Jake's Baptism

8 years ago...

2004 - Jake's Baby Blessing

And Now..

2012 - Jake's Baptism



Jake has been so excited to turn 8 and be baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He has been planning this day for so long. Jake wanted his dad to baptize him.

 

Jake planned everything for the baptismal service, from favorite church songs, to asking specific people to pray, speak, and of course, specific refreshments! Michael led the music and his friend Andre accompanied us on the piano. The songs Jake chose were Baptism, We'll Bring the World His Truth, and I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus. Jake asked his sweet cousin Anna to say the opening prayer, followed by a talk on Baptism by Trevor. After Jake was baptized by his dad, Aunt Cynthia gave a great talk on the Holy Ghost. I had to laugh when planning the program, Jake named Cynthia for the talk, "because she has experience". So true, she gave the talk at Hayley's baptism 2 yrs ago & Anna's baptism just a couple months ago. The experience paid off, and she did a great job :) After the confirmation, Jake had his official welcome into the ward by the Primary President & Bishopric & then we closed with a song & prayer by Hayley.

Jake received 2 special gifts from his grandparents.  Grammy and Jake had a special quiet moment & she gave him a special white comforter to remind him that the special gift of the Holy Ghost is like a Comforter.

Grandpa & Grandmommie gave Jake his own set of engraved scriptures.  Jake was so excited and began reading Chapter 1 that night!

REFRESHMENTS!

Pictures by Hayley & Luke

CTR cookies always get the thumbs up from Trevor

Anna & Jake

Ashlynn & Michael - when did they get so big?!

Uncle Bob, Anna, Aunt LeeAnna & Uncle Ben

Jake & Zach

The great speaker Cynthia

Luke enjoying his cookies

Grandfathers deep in conversation

Awww, so sweet!

Michael and Ashlynn, striking a pose

Jake getting one last taste of Chelsey's fabulous lemon bars. 

Thanks to everyone who made this such a special day for Jake.  The room was filled with friends and family who support, teach and love Jake.

So proud of you Jake!!



Jake is 8!

September 23rd was a big day.  Jake turned 8, celebrated with his family & got baptized.  It was a busy day!

The celebrations started the day before with family coming in from Dallas.  There was pizza and games, and a fun cool swim at night in the hotel pool.  Jake & Hayley stayed at the hotel with cousins while Alex stayed with us.  Early the next morning we met back at the hotel for a special breakfast.

After breakfast it was back to the house for a quick change and get to the church at 8:30 am.  Amazingly enough, we made it on time! 

After a great morning at church, we all headed back to the house for lunch and present time.  Jake may have a small thing for legos right now...particularly Ninjago Legos! 

A fun birthday cake and lego candles to make a wish on...most likely wishing for more legos!

After cake and ice cream, we got ready for Jake's Baptism & were off to the church again.  More on his baptism in a separate post.  Let's just say, it is definitely great to be eight!

After the baptism, most of the family had to leave to go back to Dallas.  Grammy and Grandaddy came over for a few moments before heading home.  Jake had a great day.

A few fun things about Jake.   His favorite color right now is blue.  He absolutely loves pie, especially chess pie.  For a special FHE for Jake about Baptism a few weeks ago,we had pie for dessert.  He was in heaven.  Jake loves legos, logic, math, planning and playing wii.  He is reading the Harry Potter series and loves it.  His other favorite thing to read right now is the Weird School Days series by Dan Gutman.  Jake has a great imagination & always has the funniest speeches in the Impromptu Speech class I coach at school.  I love to hear Jake laugh, his joy & zeal for life is infectious.  He is also a great brother, always concerned about others, especially Luke.  Jake adds spice to our family & we just love Jake! 

Happy Birthday Jake!!

Labor Day

My parents came to visit for a quick trip Labor Day week-end.  We had a lot of fun talking, eating Chinese food & playing games.  Grandpa & Grandma stayed at a hotel & everyone loved playing in their pool.  There is just something magical about hotel swimming pools!  Jake got to have a special sleepover with them & loved the extra attention.  I think most of our pictures are on Hayley's missing camera, but we have a couple from the pool.  It was a great week-end!

Random Snapshots of our Lives

'Tis the season for Bat Mitzvah's - Trevor & his friends Melissa & Jaden

Hayley loves riding her bike

Michael hitting up museums for a school assignment

Jake becoming mummified on his first day of Cub Scouts!

Luke and his buddy Lexi...before the squirel bone treat :)

Back to School

Summer went by way too fast, and before we knew it, it was time to get ready to go back to school.  We couldn't start without squeezing in a Back to School Brunch with our friends the Saturday before school started.  What better way to wrap up the summer than with friends, homemade cinnamon rolls & games of spoons.

We had our annual Back to School FHE & new family theme for the year. This year we based our theme on 1st Timothy 4:12 - "Be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity."  We had school supplies with notes exemplifying ways we can be a good example in these different ways at school.  Like a glue stick w/note that says, "STICK up for kids that are being teased", a notebook w/note that says, "Take NOTE of kids that feel left out or sad", etc.  It was a little different than past year's themes, but a fun use of everyday school items that may occasionally help them remember these important things as they use the item at school.

We started off the first day of school with a breakfast reminder to treat others you meet the "write" way with some yummy pencil pancakes.

Time for a quick photo shoot before school starts.

Luke had his pirate friend over to help keep him company on this first day of school.  It was a great distraction from being left behind as everyone left him for the day.

After school we gathered the troops and headed to Baskin Robbins for our annual back to school ice cream, redeeming the free ice cream scoops they had earned at the library.

We ended the day with a FHE of Father's Blessings for the new school year and ate some tasty pencil sugar cookies. School is now in session!