Duncan's Baptism

One quick note: I haven't been trying to be a slacker on here lately, but my little laptop broke and all the pics I needed were on it, so I couldn't really do much for awhile. Luckily between Jeff and my brother it eventually got fixed. So now I'm playing catchup (birthday party post below this one). Duncan was baptized on March 5th. We had his family party on Thursday, friend party Friday, and then the baptism Saturday. Phew! I really wouldn't recommend cramming so much into such a small amount of time, but what are you going to do? He just made the cutoff for the March baptisms. All dressed in white. I think they gave Duncan the smallest jumpsuit they had, but it's still huge on him. It's funny, because I never think of him as short until I see him around other kids his age and then it becomes very obvious. But he's so cute, I love it. Jeff wanted to wear his old baptizing clothes from his mission so even though he had pneumonia and strep he still got everything ready and ironed. He got better just in time to be able to baptize Duncan, thank goodness. We decided to ask my dad to confirm Duncan. They have always been really close (way more than any of the other kids) so Jeff said that he wouldn't mind.

Isn't he handsome in his suit? I had no idea suits for little boys cost so much. Yikes! He loves it though. They changed how they do baptisms in our stake now, so each ward has its own time throughout the day and you meet in different rooms depending on how many kids are getting baptized. We had 11:00, and while that was nice to not have to rush getting ready in the morning I felt bad for Duncan because the water in the font was completely cold by then. For the program my mom gave a talk and Duncan's cousins Trevor, Bryce, and Kimberly sang the song "Baptism" from the Primary songbook. I know none of them were really that excited about getting up and singing in front of people, but they were so nice and practiced really hard. I really appreciated them doing it b/c it meant a lot to Duncan. He thinks they are all just the coolest people ever.

We lucked out with decent enough weather to take some family pictures afterwards. It wasn't exactly warm, but at least it wasn't raining or snowing. Of course three out of four kids are looking at someone else, but hey, it's all of us together. One advantage to taking the pictures on this hilly spot - Jeff looks taller than me! Also, Duncan looks way taller than Dayton, which isn't actually the case. Somehow in all the commotion I didn't get a pic of just Jeff and Duncan together in their suits and pink ties. They were so handsome. It was a great day and we are so proud of Duncan for being baptized. He really was good about preparing for it and trying to understand the importance. I had been talking to him quite a bit about not being goofy at the baptism since he can be a little too silly sometimes. A few days before he was asking me why he had to be in his suit to go to the church since he "was just going to get dunked". Then he paused for a second, and added "I mean, in a special way." That just made me laugh. He was trying at least. He's just such a great kid and is such a good example to his brothers and Ellie. Everyone was excited for him and made sure to mention that they were grateful he could get baptized in their prayers for awhile afterwards. It was a great experience for the whole family.