Sean's Baptism Day

September 28, 2013

Sean was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on the last Saturday of the month with two beautiful little girls from our ward.  I took him to the temple that morning to get some pictures of him on his special day.  Isn't he handsome?

So excited to be baptized!  

He kept asking me all morning what time it was, and how much longer until his baptism.

Since we live far from all our family, none of them could come out for his special day.  But we have such a wonderful ward family, many of whom were there to support him and celebrate his choice. We are so thankful for our wonderful friends here in Albuquerque that we consider our family.  And we're proud of Sean for following the Savior's example to be baptized, and for his desire to choose the right.  I love baptism days.

The Dark Side, Signatures, and Ties 101

September 21

Popejoy Hall

John Williams Concert

The New Mexico Philharmonic was performing a concert of John Williams music, so we thought it would be perfect to bring the older kids, who would recognize a lot of the music.  Sean went kicking and screaming complaining that it was gonna be soooo boring!  He said, "There's nothing to look at.  All you do is sit and listen!"  Yep.  All the more reason why he DEFINITELY needed to go.  And guess what?  He made it through the whole concert and even enjoyed most of it.  

Of course, the coolest part was the Star Wars characters wandering around the lobby before, after and during intermission.  They even came on stage when the orchestra played the Star Wars music.  It's not every day you see a Storm Trooper hanging out on the balcony at Popejoy, or get a fist bump from Darth Maul.

September 26

First American Title Company

We finally sold our other house!  After a pending sale that fell through and some drama at the end of this deal, we were really happy to sign those papers and be the owners of just one home.  Hopefully we can finally put some time and resources into the house we live in, now that we aren't landlords anymore.  :)  We have so much broken stuff to fix!  Just looking at the list is exhausting.

September 28th

Ties 101

I got Sean a new dress shirt and tie for his baptism.  A real tie that doesn't clip on.  I enlisted Dallin to teach Sean how to tie his new tie, and I love remembering how patient Dallin was with Sean, and how proud Sean was of his newly learned skill.

State Fair 2013 and more catching up

Sometime in September 

When my kids do something extra good, (like get breakfast ready without being asked, or doing all their jobs without being asked) they earn a "Best Behavior Card." When they earn 3 cards, they get to choose a treat.  With just a little persuasion on my part, they all chose U-Swirl, so this is them enjoying their best behavior treat.

September 4th

State Fair Fieldtrip

Sydney's preschool had a field trip to the state fair.  I loved this picture of her sitting "side-saddle" on this horse.  She did that all on her own.  What a little lady.

September 6th

State Fair Again

So, I should have pulled the kids out of school to go to the fair with Sydney because they all wanted to go, and I ended up taking them out of school to go another day anyway.  Dallin chose not to miss school because he didn't want to fall behind in his classes.  But I went down with the other five. 

We had such a fun day.  They kids were really well behaved, and we just totally enjoyed each other.  Usually when I take lots of kids on an outing, I feel super frazzled at the end.  But they were so good, that it was just fun!  And Bennett was such a good boy.  He just hung out in his stroller eating snacks and drinking his bottle.  

They loved the petting zoo, the corn box, the "Werewolf" show (actually just a wolf show, but Sydney called them "werewolves") and McDonald's farm where they got a FREE popsicle at the end!  

I told them they could choose one treat whether it was food or face painting.  Daphne's deepest desire was to ride the ponies.  So that was the treat they chose.  They loved it.  And I love  Sydney's look of pure joy as she sat up on her pony's back.  

My treat:  Deep Fried Green Chile Cheese Curds.  

At first the kids didn't want to try any, which was just fine with me, since it was my treat anyway.  

But in the end, I think they ate more than I did.

September 15

Ceres, CA

Emma's Mission Farewell

I loved that I got to go out to be with my youngest sister, Emma, for her missionary farewell, (which was also on her 21st birthday!)  She is the only one of the Stone Sisters to go on a mission, and I'm so proud of her!  This was a really tough decision for her to make because unlike the thousands of other sister missionaries thrilled with the lower age limit and rushing to turn in their papers, Emma did not have a desire to serve a mission.  But she made it a matter of prayer and felt that a mission is what the Lord wanted her to do.  She said in her farewell talk, "I'm going because I love the Lord.  And He wants me to go."  Such a good example of turning her will over to the Father.  

She's serving the people of the Georgia, Atlanta mission and she is gonna do great!  She has a strong testimony and is a very genuine person.  

Some Catching Up and Birthdays

I feel like I'm perpetually running a month behind! So for the sake of my sanity, I'm going to start doing some catch-up posts covering several events, or I might never get this blog current.

I've actually thought lately of discontinuing my blog because it's just another thing that I can't get done.  But last month I finished publishing my 2009 blog posts into books (yes, that is plural.  I blogged so much that year, I had to divide the year into 2 books--thank goodness I'll never have that problem again) and my kids LOVE them!  They look at them all the time.  And I love them too.  There's a lot of stuff in there that I'd already forgotten about until I was editing my book.  So the blog will continue.  Although I may just have to come to terms with it always being a bit behind.

These pictures cover the end of August and beginning of September:

Just a random Family Home Evening.  

We were singing "Do as I'm Doing" and Bennett was the leader. 

 An Isotopes game

We got a sitter for the two littlest, and Dallin got to invite a couple of friends.

Daphne's Birthday

Daphne turned 10.  Not her year for a party, but she usually convinces me to invite a friend or two or a family to celebrate with her.  So this year she invited the Shepherds.

Daphne wanted an ipod more than anything in the world.  This is her face when she opened her present and saw that it was . . .  an ipod!!  (blurry, but still awesome.)

Her friends Lucy and Sophie got her these super blinged-out headphones to use with her ipod.  She loves them!

Since we celebrated Sean's birthday (a party year for him) the next day, I just bought Daphne's birthday cake.  Just thinking about those, "Nothin' Bundt Cakes" makes me salivate!

Our Daphne is such a good older sister and is especially kind and helpful with Sydney and Bennett who both adore her.  Daph and Syd share a room, and it's funny but, neither likes to go to bed without the other.  Daphne is a nurturer.  She looks out for Hayden who is in Kindergarten this year, and makes sure he isn't getting "bullied."   She loves listening to music, and singing, dancing and playing with friends.  Daphne is very creative--loves to make crafts and draw dress designs and other pictures.  She still wishes with all her heart for a pet.  (Apparently a frog doesn't count, because we do have one of those currently.  Can't believe he's still alive, actually.)  She brings home books from the library about how to care for kittens/cats at least once a month, and if it's not a book about cats, then it's a book of inspirational stories about dogs who've been adopted from shelters, or a "How to Draw Cats" book.   Maybe someday, when all the kids are potty-trained we could consider getting a pet with fur. 

Sean's Birthday

Sean turned 8 so it was a party year for him.  He wanted a Minion Party.

Here all the boys wearing their "Minion" goggles

Sean specifically requested a "fluffy unicorn" pinata.  

Sydney fell in love with it.  

I thought this Twinkie Minion idea was pretty genius. 

(found it on pinterest of course.)

Poor Bennett--the kids kept putting these minion goggles on him, which he did not appreciate.

Sydney was the youngest, so she was first to hit the pinata.  She did fine on her turn, but became really concerned when the boys started wacking it. She burst into tears when the head got knocked off.  Poor thing!  She was so distraught she didn't even respond to my showing her all the candy to be collected.

I just have to say, that I do not enjoy throwing birthday parties.  I am not good at it, and they totally stress me out.  Hence the rule where we only have birthday parties on certain years.  Well, after all of the friends left, and we were cleaning up from the chaos, Dallin said to me, "When I'm an adult, I don't think I'm gonna throw parties for my kids."  Made me laugh.

Since Sean turned 8, he got his own set of scriptures with his name on it.

Sean is such a great kid.  He gets along with everybody, and is very gentle and attentive of his baby brother.  Sean reminds me a little bit of Mark Twain, (or was it Huckleberry Finn?) in the way he tries to do as little work as possible.  If we're all cleaning up the kitchen after dinner, he makes his way to the bathroom for awhile.  Or if there's an easier way to do schoolwork, than the way he was taught to do it, he will find that way.  He is resourceful, perpetually hungry, and a problem solver.  I can motivate him to do almost anything by offering screen time as a reward.  Occasionally, he likes to just go lie on the trampoline and look up at the sky.  But only if screen time has been banned and there isn't anything else to do.  ;)  We love our Sean.

Cub Scouts

And because Sean is 8, he got to start Cub Scouts, which he loves!!

August/September Quotes

Better late than never, right?

Sean:  I did my homework while I was going to the bathroom because that's the only place to get any peace and quiet.

(a sad truth at our house, but at least he figured it out young.)

With the birthday money she got from her grandparents and great-grandparents, Daphne bought a horse for her generation doll.  When Sydney saw the horse she said, "Oh!  That horse looks like it's MY horse!"

Daphne's horse

Sydney:  Mom, you have pretty eyes.

Me:  Thanks!  I think your eyes are very pretty too!

Sydney: No, my eyes are beautiful.  Your eyes are pretty and my eyes are beautiful

Hayden:  I have crusheth on two girlth.  One of them ith too old for me and the other one doethn't want to marry me!

Daphne:  How do we get invited to sing in church?

(I told our ward music chairman that my Dallin & Daphne would love to sing a song in church.  So they were invited to sing and did a beautiful job.  Lots of people told me that they loved their song, but apparently they didn't tell Dallin because here's what he said after church that day:)

Dallin:  I was kind of shocked that no one in primary told us that we did a good job.

Daphne:  I need a tums because I'm having a heartburn

Dallin:  Who invented homework?

Arthur:  I don't know but when we get to heaven, I'm gonna beat him up.

Dallin:  Are you sure he'll be in heaven?

Sydney: (singing after preschool) The diapers on the bus go squish, squish, squish.  

(I think she meant wipers that go swish swish swish.)

Arthur has been winning the gray hair competition handily for awhile.  But recently, my gray hair is sprouting out faster than I can pluck them out.  I was lamenting about this and said, 

"It doesn't matter how much gray hair you have.  When guys have gray hair, they look distinguished.  

But when girls have gray hair--"

Daphne:  "They just look OLD!" 

Sydney:  He's MY brother baby.

Dallin: (After Sean's bday party with a bunch of crazy little boys over here.) When I'm an adult, I don't think I'll do birthday parties for my kids.

Hayden: Mom!  It turnth out that I love to read!  The only problem ith I don't actually know HOW to read yet.

Sydney: (to her Barbie)  Ugh.  You're maked?  (naked)  Why are you maked?!?

Sydney: (crying) Mom, I don't have no binky to sleep with.  

Me:  How to do you feel about that?

Sydney:  It's harder.

Me:  I know sweetie, but I you are a big girl, and I know you can do it.

Sydney:  okay.

Hayden:  There'th a big thpider upthtairth!

Sydney:  (face lights up with a brilliant plan) I know!  I can smash it with my glass slipper!

Sydney's glass slippers

At choir practice, one of the young women was holding Bennett.  Sydney approached her and said, "Brook-a-lyn (she breaks Brooklyn's name into three syllables)  Can I have that baby?"

Hayden to Sydney:  Thydney! You are NOT the queen of the world!

Sydney:  Our house is good.  We have a table, and we have Lincoln Logs . . .

Hayden:  I'm worried about thomething.

Me:  What are you worried about.

Hayden:  I'm worried that when I'm an adult, I won't know what to do with my children.

Family Home Evening discussion on the Holy Ghost.  

Me:  You can pray and ask Heavenly Father if He's real, and the Holy Ghost will help you know that He is real.

Sean:  Why would I ask that question?  I already know that He's real.

Me: Sydney!  Why did you do that?

Sydney:  I go sit on the dryer.

Sydney:  Bennett garfed on me!  

Daphne:  Hayden, why did you throw that away?  Dig it out!

Hayden: I'm not gonna dig it out of the garbage.

Daphne:  Why not?  I do it all the time.

Hayden:  Everyone ith different.