Happy Birthday Ruth

Ruth turned 12 today.  It doesn't seem that long ago that she was a bright eyed newborn, but now she is a young lady.

On Saturday we hosted ten very excited and outgoing girls for a birthday party.  Ruth planned the activities. I helped the girls make bleached t-shirts, they had a dance party in the back yard and when it got dark they came in for karaoke.  All the girls seemed to have a great time, and could have easily gone on singing for half the night.

Today is General Conference (that is where 2 times a year we don't go to church but we watch sermons from our Prophet and leaders on TV) and we enjoyed relaxing around the house and playing games.   Ruth got some great gifts including brightly colored socks, a lego set, feathers for her hair, and a surprise gift for both her and Kaitlin. You can see what the surprise is by watching the video below (you can hear Kaitlin hollering in glee in the background, but I edited her out of video at her request because she was still in her pjs).

12 is a special birthday in our church because at 12 you graduate from the children's class and move into the teenage group. At 12 you can also go into the temple and participate in some of the services there.  Ruth has an interview with our bishop on Tuesday and we plan on going with Ruth to the temple on Friday.


Wolf

This week Jared earned a rank advancement, from Wolf to Bear.  He was pretty excited when he learned how close he was to getting his advancement that he has worked really hard the last couple of weeks to get his Wolf early. You scouters out there will know what I'm talking about when I say he also got 5 arrow points. He has 2 months until his birthday to earn more.

Jared also received his Religious Knot, which was presented to him by our Bishop.  He's worked hard to get this award all year including filling out a family tree and teaching our family about Joseph Smith.   He was pretty proud to get this award as most boys do not get it until they are 9 or 10.