Ireland's Baptism

I've heard a saying that a coincidence is what happens when God chooses to remain anonymous. It just so happens the Saturday following Ireland's birthday was St. Patrick's Day. What a sweet little coincidence that was! As with Liesel's baptism, we read the Book of Mormon as a family and finished right in time for Ireland's interview with Bishop Tomlinson.

These fantastic Elders traveled from opposite ends of the United States to preach the gospel, and Ireland was lucky enough to be taught by them. There on the left is Elder McGee (from Arizona) and Elder Stevens (from Vermont) is on the right. We had a devil of a time trying to keep our snugly Ireland from holding their hands and hugging them.

Brent and I took her out for a birthday dinner and gave her the intimacy talk. I will never forget the look on her face when the penny dropped. Her eyes were wide open and her face said, "WHAT?!?!?" all over it. While we were at it, we told her about Santa Claus and then told her when Christmas time rolls around, she gets Elf on the Shelf duties with Liesel. She took the Santa news much better than the sex news. 

Ireland and I sneaked off for a mani-pedi amidst all the chaos.

It was nice to get some alone time with my girl.

On the day of the baptism, I wanted to get to the church nice and early so we'd have plenty of time to set up and take pictures. As we prepared to leave, Brent set the trays of CTR cookies on the dashboard. Julie and I had been up very late icing those suckers. Even though I followed the recipe exactly, the first couple of batches were awful, so even getting the shield to look right was a process. Brent realized he'd forgotten something and as he is not a delicate man, he slammed the car door shut and the trays toppled to the floor. They were covered in saran wrap so they weren't ruined, but they sure weren't pretty! My heart broke a little.

Even so, Whitney managed to get a decent photo and I was told by more than one person they tasted good. In the future, we are saving ourselves the trouble and just ordering these!

I arranged the water bottles in a shield shape to compensate, ha!

The quilt arrived the day before and Mom spent the whole afternoon and evening attaching the binding. She's never done that in one fell swoop; it's a lot of handwork. There's a lot of love in that quilt, for sure!

Uncle Tim kept Ireland happy and relaxed while we all ran around getting things settled.

Brigitta had to think extra hard about what to write on the photo mat.

Whitney did a spectacular job on the program!

Jeanne was a doll to step in and play the piano...

...which Sydney danced to.

We had plenty of time to get those all-important photos!

The program was beautiful, and Reagan put together such a sweet video for everyone to watch while Brent and Ireland dried off and dressed.

Annie made a little crown which worked beautifully with the braided updo.

Wally Pollack conducted the program and he had Ireland go up front and look around the room at all the people who had come to support her and wish her well on her baptism day. Ireland pronounces it "bathtism" which I am not sure is a remnant of her lisp or because she was in a font, which is kind of like a bath. Whatever the case, I love that little quirk of hers! Ireland bore her testimony and I was so impressed with the things she said. She talked about how she had prepared for her baptism and how she felt about the scriptures and her Savior.

So many cute kids came out to support Ireland, and there was a basketball game that morning but uniforms were green so it worked out perfectly!

The entire Larson family dressed in green in her honor.

Mom made her rolls (that's becoming a baptism tradition!), can you see the steam rising? YUM!

Mom and Dad gave her a set of scriptures specially bound in yellow leather and engraved with her name. 

So many sweet friends!

We were lucky to get Julie to come out, she's such a love and she was really instrumental in helping us pull everything together.

We are lucky to have Whitney and Tim nearby as well. Ireland snuggled up to him as she prepared for her confirmation.

All her grandparents were able to be there for her, which is really special. As we were testing the audio-visual, I noticed BJ tearing up at the video. They love Ireland so very much!

We're pretty fond of her too. 

Congratulations on your "bathtism" sweet girl, I hope it was a day to remember!