Blessing Day - and a truly epic Blessing Gown

On Sunday March 18, 2018 Jared blessed our sweet Edythe Rose at our church.  A baby blessing is a ritual in which men who hold the Priesthood gather in a circle around a baby, and in Edythe's case, her father, pronounces her name for the records of the church, and provides a blessing for her spiritual and physical welfare. I love to see my babies, surrounded and held up by righteous men, while being blessed with a wonderful life. Edythe was surrounded by her dad, most of her uncles, her grandfathers, and a close friend.  I hope that as she grows up she knows that these strong, worthy men of God will continue to support her and that she can go any one of them if she ever needs them. 

No pictures are taken of the actual blessing, but we definitely took a few afterward.  You see, the dress she was wearing is truly epic.  It embodies 10 years of dreaming of a girl.  I started crocheting this beauty when I was pregnant with Eli, and didn't finish it until after I had Atticus.  I worked on it every time I got pregnant, and stopped once I had another boy.  While I would have been perfectly happy to have to knit up another something for another boy, it was sure nice to see it on a little girl of my own. 

 All of my lovelies.  Aren't they adorable!?

My biggest and my littlest.  Evy is lucky to have a wonderful older sister, who has shown her just how to be a good big sister, herself. She is absolutely thrilled to have a baby sister, also. 

And the boy's, who it's obvious completely adore this little nugget.

My mom and I.  I'm wearing a necklace that my Grandma Jackson (Edythe) gave me at my university graduation. It's an Egyptian cartouche with "Edythe" on it in hieroglyphs. She would love to know that she has a namesake.

And 4 generations of Jared's family, his mom and Granny. Can I say how stinking lucky I am to have married into such a family!

Okay, and just a few more of Edythe and the dress, because seriously, 10 years. 

Blessing Day

On Sunday June 3, 2012 Atticus was given a name and blessing by his daddy at our church.  I love baby blessings.  I love watching as the tiniest of babies are surrounded by good men, who hold the Priesthood of God, and give that little one a blessing.  In Atti's blessing circle was his Daddy, his uncles, Aaron, Matt and Matt, Tyler, Mark, Arvid, Doug, Brad, his two grandpas, Bumpa and Grandpops, and his Great Grandpa Hudson.  It was a huge circle, but so wonderful.  

The biggest trick on blessing day is to keep baby clean, all dressed in white, until after the blessing, at least.  Since sleeping babies make the least mess (as long as I can keep big brothers away), I made sure to nurse him first, dress him quickly thereafter, and then keep him asleep right until the blessing. He was asleep before we left the driveway!

Each of my boys have their own blessing suit.  Renee helped me with the first, but because Eli was so tiny when he was born, there was no way it would have fit Silas.  So, Renee offered to sew up another for him.  When Atticus was born it just seemed necessary that he have his own as well, so I showed Renee what I was looking for, and she went to work. I sewed the bow tie, and knit the hat, and doesn't he look adorable?!

 The blue blanket is the very one that Jared was blessed in when he was a baby. His Grandma Wiebe knit it just for him. 

I love this look of Atti's.  He's a dream, and I love him so much!

What we did for General Conference

Every 6 months our church holds a General Conference for the world wide membership.  The most recent was held last weekend.  It is broadcast from Salt Lake City, and members the world round can sit and watch the Prophet and other leaders of our church for two whole days.  I love General Conference.  I love "sitting" at the prophet's feet, listening to the word of God.  I love gathering with family to do so.  And, I'm beginning to love helping my boys enjoy it as well. This time, for the first time, I did a pretty good job of preparing for General Conference, so that my boys would be occupied enough to make the occasion pleasant for us all.  I know asking a 4 and 2 year old to sit quietly and watch church talks on the TV for 8 hours is a little much, but I really wanted them to be in the room, quietly playing and doing meaningful things, so that even if they didn't hear or understand the words that were spoken, they would feel the spirit of God that always is there during Conference. 

So, I spent a whole day driving through the city buying things to keep the boys busy.  It was fun to think of things for each 2 hour session, plus all the meals.  This is what our General Conference looked like:

 I finished a baby quilt I started 2 years ago.  Yeah!

 Mom quilted, too.

For the kids we bought these baskets, and before each session we filled them with a treat, a juice box, a craft and a toy.  The kids were allowed to play with what was in their baskets, but they were expected to do so quietly and in the room with us. Even Mari and Silas were overjoyed!

  The boys made Lego temples.  They were so creative!  This activity was the most fun, because it meant that we could take a trip to the Lego store to pick a whole box of white Lego in the "pick your brick" section. I'm not a big Lego fan, but this was FUN!

 Lego really needs to come up with an Angel Moroni mini-fig!

 

 I think this was the bus that brought the people to Andy and Eli's temple.

And, in between sessions of Conference, the mass of kids blew off all their excess energy outside. 

And while they did that, we spent the time inside thinking about food.  Here's an example of a bit of the raw food deliciousness we enjoyed!

I love to See the Temple

Yesterday we went to the Cardston Temple.  It has honestly been ages, and it was so good to go. I'm so glad we decided to do it before this baby comes, because I know it will be another long while before I get to go again.  My mom and dad went earlier in the day, so we drove down to Cardston, spent a few minutes walking around taking pictures, then traded the boys off with them and went in ourselves.  Afterward we just met up with mom and dad to get the boys back.  It was a perfect plan!

 Look how large I look in that dress.  I love it!

 Renee came along. I love Renee.

 First I'm going to cut my belly out of the side of this picture, and then I'm going to frame it and hang it in Eli's room.  He's so cute.

Silas is crying because he was convinced that he was going to fall off that 1 foot ledge.  Poor boy.

And, when we got out of the session it looked a little different.  I love the snow.  I love the temple.  I love Jared.