Baby Blessing

We had David's baby blessing yesterday at church.  Sadly we didn't have any family visiting to share the day with us but it was a beautiful sunny summer day.  David, of course, looked adorable in his little white suit, and Aaron delivered a wonderful blessing on our sweet baby.

The Ten Virgins: A Musical Parable

I had the opportunity to participate in a musical production this past month.  One of my friends was the musical director, and she asked me to audition.  I was hesitant because I was nine months pregnant at the time and the performances would be when my baby was only 2-3 months old.  But I sent in my audition tape and I'm so glad I did!

It was a musical representation of the parable of the ten virgins, from the Bible.  I played Adi, one of the foolish virgins.  One thing I liked about this production was that the foolish virgins were very relatable.  Some didn't have oil because they were too busy (doing good things) to get more.  Some didn't have oil because they didn't think the arrival of the bridegroom would be so late at night.  My character was very focused on being as [good, pretty, smart, etc.] as everyone else, and therefore spent her money on a new dress for the wedding rather than a supply of oil.

It was a great experience.  I got to delve a little deeper into the scriptures, as well as take the time away from my kids to work on my own talents/interests.

The whole show is on youtube (posted below, my duet starts around 27:50, final group number at 1:03:35), and my solo/duet is also posted individually on facebook.

Brandon's Baby Blessing

Brandon's baby blessing at church was at the beginning of May.

Aaron's parents and brother (Steve) came down for the weekend from New York, and my parents and Austin's family came for the day.

Aaron gave a beautiful blessing, assisted by the bishop, our dads, Austin, and our friend Mark, and then we and our families went back to our house for some lunch and hanging out.

My mom bought his white pants and sweater on their recent trip to Paris, and he looked so cute in it!

New York Trip

I'm super delayed in writing about this fun trip we took.  Oops.

In July, we took a week long trip up to upstate New York to hang out with Aaron's parents.  We chose that week because Aaron's brother was going to be visiting that week and because the Hill Cumorah Pageant was on then.

We ended up making the drive all in one day (we had allowed for the possibility of splitting it into two days if Andrew was really not enjoying himself) which meant we got to Aaron's parents' house on Sunday evening.  They weren't actually home yet from Palmyra (they were helping out at the Hill Cumorah) so we passed some time eating dinner and playing at a park near their house.

On Monday we just relaxed for a lot of the day since Aaron's parents both had to work at least half the day, but we also went to visit Aaron's grandma at her apartment.  Andrew particularly loved getting to ride around on her walker.

The weather on Tuesday was a bit rainy and wet, so our outing for the day was just over to the mall, where they have a pretty cool carousel and play area.  Turned out that the carousel was free on Tuesdays during the summer, so we got lucky!

On Wednesday we went to a petting zoo.  Oh boy- Andrew was loving it.  He didn't quite know what the animals were, so he followed the goats and sheep around, pointing and shouting "doggie!"

Thursday we drove up to Niagara Falls.  We ate lunch, walked around, and decided to go on the Maid of the Mist.  Andrew looked super cute in his little poncho, and kept saying "wow" as the mist was coming at us.

Brent finally arrived late on Thursday night, so we saw him when we got up on Friday morning.  This was the day we went to the pageant.  It was great, of course, and Andrew sat on my lap the whole time, watching intently and clapping between all the scenes.  I thought he would fall asleep or get restless since it was so late at night (it doesn't start until after 9:00pm) but he loved it.

On Saturday we went to another farm.  The animals weren't out loose like they were at the petting zoo, but this farm had more things to do (a rope maze, sandbox, bouncing bubble thing, slides, etc.).  Unfortunately it started raining while we were there, cutting the trip short, but we still had a great time.

Sunday was a bit of a long day for us.  We had church in the morning, then Aaron's grandma came over for a delicious family lunch.  After that we packed up and drove all the way home.  I thought we'd have to stop somewhere for the night but Andrew was great in the car.  We had to stop several times of course, but it wasn't too bad.

It was such a fun trip, and it was nice to be on vacation for an entire week.  Unfortunately Aaron's brother Steve wasn't able to make it up as planned, and the dog Sandy was kept on his toes by a very loving toddler all week :)

Thanks for a great visit, Kimblers!

Birthday and Easter Weekend

This past weekend was a double feature of special days!  Aaron's birthday was on Friday and then Easter was on Sunday!  Aaron's parents even came down for the weekend, so that was a bonus too!

On Friday, Aaron took the day off.  I got a haircut and then we just had a fun and relaxing day.  Andrew had lots of fun getting reacquainted with his grandparents (he was pretty shy when they first walked in).  We went to PF Chang's for dinner, and then had angel food cake for dessert after Aaron opened some presents.

Saturday started off with a breakfast and Easter egg hunt at church.  Andrew was too little to do the hunt last year, but this year he loved it!  He had no idea that there were goodies inside though, so there was a heavy mom-tax (and dad-tax and grandparent-tax) on the candy.  After his nap, we all headed over to Annapolis for the afternoon.  We went to a maritime museum, did some walking in and around the State House, and went to dinner at a place that serves all local crabs (and other seafood).  We all got crab cakes and it was delicious!  A trip to Coldstone finished out the evening :)

I was excited that we had company over for Easter Sunday.  I had a lot of fun preparing for it.  We had an Easter basket with goodies for each of us, German pancakes for breakfast, and an Easter egg hunt.  The eggs were all over the main floor and contained pieces of a puzzle that we all put together after finding the eggs.  Church was nice (I sang with the choir for 2 numbers) and then we came back to the house for dinner.  I was quite proud of myself for the Easter dinner: Ham, candied sweet potatoes, asparagus with lemon sauce, rolls (shaped like bunnies, of course), hard boiled eggs, and sparkling cranberry raspberry juice.  It turned out great and it was awesome to have people to share it with.  And Andrew looked especially adorable in the suit my mom made for him :)

All in all a wonderful weekend to celebrate Aaron and Christ.

Radford Weekend- Baby Blessing!

This past weekend, we took a little road trip!  The reason for the trip was to visit with my sister and be there for her baby's blessing.  But Aaron has been working a few extra hours recently so he was able to take Friday off so we could head to my parents' place for a day first.

So on Thursday night we drove to the lake house (2 1/2 hours of driving).  On Friday we spent the day playing.  We played tennis, went for a walk through a long canal tunnel, played tennis again, played cards, made popsicles, and hung out.

On Saturday morning we headed out for Radford (4 hours of driving).  We checked in to our hotel, hung out with my sister and her family, ate pizza, and went back to the hotel for the night.

On Sunday we packed up and went to church.  Chris gave Graham a beautiful blessing and I got to go to Sunday School and Relief Society (I attend Primary when I'm in my own ward).  After church we all headed over to a park to have lunch, take pictures, and socialize.  We had a good sized group- Natalie's family, my parents, Austin, our family, Chris's parents, and three of Chris's grandparents.  Chris's mom made most of the food and it was awesome.

Then it was time for the drive home (5 hours of driving).

It was a really good weekend.  Parts of it were stressful, specifically the driving since Andrew doesn't love being restricted in his car seat, but we were so happy to meet our newest nephew and be there for his special day.