Category: Tyra

Now that Tyra is eight years old she gets to participate in activity days. The first activity after her birthday was a mother, daughter activity. So I went with her to the church. One of the leaders got up and gave a bit of a talk about how special each girls name is and how when they were born that was one of the first questions all the family asked, “What’s her name?” So the moms got to help the girls make plaque’s with their names on them.

After that we got to fill out a pedigree chart starting with our daughters. That part was kind of funny to me. I’ve been into family history for awhile and I actually know the names of the most recent generations pretty well. Actually the hardest part for me was trying to decide which name to put down for certain people, just because there are a few of them that have 2 names. For example, my grandmother has her birth name, “Valla Dia Rae Fields” and her adopted name, “Shirley Ann Mason”. And there are a couple others that have two names, so I had to debate within myself which name I should help Tyra put down on the chart. It was funny though to see the others around me calling home to ask their hubby’s about what family member’s names are because they can’t remember it to get it written down. Then we finished the night off with some dessert. Tyra was really excited that she got to go. I think she was bummed that I helped a lot with the projects instead of just letting her do it, but hey isn’t that why it was a mother, daughter activity?

It seems that every time we try to take a picture of Tyra, she gets into this odd pose. It’s not a natural pose and personally I don’t think it looks very comfortable either. I decided to go through the pictures from over the years and see if she has always done this or if we are just noticing now, but it appears that she’s been doing it for quite some time:

2008

2009

2011

2012

See? She just assumes this pose where she touches her chin to her shoulder. I don’t think she even thinks about it when she’s getting ready for us to take pictures. But we have to keep reminding her to keep her shoulders straight, and not to tweak her neck that way. I just think it’s kind of funny.

Tyra was lucky enough to have her baptism fall ON her birthday, so we got to have all the family that came to the baptism, over for a birthday party afterwards. We had french dip in the crock pot so it was nice and ready when we got home. Apparently everyone liked it because when I went to put it away there was only enough meat left for one sandwich (and that was most likely because you couldn’t really scoop it out of the dip with tongs)! After lunch we hung out for awhile before going outside to do the pinata. First we had the two birthday kids pose as though they were hitting the pinata, just in case we didn’t get any good pictures later. 🙂

Chloe held the bat backwards:

And after seeing Jeremy wield the bat I’m wondering if maybe I should get him signed up for baseball:

Kyle decided to blindfold Lars, and it was a good thing too. He would have killed the pinata in one swing if he were able to see it! He ended up killing it after just a few swings and Ethan never made it to bat.I was worried about how Ethan would take this, but he was surprisingly a good sport about it (VERY unusual for him, I was totally expecting him to storm off crying).

After coming back in, the kids walked around eating their candy and everyone else just kind of hung out playing checkers or chess, or sleeping. Then we decided to wake everyone up so the birthday people could open their presents. Tyra went first, and I think she liked what I got her. 😉

I got her a caboodle so that she would have a place to keep her hair brush and her sun glasses and bracelets and things like that. Kyle had a wii video game that he wrapped up for Lars, and since Liesl’s birthday was yesterday Kyle had ordered something for her as well. I think she likes it:

It is a star trek pizza slicer, and the first thing Liesl did (right after making that excited face) was text Ian to tell him about it. 🙂

After awhile we decided to wrap this party up and sing to the birthday kids so we could eat the cake. Tyra chose strawberry shortcake this year which made it nice and easy. I made the cake up ahead of time and we had the sugared strawberries ready, and so there was no icing of the cake necessary.

Crazy, busy, but very good day. Tyra was very happy, and I think everyone else enjoyed being here with us. 🙂

Tyra was baptized this morning! Some of my family came into town for the occasion, and so we were up quite early this morning so that we would have plenty of time to get all the kids ready and for all the adults to have plenty of time for their turn in the bathrooms! Even so we got to the stake center nice and early, and found that they had switched the room that our ward was supposed to meet in. We were scheduled to be in the chapel, but when we got there, we were told that we were going to be in the primary room instead. So we went to the primary room and Kyle took Tyra to find the jumpers.

Tyra got to share her baptism with one of her friends from church, which was a little different for me. I had no idea what to expect with that, just because my own baptism was a convert baptism, and I shared it with my siblings, but it was just our family and our family’s guests. Ethan was the only kid from our ward being baptized in January of last year, so he didn’t have to share either.

We ended up starting late, because we were waiting for Liesl and Karen to arrive. I think Liesl got a bit lost trying to find the right building, and then she found the other stake center, which USED to be our stake center (until they split the stake and we became a part of the new stake!) She called Laurel and Laurel guided her to the correct building. But then it turned out that Ian wasn’t with them and he actually had her church clothes. So she didn’t feel right coming in until she had changed. I had to tell her that Kyle said he would rather have her there in the wrong clothes than not there at all, so I think she came right in.

I was rather stressed, but after all, the important people were there and we got started, my main focus was being where I was supposed to be. Laurel gave the talk on baptism and after that, it was time to relocate to the relief society room for the actual baptisms. Tyra was first, and so Dad and Roine went to the front to be the witnesses. I stood in the back so that I could see in the mirror, and after Kyle had baptized her I left the room so that I could go help her get out of the wet clothes and get her ready to go back to the primary room. We did stand in the sidelines to watch her friend Brayden be baptized before we left for the bathrooms though.

Despite being baptized first and heading off to the bathroom first, Tyra was last to return to the primary room. Sister Ward (Brayden’s mom) gave the talk on the Holy Ghost, and then it was time for the confirmations. Brother Monsen (counselor in our bishopric) asked Tyra and Brayden how they were feeling. Tyra’s answer was “Cold”. Then after the confirmation, he asked them again and her answer was “Happy”. After that it was time to sing and have a closing prayer, and we got to hang out with all of our family that came.  🙂

I just love this picture of Tyra attacking Lars! His face is just awesome! 🙂

Dad is wearing the tie that Tyra designed while she was at CHOC after her drowning incident a couple of years ago.