FHJanika

This year I turned eight years old and I got baptized. It was really cold water because it was snowing and the power was out. The water was as cold as ice. It was 54 degrees cold. I felt very cold when I was baptized cause the water was so cold, but in my heart I felt pretty happy cause I knew it was the right decision. My dad baptized me cause he wouldn’t let anybody else cause I am the oldest child, and he’s never baptized anybody before. Anyway, he didn’t baptize eight-year-old daughters on his mission.

My uncles, my dad and grandpa, both grandpas, confirmed me, but my dad said the words. I felt happy that all my sins was washed away, and I had a lot of ‘em. After I got baptized we went into the bathroom and Julie did my hair over again and had a blow dryer there. My toes turned red from the cold water, so Julie just blow-dried my body. It warmed me up.

After that Gerilyn did her talk and then Grandpa Westra did his talk, then we ate dinner. Our dinner was my favorite food. We had potato pearls, jello, fruit salad, chicken, chicken nuggets, asparagus, spinach with vinegar, cookies, and rolls. I felt good about my party, and I ate everything cause they were my favorite foods.

We had a good Christmas. I got quilts from Grandma and clothes, cookies, books, and pillowcases. Grandma gave me all of that. At home we got a new computer so now the kids got the old one. We use it for the computer games and already installed them. We brought one of them to Ogden.

I am in the second grade this year, and my teacher is Mrs. Gale. She is nice. One of the favorite things we did with her is she had these papers and it said that the gum factory needed help making more gum, and so I got to make up different kinds of gum. One of them I did starlight gum. If you chew two packs, it’ll make you shine like a star.

I made lots of new friends at school. One of them came from Hawaii, and she just moved to St. George. I don’t have a best friend; I just have lots of ‘em. It’s hard to pick.

I love to swim in the summer in our pool. I like to swim best with my dad. Every time if we have swimming race under water, I’d win. He made up a game called tube ball. It’s where you get on a tube and it’s like basketball only if you fall off your tube and you have the ball, you have to just put it in the water and you can’t try to make a hoop with it cause you have to be on your tube. That’s really fun to play. He made up sea witch too. It’s just like marco polo except you go, “1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10, sea witch is out again.” And his eyes are shut, and he tries to find us. If he needs a clue, he will say “sea,” and we have to say, “witch.”

I got a perm yesterday, and it looks good. Julie did it for me cause I asked her too.
I am missing my two front teeth, and I asked Santa for ‘em. Well, he didn’t bring ‘em cause he can’t…and I know who Santa was -- it was Grandpa dressed up. He’s not the real Santa or else he wouldn’t be here, he would be in the North Pole right now. He’s just dressed up like Santa. I don’t remember him doing that before.

We are going to move into a really pretty house in Santa Clara, and it’s got a pomegranate tree. I am excited to move. We are going to move the last day of February. I have a laundry chute in my new room, and me and Jase get a Jack and Jill bathroom. But you better be careful if you use it. You have to shut both doors when you use it or Jase will walk in while you are going.

Janelle gets a crawl space in her room. The house is really big. I will be going to a different school, and that’s pretty sad. I don’t know anybody, but I think McCall and Paige are going to go there. They were in a play with me.

The play I was in was Broadway’s Musical Review, and I sang “Food, Glorious Food,” and “It’s a Hard Knock Life.” We did it on Halloween, but I don’t know how much days. One day it was Wednesday, and we had to stay out of school to do it cause there was one in the morning and schools got to come and see it, and there was one after lunch. We did it at Snow Canyon High School. I like being in plays cause it’s fun.

Mom got her hair died brown and she doesn’t really like it. She didn’t know what it would look like, and she doesn’t like how it looks. I don’t like it either. I like it blond how it was.

On my birthday me and mom went to Chuck A Rama’s with my dad too. The other kids didn’t get to go. When I was little I thought that Chuck A Rama was called Check Grandma. I said okay let’s go Check Grandma.

On my birthday we celebrated it early – me and Madison celebrated it on Saturday and went to the Dicken’s Festival, and she slept over, and we died candles. We had candles there. I died mine in rainbow, and she kept dipping hers until it was really dark, like a dark purple.

Lots of times Gerilyn always came down to tend us, and it’s fun. She takes us to restaurants and one time she took us to “Finding Nemo.” When I come up here I sleep in Gerilyn’s bed with her. It’s fun cause we always chatter into the night.

I always play with our cousins, and it’s fun. Madee is my favorite one to play with cause she is just about my age and Alyssa is my other favorite one to play with cause she is just about my age also. I like to play with Chantel and Landon too. I just like to play with them all, even if they aren’t my age.

My Grandma and Grandpa Westra have a city pool, and we always go to it with them. They have a big fish pond and huge fish, and we feed ‘em – gold fish.