Emery's Baptism

Last Saturday, Emery chose to be baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  She was a little bit nervous so she and Rob practiced the night before how things would go.  There were 10 kids being baptized that day, 4 from our ward.  It was pretty neat that she got to share her special day with a few of her friends.  She just barely missed the other stake baptism day because her birthday was the next day.  So she had to wait until January. There were so many people there that they had to open the gym and set up more chairs so people could sit down.

 Sadie got to give a talk on baptism.  Her very first talk and she wrote it all on her own.  She did a great job and I told her she's ready to speak in stake conference now because there were more people there that day than come to our regular Sunday meetings!  I was sitting with the kids by myself because Rob sat up front with Emery.  They got to demonstrate what it was going to look like to get baptized.  Finley was a little bit of a handful during the meeting but we managed.  Then we moved to the room where the baptism would take place.

It was a smaller room and I knew there weren't enough chairs in there to accommodate everyone that was walking toward it.  So I just pulled my kids along to make sure we would at least get a place to sit.  We scored some 2nd row seats, but then I realized I was going to have to go help Emery get dressed after her baptism. Oh well.  I would just have to step across everyone else in my row.  No big deal.  Zac and Sadie got to be the witnesses for Emery and I walked over so I could see as well.  I left the bag of dry clothes over at my chair.  Doh!  So I walked back across to grab it and went in the door next to the baptismal font.  Finley wouldn't stay there with my friend so she was in my arms and thought that she was going to get to go in the "pool"  she sat right down and started yelling "I want to go swimming!! I want to take a bathers!!! (That's what we call a bath) while trying to take her shoes off.  I was so flustered because someone was in there about to be baptized, so I rushed her and Emery into the bathroom while she started crying because she wasn't getting to go swimming.  HA ha.  It was crazy!

But we got in and got Emery dressed and went in to the next room so she could be confirmed a member of the church and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.  We were sitting there and they were about to call the first person up to be confirmed and I asked Rob if he had asked anyone to be in the circle to bless Emery with him.  Usually we ask family and friends to help, but we didn't really have any family or friends there specifically with us, so we totally spaced asking anyone to help.  Rob quickly ran around the room to ask a few people who were there to stand with him so crisis averted.

Overall, it was an excellent experience.  We felt the spirit as those 10 cute 8 year olds were so excited to be baptized.  I think Heavenly Father is just so happy when children are so excited to become members of His church. We ended up going out to Red Robin after for lunch and then we relaxed a bit at home.  Here are some pictures

The day before her baptism I ran over to the temple with her to take a picture of her with the Book of Mormon.  There were so many kids getting baptized that there weren't going to be enough of the white jumpsuits for all the men.  So Rob got to bring his own white clothes.  

My friend Rosalyn, who is also a photographer, and whose daughter also got baptized that day, brought her good camera and got this photo of us.  Thanks so much!  She always makes us look great.  :)

And the standard family picture in front of the picture of Christ.  

At Red Robin.  So yummy.

Zac wore shorts and short sleeves.  IT was so cold outside.  Crazy kid!  Also, those chairs look like hamburgers.  I thought that was so clever!

One more of dad and Emery.

And we had to get the classic family in front of the garage picture, which is actually pretty hard to do with my phone.  We had to park the car in the driveway, and balance my phone on my backpack, then put the timer on and run into place.  But we only took one picture and everyone was looking and smiling!  Yes!!

Remember my friend Rosalyn?  She offered to take pictures of Emery when she brought Stella out for hers.  We went way back in November so it was super freezing.  She got some great pictures that show Emery's true personality and beauty.  I love them all!

The Salt Lake temple and temple grounds will be closed for 4 years for renovations.  The grounds will be really different too when it opens again.  So I'm so grateful for these pictures that we got before that all happened.