Aiden's Baptism!

My amazingly fun little nephew was baptized this November.  He actually turned 8 in August, however, he wasn't baptized until a few weeks ago because he was working on finishing the Book of Mormon.  He and his dad had been reading for quite some time and Aiden made the decision (according to his dad) to finish it first!

He is such a handsome little man!  I can still remember holding him the moment I got back from a Bear Lake trip with my then boyfriend (the hubs!) He was born while I was away and I was so mad that I went when I should have known better.  He has grown into a kid who has a wild imagination, has so much energy it's exhausting, and he loves his baby cousin Asher so much.  He dotes on him when ever they are together.  

Aiden with his mom:

Aiden with his dad: 

I wish circumstances in our family would have been better, but as it was, we were able to go and my dad was a witness and he and Paul stood in the circle to confirm him afterwards.  

I was so excited to give him my gift afterward!!  I looked and looked for ideas that would be unique but special.  I didn't know his ring size and I figured he'd probably get a CTR ring from someone, I didn't want to do those subway art picture frames I see everywhere now because I know he wouldn't have cared about that at all.  I searched for a few things and started coming across a few necklaces but they were too girly for me and too impersonal.  But then I remembered that I have a friend who has a hand-stamped jewelry business and I got on her facebook to look at some of the pictures.   I came across her hand-stamped dog tag and then {angel choir} it hit me!!!  BAM!!! Right across the face - almost.

I wanted to do a dog tag for him and engrave something meaningful about his baptism.  I looked up real Army tags to see what kind of information they put on those.  I did it as close as possible, omitting his social and blood type and instead putting in his birth date and baptism date.  

I wanted some sort of saying to tie in with the dog tags and I couldn't think of anything off the top of my head, I went to the Children's Songbook online and browsed through the topics and then suddenly...it hit me again!!! KAPOW!!   The Army of Helaman song!!!! Duh - it should have been obvious from the start.

So I had "I am a stripling warrior" engraved on the second tag.  (it was actually super cool that I was able to have the two dog tags engraved separately instead of both having to be the same - oh and I ordered it here for a stellar price from Dog Tags Online - the silencers even come free and you get to pick the color!).  See how awesome they turned out???  

I wrote him a card explaining the song and the story in the BOM of the stripling warriors and told him that he is now a warrior who will help bring the world His truth.

I was super duper pleased with my brain for putting this all together and having it be my original idea (so far as I know ha ha).  I am now going to make this a tradition for all my nephews who get baptized.   And guess what??? Aiden LOVED it!!  He was wearing it even as I saw him walk out the doors to go home :)  And now Dallin can't wait to get his.  

I'm the coolest aunt.  EVER.