Madelyn's baptism

 Madelyn's baptism dress was the same dress my sister Megan wore to my wedding when she was six and then to her baptism, and Madelyn's blessing dress was the dress I also wore, which my mom made.

....

Well, it finally happened! The whole year leading up to this, Madelyn was very wary of getting baptized. Everyone would get so excited talking to her about it, and she would just cry. Sigh! My emotional girl. She was just scared of the unknown, really (even though she'd been to other baptisms). We offered to rehearse it with her at the pool, but she never wanted to. As the time got closer, I got nervous that she wasn't actually going to do it, and I didn't want to force her.

She and Mark went for her interview with the bishop, though, and she said she wanted to get baptized. I was encouraged when she drew this on the calendar:

I eventually got her to tell me that she was afraid of going under water backwards because she had never done it before. When I told her she could just sit down in the water, she said, "OH! Okay. I can do that." Sheesh, girl.

Still, the week leading up to it was anything but smooth sailing. We'd just had a cram packed weekend with our anniversary and the concert, and so of course what happened next was that we all got sick. It started with Luke, and he's really good at spreading it around, so soon we all had a cold. So there were lots of sleepless nights and zombie like days, and of course I had Christmas decorations and new presents to put away, which meant that I had to clean out the kids' old toys and clothes, and there was a lot of going back and forth between the house and the attic and the storage unit. It's my least favorite chore of the year, ugh.

Mark had New Year's Day off but then had his busiest day at the clinic in his career so far on Wednesday Jan 2nd and saw 54 patients and came home at 10:00 pm.! That was a crazy day. He was double and triple booked for all his time slots.

Thursday night, we finally got a call from the stake Primary president, who filled us in with the details of the baptism, asked Mark to give a prayer and me to GIVE A TALK! Even though it was only a 5 minute talk assignment, I called my dad and asked if he would do it, because seriously. (As it turned out, the other person to give a talk was one of the other kids' grandmother, so I was not the only one to punt it to someone else.) It was a stake baptism with four kids from four wards participating.

Friday night (the day before the baptism) we were invited to a friend's house for dinner, and so after I cleaned the house like mad, I had to make a salad and dessert, plus make homemade baked ziti for a sick friend and her family. So much for a clean kitchen. But we went and had a good time and successfully procrastinated the rest of our preparations. 

Saturday, Mark had to work the Saturday clinic because he was on call (naturally!) until 2:00 pm. The baptism was at 4:00 and we were supposed to be there at 3:30.

I spent all morning baking, cleaning and trying to get ready for the family gathering we were having afterwards. See the clock, and how it's 3:38 pm and I should have already been at the church? Mark and Madelyn had gone on ahead. Story of my life.

 Luke was NOT happy to have woken up from his nap and kicked and screamed getting his suit on. Which got him in trouble, which made him even more upset.

We finally made it to the church, and everyone was seated and ready to go. They had a really nice program, my dad gave a great talk, and the bishopbric member helping out from our ward happened to be Bro. Jordan, whose daughter Becky Comstock was Madelyn's first grade teacher, and "Mr. Jordan" used to come and read to her class. I wish I'd gotten a picture of them together, but he left before I could. Also, Madelyn's friend Ashley Flanigan (who was just at her birthday party) happened to be getting baptized that day, too! Wish I'd gotten a picture of them. Oh well.

I hurried and snapped this in the hallway before she went in. She was the first to be baptized, and as I was putting all my stuff down and getting Luke situated, I turned around and she and Mark were already in the font! I was like, WAIT FOR ME!!!!! (Because I needed to be in the bathroom waiting for her when she came out.) I nearly missed the whole thing because I was running down the hall. Again, story of my life.

Anyway, even though she was still nervous, she did it and was so brave!!! She had a huge grin on her face when she came out of the water. I helped her dry off (it is super freezing in that bathroom, always) and had to blow dry her hair and get her dressed. I should mention that it was only about 20°F outside. I'm glad she at least had nice warm water in the font. She kept saying, "I got baptized!! I'm the newest member of the church!" :) I was so very proud of her.

 Her best friend Emma came to watch her. It was at this point that I realized that the lens of my camera was smeared with little boy smears, and that all the pictures I'd been taking were all hazy because of it. LUKE!!!

My parents and Megan

with cousin Autumn

Auntie Megan

Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Frank Yoder

Grandpa Rich and Grandma Carolyn Murset

My attempts at a picture with Luke (who had brought his squirt gun)

Our cute little family

Kathy, Frank, Frank Jr., Rose, Mark and Melissa Yoder

l-r: Jack, Kevin, Lori, Hattie, Rich, Carolyn and Megan Murset, Emery, Shay and Maria Nielson, Melissa, Madelyn, Mark and Luke Yoder, Tyler, Ava, Monica and Nathan Murset

Then it was back to my house for a party!

 I got these cute decorations and serveware at Walmart (on clearance! Woohoo) as part of their New Year's celebration stuff.

We had a lot of really yummy food (thank you to everyone who brought something). I will post a few of the recipes soon.

 We had 25 people in the house, and it was very busy and crowded indeed.

 

 The reveling carried on till 10:15 pm, and to say I was exhausted was an understatement. I am glad I have another five years before I have to do this again.

The next day (sorry, this post is going on forever), Madelyn was presented as the newest member of the ward in front of the congregation and given her own Book of Mormon that the bishop had written in. We were a few minutes late getting to church, so we had literally just walked through the chapel doors when they called her up. Phew!

It was fast and testimony meeting, and I asked if Madelyn wanted to get up and bear hers (tons of kids do in our ward) and she said no. But a few minutes later she said she did want to, but was scared and didn't know what to say. I helped her write down a simple testimony and then went up with her to help bear it.

I am so proud of my sweet, brave little girl and the decision she made to be baptized!

I breathed a huge sigh of relief that all the big, stressful things were over in my life for a while (except for Relief Society stuff, but that's a whole other story). And then. 

AND THEN.

Mark and I were sitting innocently in Gospel Doctrine class that day, and one of the instructors pulled us aside up at the front of the class afterward and said he needed a substitute for his lesson the next week, and he wanted us to do it. I was so startled I couldn't think of an excuse (or lie) fast enough, and next thing we knew, we were being handed all the lesson books. 

ARE YOU KIDDING ME.

Do I walk around with a sign on my back that says "Glutton for punishment"???! Because apparently I do!!!!

Long story short, instead of having a nice relaxing week with life back to normal, Mark and I stressed and stressed and stressed over what was probably the hardest, deepest, most doctrinal gospel doctrine lesson that was scheduled for the whole year (it was on the nature of Jesus Christ and His Atonement). We made it through the lesson but then as soon as we got home I had to make treats and go back over to the church for nearly four more hours to do visiting teaching interviews and meetings (which I had to do two weeks in a row).

So you'll understand why I've been slightly hysterical lately. Oh so many more things to post about, too. Until next time!

11th anniversary/Tabernacle concert

So, we had Christmas on a Tuesday, Wednesday Mark had to go back to work, Thursday I can't remember what we did, and then Friday Dec. 28th was our 11 year anniversary!

We have never left the kids overnight with anyone before (ever), but we thought they were both old enough to handle it by now. My brother Tyler and his wife Monica agreed to let the kids stay with them. Madelyn had been talking about it for months--her first sleepover!

 

This was the only picture I took of us, but we crammed quite a lot in while it was just the two of us. We dropped our wedding rings off at the jewelers to get cleaned and re-plated, went to Target, Old Navy, TJ Maxx, Golden Corral (we were going to go to Olive Garden but ran out of time), went to see Les Miserables, stayed overnight at the Lexington Hotel and went to the temple the next morning.

Ironically, with all that peace and quiet, nobody slept very well, including the kids. We just weren't used to being away from each other. Madelyn and Luke had a blast playing with their cousins, and got to sleep in a big tent in the living room. We were worried about Luke, but he actually put himself to bed at 9:45. Madelyn was homesick and didn't sleep well. It was still a good trial run, though. Thank you, Tyler and Monica!!!

 

We treated the kids to a trip to Pizza Factory for lunch, and everyone stuffed themselves with pizza, breadsticks and spaghetti. Yum, I love that place.

We had church the next day, and then had to turn around and drive back down to St. George (through a blizzard...) for the family concert at the Tabernacle that night.

The St. George Tabernacle was built during pioneer times and has been in use since 1875. It is right next to the building (which was the original Dixie Academy, 1911)  that I used to take my ballet lessons in.

My mom and brother Kevin have performed there before--they hold concerts, recitals and firesides 3-4 times per week. It's a busy place!

The program we performed was Christmas themed. My sister-in-law Lori played the harp, my sister-in-law Monica sang a few solos, my mom played her guitar, my brother Kevin played a few numbers on the pipe organ, and me, Lori, Monica, mom, my sisters Meg and Maria and my niece Hattie all sang O, Holy Night. And my dad narrated.

(By the time we took these, they were turning the lights out)

Top: Mom (Carolyn) and Kevin

Bottom, l-r: Monica, Megan, me, Lori and Maria

 

Kevin is currently working on his piano/organ performance degree at Dixie State College. He has plans to go on and get his PhD in it someday at a schmancy music school.

 

I was always a little fascinated/creeped out by that big eye on the wall when I was a kid.

(I got this picture here, because all of mine were too blurry)

 Presumably, it's God's All Seeing Eye, and then below it is a disembodied hand pointing straight up at it, and then two hands shaking, with "1875 Holiness to the Lord Faith & Union". I used to think I saw the eye blinking at me when I was a kid. Also, see the plaster clusters of grapes above it? They go all the way around the entire ceiling, and I remember Elder Jeffrey R. Holland (who's from St. George) saying in a conference talk that he used to sit and count the grape clusters during stake conferences as a kid to stave off boredom. 

Anyway, it's a really cool building. After the concert I hurried and took some more pictures.

 This was the pulpit (sans the microphone) where Lorenzo Snow announced the Law of Tithing to the saints in 1899.

 

My nephew Nathan decided to sit down at the Steinway and play Come Though Font of Every Blessing. I was impressed!

 Hattie and Madelyn up in the balcony

Lori with her harp (she's preggers with a little boy)

 

 Me

 Monica

 

Madelyn was playing on the balcony and spiral staircases during the whole concert. I could see her from where I was sitting. Looks like she had fun... Luke had to sit still and be quiet with Mark and his Grandma and Grandpa Yoder.

He got to explore a little bit afterwards, but the number of "fall and break your neck" opportunities were too many, so Mark took him (kicking and screaming) out to the car to wait for us.

This is how they did folding chairs back in the 1800s.

Such an awesome place. My mom has arranged for two more "Murset" concerts, in this coming August and December.

Oh, look, you can see Luke fighting with Mark to get his coat on down there in the pews. Ah, memories.