Maryanne's Baptism

Maryanne's baptism was originally planned for April 4th but when the world turned upside down with the coronavirus - her baptism was canceled along with everything else.  So - a month later, when it weather had warmed up a bit and her Songer grandparents were unexpectedly home from Australia - she decided to brave the cold river in our backyard and get baptized on May 2, 2020.

photo by Rebekah

We woke up to a beautiful, sunshiney day and Maryanne was so so excited.  I feel like she truly understands her promises and blessing of baptism.  We had had many discussions and answered many questions this past month.  What a prepared young lady!  She even got to take a dip with Uncle Mike a few days before to get used to the idea of jumping in that river.

We told the bishop we would keep the numbers down and I guess we did compared to our normal Hale/Songer baptisms.   We just had limited Huntsville family members and the families stayed separated.  But it was still joyous to see their faces from afar.

Baptism of Maryanne Hale

May 2, 2020

Presiding and Conducting................................... Michael Malmborg

Opening Hymn......................................................... Come, Follow Me

Invocation.................................................................. Grandma Songer

Talk (Baptism)............................................................. Hannah McKay

Musical Number............................................... I Will Walk with Jesus

Maryanne and Lucy Hale

Baptism performed by Joseph Hale

Witnesses:  Grandpa Songer and Grandpa Hale

(Mike said that the cold must have invigorated them because it was the fastest he's ever seen anyone change after a baptism)

Family sing ….Grandma Hale (violin) Grandma Songer (chorister)

Talk (Holy Ghost).................................................. Eveline Malmborg

Confirmation by Joseph Hale

Welcome …………………………………..….Michael Malmborg

Closing Hymn.......................................... I’m Trying to Be Like Jesus

Benediction.................................................................... Grandma Hale

And that was it!  A wonderful, wonderful day.  I felt so incredibly happy.  This is one of the biggest days of Maryanne's life.  It's exciting to me as a mother to witness my children taking this step and think how it will bless them and help them through their lives.  Maryanne said, "I'm nervous to make this promise mom.   What if I can't keep it?"    Oh the earnest heart of this girl!   And I'm glad she's thinking so much about it but I also assured her she would make mistakes and get to repent over and and over again.  And not to worry because God would always help her and love her no matter what.   Oh boy, do I know that to be true.  I love my Savior with all my heart.  I look at my life and the bumps and bruises along the way and I feel a deep gratitude for God's unchanging love and the gift of repentance, the sacrament and the opportunity for change.  That is what this gospel is all about!  And Maryanne gets to experience it all.

Such a happy day for a happy girl. 

Electric, Insulation, porch posts & a beautiful roof

Getting our electric done was the most stressful thing we have done.  We had so many split-second decisions to make.   We met with our electrician and builder for a "quick" 4 hour meeting and went through the whole house deciding and deciding.  My brain hurt afterwards.  And then our electrician ended up being too sick to come back and all those decisions had to get passed on the another guy.   Needless to say, some things were lost in translation.   
 I hate to say I don't even remember all the decisions we made and if they are right or not.  I guess we'll know when we live there.  I do remember fretting about the sconces in the teenage hangout.  I hadn't even heard the word sconce before and I thought about it way too much for a couple weeks.

Look at all the lovely wires.  (Electians were here from the end of august through mid September)





I didn't like how high these were for our lanterns but decided I didn't care enough to make them do them again.   And the doorbell is on the left.  Huh?    I thought it was just standard to do it on the right.  And closer to the door.  But whatever.



September 12 & 14th - porch posts!








Roofing.  We wanted a light colored roof and we chose Sierra Grey.   We almost did "Shasta White" which was super light grey.   I love how it turned out.  It's such a silvery pretty color.

(a roof AND an installed front door!)

(they also started on our siding but had old, old plans so started doing lap siding.  Luckily I went over there about 11 am and stopped them before they did the whole house!  They stopped, ordered board and batten and so our house stayed like this for a while)






Insulation.   As we know Joey is big on insulation and he was so happy with the guys who did this.  I think they are called J&K Insulation.   They did a very thorough job.   And I was super happy because it was looking like a real house.    And I have my arch!  Oh joy!








I took all these pictures of the roof and insulation after I got home from my trip to New York with Hale sisters.  So these were taken September 27th.   

Building: August 10th - September 5

August 10th - trying to figure out our built-in couch

August 11th - nothing new happened, I just wanted to capture the first floor layout when you can still see through the walls.


August 11-15th, I was in Bear Lake.  Here's the house upon my return:

August 15th - lots more paneling done and roof paper


and the order of zip panels finally came so they could panel the whole east side!





August 17th - porch roof!



August 18th 



August 19th - my beautiful round window!!

windows and they added the fake eave to finish out the triangle and now it looks sooo much better!

August 21st - windows!!





dining room windows and sun room roof!

Monday August 28th - porch prep


Tuesday August 29th - pouring our front porch!




September 1st -

Our first family sleepover in our new house!


September 5th 

porches and sunroom are poured!