I meant to post this a couple weeks ago when it happened. But better late than never, huh?
A couple weeks ago V. and I were heading into town and V. exclaimed excitedly," Look Mom! They are putting Christmas lights on the Christmas trees!"
As you head into town there are huge pine trees along both sides of the road. And yes, they were putting Christmas lights up on them! They just haven't lit them yet. I can't wait for when they do. It's always so pretty!
And I LOVED V.'s excitement over seeing that!

I forgot to share that back in September our Ward {congregation} had their Primary Program. V. and I were asked to sing at it. We sang 'A Child's Prayer'. V. sang the first verse, I sang the second then when we were singing together the Primary joined in on V.'s part. She was nervous but did such a good job! I was so proud of her! I've always dreamed about singing with my child. They asked us to sing a couple years ago, but V. was too nervous. So it was a wonderful thing to do this together this Fall.  I love my little girl so much! 

There's been a couple times in the last week that Steve will hug me, nestle his face against my neck and breath deeply and with a contented sigh say," You smell like Fall. And pumpkin. And spices."
Thank you Bath and Body Works "Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin" body spray!

A birthday and a baptism

V. was baptized on her birthday! How special! We asked her if she wanted to be baptized on her birthday or Thanksgiving weekend{thinking that might be easier on family, maybe?}. She chose her birthday!
The night before, Steve's parents came over to give V. their birthday gifts to her. Grandma Hammond had made a lovely blue afghan for V. What's funny, is V.'s room used to be pink and we had just painted it blue that week! {Blue and green are her favorite colors}. Grandma Hammond didn't know that, but just felt the need to give V. a blue afghan. We also had asked Ruby at the start of the year if she would give V. a Navajo name when she turned 8. So she had been thinking about it all year and consulted with her Aunt Pearl. She said that she described V. to Aunt Pearl{she's never seen a photo of her that we're aware of}. Then they compared names they had picked. They both had picked names for V. that were very similar. So that's the name Ruby gave her. She explained a little bit about the tradition of girls names. Then she told us the name and what it means. So V.'s Navajo name is ~NIZHONI' YAZHI' BAH . Which means~ Beautiful Little Girl.  It was a very special evening with Grandma and Grandpa Hammond!
V. helped me with the program. We chose to have Grandma's and Aunt's on the program since her Grandpa's and Uncle's would be able to stand in on the Confirmation circle.
She chose the songs herself.
It was a very beautiful day! Steve got a little choked up while baptizing her and confirming her a member of the Church. Later, he asked me if he sounded silly. I said no. He isn't one to show emotion very often, so when he does, you know he is feeling some strong feelings. I told him it was very tender. And he gave her a beautiful blessing. V. was a little nervous before hand, but when it came down to it, she was calm. She had a special baptism towel to use that her Grandma West made for her embroidered with her name and date. Afterwards, we all went to our home for a luncheon. Family helped with food and it was all yummy! We also had birthday cake for V. It was in the shape of the CTR shield. We also had a little cake for Boyd since it was his birthday as well and we sang Happy Birthday to them both! She received some nice gifts from family members.
*Side note here* We bought her a nice, genuine leather bound scripture set, tote for her scriptures and a nice new CTR ring. That all cost a good amount so I thought it was good. The night before her birthday Steve asked if I had anything else for her. I said no. Well, yes, I had a couple other things I had bought for her but was holding off until Christmas. Steve asked me to wrap those up to give her for her birthday instead. He loves to spoil her! So we gave her those gifts first thing in the morning. She seemed happy, but I could tell she was sad she didn't get scriptures for her birthday.*
We waited to give her her scriptures and such until all the family was there. So after she opened gifts from them, we told her we had tricked her and still had a gift for her.  She was excited as she opened her tote and scripture set. The CTR ring was in the pocket of her tote. She was very happy and immediately found the Articles of Faith in her new scriptures and highlighted them.
We had the Elder Missionaries over for dinner the week before and had invited them to come to V.'s baptism. They came to our home after the baptism and explained that they had wanted to come, but had a service project that morning. But they wanted to give V. something. They first shared the story of Captain Moroni and the Title of Liberty {found in Alma 46 {Book of Mormon}}.Then they said they had looked around and tried to think what they could give V. They tore one of their white shirts, wrote the Title of Liberty on it, looked around their apartment and found a wire hanger that they straightened out and tied the torn shirt too. They also gave her a card. V. was pretty excited when they gave her these. We thanked them. Then I thanked them again and told them they don't realize that she will never forget the Elders that gave that to her the day she got baptized. They have made a permanent mark on her and are such a good example to her.
It was a wonderful day! I'm so grateful for all the family and friends who love and support V. Since we are a small family, I've always hoped and have been grateful for the love and support she gets from her extended family. She will need it someday when Steve and I are no longer around.

Losing my mind

V. takes piano from a lady in our Ward{Congregation}. The other day in church Sis. Johnson comes up to me and says, " I have to tell you what V. said at lessons the other day. It must be something she hears you say a lot."
I'm thinking, "Oh no! What has V. repeated? I need to be careful what I say around her. What did she say?!"
Sis. Johnson then said that she was looking around for a pencil to write down the assignments for V. in her notebook, and when she couldn't find one she said," Oh, I must be losing my mind!"
She said V. then looked at her with a sympathetic look and said,"That's alright. So is my Mom."
Bwahahahaha!!

Trying to catch up on blogging but admitting that too much has happened so I end up just rambling....

I haven't blogged in a little bit. I had plans to post back-to-school photos, Fall photos etc. But my computer is being dumb and won't upload pictures from my memory cards. Grrr!!!
But I figured I better get back to at least writing on this blog. Hopefully I can figure out how to get some photos on here soon...
2nd Grade started for V. last month. She has  a great teacher! She already knew about half the kids in her class which made her comfortable and excited. After a month of school, she is still loving it and comes home everyday eager to talk about her day! She had a bad fall on the gravel at recess one day and when she got home all she had was a band aid on. When I took it off, I saw there was still gravel and dirt in her cut and skin. Steve cleaned it and she cried because it hurt so bad! We were a little worried it might get infected. After 4 days it was still bleeding and not scabbing over. But we kept washing it and putting fresh band aids on and it did finally scab over. Now it looks like a little scar on her knee. It seems like every Fall when V. is back in school it only takes a couple days before she comes home with band aids all over her legs/knees. She just gets running so fast and having fun! I guess it's a sign of childhood to have band aids on your knees all the time, right?
V. already met her goal in the A.R. testing/reading program they do. I'm not too familiar with this. But she said her goal was a 4. She was at 2. 5. Then she read a Magic Treehouse book {a series she is loving right now!}and she said because it was a chapter book it was worth 3 points. So she took her test on it and got her score/points up to 5.5. So she says that means she gets to eat lunch with her teacher for meeting her goal! { I love that kids love the reward of eating lunch with their teacher!} Anyway, we are out for Harvest break right now, so she will get her reward when school starts back up.
Steve has been hunting this month and he shot a bull elk with his bow 2 weeks ago. He was by himself and it was back in aways, so it took him about 9 hours to cut it up, skin it and pack it out. We decided to get all but the backstrap in ground meat. We picked up the meat from the processor the other day and it feels so good knowing/seeing our freezer full of fresh, lean meat!
Steve's brother, Mike is staying with us this week and Steve has the week off work. The 2 of them have been out hunting trying to get Mike an elk. Tuesday they took V. with them and she was thrilled and had the time of her life! They got into some elk. Steve stayed with V. in the truck where they watched the elk through the spotting scope. Mike was creeping up on the herd when a truck went by and spooked them all. SO he didn't get any, but like I said, V. had the time of her life. She loved that she got to ride in the back of the pick up {with Mike} as well. That's just part of growing up in Idaho!
Yesterday Steve and Mike went out again and found the herd of elk again. They crept up and Mike took a shot but the wind caught his arrow. SO he missed. And the elk were spooked and took off. Oh well, they have a few more days before Mike goes home to try to get him an elk.
Oh, so much more to talk about, but I feel like I'm just rambling on....
Next week is also Harvest Break and we have a fun event that week that I'll post about later! :)