Eight is Great!

My heart is full.

Saturday was a beautiful day.

My sweet Kaiya got baptized and it was absolutely perfect!

Isn't she beautiful!

The other day Kaiya and I went to the temple and we took a few pictures of her in her baptism dress. She was so funny. She was pumped for her "fashion shoot" (her words, not mine). She walked me all around the temple grounds and directed the whole thing, like where to take pictures, where and how to sit, poses, everything. It cracked me up. 

I don't come up with this stuff on my own, people!

 

 

 
And of course she absolutely LOVED it when the older people walking into the temple oohed and ahhed over her dress and told her how sweet she looked.

Here's some more pictures:

And what would a baptism be without a little baptism swag?!  In addition to her very own set of scriptures, the cutest chevron bag made by my friend Jenn, we also got her a necklace to commemorate the occasion.

Isn't it sweet!

I told her that when she wore this necklace, it could always remind her of her baptism day and her feelings when she got baptized. The K is for Kaiya, the heart is to remind her to always turn her heart  to Christ and the pearl is to remind her that the Savior is the rock upon which she should build her foundation. Being the girly girl she is, of course she loved it!

Here is Kaiya and Jared all ready to go:

Funny little story:  I tried to be super organized and amazingly enough, I even got myself completely ready in 15 minutes, curled hair and all,  so we were on time and got to the church at 3:30!  There I was feeling super smug, like I'm Wonder Woman--I got everything accomplished that I needed to for dinner, I was dressed nice, and here we were EVEN completely on time....when I had Kaiya strip down in the bathroom, ready to put on her white baptism jumpsuit......

And looking at her....


I realized....


She was wearing BRIGHT PINK AND TURQUOISE UNDERWEAR!!!!!


OH NO!!!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!!!!


I looked through the bag and saw that her other pair of underwear were bright orange and turquoise so that was no help. I was like, "Kaiya, your underwear is going to show through. where is your white underwear?"  Kaiya was like, "Mom, I don't have any white underwear!"  At first I was like, "huh?" but then as I started thinking, I was like, "Oh my gosh! I think she's right!"  Why on earth did I not think about underwear! It didn't even occur to me though.

Immediately she starts to panic, big time! Yeah, you can't spring something like that on Kaiya without her completely freaking out. Something like this is her worst nightmare. First of all, she really doesn't like it when all eyes and attention are on her--hence the no talking to people for 3 years--so the thought of everyone being able to see her underwear through her wet jumpsuit is the WORST THING EVER. Like that dream where you forgot your clothes and you go to school naked and you wake up in a cold sweat and your heart is beating a million miles an hour.  Or in my case, dreaming that you have to take a test that is worth 100% of your final grade and you didn't know about it or study for it at all.....I know I'm so Asian....and this story is about Kaiya, not me....moving on....

I run out of the building and race straight home and immediately ransack her drawers and Chloe's drawers. I did find a pair of white 2T underwear in Chloe's drawers but they would even be small on Chloe so I wasn't sure if Kaiya would be able to get them past her knees. Finally, in the very back of one of Kaiya's drawers I found one white pair of underwear with a couple of big pink and brown in the front. It was gonna have to do.

I knew Kaiya was gonna freak out that they had that graphic in the front and it would ruin all feelings of peace for her so I slapped a big piece of athletic tape to the butterflies and we were good to go.

Hey, completely ghetto, I know, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

Kaiya shared her special day with Colby from our ward. The Beeghlys are our neighbors and friends and coincidentally, Carson and their older daughter, Meredith, also shared the same birthday month and were also baptized together.

Colby's aunt Amy did the first talk on baptism. She did a great job. One of the things she mentioned that stuck out to me was when asking Kaiya what she was most excited about on her baptism day, Kaiya responded, "I'm excited to get the Holy Ghost." I thought about that and I knew that it was something she was truly excited about. Kaiya is the sweetest, kindest girl, but she hasn't been without trials in her young life. With those trials, she's been able to have actual, tangible experiences where she's turned to Heavenly Father and received comfort and been blessed.

The baptism itself was great. It was great seeing her face coming out of the water.   It was special seeing her with her daddy.

After the baptism, Carson gave the talk on the Holy Ghost. This is one of those moments that will be forever burned in my memory. It was truly so so special. In true Carson fashion, he had MEMORIZED his talk---because when Carson does something, he wants to do it well, and he knew his sister's baptism was a special occasion.

I need to preface this with the fact that I hadn't read his talk. I was like, "You're 11. You can totally write your own talk." Then I gave him some advice like maybe put in a scripture, tell a personal experience, maybe use an object and compare the Holy Ghost to it. This was the extent of my help and so I was listening to it for the first time just like everyone else.

He blew me away.

He started off with scriptures, a scripture story, then moved into using Jared's head lamp and compared the Holy Ghost to it. The entire time he was speaking, he was speaking quieter than usual and I couldn't figure it out because I've seen him speak before and it wasn't exactly like his normal self. He looked like he kinda didn't want to be up there and that he was on the verge of tears.

Then he went into his personal story about a time the Holy Ghost helped him. He said, "Another time I felt the Holy Ghost was when my grandma died. I was very sad because my grandma and I did many things together like going to New England." As he was saying this he starting getting teary and the tears started rolling down his face. Then his voice was all wobbly and said, "At her funeral, the Holy Ghost comforted me and made me feel better and helped me know that she was in a better place."  Then Carson start crying. Hard. Then he started sobbing.

Then I started crying. Hard.

And the I looked around the room and there wasn't a dry eye in the house!

Carson then managed to finish his talk. It really was excellent. Jared then did the confirmation. It was beautiful and special to hear all the special blessings. I could tell that Kaiya really felt the spirit and how important and special the day was.

I was really a proud Mama!


Here's a few more pics:

Kaiya with her preschool teacher Miss Molly:

Kaiya and Colby:

My parents came for the baptism. That was nice because I know it was out of their comfort zone.

A picture of our family---Not the best picture, but it was raining and windy outside. Jim was here too, but I didn't get one of him and just Kaiya. Bummer.

Afterward, we invited friends over to our house for dinner.  We had a pasta bar and then my friend Mandy made the most gorgeous cake EVER for Kaiya.

And the crazy part is that it even tasted better than it looked! It was chocolate with chocolate ganache and cream cheese frosting!

Here's Kaiya and Mandy cutting the cake:

As all the kids were running around outside playing and I was looking around the room at all of our friends talking to each other, I just felt overwhelmed with love. I was so touched that everyone had taken time out of their busy schedules to come celebrate in our special day with us. I knew everyone in that room loves Kaiya and loves our family. And I realized something. This is family of a whole other kind. And I love it. I love our P-town family.  I feel so lucky and blessed.

Like I said. It was a beautiful day!