Val got baptized!!

So this happened yesterday! It was amazing!

Me and my pal Lilly. They came all the way from California.

Pictures

Big news first.  (Or at least news I don't have pictures for.)  Val is getting baptized! He has chosen February 17 for the big day, and Lilly and Os are coming too!  We're pretty excited.  He's told us he has really enjoyed church, and that he loves the Elder's Quorum.  He's even joined their basketball team.  He finished reading the Book of Mormon and just yesterday he finished the discussions with the missionaries.  Pretty exciting.  Also, his boss finally paid him.  He hasn't given him any work since December, but he paid him.  Sigh.  We've got to get him a new job!

Michael turned 12!  This is a strawberry cake with stabilized whipped cream for the frosting.  Oh, man!  It was so, so good!

This was the big gift that he wanted - his very own tent.  And there was room in his "bedroom" to set it up. :)

Timmy made a halo. :)

Jill got really emotional one night because she wants to open a salon and get paid for it.  I told her she could have one in her bedroom when her cousins and grandmas came for Michael's ordination.  She decided that was OK, so she cleaned her room and made a sign.  ("Jill's Makeup Salon: Beautiful Designs")  Unfortunately, Grandma Burk didn't come and neither did Jocee, so she had no customers.  I need to let her paint my nails.

Because Jill had a shop, Timmy needed one too.  He put this on his door, and then he made some tiny little tickets out of paper he ripped, and he made some hats out of strips of paper.  Then he went around and gave everyone a ticket so they could come to his hat shop in his bedroom.  And then after he took us to his hat shop he had Bubby there to give people hats.  Pretty great. :)

Benji got 4th place at the Benson tournament.  He was kind of disappointed, but at least he got a place on the stand, right?

Grandma got one of Timmy's hats. :)

A few years ago we found a list of requirements for graduation from high school in the State of Arizona and printed it off.  We added a few of our own things too it, and we made a transcript including Hyrum's college classes.  As of December he'd finished it all.  We finally got his diploma and transcripts all done the day of Michael's ordination, so we took pictures then.

I have to say, I'm stinking proud of him.  He's gone up against some tough classes.  Good job, Hyrum!

We decided we needed something more official, so Jeremy brought down his graduation robe and made him pose outside for his grandma and mommy.  He wasn't pleased.  Ha ha!

This is my favorite one. :)

Grandpa got a hat too. :)

Papa ordained Michael a Deacon on January 14, 2018.  Now we have 4 boys who hold the Priesthood.  It's pretty darn amazing.

I guess this is the only picture I took of our guests.  Ha!  Grandma and Grandpa Burk couldn't come because their car was acting up.  And only Aaron and Brookie came from their family because everyone was sick.  It was nice that Paul and Carrie could visit for a while.  Jill and Taylor made a little cake in Jill's Easy Bake Oven.

I don't know what's going on here.  I just think it's funny.

Jill got some new earrings.  I don't remember where they came from, and they're just clip-ons, but she was very happy. :)

She's been doing a lot better lately with keeping her hair brushed.  She mostly just brushes it as soon as she wakes up.  Thank goodness!  She told me last night, "I was brushing my hair and I suddenly felt beautiful."  :) Sweet girlie.

Timmy was dancing along with "Happy."

Benji got this tent for Christmas.  As soon as Michael took his down, Benji put his up.  Each tent stayed up for a few days.  Joshua came down to sleep in the tents with his brothers, but he got too cold and didn't sleep well.  Hyrum and Michael seem to stay warm pretty well in this room, but Joshua and Benji not so much.  We moved Benji's bedding back upstairs to Joshua's room, and we moved Henry in with Timmy and Bubby.  We're hoping to get some actual walls with part of the tax return, and then the temperature should be better!  They do have a little heater and a cooler to go in there at least.

I like this picture!  This was the only meet I got to go to for Benji this year.  It was at the middle school in Thatcher.  He was kind of strutting around saying he was going to win both of his matches and go to state.  He was so happy.

And then he got out on the mat and was too tired.  He lost to the guy from Pima who he's pinned a few times in the past.  Poor Benji.  He was so sad.  That meant he couldn't go to state.

He won his second match in less than a minute with a pin.  He got third, and that's a better place than he's ever gotten.  But, unfortunately, the other kid from Thatcher got second, so that was that.  Since he did better he was the one who went to state.  Overall, Benji had a better record than the other Thatcher kid, but I guess it was the luck of the draw and tiredness that got him in the end.

Still, this was a really good season for Benji.  He won 18 matches and only lost 9.

Timmy came along to watch that day.  We thought he'd enjoy it.  He did for a minute, and then he ran out of popcorn.  We realized he'd enjoy actually wrestling more than watching, so Papa wrestled with him for a bit at the end. :)

And then they helped roll up the mats. :)

Cute little bed thief

One Saturday Bubby needed some time out of the house, so Papa told him, "We're going to go on a walk, and then you're going to tell us how to get home."  Henry needed to go too, so I put him in the stroller and off we went.  We went down the road to the splash pad park and then up the hill to the cemetery.  Then after a bit Papa said, "Which way, Bub?"  He did lead us down the hill from the cemetery, but then he led us over by the ball park, and then back around through the cemetery again.  We went from one far end of the cemetery to the other and a nice dog started following us.  Then Papa decided it was time for him to tell us the way home.  Ha ha!  It was a nice walk, though.  I don't think Bubby was interested in going home.  I think he just had fun telling us where to go.

I found this headstone and recognized the name Lot Smith, so I took a picture.  This is where one of his wives is buried.  He was a polygamist in the early days of the church and ended up being shot by an Indian, and that's how he died.  This wife, Diantha Mortensen, remarried and ended up in the Gila Valley.  It turns out we're not really related that closely to Lot Smith.  FamilySearch says the closest way is though Jeremy's line.  It's something like his Great-great-great Grandpa Burk was the nephew of Lot Smith.  It's a different Smith line from the one on our Peterson line.

I'm telling ya - between school and wrestling Benji was just plain worn out.

This carrot needs pants. ;)

Henry decided these super heroes needed to do their push-ups. (There were a lot of push-ups going on during wrestling season.)

Henry demanded a walk with the stroller one afternoon.  Jill brought her handwriting along.  Ha ha!

Timmy had a cupcake with blue frosting at school one day and came home with this blue beard.  And the next day he had a pink beard.  I tried to scrub it off and it didn't budge.

I've been reading Oliver Twist.  I love Charles Dickens!  He takes a horrible situation and adds humor to it without downplaying the horribleness of the situation.  Ha!

We had a party for my birthday.  I didn't take a single picture, I guess. :( But I did take pictures of the kiddos cleaning up dog poop in the yard.  Ha ha!  Yeah, Jeremy decided he wanted to have a party and that my birthday was a good day for it.  He grilled burgers and we had a bunch of friends over (Sellers, Hatch, Jensen, Hunt, and Clegg families).  I made cheesecake, and it cracked bad, but it was still yummy.  I put raspberry pie filling on one, and man!  Yum!

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Happy 40 to me!  I decided to go out walking in my birthday hat when Henry demanded a walk that day.  The weather has been so nice, so I don't mind a walk. :)

Also, the big present this year was a new vacuum.  Jeremy had some money set aside, and he got me a Dyson vacuum!  I love it!  I can't decide if that makes me lame or old that all I wanted was a vacuum, but oh well. :)

Hyrum cleaned out the closet in Jill's room finally, and he found lots of fun things that he made in his sculpture class years ago. :)  Papa tried on Hyrum's mask.

They took pictures of all of us in Relief Society and put them on our Facebook page.  I thought this one of Sister Whetten was perfect, so I stole it!  Bwah-ha-ha!  I love this sweet lady.  She's a rock.  She's sweet and thoughtful.  And she's real about stuff.  She's a blessing to me.

Michael and Benji are still good buddies. :) Michael didn't like that I took this picture.  Ha!

Henry falls asleep in the weirdest places sometimes.

Timmy drew these and thought they were so funny.

Henry drew this one.  He's getting to be quite the little artist.

I made Valentine cookies for our Webelos yesterday.  Henry climbed on the counter and put dough in a cup for him to eat.  He also got some for Papa later.

I made this one.  Too much frosting!  But it was pretty.  Our Webelos made themselves sick with frosting.  Ha ha!

Timmy made this one with a face.

Bubby made a face too.

I found a potato geode!  Ha ha!  There was a little rotten spot on the end, so I tried to dig it out.  But after digging down for a bit I thought I'd just cut the potato and chop off the rotten pieces.  Well, the whole inside was like this.  It didn't smell bad.  It was just like a geode.

Finally got a picture of Benji's Halloween costume.  He was Tim the carpenter, some random fella he made up.  (No, not Tim "the tool man" Taylor.  We discussed it, after explaining who Tim Taylor was, but Benji says no, he's Tim the carpenter.  OK then.)

I might have posted this one already.  Timmy was a banana, and Grandma Burk had a matching costume for Jeremy.

And here's Benji's wrestling team, minus Papa.  They had this party when Jeremy couldn't come.  And they didn't tell everyone to wear their wrestling shirts as far as I know, so Benji sticks out like a sore thumb in blue.  The coach didn't even wear his shirt.  Ha!  (Coach Skinner on the right in purple.  I believe the other guy in blue is Coach Skinner's son.  Nice kid.  He helped a lot this season.)