These two are pictures I took to use on the program. Gideon really wanted one where he was reading his scriptures. He saw another baptismal program that had a picture just like this and he wanted one too. So that is what we did.
Matt and Gideon in white, getting ready.
Larke showing off the program.
LeAnn, Lauren, and Gideon
Me and my sweet boy
Grandma and Grandpa Jones
Grandma and Grandpa Christenson
M'Recia and Brent
The Whole Family
It is a crazy experience watching your child be baptized. For the last 2 months we have been preparing Gideon to be able understand the covenant of baptism. Our FHE lessons have all focused on helping him learning the essentials of the Gospel. We have been using my old missionary lessons as a guide. It has been a wonderful experience witnessing his understanding grow and being able to see how much he already understands. The great thing about teaching kids the gospel is seeing their willingness to accept, learn and their desire to be good and righteous.
I really appreciate the family that came to celebrate this wonderful day with us. My parents, Matt's parents, M'Recia and Brent, and Melissa all drove down from Utah and of course my sister LeAnn and her family came from an hour away. LeAnn gave a wonderful talk on baptism and how it is the key to coming back to Heavenly Father. Gideon was so funny with how he interacted with my sister during this talk. He was so excited to begin and kept making cute comments. My Mother in law, Joy, also gave a beautiful talk on the Holy Ghost. She talked about the children's book Tootle. It was perfect. It was on Gideon's level and very representative of life in general. I am always amazed how short the baptism is. It is simple and sweet. Gideon was so glad the water was warm. I was so afraid that I was going to cry the whole time, but I did pretty good. I cried during the opening song and I cried during the confirmation. I may have cried other times, but not enough for me to remember. I did not cry during the song I sang with my Dad and Gideon which was good. Rushmore helped keep me grounded by lying on the floor fussing through the whole song.
Matt gave Gideon a beautiful blessing. The Spirit in the room was really strong. It was a great experience. Compared with the baptism it was so much more personal.
After the baptism we came home and had lunch and played games and just enjoyed being together as a family.
I am so grateful that Gideon is my son and the oldest in our family. I am grateful that my other kids have such a great big brother to look up to. I love my boy.
Ever since the horrendous knot incident Eden has been wanting a haircut with less tangles to brush out. We decided to go all the way and send her hair to locks of love. So here she is with her new do. We've been flipping it out and she loves it. She thinks she looks like Rapunzel at the end of Tangled. She has asked me a ton of times if she does and I of course agree that she does. She has been showing everyone, thinking that no one is going to recognize her. She is still the same adorable Eden.
Eden was not happy about me forcing her to wear a mustache.
Christopher
It seems like every picture I got of Gideon by himself his mouth is wide open.
Cousin Lauren!
Eden and Lauren skating together.
Bryce
Cousin Spencer-Gideon's favorite cousin
There it is again!
So combine World Market, 4 kids, boredom (waiting for Mom to decide things, not fun for kids), cool little fan toys, and Eden's long hair. What do you get? This time it was one horrendous knot. Gideon decided to see if the small toy fan would blow Eden's long hair while I was shopping. Well I wasn't paying complete attention until Eden screams and I see Gideon tugging trying to pull the fan out. Poor Eden. I got the fan out. We bought our stuff. We left. I thought maybe I could comb it out. Nothing doing. When we got home I felt around the knot and it was actually hard in several places. So we cut it off and Eden was so relieved. It looks kind of like a rat's tail. Don't you think?