I like to Look for Rainbows

Today was McKinley's baptism day.  It was a perfect day, and one she has looked forward to for a long time. She is such a sweet, sensitive, amazing girl, I am so lucky to be her mother. She took her decision to be baptized very seriously, and I am so proud of her as she has reached this milestone in her life.   

McKinley and Matt all dressed in white before her baptism

 McKinley's cute friend Lulu (far left) was baptized with her.  Love these cute girls, it has been so great to be in Primary with them.

Amanda did such an amazing job photographing Kinley in her baptism dress, and Kinley loved every minute of being a little model :).  She kept saying she felt like she was wearing a wedding dress.  I love that she is such a girly girl!

 

Beware: photo overload coming!  I wanted to include photos of the details of her baptism celebration.  She was so excited about every part of it, I want her to always remember what a special day it was.  We are so grateful to have such wonderful family and friends to share her special day with her. We did an 'I like to look for Rainbows' theme since that is her favorite Primary song (the actual name of the song is 'When I am Baptized', it fit perfectly :)  A friend from my old ward had just done a rainbow birthday party for her daughter and didn't want her decorations anymore, she generously gave them to us, and they turned out fabulous!  She is amazing, we only added a few touches, and they fit our theme perfectly!

 McKinley is so funny, she had my artistic, creative side.  She insisted that we needed brightly colored fresh flowers for the table.  We ran across these the night before, perfect!  She was so happy!

 More details - thanks to everyone who helped with the food, it was fantastic!

 Display of McKinley's baptism pictures.

 I was recently called as the Primary President in our ward, so this is a new thing I started doing.  There was a stack of hole-punched white cardstock and pens on a table just outside the chapel doors for attendees to take during the break while they wait for their loved one to change into dry clothes.  They could write their testimony or a love note on the sheet and then handed it to me to bind with rings with this cover I had made.  It worked great, and she loves to look through it.  We also made one for Lulu so that they could remember those who shared in their special day.

 McKinley's Grandma Brown used to make a porcelain doll with a beautiful white dress to look like each of the granddaughter's for them for their baptism.  She passed away before Kinley was old enough to get one, and I don't do dolls :), so this was my way of carrying on that tradition.  I made her baptism dress, so for her birthday I made a smaller version of it to fit an American Girl Doll.  I had American Girl dolls, and she has wanted one for some time now.  I told her when she turned 8 she would could have one of her own, so for her birthday this year she got one that looked like her (red hair, blue eyes, it's hard to see in the fuzzy camera phone photo :).  She loves that she has a doll that looks like her, I love that we could carry on something that Grandma Brown started, it was a way to include her in McKinley's day since she couldn't be there in person.

And I had to include Maylee.  Pretty sure she had like 20 cupcakes that day.

 And enjoyed every single bite.

 

Today also marked 8 months since Miles' passing.  I know he and Grandma and Grandpa Brown were all looking down and smiling today as we all celebrated with McKinley.