On Saturday, October 10th, 2009 Josh was baptized!!! It was kind of a crazy day...Of course we all stayed up late the night before...then on Saturday morning, Nikki and Dane played in a volleyball tournament. They got back in time to shower and away we went to the church. It was a really great service. Grandma Poyfair gave the opening prayer and Grandpa gave a wonderful talk on the gift of the Holy Ghost. Here is what Josh wrote about the day:
"Today is my baptism day. I wanted to be baptized because I could have the Holy Ghost and get all my sins washed away. Grandma, Grandpa, Nikki, Josh, Isabella, and Luke all came. I had a big smile on my face but was not nervous. I wasn't nervous because I saw Garrett get baptized. For goodies we had two jugs of root beer, a plate of oatmeal cookies, a plate of cinnamon rolls, and root beer floats. We were about to have 7 up floats but mom forgot to bring them. They were all the way in the garage. Grandpa got to say the talk. He talked about the Holy Ghost. The baptism started at 4pm. I had to wait the whole day to get baptized. I was so excited. During the baptism, I said in my mind, 'Am I prepared? Am I prepared? Am I prepared?'"
It was so fun to see him so excited that day. He kept asking how many more minutes?? We love our little Joshers so much. He has a fun little personality. He's such a great student, his teacher said she wished she had 24 Joshs. He is witty and thoughtful. He is the quietest of all our kids, so it takes some extra effort to get to know him. He never seeks out our attention, so it's easy at times to miss who he really is. He just doesn't want to be a bother to others, so Dane and I have to at times physically force our love upon him...we hope to someday train him to not run from our hugs and kisses! But I have some great memories when I've taken the time to really talk to and enjoy him. Congratulations Josh! We love you so much!!

Isabella, Celeste, Ty, Luke and Josh, Garrett and Kian
Dane and Josh

Josh, Nikki, Luke and Isabella came to the baptism from Lewisville, Texas. Thanks so much for coming!!!

Josh and Kian....the twinner brothers

Joshy and Joshy

Love this picture of Josh and Grandma and Grandpa Poyfair. They came from Tyler, Texas. We had such a great time with you guys!! Thanks for everything!!

We always have to have a crazy picture!!

Garrett and Josh enjoying a festival of sugar....peanut butter chocolate bars, cinnamon rolls, and root bear floats....I think Joshua's love language is "goodies."

The 4 boys!!!

A little oxygen to raise the blood pressure. A little project to pass the time.

Sunday morning....Here's the hospital! About to be induced....I'm 2 days overdue.

Dane's old boss insisted on throwing us a Wal-Mart shower! All of this stuff came from people that Dane works with. He is well loved!!

The 3 preggos! We were all due within a couple of weeks of each other.

Celeste's 3rd birthday!!! I couldn't find my camera during all of the chaos of the party (we invited several of her little friends) but this was her favorite gift; a Fancy Nancy costume from our neighbor Hannah. Who would have thought that this little girl would turn out so girly with 3 older brothers!!

The Wonderful World of Sports!

We have spent the past several months in the car going from one practice to the next!!! We had our last game tonight. We're done with organized sports for now.

Josh played soccer for the first time. He did really well!! He was one of his teams best goalies!!

Tyler played his first sport this year---T-ball! He's one of the biggest kids on the team. He actually has grasped onto the game quite well. He did best when he got to play 1st base. When he was outfield, he usually ended up sitting on the grass, playing with bugs and picking weeds.

Garrett played basketball for the 2nd time. I was amazed by how much he had improved this year! He was so much more aggressive! Josh played for the first time and did really well.

I'm so proud of Garrett for playing baseball! Garrett had never even tossed a baseball before this year!!! He's never had the desire to play, but he wanted to try this year. A couple of weeks before the season started, he and Dane began practicing. We were actually quite shocked by how stressful 9 year old baseball can be!! Most of Garrett's teammates had been playing since they were 4! So he began with a huge disadvantage. We were just so proud of him for sticking with it. He improved a lot over the season. He played with a great group of boys and a great coach. They only won one game the entire season, but we had so much fun watching him play.

Garrett sang me a special birthday song!

The boys trying to answer Grandpa Poyfair's trivia questions for a quarter.

Uncle Jason holding Kyla (Brandon and Sharee's daughter) and his little Adelaide.

Caroling in Texas with the Poyfair fam.+

Our neighbor Curtis, Josh and Garrett. These boys totally got into the spirit of giving this Christmas!!! This was their ninja attempt to take secret gifts around to our neighbors. The funny thing is, I had only purchased one gift to take next door. But that just wasn't enough for their elaborate plan! They had mapped out a big strike that included several houses on our street (Joshy is holding the map). How could I say no to that? The problem was time. We were leaving for Texas the next day and there was no time (or money at this point) to buy several more gifts!!! So I did something so tacky!!! I took all of the gifts we had received during the week (like a box of unopened chocolates, a cookie mix in a jar, etc.) and gave them to the boys to regift!! They were so excited!!! They only got caught once, thanks to their extensive planning and ninja training.

Christmas in Texas