Anastasia choses to follow Christ!

I was worried that it wouldn't happen.  Like Alina.  We had episodes of threatening to run away, gigantic fits and a whole lot of ugliness the week before.  I knew she really wanted to be baptized (has begged to be  baptized over and over again since Kristina was baptized) but iI didn't know if it would be on a down swing of her emotions. 

But the day was beautiful all around.  She looked beautiful in her white dress and just glowed.  The spirit was there very strong.  There were 5 children being baptized, one other one from our ward. 

As is tradition in our family we all went out to eat and gave her her own set of scriptures with her name embossed on it.    She said it was her "favoritest day so far."

Anastasia is a very blessed spirit of Heavenly Father.  She is blessed with a huge, kind heart that not only cares about everyone around her but feels the spirit readily and deeply.  She is and will be a powerful adversary of Satans.  We are blessed to have her in our family!!!

Berries

I think I finally feel like going to sleep... and the coughing has subsided a little so this is the last post for a while.

We have somehow established ourselves as the people to call.... Let me back up.  The local berry farm (one of them, anyway) has a list of people to call at the end of the day when they have berries left over that they haven't sold, that will buy them on a moments notice for half the price.  Well, I guess because we take 10 or more boxes at a time they have found that it is easy to call us to get rid of a lot at once.  We ended up doing something like 40 or 50 boxes of raspberries and something like 20 boxes of strawberries (which is rare, usually there aren't any strawberries left over.

SO we have spent a lot of time putting up berries this year.  I made about 200 pint jars of jam... we go through it like water during the school year with the kids making their lunches.

And about 50 or so quarts of pie filling.  And I have actally made some pies from it. Pies are a big stretch for me as I can never seem to get the crust right.  But I purchased a rolling mat and have practiced.  This is good because they are a big hit.  Even the RS raved about my pies.

We froze a lot for berry "milkshakes" what we call smoothies at our house.

Because of this great blessing that part of our food storage is well stocked!

Run, Run, Run, Runaway and other Summer time "fun"

This summer has been a fun one.  I love having my kids home.  We'll talk about all the things we have accomplished in the next post.  This post is going to be (hopefully, briefly) about the challenging behavior that has popped up.
First and foremost, Running away.  All the girls (except Ryah) tried it at least once.  And it wasn't fun.  We even called the police a couple of times.  They did it mostly in response to chores.  Actually, I think it was mostly in response to testing the limits, to claim a power over someone.  But we hope we have established that it is not a way to solve any problems.  Hopefully, it won't happen again.
I have never been so yelled at, called names, kicked or hit so much.  Even Anastasia, who is my "please everyone, never an unkind word, even tempered" one had a couple extremely difficult weeks.
But the most difficult part, for me, is the outside forces. 
The comments such as:
"yes, but they have had a rough life." (that is true but doesn't mean they should be allowed to act in unacceptable ways, and implying that I'm in the wrong for towing the line)
"they seem like nice kids"  (and they are, very nice, but we have to wade through the valley of death, before they work through all the ugliness, this also implys that I'm fibbing or exaggerating)

There are lots more, but I'm gonna stop here because I just re-read that and it sounds like I'm whining and having a pity party.  So, I will end by saying that there have been some rough patches and we know that we are going to have more rough patches.  What everyone else sees is only a relatively small part of the whole picture.  But we know that these girls are OUR girls, that has been confirmed to us many times.  We love them and are committed to making our family an eternal one.
Sometime, probably after school starts and I have 2 brain cells to rub together I will write a post about what each adopted girl has brought to our family and how we have each grown because they are with us.  Because we have been very blessed.  And we probably don't point that out enough. 
For now, on to the fun times...

Family Trip- Idaho Leg

Reunion in Idaho was everything a reunion should be:  eating, playing hard, a few activities for the kids and a whole lot of visiting.

Aunt Eileen brought lots of waterballoons, which were quickly used up.

Aunt Mara brought lots of clothes for everyone to look through.  Something for everyone.

Stephie, ever so practiced at Grandma Nielson's house, caught a grasshopper.  Actually, she caught a couple.

The little boys found the dirt and rocks to play with.

Uncle Sam brought his boondoggle thread.  He also generously donated from his stash of fly-tying yarn for us to use on the cabin quilt.

Aunt Darla (the scout guru) brought their bottle rocket launcher. It got well used and often got dispensed with in favor of just pouring water.

We got the cabin quilt tied and ready to be bound.

Oh that is too perfect.

Even Grandpa got in on the fun.

That is more like it.  Lots of water got "spilled."

Someone set a needle down and Elijah even worked hard on the quilt.

If you look hard you can see the evidence.

We are an equal opportunity family with no respect to gender or age.

Can't remember who brought the waterballoon launcher.

There was also bows and arrows to shoot, brownies to eat and LOTS of cousin time!!

Oh, and we opened the time capsule from the Cabin Reunion 5 years ago.  Way fun to read where people were then and then know where they are now.  We also made another one to be read in 5 years.

Then the fun really began.  We went to the college where Uncle Ryan gave us a lecture on sound.  He had lots of cool toys, I mean instruments to play with.  He even had a tesla coil... but he didn't let us play with it.  He also showed a great video about how military folk are taught how to kill using violent video games, BUT they are also taught the discipline to go a long with it.  Kids aren't taught that discipline but allowed to just go out and "kill" with video games.  I'll have to find it and link to it (or Ryan you could save me the trouble and send me the link :) ).

Then we got to play, "Name that culprit." or Mara's Memories or whatever other names we came up with.  It was a trivia game about incidents that happened in the family.  (Who got sprayed by a skunk?  Who broke their leg chasing a cow? ect)

From there we moved over to Uncle Sam's neck of the woods.  He was instrumental in aquiring an exact replica of the Grandin Press, the press that the Book of Mormon was printed on.  He gave a fascinating discussion of the dark art of printing, the people who did the actual printing of the Book of Mormon, and the press itself.

The title page of the Book of Mormon.

Then everyone got to print their own copy of the Family Reunion page that Uncle Sam typeset.

Some of the type.  Quick what font?

The Mad Printer

Alina cranking the paper in place.

Uncle Sam showing how they used to ink.

Miriam inking.

Even Grandma and Grandpa got to pull the "devil's tail."

Grandma showing the finished product.

Uncle Ryan helping Ryah ink hers.

No one, least of all our family wanted the night to end.  All the moms were impressed at how well the kids all played with each other.  (I guess you don't say that with teenagers, do you?) Got along with each other.  My girls were so pleased to be played with and taken care of by cousins of all ages.  It was hard to leave the next day and know that there was more fun to be had.

We hope our girls realize what a wonderful family (on both sides) we have.  Even though we don't see them very often we can turn to them for ANYTHING.  This is where it is at and where it will be for Eternity! 

We love you all!!!

Family Trip- Utah Leg

The ride to Utah was a long one and we all looked for diversions to distract us.  This was a fun one.  There were about 20 squirrels that the kids fed.  I can't seem to find the picture that had six or eight in it at once.
 

Grandma J's nesting hummingbird. We hope it survived our visit.

Aunt Kayleen (the designated "Fun Aunt") making rings with the girls and animals with the boys. (Sorry about the lighting, I wasn't there to help take these pictures)

Her stash.  Thanks for sharing!

The biggest hit (and the biggest point of contention) was Grandma J's Jeep.  Everyone that could fit logged lots of hours in it.

And the other vehicles were well used too.

Elijah gets 2 tickets for running into Anastasia.

And FINALLY some pictures with the Grandparents.  We have been slackers and it takes us a year and a half to get these.  Still don't have ones with Grandma and Grandpa Nielson.