Fun with Cousins at GG's house

We went to GG's house (LaDawn and Charles Powell) for a visit. As often happens at GG's, a lot of extended family came by as well. The girls had a blast playing with their cousins. The video below shows one of the games they played.

Snippets of little Gracie learning and growing

Our little Gracie is a beautiful little girl and it is wonderful to watch her experience the world. Here are a few videos showing some cute experiences along the way.


Tasting a popcicle, Yummmmmmm.

First official bites of food.

Learning to sit-up.

Trying (licking) corn on the cob.

Another Doll

I set Grace on a blanket in the living room while I was washing dishes. A few seconds later I looked back to see how she was doing and she was gone; nowhere to be seen. “Where is Grace?” I said in a concerned voice heading down the hall toward the sound of playing girls. There Grace was on Elise’s bed with the girls playing around her. The girls have been carrying Grace off lately when they are playing house to put her in their make-up beds or strollers, etc. They think she is another doll. Oh man, I have to be on the watch!

A Princess Tea Party: 4 years old

We decided to do a princess tea party for Anna’s 4th birthday and invite all of her little girl second cousins and a friend. I asked her what kind of cake she wanted for her birthday, expecting her to say a princess cake. She said, “a heart cake.” I tried to convince her to have a princess cake, just because I think it would lots of fun to make, and she said, “No, I want a heart cake.” I asked, “Why do you want a heart cake?” She replied, “Because I love everyone and I want to give them all a piece of my heart cake.” OK, how can I argue with that. A heart cake it was.

She was very excited for her princess tea party birthday. She would marked off each day on the calendar until her birthday. She helped me plan and pick out the menu. When the day arrived she was excited to help me make the cake, get everything ready, and she even set the table for the tea party with all her little tea party cups.

It was really cute. When each of her royal guests started arriving she decided she would greet them with a royal curtsey. It made me smile, she probably picked that idea up from watching Cinderella.

The royal princesses, ok, and 1 prince, had a fancy tea party, while using language such as “darling”. They were are very lovely.

What a cute princess she is, loving this day.

After the tea party there was dancing of course!

They all danced so lovely to all the princess music I could find.

The dancing was their favorite part. There was lots of laughing and fun.

That night she got a big girl bike that Kent found and fixed up for her. We will have to practice since she does not have any training wheels.

We love Anna, she has grown so much! I look at her and can’t believe my first baby is already four.

I asked Anna the day before her birthday, “Can I keep you three years old forever. Please”! She looked at me with a troubled look on her face. I could tell she wanted to make me happy but at the same time she really wanted to turn four. Then she said in her little three year old voice, “but mama, if I don’t turn four you can’t have any of my birthday cake.” Wishing I really could just freeze time I replied, “That is a good point Anna. I guess you better turn four. But don’t you dare think about turning five any time soon.” “I won’t.”

Valentine’s Day

Anna was counting down on her own little calendar the days until Valentines day, marked with a little red heart,  for about a month. She was pretty excited.

We read lots of Valentine books we checked out from the library all week long, we stuck hearts all over the window, we even colored and cut valentines out of the red and pink construction paper to give to family, neighbors, and friends to get ready for the day. Anna cut all of her valentines out herself.

The girls woke up to pink matching skirts they were pretty excited about in the morning. They had a Valentines day party at music makers then we came home and decorated Valentine’s cookies with Elizabeth and Benjamin and had picnic in our front yard.

To carry on our tradition of a picnic dinner for Valentines day even though Kent now gets home after dark, we had a picnic dinner with Kent in the living room which was pretty fun itself.

I just love all my Valentines!

Ok, enough with the pictures!”"

Grace Teresa’s Baby Blessing

Grace was blessed Feb 2, 2014 during Sacrament meeting in the Los Altos ward.

Participants in her blessing were: Kent Slack, Ron Fosson, Charles Powell, Jacob Patterson, Brian Patterson, and Bishop Pindar.

She wore the dress her grandmother, Teresa Slack, made, using the same material as her temple dress. It is also the same dress her two older sisters were blessed in.

She was given a beautiful blessing that she would have charily, be a strength and bring joy to others amongst other things. She is a special little girl and are so grateful to have her in our family (even though she tries to eat her hand quite often).

Our New Temple

On Feb 12 we went as a family to the open house of our new Temple, The Gilbert Temple. It was neat to have our whole little family together and to show the girls the inside of a temple.
Anna loved seeing the temple. She got a pamphlet of the temple with pictures of all of its rooms before we went in. As we were walking from room to room Anna would open the pamphlet and find the picture of each room we were in. There were a lot of stairs. Every time we went up or down the stairs Anna would hold up both sides of her dress like a princess to walk up or down. When we walked into the celestial room Anna said pointing to the Chandelier, “wow look at all those sparkly lights, so pretty.”
At the entry Elise would not let them put the shoe covers over her shoes. She started screaming if we tried. I had to carry her until I finally convinced her to put them on. Inside she was delighted by it all and wanted to touch everything. She also had to walk up and down all the stairs “all by herself,” even if it meant we were the last ones from our group to make it into each room.  When we walked into the baptistery Elise pointed and said aloud in an excited voice, “an ocean!” It was cute. She like looking at all the “cows” too.
It is a beautiful temple. I loved the agave design found throughout the temple; on the windows, carpets, wood, vases, etc. The reception of the temple and the amount of people that have come through to see it has been amazing to us. Thousands every day!
It is neat to have a new temple in the area, in our own temple district. It is OUR new temple; how neat. Kent has been working with the youth as they are preparing for the cultural celebration. The dedication will be March 2nd which we feel blessed to have another House of the Lord in this land. Our Stake President gave all the primary children their own picture of the temple to hang on their walls.
Ever since the open house started and many many non-members have been through to see it, I have had a lot more opportunities at work and elsewhere to talk about the gospel and our church to others. It has been a great blessing to the people of this area. We are grateful for this new temple and hope to be able to go there often.