All About Linsey

Linsey is 8 years old and the highlight of our weekend was her baptism. She is such a joy in our family and although she was very nervous a few weeks ago, she was thrilled on the morning of her baptism and could hardly wait. She put her hands close together and said she was only this nervous, then she put her hands as far apart as she could and said she was that excited!

The day was absolutely perfect! Linsey's Grandpa's both spoke at her baptism, we sang Linsey's favorite songs, and the feeling there was so wonderful. She seemed so confident and happy. She later wrote in her journal that she felt important.

Afterwards, we invited all our family and friends to come over for refreshments at our house. The day was beautiful and the kids were able to run and play outside while the adults visited in the house. Like I said, it was perfect!

We have been celebrating Linsey for weeks now! Her birthday is July 3rd, and since we were going to be out of town on our marathon of trips we decided to give her a birthday gift before we left (back in June).

It's a real guitar, not a toy. Jared thinks it would be really neat for her to learn to play. She's already made up a few songs... sort of. We might get her a couple lessons and a how to book, but so far she's had a lot of fun with it. It's black and came with markers that you can use to decorate it. You can wipe it clean with a wet rag and decorate it over and over. Pretty cool!

We were actually in Waterton, Canada on July 3rd (Linsey's real birthday). Jared and I filled her room with balloons and decorated our hotel with streamers so she could wake up and feel like it wasn't just any old vacation day. Happy Birthday Linsey!

We had a big dinner that night with Jared's family. Aunt Bri made some cheesy potatoes with bacon in them that were a huge hit for Linsey, she ate 4 servings. We sang Happy Birthday and most everyone had a cupcake. Hunter tripped and fell on the way out of the hotel room and sent one tray of cupcakes flyinig. oops.

Once we got home from our trips, the celebrating continued with a Garden Birthday Party!

We started out by having a flower find. This was done much like an Easter Egg hunt, only Linsey hid silk flowers all around the yard and flower bed. She had them sticking out of dirt and looking so real, it made our yard look amazing!

Here the girls are after the flower find.

Each of the girls decorated a flower pot and planted a flower. I thought they did a beautiful job.

We did a couple relay races. For one of them, the girls had to carry a shovel full of dirt one at a time until they filled a small pot. Then someone had to race over and plant a flower. Last, they had to water it to win the game. It was a riot.


We gave each of the girls pet ladybugs to take home as party favors. (I think all the moms were okay with that). The girls loved it and since we had bought a bag of lady bugs and still had lots left over, we decided to have a "free the ladybugs ceremony" at the party. All of Linsey's friends stood in a circle around her while she opened the lid to the bug jar and instantly lady bugs began to fly out and crawl all over her. It didn't take long for all the girls to swarm around and get down in the grass trying to catch them. They all had lady bugs crawling up their arms and on their clothing, in their hair, and even on their faces. I kept expecting someone to freak out, but they really loved it. It was so much fun to watch!





We sure love Linsey and had a great time celebrating her over and over and over again these last few weeks.