Big Baptism Day

Oliver

Silas

What a day we had on Saturday!

Oliver and Silas were SO excited for their baptism. They've been counting down the days forever and have been excited to memorize the Articles of Faith in preparation. We've had lots of good discussions about what promises we make at baptism (to always remember Jesus and to follow His commandments) and about why baptism is necessary (like marriage and other sacred covenants, baptism involves a specific action done in a specific way to seal the promises between us and God and it represents re-birth as we start a new life as truly committed followers of Christ). We talked about how their new little cousin was just born and came out of the sack of water she'd been in for months and how when they went down into the water to be baptized, they'd be "reborn" in a special way.

We've also talked a lot about the gift of the Holy Ghost which they'd receive after baptism and how the Holy Ghost has three main roles, which the twins pointed out went with the initials "CTR" on their new CTR (Choose the Right) rings and the special CTR towels their Aunt Michelle was so kind to make for them. In reference to the Holy Ghost, C stands for Comforter, T stands for Testify of Truth, and R stands for how the Holy Ghost helps us figure out what is Right.

Ollie and Si were pretty darn pleased that since their dad is now the Bishop of our ward, he was the one who got to interview them for baptism. And surprise, surprise, they passed their interview with flying colors!

I love how our church offers us these beautiful rites of passage that help us teach our children and celebrate their growing up in such a special way.

And despite the stress of Jared's sister's car breaking down in the middle of the night on her way here for the baptism and Jared spending a chunk of the night and of Saturday morning working on her car while I was running around looking for car parts, getting kids to birthday parties and basketball games, and preparing to feed 50 people a nice dinner after the baptism, everything worked out great. Jared did a fabulous job with his many duties at the baptism (giving the talk and introducing Oliver and Silas in his role as Bishop at the baptism service, baptizing them and giving them beautiful confirmation blessings in his role as their dad) and, with the help of great friends and family, the post-baptism dinner came off beautifully and Oliver and Silas were thrilled with everything (especially the vast quantity of desserts we had).

I'll let pictures tell the rest of the story:

Silas (on the left) was excited to wear the baptism shirt and pants that my grandma made for my dad 60 years ago when he was baptized. Because Silas's middle name is my dad's name, Oliver and Silas decided together that Silas would be the one to wear their grandfather's baptism clothes.

Here they are with their beloved Grammie and Grandfather.

And here they are with their great cousin Logan who was recently baptized himself.

Here's their one Eyre cousin who was able to attend the baptism, one-year-old Annina, and their beloved cousin Michael in the background (Michael loves to pop into pictures.)

Ready to watch the baptisms. Silas and Oliver talked it over and agreed that since Oliver was born first, Silas would get to be "re-born" first through baptism. They're pretty darn good at discussing things and figure out what would be fair and taking turns going first. You can see Oliver in the middle ready to watch Silas get baptized (not supposed to take photos of the actual ordinance of baptism or confirmation - keeps it holier that way).

Everyone ready to watch the baptism as Jared explained how it would work. Silas wanted Jared's brother Aaron and my dad to be the witnesses for his baptism (the two who make sure the ordinance is performed correctly) and Oliver asked Jared's brother Brian and my dad to be the witnesses for his baptism.

After the baptism, while Jared, Oliver and Silas changed into dry clothes, everyone else wrote notes to Oliver and Silas. Then it was time for the confirmation. Oliver and Silas were pretty pleased with the matching ties featuring tiny Angel Moronis that Aunt Jayne gave all three of them.

Here's the full group that attended the baptism - lots of Loosli family members, a few Eyres, great friends from our ward and neighborhood.

Family-only shots:

Back at our house, there was lots of great food - lots of appetizers followed by the twins' favorite soup (Tortilla Soup - great for a crowd - recipe here) and then tons of desserts. They were delighted when their aunt and uncle who own a Cold Stone ice cream shop brought them custom-made ice cream based on their favorite candy bars. Yum!

Wish I'd taken more small-group photos but here's Jared's brother Joel and family with the twins (their gifts of CTR "dog tags" and goldfish were most appreciated).

What a day! What a blessing to have so many dear friends and family members join us and to be able to see our sweet sons take this important step in their lives. I can't believe this is our last baptism. Wow. My babies are now baptized and confirmed members of our church. Craziness. Sweetness.

Here's what the twins wrote in their new journals about their special day - so fun to see things through their eyes. They came up with all of this entirely on their own (can you tell by the spelling?) and when you put their two accounts together, you get a pretty complete picture.

From Oliver's journal:

Love that he included about the pictures - his favorite part (NOT) but he was actually pretty good about pictures this time. And we really didn't take very many . . . Loved his ending: "I was so happy!!!!!!! It felt like I was just born again and now I am perfect! I loved that speshol day. I wanted it to not go. Then I went to bed smiling."

From Silas's journal: (translation below)

I loved the feeling that goes into you when you go into the water. It was like you go to the BEST PLACE EVER so you feel so good...it was the asomist (awesomest) filling (feeling) ever and it clod (could) be my best expiriince (experience) ever so I am going to tell you what is it is like to get baptised - well, not actuly tell you but I am going to acshuly write my story so let's go. When I was baptised, I clod (could) feel the savior and the holy goust. I just felt so good to finaly be baptised and so I wrote it and now I am baptised and thats bout it so by by.