1st Comes Love...: In this little white dress...

...Both Mommy and I were blessed

Ok, so this is two (almost 3) weeks late (leave me alone! I have a new baby...) but Hailey had her first real, big day! We blessed Hailey in church on April 29th. It was such a beautiful turn out and a beautiful day. Hectic, but beautiful.

It started off the Thursday before with Ryan's dad flying in. Ryan's brother Gary was also in Indiana for a medical conference that weekend. We had fun showing Hailey off to them and, to be honest, it was really nice to have extra pairs of arms to help hold Hailey, when she would let them that is. Grandpa G. was with us the longest so he definitely got to spend the most time with her. I think he really enjoyed it. We spent the weekend doing a number of things. We introduced Ryan's dad to our home cooked french dip sandwiches (so dang good!) on Friday night, then we met up with Gary and his co-worker in Indy for dinner at the Spaghetti Factory on Saturday. We had a lot of fun with them even though Hailey kinda screamed for most of dinner. It was the first time we had ever taken her out and it actually went fairly well. After she finally fell asleep :) It was fun though!

On our way to Indy though, I got a special phone call. My dad called to tell me he was in town. He and Deborah surprised me! It was so nice and fun to see him. I was really grateful he was able to make it and be apart of Hailey's blessing. Other people who came to be apart of her big day were, Uncle John, Aunt Addi and cousin Sandy, Aunt Tracy and Uncle Jim, Michael and Jamie, Aunt Olivia, (Uncle Dallin was sick that day), Bob and Connie, the Craftons, McQuays, Taylor Wells, James Klatt, Tim Maynes, Bishop Frances, and the Woodwards. We also had some non member friends come support sweet Hailey. Kelsey and Michelle from my work came and Ryan's co-doctoral student Harry came. It was so nice for all our friends and family to be there.

Ok, now for the real story on how the actual blessing day went down...

Ryan and his dad left around 10 o'clock to go pick up Gary and Gary's co-worker Scott. I was left to get Hailey and I ready which actually went fairly smoothly. Ryan and I decided to use my blessing dress to bless Hailey in. 1.) Blessing dresses are freaking expensive! and 2.) we had mine and it is still in fairly good condition so I thought it would be really cool to use it for Hailey too. My dress had yellowed due to age so I spent 2 days soaking it to turn it white again (oxi clean is my new best friend!). It worked and was ready to be worn again. I waited until the last possible minute to put Hailey in the dress because she spits up so much. Luckily once in the dress she kept the spit up to herself and we were able to get a few pictures before we headed off to church. Just our luck, there was an enormous amount of traffic which caused us to walk in right on time and the rest of my family to be late. (Tracy, Jim, Michael, and Jamie were actually so late they missed the blessing altogether and rolled in right after sacrament. They felt so bad!)

As we walk into the chapel-as church is JUST starting- Hailey starts screaming. I mean full on screaming. So I quickly run out and start roaming the halls trying to get her to sleep. Finally I get her to sleep like 5 minutes before she is to get blessed- just my luck we didn't have any announcements or sustainings to stall and buy me some more time. So the moment comes and Ryan takes Hailey and what does she do? Wakes up. Waking up = crying. Yep, Hailey cried through the ENTIRE blessing. I felt so bad for Ryan who must have been nervous. But the blessing was beautiful and the spirit was so strong. Ryan never gets emotional but he did during the blessing, which of course started the water works for not just me but Addi as well, and I'm sure more people. The blessing ends and Ryan hands Hailey back to me and what does she do? She stops crying instantly and falls back asleep instantly... Yep. She is a little stink. It got a few people to chuckle. Ryan's brother had to leave right after sacrament to catch his flight back home so him and his dad left for the airport.

After sacrament tons of people came up to congratulate me and see Hailey. James Klatt was so nice and actually wrote down the blessing for me and found me to give it to me. I was so happy to have it in writing! So I put it in a pocket of the diaper bag for safe keeping...

Then it was time to chat with the family and tell everyone thanks and all that fun stuff. Deborah wanted to hold Hailey so I handed her off. A little while later as we were trying to decide if we should go home and start getting dinner ready, Deborah announces that she could tell Hailey was pooping. We decided to go home to get stuff ready and I take Hailey to put her in her car seat and what do I see? POOP. All over the back of the dress and the blessing blanket Aunt Aimee made for her. Of course she decided to poop all over it at church and before I could get pictures of her in it with the rest of the family. I rushed off to the mother's room to change my poopy girl. In the process of changing her I must have dropped the copy of her blessing because when I got home to read over it again, it was gone. Heartbroken! So before I forget more of it I will say that it talked about how she will be blessed with the ability to love and she will be a light to us and her siblings. She is a special little girl. Honestly I don't remember the rest but those were the parts that really stood out to me and both Ryan and I felt the spirit so strong when he said that.

Dinner went smoothly (which is really shocking when you put all my family in one house) and we had a great time. It was a funny, hectic, beautiful, special day and I'm so thankful Hailey was sent to our family. Can't wait to see what the next baby blessing will bring... ok, maybe I can... :)