The Saturday following Charlie's birthday was his baptism. Charlie chose to be baptized to follow Jesus Christ's example. He has been looking forward to this day for a long time. Since his cousins were coming who are his absolute favorite people we decided to make a party out of the whole day. His baptism was scheduled for 11am. We arrived at the church at 10 am to make sure the font was filling and get some things set up. The boys came in like wrecking balls, they were loud and excited and running all over. I can't blame them, it was a pretty exciting day. The font was nearly full and we set up a TV for part of the ceremony. Charlie and Max then got changed and we took some photos while we were waiting for some family to arrive. Charlie picked all the poses...
As soon as my grandma started playing the piano for prelude music, the kids all calmed and there was a sweet spirit in the room.
My dad took some photos too, Since I didn't pull out my camera once the baptism service started...
Charlie's primary teachers spoke about baptism and charlie loved it. he was taking in their every word . He was then baptized by Max and it was a special experience and everything went well. While Max and Charlie were changing their clothes we watched this video along with others like it.
Then an Elder serving in our ward gave a talk on the Holy Ghost followed by Charlie receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. Charlie was beaming once again.
A couple more photos from my dad.
The Bishop had Charlie stand on a chair to see all the people there to support him. He was so excited, I was waiting for him to be silly and crazy but he was so cooperative and happy.
Charlie wanted to invite our neighbor Mindy, she said she would be honored to come. At her church, her preacher had been telling her some false things about the church we attend, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.. This led her to believe some misconceptions. After the baptismal service, she thanked us profusly for inviting her and couldn't believe how focused on Christ we were. She told us she wouldn't believe the negative things people say about our church and she will stand up for us. I'm grateful that Charlie is being such a good example of a disciple of Christ already.
After the baptism we set up a couple tables for a lunch/birthday party with family. I didn't take any photos here either so there are more from my dad. Some cousins even brought him some birthday gifts so he was pretty excited about that.
Charlie requested a doughnut cake which we built together.
We had a lot of fun and Charlie loved spending time with his cousins, I wish I took more photos of the people attending because August and Emmett were there too and Lexi and Kaden and some friends from church and their families.
During the party we showed this little slideshow I made of Charlie, Charlie gave me some good input, all my boys love watching it over and over.
After our lunch party, the fun didn't end. we went with all the cousins, (Gwenevere, Grace, Everett, Edgar, August, and Emmett) and their parents and went to the community center. We had a good time except for the moment Miles fell under the water when no one was looking and couldn't get out, but I got to him in time. A little traumatizing but we are all ok. And then after that, we found out that my brother and sister in law were dropping their kids off at grandmas so somehow we decided to do that too and went on a triple date with some mutual friends. We ate Thai food and ended up doing some karaoke in the vacant house next door. It was a long and wonderful day. We are so proud of Charlie for his willingness to follow his Savior Jesus Christ and to set a wonderful example for his brothers.
