Drewe's Baptism and Confirmation

Yesterday, my niece, Drewe, was baptized by my brother, Cory.
Drewe is the only daughter of my older brother, Troy, who died three years ago. There were a lot a people that showed up in support of the event and everything went smoothly.

Cory with Drewe right before being baptized.
Talks on baptism and the Holy Ghost were given by my sister, Jodi, and my mom, Judy.
Bishop Bolander gave a few comments on the end. They all did a really good job teaching about the special promises and blessings of accepting the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Lots of grandparents, great-grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, great-aunts and uncles, ward members, and family friends were all there.


Palumbo and Lewis families along with my other niece, Brooklyn.

After the baptism, we all headed back to my parents house for a light breakfast while we waited for the confirmation to take place.
Most of the Lewis kids - Rigdon, Aubrey and Ronin.
Heading to church for Drewe's confirmation. Her confirmation had to be done during the Sacrament Meeting during church, so that is why the two events were separate instead of being done at the same time. It was such a beautiful Sunday that we all walked to the church.
Drewe's confirmation was wonderful. Those that stood in the Confirmation Circle were: Grandpa Hansen, Uncles: Ben, Todd, Jed, Cory, and Bishop Bolander.

Rigdon was wiggly and restless duing the meeting so I took him into the mother's room for the rest of the meeting. I couldn't help snap a shot of him in his silly mood.

Drewe with her Grandma Hansen. Grandpa had a class to teach right after and wasn't there to get his picture taken.
Congratulations, Drewe, on your special day! I hope you don't ever forget what this day felt like.

The Hansen family at the confirmation. Showing Grandma Hansen, the Lewis family, Palumbos, and Picketts. My brother Cory and his family had already left back to the house.

Baseball Game

Last night we headed to a baseball game with my family. My cousin, Karl, was very generous and hooked us up with some tickets. We had great seats and had a fun time watching the game.
Halfway through the game, Connor and his cousin, Carson, got to go out onto the field for a race.

They had to run around on their bats and get dizzy and then race to the mascot. Carson won the race but they both won pizzas.

Aubrey was just happy to be with her daddy. Surprisingly, Aubrey really enjoyed watching the game too. She thinks she might like to actually play it next year. My sister and her husband are sitting right behind them.

Jed's police buddy, Bob, joined us too. He was fun to sit by.

My brother, Cory, and his son, Ethan.

My dad and Cory's other son, Briggs.

Carson, Connor and Ronin.

Thanks Karl for the tickets! You're awesome!

Happy times at the baseball game. The boys just ate it up. Now that I think about it, I believe this was their first time going to a game like this. Cool.

Our team ended up losing by two points. There were some exciting plays and it was so neat to watch it with our kids and family.

Fun times!

Temple Visitor's Center

We headed to our nearby Temple Visitor's Center yesterday for my niece, Drewe. The LDS missionaries have been teaching her and wanted to take her there and let her see some pictures and watch the movie, "The Testaments." Since Drewe is getting baptized this Sunday, the missionaries are preparing and teaching her what she needs to know before her big event happens.

From left: Drewe, Kaylee, Canyon, Connor, Carson, and Ronin.

Connor and Carson checking out some of the media learning outlets in the Visitor's Center.

The Visitor's Center is very kid-friendly. Ronin is using a touch screen to pick different religious topics to learn about.

My niece, Kaylee, and my mom and dad.
Since we needed to wait a little bit before the movie started, we asked the missionaries to tell us their conversion stories. So we headed outside onto the temple grounds and listened to them speak. These missionaries are amazing and have sacrificed much for what they believe. Elder Bryan was only baptized two years ago against his family's wishes His family has completely rejected him. I hope that with time his family will come to love and accept him anyway, despite the fact that he believes differently than they do.
From left: Kaylee, my sister, Jodi, her husband, Ben, and my dad.
Ronin listening to the missionaries.
Top row: Kaylee, Canyon, Ronin, and Drewe
Bottom Row: Elder Bryant, Carson, Elder Medina, Connor
Elder Bryant from Louisiana, Drewe, and Elder Medina from Hawaii.
I am so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ. It has blessed my life so much and given me much strength during times of trials and sadness. I know that Christ bled and died for us so that we could have the Atonement. It is only through Him that we can again return to our Heavenly Father, I owe Him my life.

I felt the Spirit strongly yesterday, again testifying to me that it is all true.
I love this gospel!

Our Summer Project

Our first project of the summer was to make a sand box for the kids. We had an area in the back of the house that was just dirt and weeds so we figured that it would be the best spot to use. So here are photos of our project from start to finish:

First: We had someone come and dump a huge pile of sand on our driveway.

Second: Outlined and started digging a big hole for the sand. Since I didn't want to wait for Jed to have a day off work to get going, I put the kids to work with me. Let's just say progress was slow. Digging dirt is hard work!

The kids did their best on a really hot day. After about an hour or two we were exhausted and went and got snow cones to cool us down. I decided perhaps it was better to wait for Jed. A few days later, Jed and Connor dug the rest of the hole while I was at work - sooo sorry that I missed that. (I was being sarcastic there.)

Three: We went and bought some railroad ties and began cutting them to fit our sandbox dimensions and then put them into place. Man, they were heavy!

Jed used me as a stablizing weight while he cut through more railroad ties. Although I think they weighed almost as much as me.

Good thing I don't suffer from allergies with all of the sawdust flying around.

Setting the ties just right.

Jed and Connor begin hammering corner brackets to keep the ties snuggly in place.

As you can tell, our dog did a good job giving moral support to everybody.

More hammering.

Connor loves doing anything that involves a hammer and nails.

The first box level was done and the guys began shoveling dirt loads of sand into the wheelbarrow. Meanwhile I start filling in dirt around the ties.

Dumping load after load.....

.......after load of sand.

We filled up the sandbox to the top of the ties and thought that we would stop there. However, we still had a lot of sand left and many unused ties so we decided to create a second layer to make it deeper. Rigdon woke up from his nap and is checking out daddy's work.

More hammering....with Rigdon's help. Baby see, Baby do.

Rigdon loved working along side his daddy.

Such a hard little worker.

Just about done with the frame.

Happy kid.
The next day Jed and Connor again loaded more dirt in the sand box while I was at work. Again, I didn't mind missing that part at all.

Done!
Our sandbox is already being enjoyed by our kids and the whole neighborhood too.

This smile made it all worth it.

Now I'm just rubbing my hands for my next project.....landscaped flower beds and a rock path by the sand box and this area of the yard will be complete!