This is the talk Peter gave at Lucy's baptism:

Lucy's Baptism

For those of you who don't know me, I'm Peter Lucy's older brother. I get to talk about baptism.

Lucy, do you know what this is? (Hold up package.)

What do you think of when you think about cotton candy?

Dad, what do you think of when you see this cotton candy?

Life is like this cotton candy. It's a gift from God. It can be very delicious and sweet and fun. Sometimes it can also be messy though. We can make mistakes and get it on our clothes and it can get sticky. 

Heavenly Father also gave us a way to get clean. (Hold up wet wipes.) 

He gave us baptism and also the sacrament. Just like we can wash off our mess from the cotton candy, Heavenly Father gave us the Savior, Jesus Christ. Through repentance and faith on Jesus Christ we can be clean.

By getting baptized today you are accepting another gift from Heaven Father. You are accepting Jesus and taking his name upon you.

In 2 Nephi 31:13 we read:

Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I know that if ye shall follow the Son, with full purpose of heart, repenting of your sins, witnessing unto the father that ye are willing to take upon you the name of Christ by baptism... Then ye shall receive the Holy Ghost: yea, then cometh the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost.

When you get baptized today you will be clean. But even tomorrow you may make a bad decision. But Heavenly Father promises that you can still be clean again. He loves you and is proud of you today. I love you too and I'm glad you are getting baptized today!

In the name of ... Amen.

Positive Office Referral

Chestatee has a neat thing called a positive office referral when a child can be "reported" to the principal for doing good things. Mrs. Cockerham, who by the way, has been a phenomenal teacher for Peter this year, referred Peter. She said his strategy use was "phenomenal," his effort was "fantastic," and his attitude was "amazing!"

"Peter leads the class with a wonderful attitude, a smile on his face and confidence. He is a wonderful friend and student."

The principal, Dr. Tennies, wrote back "Positive attitude makes a difference! Well done!"

I love practices like this and appreciate that Chestatee makes this extra effort. The child gets their picture on the wall with the principal and there are several boards full of them!

Doctor Stats

Today I took my oldest daughter and my youngest daughter to the doctor. And Molly came too but not for an appointment. She was being extra silly since she wasn't getting the appointment and therefore the attention. It was a little crazy! I had a bunch of paperwork that needed to be filled out for Jillian because she is going to girls' camp with Ryen this summer in Utah. There are also immunizations required before the start of 7th grade. I also discussed Penny's bowed legs and her delayed speech with the pediatrician and she gave me referrals for seeing specialists with both of those issues. We had a lot that needed to be discussed! The fun part of the appointment was that both of them are on the growth curve! I remember when Jillian was Penny's age, and before, the doctor  was having me feed her lots of ice cream and butter whenever I could. I think I ruined her diet for a few years and she refused vegetables for a long time. She loves all sorts of fruits and vegetables now and only drinks water if she has her choice, so I guess it didn't do too much damage. Her being small at this age now reassures me when Penny is small. Penny wasn't even on the growth curve for her last few appointments, and the doctor wanted me to give her Ensure type drinks. But when I give her large quantities of milk, she throws up pretty soon afterwards. I'm not sure it's an allergy but maybe just a tiny stomach issue? She can tolerate a little bit but a lot makes her sick. Anyway, we haven't done those drinks for quite a while and she's grown quite a bit in spite of that.

Today she was 34.25 inches tall (46%), 23 pounds (5%), and her head measured 18.75 inches (48%), which has never been a concern.

Jillian was 62.5 inches (87%), 103 punds (72%), and her blood pressure was 102/68. I guess she's grown out of the head measurement:)

Sure had fun hanging out with her, even for just a little bit longer this morning. Middle school has been fun because Lucy and Peter leave for school with Kevin and I have a brief section of my morning just to be with Jill. It's so mind boggling that we talked about puberty with the doctor today, although she's definitely in the throws of it and handling things beautifully, it still blows my mind when I stop and think about it!

Oh, and not to be forgotten, we thought Lucy had broken her ulna this Monday! I got a call from the nurse's office at school saying she had fallen off the monkey bars. My first thought was of Jillian's friend Isabella who had to have two surgeries from a similar fall! But luckily by the time we got in to see the orthopedic doctor, she was moving it fairly normally. Penny was being SUCH a pill I was tempted to just leave because it took about an hour and a half for us to be seen, and Lucy seemed fine. The tiny tyrant was throwing her shoes, climbing as far off the ground as she could, and taking handfuls of the little medication advertisement cards they have to hand out and throwing them as far across the room as she could. Just as I was about to tell the front desk I thought we'd be okay without seeing the doctor, they called us back. The doctor was very nice and I'm glad we found out for certain that nothing was broken to put everyone's mind at ease. Such a relief, since the kids have their piano and strings recital this Sunday, are in the throws of swim team, and also have lots of fun things, including violin camp, planned for the summer!

Lucy at 7 1/2

What is your favorite toy?                       Ever After High Brooks
What is your favorite video game?         Mario Cart
What is your favorite animal?                 Cheetah
What is your favorite color?                    Red
What is your favorite car?                       I don't have a favorite car.
What is your favorite sports team?          UNC
What is your favorite sport?                    Tennis
What is your favorite dessert?                 Ice cream
What is your favorite movie?                  Avatar
What is your favorite TV show?             Miraculous
What is your favorite food?                    Enchiladas
What is your favorite game?                   Slamwich and Bonanza and Sabateur and Sushi Go
Do you have any pets?                            No
What is your favorite restaurant?            Chipotle
What do you like to do for fun?              Annoy my brother

L'il Penny

L'il Penny has just gotten above the 5th percentile for weight! Yay! I just found her stats from her 12 month appointment and her 18 month appointment and for some reason it feels like I should record them somewhere. hehe. She is starting to look so big! I just traded out all her shoes

12 months       Ht: 29.25 inches (30%)     Wt: 16.12 pounds (less than 5%)     HC: 17.8 inches (40%)
18 months       Ht: 30 inches (35%)          Wt: 18 pounds (less than 5%)          HC: 18 inches (44%)