Mara got baptized

My little girl is baptized. How time flies. Next thing you know she will be going on her first date. That is scary. Anyway, so here are the details of the baptism. David's parents arrived at our house Friday about 3:30. Then about 4:00 David's sister and her family drove up. They got a quick ride in a T-6 simulator and came home we all scarfed down some pizza and headed over to the church for the baptism. Mara was baptized in the same dress I was baptized in when I was 8. It had yellowed a bit, but I found an idea on line if you soak it in 1/2 cup of oxy clean and gallon of water over night the yellow disappears. It worked the dress was as white as the day I wore it. Anyway, Mara chose "I like my birthday everyone" and "when I am baptized" for the hymns to be sung at her baptism. I gave a talk and Grandma gave a talk. Mara said her baptism was really quick. She went into the nice warm water, got dunked and had to get out. Then she was shivering. We changed her out of her wet clothes really quick and she beat her Dad back into the Relief Society room.

I have great friends here. I had planned to go grocery shopping Thursday and buy all the ingredients for the refreshments I was making f0r the baptism. Well, I couldn't find my wallet anywhere Thursday. I looked for it all day and didn't find it. When David got home from work he found it with in 15 min of looking. So I couldn't go grocery shopping until Friday morning which left me no time to make refreshments. Between Thursday night and Friday morning I had 5 friends call and offer to help bring something for the baptism. It was really a blessing. So that night after the talks and baptism and confirmation, we feasted on the refreshments!! I really am going to miss this ward when we move.





Well here are some pictures.......

Disney World during a economic recession

Disney is giving out some really good deals to military right now, we felt we couldn't pass it up, so we headed to Disney World for spring break. Well, us and and about a MILLION other people. All I have to say is recession my foot. I saw MANY people more than willing to fork over a lot of cash to have fun!

Anyway back to our trip. It was crazy crowded but still really fun! We got to ride all the fun rides I remember from my childhood at Disneyland in California. The kids loved them all. Ben loved each and every ride so we had to pull him away from everything promising there was more fun to come. Ashlee loved all the rides she could ride, but got really scared at the 3-D shows when snakes and spiders came out at you. She didn't mind the huge dog that tried to sniff her on "Honey I shrunk the Audience". Mara was funny. Before she went on the "roller coasters" (I put that in quotes because these roller coasters are nothing like the roller coasters at 6 flags which she loves) she was nervous and didn't want to go on them, but then after she went on them she loved it and wanted to do it again. David's goal while we were there was to be as efficient as we could and hit everything we could and wait the least amount of time. The night before each kingdom he studied the map on the Internet and mapped out where we were going to go when. I think all that work paid off. Most of the lines we waited in weren't more than 30 min. We waited in 1 or 2 40 minute lines, but that is not bad. We saved time by eating our lunch in line. Disney has recently changed their policy about bring food in the park. So so we ate a lot healthier since we didn't have to buy chicken nuggets and french fries for $10 every day. One day was brought egg salad sandwiches, knowing our kids "hated" them but thought they would be hungry enough to eat them. Well lets just say Mara didn't having any lunch that day. Ben did find that he loves them and wants them for his school lunch now. Anyway here are some pictures of us on our trip!

Okay so I am not so good with heights.

This was a good one to go on in the middle of the day when it is hot.

The end of an exhausting but fun day at the Magic Kingdom.

We had to drive the cars.

Taking a break drinking our smoothies. With space mountain in the background. We were sad we didn't get to go on that one. We make it to that part of the park at the end of the day and this ride was closed for technical difficulties.

Ashlee coping Mara and Ben while riding her first (kiddy) roller coaster.

The 3 kids on the Aladdin magic carpet

These 2 pictures were actually taken at Sea World. We went there Monday and brought the kids swim suits knowing the temp was going to get to 89 degrees. The little splash playground was a good break for the kids in hottest part of the day.
The rest of the week didn't get that hot so all in all we had really good weather for our fun trip.

how'd I ever get so lucky.....

Mara did this really cool thing at school this last week and I wanted to share it with you all.

I met Mara at her school for lunch on Friday. After eating they have recess, so Ashlee and I went out with her to recess. The weather in Texas has been a roller coaster this winter. One day it is 85 degrees and literally the next day it is 45 degrees. That is what happened this day, the day before it was really warm, Friday it was freezing. I had watched the weather that morning, and knew it would be cold so I sent Mara with her heavy jacket and gloves. Well, many parents missed that the cold weather was coming so there were many kids out at recess that day without jackets. I had on a pretty warm jacket and gloves, and I was still pretty cold. As we were playing, Mara ran into one of her good friends, Hattie. Hattie just had on a sweat shirt and you could tell she was cold. Mara immediately took off her jacket and gloves and gave them to her friend and let her wear them the rest of recess. It brought tears to my eyes that she would be so caring. I am grateful I have this little girl in my life to teach me how to be like Jesus.