Great to be 8

This past week Skyler turned 8 years old(I know, I still can't believe it either). Turning 8 is a big birthday in our religion, so we wanted to try and make sure Skyler remembered turning 8. We decided to give her a gift or two for 8 days leading up to her birthday (kind of like her own little Hanukkah). Here's a recap:

Day 1

Skyler got a High School Musical golf cart and Sharpay Evans doll.

She then performed in her class play as a swallow.

Day 2

She got some flamingo eating utensils and a pink recycle bag.

Day 3

She had been asking for new roller skates for a while, so we upgraded her to roller blades.

Day 4

Sara gave Skyler a Willow Tree keepsake box. As a special treat, Sara also spoke in church that day.

Day 5

She opened up a couple more High School Musical dolls and High School Musical 3.

It was the last week of school and the kids were getting out early, so we decided to take advantage of our last two days before being blocked out from Disneyland. Surprisingly, Bodie wasn't affected by the giant, blue monster that was standing right by him. He even waved goodbye to him.

The plan was to go to California Adventure one day and then to Disneyland the next. It was as crowded as we have seen it, and we didn't get on to many rides.

But the kids were still satisfied.

Day 6

We gave Skyler the crappiest pool that ever existed. I can say that, because we have already returned it. You'll notice the picture on the box. You would expect the pool to resemble what is shown in the picture. Not so much. In fact, after blowing it up by mouth and getting major balloon cheeks Bodie barely fit in it. I was so irritated that I didn't bother fully deflating it before bringing it back to Target. They took it back without even asking any questions. I was very satisfied with that, so no need for a boycott.

As planned, we went to Disneyland. When we got to the parking structure there was quite a bit of traffic. We expected it to be majorly crowded again. In fact, we were told more than once that Disneyland was closed. Sara asked what we were going to do if they didn't let us in. I told her that we were getting into Disneyland and that she need not worry. Sure enough, we walked right in to Disneyland. It actually wasn't nearly as crowded as they were making it seem. The kids got on a bunch of rides and we all had a good time.

Day 7

Skyler got a huge Fancy Nancy sticker book and some nail polish.

Day 8 Happy Birthday Skyler!

She started off the day with our family tradition of birthday donuts.

Then she got some doll that she has been wanting that drinks bottles and gets wet diapers. It is what she wanted most.

It was the last day of school, and we had a few of her classmates over for a small celebration.

They did crafts, hit Hannah Montana with a bat (the pinata version that is), sang songs and did other things that girls do.

Warning: If you ever get this look from Maddie, step away slowly. She is not scared of anything, and you don't want to get her angry. In this picture she is contemplating whether or not to fight a girl 10 times her size over the seat she wanted to sit in.

Skyler had a good time.

This is the look you want to see on Maddie's face.

The girls all wanted to eat Hannah Montana's face.

She got some pretty good gifts.

We finished off the day with the dinner of her choice. She chose Panda Express. I still don't understand why they call it that, if I can't order panda.

The reason that turning 8 is such a big deal is that you are then old enough to get baptized. Skyler had been looking forward to this day for quite a while.

She even got a new dress out of the deal.

When I was a missionary I would tell people after they had made the decision to get baptized that it wouldn't be a smooth road getting to their baptism day. Satan knows what is going on and he is going to try and throw a few monkey wrench's into the system. And Heavenly Father is going to let us be tested. So, it wasn't too surprising when things didn't go exactly as planned the closer we got to her baptism day. The baptism was planned for Saturday. On Friday Sara got very ill and spent the day in bed. I ended up needing to change the brakes on my car and it seemed like there was still so much to get done before the baptism. Friday was also the day that I wasted time blowing up that horrible pool. On Saturday morning I went to the church, vacuumed and dusted, set up a ton of chairs, cleaned the baptismal font, and set up everything at the church for the baptism. Sara felt better and was able to get the other stuff taken care of. Everything fell into place and we got things done just in time.
I had baptized quite a few people before, but I have never been as nervous as I was with Skyler. It had been a while, and I hadn't performed a baptism as important as this one. In my nervous state I guess I rushed it and didn't give the little kids time to come up and watch. But, I didn't have to dunk Skyler more than once. So, that was good. We have made it a point to tape record important ordinances and planned on recording the confirmation. I had the tape recorder in my pocket and all I had to do was hit record before getting up. Apparently, that was too difficult of a task for me. I realized what I had done immediately after finishing the confirmation. When I get my flux capacitor repaired, I will go back and hit record. Everyone else did a fantastic job.

Our whole family decided to attend.

We had quite a few people involved in the confirmation.

Both of Skyler's grandmother's gave prayers.

Her cousin gave one of the talks. My brother, Kyle, gave the other talk. My cousin, Sara(h), also sang a wonderful song. All in all, it was a great day. I have learned that the first-born is the one who we sort of figure stuff out with. The kids that follow benefit from the mistakes we make with the first. So, I imagine that I will do a better job with Geronimo.

We were even in a good enough mood to allow Dodger fans to attend. Thanks to everyone who came and helped out. It made it a very memorable day for Skyler.

Go Padres!

Have you ever known someone who puts a lot of thought in all of the gifts that they give? You can tell that they have spent a long time trying to find the perfect gift. However, the gift isn't nearly as good as the gifter thinks it is. Then you have to pretend that it is a great gift. Well, if you know me, then you know someone like that. I know I'm bad at gifting. I can tell by how infrequently some of my gifts have been used. As hard as you may try to convince me that my gifts are good, I usually know instantly that I have made a gifting mistake. Today is the day we celebrate fathers. I was very tempted to give my father this:I realized before making the purchase that as awesome as a mustache necklace may seem, it probably isn't a good gift for a man that I have never seen wear any kind of necklace. So, I decided to go with something more traditional:
I have been getting better at going against my initial gifting instincts, but I think it is a problem that will plague me for the rest of my life.

A lot of people might use today to blog about how great their fathers are. I'm pretty sure that my father doesn't read this, so I will spare the effort to try and butter him up over the internets. I will say this though, I like my dad. Many people have thought that Mike is our step-father, because we call him by his first name. Some find this to be disrespectful. I don't remember when exactly we transitioned from dad to Mike, but I remember why. We called him Mike because he seemed like one of our friends. If under some strange circumstances we ended up being the same age, I'm sure I would have wanted to hang out with Mike. I'm not certain that he would have felt the same way. Mike has been a great friend. We can talk about anything, we have similar interests, and I know I can always depend on him for help. We had the opportunity to be together with our entire family today. It was an enjoyable time. I'm grateful that Mike impregnated our mom to make it all possible.

Tough Decisions

I've mentioned in a previous post my enjoyment of playing jokes on people when I never actually see the end result. If I ever need a good chuckle, I just think about a past joke pulled and the reaction I imagine happened. I can't be the only person who does this. Well, another opportunity has presented itself to me.

I have a pretty common name, and because of this I periodically receive emails meant for another Joshua Kelley. In the past I have exchanged multiple messages with a girl who couldn't be convinced that she wasn't my sister. Somebody tries to get me to come support their prayer group and scripture study every couple of months (but I think they have given up on me, because it has been a while since the last email). My favorite experience of being "Joshua Kelley" was when I received an email regarding a surprise birthday party for "my" friend and college classmate. They reminded "me" of the date and time and asked who could bring various items for the party. Being the generous person that I am, I replied and volunteered to bring the chairs they needed. I also mentioned that I could get a really good deal on a nice birthday cake and that I would take care of that too. I never heard back after the party, but I'm sure it was a surprise party. The way I imagine it has Joshua Kelley showing up at the party without anything he said he would bring:
"Where's the birthday cake you said you were going to bring?"
"I never said I was going to bring the cake?"
"Stop messing around. He's going to be here any minute now and we need to put out the cake."
"Seriously, I don't know what you are talking about. Man, I would have brought some chairs if I had known there weren't going to be enough for everyone to sit."
I still can't think of that story without smiling.

So, a few days ago I received an email confirming "my" new MySpace account and reminding "me" of "my" password. This has presented a tough decision to me. Do I a) help create "my" new profile, b) wait a while and change "my" password, c) wait a while and make subtle changes to "my" profile, d) wait a while and then change "my" password, e) wait a while, make major changes to "my" profile, and then change "my" password, or f) do something else? Some people say that life is full of tough decisions, and this just proves those people right.

Really?

I'll admit that I was a little concerned when we had a girl first. I worried that the boys that followed would think that some girl things were normal for boys too. For example, the other night I asked, "Whose panties are these?" and Geronimo responded, "Not mine. I have Superman panties!" I've grown to accept those little things, hoping that with time those won't be problems. But how far is too far? Check out what Bodie was doing a couple nights ago.

Seriously? My kids are going to be my demise.