This little girl of ours turned 8! I mean look how precious she was and currently is! Whether she is rolling in the dirt, catching toads, or playing dress up, she is without a doubt my favorite little girl on earth. She has a mind of her own, is sassy, and is not afraid to tell you how she feels. She is so kind especially to her little brother. She walks him to class and hugs him as they say goodbye everyday, she gives up toys for him and loves to read to him. Sometimes I find Ian in Madelyn's bed in the morning
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| Reading under the stairs |
I went on a field trip with her 2nd grade class to the Japanese Cultural Center and now that she is 8 she went to her first Women's General Conference Meeting with me at our beautiful stake center in downtown Honolulu. She wiggled a lot and she ended up laying on my lap while I stoked her hair the whole time, but that was ok, she is still young, I enjoyed the snuggle.
For her birthday she said she wanted to have a girl party! We invited a small amount of girls (I can only watch a certain amount of kids in the pool at a time) had pizza, and they swam their little hearts out.
After they left we opened presents, we gave her a mermaid tail from FinFun! She was so thrilled and had to try it out right then. There was no learning curve, she's a natural mermaid!!
We had her birthday party on a Friday night, and her baptism the following day Saturday morning!
Here are her invites:
Our lovely hairdresser Emma fixing Madelyn's hair
Some pictures in our Hawaiian garden before we headed to the church.
Filling the font and posing with her dad. She had the option of being baptized in a jumpsuit or a beautiful muumuu. she chose the dress, isn't she darling!
Ok rewind a couple months before, as we started to plan this. I was in tears thinking how sad it was going to be that no one in our family (except for our nephew Jake) was going to be there. It is just so expensive to fly and some of my family was already planning on coming for Christmas. We thought about postponing the baptism until then, but Madelyn didn't want to. So we asked our dear friends the Reardons to help with the program, playing the piano, leading, and prayers. Rylan was asked by Madelyn to speak about the ordinance of baptism, and she asked me to speak about the Holy Ghost. I made programs, and emailed the invites. Then the big day came, and our ward "ohana" came, a LOT of them! The room was filled! We were so thankful for everyone who came and showed Madelyn love and support. After the program everyone lined up to speak with Madelyn and give her all different kinds of leis, flower, candy, crackers, etc, I just love that tradition!
It was such a cherished day. I'll never forget the love that I felt from our new Hawaiian friends, and our Heavenly Father. In my talk I shared the different ways that the Holy Ghost can help us. He can give us comfort and peace like a blanket, give you more focus like a pair of glasses, help guide you in the right direction like a compass, give you light when you are in dark place like a candle, and whisper truth in your heart like listening for the ocean in a seashell. I got emotional as I spoke about how the Holy Ghost will help you to know if things are true and through my tears I said, "See the Holy Ghost makes me happy cry, He is telling me that the things I am telling you are true!"
We are proud of you Madelyn and your choice to keep the commandments of God, to be a witness of Christ, and to love others.
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