Team Shep Blog: Ava's Baptism

Ava was baptized on Sunday, August 12 at Westlake Hills Presbyterian Church in Austin (my childhood church), and it was such a special day!

However, we did have one small hiccup leading up to the big event...someone managed to pack all of her stuff, the baby's stuff, and the baby (which I happen to think is the most important thing!), but forgot to grab her husband's entire outfit for the baptism. Yep. That would be me.

I had headed down to Austin on Thursday night and worked from my firm's Austin office on Friday. Josh flew down Saturday morning, so I was in charge of bringing his suit, shoes, tie, etc., so he didn't have to bring it on the plane. On Saturday night, Josh and I went out to dinner with some friends, and at approximately 8:30 p.m., right after we had ordered our food, the topic of what we were wearing to the baptism came up. When Josh jokingly asked if I had remembered his suit, my face turned white and I literally thought I was going to throw up. Blerg!

Once everyone at the table realized that I was not joking, we frantically searched to see what suit stores were still open/would be open in the morning (Josh is way too tall to borrow anything). The JoS. A. Bank close to my Mom's house wasn't open until noon on Sundays, but it was luckily open until 9:00 p.m. on Saturday night. We left the restaurant as fast as we could, but promised our friends that we would be back...because we would be in need of some cocktails after this adventure. Josh called the store to let them know we were on our way, and we made it there just before closing.

He picked out the suit, shirt, tie, shoes, belt, and socks all within about 10 minutes, and we were back at dinner in time to enjoy our meal and a few cocktails. Thanks so much to the Tranthams for holding down the fort at the restaurant!

I'm just so glad that it came up when it did, instead of the next morning as Josh was getting ready...I don't know if Walmart carries suits in his size ;). It is also in moments like these that I am truly appreciative of my husband and our relationship. While some guys would have been extremely irritated with the situation, we couldn't help but laugh the whole way to the store. I'm also thankful for a Mom who majored in Home Economics...otherwise Josh's pants would not have been hemmed. Or I would have used safety pins...and that would not have been pretty.

But once the suit situation was under control, the rest of the weekend was smooth sailing...unless you count Ava waking up at 5:15 a.m. on Sunday (she normally gets up at 7:00), which threw off her morning schedule a bit and also made for one tired momma.

But who could blame her...she was so excited for her big day :).

And it was such a wonderful day. Ava was such a happy baby during the ceremony, and she was surrounded by so many people who love her!

Below is a copy of the program from that morning.

Our best family shot before the ceremony.

Three of my beautiful sisters.

(Sorry I didn't manage to get pictures of anyone else before the ceremony.)

Ava was mesmerized by all the people :).

And then it was time to begin...

Despite my Mom's pleas for a traditional, long baptism gown, I fell in love with this simple linen dress from Jacadi. Normally, I would never buy anything from that incredibly overpriced store, but it was for her baptism, I loved it, and when the sales lady told me everything in the store was 50% off, I was sold! I balanced it out by getting the shoes on sale from Carter's for about $5...and the headband was made by yours truly (it was definitely worth the hot glue gun burn).

And she looked so sweet :).

The photographer (aka Rhonda) didn't get a picture with Dr. Wilder in it (probably because she was trying to crop out the other family standing next to us), but we are looking at him in this shot. He graciously served as the assisting Elder for the ceremony, which made it even more special.

Doesn't Josh look handsome in his new suit :).

This picture is really blurry, but I had to include one "action" shot.

Ava didn't seem to mind the water at all....and he got her pretty good!

After the baptism, my Mom and Jimmy hosted a lunch at their house (they deserve a big thank you for all the work that went into it!).

Ava hung out with everyone for a little while before heading off for a long and well-deserved nap after a big morning.

She loved getting to see her Papa and Grammy, who came up from San Antonio.

And we managed to get a few more family pics.

Some of the lovely ladies in attendance: my Mom, Aunt Laura, cousins Isabel and Grace, and sister Charlotte (Lily and Sara had to leave before I got out the camera).