Lucy's Baby Blessing

What a beautiful day!

We were able to bless Lucy today, May 1, 2011. My parents and Mark came for the whole block, so it was great to be in class with them. During Sunday School, I took Lucy out to get her fed, changed, and get her blessing dress on. My amazing mother sewed her blessing dress. She is so small, it was still a little big. She looked adorable though! What a sweetie.

Dave was the one who gave her a name and blessing, as he has our other children. Here's her blessing:

“Our eternal Heavenly Father, by the holy Melchizedek Priesthood which we hold, we give this infant a name and a blessing. The name which we have chosen is Lucy Mae Ryerse. Lucy, at this time, we bless you and your body that you may continue to grow, that it may continue to receive the strength that you need. We also bless you that you will continue to grow spiritually, that you may learn wisdom in your youth, that you might be able to take this wisdom that you have learned as a child and add upon it all your life. We bless you that you may come to love the gospel and truly come to know who the Savior is and what he has done for you. We bless you with the righteous desires to serve in his kingdom, that you may be an example to your friends and family in these latter-days, and that you will feel the love of our Heavenly Father close to you during those difficult times in your life. That when those times come, you will have the tools and the knowledge to get back up and continue on. Lucy, we bless you that you may know that your Heavenly Father loves you and that your family loves and is here to support you. Again Lucy we bless you with all things you need at this time and throughout your life. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.”

In the circle: David Ryerse, Dan Ryerse, Jeffry Ryerse, Randy Ryerse, Jerry Ryerse, Brian Ryerse, Scott Stoddard, Mark Stoddard, Kolby Rollins, Rex Lammers, Keith Richins, Xou Yang, Dennis Miller.

After the blessing, the first person to get up and bear their testimony was a man I didn’t even know. Dave said he barely knew him, but knew he was a retired sheriff. He talked all about how Lucy’s blessing made him so happy and brought him more joy than he’d felt in a long time. He said he knew she’d be true and have a good life and was so impressed by the support she’d receive throughout her life.

I also bore my testimony, as I have with all of our children the day they get blessed. It is quite clique to have the mom of the baby being blessed bear her testimony, but what a better time to do it, when all of the family and friends are there. I bore my testimony of the Savior and how grateful I am for Him; that he knows always what we’re going through, that he lives and loves us. I bore testimony of the Book of Mormon. I know God called prophets to keep the records, and I know it was translated through the power of the Holy Ghost. I thanked my Heavenly Father for my sweet husband and my wonderful children, as well as extended family and ward family. I learn so much from all of them. I’m grateful to have the Gospel to help raise my children in, as my parents taught me correct principles from my youth. I don’t know how I’d do it without that foundation.

Here's Lucy in the mother's room before we changed her into her blessing outfit.

Getting ready for the dress.

Happy little Lucy!

Cute little toes.

Lucy's big day.

After the meeting, we went to Grammie’s house for a luncheon. We had rolls and orange rolls, different types of salads and peanut butter bars. My parents, Mark, Amy and Kolby, Dave’s parents, Julie, Randy, Brian, Jerry & Stacy and their kids, Grammie, Christie & Rex, Keith, Lois & Randi Richins, and friends the Miller’s and Yangs all came. We had a great time in conversation and being together. We are truly blessed by family and friends who love and care for us and little Lucy.

Sisters - Emma (and Cal, too!) loves Lucy!

Am and Kolb with one of their favorite neices!

Chilling at Grammie's - Dave, me, Stacy, Dennis & Kaleb, Julie, Jerry, Brian, Dan, Sue, and Randy.

Ewan and Marko.

Lucy staring up at Rex with her big blue eyes.

Eating lunch, yum!

Just chatting away...Christie, the Yangs and Calena.

My parents with Lucy, their 4th grandchild.

Emma and Tayla, these girls are the cutest cousins and are so much fun together!

Classic Callahan, "how you doin'?"

Emma and Tavin making "silly faces". He he!

My mom playing air-hockey with Cal and Alec. She was surprised by how good they actually were.

We are a happy family.

The proud parents. We are so happy Lucy is in our family now and love her so much!

He is Risen!

I love the chocolate eggs, and egg decorating, and the egg hunts, but the best part about Easter is not in eggs at all. For me, it’s the reason behind it all. The lyrics to the Hymn “He is Risen!” kept coming into my mind during the week of Easter:

He is risen! He is risen!
Tell it out with joyful voice.
He has burst his three days’ prison;
Let the whole wide earth rejoice.
Death is conquered; man is free.
Christ has won the victory.
Come with high and holy hymning;
Chant our Lord’s triumphant lay.
Not one darksome cloud is dimming
Yonder glorious morning ray,
Breaking o’er the purple east,
Symbol of our Easter feast.
He is risen! He is risen!
He hath opened heaven’s gate.
We are free from sin’s dark prison,
Risen to a holier state.
And a brighter Easter beam
On our longing eyes shall stream."

(Text: Cecil Frances Alexander, 1818–1895)

“He is risen!” What great joy and hope those three words truly bring! Because He is risen, I can be, too. Because He is risen, my family can be together forever. Because He is risen, he has transcended all things so he can help us also. Because He is Risen, I can repent of the many wrongs I do. Because He is risen, we can have peace in this life. Because He is risen, anybody who lives or has lived will live again. What an amazing gift!


This year, we had some fun events leading up to Easter.
My mom, sister Amy and I got together to make these to die for Peep wreaths (the wreaths are to die for, I can pass on the Peeps…the only way they’re good is when you put them in the microwave to watch them blow up and then eat, which we did BTW). We try to get together at least every few months to do a fun baking day or craft or something. It’s fun to be domestic together, especially since my mom and sis are exactly that, domestic! And creative and beautiful and sweet and talented in so many ways! We enjoyed doing these and they turned out oh-so cute! Thanks to howdoesshe.com for inspiration for this craft! I love that website.

This is my kind of peep show...

The finished product, voila!

Our microwaved peep...uh huh. That's how we roll.

Cal kept snitchin' the candy!

Emma and Cal were able to do a little egg hunt and playgroup activity with some of my friend’s kids. It was raining like crazy and pretty cold, so our party got cut a little short. But we all had a fun time. Thanks to Katrina for being such a super mom and organizing such fun playgroups all of the time! The kids made washcloth bunnies for a craft, which turned out super cute. Then we ate a picnic lunch and Kat read the Berenstein Bear’s Easter. Then we had an egg hunt, the first of four our kids would do. My sister and Kat’s mom hid the eggs under the large pavilion, so it was nice and dry!

Saturday morning, the day before Easter, we had a ward Easter egg hunt at our Bishop’s house. The Primary presidency gave an inspirational message about the Resurrection first, which was good. Then we did the egg hunt. The eggs were in pretty tricky spots! They also had face painting (which our kids are not big on), Easter crafts, and yummy popcorn from a popcorn machine, it was springy colors, kind of tasted like jell-O popcorn. Our ward is the seriously the best!
Then we had the Stoddard/Richins family Easter picnic. We had a Mexican fiesta, and ate all kinds of yummy Mexican food. We then did the egg hunt. Each family was to bring 10 eggs, real or plastic, decorated or dyed, to contribute. The kids and I made animal eggs for it, which turned out pretty cute! Again, thanks to familyfun.com, another website I stalk for ideas, for the idea to do something like this. I really credit my creativity to other sources most of the time! (: That’s what they’re there for though I guess! The kids really got into the egg hunting thing this year. Cal would see one, reach for it, and proudly tell us all “I found one!” Emma had a blast, too! We even practiced before at home to help teach Cal how to hunt for eggs. Then we had a bunch of games my mom planned. We did some relays and games with eggs and wooden spoons. It was a roarin’ good time. Emma had a hard time with some of the games, but she stuck with it and finished. Cal mostly sat and wanted to watch. He did try the egg toss game, and seemed to enjoy that. Lucy was asleep in her carseat the entire time! So that's why there are no pictures of her, I forgot to take any since she wasn't awake!

Playing egg games!

The kids love playing at the park, of course, as well.

Peek-a-boo! I see you, Cal!

Saturday night, we dyed eggs at the Ryerse grandparents. It is tradition for everyone to do a dozen eggs (we’ve cut back the last few years, but I think in all we did 5 dozen). Emma asked every day the week leading up to Easter if it was time to dye eggs. So she finally got her opportunity. Cal wanted to do all yellow eggs, and Emma enjoyed experimenting with colors and and decorating and coloring them with the “magic” crayon. Dave and I helped clean out the garage and back yard. I do love a good spring cleaning, and we got quite a bit accomplished!

Easter morning, the Easter Bunny came! We checked out our baskets. Got some pretty good stuff…Easter toys, candy, hair accessories for the girls, little games for Cal, and more.

Lucy sporting some of the goods.

Checking out the baskets.

Cal loves sweets!! Good thing they're going into the dentist in a few weeks! Ha ha!

Then we got in our Sunday best and ready for church. We always go and pick Cal out a new church outfit from Sears, this year, he tried them on with Dave and picked this one out! Good job, little buddy! My mom made our girls dresses this year, I made the flowers for them and the headbands. So cute!
We attended sacrament meeting at Julie’s singles ward, since she was speaking. She spoke on the Sacrament, which is pretty appropriately tied to Easter and how it’s important to remember Him always. She did a great job! Then we went to Dave’s parent’s Sunday School and RS/Priesthood meetings.

We went to my parents to go hang out with everyone. Cal had a little incident and got hurt, but that’s nothing new. That poor kid is hurting himself so regularly, it’s sad! He scraped up his chin and neck and bit through his tongue. Bummer! We got to Skype with my brother in Michigan and his family - Adam, Meghan and Steven, and even took a family photo with them! He he! Love those guys!

Lucy & Grandma.

"Daddy hold you!" Cal says, after he gets his "owies". Daddy can make anything feel better.

Our cherry kolachies. Luckily I don't have a recipe blog. I'd be fired because of the pictures of food that I take and their presentation! At least they taste good, right, and that's what matters?

We also went to the Ryerse’s to do our outdoor egg hunt. Grandpa Dan hides them every year, and he doesn’t make it easy! It seems like there are always about five or so eggs that take FOERVER to find! (: We enjoy that. We had a ham dinner, and we made cherry kolachies. I burnt out their electric hand mixer making these. It started smoking and then stopped working. That was the second thing that malfunctioned while I was using it this week, the first being a glue gun when we were making the animal eggs. It literally exploded on me! It was pretty scary, luckily no one was injured in the making of the eggs. The glue gun jumped off the table, made a bang sound, and started smoking up. Anyways, the picture of these rolls looks terrible, but they taste so goooood. We started making them every Easter (that or an egg braid roll) growing up, and now continuing that tradition.

The cute little cousins, Brody and Lucy! They're about a month apart, but about the same size!

I find this picture quite comical! It looks like Brody is trying to punch Lucy, but really, they love each other, I promise!

What a little stud muffin!

The cousins - Kaison, Tayla, Cal and Emma looking for the eggs.

Egg hunters.

Our family on Easter in our Sunday best.

Cutie patooties, Tayla and Emma!

We try to make Easter fun and have lots of fun things going on, but we also try to focus it on the Savior and the reason we celebrate Easter. We do an egg hunt that has objects in it that represent something about the crucifixion or the Atonement. We do the hunt first, and then go through the eggs and talk about what each object means. The Easter Bunny always brings a gift that helps us remember Jesus. This year, it was a DVD of scripture stories. Do you have ways in your family to help you center Easter on Jesus? I’d like to hear your ideas because I'm always looking for more myself. Happy Easter!

Again, I am grateful for the Savior. I know He lives and loves us so much more than we can comprehend. I know He lives!!! And that means everything.

Happy Birthday, "Deere" Dave!

It was Dave’s 29th birthday on April 6! To celebrate that day, I went with a hands theme. I am into themes, as you might know, and go hog wild off of whatever the theme is. I gave him a card with hands on it that said “Take 5” on it, tying in the hands thing and sent him with hand-shaped cinnamon-sugar toast for breakfast. His co-workers at lunch had a party for him, so that was fun for him. This was his last week at the office, and he’ll miss his friends there, especially Kim and Nelson. Emma loved decorating our house for his birthday, and wrapping and hiding the present. That’s what she always wants to do for birthdays now, hide the presents and have the birthday person find them. So that’s kind of fun. I gave him a cute handmade card as well, with coupons for things I can do for him with my hands (massage, dinner of choice, going for a ride together on the 4 Wheeler while I hold on for dear life, etc.) and a movie. When he got off work, we went to Holy Smokes BBQ (I highly recommend) out in Layton for dinner, which is one of our favorite places. Delicious ribs, chicken, pork, sides like corn muffins, and don’t forget the green Jell-o that comes with each meal! Then we came home, turned our living room into a drive-in theatre and watched Superman. We also had Reese’s PB Pizza for his cake and sang to him. We love Daddy!

I had the kids all wear shirts that said something about Daddy. Emma's shirt was "Rad Like Dad!" "Daddy Makes Me LOL". Of course he does. Dave is a hoot! He always makes us laugh!

"Daddy's [littlest] Little Princess". He's got those girls wrapped around his finger, that's for sure!

During the day, the kids and I made him a picture with the kids handprints. It said:

“Sometimes you get discouraged/ Because I am so small/ And always leave my finger prints/On furniture and walls/ But everyday I’m growing big/ And soon I’ll be very tall/ Then my little handprints/Will be hard to recall./ So here’s a special handprint/Just so that you can say/ This is how my fingers looked/ When I placed them here today.” Dave loved it! Here it is...

His birthday cake for that night, the Reese's PB Chocolate Pizza!

It was a good day, but the birthday fun wasn’t over yet! I have been planning a surprise birthday for Dave for years now, since he’s never had a surprise birthday party before for him. I was going to do it when he turned 25, but it never happened, so I thought 30. But since we won’t be around all of our family and friends next year, I thought we’d better do it this year. So I’ve been scheming and planning for quite some time. We had a John Deere themed-birthday, since he loves those tractors and all things John Deere. It was the 8th of April, and I was so sneaky! I told Dave that day we had Emma’s kindergarten shots in the morning, and later a play group with some of my friends in south Davis County. Really, I was down in Bountiful making preparations for his birthday! We decorated the cake and cupcakes, made food for the dinner, got the decorations finished up. We schemed with the Millers, they were so great to help out! Dennis called Dave up and they went gun shopping down at Cabella’s, something they’ve been talking about for a while, after Dave got off work on Friday. Then the plan was for Dennis to drop Dave off to meet me at his parent’s house since I had just gotten done with the play group. So he did drop him off at the Ryerse's, while we all hid, ready with our noise makers and poppers. When he came in, he was so surprised! He had a huge grin on his face and was so happy, he couldn’t believe it! He had no idea! I’m proud the kids kept it a secret, they did a great job! We had many come, and many that couldn’t. Those who came: Dave’s mom Sue and dad Dad, sister Julie, brothers Randy, Brian, and Jeff, Jerry & Stacy with their kids, my parents Scott and Dianne and brother Marko, my sister Amy and brother-in-law Jeff, friends from work Nelson and his friend John, Kim and her husband, long-time family friend Eric Sahm, college friends Brandon & Katie Bills, friends Dennis & Calena Miller and their kids. It was a good time! I invited many of Dave’s friends growing up, and his favorite mission companion, unfortunately, not everyone could come. But it was great! Dave introduced everyone, and then we said a prayer and had BBQ chicken sandwiches for dinner, with lots of chips, green salad, calico baked beans, fruit, bow-tie pasta salad, and homemade root beer, some of Dave’s favorite foods. It was pretty tasty, if I do say so myself! I am so happy so many were willing to help out to make this happen, thanks! We then talked and just hung out. I had John Deere decorations out, and had some JD toy tractors for the kids to play with, along with some JD coloring pages. I had a needle in a haystack and some other games I planned, but that didn’t ever happen, we were all too busy enjoying each other’s company. We sang to Dave and had him blow out the candles, then we had cake and ice-cream.

Here are some pictures I took, which weren't many since I was so occupied doing other things. But it's a little sampling of the night and the fun we had!

Dave's JD Cake! The cake turned out pretty well, and was so easy to do. I put a JD tractor toy on there, along with a JD Barn, and then made a little garden plot which I put fruits and vegetables on that I made out of air heads and food writer markers, and had a fence all around I made out of pretzels. I wanted to put an astericks * on the cake with a little note on the bottom of the cake saying "This cake not to actual scale" because the watermelon was half the size of the tractor and the tractor was larger than the barn. He he! It was fun though.

The scrumptious cupcakes. Why, oh, why do I always take blurry pictures? Me and my Dave - surprise!!

Happy birthday to you!

Enjoying time with some friends, like the Bills, Brandon and Katie! We love 'em!

Dave's work buddies. Nelson, John, [Kim's husband], and Kim.

The Miller's holding Kaleb, and Lucy, while Grandpa and Julie chill in the background. Good job, Dennis and Calena! Thanks for making this work so well! The kids had fun together playing and running around. Here's Cal, cousin Tayla, and friend Alec jumping on the kids couch! Kolby and Amy holding one of their favorite nieces...the other being Emma. (: Okay, so they only have nephews besides Lucy & Em. And they just happen to be one of our favorites as well. Julie, what can I say...she pretty much rocks! Cousins Brody and Lucy at their first of many birthday parties (besides the party that began when they were born), just about 1 month apart!

Uncle Marko, Dad Ryerse, Randy, and the Bills enjoy the company. It was actually Marko's real birthday that night, and he actually still came to part of the party. Yeah!

Mom Ryerse, the birthday boy and Katie Bills eating and talking. The best part about parties, the food and the people!

Brian, Jeff, Eric Sahm, and Mom Stoddard getting ready to sing to the man of the hour.

Dave getting ready to blow out 29 (or as many as were in the box) candles! Happy birthday to my DAVE!

It was a memorable night, and it made my love's night, or maybe week, month, and year! We are so grateful to all of our friends and family, we have the best! These people are the best presents we could have!

The final party for Dave was on Sunday, we had a co-birthday for Dave and Marko at my mom and dad’s. Cal and Emma slept over at Amy and Kolby’s the night before, so we picked them up there. They had a great time with Aunt “Mamy” and Uncle Kolby for their sleepover! While they were sleeping over, Dave and I hung out. It was nice to have some quiet time to ourselves. We watched an edited version of “137 Hours”, which is a movie based on a true story of a guy who was hiking in Southern Utah, and his arm got stuck under a boulder in a narrow ravine. It was very interesting, I liked it a lot. We picked up Grammie and brought her down and got to talk to her on the way down. I love my Grammie, she’s so neat! We chatted for a while, then ate some dinner. We had sub sandwiches, homemade onion rings, salad, and potato nachos. We continued a tradition Amy suggested, and that was to go around the table and say something nice about the person who’s birthday it is. I am grateful for Dave because he always says the nicest things to me that make me feel good, he’s so supportive always, and I love how he is with the kids. I just love him in every way! I love Marko because he’s just fun. I told him he’s like the comic relief in our family. He really is! We got to Skype with Adam, Meghan and Steven, which was probably the high-light of the night! Then we did cake and ice-cream. The cake was a large sub sandwich and was very cute! My mom is simply amazing and has shared some of her knowledge and skills with me, though I ail in comparison. We had Birthday Bash and Moon Pie ice-cream, they were both amazing, I tried both. I am a connoisseur of ice-cream, you know. The birthday boys, and some party guests!

We thought it was funny that Marko and Cal's clothes were kind of matching!

Me and my girls!

The kiddos just love Uncle Marko, I do to, you know! Happy birthday to you, too!