Hollie's Baptism

 Some time ago (when Hollie was about four years old) Jotham excitedly brought home from an international business trip pearl necklaces for all of his girls.  But Hollie was so young, I convinced him he needed to wait until she was older to present hers to her.  I wanted her to understand and really appreciate such a nice gift.  So it was decided she could have them when she was baptised.

So, he's been waiting and waiting, most patiently waiting for this day, almost
more excited to finally give her the pearls than the baptism. Almost.

But then, Hollie was so excited to get to baptised, she left her bag with the baptism jumpsuit at home by the  front door.  So, Jotham had to make a fast dash home to retrieve it.  But before he left, he presented her with that special gift that he's been saving for years to give to her.

The next day at church Hollie drew this cute picture:

 It was a beautiful baptism.  Both of her Grandmother's spoke and Jotham performed the ordinances.   The room was full of family and during her confirmation she was surrounded by the most wonderful men who love her.

  

Would you believe that was the last picture I took that day?  It didn't even cross my mind to pick the camera back up to document the rest of the day.  No pictures in her white dress with her new pearls, and none of all the wonderful family that came out to support our Hollie.  

Thank you all who came, it was a wonderful day!

The following is a copy of the spotlight I read for the program:

When Hollie was a baby she was a Momma's girl.  Nobody would do, but her mother, oh, how she loved to cuddle and give hugs.  One day when Hollie was about two years old, I was a little taken aback when Mark announced.   "Hollie loves me more than you do"  - I was a little wounded that he didn’t think I loved him,  so I asked how he knew and he replied because Hollie gave him more hugs.  I decided it was important for Mark to know how much I loved him and so I tried to keep up with her one day, every time I saw her give Mark a hug, I would stop what I was doing and also give Mark a hug.  But I couldn't do it, I just couldn't keep up with her, let alone beat her.  She is so good at showing love and being a friend. 

She likes to write songs to sing with her friends and play the piano.  She has a natural rhythm and is the dance partner of choice at our house.  She loves to draw and work on art, she loves it so much is my only child to have ever gotten in trouble for coloring on the wall.   She has a very keen mind and school work comes easy for her.  She is brave and doesn't let fear doesn't stand in her way, she's the first one to volunteer to repel off a cliff or ride a new roller coaster.  She wasn't shy or timid about inviting a new girl to come to church and set the example for me.

When she was 2 ½ I wrote in her journal.

"You’ve really taken to climbing; I’m always having to take you down from off the top of the table.  You don’t want to be left out of anything and will fight, cry, or SCREAM to get your way.   In the kitchen, a couple of days ago we were getting dinner on.  Before long you were standing on top of a chair over by the counter where I was working and you started crying, frustrated.  So I took you down off the chair and set you over by the table where the kids were, and moved the chair back into place at the table. Apparently this is not what you wanted.  A few minutes later, I see you working with all your might to move the chair back over to the counter.  Then you climb up onto the chair and reach for the counter, unable to reach it you clamber down the chair, and again push with all your strength to move the chair a few more inches closer to the counter. After succeeding you once again climb back up the chair and are still frustrated, because although now you can touch the counter you can’t figure out how to get on top of it (the back of the chair was in you way). You just wouldn't give up.  I couldn’t believe how determined you were."

Even today, we see glimpses of our stubborn little fighter.   I believe Hollie was one of the noble and great ones.  A valiant warrior in Heaven who fought for the right to come to earth and make her own choices.  And what an excellent choice she is making today, to become one of Christ's own and to have the Holy Ghost as a companion and guide.  She seeks after truth and righteousness, (she's been reading her scriptures every night since she received them for her birthday).   She uses her agency daily to make good choices, I'm am constantly amazed how quickly and effectively she can lift the mood around her with nothing but her sheer determination to do so.   I believe she will have to fight many battles in her life, but that she will always come off conqueror.   That stubbornness that vexed me as the mother of her as a toddler will only win her battles the older she becomes.  She has a strong heart, she loves her Savior and I love her fiercely.   She has been such a blessing in our family.  

ThanksGiving

I have always been a Norman Rockwell fan, as a child my mother had his 

"Four Seasons" hanging in the entryway of our house over the stairs.

To me his painting "The Freedom from Want" represents the iconic Thanksgiving.

So, can you just imagine my sheer joy when Darren and Loalee

decided to humor me and let me quickly recreate the scene.

We enjoyed celebrating this year with Sam and Ariel and Uncle Kent even if they

ducted out of my picture, 'cause they were there, those silly spoil sports.

The little people are excused, of course, because they were at the "kid table."

  

But that my friends is what Thanksgiving is all about,

 more food than you can possibly eat and family. 

It doesn't get much better. 

November Birthdays

This year we ran out of candles for my cake, so those cute little 

people had to do some math with a left over number 5 candle.

  

Hollie turned eight and we pierced her ears for her birthday. 

Jotham hit the big time this year, with the big 4-0!

To celebrate we woke him up with breakfast in bed. 

and enjoyed a festive dinner in his honor. 

For months now Jotham has been dreaming and spending his downtime

 shopping for a new horse.  We had a good laugh when one of his co-workers made 

his birthday wish come true when she gave him a pony.

Halloween

 This year we had a garden nome

The cutest cupcake ever!

A steam punk

 A pirate

And Batman and Robin

We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves at the Robertson Family Party

 and trick-r-treating in my Mom's neighborhood.

White Pine Lake

Jotham has been wanting to do this hike for years but at over 9 miles round trip,

  I feared it would be a more than our little kids could handle. 

Ne'er diswayed, Jotham came up with a solution and 

decided to lead a horse for the littles to ride when they got tired.

Honestly, the kids impressed me, they did really well, 

and the horse went empty a good portion of the hike.

 

Washington DC part II

On our third day in Washington, we headed to the Ford theatre where Lincoln was assassinated. luckily we were able to get tickets at the door (for free!), but we had a bit of time on our hands before our ticket time so we walked a few blocks to tour the national archives.  

We didn't have a ton of time to spend here so we just hit the highlights: the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.  And again because of the frail nature of the documents, no photos were allowed, but can I just say "Wow!"  I could feel the hallowed reverence of the documents as soon as I entered the rotunda where they are on display.  

After spending a few days in the Capital, I was really beginning to feel spirit it imbues: a sense greatness and pride in our nation.  We truly are blessed to live in such a great country and as bad as things are now politically, it is vastly reassuring to know that our government was built upon a sure foundation. Countless lives have been spent in ensuring our freedoms, something I always knew and appreciated but the whole Washington DC experience makes it become something real and very much worth fighting for. I felt bad we didn't get to spend more time looking at the other displays, but that's the thing with DC, everything is amazing and top notch and it's like every museum is vying for your time and attention, easily could have spent twice as much time everywhere we went and we still wouldn't have seen or read or done it all. 

Ford's theatre didn't disappoint.  After walking through a small-ish museum highlighting Lincoln's presidency throughout the war, we were invited into the theatre which is still a working theatre, where a spirited park ranger powerfully unfolded the story of his assignation right where it happened. After the 30 minute presentation, we headed across the street to the house where he was taken after he was shot and subsequently passed away.   Very neat.

We experimented with fried chicken and waffles for lunch and then headed over to the National Art Museum.  I was so excited to share this museum with the kids.  We started out with a little medieval art and the Renaissance, which admittedly gets old and very catholic quickly. Plus a lot of naked bodies.  By the time we got to Rembrandt, I realized I was loosing them.  So in a feeble attempt to revive them, I gave them a quick art history lesson, explaining about chiaroscuro, and what it was that made him so famous. Then they read the plaque hanging next to painting and just about knocked their socks off, when they realized that I do know a few things, having just told them everything on the plaque.  "Wow, mom you could have written that." --ahh, the sweetness of it all.  

Jotham was finishing up with meetings about now and met up with us at the museum about mid afternoon.  Walking through an art museum wasn't something he was particularly looking forward to after a long grueling week of convention work and talked the kids into heading over to the Air and Space Museum with him.  Wishing we'd started with the impressionists and the Romantics, that I know they would have enjoyed more, I was a more than a little sad to see them go, but I wasn't going to miss out on rest the of the museum to see moon rocks and so we went our separate ways.  And I thoroughly enjoyed seeing original Monet's, Degas and Van Gogh's and feel in love with Whistler and Sargent, and renewed my love for Mary Cassatt.

This painting by Whisler trilled me to see as it is also on the cover of one of my favorite books, the Woman in White by Wilkie Collins.

I think, if they'd had time to do both, the kids would have enjoyed seeing the rest of the art museum, but they were off onto other adventures with their Dad tracing the history of flight.  From the original Wright brother's flyer:

To the Spirit of St. Louis:

to the plane that broke the sound barrier:

And Apollo 11:

and moon rocks.

 But once again, the museum closed before they finished seeing it all.  And after we met back up, I talked them into seeing more art at the National Portrait Gallery since it stayed open until 7pm.  In college, I usually made flashcards to help me prep for tests and the Portrait Gallery was like a giant, visual stack of flash cards.  Who's this person and why are they famous, it was like the capstone to my education, the final test.  Almost 20 years later, Bro Bassett would be pleased with how much I remembered.  It was like playing a game: This is Jane Addams, why is her portrait here? and so on and so forth.  (Jotham wasn't enjoying this by the way.)  

It was also fun to run into some famous Mormons while playing my game.

We were always surprised to run into little bits of  Mormonism in the Capital.  Like the sunstone from the Nauvoo Temple hanging out next to Kermit in the History Museum or the statue of Brigham Young in the Capital

On our last day in DC we tried to play clean up, which lead to spending a lot of time walking to and from places. We started by walking to the Lincoln Memorial from our Hotel.  

Then took the scenic pedestrian route to the Jefferson Memorial, via the cherry trees that are so famous in the spring.  Noticing of everything we didn't have time to see along the way, ie the Holocaust Museum, the printing museum, etc.

Jotham really enjoyed our unplanned visit our founding father, George Mason's memorial.

A little bit of street food for lunch: 

The kids had really wanted to try out the simulators at the Space Museum before it closed, so we swung past there again.  Hannah was so funny, we could hear her screaming from inside the simulator,  "No Hyrum, Hy...RUM!  No!"  the whole time.

The next morning we headed to Mount Vernon and just really enjoyed walking around the plantation and learning about George Washington. 

And then home again, home again. Jiggity jig.