It Truly Is GREAT To Be 8!

This is one of my favorite pictures of her baptism. Cecily and Dylan Parkes (another great buddy of Cecily's) looking into the font filled with water before the baptism starts)

Our little baby is no longer a baby.

Sniff, sniff again. (I've been doing that a lot lately).

Cecily turned 8 last Thursday and on that same day at 6:30pm, she was baptized.

She was so very excited about it all (as were all of us). When she woke up that morning, all she wanted to talk about was that that night she was going to be baptized. So very sweet.

It was a wonderful night. Sis. Emmertson played the piano with Ann Jordan leading the music. Payton Emmertson and Kendal Ottinger gave the prayers.

Here is Cecily with Payton. Payton and Cecily have been pals since babies, and they both go to the same school. Payton is such a sweet girl and a great example. She played such a sweet part in Cecily's baptism. When Payton was baptized, Cecily gave the closing prayer. Cecily knew from that moment on when her baptism happened she would have Payton give a prayer.

****We don't have a picture of Cecily and Kendal (from this point on, Mike was in charge of the camera. LOL)

Her Aunt Carolyn (on the left) gave the talk on Baptism, Lisanka Parkes (on the right) gave the talk on the Holy Ghost. Posing with Cecily. Cecily especially loved that both talks came with some extra special goodies. :)

We were blessed to have many of our family and friends present and two of Cecily's teachers, Mrs. Payne (her kindergarten teacher) and Mrs. Burden (her current teacher) both came out to support her on her big day.

I actually took this picture of Cecily, and her teacher Mrs. Burden before the baptism. Mrs. Burden has been such a wonderful blessing in our life this year, and we are so happy she came out to support Cecily on her big day. Cecily loves her and we will miss not having her next year!

***I know I asked Mike or someone to take a picture of Cecily with Mrs. Payne, but not sure if that happened. :)

Even Oma drove down from Meridian for the special occassion (not sure why Mike got a picture of him and Lee with his mom and not Cecily and Oma...oh well, we got more pictures with Cecily's baptism than with Ariel's for sure. lol)

Mike of course baptized her and confirmed her a member of the church and also did the confirmation of the Holy Ghost. I loved listening to the sweet prayer that went along with it.

Those who stood in the circle during the confirmation.

From L to R: Marc Ottinger, Jason Jordan, Michel Odom, Lee Odom,

Charlie Madison, John Bedwell and of course Cecily is up front.

The table with some of her favorite things. We had the guest sign around the mat of the picture frame, and we will put a picture of her in it so she can hang the picture in her room to help her remember that special day and those who were present.

...and we had to have a cake, which Cecily decided upon by herself. Chocolate is under all that frosting. We served water bottles and Capri Sun with it. I know that punch is nicer, but this was so much more kid friendly and so much easier for clean up too.

A very special night for a very special girl. She has blessed our lives for 8 wonderful years and we are so happy to have her in our family. Now that Ariel and Cecily are both baptized, we are now waiting for that special day in 4 short years were we can all be in the Temple together as a family. I can't wait for that special day...for I know that too will be GREAT!

It's all part of growing up

or so they say.

Shaving. Ariel began shaving at 9 1/2. Against my better judgment.

So how did she start doing something as grown up as shaving her legs at that age?

Easy...she asked her dad (she knew I would have said NO). I love him, but that silly man said he thought it would be okay. It wasn't hurting anything and they were her legs.

All I can say is silly man. We started off trying things like Veet. However, with Ariel's sensitive skin it was a DEFINITE no go. So I told her let's just wait till she's a little older.

Nope. Nada. No such luck. She wanted to rid herself of all that hair that was causing her so much grief.

So 1 1/2 years later Ariel often has razor burned legs. I warned her that once she started, she would not be able to stop and she would HATE it. Did she believe me?

Nope. Nada. No such luck.

Just this past week, she begs me to help her shave her legs. I tell her no. She was the one that wanted to start shaving.

However, I ended up caving in and helping her out when I saw how bad her legs were looking. I have shown her and told her a million times that she does not have to press down really hard. So, I end up helping her. ugghhh.

"How did this happen?" I ask myself. "I hate shaving my own legs and now I have to help my 11 year old daughter so that she doesn't end up hacking her legs to pieces.

Silly man...I wonder if we had had a son, Mike would have let him start shaving his face at 9?

Probably not. Silly, silly man.

I hate this growing up stuff. sniff, sniff.