The first weekend of April this year was Conference weekend plus Easter Sunday plus when we scheduled Tessa's baptism, so it was one busy weekend for us. But even before that weekend, our ward had their annual Easter Egg hunt and auction fundraiser. I took pictures of the girls as they searched for their eggs.
The youth also do an auction and we ended up bidding on a few things this year. Tyler and I got new sunglasses which I seriously needed, so that was fun. We also bid on and won babysitting, car washes, and a volleyball lesson for Abby which she was super excited about. It was a fun morning with so many people there like usual, so we all had a great Saturday.
In preparation for Tessa's baptism, I made her a white dress. She picked out the pattern and helped me pick out the material. It turned out so cute and we had a little fashion show once it was complete so I could have some pictures in her dress for invitations and announcements. I had fun taking pictures and luckily Tessa didn't mind too much either. She did refuse to let me do anything with her hair though. Oh well, that's Tessa so I guess that's how she should be remembered from her baptism. Here are some of our favorites starting with a close up of our cute Tessa and one of the entire dress.
I always love Tessa's cute princess poses and she had the cutest gap-toothed smile.
All of our pictures were taken around our house. I liked the different backdrops we could use including our rock wall, bushes, plants, and tree trunks. I had fun finding new places and poses to take the pictures.
I tried to get some action shots too, but most of those were a bit too crazy-looking because she jumped and spun making her hair fly up a little and she was laughing too much, so her face was almost too blurry. This was our favorite of that bunch. I loved how it captured her natural smile and bounciness though.
I believe I saved a picture from Abby's baptism photo shoot where Tessa got in one of the last photos, so when Aubrey came out near the end of this photo shoot, I didn't mind her getting in on this last one. Maybe in two years I'll have another one of Aubrey in a white dress and Taryn trying to join the photo. :) It just made me happy.
That first week in April we just prepared ourselves and our house for guests. Both grandparents showed up Thursday during the day. The girls couldn't wait for school to be over so that they could be home for when Grandmas and Grandpas showed up. Scott and Nevla and Chloe also came but got in really late Thursday night. My parents stayed in a hotel, but Tyler's parents and Scott and Nevla stayed with us. We had so much fun with everyone together. I fed them all dinner Thursday night and we just visited that first evening while the kids showed everything new to Grandma and Grandpa.
The girls practiced their musical number for the baptism since Grandpa Black played the piano for them. And Abby practiced the other songs because she was the chorister. She had been looking forward to doing that ever since her baptism. She thought it'd be fun to be the chorister at Tessa's baptism and since Tessa was fine with it, Abby did it and did a great job. Tessa's baptism was Friday evening, April 3rd, at 5:00pm. We spent the morning shopping and hanging out.We got to the church with barely enough time to take some pictures before we needed to start. We took some of the girls with Chloe and because I forgot to get one with our family when Abby got baptized I wanted to make sure I got one this time.
However, in doing that I forgot to get one of just Tessa with me and Tyler, so these'll have to do.
And here's our Tessa ready to be baptized. We're so proud of her and her decision to follow Jesus Christ and to be baptized a member of His church. My defining moment of the evening was right as Tessa went down the steps to join Tyler in the water. I had cried off and on through the talks and songs, but in that moment that Tessa walked down in the water, Tyler looked up at me and as our eyes met, I knew we were thinking the same thing - how happy we were and proud of Tessa we were and how we were in it together with our beautiful family and the children we had made and our love for each other. It was a sweet, special moment. And Tessa was so happy when she came out of the water. The first thing she told me as we went into the restroom to dry off and change was, "I want to do that again" with a big smile on her face. We then had a great discussion about going to the temple when she's older and doing baptisms for other people once she turns 12 so she can do it again then. It was a wonderful experience and I loved it!
After the baptism which finished beautifully, we took a few more pictures. Here is Tessa with her grandparents.
And then one with all the family who came to support Tessa. We had such a great time.
We ended up changing clothes at home and then going out for dinner. The Kasallis family joined us, so that was fun for our family to meet our closest friends. We were worried about finding a place that would take such a large group on a Friday evening, but since it was the Friday before Easter, many people were not eating meat, so our desire to get BBQ (Tessa's favorite) was perfect because when we called Famous Dave's they said it was surprisingly slow and they could take our group of 17 no problem. As we waited for everyone to park, this was the one picture I took at the restaurant. The girls wanted to dance on the rocks.
Saturday and Sunday we stayed home to watch conference on tv, play games, and do our Easter festivities like dye eggs and have an egg hunt. Tyler and his dad also finished making a turtle table which was the main present Tessa asked for, for her birthday. We went and picked out the tortoise that weekend too. Tessa already knew that she wanted to name him Buddy. We had been searching for the right tortoise for a couple weeks now. The funny story is we thought we had found one at Pet Barn when we saw the cutest little round tortoise there a couple months ago. I think that was one of the first things that got Tessa so excited about wanting to own one. Then when Tyler went back to possibly put one on hold for this particular weekend, the workers told him they could put it on hold, but wanted to know if Tyler knew this particular tortoise was a Sulcata tortoise and did he know that they get to be 100 pounds! Tyler came home from there and decided we needed to do a bit more research. It was pretty funny. So we found a more kid-friendly tortoise at Petsmart that only gets to be about 8 inches in diameter full grown. It's a Greek tortoise and Tessa loves it. We all love it actually and the table Tyler and his dad made is awesome and has the perfect viewing window to watch as Buddy roams around and eats his food. It's been a blast, although with our fish, guinea pig, and now tortoise, sometimes I really feel like I live in a zoo! Tessa says she wants to be a vet when she grows up so I guess it's all good practice for her.
We had an egg hunt in our front and back yard for all the kids. They loved finding their eggs and seeing what candy they were filled with. They also loved that some of the eggs had money in them, which is Tyler's family's tradition.
I took one last picture of these cute girls before putting my phone away to play games and watch conference. I love taking pictures of Tessa and Chloe because they are so similar in looks and build. We were so happy that Chloe came for Tessa's baptism and they all had so much fun with their cousin, staying up late every night and finding fun things to do together all weekend. We were so happy that both sets of grandparents came too. We also got nice messages from other family members who had been thinking about Tessa during her special time. We have such a wonderful family. We love them all!
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