Bangs McCoy

He volunteered

Rees gave his first talk today in Primary, on the subject of baptism. The way it is set up in our Primary right now, children are never assigned a talk, scripture, etc unless they specifically volunteer. I’m not sure why - I clearly remember being assigned stuff when I was growing up, regardless of my desire to do it. Anyway, he volunteered, and he did a great job. Bryan helped him write the talk, which was loosely based on a talk Bryan gave at his nephew’s baptism. Rees read it almost entirely by himself. I helped with a few words he struggled with, which must have been nerves because he practiced beforehand. The talk had three parts:

(while holding a picture of Jesus being baptized) “One of the great commandments is to be baptized. Even though Jesus was perfect, he was baptized because he wanted to do everything our Heavenly Father commands.”

(while holding a picture of a boy being baptized in a modern-day font) “When we are baptized, we promise to follow Heavenly Father and keep his commandments. We also promise to stand as a witness of God so that when people see us, they will be reminded of God. After you are baptized, you will be a representative of our Heavenly Father. After being baptized, we start a new life. Baptism is a symbol of rebirth - we go down under the water and leave our old life there. When we come up out of the water, we are reborn.”

(while holding a picture of Jesus raising the dead) “After Jesus was baptized, he began to do all the wonderful things that he did. It marked the beginning of his mission. It should be the same for us - we should be an example to all our friends, neighbors, and those we come in contact with, just as Jesus did. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.”

He didn’t seem very nervous and he got a lot of compliments, which made him happy. And Grandpa B made a special trip to watch, too.

We went to my parents’ house in the evening for dinner with everyone (including Great-Grandma Hansen), since Kathi and kids are in town. We ate ham, my twice-baked potatoes, salad, veggies, etc. The kids had so much fun playing. Michael also took a family portrait in the middle of the vegetable garden. Later, when Rees found out that Thomas would be staying with Grandma and Grandpa H tonight, he immediately asked my mom if he could stay over too. Their plan is to sleep outside in a “tent” Bryan made them out of chairs and a tarp. It will be interesting to see how that goes.

1 comment August 10th, 2008

The Pie Hole revisited

At her request, I made pies today with my mom at her house. We made four. She seems to really like them. Great-Grandma Hansen also requested apricots for her apricot jam. So between family and neighbors, we are getting good mileage out of the apricot tree this year.

In the evening we went to a baby shower for my cousin Chanel at Gardner Village. It was fun, with good food and good presents (I brought books, my mom brought a super-cute blanket and musical stuffed toy).

Oh, and Happy Birthday to Thack!

Add comment July 30th, 2008

Grandma K

Today was a pretty busy day for us. In the morning we went to the park to feed the ducks (there are ducklings now too), which is Jamie’s favorite activity. He frequently asks if we can go feed ducks. Then we picked up Berkeley from Kairos. He got to drive the robot while there, and told me, “I only crashed it twice!!!” I don’t think there was any real crashing involved.

We then swam at the Murray Pool for a couple of hours. This is our favorite pool for a couple of reasons. It has a zero-depth entry, which is nice for little kids and babies. It also has nice lawn areas to lay out your stuff. And it has one pretty big slide, which Rees loves. Jamie barely tolerates going down the slide with me. Rees is brave and goes down the slide all by himself (I often just wait at the bottom to help catch him). Berkeley was temporarily banned from the slide for some reason - we never figured it out. He also enjoyed jumping off the diving board a lot. Keeping track of three kids at the pool was more difficult than I expected!

After the pool we had lunch while the kids played at McDonalds, and then we took Berkeley back to Grandma & Grandpa B’s. We went home, got cleaned up, picked up Bryan and went to Orem for dinner with my family. Michael (and Maddie) had birthdays in June, my Grandma Hansen is in town, and my dad just returned from a month in Uganda. So we had plenty to celebrate. Rees presented my dad with his Father’s Day gift - tie-dye socks he made himself. They’re groovy!

While having dinner in Orem, we learned that Grandma K (Bryan’s maternal grandmother) suffered a serious stroke in Colorado tonight. The circumstances around the stroke were actually very fortunate - she was not driving and got fast medical attention. We will be driving to Colorado tomorrow morning, along with Bryan’s parents and Aunt Anadeane.

Add comment June 27th, 2008

It was bound to happen

Rees had soccer this morning with the Blue Beavers (he’s still struggling, but we’re hoping for a turnaround). They also had team pictures today.

In the afternoon we worked in the yard. Bryan went on an errand to Best Buy and ended up calling me, asking me to “talk him down” from buying a new flatscreen TV. Long story short, I didn’t talk him down, so we have a new TV. It will be mounted above the fireplace upstairs, and the ancient bigscreen in the basement will go.

In the evening we went to visit Sarah in the hospital in Orem after the exciting birth yesterday. Michael, Allie, and my mom were there as well. We dropped off flowers and a birthday gift for Michael, held the new baby girl (no name yet) and visited for a while.

At home we enjoyed our first movie on the new TV - a Berrett family favorite.

1 comment June 14th, 2008

Hansen family bonding

Today the Hansen family (sans kids & Sarah) went to see U2 3D together, at my dad’s urging. It was really cool. I have seen U2 live on tour three times - PopMart (Rice Stadium, 1997), Elevation (Delta Center, 2001), and Vertigo (Delta Center, 2005).

The movie very closely approximates the feeling of a live U2 concert. Yes, it’s preachy. Yes, Bono is melodramatic. Yes, I loved every minute of it.

Add comment March 1st, 2008