Our Family Picture (by Emma Schipaanboord)

This gave Jake and I a good laugh today.  Just so we're clear, Truman our labradoodle is not a god.  He may think he is, sleeping wherever he wants (usually on my comforter), rummaging through our trash when I tell him no, bolting out the front door any time it opens.  We asked Emma to sound out the word, as we pointed at Truman's picture.  She said "guh... aw... d.  Guhawd.  God.  Oops.  I did it backwards.  That's funny!"  Yep.  That is funny.

The Power of the Internet

I'm the office manager of a local dance studio.  On Wednesday afternoon our dance director showed me the Mini Competition team's costume for their hip hop dance.  It was adorable, and all from the Children's Place.  The great part was that the shoes and vest were on clearance, since they were holiday items and at the end of the season.  Great, right?!  Well, turns out these puppies are hard to find.  (Hard is sort of an understatement!)  The dance director had asked me to see if we could find all 14 pairs of shoes and vests for the team, so I started making calls.  Thankfully, we were able to find 9 pairs of shoes right off the bat, but we still needed 5 more.  We only had 2 vests, so I needed to find 12 more.  I didn't think it would be that difficult to find them, just call a couple local stores and *voila*.  Well, after calling 70 (yes, SEVENTY!) stores throughout the country, being on and off the phone with our receptionist, parents, and tons of TCPs for nearly 7 hours, I was able to find 3 pairs of shoes and 6 vests in Logan (thanks, Marina for picking those up for me!).  I found 3 vests in St. George and am having my good friend's friend, Sara, pick them up for me today and ship them.  Then I found 3 more vests and 1 pair of shoes in Boston, and my brother is taking the subway out to the mall to pick them up for me today.  (Justin, you're the best!!)  Then I only needed ONE more pair of shoes, a size 12 or 13.  I was lucky enough to find them at a store in San Mateo, CA.  I had a sweet girl named Holly, who frequents this LDS online forum I go to occasionally, go out and buy them yesterday and is shipping them to me today.  I had nearly 20 people on this forum offer up their services to go get them for me if their local TCP had them.  Some were in TX, NE, AZ, CO, CA, MN.  So sweet.  These people don't even know me, but were willing to go out of their way and help out a nearly complete stranger.  So awesome!  The power of the internet amazes me!  Thanks Holly, from San Mateo.  You're making one dance studio in North Salt Lake, Utah very happy!

Ben's Baptism

Ben turned 8 a few weeks ago which meant he could be baptized and today was his big day.  This morning Ben became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS.)  It was a very sweet day.  My parents flew in from Portland this morning and my grandparents, Grammy and Grandpa Call, picked them up from the airport and brought them to our house before the baptism.  On Jake's side we had his parents, all his siblings and their spouses, and 6 cousins.  Our great friends, Susi and Gordon Mabey came, even with Susi feeling under the weather.  My girlfriends, Amber and Meighan showed up, along with some of Ben's friends (Elliott, Spencer, and Brenley.)  We also had our Bishop, his wife and son, his first counselor and her wife, and two of the primary counselors.  Robin Thompson, Ben's old primary teacher, spotlighted Ben and told all about his favorite things, and about how special he is.  Sam Whiting, the Bishop's son and Ben's primary teacher, gave a wonderful talk on baptism.  Fred Thompson, a counselor in the Bishopric, gave a talk on the Holy Ghost and used Ben's blankie as an example of feeling warmth and comfort from the Holy Ghost.  After that, Jake baptized Ben and then confirmed him, giving him the Holy Ghost.  It was a very special day.

Ben is such a handsome, sweet boy and we are so lucky to have him in our family.  We are very proud of him.

Ben is a great big brother to Emma and Josh.

 Ben wanted to do a piggy back ride with both Emma and Josh on his back.  This was his first attempt, and it was successful... at least for a few seconds!

 After the piggy back ride, Emma chased Ben around the room, trying to give him a kiss.  Josh wanted in on the fun, so he chased Emma around, trying to kiss her.  It was pretty cute, although I'm not sure Ben thought it was. ;)

This morning, before Ben's baptism, I found him on the couch reading from Timothy in his scriptures to Josh.  I was amazed that Ben could get a 3 year old to sit still that long, especially reading from a book without pictures!  (Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Call for the green scriptures.  They are exactly what he wanted!)

 Then Emma wanted in on the action.  So sweet.

And I had to throw this one in.  Ben got the game Mindflex for Christmas and was able to pull it out and use it for the first time yesterday.  It looks a little magical (and spooky) with him staring so intently at the ball, trying to get it to float higher.  He loves his game and can't wait to master the different levels.

 Ben with Grandma and Grandpa Schip.  They stopped by tonight to drop off some delicious cookies and some neat stickers to put in his scriptures.

 When Grandma and Grandpa Call are here, the kids can't get enough of them.  They constantly hang on them, ask them questions, want them to read books and play games.  They are in heaven.  So glad they could come out for Ben's special day!

 Emma loves doing hair, especially her own.  Her speciality are ponytails and pigtails.  She worked pretty hard on grandma until she got it just right.

 So proud of the end product.