Maelie was baptized on Saturday July 21st at the Chandler East Stake Center by her cute daddy Jonas Stanford. It was an awesome (slightly stressful) event! 2 of my beautiful children chose that day and time to have one of their worst meltdowns ever! But anyway, the opening song was I am a Child of God, Bro. Crow played the piano and Megan Crow led the music, Maelie chose her Aunt Shannon to give the prayer. Bro. Smith conducted the meeting. Maelie shared her baptism with Tytus Livingston from our ward, his dad gave a talk on baptism. Then their family sang Love at Home and then Maelie's Uncle Nephi gave a great talk on the Holy Ghost directed straight to Maelie and Tytus and he even gave them Canadian candy bars. :) Then Maelie, Kyla, Kailin, Anna, and Ethan sang When I am Baptized and Jakob played for them. This was wonderful and so cute. Then Maelie was baptized. Jaxon and Kyla had to go the bathroom so bad at this very moment! So while they were going to the bathroom I unlocked the font on the girls side and got Maelie in there, gave her a big hug, told her how much I loved her and told her to wait there for her daddy. Then I ran out with Kyla and Jaxon (awesome Shannon helped me there too) and sat down just in time. My sweet sweet husband turned and scanned the crowd and smiled at me. He wanted to make sure I was there. =) Then he baptized her and I cried, it was so beautiful. My sweet Maelie made the right choice! Then I ran back in to help Maelie get dressed. She was glowing and she said, "I feel awesome!" We forgot a towel! We used paper towels and my nursing cover and got her dressed and put her jewelry on and her flower in her hair. Then she found her Daddy and went back to sit up front while Tytus was baptized. Then Maelie was confirmed and received the Holy Ghost. Awesome! More large sized meltdowns occurred here so the rest of the program is a little fuzzy to me since I was in the foyer. But Sis. Clark our great primary president and Bishop Shumway gave remarks. We sang Teach me to Walk in the Light, this was comforting to me because Kyla was laying on my lap at this time and I was scratching her back and singing to her. Life aint easy, but sometimes it's worth it. And then Tytus' mom Danielle gave the closing prayer. I wish I had gotten a picture of the whole group but I didn't feel like it would be a good idea to even attempt it. I really appreciate the people that came for Maelie and our family. Besides my parents, all my siblings and their families, Jonas' 3 little brothers came down, Nephi's girlfriend Andria, cousin June, and a couple of their friends stayed with us. From the ward, the Crismon's, Crow's, Linford's, Devlin's, and Page's came. My friends Emily and Kristen came with their families. Afterwards we had a family dinner at our house. It was great! Maelie wanted tostadas so we had mexican food. I forgot to mention that Maelie was sick on Friday and Saturday. Cody Page came over and helped Jonas give Maelie a blessing on Saturday morning. She was so much better by the time of her baptism. After the dinner, we went swimming with Jonas' fam that was there. Sunday was a great day with Jonas' fam in town. We went to church and Maelie got to sit on the stand by the Stake President who was there. Then we had more family time and went to the Gilbert and Mesa temple. We also ate Maelie's CTR cake made by Aunt Hillary. Family left this morning and Maelie and Kyla are at their first day of school! Maelie brought her shoe that she got for her baptism for shoe n tell today. She wants to share about her baptism. She also said that she hopes someone asks her about her CTR ring so she can tell them about the church. I think we have a little missionary on our hands. :) Maelie, we love you so so much and are so happy you made the decision to get baptized!
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| Jonas and Maelie before the baptism |
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| and right after! |
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| Princess |
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| with her soft "comforter" from the Crow family |
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| Canyon with Uncle Levi |
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| cute Alissa loves shoes! with Levi's big shoes |
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| Kyla loves Uncle Levi |
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| family picture on Sunday |
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| Maelie and her uncles :) |
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| Leland, Levi, Nephi, Jonas with Maelie |
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| Canyon loved going on rides (all the kids did) |
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| eating watermelon with Uncle Leland |
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| Gilbert temple is awesome! |
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| Mesa is, too |
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| cute yummy cake |
