A Most Marvelous March

Because of Brenna's momentous birthday, she was able to be baptized the first Saturday of the month. 

She has been counting down the day and she was glowing. 

 Our ward is a large one and typically every baptism service has a few kids sharing their special day.  Brenna shared with two fun peeps: Cooper Jesperson and Kylee Nelson. 

Each of the kids were baptized by their dads.  Dave prepares and looks forward to these special moments with our kids and we are grateful He is a priesthood holder. 

 We split up the program- Cooper's grandma spoke, Grandma McArthur spoke and all the siblings from each family sang with the special 8 year olds.  

The song they performed was "Choose Him Again" and it was so sweet.  It was a special and powerful message about choosing Jesus in our lives and I know while Brenna chose Him as she made those baptismal covenants/commitments we have to continually choose Him.  

We have to always remember Him and put him as the center of our lives, even (maybe especially) over Zac Efron...who Brenna thinks is dreamy and even requests coloring pages of his handsome face.  

The following day was fast Sunday. (side note: A month or so ago Harrison got up distressed one Sabbath asking me over and over again if it was a quick Sunday, or if it was hurry Sunday.  It took me a minute to realize he was referring to FAST Sunday.  We typically do have to hurry to get out the door, how that happens with 11am church, I do not know, but it does.  Now, I sometimes have to refer to Fast Sunday as Quick/Hurry Sunday just for kicks).    Anyway, Brenna got to sit on the stand and she had been itching to bear her testimony for a good year.  We told her when she was baptized.  You better believe she raced up to that microphone when it was available.  

She shared that she had felt the Holy Ghost 'so much' at her baptism, I hope she can always recall that she did.  I did too.  

Harrison did not share his divine experience with me, but he did tell me the other day "I felt the spirit when I watch Avengers

...but not the Holy Spirit."  At least we are learning that there are all sorts of spirits out there! Ha! 

Soon after our sweet girl's baptism, we were celebrating our other little lady and her birthday! 

The big 1-1 for Miss Katelee! This tween-er and her gal pals roamed the mall for a scavenger hunt birhtday party and it was hilarious. 

We split into two teams, with the help of Super Aunt Shannon and met back 45 min later.  We looked for an exit sign, a frog, something fuzzy, a size 13 shoe, etc  Katelee's team beat my team by a hair, but they definitely took the prize for best 'something fancy.'

Best part was watching them dance in Forever 21.  She had Pyper, Emily, Capri, Nicole, Peyton, Brylee and Breanna.  She's lucky to have great friends.  

Her birthday party was fitting for a pre-teen with emoji cakes and a gift of an Alexa speaker.  Alexa allows her to listen to music, set an alarm, talk about the deep things of the universe and most importantly tell the weather and jokes.  We have to keep those coming at our place.  

Katelee is an emotional, dependable, good to the core, kind young lady.  We are blessed by her genuine concern for others and it's balanced out so well with her goofiness and sense of adventure.  Harrison walked by her the other day and said, "oh, it's Katelee-the person with issues." She is not quite perfect, I guess. 

Katelee also had a fun month with her theatre school.  She was bummed to miss it last year, so we were pleased to get to enroll with Emily Cowley.  

The two learned vital theatre skills-singing, dancing, confidence and combat.  That last one probably comes in most handy at our house.  Although, now she is trained in stage combat, it's hard to tell what is legit and rehearsed here now! 

On to another production-Singing in the Rain.  Oh yes, take a double take of this picture below...

That is right!  It is Grant-the fellow who has never wanted to be in a theatre performance has finally caught the performing bug.  He wasn't too sure about it at first with the rehearsals, but come to the actual performance nights and he had a grand time.  He is already gearing up for some more time on stage. He was a natural for sure! 

The end of the month was Easter- and early one for us this year.  It wasn't too cold to have the city chaos collection...eh, I mean Easter egg hunt.  There was a mom that yelled at another mom there and I thought there was going to be a cat fight before my very eyes over a tootsie roll.  But, we keep going back every year.  It's pretty much hilarious...usually.  

 

 We love to remember the true meaning of Easter and spend time together reflecting on the Savior and the plan that allows us to live eternally because of Him.  Harrison, while angry the other day mumbled, "i don't care about Jesus."   I asked him what he said, slightly shocked that that came out of his mouth and he told me that I didn't hear anything.  I know he didn't mean it because really nothing else matters and Jesus is the reason the things we do care about last forever.  

The Savior also makes it possible to wipe away mistakes and come clean.  While attempting to be clean in the tub the other day, Harrison was showing me how he can touch the bottom.  He took a deep breath and went for it.  When he came up gasping,  I knew he hadn't quite made it.  He looked at me and frankly stated, "Well, that was humiliating." 

We finished off the month with a visit from Grandpa-we had just seen him for the baptism, but we were happy he got to spend his birthday and conference with us.  Good news was we also were going to be heading out to Florida a couple weeks later, more of those details with April's post!