Evan's first steps

Evan has been excited to be baptized for months.  He is the youngest of his group of friends so everyone else's big days have come and gone, and when we got home from Hawaii we started planning!
First we got his suit and took some pictures.

He wanted pictures in his Hawaiian formal wear as well ;)  He was very serious about the photo shoot.

Until the end...

He is such a sweet boy.  He has brought so much happiness and laughter to our lives.  We are very blessed to have him in our family.  He knew he was going to get his own scriptures for his birthday but I kept asking him what else he wanted and all he would ever say was.....um...a turtle?  and would laugh because he figured it was an impossibility.
Well I just couldn't resist this cute little tiny aquatic turtle.  Eventually he is supposed to get to be about 6 inches long, and live for like 30 years, but with our track record we hope to keep him alive thru the baptism!
He was so surprised, but I think his scriptures were equally as special for him.

He has sleepy morning eyes because he couldn't wait to open them, once his big day finally came!
Emily and George made him this sweet Hawaiian Happy Birthday sign to help celebrate. We left it up for a week I think.

On the day of his birthday I was in charge of the Beckstrand boys because Penny, Joel and Sophie were at girls camp, so we took them all bowling and called it a birthday party!

George accidentally dropped the ball as he was getting ready to throw it, and they put this message up on the screen.....pins are the other way, thanks!  We laughed so hard, George was of course thoroughly embarrassed but it was hilarious.   There was just one day between his birthday and the baptism, and so I took all the kids out to Kayenta, where Brad and Ashley were staying, and they spent the morning swimming.  It was a beautiful pool, a beautiful backdrop anyway (kind of a boring grandma pool).  We had a lot of fun, practicing our synchronized diving and jumping!

Finally the big day arrived.  Grandma and Grandpa Shelton came down from Lehi, and Randy and Jillyn came from California, and Great Grandma Leila made it too.  George played a beautiful piece on the piano during the meeting.  Kyle baptized him and gave him a big kiss on the top of the head and he gave Kyle a big hug.  I gave the closing prayer and cried through the whole thing.  It was a very special day.  The spirit was so strong and Evan was so happy he made us all happy.

 When he was finished being confirmed, he went around the circle and hugged all the men and then as he walked past Matty to sit down, she reached her arms out big and he stopped and hugged her too!

Mason and Spencer were out of town, but their kids were all here so we were a very kid heavy bunch.

We had a luau at our house afterwards and it was a great party; the kids loved having so many kids to play with and the grown-ups loved all the yummy yummy food.  I took no pictures because I was running around like a crazy person the whole time.  But it was a good good kind of crazy!