February 2019

Cole was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on February 2nd, 2019 by his Father. He has been looking forward to this day for a long time and we are so proud of his decision to follow his Savior, Jesus Christ, by entering the waters of baptism. Cole has an understanding of the gospel beyond his years and loves to read his scriptures with the family.

We were blessed to have his Grandma Beutler and his Grandma and Grandpa Blacker here for his baptism.

We sure love our son and could not be more proud of him.

Macy had her first birthday on February 9th. Happy Birthday baby girl! Can you tell from the pictures that she is loved to pieces?! One of these days Clara will take a normal picture again...

I made my first attempt at an egg-free birthday cake for Macy. Let's just say that it's a good thing she was more interested in squishing the frosting between her fingers (and rubbing it all over her face and hair) than actually eating the cake.

After a good tubby and getting all of the frosting out of her hair, Macy opened a few presents. New hand puppets for her sisters to play with her won out as the favorite present this year.

I tried my very best to get her "12 month" picture, but it was just not happening any more. She promptly tried to wear the pipe cleaners as jewelry and then crawled out of her bedroom as fast as she could to camp out in her favorite spot - the ledge under our side table in the dining room.

Happy Valentine's Day! Dave got me a beautiful bouquet of flowers - probably the prettiest I've ever gotten. The cute matching 4-year-old next to them made my day pretty happy too.

Macy and I were also able to make it into Lexi's class for a special Valentine's Day party and performance. She was so excited to show off her baby sister to everyone.

My little troll.

Cole spent a lot of time decorating his box for the class valentines, but he (and literally half of his class) was out with the flu. They had to post-pone their party until after everyone got better.

This is Macy's new favorite spot in the house. Who needs a guard dog when you have a baby? ;-)

My other little troll.

My sweet Grandma Blacker passed away on February 15th, 2019. She had a long battle with multiple myeloma. I was extremely grateful to be able to visit my Grandpa Blacker with my parents and children and let him know how much we love him and will miss Grandma.

This is Grandpa and all of their children at Grandma's viewing. From left to right: Wally, Cindy, Grandpa, Teresa, Linda, Heather, Ted.

There was a beautiful service at the church and then a short graveside service as well. There are so many of us who love Grandma and will miss her dearly.

After the graveside service there was a huge family luncheon. We were able to get a picture with almost all of Grandma and Grandpa's living descendants. This picture has Grandpa in the middle, surrounded by his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

This picture is most of Grandma and Grandpa's direct descendant grandchildren. Russ and I were the only ones able to make it from our family.

While we were in Burley we spent quite a bit of time with my Grandma and Grandpa Crockett as well. It was really nice for me to see my children loving on their Great-Grandparents and vice-versa.

Russ, Katie, Jake and Bryce flew in from Alaska as well. We haven't had much snow at home so my kids loved building a snowman and an igloo with their grandparents and cousins.

Jake with the finished Igloo.

Inside the Igloo - success!

Clara and Jake playing in Crockett's toy room.

Cole, Jake, Clara, Bryce and Lexi chilling out watching a movie.

Post-Idaho trip adventures included licking the beaters from making cookies, a short trip to the ER for Lexi (she was really sick, again), and adventures in the washer and dryer. There is literally never a dull moment around here.