Malia's 8!!!

When we were first married, I always would look to future milestones as something that would take so long to achieve.  Such as being married for 15+ years, having children in school, having children who were self sufficient, having teenagers...being in my 30's!  Well we have hit those milestones so fast and so many times that I can't even keep up, and here we are again at one of those BIG milestones.  Malia turned 8 before we could even blink and with that came a really big decision for her to make.  To be baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints.  It wasn't even hard for her to make that decision, she has known for a long time what the answer would be.  The hard part was the decision on when and where to be baptized.  You see, with the temple dedication so close to her birthday, we thought it would be a good idea to baptize her on her birthday so she could be apart of the dedication.  In the church, only baptized members are allowed to attend and even though should would be 8 by the dedication, we would have to hustle and get that ordinance done within 3 days of her birthday so she could go.  The problem was it wasn't convenient for any extended family to make that journey at that time but we were prepared for a small, intimate gathering for this special occasion.  That was until the news of the move came up. At that moment our plans were given a new possibility.  Lindsay, who has a son 5 days younger than Malia, decided to have her son, Bradley, baptized in the Sweet Water River in Martin's Cove, Wyoming where my parents are serving a mission over Labor Day weekend.  The same weekend we were heading out of Indy.  So we now had the option of joining her and share a baptism with lots of family or doing it on her birthday so she could go to the temple dedication.  It was a tough decision but Malia really wanted to be with her extended family on this special occasion so we decided to make the long trek out to Wyoming to see celebrate with everyone.  I will post separately on the baptism but in the meantime we celebrated her birthday and prepare for her upcoming baptism with some fun shots at the temple the week before the open house.  Bonnie Jean had come one more time to kill sometime while Andy was gone to hang out with us and take some cute shots of Malia in her baptism dress.  They turned out really cute!

And since it was her 8th birthday, it was party time.  She wanted to have makeup/dance party.  We invited friends from church, school and the neighborhood.  It was a fun/crazy time.

Kenz even helped with the makeup and nails.

 Even our neighbor Tracey who is pregnant with her 7th joined in the fashion fun.

 The girls had fun dancing!

 Masie couldn't get enough.

 Little Kay Kay joining in on the fun.

Aren't they beautiful!

Happy birthday sweetie!!! We sure are proud of all you have accomplished and the beautiful young lady you are becoming!!!

Indianapolis Temple

One of the many things we were grateful for having had the chance to live in Indy was the new LDS temple that was being built there.  We were able to see a little bit of its construction and also be apart of the open house and cultural celebration.  It is a beautiful temple and although having lived in Utah I was able to go to a couple of open houses, I was never lived in the temple district of those new temples so we didn't have the chance to really participate in it.  There is a lot that goes into opening a temple and I have a new appreciation for all of the hard work and service that the members in the area gave.  There is a lot of moving parts to make it successful and the Indy members really stepped up.  Randy and I even signed up to help one Saturday with giving tours to visitors.  That was an amazing experience that we will never forget.

Before we volunteered, we decided to take the whole family on a tour so they could see it.  The older one's had been to the Draper and Oquirrh Mt. open houses but they don't remember all that well and so it was really neat to be able to take them to another one now that they are older.

After the open house was done and the open house clean up was complete, it was time for the cultural celebration and dedication.  The youth in the district got together and put on a performance that gave an idea of Indiana's past and culture.  McKenzie was able to participate and Morgan missed the cutoff by 10 days.  She was really sad to not be able to participate but she survived.  It was a really awesome experience.  The theme was "Gather to the Light" and the youth practiced all summer to put it together.  Our stake is in the orange shirts.  Kenz is in there somewhere in the middle of it, but I can't see her right now.

We were able to sit with some of our ward family.  These are our best buds the Durtschi's.  We were fast friends with them and tried to get together as much as we could.  It helped that most of our kids were the same age.  They are pretty much the coolest family ever.

More of "our" family.

Morgan a couple of girls from the ward.

The beginning of the performance.  Each stake stood in a different area of the field and slowly walked into the center singing the theme song.  

Our stakes individual number was to Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy. Kenz is in a hot pink skirt to the left of the line on the bottom of the circle.

 Each stake did a different dance each one showing a different side of Indy.

 I was so proud of these kids.  They spent all day rehearsing in the blazing hot sun.  They did awesome!

 This is just the kids from our ward.

 One of the Durtschi boys.  Kenz became really good friends with him while we were there.

 The twins, Steph and Mal.

 The girls 

 It was totally worth the crowds and the heat to see these guys.  Wish we could do it again.

The next day was the temple dedication.  We were able to be apart of it by going to a ward building and watch by satellite.  Our Durtschi friends, because of their father being in the Stake Presidency, got tickets to go to the temple itself for the dedication.  While standing in line at the temple to get put into one of the rooms inside of the temple, someone came up to them and pulled them out of the line and gave them special tickets to be able to sit in the celestial room and where the actual dedication takes place. We were so excited to see them in the broadcast as the camera panned around the room.

Nauvoo Trip June 2015

We hadn't been very adventurous since moving to Indy and with the looming possibility of us moving again we wanted to try and do at least one excursion before we left.  So we decided that living only 6 hours away from Nauvoo warranted a trip that way.  I came here as a kid once or twice and loved it.  I've always wanted to take my family back and it seemed like this was the perfect opportunity. We decided to make a 2 day trip out of it so we had enough time to see as much as possible.  Originally we were planning our trip with BJ and the kids but at the last minute one of them got sick so they opted to stay home, which was probably for the better since it got really hot while we were there.  We decided to skip the crowds and not go during the pageant.  It would have been nice to see it but knowing my little kids, it would have been a disaster.  It was perfect, no lines, no chaos, we could go wherever and whenever we wanted.  We left Sunday after church and got there in the evening and had dinner, goofed around our hotel and made a plan for the next day. We woke up early Monday morning to beat the heat and headed out.  Our first stop was the temple.  I remember coming here as a kid and only seeing the cornerstones in the ground.  What a transformation it was.  Love this place.  

 Then we headed to the visitor's center to get a map and visit the gardens.  Another memory of coming here when I was younger was recreating some of the statues with my nutty sisters.  So of course my kids wanted to do the same.

 This is the one I remember the most as a child.  One of us stood behind the "mom" and made her hair fly.  It was pretty hilarious.

 My weird family.

 I think this is sweet.

 not quite the same effect, but funny nonetheless.  It gets better I promise.

 Haha cracking up.

 Love Randy's face.

 Cute little girl.

 Love it.

 Then we proceeded to walk all around historic Nauvoo.  I didn't take a lot of pictures at each of the homes cuz we were wrangling little kids but I really feel like they learned something special.

 We did get to see a cute puppet show and play.

 

By the end of the day, we were all pretty worn out and grouchy from the heat.  So we went back to the hotel for dinner and to cool down.  We were going to try and go back for the evening festivities, but the kids were "done" and there was a thunderstorm heading our way so we opted for the hotel pool instead.  The next morning we went back to Nauvoo for a couple more things like the Oxen ride.

 Then on our way home stopped at Carthage to get a tour of the jail where Joseph and Hyrum Smith were murdered.  

 It was a neat experience for everyone and I'm so grateful that we took the time to go.