Thornton Mom

Maddie's family who came to the baptism.  Maddison was baptized on Saturday!! We are so proud of her and the choice that she made to become a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Her daddy baptized her.  The water was very cold but she was very brave.  After being put under the water she jumped back up and left the font.  She was so cold.  There were two other kids who also go baptized.  One of the speakers afterwards said that he truly saw the children of the latter days "springing" out of the water. Michael wanted to be part of the pictures.  He was a little/lot jealous of the attention Maddie was receiving. 4 kids of ours ahve been baptized.  We only have one to go in about 3 years.  Wow, am I really that old? Samantha is so happy for Maddie and wanted to make sure Maddie felt loved! Maddie and Daddy Our Family (notice that Samantha does not have her shoes on.  If ...

Sunday Maddie really wanted to play on my phone during sacrament meeting.  I don't usually allow my kids on the phone but she outsmarted me by asking to read the scriptures.  Then when I showed her how to write in the Gospel Library she was hooked.  Here is her emoji testimony: I love Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father so sod (should) you.do,t (don't)  📥 (put)  your faith in a📦 (box) take it 📤 (out)  .📨 (send) your📩 (message)  to heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and they will know.I took my faith📤 (out) and I 📨 (sent)  my 📩 (message)  to heavenly father and Jesus Christ and I know they loved it and the name of Jesus Christ amen. MADDIE Thornton 11/27/2016💴✉💲📧💹💳💳✉💶📧 The weekend before Thanksgiving Derek and I were able to take a trip by ourselves to Salt Lake.  My grandfather's favorite yearly event is a Boy Scout Auction.  I hadn't been for 13 years and had always thought that someday I would go. ...

For my parent's 40th Wedding Anniversary they invited us all to a beach house in San Diego.  They have been planning this trip for about a year.  I had also decided to have all my kids change their schools to traditional schedule which allowed us the opportunity to go to Utah in August for Aspen Grove.  In March my parents were asked to go to the Church Office Building and meet with the Middle East Africa North Area (MEAN Desk.)  There they were asked to serve another mission in the Middle East.  I love that my parents always put the Lord first and said that they were willing to go.  They explained the plans that had been made this summer and it was agreed that they could finish their plans and leave the beginning of September.  I was so grateful that the Lord had made so many plans for us to be able to spend so much time with them before they leave. On the plane to San Diego.  Samantha and Maddie were buddies throughout the trip. We were...

We had a very good Family Home Evening tonight.  I was not expecting anything much at all.  We had swim team practice and daddy's out of town, everyone was cold and tired so I was thinking FHE treat and Mormon Messages.  However Maddison really wanted to have a testimony meeting.  JD wanted to watch Meet the Mormons so we compromised with Maddie's testimony and the movie while we at the treat.   Maddie began telling about how even though things don't always go the way you want Jesus still cares about you.  I then asked her to tell the story about when she had a bad dream.  So she told us that one night she kept waking up over and over because of a bad dream but that Jesus helped her get through the night.  She had told me this story a few days ago.  It was sweet to hear her testimony growing.   I have a gardenia bush outside my house and it is in full bloom.  It is so fun!!  I always think of my grandmother when I see t...

John Derek dressing up for Wacky Wednesday at school. Celebrating Maddie's Birthday with Mom and Dad. We went to Red Robin and they sang her Happy Birthday! Michael begins swim lessons. Celebrating Maddie's Birthday at lunch with her friends. I told the kids that while Derek and I were at the temple I wanted them to create a scene from a story out of Legos.  This is John Derek's creation of a scene from Diary of a Wimpy Kid. I love it when Michael falls asleep in the middle of the day.  He is so cute! John Derek's school put on a talent show.  He really wanted to participate.  He decided he wanted to sing the song "Gethsemane."  So he practiced and sang the song during tryouts.  He was put in the show and sang for the whole school.  I was proud of him.  He is our little missionary and is not ashamed of his love for Christ.  To see the video go to: https://goo.gl/photos/Uq4fG6FtdBAEyAqW7 ...

Here are a few highlights from February: We had an extremely large storm go over Raleigh.  There were threats of tornadoes.  The kids really started to get worried.  If anything ever happened we are going to go down under the house.  So they decided to put anything that was valuable to them in bins so that if we went under the house they would have their most treasured possessions.  Valentine's Day John Derek made this cute sign for me.  What a sweetie. Elizabeth played church basketball and did very well.  She was the star player on the team.  Her confidence in herself on the court has been so fun to see.  She had quite a presence on the court.  A brother from another ward who has watched her play his daughter on the school teams said that she has really improved from last year.  He was really impressed.  She received so many compliments at her last church game.  It really was delightful to hear my da...

Maddie is receiving her first strip on her belt.  She is the one bowing.  Maddie is taking a Jiu Jitsu class.  It is fun to see her roll around on the ground and learn to take people down.  I didn't know that Jiu Jitsu was essentially a resling class, but she seems to really enjoy it.  She usually reminds me every time it is her day to go.  Daddy came and saw Maddie get her strip.  She has a mint in her mouth (one of the things that draws her to coming to class.) For Christmas Derek and I were trying to decide what to give our kids we decided that an activity would be the best thing.  As we talked about Maddie we wanted to have her do something unique to her siblings so that she could feel like it was her own and she wasn't following in anyones footsteps.  We came up with the idea of Martial Arts.  We decided to make sure this was something she would like so I asked her what she thought of doing a dance class, or gymnastics, et...