Camille's Baptism

We had quite an exciting weekend. And we had a pretty full house. Emily stayed with us for a couple of nights, Friday to Sunday, and my parents drove up for Camille's baptism and Gramma Maureen's funeral. 

Camille's baptism was wonderful. I definitely teared up when she was going down into the water. It was such a special day. We were combined in our baptism program with the Gardners, in our ward. We love them, so it was a pleasure to work with them in setting up a program. Our two families each chose half of the parts of the program: song, talks, prayers, etc. It worked out really well, and it was wonderful. Here are some things I remember about it. (Unfortunately, I took almost no pictures... too busy experiencing the whole thing):

• Aunt Sarah gave the talk about baptism. She gave this comparison -- a bright shiny castle on the hill (like in a princess movie) is like the celestial kingdom, the kingdom of God. The path to the castle is like the gospel and covenant path, and there's a gate to enter the path. That gate is baptism. Heavenly Father's whole goal and desireis for us to return to Him with our families. Baptism is the first step to getting there. 
• Brooke and I served as witnesses, which was so special. I loved being able to see it front and center. 
• Kaden Gardner gave the talk on receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. He said that the Holy Ghost can tell you things that you need to do, even things that you wouldn't even think to do. He told a story from his mission. He and his companions were cleaning out the apartment, and he found a really old and dirty pair of Sunday shoes, likely ones that a past missionary left behind. His first thought was to throw the shoes out, but the Spirit whispered to him to keep the shoes and clean them up a bit. He followed this prompting. A few days later, he was teaching a young man in a poor area, and they invited him to come to church with them. This young man looked down at the missionaries' shoes and lamented that he didn't have nice shoes like those to go to church in. Elder Gardner asked him what size shoe he wore, and it was the same size as the extra pair of shoes he had cleaned up. They gave the young man the shoes to wear to church. This story teaches me that God knows us personally; He knows our situations and desires, and He cares about those things. Even the small desire to wear nice shoes to church, He cares about. And we need to be able and willing to follow promptings from the Spirit so that we can help God with His work. 
• Brother Frei gave closing remarks. He told the kids that they have so much support, on both sides of the veil. Our family that has passed on before us are watching over us and helping us and supporting us. He told a story about being in the temple and wearing his Grampa's white tie and feeling close to his Grampa and feeling like his Grampa was proud of him. 
• We sang Camille's favorite primary song for closing: Faith. It was the perfect way to end Camille's special day. 
• We had everyone come back to our house for brunch and to visit afterwards. I love having people in our house, enjoying themselves. We had both sets of grandparents, Brian's family, David's family, Sarah and Emily. Also Aunt Liz and Uncle Bob were in town and came as well, which we loved. 

We all drove up to Logan after the luncheon for Gramma Maureen's funeral. It was a bit of a drive, but we talked and sang Christmas carols and watched Christmas movies. The funeral was very nice, and I'm glad that I went. I loved Maureen, she was so sweet to all of her step-grandchildren. And I saw quite a lot of the Miles family, who I haven't seen in many years. 

After the dedication of the grave, we went to a flute ensemble concert that Jennie was playing in. They played an assortment of Christmas songs and medleys, and it was so fun. Daniel commented to me that going to things like that really makes it feel like Christmas. And he was right. It was so fun! And nice to see Jennie in her element. 

We ran a quick errand to get flavored milk for Sammy and Brian, and then we went out to dinner (amidst a very vehement outcry from the children, who wanted very much to go home... they were tired of being away from home and in the car so much. It was almost humorous how much they whined. But, in true parental fashion, Daniel and I did not care nor did we give in to the bullying). We went to a cute little diner called Angie's ("where the locals eat"). The food was so good. At least, what I got was amazing -- impossible burger with this Buffalo feta cheese sauce on it and carmelized red onions on it. 🤤🤤 It was so good, I may need to try and recreate it. The kids perked up when we sat down and ordered. They actually enjoyed themselves when we got there. And they all had a great time eating their food and messing around. 😂 We got the kids tiny ice cream cones after dinner that they loved. 

All in all, even though the kids complained quite a lot about what we were doing, it was a great day, and I really enjoyed the time we spent as a family.

Today at church, we found out that the ward boundaries in our stake are changing next Sunday. 😭😭 There's a special stake meeting next Sunday to let us know the changes, and everyone is all 😱😱😱. Sad about it. And nervous. And anxious. I have my guesses about what will happen. I have 2 guesses: that they'll take our side of Newland Loop and put it into 2 different wards; or, they'll take the 4 pilgrims landing wards and combine them into 3 wards. We'll see what happens. 

Mom and dad stayed for dinner and we just did charcuterie boards, because my imagination was lacking. And because I had promised the kids (back when I did the charcuterie boards for bunco) that we would do a charcuterie board dinner one night. It was actually pretty yummy.