Josh's Baptism!

Josh got baptized today.  We are so proud of him! 

 

 

Some of Josh's thoughts about his baptism:  

When I was putting on my white clothes I thought:  I’m getting ready to be baptized!  I felt good!

When I saw the water I thought:  Wow!  That looks HOT!  I was nervous.  My dad asked me if I was ready and I said, “C’mon dad!”  When I went into the water I felt:  REALLY HOT WATER!  It wasn’t burning me though. When I received the Holy Ghost I felt:  I felt warm inside.  Not inside my clothes, but in my heart.

My favorite part of the day was when I got my temple picture. 

Dad:  Why do you like that picture?

Josh went to get the picture so we could look at it and we also looked up Gal 5:22-23 to help us understand what the spirit feels like.

Josh:  Pretty sunset on it.

Dad:  what are you going to do with it?

Josh: Put it in my room?

Dad:  What is it supposed to help you think about?

Josh:  Next step in life  - going to the temple.

Youth Conference and Golden Corrall

Yesterday morning Jase and Jared went to the St. George Temple to do baptisms for the dead as part of their Youth Conference.  They were supposed to bring family names and it was very difficult to find them this time around!  For FHE this week, Rick had shown the church video featuring How to Use Puzzilla.  It wasn't as easy as the video made it look -- especially for families like ours where so much of the work is done.

Jase spent hours on the Puzzilla site trying to find names and then when my mom and dad arrived, he asked them to help him.  Grandma and Grandpa also spent many hours on Thursday searching on both sides of our family for names that the boys could take to do baptisms.  They finally came up with a couple names after many hours of searching and correcting duplicates!  My parents have been serving a family history mission for years and are experts at this and so I knew if anyone could help the boys it would be them! The boys did their family names and then did baptisms for other names that were brought.  They ate lunch and then headed with their youth group up to Pine Valley for different activities. 

This morning Rick got Bountiful Baskets and then Grandpa Westra took the four youngest kids hiking.  They had a great time and found lots of treasures such as used bullets and special rocks. They told me all about the dead rock chuck they found.  Grandma and Grandpa Westra offered to take the whole family out to Golden Corrall for Josh's Baptism Dinner (for his favorite foods dinner) and Jaiden's Birthday.  The kids were thrilled! 

We had to wait until Jase and Jared got home from Youth Conference and then we took off.  The waiters and waitresses sang to Jaiden at her request and everyone ate until they were stuffed!  At the restaurant We learned that Jase had pulled an all-nighter! I was not happy about that!  It didn't start catching up with him until later this evening.  His eyes were red and blood shot and he kept zoning out.  I told the boys they had to be in bed two hours early tonight! 

Jaiden's Birthday Party

Jaiden turns 10 on Saturday and we had her birthday party today!  We put the pool up on Monday (Memorial Day).  Those in attendance at her party are Jaiden Jensen, Janelle Jensen, Josh Jensen, Jenna Jensen, Mariposa and Layla Purdy, Emma Broberg, Lizzie Bryner, Carolina Jessop, and Emily Williams. The party was from 1:00 to 4:00.  They launched water balloons, went swimming, had a dance party in the basement, ate cake and ice-cream and opened presents! 

 

NIC Test, Dentist, Grandparents Arrive!

Rick took his NIC (National Interpreter Certification) Written Test this morning at the Dixie University Testing Center and he PASSED!!  Woo Hoo!  Way to go, Rick!  He has been studying for it for the past couple of months.  It is a good thing he passed because it cost $400.00!  Now he needs to start working on his signing and voicing and in order to pass the performance test!

Rick dropped off Janika to the dentist on the way to his test this morning.  They did the exam, x-rays, and cleaning and then she called me to pick her up an hour later.  I did and they explained the work that needed to be done and we were in the process of setting up an appointment when someone cancelled and the dentist office said that they could take her right then.  So I went back home to make the kids were okay and doing their jobs and took a shower and then went back to pick her up.  The office was crowded and they were way behind schedule and so I had to wait and extra hour and a half for her! 

Her bite was off putting pressure on four main teeth and causing her jaw pain and so the dentist had to sand down some of her teeth to get a proper bite.  He also tried to wiggle one of her molars that never grew in to try and stimulate it to grow.  She was so numbed up she couldn't talk afterwards.  She just came home and went to bed.

This afternoon Josh and Jaiden went to a birthday party that some friends put on for a little girl in his primary class.  My mom and dad were coming today to stay with us for a few days and so I was busy trying to clean up before they came.  They arrived about 6:00 p.m.  Today is my Dad's birthday -- 77!!  The kids convinced him to go out and go swimming with them.

We had a late snacky dinner and the kids all got to bed late.  We played musical beds.  My Mom and Dad slept in Janika's room, Janika slept in the basement studio, Janelle and Jaiden moved up to Josh and Jenna's bed and Josh and Jenna slept in the big fort that they had made in the basement.  Josh made it all night but Jenna came upstairs halfway through the night and slept with Jaiden and Janelle.

Memorial Day, BBQ, Tending, and Cast Meeting

Mon. 26:  Today was Memorial Day and since Rick was off work we put the pool up!  It actually went quite quickly now that the kids are getting older and can help more.  Except they didn't do very well at pushing out the wrinkles as it was filling and so it has much more wrinkles than normal.  The Purdy kids and Williams kids all ended up coming over to play in the pool as it was filling up.  Some of the kids were not sun-screened very proficiently and got sunburned.  We had invited the Havens family over for a barbeque tonight and so their kids all played in the pool (which was about 2/3 the way filled by this time) with our kids.  We had hamburgers and hot-dogs, chips, water-melon, potato salad (which Janika made), and vegies.  They brought a yummy lemonade drink with cantaloupe in it and a cake.  The kids all had a great time swimming and jumping on the tramp.  The teenagers, Ben and Rachel, stayed and played Settlers of Catan with Jase.  Jase is excited to have found more people who like to play long, strategic games!

Tues. 27:  Today we tended the Williams' kids all day so that their mom and dad could celebrate their anniversary.  Our kids were SO excited to be able to spend the day with them!  The kids were in and out of the pool quite a bit and also played inside. Our kids helped to make tacos for dinner and Jase had to take over tending for the last hour since I had to bring Janelle to her Cast Meeting for the "The Sound of Music" and Rick and an interpreting appointment.   I think that the play will be a great experience for Janelle, but it is also a little overwhelming looking at the master rehearsal and performance schedule!  She will be very busy!   

Jared's Eagle Scout Project

Rick picked up Bountiful Baskets at 6:45 and then picked up water bottles and donuts for Jared's Eagle Scout Project this morning.  His project was to replace the fence guards on the Little League Ballpark.  He was a little stressed over whether he would have enough people show up to help, but he had a good turn out and it so it worked out.

It was a good thing several adults came because it was MUCH more difficult to put the fence guards on than we thought it would be!  It required at least two people on each side of the fence with work gloves on to pry the plastic guards open in order to put it on the fence.  The work was tedious and slow moving.  There were 24 people who came, but a lot were kids and so they weren't too much help with actually putting on the guards.  But they helped take the old ones off and throw them away and Janika led them in an effort to pick up garbage around the ball fields while the others worked on the guards.

 

Janika Graduation from Tuacahn

Janika graduated from Tuacahn High School tonight!!