Will's Baptism

Will was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints this weekend.

We had such a wonderful day, filled with family and friends. It was so nice to be able to have loved ones at our home after the baptism to celebrate with us!

Will has been looking forward to the day he could make the decision to be baptized. In our church, eight is the age of accountability, when a child can understand right from wrong fully, and can make a decision about being baptized.

Del baptized Will. The white clothing symbolizes the renewal, and cleansing power of baptism. We baptize by immersion. Head to toe goes under, and there are two witnesses, in Will's case, both his grandpas, who watch the immersion to be sure that nothing sneaks to the top of the water.
Will only required one dunk on his day. Ha!
I remember that when I first started dating Del, he was asked to baptize his cousin, and he had to dunk him twice. Del did such a good job, but I remember he was not happy that he did not get it right the first time.

Walker and Annie. Two blonde cuties.

Will and his old mom. He is a good boy.

Del's mom makes a memory book for all of her grandkids at age eight. We put Will's book out on display along with his baptism invite.
Will is so funny! When his grandma gave him the book, he sat and read every word of it right then! He read every scrapbook sticker, and tiny blurb she had included. He got to a page that had the words "Office Depot" printed in the margin of the plastic page protector. He even read that with full enthusiasm!

Will asked his Grandma Rinquest to give a short talk on baptism before he went into the water, and his Grandma Laursen to give a talk on the Holy Ghost right before he was confirmed a member of the church. They both did such a nice job!

Because we live about fifteen minutes from our church, we knew that not all those who came to see Will baptized would be able to make it to our home for the luncheon, so we put together a donut and fruit bar to serve right after the baptism. We served our favorites from a small local donut shop. Country Donuts, fresh that morning. They are the yummiest!

We drove to our house in a big caravan of cars.

I wanted a family picture so I rounded up all of the kids. We needed a re-do because we took one outside before the baptism, and apparently, it was far too bright, because this squinty mess is what we ended up with! Ugg! It is so hard to get a good picture with our whole family!

Our friends, the Tysons, have the cutest little girl named Annie. When she heard me ordering people over for a picture, she sidled her way in there. It was so adorable! We all got a good laugh! I wish she were mine! We could use a sister around here, especially one as sweet as Annie!
Here is our daughter for a day.
I need a tan! I say that about every picture of myself, and it never seems to change.

Here we are with no Annie. See the difference, and how she makes everything more fun? Ha!

I forgot to snap some pictures of our table before, but here it is messed up a bit after we ate! I was happy to find that I had cute straws, plates and napkins on hand in my party storage!

Cucumber eyes. My cousin Brian, and his wife Shelby are in the background. It was so nice of them to make the drive up from Naperville for the baptism!

Del and Jared. Don't even get me started on how sad I am that more of our dear friends are moving away next month. I may have cried while talking to them about their plans.

Thanks to all who came! It was a great day!