Matthew's Birthday & Baptism

Matthew turned eight years old on April 24, 2009. He was born a month early and never before in his life have I wished so badly that he had waited until his due date to be born because May would have been a much more sane to have 13 family members descend for the baptism celebrations. But it was all good. It turned out just fine. And I am not just saying that.

Friday, we had French toast for breakfast and sent the kids off to school. Then we hurried to make final preparations for the rest of the company coming that evening. I still had no clue what I was going to feed them for dinner. I quickly threw bbq pork ribs in the crockpot around 1 p.m., hoping they would cook quickly.

After school, we opened birthday gifts with Matthew. Papa and Grandma Thomas bought him his own set of scriptures, which he was very excited to receive. He also got a Pixos art set (Matthew loves anything he can use to create artistic pieces), a camera, and a set of darts for his Nerf guns.

The company arrived right about dinner time. We had Grandpa and Grandma Updike, Aunt Jennifer with her kids, Ryan, Reed, Robyn, and Riley, Aunt Rachel with her kids, Noah, Adam and Lily plus as mentioned previously, Aunt Caroline and baby Alex.

From the moment they arrived it was apparent that our house really isn't big enough for 18 people. The noise level alone from 13 grandchildren was enough to put anyone in the crazy house. Oh but the memories those cousins have to share. It is all good.

We had ice cream sundaes and root beer floats for dessert that night. Matthew got bombarded by fun gifts from his cousins and everyone played outside in the frigid night air. Our poor California cousins think Utah is just too cold.

Saturday, we had sourdough waffles. I made a sextuplet batch of waffles to feed the hoardes. We had a good bit leftover, but nothing that didn't get eaten within the next day! I spent most of the morning doing food prep and getting clothes ready for the baptism.

The baptism was at 2 p.m. on Saturday. It was a small gathering as Matthew was the only one being baptised. I neglected to invite all my cousins, aunts and uncles, with all the craziness that had gone on in the weeks leading up to the baptism. So in attendance were, our immediate families as mentioned above (my parents, of course, too), Uncle John Updike (brother to Robert's dad), Brother Chris Jones of our bishopric, Hilary Hanson, the primary president, Shaunda McKay, the boys' piano teacher, and Tom and Melina Anderson and their family and McKenzie and Ryan Davies.

My mom gave the talk on baptism and did a cute visual aid of how baptism in just the very first step in the process of returning to live with our Heavenly Father. Robert's mom gave a sweet talk on the Holy Ghost and how it can be a great help throughout our lives. Robert performed Matthew's baptism and confirmed him a member of the Church.

Christopher and Matthew also performed two piano numbers each since their teacher wanted to have a recital for them and I figured this was the biggest and best audience they would have.

The whole program only took about 45 minutes and then we were on our way, back home in the rain to have a barbecue at home with our guests. We had lots of good food and plenty of it, barbecued chicken, frog-eyed salad, potato salad (Matthew's personal requests), etc.

That night, Grandpa Updike told stories about his Grandparents to all the grandkids as they snuggled up in the beds (that were wall to wall in our basement playroom). It was a neat visit and we were very glad to have all the Updike cousins here for the special day.

The next day, all the family headed back to California. I had two very sick babies, but I went to the first part of Sacrament meeting with them in tow so we could hear Matthew being sustained a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.