Mason's Baptism

This month has been an extremely busy but very exciting month for our family. Lots of birthdays in the past couple weeks! But the highlight of my month was preparing for, planning, and experiencing Mason's baptism. I can't believe I have an 8 year old boy!!! Before his baptism I tried to plan ahead and figure things out like pictures, baptism program, FHE lessons on Baptism, and just getting Mason ready. I took him down to the temple and took his pictures myself. We also had the missionaries over for dinner and asked them to talk to Mason about getting baptized.

Figuring out his Baptism Program:

When we asked Mason who he wanted to talk at his baptism he responded almost INSTANTLY "Uncle Nate!" I love how close he is to and idolizes his Uncle Nate. Nate gave a really good talk on the Holy Ghost. I love how he talked about the Godhead. He reviewed with Mason that our Father in Heaven is our Father, Jesus Christ is our Big Brother, and the Holy Ghost should be our Best Friend. I looked at Mason occasionally while Nate was speaking and I just love how captivated he was and I felt like he was really listening to Nate. 

I asked my good friends Christi and Alice to sing this beautiful song 

"My First Steps"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0wfbWZVtfc

Conducting: Jake Watkins

          Pianist:   Christi Jensen

Music Leader:   Lori Faler                                   

Opening Song:   Baptism

Opening Prayer:   Larry Huber (Grandfather)                                            

Musical Number:   “When I am Baptized”

Callie Huber, Ella Faler & Leah Dunaway

accompanied by Christi Jensen 

 Talk on Baptism: Shelly Huber (Mother)

 Baptism of Mason:   by Ron Huber (Father) 

 Witnesses:   Larry Huber, & Von Faler

                     Grandfathers              

 Musical Number: “My First Step”

Christi Jensen & Alice Johnson

accompanied by Erica Faler 

Talk on Holy Ghost:   Nate Cook (Uncle)                                            

Confirmation of Mason: by Ron Huber (Father) 

Closing Song:   I Stand All Amazed

                         (Mason’s Favorite song)   

Closing Prayer:   Von Faler (Grandfather)

 My one regret... I DID NOT take many pictures at ALL!!!! So sad! That's so not like me! I'm the queen of taking too many pictures! I didn't even get a picture of Ron and Mason all in white. :( I teased Ron about putting his wet clothes back on for a picture. (I was kind of half serious)

 Preparing my talk:
I was SHOCKED that I didn't get very emotional during his baptism. I'm pregnant and the emotions seem to fly plenty lately. I think I got all my tears and "moments" out while prepping and planning his baptism.

I started off reciting the 4th article of Faith and then had Mason come up for a little demonstration. 

I placed 2 papers on the ground (pretty far apart).

Mason come stand on the "START".

“Can you get from here to the white paper square without stepping on the carpet?”

Too far?... Heavenly Father has given us steps to bring us back to Him.

Do you know what they are?

1. Faith

2. Repentance

3. Baptism

4. Holy Ghost

5. Temple

6. Stay Righteous

I spoke to Mason about memories from my own baptism. I remember 3 things about my baptism day.

11. The water was actually really cold.

22. I remember my dad talking at my baptism. I would like to share with you what he told me.

I bought Mason a "Boogie Board" and pulled it out to show him.

I talked about how every time we goof up or maybe don’t act EXACTLY as Jesus would we make a mark on our slate.

When you get baptized it's like pushing this button, it wipes our slate clean.

33. The last thing I really remember about my baptism is how clean and fresh I felt. You can feel like that always if you keep following the steps of our Savior Jesus Christ. I know you are a strong young boy and very capable of many things. You have already experienced some pretty heavy trials at such a young age. I’m proud of you for making this decision today! I love you and I love my Savior Jesus Christ I have a testimony of his endless love for each and every one of his children. He wants us to return to live with him someday. I say these things…

My really good friend Nanna had this towel made for Mason. I LOVE it! I actually really felt loved by all those around me willing to help and be part of this big day for our family. My friend Erin worked all night long the night before and came to the baptism with her kids running on NO sleep AND brought cookies to help with refreshments. I had all kinds of help from friends and family in the kitchen and with the program. I really felt loved and am grateful to have such good people in my life.

Noah is 6!

Noah wanted a Robot Birthday Party! We planned on borrowing my parents projector and showed the movie "The Iron Giant" in the backyard. The kids got to make "robot cans" and accessorize the cans themselves. I was very impressed with their creativity and excitement over making these cups.

Ron even got into the robot making!

Noah's ONE request was that I make a robot cake. I'm not very creative and don't especially enjoy baking. But Noah isn't very particular so when he has a request I feel like I should try to accommodate. I think he liked it and that's all that matters.

It was a little crazy but I was surprised at how well it went! Because it was October Break I really didn't expect very many kids but we ended up having over a dozen kids at the house! Great turn out! I think Noah had a very good time!

  

Noah is in half day kindergarten and I am soooooooo glad I chose to have him home all morning. He is the peace maker in our home. He is very helpful and plays extremely well with Callie. In fact I'm not sure what I would do with out him. Callie can be a little demanding and Noah is very sweet with her and will do just about anything to help her be happy. They have become very close in the past couple months and I just love witnessing it. Noah is very smart and successful in school. His parent-teacher conference went really well, Ms. Stradling told me he is at the top of his class. She can always rely on him to answer any questions and help other kids. He can read pretty well and really never complains about school. I am very excited for what the future holds for him. He's very in tune to what is going on around him. He's not perfect but just about as close to it as you can get. I wish he had to desire to ride a bike. But I'm sure with time that will just come with time. So happy to have this wonderful little ray of sunshine in our family!

8 is GREAT!

This year we went with the necessities for Mason's presents. 

I bought him his cub scout uniform, a football scripture case, and some legos. He is so excited for Cub Scouts. 

His birthday was on a Sunday so we invited family over for cake and ice cream. His cousin Owen even surprised us with a visit from Texas!

Thanks to the help of my mom I took some of his friends to Jump Street, then a park for cake and pizza, and finished up at Laser Tag. (Thanks to my pogopasses and my friend Lindsey I actually didn't spend much at all!) He told me later it was the best birthday ever. Which made it worth all the effort.

 Hide N' seek!

 They were so cute at the park I almost didn't want to leave to take them to laser tag!

My mom pitched in and helped get Mason a set of scriptures for his birthday. Every Sunday Mason has been going to the church library to check and sign out scriptures. This kid has a love of reading and a love of the Scriptures. My parents wrote out cards with their favorite scriptures on them for Mason to read and mark. Mason was so excited to read their scriptures he even came up with his own code for marking and labeling those scriptures. G. F. stands for Grandpa Faler and M. H. is Mason Huber (apparently Grandpa's favorite scripture is also Mason's.) He takes his scriptures to Dr. appointments to read and busts them out at family scripture study nightly. I LOVE it. I don't ever have to remind him to bring them to church either.

There's a BUN in the Oven!

I'm so excited I can't contain myself! I'm pregnant again and due April 20th! I've always known we were going to have 4 kiddos in our family. The day I found out I went into my closet crying tears of joy and thanked my Father in Heaven (those "happy tears" lasted all day long). I had my first check-up at the Dr. last month and everything seems to be looking good. The kids are super excited. Mason found out I was going to the Dr. and wanted to come with. He's so sweet. I told him he could come to the next appointment when the Dr. will do another ultrasound. We told the kids about a month ago but asked them to keep it a secret. All of them were so excited but I think Mason grasps the concept a little more. Everywhere we go he would whisper to me "Can I tell them our secret?... or Do they know know yet?" Every morning before school he would ask Can I tell my friends yet?  So excited to share his happy news.

Noah is adorable and randomly comes up to me to rub my belly.

Callie is just excited to have a real live baby doll to dress up and play with!

The day I found out I was expecting I baked some cinnamon rolls in the oven shaped in the number 4. I told Ron when he walked in the door from work to "Go look in the oven, I'm baking something sweet for you." He looked at me a little weird but went to check. Opened the oven and said "YUM!" Then went to the bedroom to change out of his work clothes. UGH. I was so annoyed. He didn't even NOTICE! So we got the cinnamon rolls out of the oven frosted them and waited for Ron. The kids wanted to eat them so bad so I told Callie to go tell Daddy to come see the rolls! LOL Finally he starred at them and it clicked.

"Bun in the Oven"

I'm about 12 weeks along and so far have had a really good pregnancy. I'm still exercising daily, including weights and running. I'm blessed with a strong stomach and so far have only thrown up a couple times (both at the gym and not really a big deal). I have been a lot more nauseous this pregnancy but it hasn't stopped me from eating anything or doing much. (In fact I want to eat any and EVERYTHING in sight) I'm extremely tired and that annoys me! At night I pass out which is very hard for me, I'm the most productive at night plus I feel bad because Ron's working a lot so I don't get to see him much when I go to bed at 9:30pm. Super emotional! I cry over and get choked up about almost anything. It's been a little bittersweet. When I'm pregnant I think I really appreciate life so much more. It's like I get a taste of heaven and am a little more receptive to the spirit. (I wish it would magically make the perfectly patient mom but I'm still working on that.)

Callie saw me setting up the camera for the "pregnancy test" pic and insisted we have our own photoshoot. LOL

 I just love this little girl!

 Noah also wanted in on the fun!