November 2007

It was great to see many of you yesterday at the baptism. What a wonderful day! Natalie was radiant and I was a humbled father – grateful for the privilege to perform one of the saving ordinances of the gospel for one of my children. The Spirit was strong and the love and support we felt from each of you (even those who weren’t physically there) was so appreciated. Thanks “aunt” Karen for your great talk on the Gift of the Holy Ghost. It really meant a lot to Natalie. Seeing her singing and doing the sign language to the song “I’m Trying to Be Like Jesus” was really special. I think that the older I get, the more I appreciate the simple yet sublime joy that comes from seeing my family progress in the gospel. We’re very pleased with Natalie – her choice to be baptized, and the way she lives her life.
Natalie had a fun birthday party with a big group of friends. It was a “bride” party and each of the girls got to wear a tiara with a veil. Becky made a “wedding” birthday cake and many of us got blue tongues and lips from the blue frosting roses that Becky bought to put on the cake. Natalie has enjoyed starting to attend Activity Days – feeling like she’s finally one of the mature girls.
Isaac starts basketball this Saturday. He continues to be a voracious reader. He read all of the Harry Potter books in a 2 ½ month period from May to July (I just barely finished book 7 on Halloween night) and continues to devour anything he can get his hands on. He just finished a book called Dragon Rider. He, along with Natalie and Auriana, got a perfect report card last week. He is such a good speller that he aces the pre-tests at the beginning of the week and doesn’t even have to study for the real tests on Friday. Natalie and Auriana always get 100% on their spelling tests too.
Isaac and I really enjoyed our trip to Washington to hang with his cousins, Daniel and Jacob. Daniel is done with the initial 6-month period of intensive chemo treatments, and other than losing his hair and gaining a bit of weight because of the medicine, he seems his old self with plenty of energy and enthusiasm. I got to play with little Sarah who is Miram’s age, and of course enjoyed the time with my sister, Catherine and her husband, Dave. It really was a wonderful time. Isaac wished he could have stayed for another two weeks. It really meant a lot to Isaac to have that time with them since most of his other cousins are either not his age or are girls. I enjoyed the time to relax as well. We’re grateful to Mike and Alison and family for giving us a place to sleep on our way up and on our way back and feeding our hungry bellies. Isaac had a blast playing with the dump truck remote control construction set.
Halloween was fun. I was telling my brother yesterday that Halloween is the only time parents have to mooch from their kids. Can you hear me saying, “who is going to be nice enough to share their candy with their dad?” Usually I get a pretty good response, but sometimes I have to resort to the guilt trip, “after all I do for you, you’re not even willing to share one little piece of candy with your dad?” ☺
Ellie has officially entered her terrible twos. She’s very excited for her birthday tomorrow. She’s talking so much better all the time. She cracked us all up the other night when Chad was visiting, when she started dancing and wiggling her shoulders and rear end to some music. One of those times when you wish you had the video camera but know if you run to get it that they’ll stop. Miriam loves dancing too and regularly entertains us. And of course it just isn’t right unless she is wearing a skirt that can twirl so pretty.
It was a blast having Chad here. The BYU football game, the movie and the golf (even though it was a pitiful game) and the Nertz and Pass the Pigs were all a lot of fun. Our kids sure love their uncle Chad. We’re really looking forward to seeing the whole family of Georgians, as well as the rest of you at Christmas time. We can’t wait to experience the personal tour and/or open house of the temple.
Well that’s about it for us. Auriana got a spacer in her mouth in preparation for braces. The Harvest Moon Hurrah this year was once again a success, though I’m very happy to have it over. I was recently released from the Elder’s quorum presidency, and am now the committee chair for the Redeeming the  Dead committee, so I look forward to more time in the temple and great experiences with quorum members as we improve our efforts in that regard. Becky’s efforts with the primary program are going well, though I’m sure she’ll be happy when its over. Enoch is still loving preschool, and Miriam loves being the ringleader on those mornings when Enoch is gone. The other night when I was putting Miriam to bed she kept on licking her lips. When I didn’t respond, she finally said, “Dad, when you lick yous lips, dat means yous firsty.”
We wish we could have been in Rexburg today for the blessing of Micah. We were sad that Alan and the girls got sick and couldn’t make it for the baptism. It means a lot to us that you would even consider coming down in the first place.
I’m off to locate constellations with Auriana for a school assignment.