Jane's Baptism - November 19, 2011

Jane was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on November 19, 2011. We had so many family and friends attend this special day. Many of them traveled far, from Colorado, Utah, and Washington DC. It was so fun to have so many people there.

Our good friends Doug and Lyndee Kennett took these pictures of Jane in her baptism dress.

Erica, Spencer, Grandma Jeanne, Grandpa Randy

Grandma and Grandpa

The 2 witnesses: Grandpa Earl and Grandpa Randy

This is all our wonderful family. How loved and special we feel.

We had a picture taken of everyone looking at Jane because she kept saying, "All these people came just for me:)"

Cousins!!!

Jane was baptized in the same dress that I was baptized in. My mother made it for me and saved it so my girls could wear it.

Brother Rock--our dear home teacher gave the talk on Baptism.

My good friend and Jane's piano teacher Jaime Page played the piano for the baptism. She also helped Jane play the prelude music.

We had many of our dear Indiana friends there too. It was such a special day for Jane and for her proud parents. The spirit was so strong and I felt there were heavenly angels present as well. My mother wouldn't have missed it for anything and Jane and I both felt her near.

Many thank yous to all who attended!!

Jane's Piano Recital

Jane took piano this year. She actually really loves to play and really hates to practice:) She did a fabulous job on her recital piece.

Way to go Jane!!

Madagascar LIVE!!

Every so often Brett gets tickets from Comcast to events around the city. A few weeks ago he got tickets to Madagascar LIVE!! I took Jane and then invited my good friend Lyndee. She has twin girls and we only had 2 extra tickets. I felt bad making her choose between both of her girls but it didn't seem to be a problem. After all, ALL kids need a little one on one time with Mom. I know Jane loved every minute of that:)

Look at those smiles. They had such a great time.

Thanks for going with us Lyndee and Brynley!! We had a great time:)

(pictures taken by Lyndee)

Jane

Jane loves to draw and write letters to me (to anyone really). She's learning so many new things in school and she is so expressive. I love her love notes, not so much her mean notes ("mom I'm mad at you" notes). I am glad that she can express herself through drawing and writing though. Some I keep and tuck away in her file, many get tossed in the trash, some go in her "special drawer". But I thought I would share these.

(you'll have to click on them to enlarge so you can see what she has written)

This was hanging on our door for a couple of days. I love the part about not playing on Sundays. So funny!!

These drawings are from a book about my family dog. Dudley was my parent's dog. Dudley loved my mom (and I think she secretly loved him:). When my dad remarried he decided to get rid of Dudley. My sister Ashley took him in and he became their family's dog. Anyway, he passed away a couple of weeks ago and this rocked Jane's world. She was so upset. She cried herself to sleep for a couple of nights. She felt robbed that she didn't get to hold him one last time. It was sad really.

This last one is from Monday night. Jane felt like she was getting in trouble a little more than usual and she felt it was time for her to go and find another family. So she began packing her bags and writing farewell notes. I asked her where she would go in such cold weather. She thought it through and decided to go somewhere close so she wouldn't get too cold. Then she decided that she wanted to go to a family that would take her to church. So after some thought, she came up with Courtney's family. He is in her 1st grade class and they are in the same primary class. So this was perfect. I suggested she call them first to make sure they could take care of her. She didn't want to do that. She just wanted to go. She kept saying "I have to go...sigh". Tobe was bawling. Aly was asking if she could have all her stuff that she couldn't fit in her backpack. It was quite a sight.

Here's her note.

She made it out the garage door and was back in less than 1 minute.

Apparently we're not doing too well on "bringing happiness" to each other. Huh!! We gotta work on that a little more. I am happy that she decided to stay. I informed her that no one would love her like her family loves her. She was ok with her decision to stay too:)

Our Indiana Hero

After the Indy Star article was written about Jane, someone from the Indiana Pacers contacted us and wanted to honor Jane as an "Indiana Hero" at one of their games. Brett chose the Lakers/Pacers game (Jane will never know or care how cool that was) and we kept it 'hush hush' until last night at dinner. We told her that we were her special guests and that she is the reason we are all privileged to go to the game. (She thought that was pretty neat). We also told her that she'd be honored down on the court in front of the entire crowd; I held my breath, her mouth dropped, and then tears came to her eyes (still not sure why because it was immediately followed by a jump for joy and nervous laughter). Then we got in the car and headed to the game.

We were told to wait here and someone would come and get her to take a picture with one of the players. Brett went with her (with instruction to take LOTS of pictures-which he did) and I took the kids to our seats.

Looking up at the tall player:)

Brandon Rush!!!

She got a medal

She then got to come and sit with the family in the crowd and we were instructed to wait there until after the first time out of the first quarter. Jane would be awarded at the second time out.

She walked on the court and got to stand there all by herself as they talked about her and her generous heart. She looked so tiny out there all by herself and yet so big. I was so proud. The crowd around me was cheering for her.

She was televised up on the jumbotron for all to see:)

It was so cool!!!

The man behind me said, "You must be a great mother", to which I replied "Nope I just have a great daughter."!! And I do!!

A few more pics:

Tobe was in heaven. He loved being at the game, seeing all the people, and just being alive:)

Oh and this was our half time show:

2 naked men doing Cirque De Soilel moves. You can only imagine the kid's reaction to that. It was pretty hilarious. Aly said, "You have to get a picture of that"-- so I did:)

All in all it was a great night!! I'm so proud of her and honored to be her guest at the game!!