Emmett's Baptism

Weekend #2 celebrating a baptism! Lily and I flew out to Kansas City to attend Emmett's baptism. It was so fun to travel with Lily, and one child in general, that I felt like I was the best parent ever. I was so patient and kind and loving. Traveling with a child who likes to read or color or keep herself occupied is pretty darn easy.

The first night the girls went to see "The Greatest Showman" and my dad stayed home with Lily. She had the BEST NIGHT EVER. My dad said she could watch Netflix, so after she finished her show he said she could watch another one. She was so surprised. She told him because at home she can only watch one show. She watched a total of five shows with my dad's Bose headphones on, and she was in heaven. She was still up when I got home at 11:30, so it did not take long for her to go bed.

Addi has lots of bunnies!

Lily was not into the delicious BBQ brought in, so the old standby of Costco pizza came in handy. Lily was very relieved. 

Breakfast at the hotel was so good. Lily was happy to discover she liked scrambled egg sandwich and I loved the mini waffles. 

The next day was packed with lots of different activities. Addi had horseback riding lessons, which Lily and Cassidy (Heather's sister)'s girls attended.

Addi on the horse, Lily, Eliza, Nancy

Lily totally hit it off with Eliza, who is her same age. They were two peas in a pod. They were both born around the same time in Virginia, so they knew each other as babies and toddlers, so it was cute to see them bond now. They wanted to be twins so we came up with the name Elila Pinnebaer, a combo of their names Lily Baer and Eliza Pinnegar. Emmett had a pinewood derby that Lily almost did not attend, much to her sorrow, but luckily she got in the last little bit. She was so disappointed to not be there for the whole thing, she is begging to go to our ward's derby now.

Lily and the girls sang "Gethsemane" and Lily sang her little heart out. I sang "I Like to Look for Rainbows" while Heather played. I don't think I will ever love singing in front of people. I'm all about singing around the piano at home, but not so much for a crowd. Eliza gave one of the talks and Lily said, "I've never seen a girl give a talk before!"

The stickers are kid's art. 

One of the highlites of my trip was singing to Trevor playing. He played a beautiful original arrangement of "Nearer My God to Thee," that was just so emotive to sing to. Then he pulled out 10,000 Maniacs and we did some of our old numbers. Before I went out there I was hoping we'd have time to sing, so it was a huge blessing that we had a little pocket of time. He said he loves playing for me to sing because I feel the music. That was a very nice compliment.

On Sunday my parents and I were able to hear Trevor give a talk as a high council speaker. It was excellent! He talked about fulfilling our callings, no matter where we are called. He shared President Uchtdorf's Facebook message on how that's nice people are so concerned for him stepping down as a First Presidency member, but that he's doing just fine. He shared how my dad traveled around serving in the church with Elders Quorum or on the high council and never complained, he just did what he was asked to do. He talked about Heather and how in her 3rd year of medical school, which is the hardest year, she was asked to teach seminary. She did it without questioning or complaining and did a great job, and was blessed for it.

The tire light had been on all weekend, but my mom was told the tires were checked and they were fine. On the way home from church a man on the freeway kept trying to get our attention to tell us to check the tires. We pulled off and our tire was pretty much flat, I don't even know how we made it to the gas station to get air, except that our prayers were answered. We went back to Trevor's home ward (Lily wanted to go to all of their church so she wouldn't miss primary) and he just decided to change the tire in his suit so the car could make it to the airport. It turned out to be quite the adventurous day, but a very blessed day too.

I was impressed that he didn't get his suit dirty!

It was such a fun trip and Lily wished we could have stayed longer. We had a fun flight home and Lily was the perfect little travel buddy. We arrived home on Liam's birthday and Lily was sobbing in the uber that she would miss telling him happy birthday. But Jeff kept him up a few minutes longer and Lily sighed in relief :)

Back on the homefront, Jeff hosted his cousin Steve Baer from Utah. He was out for a conference and he had fun catching up, getting some oils, and playing cribbage. My mom sent some Star Wars ships for Liam's birthday, that she said the other kids could play with until he is old enough :) Max and Ryan were pretty occupied most of the weekend.

Macy's Baptism

We had a wonderful weekend celebrating Macy's baptism. Greg and Holly and Devin and Deanna's families came out, along with my parents of course and Laura's parents and grandpa. Laura handled all the food great and the baptism was a beautiful event. Devin and Deanna slept at our house and they are the easiest house guests to have. Lily loved following Evelyn around, and it made her wish she had a sister of her own (as long as she wasn't an annoying sister), and Oliver fit right in with the other boys and they all loved the lego room. It was actually easier to have company because we all got a little more free time since the kids essentially entertained themselves.

On Saturday we met up at an arcade/activity place. Lily did a ropes course that looked scary and she looked scared doing it. Ryan thought he wanted to do it, but he got really scared and had to come down. Jeff took the boys bowling and they played a lot of arcade games, so they had a blast. Lily hung out with Macy and they played games and did the bounce house.

Lily loves putting her hair in pig tails all by herself.

After going back home we got ready and actually got to the church early to take pictures! It was genius! All the girls sang "I am a Child of God" and the grandmas gave the talks. It is so fun going to all these baptisms because Lily is getting so excited to be baptized herself. She wants to get a dress, figure out her invitations, and how she wants her hair done :) But it's neat there are so many girls at this time getting baptized because they are all really good examples to each other.

After the baptism it was great because Macy wanted pizza so it was the easiest meal ever. She also requested my pistachio pudding which I happily supplied since I will eat that any chance I get. The cousins all had so much fun being together and it is so great to see how much they love each other. Caleb and Mark slept at our house that night in the boys room. They almost did not get to sleep, but somehow they managed to.

Jeff read scriptures for breakfast. 

So much fun with cousins!

The adult table...and Owen.

Lily and Evelyn had so much fun together.

Max loves doing his PJ Mask puzzles. 

Lily and Ryan doing tricks on their scooters.

Liam getting ready to dumpster dive in the bin to see what treasures he can find. 

Ryan liked practicing for Granny Dot. 

Ken was happy to let the kids try on the fireman outfits at Firehouse Subs, until they got in trouble :)

These two love building together. 

Evelyn and Liam and Lily trying out Papa's back mat. 

Deanna and Devin are the easiest people to host!

A lot of time was spent in this lego room. 

Granny Dot loves to read and the kids love to be read to.

Max loves showing his lego guy creations. 

Ryan spent a long time on this building in Owen's room. He wanted to be sure to get a picture before it got destroyed.  He and Oliver worked on it and he said it took 6 hours. 

Liam loves playing the piano with Jeff. 

A nature walk. Ja is leading the kids to an open trunk to see if there are any magical creatures lurking inside. 

Such a beautiful sunrise on the walk to the bus stop. 

Max and Ryan had a lot of fun filling this bin with toys for Liam. I couldn't quite tell if Liam enjoyed it or not. 

For some reason, Max put a melatonin pill up his nose. Jeff tried to get it all out, but it was really effective nonetheless. 

Lily went to a baking club at the Campbell's. She had so much fun making food creations and wearing her apron. 

The finished product!

Putting on a dance number. 

Helping cleaning up the house by doing a treasure hunt created by Jeff. 

Max had so much fun feeding Liam at Metro Diner. I got to sit back and enjoy my meal.

Ryan and Lily loved working on their placemats. 

Liam loves pushing this around the house. 

Liam really wanted that delicious cobbler.