Blessings

I love baby blessing days.  I love the celebration of the new little one and the special Spirit that comes with a blessing from their father.  It felt really good to be back in church and to have our parents join us for the occasion.  I am blessed to have a wonderful husband, wonderful parents and in-laws, and these 3 children who drive me nuts, make me laugh, come up with funny things, and enrich my life while also stretching me to the limit and (hopefully) making me a better person.

I think I already posted that Chopper smoked a brisket to celebrate -- and have you seen the size of briskets?  We needed to do it when we had lots of people around to help us eat it! 

So excited!

He really wanted me to take a picture of the smoke ring.  That's the pink line that encircles the meat.  This is not raw, it's some kind of reaction from the smoking and it's a good thing.  It was a very tasty thing!!

My dad had to get in on the action and get excited about boiling the corn on the cob . . . and people wonder why I'm weird . . .

  Yesterday we attempted some "new" family pictures before going to church.  And I thought getting the girls to smile together was hard.  We took lots of pictures and there are very few where the 5 of us look good!!  But it's the whole family and that's what matters.

 I wanted something simple and classic and couldn't find anything I liked -- for a price that I liked.  Holy cow!  I am now planning on going into business for blessing / christening / baptism clothing.  You can make a killing!  Anyway.  William instead wore this outfit and shoes that my brothers wore when they were blessed. It fit him perfectly and he was very handsome.

 This is so typical.  Megan's mad because she kept insisting that Sid be in the picture and I kept telling her to get him out.

 I don't know what my face is doing here.

But this one turned out pretty good.

Oh and a better picture of Grandma Whittacre with William.  She went home today but we had a really good weekend with her and were really glad to have her with us for the time that we could.