It's Official.

This Boy.

Chose to be Baptized this summer as a official member of the 

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. 

And we couldn't be happier or prouder of him.

In our Church, children are not baptized when they are babies, but instead once they turn 8 years old, should they choose to. Porter was very excited about getting baptized, and was so happy when he finally turned 8! Since we had his big friend party several weeks before his birthday, and we were moving a couple of days after his birthday, (with more party time once we saw family on our way through LA)-  on the day of he just got a cake! It was an ice cream cake though. So life was good.

This summer was total chaos with the move to Tokyo, and all of the moving parts- but the big moving part that we were most excited about was getting everything set to be able to baptize Porter with some of my extended family around while we stopped for a week in LA. We did it at the church building that my brother and his wife go to. ( I love our Church for that, it's the same wherever we go, and it always feels like home!) We were also able to have Grandma and Grandpa come, along with my twin sis and some of our favorite little cousins. Not everyone could come, but as we were doing it on the road, we were thrilled with the turnout and the wonderful time we had.  It was such a special day, and we hope that Porter continues to know what a good and important choice he made that day. 

 He was Baptized and Confirmed by Noah, and it was so wonderful. 

His Uncle Grant and Grandpa also gave wonderful little talks, and it was a beautiful day.

 We loved having everyone who came there! Porter felt so special.

 Afterward, we went to a park, and enjoyed a delicious dinner and treats. 

(Huge thanks to my Mom and awesome SIL Aubrye for all their help in pulling things together while we scurried all over SoCal that week!) They always put together a delicious spread!

Also. A thanks to pinterest. for all the awesome printables!

I just went with a bunch of bright colors for the color scheme, and it was darling. 

Also, a tradition in our family is to get your very first set of real-deal, "nice" scriptures- with your name embossed. He was so excited to get his very own!

 Also, he got his special quilt that Grandma made for him. 

A very happy boy indeed, and a wonderful day in the memory of our family!

 I'll leave you with a couple more of his 8 year-old baptism photoshoot.

Love this handsome guy!!