Third Grade

School started three weeks ago! Erin is in 3rd grade this year.

The first-day-of-school pictures:

I'm not too excited about being much busier now that school started, but it's nice to be back on a schedule.

And can I just say that I absolutely love school supplies? A lot. I may have a little problem. Some of my favorite stores are places like Staples and Office Max. So you can imagine my joy this time of year when ALL the stores are selling my favorite things, and for CHEAP. Yay! And then in a few weeks, it will all be on CLEARANCE! Be still my heart.

Happy Back-to-School, everyone!

Erin's Baptism Day

About 2 1/2 weeks ago, Erin was baptized. In our church, kids aren't baptized until they're eight. For several reasons - but in general because they're more accountable and understand what it's all about. It's still hard for me to believe Erin is eight!

It was a rainy day, which is a big deal here in Phoenix. And boy are there a lot of people who care about Erin! My entire family came to see her, most of them from several hours away, and Rob's entire family except three cousins. We were so happy to have everyone visit. I hope Erin understands (or will someday) how neat it is to have family who loves her so much.

Here's Erin and Rob ready for the baptism. She was baptized by her dad, and it was very special. I probably take it for granted that Rob is a good guy understands the importance of doing things like that.


A few people from our ward (congregation) also came to see her on her big day. One couple used to be in our ward, but moved to another part of the valley a couple of years ago. When Erin was about 2 years old, she started mingling about and visiting with people before church started. She quite liked talking to the Halls. Sister Hall told me one day that Brother Hall started putting Tootsie Rolls or Starburst in his pocket so he would have something to give her when she would visit with them. Of course that kept the visits coming as long as they lived in our ward! But Erin loved them to death and was so excited when they showed up at her baptism! They even brought her a little gift and a couple of packages of Starburst. Very cute! Here they are:

The only drawback to having everyone come at once is that it's hard to spend very much time visiting with everyone - but I think everyone understood that & was just happy to be there. Another drawback is that our house is too small to hold so many people! So we used the church building to have pizza and a wonderful giant salad Sandy made and some cheesecake. This is just about everyone - unfortunately I didn't think to take a picture before Rob's sister Stephanie and her family left. What a group! I love these guys.

Thank you everyone for coming to support Erin! We're lucky to have such a great family on all sides. We love you! A couple of pictures of Erin before church the next day:

We're proud of this girl and love her very much!