Charlie's Baby Blessing

In Latter-day Saint churches, we like to give babies special blessings in church about a month or so after they are born. It's sort of like a christening, but we just call them "blessings." They are performed by a church member who holds the priesthood, usually the baby's father or another family member or sometimes another male member of the congregation that the family knows and loves. A circle of invited priesthood-holders stand in a circle and all help to cradle the baby in the middle. The person giving the blessing listens for inspiration from God as he speaks, so he knows what to say. It's very special. Hollie was blessed by David when she was a baby, and last Sunday Charlie got to be blessed by his Grandpa Sam (Dave's dad). 

Smiley Charlie

I love baby blessings. It's tradition to dress babies in white, and we dressed Charlie in this hysterical little white tux with short sleeves and short pants that my brother William had been blessed in when he was a baby, 21 years ago. (Hollie was blessed in the white dress that I had been blessed in as a baby. My mom is the complete opposite of a hoarder, but she does keep really good care of a few select things, and blessing outfits are one of those things.) It was really neat that Dave's dad gave Charlie his blessing, too (even though David waited until church had begun to ask his dad if he would be willing to do it! We're so grateful he said yes!). My favorite part, I think, was when Charlie was blessed that he would grow up to be "kind, obedient, and fun." It was a blessing full of love, and I am excited to see our fun little boy's personality grow in the coming year.

Charlie's Grandma and Grandpa Grover, his Aunt Liz, Mary, Sarah, and Uncle Angelo all got to come visit for the weekend, and our house was momentarily filled with way more stories, jokes, laughter, and Texas sheet cake than Dave or I could ever create with just the two of us, and, consequently, Hollie was SUPREMELY happy. Dave and I are far from boring, unless you are an almost-two-year-old, in which case I'm afraid we get to be desperately boring. So for three happy days, Hollie had a handful of people who were completely interested in everything she had to say, followed her from room to room, chased her around the backyard, and smothered her in tickles and kisses. Her Aunt Sarah gave her an enormous pink-and-white striped pig that is taller than she is, and Hollie fell immediately in love (pictures pending). It was a glorious weekend.

Hollie and her Aunt Mary having way too much fun.

Anyway, here are a million gazillion pictures of taking the family to the South Plains Fair (a last minute decision that meant leaving for the fair at 5:20 p.m., coming home at almost 8 p.m., making dinner and then eating it at 9 p.m. and putting Hollie to sleep at almost 10 p.m. AND IT WAS ALL WORTH IT!) After the fair pictures are a variety of family pictures taken outside of our church that will be interesting to nobody but our family, so feel free to skip all those if you want to! Or feel free to look closely at how my hair was clearly wet when I slept on it the night before and I'm pretty sure it didn't even get brushed out that morning. I blame 9:00 a.m. church. 

Appreciating prize-winning produce

We're so grateful for Sarah being willing to take Hollie into the petting zoo. Such a fabulous aunt!

Petting sort of sad-looking goats. We mean you no harm, little goat!

Hollie woke up Sunday morning asking to see the bunnies again.

First carousel ride! She *almost* liked it!

First carnival game! I sort of can't believe I let Holls stick her hand in that nasty butt water and touch those rubber ducks. I'm pretty sure if you looked at gonorrhea under a microscope, you would see something like these nasty old rubber ducks.

But it was worth it for this awesome PURPLE MONKEY! She looks apathetic here, but she was gaga about that monkey for the next 48 hours.

What could be better than grandparents and a fair? NOTHING! (Except maybe being old enough for the rides.)

Oh yeah, Charlie was there, too, wearing blue jeans for the first time in his life.

And now, without further ado, a selection of several family pictures in various combinations of church-clothed people:

Come back and visit soon, Grover fam!!