Tralee's Baptism

Tralee turned eight this year. Eight is a big year in our faith. Eight is the year Tralee could decide whether or not to be baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Tralee chose to be baptized, and we were very proud of her.

Before her big day, we picked out a dress, and then took her to the temple and a scenic place around here for a little baptism photo shoot. Afterwards, Tralee helped me design her invites. Everything turned out adorable. Below is her invite, as well as some pictures from her eight-is-great photo shoot.  

Before we knew it, her big day came. We had family come in from out-of-town, as well as family from around here come and witness her big day. Tralee asked her Daddy to baptize her. In our religion it's important for this ordinance to be done in a specific manor, as well as the person being baptized to be completely submerged in water. Jim and Tralee practiced in our home leading up to her baptism, and we just knew she wouldn't have any problem in the water, since she's our little fish, and swims on the local swim team. We thought she would only need to be dunked once. Little did we know, it wouldn't be Tralee that had an issue. Her father, who was a bit emotional at the moment (although he'll never admit it), forgot an important part of the ordinance, and we had to repeat the process! It made for a funny memory. Jim actually said, "I knew how much she loved being in the water, so I just thought we should do it twice." Ha!

The rest of the experience was lovely, spiritual, and full of love. Tralee picked out her program and asked Jim and I do give talks. I tried not to cry during mine (even though I was four months pregnant), but got a little emotional. Tralee was also confirmed by Jim, who gave her a wonderful blessing, after her baptism. While I was helping Tralee get dried off and dressed, we showed this video to the loved ones waiting:

  

Here are the rest of the pictures from Tralee's special day. After the ceremony, we invited everyone back to our home where we served lots of yummy food, and visited with everyone. We felt so blessed to be surrounded by family and friends to support Tralee, and so thankful for our beautiful both inside and out, sweet, kind, brave, adventurous, curious, obedient little girl. It was a day we won't forget.