MJ's Blessing Day

Sunday, September 5th
MJ had a rough day on her blessing day. I was hoping to make it to the whole block of church meetings since both sets of grandparents were there, but MJ just wasn't cooperating. I was finally able to get her settled down, changed into her blessing dress and then got her to sleep about 30 minutes before Sacrament Meeting time. So I walked with her to church and she made it through most of the blessing without crying - just a little bit at the end when she woke up. DH gave her a beautiful blessing and then after Sacrament Meeting we came back to the house for a dinner with the family members that attended the blessing with us - both sets of grandparents, my sister & her husband & son and then two of DH's uncles with their wives and two of his cousins with their families.

I really owe a lot of thanks to Mom N for all of the cleaning that she did in preparation for the dinner and for her basically running the show on the blessing day - getting the food ready and served and then cleaning up afterwards. I didn't really do a thing. Unfortunately MJ had a particularly bad stomach that day and cried and nursed a lot throughout the day. I almost wonder now if we should have waited another month before we blessed her since she's been getting much better since then...
On the walk back to our house, MJ had a blowout diaper that got all over her blessing dress. As soon as we got home I had to change her out of it and wash out the mess by hand before it stained the white dress. These family pictures were taken after most of the extended family had left and the dress had a chance to dry...