Katie Turned Eight

Katie turned eight on Tuesday. On Monday (her birthday eve), my mom took her to Salt Lake for the whole day. They went to Build-A-Bear and she picked out an adorable, soft, lop-eared bunny with a rainbow skirt, sparkly rainbow shoes, a happy birthday shirt, sparkly pink bows on both ears, a cupcake and a cellphone and named her Emily.

They had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory with Oreo cheesecake for dessert and then bought more stuffed animals at the Disney Store. Katie was given "Happy Birthday" buttons and sang to everywhere they went.

On her Birthday, she took cupcakes to share with her art class and as soon as she and Isaac got out of school at noon, I took them both to Boondocks where they rode bumper boats and go-carts and played video games, bowled and ate build-your-own sundaes. She also got a Magic 8 ball and a set of "girl" Legos. We stayed up late putting "Stephanie's House" together.

Wednesday was Katie and Isaac's last day of school. She got to take cupcakes again (since Wednesday is the day she has class with the kids her age). They had parties all day and yearbook signing at the end and I even brought our bunny Carmel for her and Isaac to show off to their friends. After school, she attended her first Activity Days, which was a lovely backyard swim party and the girls gave her a really fun basket full of Birthday surprises.

Thursday was her Birthday party. A bounce house was delivered in the morning and Katie, Isaac and Jase played on it all day. In the afternoon, a dozen of her friends showed up to bounce, play tag, eat treats including Oreo cake and ice-cream and open lots more presents.

Friday was Ian's last day of school. He had an end of year party that night with twenty friends, night games, one of those giant pizzas from The Pie and tons of treats. Sophie also had a friend over so they could work on a video for a contest. Ian's friends left around 11 p.m. and I turned my attention to the next task at hand -- Katie's baptism at 10 a.m. Saturday morning.

On Saturday, Katie arrived at the church in a beautiful white dress. Ian played the prelude music and "I Am A Child Of God" for the opening hymn while Sophie led the music. We had a lovely program and Brian baptized her. It was extra special because it was Grandma Nicholson's birthday. As I was preparing my talk on baptism for the big day, I pulled out the journal my Grandma gave to me on the day of my baptism and started reading through it and I was reminded that when I was Katie's age my favorite baby doll was named Katie! I remember that doll well, but I had forgotten her name. I love that I had a babydoll Katie then and I have a real Katie now.

After the baptism, our friends and family came to the house for brunch. I was tired when everyone left, but we needed to clean up the backyard. Sadly, our favorite pine tree died and during this crazy busy week, Brian rented a lift and cut the whole thing down, but we needed to haul away all the branches. We got it mostly cleaned up and now we need to figure out how to make the space awesome so we don't miss our beautiful tree so much.

Saturday evening, Sophie worked her first shift at her new job at Waffle Love in downtown Ogden on 25th Street. Brian and I stayed up late to pick her up (she gets off at midnight).

Today at church, Katie was recognized for being baptized and the Primary Presidency gave her a soft, warm blanket to represent the gift of the Holy Ghost. My goodness. What a lovely Birthday/Baptism week this girl has had.