The BIG weekend- Baptism Day

"The second weekend in May was a BIG one for us. Everyone was coming to our home to celebrate Kobe's baptism,

Mother's Day,

and Greg's 40th birthday!!"

Saturday- After staying up until 5am due to a slow computer and too much left to do, I slept in letting the rest of the adults in the house deal with kids in the morning. Awesome hostess aren't I?! (We were up to 16 people under our roof now.) There was lots of playing, some practicing by Reagan and Jillie for the baptism,

and some swimming in frigid pool waters by "the middles" (Kobe, Saroya and Kyle) Jaleigh put her suit on too because she's just beautiful in it. :) I finally got Kobe's program printed up and slide show done about an hour before the baptism. That slide show... that was work.... or at least picking out the pictures was a HUGE chore! We got our first digital camera when Kobe was born. I take a lot of pictures- thousands since he's been born. Going through all of the pictures for each year of his life took so long and there were so many good pictures. I tried to narrow it down as best I could so the slide show wouldn't just go on and on. I'm happy with it though. (I'll post it after this post.)

I am so grateful for all the help I got from everyone that day. My Mom and Dad, Sheryl, Nathan, and Holly helped so much to get everyone and everything ready to go on time. It wouldn't have happened without them. Thank you! Thank you! A million times, thank you!

The Grandmas.

Holly & Nathan (had to post this one because it's so rare to catch Nathan in a real smile!)

So the baptism went on without a hitch. Kobe was a little nervous I think, but he was happy too. We are so proud of him making such a good choice.

(the inside of the program)

Ethan and My Dad spoke at the baptism. They both had Kobe come up in front for an object lesson as part of their talks. I loved this so much. I'm sure it really helped Kobe to understand better the concepts of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost. (Dad even used Reagan, Jillie, Ethan, and Jacob to help with his object lesson.)

Jillie and Reagan did a duet that was awesome! I'm a proud Mommy. The both saw Kobe's baptism as an opportunity to share their musical talents. I'm glad Kobe was fine with that. They did the song "I Am A Child Of God". Reagan played it through first on her cello. Jillie sang the first verse as a solo (with our friend John Melling on piano). They sang a duet on the other 2 verses, with Jillie singing the descant on the last verse. It sounded great and the bishopric even asked if they would do that again in sacrament meeting sometime soon. :)

Greg of course baptized Kobe.  He also confirmed Kobe with the assistance of my Dad, Nathan, Shawn Christensen, Nick Brandt, and Bishop Christopherson.  The spirit was strong.  In the confirmation blessing Greg said that he felt his own father's presence there as well.  (Greg's dad passed away 14 years ago.)  Kobe received a wonderful blessing from our Heavenly Father and now the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost.

We had so many great friends come out in the middle of a busy Saturday afternoon to support Kobe in his decision to be baptized. We are so thankful to all of them!

After the baptism we served a little snack of ice cream sundaes and fruit salad. My friend Marilyn Chambers was so sweet to bring some mint brownies to serve too! Oh my goodness I forgot to mention some more service I was the recipient of this weekend. On Thursday night, my friend Marielle Melling showed up at the door as we were having our pizza party dinner with a huge tray of WARM cinnamon rolls. Oh my goodness. What a sweetheart and what a surprise! I wish I was more thoughtful like those girls!

So, back to Saturday... We returned home to make dinner for the whole clan. Our friends Nick Brandt and Shawn Christensen joined us too for steak, chicken scampi, hamburgers, hot dogs, and more. Sheryl made 2 delicious cakes that I can't believe I didn't take pictures of. (I took so few pictures this weekend! Thank goodness Holly did. I do love having pictures!)) Sheryl made a lemon cake for Kobe's baptism and an amazing chocolate cake for Greg's 40th birthday.
We had a nice visit with everyone. Sadly Holly, Nathan and kids had to leave to drive through the night back to Michigan. (Nathan had to work at 6pm Sunday night.)

Before going to bed I saw Kobe looking through his new scriptures, so we took a little time together talking about them. (Dad grabbed my camera and took pictures.) It was a nice moment to end a great day on.

(Sorry these are such long posts, I just want to record all of the details I can remember.)

Still more to come...