Happy 8th Birthday to Katelyn!

My sweet, wonderful Katelyn is 8! I can't believe it. She was so excited to get to her birthday. She called it her "golden birthday" because her birthday is the same date as her age. Plus she got lucky that our ward's scheduled day for baptisms was the 8th. So we had quite the long, happy, exciting day!

It started off with our birthday tradition of breakfast in bed...often times with donuts.

Good morning!

We are so grateful for so much family support on this special day for Katelyn. She is so excited to get baptized and be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. She has been looking forward to this day for a long time. As a parent, it is an amazing experience watching your child dressed in white and committing to try to make correct choices and be like Christ.

I love my family!

This is the entire group of family who were able to attend the baptism.

The service was wonderful, simple, and perfect. We are grateful to Aunt Kristin who played the piano, Aunt Amy who gave a great talk on baptism (including the messy peanut butter analogy we will never forget) and Grandma Chesnik for saying the closing prayer. And I feel so blessed to have a worthy husband who honors his Priesthood and was able to baptize and confirm Katelyn.

It was such a great day, but it didn't end there! Of course we still had to party! Katelyn chose a luau style party and it was amazing. Amy made her famous Kalua Pork that was the hit of the party. And a HUGE thank you to all who helped with the food and decorating! I was able to enjoy the day instead of stress over all of the things that needed to get done!

Here's what the decorated kitchen looked like. Luau anyone?!

Thanks to Amy and Cheryl for their cute decorations and the right eye to put it all together!

Birthday girl about to open presents!

Present time!

Putting a candle in a sugar cookie to sing Happy Birthday is a lot harder than it looks.  I think we cracked the cookie but it stayed up for the song!

For dessert we had white sugar cookies with white frosting to celebrate the day. My dad, who started out as a baker in his profession, piped "Happy Birthday Katelyn" on her special cookie in orange because that was her favorite color of the day. We also enjoyed chocolate macadamia nuts, our favorite Hawaiian treat. Happy Birthday Katelyn! We love you!

"Don't eat the church!"

Today we went to Amy and Scott's ward for the kids Primary Program. The boys all did a great job. At one point during the program, Brock turned around to talk to Adam. Adam for some reason was licking the bench or just had his mouth up to the bench. Brock said to Adam, "Don't eat the church Adam, don't eat the church!" Brock was very concerned and said it several times. I love how little minds work and sometimes the funny things that come out of their mouth!

I made it!

In Primary, we have decided to teach sharing time for the entire month to keep the theme consistent for the month. February was my turn and I made it through! I think I had some good teaching moments, some great teaching moments, and some not so good teaching moments. But I am closer to knowing most of the kids names, and that is a huge accomplishment for me. I'll take it.

New Calling

I've been called to be the Assistant Varsity Scout Coach in our ward.  I'm excited to work with the boys.  I'm nervous because I haven't been real "outdoorsy" although I do enjoy camping and stuff.  Mostly I hope I'll be able to help the boys prepare to be Priests and on their way to the mission field.  If I can do anything with them from the scouting side too, it'll be fantastic.

Ward scramble

We were surprised this new year with ward boundary changes. January 10th, our ward was invited to a special fireside meeting along with 6 other wards in our Stake. The Stake presidency said they knew they needed to make some changes, but that they were trying to make it as little as possible. Somehow, that wasn't what was meant to happen because in the end, the right change was huge. After all the short talks were given on change and fellowshipping, and reaching out to others, all the maps were explained. My stomach literally dropped when I realized I was just one of about 9 families getting "shaved" off my ward and put into another ward. I loved my ward. Really, these people are the cream of the crop people. I wasn't ready for this kind of change. I just got to know these people. I really didn't want to start over! But, as is always the case, Heavenly Father knows what we need. I didn't even make it one week before being called to be the 1st Counselor in the Primary Presidency. I love the Primary and I am ready to dig in and serve. Our first week as a Presidency was a little overwhelming. I have so many people to get to know, and I need to do it quickly. I have a feeling that this is exactly what I need. I know that Heavenly Father knows each of us and is in the details of our lives. He cares about each of us and what is happening to us. It took a little while, but I can finally say that I am excited for this change.