10th November 2008
Yes, Carl arrived home (safely, thank goodness) from his trip to Brazil... in time for our BIG weekend--Halloween and James' baptism back-to-back! He has since gone and returned from a conference in Florida, too. I hope that was the last trip in a long while!
Halloween was a little hectic, but we enjoyed it. I helped with the boys' class parties, we carved our pumpkins, ate home-made chili (I'm proud of that one :)), and went trick-or-treating around the neighborhood! Our little spooks looked great:
James was baptized and confirmed the next day! Six kids from the stake were baptized, and we had a combined service in the chapel of our church building. A little less personal on the stake level, but still nice. I was touched by the Averett girls' singing. James' ward friend, Jayden Le, was baptized with him. Their birthdays are the same day. Good friend Jaxon Peterson, and Brianna in his class at school, were also baptized. Carl gave James a really nice Confirmation blessing following the baptism, and we had the family over for root beer floats and pumpkin pie. (Thanks for your support, family!)
Of course, we're proud of our James! He's growing to be such a great young man, and making good choices. It was neat to have a quiet talk with him later on his baptism day, and present him with his own scriptures and journal. This is a picture of Clean James with a plaque that Grandma Jane made for him:
