Nathan's Baptism...

My nephew, Nathan, the second of Jeff and Mary's children and just three months younger than Alice, chose to be baptized when he turned eight. It was a nice day and very special to be with him at his baptism! Here is a pic of their whole family...with another bun in the oven due mid-March...and the best news is, it is a brother for Nathan!

Alice's Baptism...

How can Alice already be eight!? And forget that she's just eight because she is only like an inch shorter than Ru who is three years older! I can't believe how big she is! (Ruby is actually really small for her age, so maybe it is more that Alice is normal. I dunno.)

I was so happy with the way her baptism portrats came out. She's such a beauty, but I don't always feel like that shows in her pictures. These look just like her and are so pretty!!

On the baptism day, we shared the event with Emma Hamm, Alice's bestie cousin. She and Alice had the same due date back in the day, but they ended up eight days apart. I love them both so much...especially together! Here's Uncle Jordan with the girlies...

 Heather and Emma...

 Me and Alice!

 Spinning in their dresses.

 She was excited about her big day.

 Jeff's family got there after we finished with these pics, so they are missing Sarah. I wish she were in the picture! Two girls getting baptized with their big sisters. (See how Hailey and Alice are the same size?)

 Robb's whole little family.

 My whole family...am I that short? I am seriously going to wind up being shorter than my whole family one day. Not fair!

 They changed into their jumpers for the dunking.

 Here is Alice with her wet hair. She really loved how she felt after coming out of the water and being born again. She's such a sweet girl and it was a very special time for our family.

Chris' parents came all the way from Colorado for the weekend just to be with Alice on her baptism day. IT was nice having them but TOO SHORT! Here they are with the girls before they caught their flight home. 

Ruby's baptism...

We were so excited for Ruby's baptism day for so long! I still can't believe it is over. There are mixed feelings a little for me as a parent on a day like this. Of course I want it for her and I am proud of her choices and preparation for this covenant she is making and on the other hand, I know it is the beginning of more responsibility for her too. She's no longer considered unaccountable and perfectly innocent!

The day was perfect. We didn't invite a lot of people to her baptism, and as it turned out, we only had family show up. Ruby was surrounded by both sets of Grandparents, Jeff, Mary, Sarah, Nathan, Jane and Molly, Heather, Hailey, Emma, Carson and Adeline, Jordan, Braden, Amanda, Mason and Van and my cousin Jimmy, his wife Shannon and their boys, Eli, Cade and Luke.

I should have invited some of our non-LDS friends, I regret that now. I just felt like the religious part of me isn't really shared with my friends of other beliefs, and this was a day when I wanted to be totally in the moment, not thinking about if what was being said made sense to people, etc. Usually, if I'm at church and I'm aware that there is someone visiting that day, I will have a continuous radar on in my brain that goes off if there is terminology used that might not be understood to someone not of our faith. So then I can fill people in on what is going on. I just selfishly didn't want to do that on this day. I just wanted to wholeheartedly experience her baptism with no filters or explanations. So...I say this because my friends will probably read this and this is my apology/explanation to you as to why you weren't invited. You could have been there, it isn't a private ceremony for only members of the church or anything.

Here is the invite I made and emailed out (it was too late to mail).

Here is the program that I printed for people to have that day. Ruby planned the whole thing.

We really wanted her to sing with her grandma, but she refused. It was funny, because she was telling me how she wants to be a famous country singer one day, so I was like, "you should start by singing a duet with your grandma at your baptism!" Not a chance. The song she wanted Sam to sing follows:

I have faith in the Lord, Jesus Christ.
I have faith He will guide me with His light,
Tho’ my eyes have not seen Him and I have not heard His voice,
I have faith in the Lord, Jesus Christ.

I have faith in the Lord, Jesus Christ.
I have faith He will help me choose the right.
He is real and He loves me, I can feel it deep inside.
I have faith in the Lord, Jesus Christ.

I will keep His commandments,
I will try to do what’s right.
I have faith in the Lord, Jesus Christ.

Ruby was baptized at the same building in Edmonds where I was baptized! We chose this because in our stake, we aren't allowed to have individual baptisms, so we would have shared our baptism with unknown, countless other children and we would not have been able to have our own program. It would have been planned for us, we may not have even been able to participate at all. This idea didn't thrill us, so we opted for an "out of town" baptism in Edmonds!

I can't believe that I didn't take more pictures. I have no pictures of Ruby in her beautiful dress...just in this stuff she wore for the actual immersion in the water. Well, there are a few pictures...but none that aren't snapshots.

Here's the reason why I was not really on top of the picture thing...we had a nice luncheon after the baptism...it was a lot to plan, pack up and put out!

Mason, Carson and Jane eating up.

We got Ruby a present for her baptism, a nice set of leather bound scriptures. The Holy Bible and a Book of Mormon. She loved them!

It really was a great day, spent with family and we were super happy that Chris' parents could come from Colorado to share it with us. We went from there straight to the Christmas piano recital!