A Very Special Baptism Day

In our church, we believe that a person reaches the age of accountability at 8 years old. It is a special time when a young girl or boy is baptized and confirmed a member of the Church and receives the Holy Ghost. Last summer, this wonderful event happened for Samantha.


The announcement. I hadn't originally planned on doing this, but my amazing sister Wendy put this together for me in no time at all and it turned out beautifully.

Wendy also took pictures of Samantha for us in her baptism dress. They turned out better than I'd even hoped for. I guess that's what you get when you combine Wendy's talent and Samantha's beauty. ;o) Here are a few of my favorites:






I saw a baptism book on another mother's blog and knew I wanted to do one for Samantha. It was so important to me that she would be able to understand as much as possible about this sacred ordinance. Just talking to her isn't the way she learns the best and the blessing of this book is beyond description. Ross and I wrote up what we wanted to say to her (striving really hard to keep it in line with church doctrine and not the Gospel according to us) and Aunt Wendy assembled the book online for us. At the time she lived just a few blocks from Temple Square in Salt Lake City and was able to walk down and get some great shots of statues including the Christus and other things we were able to use in the book. These snapshots I took don't do it justice. It turned out so gorgeous and is a true treasure.









We were so very glad that both sets of grandparents could be here for Samantha. They participated in the program and made Samantha feel special and loved.



Samantha and Daddy all dressed in white.

Samantha and her parents on her special day (Oh, and Becky in the background, too!)

Pulling some silly faces!

And now, a nice picture again. This time with no little sisters in the background. I love Samantha's sweet smile here.

The day was amazing for all involved. It started off a little crazy when Ross accidentally flooded the nursery and out into the hallway because we'd been misinformed about how long it takes to fill the baptismal font, but even that wasn't enough to ruin the importance and blessing that the day was. Samantha, we truly love you and we are so happy you wanted to take this step.

A summer visit from some really cute grandparents

Sometimes there's just nothing better than a little spoiling from Grandma and Grandpa! It was a blast for all of us when Ross's parents made the long drive up from California to see us at the end of June 2010. They came for Samantha's baptism and we loved having them here for two weeks!(Minus a short trip they took up to the beauty that is Glacier Park, that is.) I love that despite the time between seeing them and distance between us, all of my kids, even the little ones, are so excited when they see G & G Wilkins!

And double your pleasure, double your fun -- one night we went out to my parents' house for dinner and the kids had all four grandparents kissing on them!


Samantha with Grandma Ruth Ann and Grandma JeNae


Rebecca with Papa Lay and Papa Wilkins

The four Wilkins kids with their four grandparents (in a slightly blurry picture because we were still getting used to the new camera we'd just bought...) :o)

This was a funny scene one afternoon when Rebecca decided to play beauty shop with Grandpa. From what I hear, she's not the first granddaughter to do this! What a nice guy.

Ernie and Ruth Ann were here for the 4th of July and I was so excited to take them to the fireworks display put on by a member of the church up at his ranch. We went in 2009 and it was such an amazing setting to see the colors bursting over the mountains in. Living in Montana though, we should have expected the weather to be crazy! There was a little programs beforehand and them moment that the fireworks were about to start, so did the rain! It was goofy, but the whole audience was too stubborn to get up and go and we all just laughed and got wet.

Drenched Samantha and Logan

Soaked Luke who couldn't seem to do anything but blink when the flash went off. :o)

Fireworks and rain droplets!

A very wet but smiling Grandpa and a yellow blanket (a.k.a. Grandma)

Drenched Daddy and Becky

Samantha climbed onto my lap towards the end. My sweatshirt was sopped!

There is not a lot to do in Helena and there's no denying that fact. But we can always depend on a good time going to the Carousel! Grandma and Grandpa aren't actually in these pics but I think they loved seeing their happy grandchildren having so much fun. See?













Luke also lived it up running around outside!

One Sunday afternoon we enjoyed the summer weather and let the kids bike and play in the front yard. This is not a frequent occurence because of the busy street we live on, so the kids were in heaven!

You can see Grandma and Grandpa's trailer in our driveway. The kids loved going to "visit" them there.







And here's evidence of how big I get when I am pregnant. I'm still 4 MONTHS away from having my baby here! (And thanks to Ross for taking this picture with such an attractive look on my face.)

We played in our backyard with the grandparents too. I love this video because Rebecca and Grandpa and saying "Yee-haw!" (I don't so much love Samantha's sassy, bossy voice at the end, but oh well.)



Someday we're going to get down to California again to visit Ross's parents there, but we're oh-so-grateful that they come all the way to Montana to visit us. We love them a lot!