It's Great To Be Eight!

I had absolutely no clue that putting together a baptism required so much preparation and work! I whipped up some invites(My awesome friend Tracey helped assemble them!) and mailed them to family but I forgot to take them to church to give to our ward family. (So if you are wondering why you did not receive an invitation, it is because they are sitting on my kitchen counter! ) Even with all of the of cleaning, food prep, finding a place for the luncheon, and hoping that Ashley's dress got here on time, everything turned out perfectly! It was like Christmas for Ashley! She had this count down to her special day and she was extremely well behaved. I am sure it was a result of all of the Family Home Evenings and family scripture study about baptism. It hit me on her eighth birthday that all of my efforts to teach her and prepare her for baptism weren't adequate enough so we had a month to cram it all into her brain! It amazes me that at age eight, children understand baptism and the covenants they make. It is such a wonderful foundation for their spiritual growth.

Ashley's baptism was absolutely wonderful and perfect! The grandmas gave the talks, Holly Baker played the piano, and her grandpas said the prayers. I can't believe that so many of our family and friends came to support us. My grandma and grandpa Powell, My Grandma Jones, both of our parents, ALL of my sisters, the majority of Michael's siblings, all of Ashley's cousins, my cousins, and even the Baker's from our ward in Naples drove from Utah to attend. Ashley's primary teacher came over from Parachute and a lot of our ward family was there too! Seriously, how cool is that!? What an amazing support system! I feel very blessed to have so many incredible people in my life! Speaking of incredible people, my friend and hero Tracey made so many delicious goodies for the luncheon! She knew that people would be traveling and that I had a lot on my plate so she made brownies, rice crispy treats, cheesecake, and brought a water cooler and helped set up for the luncheon. How did I get so lucky to have such cool friends? Our friends, the Kings, lent us their dance studio for the luncheon because stake conference meetings were being held at the church. That was an answer to prayers because there was no way that many people were going to fit in my house!

My grandma DeeLo has this really special tradition of giving her grandchildren their first set of scriptures with their name inscribed on it when they are baptised. I still use mine to this day. They are very dear to me and are about to fall apart from years of use. Now she is continuing the tradition with her great grandchildren. Ashley also received a lot of beautiful gifts from her family and friends.

Since I was playing hostess with the mostest, I wasn't able to take very many pictures but my mom and father in law took some. So I am going to beg them to send them my way and I will post more later. Here are a few from our special weekend!

My mom writing in Ashley's Baptism Journal.

He's growing that beard just for me!

My dad and May!

Gram Betta and grandpa Mark!

My grandma Powell and my mom!

Royeal, Almaron, and me!

Rondee,Tiffany, and me!

This Is Halloween!

For some reason I never think to actually get everyone together for a structured picture. So I have a few here and there of our Halloween activities. We did the ward trunk-or-treat party and we went to my friend Liza's for a party. Man does she know how to throw a feeding! Halloween is always laid back and so much fun! I love watching the magic in the kids' eyes when they realize that people give them candy for dressing up. We all dressed up! Ash was a vampire, Mikie was a witch, Madse was Spiderman, May was a purple people eater, Hallie was a care bear, Mike was a redneck, which means he just went as himself. The picture doesn't do his costume justice. He wore cut off bib overalls, a cowboy hat, and work boots. He would wear that every day if I let him. I wore a bright blue polyester dress that I inherited from Grammy. I was something right out of the 70's/ 80's but didn't quite pull it off but it was a blast! At the end of the festivities, Mike rummaged through all of the kids' candy for his favorite pieces. He calls it "The Daddy Tax".

Spiderman didn't want to wear his mask. He casted his fishing pole at the fishing pond.Witchy poo Mikie doing the cake walk!
Redneck Mike and monster May hanging out with Darold.

Little May totally pulls off the purple people eater!
This Carebear was trick-or-treated out!
Me, Liza, and Kristen.
Some of the kids posing for a picture!

So...About Those Callings...

Are you ready for this!? I know that I wasn't! One of my callings is with Michael. We are on the ward's activities committee. I can do activities. I like organizing gatherings. I am just glad that I am part of a committee and not in charge of everything. The only thing about being the organizer of the good times is that you are usually preoccupied with everything running smoothly that you don't really get to enjoy the party. It should be fun though. Now for the unexpected calling...NURSERY!!!! I know what you are thinking! "Well Ramanda has kids in there anyway so it isn't a big deal." Nursery is one of those less favored calling and seems more well suited for those who are wanting to practice their grandparenting skills. People apostatize because of this calling! I still really don't know what to think about it. I guess it is a step up from spending much of church sitting in the mother's room nursing babies. I wasn't actually there when they announced my new callings in church. I was frantically getting all five children, who have very short attention spans, into the truck and to church. Let me take a minute to be semi pleased with myself. Since Michael has been working an insane amount of hours at work (eighteen to twenty or more hours a day) and having to work Sundays, the job of getting us all to church rests fully on my shoulders and I am usually on time for the most part. I have gotten a glimpse of what every single mother or woman with a husband that isn't interested in coming to church feels like. It is humbling and very hard to have people in the ward help me. Today was the primary program. I forgot to pack a bottle for Hal so I left May and Madse with a family I was sitting next to and sat in the mother's room where I heard Mikie and Ashley say their parts. I was a bit dissapointed that I wasn't in there for moral support but they sounded great and oh so precious! Madse's underwear did a disappearing act. We finally found them around his knees during the last block of church. I sang a duet in Relief society and after I sat down, May was walking back to me and tripped and fell into the wooden chair and sliced her eyebrow open. There was a substantial amount of blood and a huge collective gasp from every lady in the room. I got it all cleaned up and bandaged and she seems to be fine. Anyway...back to the nursery thing. I think this is a test of faith thing. I am reassured by the scripture that goes something like "whom the Lord calls, He qualifies..." I am interested to see what I learn from this calling. All thoughts of apostasy are being suppressed for the moment. We will see how I feel after a few weeks with the little rugrats! On the bright side, there is snack time. They don't have that in Relief society!

Nashes 101

It occurred to me that there will be some that happen upon this blog that are not familiar with the details of my family. So I will attempt to give a general overview to get you caught up. So get a drink, use the potty, get a snack, and then get comfortable because this is gonna take awhile!

The Nash family consists of seven members (so far). Michael and I have been married for eight fulfilling years. Doesn't seem that long yet on the other hand it feels like we have always been together. Michael, for those of you that do not know him well, is impressive! I think the best way to describe him is homegrown. No frills. He is just honest and true. He has a fond, deep-seated, appreciation for family values, traditions, and heritage. That man can work harder than anyone I know! He was raised on his Grandparent's farm. He loves hunting, fishing, off-roading in and fixing his Bronco, and he loves his family. He is a very active presence in the home. He is a dish doing, laundry folding, diaper changing machine! He is a giver and I adore him.

Michael and I on our last "real" date in Dallas.

One night when I came to bed, I found that I was the only one not in the bed! (Ash and Madse were at the bottom!)



When we got married, we hit the ground running in the kid department! Our oldest is soon to be eight. Her name is Ashley and she is too smart for me! That girl keeps me on my toes! She is in second grade and has inherited a love of reading from the Nash's. She is an author and an illustrator. She is an organizer. She is a very good helper to me. She can be very strong willed at times and I am learning quickly to choose my battles.

Michael, we call her Mikie, is almost six. This little girl is a nurturer, a little mother. She lives to help and please. She is fragile and petite. Punishment to her is having to wear pants. I stopped buying them. Mikie has quite the fashion sense and loves the eighties style. If she has her heart set on something, she will achieve it, even when I tell her no. She just does what she wants quietly and under the radar. It is hard to get upset with her.

I can honestly say that I have a favorite son because he is my only son! His name is Madse (it's better than Johnny Cash. That is what Mike wanted to name him but I pulled rank.) He just turned three and he is good enough to eat! He is obsessed with "tamping" (camping), "shashwights" (flashlights), fishing at the "yake", and with "mine cowboys...boots." He thinks he is a Jedi, a puppy, Superman, and Spiderman and has sound effects for them all.




Next is May, who is sixteen months. She was born on Mother's Day. May-May is one spunky kid! She gets into more mischief than all of the others combined. She is an escape artist! We even had a run in with the police, which wasn't funny at the time but enough time has gone by that I can laugh about it now. She is already talking in sentences and will soon talk better than Madse. She likes to clean up and throws EVERYthing away. She also has a fascination with the toilet, resulting in a ruined remote and soggy stuffed animals.



Our newest arrival is Hallie. She is now eight months old and on the move. A little background for those who may not know, we are in the process of adopting Hallie. Her mother and I became fast friends. She was nineteen, pregnant and not married and living with her parents. After Hallie was born, I babysat for her often and they both spent a lot of time in our home. When they moved to Texas I wondered if I would ever see them again but we kept in touch and last May I got a phone call asking us if we would be interested in adopting Hallie. I will write more about the whole adoption soon I am sure.


Now for me, I am just trying to keep up with everyone that I have already mentioned. I am nursing both babies and I have three in diapers but Madse is potty training so I won't be changing so many bums. Thank goodness! When I do have a spare minute I like to quilt. I put on a movie and make a cup of herbal tea and I just sew my little heart out! I also play the guitar a little. Someday I would like lessons. Other than that I mostly do the mom and wife thing. Nothing monumental or of great consequence has happened to me. I have no college degree, I haven't traveled, and I don't have a butt load of money, but I have small day to day experiences that have made me who I am. I am sure that there are other things I could tell you but I might as well save that for another blog.

It has been an adventure and life is beautiful, crazy, and so worth it! It has been humbling to look at it all and see how things have turned out. Things seem to change so quickly. My children are all growing too quickly and I feel like I am just watching it all happen in fast forward and wanting to relish in every minute of it because it is constantly changing.

(This is our only current family photo. It was taken the minute we got home from Texas with Hallie. So I am not looking so hot because of an early flight with two nursing babies and then a four hour drive home from Denver. Can you say exhausted!?)

Fall is here, hear the yell, back to school, ring the bell.

I reluctantly sent my little ones off to another year of school. Ashley is in the second grade. Her teacher is Mrs. Cotner and she seems very competent. Ash is showing the ropes to Mikie, who is new to the whole school thing as a little kindergartner. Her teacher is young and trendy. Her name is Ms. Yankers. It was incredibly difficult for me to stay in control of my emotions. Ashley was more than ready to get started on the new year but Mikie was a little hesitant, which made it all the more harder for me not to break down right there in her class room. I held it together until I got to my car and then I lost it! It brings me comfort to know that they watch out for each other.
It will be exciting to see how much they learn this year. Bring on the school lunches, crafts, learning, and homework!