Brian's Baptism

The big event of the year I think will be Brian's baptism. Getting baptized is a big deal and I wanted Brian to feel like it was an important and good choice to make.

After weeks of planning and many talks with Brian about getting baptized, the big day came.  Our Stake does the baptisms on Sundays and it ended up being a busy day with church lessons and Brian even had to give a talk in Primary that day.  We arrived at the Stake Center early so he and Mark could get changed into white clothes.  Luckily their smallest white suit fit him well enough.  He got to look at the font and we took a few pictures.

Brian was baptized by his loving dad, and Mark even said it in Chinese at Brian's request.  Seeing these two all in white together was very special.

Brian shared the baptism day with his friend from church.

 The program could not have been better.  Brian's Nai Nai said the opening prayer in Chinese and there was a great talk given on baptism.  After both boys were baptized, all the primary kids came up and sang the song, The Miracle.  It was beautiful and Brian enjoyed taking part in the musical number. Then Brian's Grandma Melissa gave a perfect talk about the Holy Ghost.  Brian loved that she used his cello as an object to teach about how we need to stay in tune in order to listen to the Holy Ghost.  I loved hearing her testimony.  Then Mark confirmed Brian, giving him the gift of the Holy Ghost and confirming him a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Mark also gave Brian a beautiful blessing at that time.  Brian's grandfathers and uncles were in the circle.  The chapel in the Stake Center was full that evening of people who love and care about Brian.  I hope he will always remember this day and all those people who care about him.  Then family and close friends came to our house after for dinner.

One of the greatest blessings of the day was that Mark's parents were in town on a break from there temple mission in Taiwan.  They were home for a medical checkup and it worked out that they could be here for Brian's baptism.

We wanted to give everyone a good dinner to say thanks for coming all the way here on a Sunday evening.  We decided to go with serving Mexican steak and chicken along with the fixings, salad and more.  Thanks to everyone who helped prepare and set things out!  We got things started quickly and we all got a good Sunday dinner.

We had tables all over the place for the crowds to sit and enjoy dinner.  Here is the dining table crowd.

 Here are the basement boys.  Brian just absolutely loved having all his cousins with him.

We consider our good friends, the Cookes, to be like family.  I'm glad they could come by for a little dinner before that Sunday bedtime.

One of Brian's favorite things was that I made a little slideshow of pictures of him that ran on the TV while people ate.  He was so excited to be the center of attention for this special day.

Here is some of the Hsiao Family! We were all so happy to see Alice's smiling face here after a year of her being in Taiwan.

And here's some of the rest of the Hsiao members at a different table.  I love these people so much!

I thought this picture was so cute of these two matching girls with the chicks. Hopefully there was not too much Sunday attire that got ruined here on the farm.  I was too busy inside to really know what was going on outside.

It really was a wonderful day full of joy and gratitude.  We are so blessed to be members of this true church.  I am glad Brian has been baptized and received the gift of the Holy Ghost.  He has a strong testimony of Jesus Christ and His Church.

This baptism day could not have been more lovely.  As Brian was brushing his teeth that night I walked into the bathroom and he had a flood of tears running down his cheeks.  I asked him what was wrong and he said through his tears and his toothbrush, "I'm just so sad this day is over."  He cried all the way until he fell asleep.  He is such a sweet boy and I'm glad he had a sweet baptismal day.  

Brian Turns 8!

Brian turned 8 at the end of March! I just can't believe he is that old.  How has it been eight years since he came into our lives? His Birthday came on the last day of Spring Break vacation so it was easy to get lots of partying in.

For Family Night on Monday Brian wanted to meet at the Classic Fun Center.  He loved it.

He loved shooting the foam balls at me and daddy and he loved racing Mark through the blow up obstacle course over and over again.

 His actual birthday was on Tuesday and we had school off so we went to the Natural History Museum with my mom.  It was so fun and we loved just taking our time to see everything.

The boys said their favorite thing was the earthquake simulator.  Grandma is so awesome to visit museums with.  She always makes things so fun.

My favorite thing to see was the gecko exhibit.  I had no idea there are so many different kinds of geckos.  We really enjoyed finding almost all of them.

 After the museum Grandma took us to dinner at Chuck-a-Rama and she gave Brian some awesome gifts.  He got some nice items for his baptism, a tin can robot, lots of books and some other little items.

That evening Brian decorated his cake and we enjoyed singing to him and eating it too. He requested pink frosting because he likes the taste.

He also got to try out his gift from mom and dad, a remote control helicopter.  Here he is flying it in the backyard.

A few days later he got his tin can robot from Grandma completely built.  He leaves it on his special things shelf.

Brian is growing into such an awesome kid.  He weighs just over 45 lbs and is exactly 48 inches tall. He has become a good eater and likes a variety of foods except vegetables. His favorite places to eat are Sweet Ginger and still Panda Express.  He loves anything sweet and can eat endless amounts of dessert.

He is doing well in school and has found a love of reading this year. He needs to put a little more effort into his spelling and writing, but he likes school. His favorite subject is still math and he loves learning Chinese and catches on really fast without any help from me.  He said his best friends are Timmy, Cash and Marley.  (I just love that he said Timmy was his best friend.) His favorite color is red and his favorite books right now are the Box Car Children series.  At school recess he usually plays with his buddies or plays soccer.  He still likes running in addition to soccer and basketball.

He practices a little bit of piano in the mornings before school and he practices the cello after school after he has completed his homework for the day.  At church he loves singing time and being the good example for his crazy primary class of 22 kids (most of them boys).  This year in Primary they have challenged all the kids to read the Book of Mormon either by themselves or with their families.  Brian has been keeping us on track and we read almost every morning before heading to school.  It has been a great experience and a great blessing!

I love our Brian and I am so proud of his decision to be baptized.  He is a good example to anyone around him and we are blessed to have him in our little family!  Happy Birthday Kiddo!

March 2016

March just marched on by in the blink of an eye.  The end of March was especially full with Spring Break, Easter, and Brian turning 8!  A more appropriate name for this post would be the massive March post.

We hatched 33 chicks you can read more about here

The kids started rec basketball on Saturdays and they practiced with Mark in the backyard.

They played basketball while I practiced being a farmer and attempted to rake up the goat pen thinking I could actually get something done with the "help" of the goats.  Yes that is my rake he is stepping on and hitting himself in the face with in this picture.  And he must have liked it because he kept on doing it and then the other goat and the horses decided to try to help me rake too.  I have an over abundance of farm help.

It wasn't all fun and games on the farm though during March.  The main power line that goes out to the barn and the shed and Mark's shop killed out during March.  So, Mark went ahead and hand dug a huge trench all the way out there and we paid an electrician a goodly amount of money to put a new line in.  We can't go without power to those buildings.  Here is the trench we had to dig right through the beautiful new sod we worked so hard to lay down last spring in the renters yard.  Nothing more fun than ripping up good hard work.

One night Mark and I had to just laugh with each other as we once again found ourselves in the middle of a cold night outside with head lamps on digging through the root filled rocky ground on this beloved place of ours.  It certainly wasn't the first night such as this and it wasn't the first sore back from it either.  We got that trench done late the night before the electrician came.  And you know what?  The blood, pain and sweat that goes into this place makes me love it all the more.  And this man behind it all, too.

When we hatched our chickens we didn't have a chicken coop.  Mark tore out this old bird cage pen thing between the barn and his shop and magically turned it into the coolest most high tech chicken coop you have ever seen.  Pictures of that to come next month probably.  Here he is working on it.

And here is his makeshift fence so the goats didn't try to "help" him while he was working.

We enjoyed the horses and liked to have my mom come see them.  Frankie does this a lot while tied up.

Can you see the boys up there on the shop roof enjoying a beautiful afternoon?

Saturdays they played basketball among the many other things we did.

Like going to friend's fun birthday parties.

One Saturday Brian and Timmy earned Superior ratings at their very first Cello Federation.  They actually really loved the experience.  Brian played May Song and Go Tell Aunt Rhody and Timmy played May Song and French Folk Song.  They played beautifully and were as cute as ever.

After Federation we went up to cute cousin Ellie's 3rd birthday party.

Where Brian climbed trees with his cousins and. . .

Timmy played with the chickens with the other cousins.  It was a fun day!

One nice March day the boys drove the tractor to spread out all the winter manure.  It actually worked really well and they enjoyed driving the tractor.

They also helped me paint the barn doors.

Timmy ended up with paint all over him and his coat and his hair and everything he touched.  Did I tell you I have a lot of helpers here?

Here's a nice Sunday evening in the park.

I was forced to retire my trusty hiking boots during March.  I get very sentimental about shoes for some reason.  The thought of where they have been with me and where they have walked and hiked and climbed just makes me want to wear them forever.  I got these shoes in high school and they have been all over the world and taken me on so many trails and helped me get so much work done.  I was tempted to keep them tucked away in the back of my closet with my high school Chacos that I retired last year, but I decided to settle with taking a picture and then carefully setting them in the garbage can.  Goodbye wonderful hiking boots you have been good to me.

Brian did a research project about the red panda.  We all learned a lot about this animal.  I love his drawing.

One day during Spring Break we went to the zoo.  I loved the baby giraffe!

Brian was happy to ride on the red panda!

Easter weekend arrived and we participated in the neighborhood egg hunt in our backyard park.

Then that afternoon we went up to the ranch for the perfect Easter lunch and egg hunt!

That night Mark spent a long time fixing the next size cello for Timmy.  That kid is growing like crazy!

Easter Sunday was busy.  I played my cello with the choir in Sacrament meeting and Mark had lots of meetings. I snapped a few pictures with the boys after church before we changed and dyed some eggs.

While Mark was at his meetings we dyed eggs and talked more about the Easter story.

Most of March had nice weather, but one day it snowed the biggest snow flakes I have ever seen and we had fun catching them on our tongues and looking at them float down gently from the sky.

The end of March always brings Brian's birthday!  We had some great celebrating to be recorded in another post.  He turned 8 years old!