quick hop to arizona

  

 

speaking of glorious weekends and baptisms, two weeks ago i got to spend saturday and sunday in balmy arizona with a portion of my family. my sweet niece claire was being baptized, so my sister saren, my parents and i gathered with my brother josh and sister shawni and her family (who all live in gilbert, az) to celebrate.

claire is the sweetest thing ever, such a little light, and it was so wonderful to get to be a part of her special day! a few weeks ago, claire called me and asked me to the play the flute at her baptism! so my mom accompanied me on children’s hymns while claire and her dad were changing after the ordinance was performed. the spirit at the service was oh so sweet, and i’m so happy for my claire and the great decision she has made to be baptized.

 

after the baptism service, we had a yummy luncheon back at the pothiers’ house. those mint brownies were to die for (as my mom would say), and isn’t that photo of claire hugging her book of mormon about the best thing ever?

another reason for the trip was to have a mini sisters getaway to talk about some projects that we are working on as sisters with our mom. we really, really missed our sister saydi, who is living in london with her husband and 4 kids for 6 months.

luckily after all the baptism festivities we were able to skype with her for hours in our hotel room (where we stayed – just down the road from shawni’s house – for one night).

we also got to sit in the hot tub and talk, go out to a nice dinner together, and of course laugh our heads off about this or that:

 

the next day we met up with everyone at church and had a great sunday afternoon and evening talking, eating thai food, playing and even making a podcast!:

i am by far the youngest of the four sisters in my family. they all have husbands and at least four kids. motherhood is their lives. not just they are mothers, but motherhood is their lives (and partially their livelihoods). i think i just may be the best informed pre-mother out there (everything from breastfeeding and childbirth to discipline and nurturing), and i am grateful for the knowledge – and extraordinarily deeply-rooted, earnest desire – that my sisters and mom have blessed me with.