Joshua David Totten gets Baptized

There was a big event this past weekend for my little family.  My son made the choice to be baptized and confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  This is an essential ordinance and a commandment of God.  I know that most mothers feel this way when their children make big decisions and they are the right decisions.  I have felt a great deal of love and appreciation for my husband for holding the Priesthood so that he was able to baptize and confirm our son.  I wasn't able to be baptized by my dad, but was fortunate to have wonderful Priesthood holders around me growing up.  I was baptized by my Uncle Terry, and confirmed a member of the Church by my grandfather.  

As I watched so many of our family members and friends participate in the confirmation circle for my son, I was overwhelmed with gratitude.  Later I was sitting next to my "brother from another mother", Ben, and he said, "You are very loved."  Still later my bestie said, "It was a powerful image seeing all of those men who hold the Priesthood in the confirmation circle.  Those will be wonderful examples for him." Then I said a small prayer of gratitude that because both Ben and my bestie happened to move to Utah over the past six months, they were both able to be at the baptism.  Then I said another small prayer of gratitude because my niece (who grew up in North Dakota), who gave the talk on the Holy Ghost, was able to be there because she is going to school at BYU.  I gave the talk on the Holy Ghost at her baptism when she was 8. 

There are huge moments in life to be grateful for and there are small moments to be grateful for, and yesterday included both.  To have all of my parents there was a blessing.  To have my wonderful friend Ginny and her family here from Colorado was a blessing.  They aren't members of our Church, but understood the significance for our family, and they love us so they came.  To have shared the baptism with two families in our congregation was a blessing.  Their sons are good friends with our son, and we love them.  I commented today to the father of one of our boys (who is our home teacher) that I felt like the Spirit was much stronger with the three boys getting baptized on the same day than if they had had individual programs. 

It's easy to accuse me of being sentimental, because I am.  By small and simple means do great things come to pass.  I am grateful for a Heavenly Father and Savior, Jesus Christ, who know me, love me, and know what the small things mean to me.

 Josh at the temple where Dave and I got married - Mt. Timpanogos Utah Temple

Josh - 8 years old

 November 5, 2011 - Josh's Baptism Day

 Dressed and ready!

 Josh and Heidi

 Our little Family - Dave, Heidi, Josh and Clara

 Uncle Jack, Ellen, and Aunt Karen

 Ben, Uncle Rob and Aunt Jessica

 Grandma Nancy, Josh and Dave

 Amabuela, Josh and Heidi

Ama Georgia, Papa Kirk, Josh and Heidi

 William and Josh - born on the same day!

 Uncle Eric showing off the butternut squash soup

 Josh and Uncle Curtis

 Chef Marty gives out the soup for everyone

  Chef Marty made butternut squash soup, roasted pepper soup, and minestrone - all amazing!

 The Tottens

 Ginny and Josh

Josh Turns 8

Today is Josh's 8th birthday.  In some ways it has taken forever to get here, and in other ways it seems like he was just born.  They say kids grow up fast, and they really do, but, I love Josh as an 8 year old.  He was cute to me at every age and I'm just glad I have been able to know him for these past 8 years.  While his birthday is today, we decided on Saturday to have a little birthday party for him.  Because of our Disneyland trip and his baptism in a couple of months, we made it less of a "friends" party and instead invited our next door neighbors, the neighbors across the street, my mom, and Dave's parents and siblings over for homemade pizza.  The kids later watched a movie.  There were no decorations or party games or anything.  Josh seemed to like it because in the middle of the party he ran up and hugged me and thanked me for having it.

 Josh and the RomiKids

 Pizza party for his birthday

 Dan pulled out Hailee's loose tooth for the entertainment portion

 Josh got about 10 cards with money and one really awesome lego game.  He has plans for the money that involve Pokemon.

 A roomful of people watching Josh open presents

 Lauren, Gavin, Clara and Gabi

 Cool lego pirate game!

 11 kids - when we all moved into the neighborhood there were 5.  We've had a busy seven years.  I will pay $1 to a random reader who can come close to guessing the ages of these kids.  Go ahead - try it.  Unless you are Loree, Kristen, Lou, or anyone else who was at the party.  Or anyone else who knows these kids.  In a nutshell, their height does not match their ages.

 We were even graced with the presence of the newlyweds! 

This was the best I could do running to Smith's the morning of the party.  I figured it was fun and different and since we didn't have a particular theme, I wasn't too attached to anything specific.  For his baptism I have my friend Natalie tasked with making cute cookies.

October 28, 2010: Crazy Hair Day

October 1, 2010: Genetics Run Deep

Anyone that knows my family, knows that we are a musical group.  Apparently this talent has continued to the next generation.  Please pause for a brilliant performance.  I tried to record this at the First Grade Talent Show, but my camera messed up so we had an encore this afternoon.  He was sandwiched between a tae kwon do display and a violin solo.  I couldn't be more proud.

September 10, 2010: Josh had a Birthday

We decided to have Josh's birthday party on a Friday night - pizza and a movie. He was allowed to invite a few neighborhood and ward friends. We started off with homemade pizza, which Dave made and the kids devoured. Then we opened presents, and we followed up with Natalie's cookies and ice cream before watching Ice Age. It was a looooong night (for me) but fun for Josh and that is what matters.

Josh and C - Battleship (we played the next day - so fun!)

Josh with the G-Boys - Big fire truck that makes lots of noise!

Josh with the "Gabers" and "Katers" - Zhu Zhu Pet

Uncle Curt - TRANSFORMER

Josh and J-Man - Another Zhu Zhu Pet (sensing the theme?)

Josh and Clara - Pajamas and jeans (zzzzzzz)

Josh and J - Superhero Squad t-shirt!

Josh and his girlfriend, Ms. Mert - $7

The Party Animals

Natalie's cookies! The theme was "Under the Sea" and these were so good and so cute. She also did Josh's invites and I would highly recommend using her for your kids' parties!

September 6, 2010: Rubby and Friends

There are three fish floating around in there.

Josh has decided to name one of his fish "Rubby". No idea where he got this name. Today we went to Petco and picked out gravel and plants and shells for the aquarium that he got for his birthday. He wanted rainbow neon gravel so we discussed color scheme and the fact that I hated that idea. We settled for blue. Our aquarium hangs on the wall away from hands that like to feed and squish things. A chair is needed to get really close to them. I think they probably like it that way.

Interview:

Phantom Voice in my head: "Hi, Heidi. How do you feel about owning your first pet?"

Me: "Well, it's not really mine and I don't want to take responsibility for it because I can't believe that they LET people have pets. What if they die? I can't take the pressure. If I am this neurotic about fish, we should never have a dog."

Phantom Voice in my head: "Good to know. Why don't you go lie down and have a nice piece of chocolate?"

Me: "That would be lovely."

Josh is thrilled, Clara is thrilled. I feel like I just gave birth to preemie triplets. We'll see how this goes.

September 5, 2010: Josh is Seven

Lots and lots of sugar sprinkles.

He's still my baby.

Take One

Take Two

September 5, 2010: Becoming a Mother

Seven years ago today at 4:00am my doctor woke me up to tell me she had decided to go ahead and induce me. I was 37 weeks pregnant with my first child, a boy. I was in no way ready physically to have a baby, but pre-eclampsia said otherwise and the induction was started.

12 hours later I had progressed to between 4-5 centimeters and my son was crowning out the back of his head. My doctor told me that I would need to have a c-section. I was exhausted and terrified, and at that point had been in the hospital for almost 30 hours. There was no turning back, and we were putting both me and my son at risk to go any longer. So I took a deep breath and my husband gave me a Priesthood blessing, and I was taken to the operating room.

I really don't remember much because I had had about four hours of sleep and my body had been going through contractions (pretty hard contractions that I didn't feel thanks to the epidural) for most of the day. I remember the nurse saying that there was no way that I would have had the strength to even get through pushing. I do remember the first time I heard my son cry. I remember a tear slid down my face as husband and my mom (my wonderful doctor had somehow gotten permission for her to be in with us) told me what was happening. I remember my husband putting that sweet little face up to mine as I laid eyes on my firstborn. The feeling and the Spirit in the room was overpowering, even with all of the chaos. He was born at 7:09pm.

I wasn't able to hold him until almost two hours later and my first thought was, "I would do this all over again for you." Which was a far cry from my thought a few hours earlier which was, "I will NEVER do this again!" It's true that you forget, or if you don't forget you at least don't care.

I still feel like I glimpse Heaven when I look into my little boy's face, even seven years later. He drives me crazy and he talks back and he sometimes has moments where I wonder if he will ever stop talking. But those blue eyes and freckles looking into my eyes and saying, "I love you, Mama" will always melt my heart because of what I went through to get him here. He made me a mother, and for that I will always be grateful.

August 23, 2010: First Day of First Grade

Today was the very first day of First Grade for Josh. Which means that he goes to school all day long for the first time in his life. I cried on and off yesterday. Today - no biggie. He was confident, he's ready. He even let me just drop him off so that I didn't get all emotional. Plus I had to go to the grocery store to get more stuff for his lunches this week. I had fun packing his lunch. I am sure that will get old.

Cheesy smile

Cool as a cucumber

It was nearly impossible getting them to stop wiggling, look at me, and smile

Darn, they are cute kids

Josh said to Clara, "See you tonight, Sweetie!" He kept talking to her in a baby voice all morning, reassuring her that he would be gone all day, but that he would eventually come home. She kept looking at him like he was out of his mind. As Ama Georgia put it, "He's a little boy...and she's a teenager."

I'm excited to hear how his first day went, and excited to see what he learns this year. I'm not excited for homework, but maybe I'll just put that on Dave's To Do list.