Baptizing my Baby Girl

Scarlet was baptized April 11, 2015.  We were so lucky to have a lot of family and friends come to celebrate with her.  

But before we could baptize her, we needed a wardrobe.  I made her baptism dress, here is the almost totally finished product I wrapped up during conference.

I started with a sleeveless satin dress I found at a garage sale.  I decided I wanted a lace overlay, but white lace is crazy expensive.  It cost more for one yard of fabric than it would to just buy a dress.  So I almost scrapped the whole thing until I found a wedding dress on ebay for $10.  Yup, $10.  It would give me more than enough lace for the dress.

Of course when the lace arrived, turned out their definition of white was a little different than mine.  After a few rinses of RIT color remover, we were as close to white as we were going to get.  I used the basic cut of the dress as the sleeves and then fitted it into a wraparound style dress over the top layer.  I then added some pearls to the neckline.  Scarlet and I were really happy with the finished product.

I thought my sewing contributions were done.  She was going to be baptized in the jumper that my mom made for my sisters and I and it was hanging happily in the closet.  I finally got around to having her try it on a week or so before the big day.  And thank goodness I did.  It was way too small.  The biggest problem was the torso length. I probably should have just had her get baptized in one of the outfits the church has on hand, but it just seemed so fun to have her baptized in my same jumper.  So I cut open the crotch and added some more fabric.  Close up, it is not a great fix, but nobody could tell and the jumper was much more comfortable for my tall little girl.

Her Grandpas gave the talks for the meeting and they both did a great job.  The grandmas gave the prayers.  Kylie and I sang "There is Sunshine in my Soul Today" for Scarlet because we love her.

Funny side note:  There were three other kids getting baptized that day, but because we scheduled first, we were in charge of the whole program. Hope the others didn't mind!

Scarlet had a great day.  She has a beautiful glowing smile through the whole day.

 Such a great group of people supporting Scarlet!  The Stouts drove in town for the occasion and her friend Sofia came.  She also had her primary president and first counselor.  We had both sets of grandparents and almost all of my siblings.  We missed Kristy  & Trevor and our missionaries.

The baptism turned into an extended weekend.  We played, swam at the hotel pool, ate delicious food (pat on my own back there) and had a great time.

The water was pretty cold... Jude was unhappy.

My Scarlet girl is a joy to my life.  She reminds me so much of myself as a kid but an even better version.  She has so much creativity and zest for life.  This girl turns everything into a project and throws herself into it until it is done.  This year she has really discovered her talents and is not afraid to show them.  She is such a great student and is so smart.  She is a wonderful singer and dancer and loves to perform.  She has such a sweet loving patience for her brothers, especially Jude and really takes care of them.  Scarlet has a style all her own and loves to express herself.  She says thing with such a matter of fact tone that I have to remind myself all of the time that she is still eight years old and not sixteen.  I love this girl so much.  I tell her all the time, if we get to be the only girls in the family, at least we have each other.  I can't wait for all of the adventures ahead with this fireball