Kate's Baptism

Saturday Kate was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. What a special and wonderful day it was for our family. Kate was so excited and just glowed with joy. When she came up out of the water she let out this giggle that can only be explanied as a sound of pure joy. It made everyone watching giggle as well. How sweet it was to see her so joyful.

Kate's best friend from school came to see her baptized. When Kate walked into the chapel and saw her sitting there she ran right up and gave her a huge hug and told her how glad that she was that she came. Again, Kate was just so full of joy and happiness!
Kate's school teacher also came to support Kate. She did the same thing as she did with her friend--ran right up to him and gave him a hug and was so thrilled that he had come.
Kate had all of her grandparents fly in for this special weekend. We were so glad that they were able to come. Nana and Papa flew in from North Carolina and Grandpa and Grandma from southern Utah. They are already back home, but it was so sweet to have them all with us for this occasion. We wish all of our family members could have been here, too!I am so happy for Kate having made this decision to be baptized a member of the church. She was confirmed Sunday during Sacrament meeting and then she wanted to bear her testimony (we had fast Sunday since next week is stake conference). That was neat. She was very nervous, but determined. Papa went up and helped her because mommy (me...) was too wimpy. I need to work on that. Having a daughter like Kate is teaching me many lessons. I know why I don't have any children like me--I have so much to learn from these sweet, strong-willed spirits!

Time Out For Women

Last weekend I had the privilege of attending a Time Out For Women conference in Oklahoma City with 3 wonderful friends from church. It was definitely a bonding experience. We had so much fun together. Friday night we went out to dinner and found a fabulous restaurant with authentic New Orleans cuisine. It was SO yummy!

Then we went back to have some girl talk in our beautiful hotel. Look how cute this room is:
Saturday we enjoyed the inspiring music off Hilary Weeks, who I think ended up being our favorite artist/speaker of the weekend. I love the words in her songs. They are so thought-provoking and sprititual. The other speakers were great as well. I'm short on time so I'm not going to list them. I'll post some more about them another time after I have read some of their books that I purchased while I was there.I have to tell you about this fabulous Italian cafe that we found for lunch on Saturday. They really had such yummy food. One thing I love is fried mozzarella, so when I saw it on the menu I had to order it! I was not disappointed and this fried mozzarella was the best I have ever had! YUM!We headed home refreshed and rejuvinated and ready for life again. I learned to step back and love the little moments like coloring with Kate, reading to Brandon, letting Carli hug me as long as she wants (with her arms clenched around my neck--so sweet), and cooking with Megan. What a wonderful life and family I have and what a blessing I have in the gospel. I cannot imagine my life without these truths that I have.

Week of Field Trips--the Zoo!

My second field trip last week was to the Fort Worth Zoo with Megan's kindergarten class. There were so many parents who volunteered to go that we all pretty much just had our own child to take around the zoo so it was a lot of fun and not stressful at all. We hung out with Megan's friend, Sydney, and her mom, Lindy, who is my good friend. It was great! The weather was perfect, too. I bit overcast, a few sprinkles her and there, but the temperature was perfect. What a fun day!

We love the flamingos. We always start there first. Maybe it's just the pink color, but for some reason I am drawn to these beautiful birds.These little deer (can't remember what they are called) were all 3 sharing the same branch. I thought this was pretty cool that they could all hold on to it at the same time and eat. LOL!

The hippos are always a favorite as well. Here they are just peeking up at us.This rattlesnake was in a mood that morning. We could hear him rattling so loudly. He did not like that we were all standing in front of his glass. If you look at the pic you can see the tail blurred on the bottom. It was crazy to see it rattling so much. He was in the strike position! Thank goodness for glass!!! I did learn, though, that you can most certainly hear a rattlesnake rattling before you come upon him. It was so loud! It went on for a good 15 minutes, too.We stopped for a photo opportunity in front of these pretty falls and it didn't last long before Megan saw the train coming and she was up and off that wall!The baby giraffe was so precious!

The baby giraffe.

Getting a bit tired.

Stockyards

Last Tuesday I accompanied Kate's class to the Stockyards. I was looking forward to seeing what it was all about since we had never been there. It didn't disappoint. We all had a great time and we thought it was pretty cool. I was in charge of Kate and 3 of her good friends from her class. You will recognize 2 of them from her birthday post. We started out with a lesson on the cattle, how the cowboys herd them, the type of clothing they wear, and about their tools (whips, saddles, and spurs).

Then it was off to the maze. The kids were each given a card with the letters M A Z E and they had to find all the letter stations in the maze and punch them. Then they had to find their way out. It was all times and my girls did awesome! They were the 2nd group out! Here they are finding their way through.Yay! Kate gives a thumbs up for finding a letter.Yippee!!! They made it out! They don't look excited or anything, though... :)

Next it was time to watch the cowboys herd the cattle down the street. They do this 2 times a day and it's cool to see the animals so close. It only lasted about 2 minutes, though, so it wasn't that exciting. The kids loved it, though.Taking a break for a pictures in front of the flowers.
The guide took us up on the Cowboy Catwalk where they would go up to look over all the cattle. They told us all about the Livestock Auction. It's pretty cool to see that they still do auctions every week.This si the Cowtown Coliseum. They do professional rodeos every Friday and Saturday. Kate can't wait to actually go see one. None of us have ever been to a rodeo before so we figure we should see what it's all about for once. Friday nights kids get in free!

Kate

Sunday I took some pictures of kate in her dress I made for her to wear after she is baptized. She looked so sweet and beautiful. I used one to make a little announcement for her baptism. I did this for Brandon so I'm keeping up the tradition. Here's how it turned out-- (I marked out the details so sorry you don't get the whole thing online.)

Here are some of my other favorites from the shoot. Now I need to choose one to blow up and frame for my wall!

Reflections of Christ

I was e-mailed by a couple different people last week the link to the blog and website of a wonderful photography exhibit at the Mesa, AZ, Temple Visitor's Center. It is: http://www.reflectionsofchrist.org/ and the blog is: http://mabrystudios.typepad.com/reflections_of_christ. If you register on the website you will have access to the videos of the making of this amazing exhibit.

The exhibit is photographs of people depicting important events from the bible to teach people of Christ in a very powerful way. There a photos of angels when they appeared to the shepherds proclaiming the birth of Christ. The picture is just amazing and shows them in many different poses "flying" in the air. They accomplished this effect by photographing the "angels" one at a time on a trampoline and then putting them all together in one picture. It is so so beautiful! I just love all of these pictures and I really hope that this show will travel and come to Dallas sometime! Please check it out. You will be glad you did. The music is also very inspiring and beautiful.

Kate is 8!

Sunday my oldest daughter turned 8! Wow, was it really 8 years ago that we barely made it to the hospital in time and were surprised by this beautiful fiesty girl? She is one of the most creative kids I've ever met. She will sit and draw picture after picture and I'm fascinated by what she comes up with. She is also so musical. Although she is now taking piano lessons she prefers to sit and make up her own songs or figure out familiar melodies on her own. And what a voice she has. It's a treat to hear her sing!

On Easter Sunday while Ben and I were preparing dinner Kate and Megan walked in and showed us some "puppets" they had made. Here they are:

They used the Easter grass for the afro hair and Easter candy from their baskets for the faces. How cute are these?! I never would have come up with something like this. I just thought it was so funny that they would have thought to do this. Only Kate... :)

Here are Kate and Megan waiting to leave for our fun evening Saturday night. Kate asked 2 of her friends from her school class to come with us to Chili's and then to "High School Musical: The Ice Tour." I have to tell you we had so much fun! That's about the only place these girls can let loose and scream as loud as they can with all the other girls so excited to watch the show. It was so good! Everyone was singing along with the songs and clapping along. It was seriously fun! They did HSM 1 and HSM 2 so we got the whole story.

Here are Kate, Emily, and Summer. They are so cute together and all love the same things. It's so fun to have best friends!Here they all are with Megan, too, at Chilis. They are all sporting their HSM t-shirts.For her birthday Nana and Papa sent her this stylin' t-shirt and capri set. She loves it and put it right on to pose for the camera.
Here she is waiting to blow out her candles. We had the elders over after church for her birthday dinner. Kate's choice for food was steak and chicken fajitas with all the fixings. We also had mexcian rice. Ben grilled the meat out on the bbq and it was so tender and yummy. Then we followed dinner with this cupcake cake that the kids helped decorate. It was a memorable birthday! She is so excited to be 8 and to be baptized at the end of the month!