Big Day for Claire

This weekend was crazy hectic. I picked up all the kids on Friday. Mike's parents flew in on Saturday. (They live in Missouri.) We met Mike's youngest brother, Max for dinner. The 11 of us crowded into Cici's all-you-can-eat pizza.

Mike's parents stayed at our house. That is really nice to me. I am not used to having in-laws who don't mind "imposing" so that we can talk until midnight and not be constrained by check-in/check-out times. It feels like family is visiting.

The central event of the weekend was Claire's baptism. Because we don't have the kids with us, and we wanted her day to coincide with when Grandma and Grandpa Skembo would be in town, we did crunch planning. From the time we got all the availability confirmations, we had about 5 days to put everything together. The primary presidency and Bishopric were great. I set the ball rolling and they kept it going until the job was done. I would check on something and they had it taken care of.

Claire has been waiting since her birthday at the end of May to be baptized. But it took a while to get everything settled with marriage and moving, etc. She got baptized on September 17th, the 3-month anniversary of our wedding. She picked her songs and who she wanted to say prayers and give talks.

Grandma Skembo led the music, Emylie and Andrew prayed, Isaac sang, and I spoke on the Gift of the Holy Ghost. She chose "I am a child of God" for the closing song and "When I am baptized" for the opening. It was wonderful what a spirit that song brought into the meeting.

I like to look for rainbows whenever there is rain,
And ponder on the beauty of an earth made clean again.

I know when I am baptized my wrongs are washed away,
And I can be forgiven and improve myself each day.

I want my life to be as clean as earth right after rain.
I want to be the best I can,
And live with God again.

It was a beautiful, warm, rainy day outside. Claire is such a sweet little person. She is compassionate and thoughtful and has a deep desire to do what is right. When Grandpa Skembo was praying for the gift of the Holy Ghost, I could feel the strength of Claire's spirit and had a glimpse of her growth and development as a very strong daughter of God.

She is the middle child. She is quiet and affectionate and easy to get along with. Sometimes she gets lost in the crowd. But she is such an important part of our family dynamics. She adds so much to who we are as a group.

It was fun to watch the kids this weekend. Mikey and Andrew ran to each other and ran excitedly around the house and out the door together from one activity to the next. Lexi and Emylie took their toys and drawings and clustered together with Claire.

Then I went to the tiny boy's room (not to be confused with "the little boy's room") and took all the hot wheels city tracks and covered the floor with roads, as they wound around and under beds. Isaac helped with the construction. Then we added the wooden train set across and through the city. Mikey had never experienced such a thing. He said he was glad to have me as a mom. That was the most treasured moment of the day.

On Sunday around Baptism time, Claire and Mikey were in on everything together. Claire just loves everyone, and is a thread that runs through all of us. She is a treasure.