Luke's Big Day!

Luke's baptism day was so wonderful!  We did so good at keeping the Spirit in our home the whole morning!  It was so nice!  We all worked really hard getting the house cleaned up and ready for the little after party thing.  I kept thinking it was so silly that we had to do anything at all.  It was 2:30 in the afternoon!  Not lunch or dinner!  But we decided finger foods and goodies were a good idea.  It was nice to not feel like I have to fill everyone up, but still felt a little silly to have food just for the sake of having food :).  ANYWAY!  Luke was SO CUTE the whole day.  He's really been so excited about it all.  

The program was a little choppy, one of the girls who was supposed to be baptized that day along with Luke and a girl named Emily, ended up getting baptized that morning, so we sat around waiting for them for a while before it was discovered that she was not coming :).  Kinda funny.  Didn't love the part about Jack getting restless before it even started though.  

It was a really nice program.  Our family did a lot of it.  We had Grandma Ruthie say the opening prayer,  Aunt Heidi, Charity and Kelly sang "When I am Baptized", Aunt Meg gave the talk on Baptism, the other girl's grandma did the talk on Holy Ghost and then his big moment!  

Luke was so cute when he was in the font with Nate.  He did great!  And I just LOVE the Spirit that pours over the whole room!  It's like being baptized again when I watch that.  It always makes my heart jump.  Jack helped me not cry because he was being a pill, but the tears were there!  As always.  I just love watching my kids experience that.  I hope he felt good, I hope he felt the Spirit and I hope he remembers it.  Even though he won't talk about it with me :).  He's such a guy.  He really is sweet though and I just love witnessing his testimony from a bit of a distance.  He's not as open with things as some of our other kids and it's okay because it is evident in his actions. It's neat to see how much he knows.  A few things are standing out to me- from the moment he found out that his kitty, Midnight, has babies in her tummy, he has been such a sweet boy to her!!  It's melting my heart.  He just loves her and he's so careful and gentle with her!  Even though she totally scratched him right next to his eye (the red marks on his face in these pictures- yep, right before his baptism that naughty kitty!)  I just can't help but think his wife is going to have the best husband! (next to mine of course :) ) if he can be that sweet with a pregnant kitty.  

Another thing, and now I can't remember the specifics, but while I was doing Erika's hair, he was nearby and he heard Erika say something about the Gospel and he just jumped right in and answered her question and helped her understand whatever it was.  It was so sweet!  He just knows stuff, he doesn't have to flower it up by announcing it or talking about it all the time, it's just in there and he knows it.  It's so cool.  

And of course, his CTR ring.  He's been OBSESSED with his CTR ring ever since he got it this year!  He hasn't taken it off hardly at all and when he has and sometimes misplaced it, he hasn't been able to do anything else until he's found it.  Is that not the cutest?!  And he loves it so much!  It's actually gotten pretty mangled and turned his finger green permanently, but he refused to take it off- he wanted to remember to choose the right!  

So Nate and I thought it would be fun to get him a nice one at Deseret Book and give it to him on his baptism day.  I really wanted to get an orange one, favorite color, but they don't make them!  Totally bummed, but the blue one we got is nice too.  Hopefully he takes good care of it, as he has his other one and it will fit him for a while.  It was fun to give it to him.  He was happy about it :).

His confirmation was amazing too.  There's something really cool about the words, "Receive the Holy Ghost".  Just awesome.  I hope Luke knows what he needs to know about the Holy Ghost and will receive him on a daily basis.  

Just this morning (2 days later) when he hugged and kissed me as he got out of the car (like he NEVER DOES!!!  You can imagine my excitement :) he's actually been a different kid this whole weekend, it's been interesting and actually kind of cool to witness)- I reminded him that to listen to the Holy Ghost because he was going to be with him now.  The look on his face was priceless.  It was a total- "hey, yeah!  Cool!  I will!"  Made me happy.  He's a sweet boy.  

We came back to our house afterwards for the finger foods and Luke played with Carter who was able to come support him- that was a special surprise!  

What a special day it was!  He had lots of family here to support him- Since I failed miserably at getting pictures that day- I'm so ashamed!- here's a list of everyone that came:

Grandpa Russ (he was one of the witnesses) and Grandma Ruthie

Grandma Hatch and Simon

Becky, Darren and Adam

Lynn

Jen

Mark, Nancy, Caleb, Jaxson, Marshall and Evan 

Brent (he was also one of the witnesses), Sarah, Charlie, Alvin and Savannah

Chris, Meg, Sierra, Enoch, Jarom, and Sam

Heidi and John

The Widdisons 

And Carter :)

I hope he remembers that day.  Normally I would have him write what happened on his special day in his own words for me to put in here, but he says he "can't remember" so I guess it will stay in his little brain forever :).  Funny boy.

I meant to do this on his birthday, but didn't so seemed even more appropriate on his baptism day.  I wish I'd wiped off the doodles (although Noah's dragons are looking pretty cute :)) and the wall... Jack Jack is an aspiring artist as well...