It's Great to be 8!

During Thanksgiving weekend Kayden was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  He was baptized by his oldest brother, McKay.  It was an awesome experience for me to watch both my sons walk into the waters of baptism.  Before the baptism, Grandpa Haacke gave a nice talk on baptism.  Josh gave a great talk on the Holy Ghost before Kayden was confirmed.  Kayden asked Aunt Melodie and Aunt Juli to help with the music.  Kayden's dad and Kayden's Grandpa White were Priesthood witnesses of the baptism and Kayden's dad confirmed and gave Kayden the Holy Ghost.  Grandma Haacke and Jaxon both gave prayers.  It was a very nice service.

We took pictures of Kayden at the Mount Timpanogos Temple wearing his brand new suit for his baptism invitation.  He is so stinkin' handsome!
 

 McKay and Kayden all dressed in white and ready to enter the waters of baptism.

 Families are forever.

 Another one of the two of my boys.  I am so proud of them!

 Everyone that came to Kayden's baptism.  We had almost all of our family there and lots of friends came to see Kayden be baptized.

After the baptism we went back to our house and had lunch.  Since it was a football game day we ordered a bunch of pizzas and also had salad and desserts.  It was fun to have everyone together to celebrate Kayden.

We are super proud of Kayden and his choice to be baptized.  It was a very nice day that I hope Kayden will remember for the rest of his life!

Happy Thanksgiving

I woke up Thanksgiving morning to find Kayden placing this gem on my bedside table:

 (I love that the exclamation mark includes a turkey!)

I hope your Thanksgiving was as happy as mine as I truly have many things to be thankful for!

New Cub, Old Cub

Just as Josh is leaving Cub Scouts, Kayden is going in.  It was Josh's last Pack Meeting tonight, and Kayden's first one.

 Kayden introducing himself as a new Cub Scout.

Since this was Josh's last Pack Meeting, he received his Arrow of Light and his Webelos badge.  He also crossed over from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts.

 Painting Josh's forehead for him receiving the Arrow of Light award.

 Proud parent moment.

 

 Getting his Boy Scout neckerchief tied on.

  

 Crossing from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts.

All four of these boys have a birthday within a few days of each other.  They were able to cross over to Boy Scouts together.

Now we just have one more boys to get through Cub Scouts.  That's only three more Pinewood Derbies, right?

Josh's 11th Birthday

Josh turned 11 this year and we celebrated hard!  His birthday was on a Sunday this year so Josh asked if we could have Finish Pancakes (crapes) for breakfast.
 

We even stuck candles in his pancake and sang Happy Birthday to him.

After church, Josh was able to open his presents.  He is excited to be 11!

Getting bonked on the head and making wishes.

 

Jaxon was glad to take a turn to bonk without getting busted.

Josh got a yo-yo with a book of tricks and a sensor stick that he had been asking for.

After presents we went to Grandma and Grandpa White's house where both Josh and Kayden got to celebrate their birthday.

Josh had a birthday party on the Saturday before his birthday (after Kayden's party).  He decided to go to the Christa McAuliffe Space Center.  He and his friends were unsure about it all, but they had a great time!

Before heading to the Space Center, Josh and his friends had some pizza and Josh got to open the presents his friends brought to him.

 

Once we were at the Space Center, they had to undergo some training before they were able to go on their mission to space.

Here they are all set to go!

I got to watch them complete some of their mission.  I watched them on a screen that was in a little control room.  It was fun to watch them interact and make decisions.
 

Mission complete!  It was a fun birthday party and a fun weekend celebrating Josh's birthday!

11 Things We Love About Josh:

1. He is always willing to help.  He especially loves to help his dad out in the yard.
2. He works hard in school and loves math.
3. He is a good friend.  He was just nominated by his class for the Hope Squad.  The class had to choose a person in their class that was the most trustworthy and a good friend to all for the Hope Squad.
4. He is super animated.  I love the way his blue eyes sparkle and shine when he is excited or when he is laughing.
5. He loves sports.  This year he played soccer, flag football and is now at the beginning of basketball season.  He especially loves that his dad is his coach.  He loves to watch sports too.  His little head is full of little bits of sports knowledge.
6. He loves to be outside and being busy.  He is always with a friend doing something.
7. He has recently shown a interest in playing the piano.  I have taught him a few things and he has asked to take piano lessons.  He will be starting lessons shortly.
8. He loves to please people.  As much as I love it, it concerns me too.  Sometime he does something he doesn't really want to do just so he can please the person.
9. I love Josh's tender heart.
10. He strives to do what is right and to be a good example to others.  He doesn't like it when others are unkind and he won't to be around the unkind person anymore.
11. His excitement to do things together as a family.  Whether it is going to a movie, a basketball game or other activity, Josh loves to be with his family.

Happy 11th birthday Josh!  We are so thankful for you and for who you are!

Happy 8th Birthday Kayden!

Kayden was excited for his birthday this year.  In fact, the night before his birthday he wrote himself this note:

 

 It reads, "Happy birthday.  Get ready for school.  Kayden's special day is today (tomorrow is crossed out) the 12th.  Yay! Yee How!"  Pretty sure that last part was supposed to say, "Yee Haw!"  After he wrote this note he asked me to bring it to him when I woke him up for school the next morning--as if he was going to forget it was his birthday.

 8!

 

 Bonk on the head!

 Kayden had to wait all day to open his birthday presents.  (McKay had a late basketball practice.)

 

 Dad decided he wanted a turn to bonk Kayden on the head.

 Kayden has become a Jurassic Park fan.  So this birthday he got a Jurassic Lego set and a Lego Jurassic World Xbox game.

 He quickly set to work building his Lego set.

The Saturday following Kayden's birthday he invited his friends over to celebrate with him.  We did all of Kayden's favorite things at his party.

We played Kayden's favorite games like Connect 4 (top) and Mario Kart (below), Twister and we played baseball outside.

 We even ate Jello as a birthday cake at his party.  Kayden loves Jello!

 Opening presents from friends.  It was quite exciting!

Once everyone left, Kayden settled in and starting building some of the Lego sets that he received from his friends.

8 Things We Love About Kayden:

1. He loves to spray whipped cream from the bottle straight into his mouth.  Then as he is eating it, he giggles the whole time.
2. He loves to play sports, even though he sometimes forgets.  He plays soccer, basketball, flag football and baseball.  He NEVER forgets that he loves to play baseball.
3. He likes to give me kisses and hugs.  That never will get old.
4. He still writes me notes and leaves them around the house for me.  He also writes notes to Suki (the dog) and tapes them to the wall by her dog bed.
5. He loves school.  Homework, not so much--but he has learned to do it without complaint (most of the time).
6. He loves to read and I will often find him reading in his bed at night with his lights off using his Harry Potter light-up wand for light.
7. He still loves to play with his friends.  There are many days when his friends spend the day at our house.
8. He still likes to snuggle.  He will climb in bed with me on the weekends or while watching a movie on the couch.

We love you Kayden!  You made our family complete.  Happy eighth birthday!

Go Knights!

We are super excited for McKay.  He made the Lone Peak High School Sophmore basketball team!  It will be a fun and busy basketball season.