Emmeline's blessing

We blessed Emmeline on January 2nd in our church, hoping that more family could come because it was during the holidays. Unfortunately, that didn't turn out to be the case, so we would like to particularly thank Emmeline's grandparents, my sister, Rachel's family, and Nate's sister, Julie's family for making it.


We had friends make the trek out from Gilbert (thanks, Steeds!), and a whole host of ward family there.


I'm usually too overwhelmed to plan much beyond telling Nate and the bishop when we'd like to bless our baby. Maybe it's because Emmeline is such a good sleeper, maybe it's because I haven't sent out holiday cards or birth announcements that I had more time to make the day special, but I did a few things to try and make the day more significant:


Most importantly, Emmeline wore the same blessing dress every woman in the Sorensen (Nate's mom's) family has worn since Nate's grandma. Grandma Wanda took her wedding dress and made it into a blessing gown. It's beautiful and delicate, and I was in a panic that Emmeline would have a blow-out diaper wearing the 70 year old dress. I'm still breathing a sigh of relief that she didn't.

I told Nate that I needed Emmeline wrapped in a giraffe blanket that my Exponent blogger friends had given her. I loved that Emmeline would be blessed in blanket given by women I love, wrapped in a giraffe print that has special significance to me. Then, Nate forgot to take up the blanket...oh well.

My aunt, Carol, gave Emmeline a pearl bracelet, so I was able to have her wear something from her matrilineal line, and I decided to wear the pearls I wore on my wedding day as a kind of other connection.

And, Nate gave a short, but sweet blessing in church. Then, I gave my testimony during the meeting, explaining why we had named her (you can see this post for the details) and how I hoped that she would take after the man and women she was named after.


Then, we ended the busy day with a pie party with more friends and family. Judy and Julie made some French silk pies, my mom made my favorite peanut butter pies, Nate made his famous banana cream pies, and I made a key lime and a couple of apples. Seriously, if you have to plan an easy party, do a pie party!

A lovely day, but I must admit that I'm not that sad that it was the last baby blessing day I have to organize.