Carmen's Baptism

Carmen was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on April 13, 2013. This was such a special day and I am so proud of her and her choice to follow Christ's example and be baptized. I was totally unprepared for how emotional of a day it would be for ME as her mother. I remember my own baptism day so vividly and it's hard for me to realize that she's at an age that she will remember these things and how she felt and how these experiences came to be.  As the "mom of the day" I felt such pressure to ensure that she felt special and to make sure she really understood what an amazing day it was for her. I may have set my expectations too high, because right before leaving home for the church I had a little meltdown. I worried so much that I hadn't done all those little things to make her day extra special. I had wanted to have a lovely table display and awesome refreshments for afterwards. I wanted to have a special towel for her to use and her hair styled beautifully.... there were so many things I wanted for her that never got done. While quickly brushing her hair before walking out the door, she asked my why I was so angry. I explained to her that I was angry at myself for not making the day more special by doing all of the above.... to which she replied by saying I didn't need to do any of those things. She was so wise in her words and made me realize that those extra things were rather insignificant and really didn't add to the sacredness of the baptism. She was right. It was still an amazing evening and the spirit was strong. 

Leading up to her baptism, we talked A LOT about what it means to be baptized. She was tired of hearing about it and would often ignore us after a while. I was worried that she didn't quite understand the importance of the covenants she was about to make. But as I was in the bathroom beforehand with her, changing her clothes, she told me she was so excited! I think the realization of the sacredness and importance of the event finally had hit her. I knew then that the spirit was finally witnessing to her that she was doing the right thing. I couldn't help but watch in awe as my beautiful daughter entered the waters of baptism and then came back out as a clean and pure beautiful daughter of God. As I wrapped her in the warm towel, I recalled the same experience of when my mother did the same thing to me. I remember so clearly walking up the steps of the font and my mother hugging me with that warm towel. I felt SO loved at that time. I wanted Carmen to feel the same way. I hope she did...

Her Great Grandma Teerlink spoke on Baptism and I spoke on the Holy Ghost. Her dad performed the baptism and the confirmation. Her Grandma Bean played the piano and Grandma Teerlink (Oma) led the music.  There were more people there than I had expected, even her school teacher Ms. Williams came! Afterwards we celebrated at Dairy Queen with ice cream! So, although it wasn't how I had always imagined her day would be, I believe it was just how she would have wanted it.

David and Carmen's 8th Birthday trip to Conference

For those that aren't familiar with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Saints, we believe by revelation that a child should be baptized at the age of 8. Carmen turned 8 on April 2, 2013. 

It has been her decision to get baptized. I am proud of her decision. Tomorrow (April 13th, is the day). So with her 8th birthday being a big deal, I wanted her to try and catch the vision for herself of the magnitude of the Savior's church being on the earth again and what it means to get baptized. I wanted her to instead of just hearing of a Prophet of God on the earth, I hoped that she would see him and feel of the spirit that he carries. I wanted her to see and hear that there really are 12 Apostles on the earth today, just like there were in biblical times.

So every 6 months, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints gathers for a semi-annual conference. This is where the apostles and prophets talk to us about how we can be better husbands, fathers, mothers, children and sons/daughters of our heavenly father. 

I thought it would be really cool to take Carmen to this conference.  So I used frequent flier points and I took her to conference. I knew at the end of it she probably wouldn't remember everything the speakers said or even one thing the speaker said. I was just hoping that she would feel something inside.

 So we arrived in Utah the day before conference and visited our churches temple square. Carmen and her two cousins joined for the fun. We ran around checking out all the neat artifacts. The one thing that really was on Carmen's mind the whole time at temple square, was trying to find Sister Schill.

Why did she want to find Sister Schill? A week before our visit to Temple Square, Carmen had her interview for Baptism with our local Bishop (equivalent of a pastor in other religions). Our Bishop Schill knew of Carmen's trip to temple square and showed her a picture of his daughter, who is serving a mormon mission on temple square and asked Carmen to find her.  Carmen said, Bishop told us we have to find his daughter, so we must. We looked high and low and found her.

  Here is the CTR ring Carmen bought while in Utah. CTR stands for "Choose the Right".

 Carmen has a lot of cousins in Utah. She spend a lot of time with Emmily and Abby. Here is a picture of them having ice cream at temple square ( Joesph Smith building).  They then loved the reflection pond at temple square.

 So Saturday morning came and I wanted to make this visit to conference special. We woke up early, got donuts on the way and got there extra early. As we joined the crowd of 21,000 people to enter the conference center,  an usher pulled us to the side and gave a special welcome to Carmen and then presented her with a special gift for her first time to conference. The special gift was a CTR bracelet. She looked at the bracelet for almost the whole conference. This part was really cool.

Finally, as conference begun, she sat quietly the whole time. When the prophet stood and announced the two new temples, everyone in the crowd went "WOW". She made a comment to me after the temples were announced, "Dad, something special just happened"

 Carmen really enjoyed staying at Uncle Jeff and Aunt Carrie's house. She even wanted to take a picture of it before we left.

 Okay, she loved the spiritual stuff, but I think one of her favorite moments was going to build a bear with her cousin Emily.

It was only a three day trip. But we both had fun. We got home at 11PM on Sunday night and Monday at 5AM I had to go to China for 3 days.  Despite this, the trip was worth it. How do I know it was worth it. Once we got home, I had to quickly turn around and go to China, but two days after Carmen was home, April sent me a text stating that Carmen has changed. She is being an AWESOME big sister. Her behavior has changed.  I don't think this is just a coincidence.  I do believe that people change for the better when, they UNDERSTAND and FEEL that they are loved. Carmen felt the love her mom and dad have for her on this trip.  She also felt all the special love from her cousins, but most importantly I could tell she felt inside the spirit and the love that Heavenly Father has for her. 

I hope to carry this tradition on with each one of my kids as they turn eight.  I asked Carmen when Aliza turns 8, should I take her or should mom have a turn. Carmen clearly DECLARED, "MOM needs to take her, she is a A lot more FUN!!"

A special thanks for my dear companion who sacrificed a lot to make this trip happen. THANK YOU APRIL!!

Spring Break - Day 1

I am feeling SO excited for spring break. The weather is going to be nice and hopefully everyone stays healthy. Carmen came in and woke me up this morning and said we had just gotten a phone call stating we HAVE school today.... April Fools! She got me!

First stop: THE PARK! We grabbed some Subway and headed to Darden Towe Park. With Dallin's new found walking skills, the park was a whole new adventure for him. And he discovered the slide, which he wanted to go down over and over again.

 These girls are less than cooperative when I request a picture. These are as good as we get. But they sure are fun kids! (Aliza fell in the water twice....)

Easter

Each year Oma puts on a wonderful Easter Egg Hunt. My kids always look forward to it. But with four kids running in different directions looking for eggs, it was too hard to get many pictures.

 The Easter Bunny made his appearance at our house.

 We spent the afternoon relaxing and enjoyed a nice dinner. I had just spent the last four days in bed with the worst case of strep throat I've ever had. David pulled together a beautiful dinner with hams, potatoes, green beans, rolls and deviled eggs. It was perfect! And I promise my kids all had adorable Easter outfits, but I was still feeling so sick that I never got a picture. Maybe next week we can have a do over....

(I'm starting to get the feeling my blog is getting a little "Dallin heavy".... he's the only one who will still let me take endless amounts of pictures of him. And he's just so cute!)

The Honeysuckle Trail

Perhaps I've written about this before, but my girls love to walk to the honeysuckle path near our house. It's still to early in the season to see honeysuckles, and the bushes along the creek are bare, so that gives easier access to the water.