Calista's Baptism

Calista was very excited to turn eight and get baptized.  

She had two sets of grandparents come watch as well as a couple Aunts.  Everything went pretty smoothly and afterward she said she felt really good.

For her birthday she requested a cactus cake.  I think it turned out pretty cute.

Calista has such a fun personality.  She is full of energy and very kind.  She doesn't feel like she needs permission to do anything and will be a great leader one day because of it.  We love her!

Leon's Baptism

We are so happy and proud of Leon for choosing to be baptized.  With three older siblings he was looking forward to this day for a long time.

We have Covid restrictions in place we were limited to ten people including ourselves.  Along with the eight of us the bishop and primary president maxed out our attendance.  It was honestly very different feeling not to have the support of family and ward members present.  Everything felt super low key.  Tucker and Penelope did a great job giving talks, and I was excited to be an official witness for the first time.    

We invited family to join over zoom, and I think most people showed up on there.  I don't think they could hear very well, but it was nice to know that they were there to watch and support Leon.  Living in Japan even without Covid we wouldn't have had much family come, but through zoom even more people were able to watch.

Leon was a little nervous, but not too much.  He is a really easy going child.  We don't have a font in our church building so we use the Chapel of Hope, which is the non-denominational base church building.  It is the same place Scarlett and Penelope were baptized at.

  Once we finished we headed home and ate CTR cookies.  

For me it was the easiest baptism to plan and carry out.  I am really happy for Leon.

Scarlett's Baptism

Scarlett got baptized as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints last week.  It was a really special day for her, something she has been looking forward to for years.

We do not have a font in our church building so the baptism took place in the non denominational church on base called the Chapel of Hope.  Bob and I are very proud of her.

Scarlett has been learning about the church and what we believe since she was born, but I took extra care this month to make sure she knew what she was doing when she got baptized and that it was something she wanted to do.  We believe that eight is the age of accountability and I can really see that she has matured a lot over the last year.  She is definitly old enough to know right from wrong and also to make this decision for herself.  Half of our children are now baptized.

She wanted her hair to be in a braid crown.  It is sort of tradition in our family.  I had my hair like that when I was baptized and Penelope did as well.  It is super easy for dunking underwater and then for getting dressed after while all wet.

Both my parents and Tianna came out for the occasion.  I think it felt extra special for Scarlett to have more family to come see her get baptized.  We also had a lot of support from the ward.  Our ward is really great that way.

I made huge CTR sugar cookies.  It is hard to tell in the picture but they are pretty big, each cookie was probably about six inches tall.  And some of them are in Japanese.  I had to quadruple the recipe.  The hardest part was keeping Calista away from them until the baptism.