The Baptism of Greta Bree Vance (and some hard news from the Jackson's)

Funny story and correction from last week's letter.  The picture with Finn competing against the only girl on the team was a mistake.  That wasn't a girl, it was a boy.  I guess Finn's on an all-boy team after all.

Nan, Christine and me.  Lunch at Wild Peru.  It is so fun to get together.  This was a treat for my birthday, but we need to do it more often than three times a year. (This activity was the week previous to this one).

Christine sent this letter she found from my Grandpa Cook to my dad.  It shows that my dad started out life like most people--poor.  But he was still thoughtful and respectful of his parents.

Elijah is off oxygen and looking sweet and peaceful.  
The little red mark is from the tape holding the oxygen chords

Zack got his first haircut this week.  Crista said he shook his head no, afterwards, so she doesn't think he liked it.

I had the opportunity to go to Ollie's basketball game this week.  Because his team won the first game, they went into a 2nd game with a different team.  I stayed and watched until Ollie was taken out for a break and it looked like the other team was going to be pretty wicked.  I was surprised when Adrienne sent me the picture of Ollie's team saying that they had won.

I don't think Ollie and Gunnar look alike, but in this picture I can definitely see the resemblance

Team picture, Ollie is the last boy on the right.

Friday evening we went down to Springville for a wedding reception.  The groom, Mason Seljaas was from our old ward (Nick's ward now).  Nick and Sara are really good friends with the family so they went down, too.  We drove separately but met up for dinner at Brick Oven on our way.  It was a nice evening.  We should have asked someone to take our picture because this selfie cut off Roy and we can't see Effie.
From left: Ori, Effie, Avie, Cam, Nick Sara, Catharine, Roy

The highlight of this week was Greta's baptism.  She made the choice to be baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints yesterday.  It was a wonderful moment for the grandparents to see this sweet girl enjoy her special day.

The Vance family on Greta's baptism day.  Ruby, Greta, Todd, Matt, Bridget, Crista and Todd

I had to put this one in because the Vances got a new family member at the last second (Cub).

For the program: Caitlyn gave the talk on baptism, Matt's dad gave the talk on the Holy Ghost,
and Crista and Ruby played a duet of "Baptism" together.  At the end of every talk and song, Cub clapped and cheered.

Crista and Matt finishing up the pesto pasta and macaroni and cheese for a delicious lunch.

Nick and Zackary

Cub is safe at Crista's, there's not much to get into and his cousins are all there to keep him occupied.  Here he is showing me some miniature kitchen toys that actually turn on.  He played with them for quite a while. 

Greta lucked out with a homemade quilt for her baptism because I just happened to take a class to use up some of my scraps.  As I was making it, I decided it looked like a little girl's quilt,  so the baptism was fortuitous.  The label says, "Greta Bree Vance, baptized March 8, 2025, love, Grandma"

Todd was trying hard to get Camden to play hide and seek with him.  Even when Camden was standing right by him he was trying to get him to count and start the game.

Our terrible news for the week is that this morning, Beverly, independent as she is, was working on making hot chocolate for her and her brothers.  She turned on the electric kettle and heated up the water.  At some point she climbed up on the counter to get the cups she wanted, then turned around and jumped off.  Her nightgown caught the spout on the kettle and pulled it down with her.  The boys knew she was hurt, but no one knew she had been burned.  They kept telling Elise that Beverly tripped.  Only when Elise saw the kettle and the water on the floor, and Beverly screaming and holding her nightgown away from her body, did she realize what had happened.  She hurried and put Beverly in a tub of cold water.  Andy, the resident ER doctor treated her with lidocaine and gave her some oxycodone.  When we talked to her she said she wasn't in too much pain, she just didn't want to sit or lay or her back/bottom.  I'm guessing it'll be a hard week ahead.  The video is from their home camera. 

When talking to Elise, she brought up the talk "Mortality Works." by Elder Brook P. Hales Mortality Works In this talk, Elder Brook tells of a woman who had many trials during her life.  After her death, her son had a remarkable experience in the temple: She [the mother] communicated with him but not by vision or audible words.  The following unmistakable message came into the son's mind from his mother:  "I want you to know that mortality works, and I want you to know that I now understand why everything happened in my life the way it did--and it is all OK."

Sometimes it seems like trials are raining down and we don't understand why, but this talk is a good reminder that we are here to learn.  Even when everything seems to be going wrong, we have someone we can turn to.  Our Savior, Jesus Christ.  He is waiting for us.  He wants to bless us, comfort us and guide us.  All we have to do is turn to Him.