Jess: Eight is Great

Jess turned the ripe old age of EIGHT this year. She’s been waiting for this bday for a long time! It’s a big one around here because a few things get to happen. First, if you’re a girl, you can get your ears pierced. Second, you get to be baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
The week before Jess turned eight we had a wedding for one of my nieces (Jess’ cousin, Ashton). After the wedding and luncheon, Jess got to go to the mall with 7 of her girl cousins, her sister, two of her aunts and her mom to get those ears pierced. Emmie was getting her ears pierced too. Jess was SUPER nervous. She “let” Emmie go first. While Emmie was getting her ears done Jess kept gripping my hands and her sweaty hands couldn’t stop nervously grasping mine. When it was her turn I could tell she was super excited but still really nervous. She gripped the stuffed animal and they did two guns at a time. She had earrings before she knew what hit her. I’m still not sure how but some miracle happened and there was enough peer pressure that after 40 years of having virgin pierced ears I found myself in the chair getting mine pierced as well. That’s a story for another post, though.

A week after that we found ourselves surrounded by family to support Jess with her decision to be baptized. Payton had been trying to convince Jess that he should be the one to baptize her. She wouldn’t even consider it. Only her dad would do. She had picked out a pink dress because she “wanted to be different than everyone else” —referring to the usual white dresses that most girls choose for their baptism day. She was so excited for everyone to be there for her! Her aunt Cheri played the piano, Julia and Gma Julie gave prayers, aunt Tiffani and Kandice gave talks, and her dad baptized and confirmed her.
I loved looking at her from the top of the stairs into the baptism don’t. She looked up at her dad and I couldn’t help but smile with pride. As she walked into the dressing room to change from her wet clothes into her dress she said, “That was so awesome!” And “I loved that!” One cute thing that happened was after she had been surrounded by the priesthood family and friends who were participating with her ordination of receiving the Holy Ghost. She stood up and started to leave the circle. Uncle Randy said, “WHERE ARE YOU GOING?” She laughed but didn’t really know what she was supposed to do after that. She shook everyone’s hand in the circle (or gave them a hug) and then came and sat by me. She talked about that moment after her baptism and we get a good laugh about it now.
Following the baptism we came back to the house and had lunch. It was a great day to celebrate Jess and I hope it’s a day she’ll always remember and love to look back on!