On June 11th, Lex turned the wonderful age of 8!
Knowing Lex's birthday was on the Monday after we got back from a weekend of camping, my plan was to go birthday present shopping the Saturday we got back. I don't know who I was kidding - the last thing I wanted to do after returning home from a few days camping was go to the store!
Then of course it was Sunday, and I don't shop on Sunday. Then came Monday and I had NOTHING to give my sweet baby boy. It was decided that I would just take him to the store and he could pick out his own presents. This is something that has worked well in the past for us and it was definitely a good call for this kid. He knew exactly what he wanted and we spent very little time in the store getting his presents.
... No Birthday Is Complete, Without A Day Out Grocery Shop Cart Surfing ...
That night we had Lex invite 2 buddies over (although one was sick and couldn't come) for some pizza, ice cream and a sleepover. Lex loved this and talked about it nonstop the next few days.
Because he turned 8, it was baptism time. We had some issues getting a date down. We had thought it would be this coming weekend, but because of it being the weekend after the 4th, the stake moved it up a week. Well, last week brought some problems with it. Eric's parents were going out of town for their anniversary AND the night before was Father's & Son's for our ward. I WAS NOT going to get my son ready for a baptism at 9:30 in the morning when he had been camping the night before.
I asked the newish (only serving about 2 months) Primary Pres. if we could move it down to this weekend. She said we'd have to talk with the bishop to get that ball rolling. In the meantime the Primary President found out that another ward in the stake was doing a baptism on the 23rd. It gave us only about a week to plan, but we were all for it.
I was worried that because of the lack of scheduling our families wouldn't be able to make it. Thankfully, everyone was able to make it, with the exception of Eric's brother that had just started a new job that week. Also because we moved things around Lex was able to have his 'own' baptism. I think it's much nicer to do it that way.
We had some issues when we arrived. There wasn't a stake leader around to find the jumpsuits for Eric and Lex, so we waited around for a member of the Primary Presidency. When she arrived, she wasn't sure where it was at either. So then we waited for a member of the bishopric - I don't think he knew where they were either. Thankfully though, a lady from the other baptism knew where they were at and pointed us in the right direction.
After getting everything situated we got the ball rolling. It was a wonderful service and Lex made a great choice having his grandma's give the talks. These women are such wonderful examples and I love the faith they have and the way they share their testimonies of it.
I was slightly frustrated because Nate was clingy and if Nate wasn't clinging to me, Ailey was begging to be taken out of the room. Thankfully I was able to witness all the important things and life went on.
After the baptism I decided we'd have Lex's birthday party. Lex was able to have his best friend be there for the party and had lots of fun running around outside with the other kids. My mother in law got some awesome pictures of the kids messing around, while I was inside taking care of food and other things.
It started to get late, so we decided we needed to do presents and the cake stuff so people could get home.
... A Whoopie Cushion...Oh boy ...
... Sorry, bud there's nothing else there ...
... Personalized Scriptures ...
... We usually have Tanis play 'Happy Birthday' on the clarinet, but Shaylyn recently got 'Happy Birthday'
in her piano book, so she took over for Lex's party ...
It was a great night and I hope Lex will always remember his 8th birthday!
