Oh so very great!
Ryan actually turned 8 in June, and had a great birthday, but 8 years old is a very special time for us!
The highlight of our summer was on July 9! Ryan got to be baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!
Can you see his smile? He was glowing that day. He said he felt special, and I could totally tell!
His smile has never been so heavenly!
We were so lucky! So many family members got to come and share the day with us! Sydney and my parents flew in from the East Coast, and my Aunt Gina {so great Aunt to Ryan} and Scott's sister's Nikki, Amy and Erica came from Arizona and So. California, my Great Aunt Jo {great great Aunt to Ryan} came from Scotts Valley, near Santa Cruz, CA, Scott's great Uncle Niel and Great Aunt Bobbi {great great to Ryan}, Naomi Motley {Granny/great Grandma}, Bob and Karen Motley {grandparents} and Marilyn Loveridge {Grandma Great to Ryan}, as well as dear friends from our ward the Wiersdorfs (all pictured). Also attended, but not pictured were the Camblin families {Bill and Linda, Mark and Alyssa and kids, and Christina and kids}, Sister Haar and Connor {HT wife and son..and Ryan's big buddy at school}, Sister Ludlow {primary President}, Dillon Penney {his friend who got baptized at the same time!/pictured}! Also from the ward were the Andersen's...trying to remember if I've missed anyone! WOW! How lucky we were to have such wonderful family and friends to be with us during such a great and special day!
Our family! Sean and Kyle were having picture taking ADD that day!
Cousins...just missing Hudson and Georgia {and almost Reagen {sp?} who will be born in August}.
A pic of my cute parents:)
Some decorations I borrowed from a friend...we'd never had a big shin dig at our home before...and it was fun! We had two kinds of chicken salad {a tomato/lemon variety and a grape variety}, yummo rolls, cold cuts, fruit, water bottles...and a Costco cheesecake and the super fancy tall chocolate Costco cake...all in all, it was a success! The weather was gorgeous so people could hang out outside if they wanted, which worked perfect...I was so relieved because a week earlier it was hotter than blazes!
The Watsons had driven in the night before so it was pretty exciting to see them that day!
Since Ryan was baptised in a Stake Baptism and our family didn't have any participation in the program...I really wanted Ryan to have speakers whom he knew well so that he'd really want to listen.
So we had a family fireside the night before at our home.
It was a special night! Grandma Becky talked about Faith. She told stories of the faith of our Pioneer Ancestors...Philo Dibble who had great personal faith when he first learned about the Church and later after he was wounded in the gut, and was miraculously and quickly healed!
Grandpa Scott talked about Repentance. He related that repentence is just like Cade learning to walk! He tries to take steps ... and falls...but we are always there to pick him back up and give him a hug...just how Heavenly Father embraces us with his love when we make mistakes! He wants us to come to Him.
Grandma Motley talked about steps we take to return to our Heavenly Father, baptism being one of those steps. And Grandpa Motley talked about the Holy Ghost. He said it was our constant companion, like Missionary companions, or husband and wife companions, or buddies. He talked about how Ryan knows and can feel that Grandpa Scott loves him {Ryan} even when Grandpa is far away in Virginia...and the Holy Ghost is like that...while we cannot see him, we can feel his love and know that he is with us. It was so wonderful...such a special time for our family! Absolutely perfect!
Ryan's Great Aunt Gina and Great Great Aunt Jo and Grandma Becky after the family fireside.
Sean and Camryn...enjoying Rootbeer floats afterwards...Camryn has a special love {obsession} with Sean...he's her imaginary friend when she is home! I'm sad we didn't have m,ore time to spend with them so we could have made her dream come true...she had planned to msake cupcakes with Sean! So cute! We didn't get to it, how cute would that have been?!?!?
Grandpa, Amy and cute prego Erica with their rootbeer floats!
The boy of the hour!
Grandpa, Gina and Syd enjoying the beautiful evening! Shaded evenings in our backyard are perfect...especially when it's not a super hot day...which it wasn't!
We just really lucked out on the weather, can you tell I was really grateful for that?
Ryan had a birthday too! Back in June, we had the team party on his birthday...
Then later we had a fun Kickball and flag football party!
We are so lucky to have Ryan in our family!
He is a greaat big brother! Especially to Cade...he loves to hold him and talk to him and play with him!
He really wants to do the right thing and always has...always paying attention to the rules.
He listens and comprehends the scriptures so well! He finished the Book of Mormon with us before his baptism {a challenge from Grandma Motley} and his knowledge afterwards of many stories impressed me! I'm sure at his age, I couldn't remember all of that!
He loves Football and can't wait to play flag football!
He loves his Yankees hats! {so much that sometimes his punishments are no hat wearing...
and this devastates him!}
There's so much more...we love him so!
