Nate the Great turns 8!!

"I can't wait until I'm eight, for then I'll be baptized you see!!"

We've been blessed with an awesome little man in Nathaniel and he's reached the age of accountability. Months ago, we looked at what day of the week his 8th birthday would fall on, so that Mom and Dad could start looking at flights and plan their trip out here. December 30th was a Monday, which worked out perfectly for an FHE on baptism, with the activity being Nate's baptism. We scheduled it for 6:00 Monday, December 30th.

I love the look on Nate's face.
I can't remember what Eric was saying.

 Keri, Karen and crew arrived Sunday evening so that they could  participate in the baptism on Monday evening. The cousins love to  get together and play and Monday they did a  little of just that. I  had also been given about six bags of women's  clothing that us  big girls went through. Raychelle and Hannah  found some good  things that fit, which was great! I was happy to  find new owners  and get the bags down to about two, which we  gave to Goodwill.

 Now, baptism prep. Mom and I had coordinated about a white  tie. The boys get a white tie to wear when they are baptized and  they can, hopefully will, keep it so that they can wear it when they  go to the temple, and again have to dress in all white. We had the  white shirt, white tie, white undies but still needed white pants. I  called around and no one had any, so Mom and Dad, Nate and I,  and Karen got in Mom and Dad's rental car and hit DAV.  Thankfully, Heavenly Father cares about the little things enough  that we were able to find a pair of capris that could be altered into white pants for Nate. We stopped at Wal-mart for some elastic and we were on our way.

Mom got busy altering the pants. We had baked the cake and then I let Nate decorate it Monday afternoon. We had recently watched "Turbo" so he wanted to do a Speedway track on this cake. It turned out pretty good. I frosted and he decorated. We had a dinner of baked pota
toes at 5:00 and then were out the door for the baptism around 5:30. We were going to start at six, sharp (most baptisms don't start on time, but we weren't going to let that happen as we would have the important people there before six.)

The perfected pose

Of course you have to take some pre-baptism pictures of the guest of honor and then one of the family.

The baptism was absolutely WONDERFUL!! We had the program all ready and I had asked Nate, at church, to ask the people he wanted (Kathy Etheridge and Grandma Hibbert) to speak at this baptism if they would speak. I saw when he asked Grandma. At church I had seen Kathy and had told Nate to go ask her, however I didn't follow up with specifics, so when Kathy saw that her name was on the program for speaking on baptism, she came up to me and said that Nate had just asked her to come, not to speak. I asked if she would be willing to share her testimony about the importance of baptism and she agreed to that. 

We opened the meeting with the song, "I Like to Look for Rainbows," which is a baptism favorite. The testimony and Grandma's talk went great, inviting the spirit and teaching all in attendance (which was a pretty packed room). We went to the Young Women's room, where the baptismal font is, opened the doors and had all the kids sit by the glass so they could see the baptism. Grandpa Hibbert and Bishop were the witnesses. I noticed that as Nate got out of the water, his pants, were VERY transparent. Guess we didn't really think about that being an issue. Oh well. 

While we waited for Nate and Eric to dry and get dressed, we had people pick a favorite song and we sang one verse. There were some good songs picked, both from the green hymn book and the Primary hymnbook. I can't remember who picked it, but we were singing, "Army of Helaman," and right as we sang "We must do as the Lord commands," Nate and Eric walk in. Then we continued with the chorus, "We are as the Army of Helaman, We have been taught in our youth, And we will be the Lord's missionaries, to bring the world his truth." I couldn't sing because I was crying. . I just kept directing the music with my mouth closed. The Spirit was amazing right at that moment. I will never forget it.

Bishop gave a welcome to the ward and then we had the closing song, which is Nate's favorite: "I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus." Again, I couldn't finish the song and didn't get very far into it before I started crying again, especially when I looked at Nate and he climbed into Eric's lap because Nate was crying. Eric of course starts crying. It was such a tender moment. I looked up at Keri, she was crying. I looked at Kathy and she was crying, then I just stopped looking at people and just conducted the music. The presence of the Spirit testifying of the truthfulness of the importance of what had just happened was unforgettable. I lived on that spiritual experience for the rest of the week and will always hold it close to my heart.

BIRTHDAY CAKE!!

After the baptism, we came home and ate cake and ice cream. Nate wanted a speedway car, having recently watched the movie "TURBO" so we had baked the cake on Sunday and decorated it earlier on his birthday. Grandma Hibbert and bought fun stuff to assist in the decorating of said cake, so I let Nate do the design and assisted with the props.

the Nate-way race track.
Laffy-Taffy cars with mini M&M wheels
and Gummi Bear spectators

Cool letter candles provided by Hibberts Inc.
They melt fairly quickly.

Don't blow yet!!!!

okay, NOW!!
(sorry, can't get it to rotate, even when it's saved in a correct position-
- "Aggratating" to quote Nate.)

Nate is one awesome kid. I hope I can be the mother I need to be so that he becomes all that he needs and wants to be.

Florida for Christmas - We're Celebrating & Swimming & Riding Bikes!

Christmas day was great. Slow paced, family time and perfect weather. Kids, of course, we're up before we were (we'd stayed up doing some last  minute wrapping and talking with Diane; then again, while in Florida, they are always up before Eric and I are.)


Ro opening up a present from Aunt Diane & Uncle John.
Nate is obviously saying something, but I can't remember what.

Xela's turn.

Neta was excited about her Pop-beads.

Graigry gets Dad's help opening the walkie-talkies.
Uncle John had to give Graigry and Nate some pointers
on how to use them (keep your mouth OFF them, for one).
They immediately went to different places
in the house to walkie-talkie each other and we heard the word
"OVER," over and over.

I don't think Neta liked her art suitcase. Do you? :)

Graigry reviewing his multiple dinosaur/plane model kit.

Nate loves mazes so he got his own booklet
of mazes of various difficulties.

New gloves for Ro, which she'll use
as soon as we get back to the frozen north.

Nate and Graigry trying to manipulate
a wooden puzzle.
I made the ear muffs.

Nate, sporting his new earmuffs, also got an art kit.

Aunt Diane opening a present that Grandma Scott
and the kids worked together to make.

Neta showing Diane the page that she made

This is the box whose face Graigry drew
so it could wear his earmuffs.

Daddy trying to figure out how to take apart
the puzzle without using the instructions.

I can't tell what Graigry is doing.



Every Christmas there is something that I find interesting
and get involved in. Here it's putting together
one of the wooden puzzles the boys got.

While pieces dry on the table, jewelry is being made on the floor.

Making bracelets and necklaces.

 

Neta made some beautiful jewelry for Mommy.

And a wonderfully coordinated necklace for herself.

Creative minds at work.
Boys working on their model plane & ship
while Neta paints a picture.

More shots of after present happenings.

 

Boys got bored waiting for the paint to dry,
so Xela asked if she could paint the dinosaurs.

Amazingly enough, Eric hadn't been in the pool the whole trip. I told the kids that they had to get in the pool on Christmas day, at least for a little bit, because, I mean really, how often to you get to swim outside on Christmas day in Indiana? NEVER!! So, Eric got in and we played for a little bit as a family.

The night before, the kids and I played kind of like a volleyball/hot potato game (I was in the deep end & couldn't touch) with the beach ball. I have not laughed so hard in a long time. Some of the things the boys did to keep the ball on my side or attempt to do so, was just plain hilarious! Their facial expressions and jumping bodily positions right before they hit the water were fantastic! We played until past dark. The boys and Neta asked to play it again with Dad in the pool and then the game was revised as Daddy started to play.

I asked Diane to take a few pictures while we were all in the pool. The following are thanks to her.

Soaking Scott Family Photo
Christmas Day 2014

Eric's Uncle Karl and Aunt Dee came for Christmas dinner, which led to a few more presents..

a Nintendo DS. It was fun for the kids on the long drive home.

good food and a few short rides on ...

Uncle Karl's HARLEY!!

John first asked Karl and then Eric and my permission. Xela was the first to get on. Aurora was a little hesitant, not really wanting to do it, but we were persistant and she took a ride.

I took one too.

I've only had one or two rides, when Eric had his motorcycle. They are fun to ride. Karl told me on the way back up the driveway that he had take some bike safety classes and to never let anyone give the girls a ride that didn't really know their bike. Good advice that I will follow.

George usually doesn't let anyone, even Diane, pet him.
He likes to be out of his cage and would
regularly be on the pool deck while kids were swimming,
or he'd look out the living room window.

So this behavior was surprising.
Diane thought it might be because
Aurora looks like his previous owner.
Ro enjoyed every second of it!
 

Graigry befriending Aunt Dee's doggies.
My kiddos love animals.

Relaxing after a fun filled Scott swim.

Dad wanted the kids to watch "A Charlie Brown Christmas"
so he pulled it up on YouTube.
I wanted them to watch "Scrooge" with Albert Finney in it
(something I remember watching annually when I was a kid).
We watched that on Christmas Eve, maybe the day before that.
A few of the songs are great and memory catching.

We left early on the 26th, about 4:45 am, so we could get back to Indianapolis and settle, briefly, before my parents came into town. It's always difficult to leave such wonderful family in such a wonderful place, but we always do so looking forward to our next trip.

We stopped around lunch time, at the Walkers home, to drop off some candied pecans that John had made for Karen, and fix some lunch. We enjoyed a short visit and the kids gave Grandpa Scott a final hug and kiss. Originally we were going to pick up Karen, but Keri and kids decided to come up for Nate's baptism, so Karen stayed back to drive up with them on Sunday, after dropping Miles off at the airport. That was an okay plan as that would give us a few days with just my parents and would save them on gas and time getting to Nashville Airport.

We got back to Indy around 9 or 10 and I was able to get some things unpacked, laundry started and then FINALLY sleep in my own bed. Eric and I hadn't slept in our own bed for 12 days, since the 14th as we gave it up for his parents and then were gone. Maybe I was tired, but oh man, it felt GREAT!

Florida for Christmas - We're Baking & Playing Wii

December 23 & 24 - I'm glad that we don't have the modern tech toys at our house for various reasons. One, they become outdated so quickly. Two, and most importantly, it makes it all that much more fun when we go to John & Diane's house.

Fencing on Wii Sports is always a favorite.
We end up having a rule that they can't pass the carpet,
for fear that they will end up crashing into the screen.
Kids get pretty into these games,
especially against each other.

Nate and Neta playing one of the Wii sport games.

"Patiently" waiting their turns on the Wii.

Uncle John bought a new game, Happy Feet, (based on the movie)
so they all took turns playing it. They eventually figured out
the objective and how to play the game.

Aunt Diane always makes Christmas cookies for her family, so she asked Xela and Aurora to help. They love to bake as well and we very happy to help. We made ginger snaps, sugar cookies (with a licorice flavoring), and spritz cookies to add to some that Diane had made while we were out on the boat.

The three baking beauties busily at work
preparing Christmas treats.

Mixing the Spritz cookie dough,
with a little food coloring to make it more festive.

Once cookies were baked and cooled, the kids were able to decorate some. Diane had a grand assortment of Christmas shapes for the sugar cookies so there were lots of options to choose from. The kids are pretty good artists as well.

Xela having fun with icing tubes and sprinkles.

Neta making a black reindeer.

Even I got in on the decorating once the kid madness settled.

Artist Aurora carefully decorates the Christmasee sugar goodness on her plate.

You'll notice in the background, Eric watching tv. He found "Last Man Standing" on Netflix and started watching the first season. I think over the course of our time there, he almost got through the whole season.

Of course, there was swimming to be had as well. Can't be in Florida and not swim on a daily basis (except for Sunday of course).

Nate and Neta are always great
at creating games to play together.

It's lots of fun when there's a deep end & you can dive in!
(There are feet sticking out of the water toward the Jacuzzi)