Amanda's Baptism!

It is official, Amanda is a member of the Church. What a cutie! It is so strange to have my oldest daughter get baptized! It was an insane night, luckily Josh's Mom and Sister came down for the event- I don't know how I would have handled the chaos/kids without them. THEY ARE THE BEST! The Stake Baptism had nine kids being baptized, yup nine. *sigh* It was a circus! There were more people there for this baptism night than there were at church on Sunday! Izzy pooped (that bigtime gonna-blowout-all-over-everything-if-you-don't-change-it-right-now kind of poo) twice during the event, and cried about 80% of the rest of the time- she was foisted off on Aunt Rebekah- BLESS HER!! Sam wanted Josh (who, of course, had to be with Amanda), you see it is a finals week for Josh so he hasn't been around hardly at all for days and days...Sam is a bigtime Daddy's Boy, plus he hadn't had a nap=nightmare!!! Grandma Jayne tried to keep Sam happy, but he didn't want anyone but Josh...the one adult that wasn't available! It all worked out though. Josh baptized Amanda and it was really special! She got a new set of scriptures for her baptism and was so excited to start reading them, I was so proud-the next day in Sacrement meeting she was reading them...off in her own world like she always is while reading...she gets that from me.

Because of the slightly assembly line feel of the meeting- they had to be like that to direct so many people, I understand- but it made it feel less personal...so we decided to have Amanda confirmed the next day on Sunday. That was great as well, plus little Izzy was blessed the same day- but that is another post. It was so great to have this experience, and so wonderful to be able to share it with some of our friends and family! My brother came and participated as did Josh's good friend from Touro, Ryan- Thanks so much to them!!! It was too bad that Josh's brothers and Father couldn't make it, but we totally understand that people get ill, and we are a long, long drive away for many- we are so grateful to Jared and Ryan for being there! Gotta love all the love! :) We really wished that Rebekah and Jayne could have stayed longer- but life up north goes on!

The most important thing is that Amanda had a great and momentous weekend, she had been looking forward to this for months and we am so proud of her for making this decision to be baptized! She is the bestest!!!!