are such long posts, I just want to record all of the details I can remember.)

Still more to come...

Kobe. The First Eight Years.

The BIG weekend continues...

"The second weekend in May was a BIG one for us. Everyone was coming to our home to celebrate
Kobe's baptism,
Mother's Day,
and Greg's 40th birthday!!"

Friday-

We got a slow start... or at least I did. The kids were up bright and early as usual. So much to do, so little time! I had to go to the grocery store, to get food for the rest of the weekend, the baptism, and try to stock up on food for the next week when my folks are here with our kids. Holly and Sheryl decided to come with me to do a little shopping of their own, Greg was at work, and Nathan got the lovely job of caring for, entertaining, and feeding lunch to NINE kids ages 4-12. He does a great job with the kids- and not many kids can resist Uncle Nathan's Famous Mac 'n Cheese. (Kraft Mac 'n Cheese with tons of butter basically) :) Holly HAD to get a sandwich at Wegman's and because she is so persuasive, Sheryl and I each got one too. She cracked us up all the way home with her pure joy in eating that sandwich. She also delighted in seeing us eat ours. :)

After the big shopping trip, we loaded up the kids and drove the hour and 15 minutes to Palmyra, NY. Nathan opted to hang back for some quiet study time. I still needed to find a gift for Greg's birthday, so I left Holly and Sheryl with all the kids at the Smith Farm and took off for the local LDS bookstore.

They toured both homes...

and they took a nice hike through the Sacred Grove...Jackson was d-o-n-e by the time I joined them again. He'd taken a nasty fall and his elbow was really scrapped up. He'd recovered, but seeing me again, all the emotions came back up. We drove over to Hill Cumorah where I waited in the car with Jackson.

Holly took some great pictures at the farm and at Cumorah.

Heading up to the hill.

Grammie G stops to smell the lilacs.

There is a path that criss-crosses up the hill, but the kids decided to head straight up...

... to the top...

...and down again. (Love this picture- love the green and love that perfect tree across the road. We call it the Tree of Life.)

We got home for a late dinner. Greg & Nathan were home. More fun was had by all. My parents arrived late that night after driving from Michigan. I was up VERY late that night ( 5am I think), still finishing Kobe's slide show for his baptism and creating the printed baptism program. It had to get done though, this was crunch time. The baptism was tomorrow!!

To be continued...

The BIG weekend begins!- **edit**

The second weekend in May was a BIG one for us. Family started rolling in from Colorado and Michigan starting on Wednesday, May 6th. Everyone was coming to our home to celebrate

Kobe's baptism,

Mother's Day,

and Greg's 40th birthday!!

As usual I was going crazy trying to get the entire house clean & organized, grocery shopping for the masses as well as preparing for the baptism and making preparations for a trip to Hawaii Greg and I were taking the following week. I can't think of a time when I was so exhausted physically and mentally. Don't get me wrong, I was so excited to have everyone here, but I was stressing to have everything perfect before they all arrived. But then something unusual happened. I gave in. I didn't care. Our family was coming. Family. People who love me and they already know I'm not perfect. As each group arrived I felt relieved. Not only were we going to have fun with them all, but they came to help as well. I appreciate them all SO, SO much for making it a great weekend!! (I hope their visit wasn't too much of a working visit, since I really put everyone to work cooking, cleaning, shopping, watching the kids, ironing clothes, etc...)

It was such a great weekend and it flew by way too fast!

Wednesday night: Kobe had a Pack meeting for scouts. It was the... He earned his Bobcat (and some other things I can't remember) and had fun creating his own invention:Greg had to leave before the meeting was over because his mom, Sheryl, and 2 nephews, Jake and Kyle, were flying in from Colorado! House ready? No. Oh well. Let the fun begin anyway!

Thursday: I attended a "Mother's Day Tea" at Jackson's preschool. So fun to see him in that environment and see what he's been doing in class. This little song/dance (one of many) cracked me up. :)

After preschool we went home, picked up Sheryl and the boys, and headed for...

Niagara Falls!!

Jake and Kyle had to borrow their Uncle Greg's sweatshirts since it gets a little chilly at the falls.

Sheryl took the boys on the Maid of the Mist. Jackson was adamant about NOT getting on the boat so we stayed ashore.The ones who did brave the falls sure felt it. The were wind swept and soaked. So much for the blue ponchos they give you to keep you dry! We spent a little more time enjoying the signs of spring...

... then headed home since my kids were returning from school and they didn't like the thought of their cousins not being at the house when they were!

Not long after getting home, my sister and brother in law, Holly and Nathan, and their kids, Ethan, Saroya, and Jaleigh showed up at our door. They'd been driving all day from Michigan. We were up to 9 kids and 5 adults. Pizza for dinner seemed appropriate for the party atmosphere that was going on!

**Edit- I forgot to mention a little about the cousins. First of all, the cousins- although from different sides of the family and had never met before- all got along swimmingly. Literally in some cases. Once Holly's family arrived, the back yard instantly looked like a park. Kids running everywhere, playing on the playground, and splashing each other by standing next to our newly opened pool. While I was off getting the pizza somehow Kobe and Kyle ended up in the pool- fully clothed. (At least Kyle had his shoes off, Kobe didn't. :-$) I believe it was Saroya who ended up pushing the boys who were sitting on the pool edge soaking everyone around them. Those "middles" all think a like. The boys LOVED it. They all had such a good time together. :)**

After dinner we all headed off to the Middle School to hear Jillie's choir sing, as well as other school musical groups perform. We took up almost an entire row! Holly was kind enough to sit out in the hall with Jackson who for some reason refuses to go into any of the kids performances these days. (*frustrating!*)

Jillie did great. I forgot the battery to my camera though so I don't have any video footage to share this time- just a picture from Holly's camera. (Middle row, black jacket near the middle.)

Greg and Nathan left as soon as Jillie's group finished so they could get over to the church to play basketball. The rest of us took the kids home and eventually got them all to sleep in various rooms of the house.

More to come...

Fight Night

Greg's company sponsored a kickboxing event last month- and he and his friend Dave needed to go to help represent the company. They decided too that it would be a fun father-son outing and brought the older boys. Greg, of course, took Kobe on a shopping trip to outfit him in the coolest clothes possible...

Now they were ready for the fights... (And I waited by the phone in case the event ended up being deemed inappropriate for children by the dads.)

(Greg & Kobe with Dave, Connor and Blake)

The boys enjoyed keeping score during each fight. They also all got to meet and congratulate the big winner of the night.
(And I appreciate the pictures taken by the company so I could see what fun they had together!)

Together Forever

April 25, 2009 Palmyra New York LDS Temple

Nick and Angie were sealed for time and all eternity. We have been fortunate to know the Brandt's as they began learning about the gospel and were baptized in March 2008. On their sealing day we were blessed to be in the temple with them. They are such an impressive couple, good examples to us, and great friends. It was especially touching when their 4 year old daughter came into the Sealing Room to be sealed to her parents. I'm pretty sure there was not a dry eye in the room as they knelt across the altar holding hands. So sweet. So important.

It was also especially nice to be there with Greg, to remember our own wedding day nearly 17 years before. We are so happy to be an eternal family.

Aloha!

Home again...

... but still in this state of mind. 

(and my body's still in that time zone.  Hopefully I'll find energy to blog about it all soon!)

17 years

17 years of wedded  bliss. 

 Love you so much Greg!  

Thanks for a great week!