Happy Saturday

 Good Saturday to you.

Anders and Addie are ravenous when they get home from school, so I try to have some snack planned before they barge through the door and start rummaging. Aani and I made peanut butter/oatmeal/chocolate chip cookies yesterday, before the after-school invasion. This was the face she made while she was licking batter. Quacks me up, that one. (It's a stamp on her forehead, FYI.)

Here is Ava's happy spot. She loves to sit on/in the bathroom sink and suck on toothbrushes. I like to think of it as the beginnings of stellar oral hygiene habits. Her other new trick is climbing on the kitchen table and eating whatever is left, such as leftover cereal and milk. This also explains why she's naked most of the time, since it's just not worth it to change her clothes after the second attempt.

I had the pleasure of taking Anders to the allergist this week, since he has frequent bouts of hive breakouts. The conclusion I've come to is that he's allergic to ibuprofen and honey. The allergist wanted me to take him to the hospital to have blood work done to test his liver function and other stuff. The thing is:

Anders thrashes wildly, screams, tenses every muscle in his body and has general hysteria at the sight of needles. I sob as a team of nurses pin him down. So..... we're not doing the blood work. Is that irresponsible of me? I just don't think it's necessary. I dunno. How about we just avoid ibuprofen and honey?

In the same outing, we went to the Scout office to buy the Wolf book, which was a whopping NINE DOLLARS. We then went to the grocery store and had a grand time with the bulk candy bins. Anders was so thrilled to have his Scout book that he took it in the store with him. In his bulk candy excitement, he lost it. We had ten glorious minutes with that nine-dollar book. Arrrggh. The good news is that we got chocolate-covered cinnamon bears. In bulk. Those little suckers just slide right down.

May our weeks ahead be hive free, but full of chocolate-covered cinnamon bears. (In my tummy.) Oh, and may that Wolf book magically make its way back to us.

Anders is Baptized!

Photo by GrandPar :)

Anders was baptized (twice) on Saturday. He had to be dunked twice because his knee popped up. It was a wonderful day that he's been excited about for a long time. We had a lot of family there to support him, which was so great. While we were all waiting for Nils and Anders to get dressed and do the confirmation, our Primary president had everyone write a little note on an index card, then she put them all together and gave them to Anders during Primary yesterday. It was very touching to read through them. I'm so thankful for the good examples and the support that my kids have around them through friends, cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents. A couple of times last week, Anders asked, "Why are Nana and GrandPar driving all the way up here just for one day?" I told him because they love him, and because getting baptized is a big deal. He mentioned yesterday how nice it was to have so many people from his family at his baptism. Anders loves his extended family very, very much. He's a great kid.

I'm so thankful that he was baptized and received the Holy Ghost. What an incredible gift. I'm so thankful for the Holy Ghost in my life, and I hope we can teach Anders how to recognize when he's being guided by the Spirit.

I usually bawl my eyes out at baptisms. They're so tender and the Spirit is strong, confirming that what these kids are doing is right. I thought I'd be a total wreck on Saturday, since Anders is my firstborn and all. Buuuuuut, Ava-zilla took care of that for me by being a total maniac and running amok for most of it. During the confirmation she  pushed her way through the circle to find Nils and started pulling on his legs saying, "Da! Da! Da! Da!" and screamed when I took her away. I had to ask Nils to give me a recap, since I spent most of the blessing in the hall with my little crazy.

Thanks to all who came to support Anders on his special day. And thanks to Anders for being such a good boy. He has a real desire to be good and do what's right. I love you, bud.