Olivia's Baby Blessing *July 7th 2013*

The night before Olivia's blessing I want to take photos of her in her dress.  It didn't go so well. You see - I'm not a professional photographer. I'm not a hobby photographer. I own a iphone and I don't even have the skills to take a selfie. It's no big deal. There are people you can pay to do that sort of thing but I didn't think about that (or have her dress done) far enough in advance. While doing this little photo shoot we learned that Olivia didn't like the fabric of her dress. She cried and cried and cried. The next morning we remedied that by simply adding a onsie.

Originally the plan was for everyone to come to our house for brunch around 11:00am and then we would have brunch - go to the blessing and then go straight to Tyce's blessing followed by lunch with the Hales. Well that plan "fell" through. That's right - My mom/Nicole's church's roof fell in because of a water leak. Now they had to have their blessing at a different building and a different time. Now there was a fear that people would have to choose which one to go to. This was even more frustration because Evan and his family had decided to come to town for the blessings. They figured they could be to both blessings so they made the effort to be here. Tyce's blessing was first. I figured it was Nicole's first baby and my moms first Grandbaby so people should go to that. So we started brunch a little earlier and everyone but Eric & Suzy and Nicole came over. With the help of Steven's mom we had Breakfast Caserole - a Crepe bar (I cooked them for an hour or two the day before) - and hash brown casserole.

I also had grape juice mixed with sprite for the drink. I should have thought that through a little more...
 So right her you will have to use your imagination because apparently I don't have a photo of this...I thought I did. Imagine 2 year old Sam in his suit covered in grape juice.

So this may be the photo - after the first spill. It did eventually become more dramatic than this. Imagine a murder scene.

Oh and all the nice photos were courtesy of Spence. Brothers are great.  It really was so fun to have Evan and his family there.

I don't think Evan has ever really held many of my babies. It was really special for me to see that. He wasn't too willing to give her up.

After brunch everyone from my family except Spence and DeAnn (they felt someone should be there representing our family) went to Nicole's ward.

Obviously there were other people there besides my family. :) That's just was I was extra focused on because of everything happening with the other blessing. Steven's family was there as well but most of them had to miss the brunch - or came late.

Steven's friends were there as well but again some made it to brunch and some didn't.
Once we got to church I kept praying that everyone would be able to make it back to Olivia's blessing. There was another family blessing their baby so I had arranged for them to go first and I kept praying that he would give a nice long blessing. Nicole's meeting started at 12:30 in Cottonwood Heights and ours started at 12:50 in Sandy. I was so happy to see all my brothers (except Eric - he stayed with Nicole) walking up to stand in the circle. It turned out that they walked in during the opening song!

Lithia was so thoughtful and took notes for me. I'm so glad she did because blessing days are so busy and it's hard to think about doing those types of things.  First she made a list of those in the circle - Steven - Tim - Wade - Dad - Spencer - Blake - Evan - Cliff - Jason - Eric - Derek - Dallin - Bishop Swenson

These are her notes:  "Heavenly Father by the Melchizedek priesthood - we take this baby in our arms to give her a name and a blessing. And that name that she will be known through her life and on the records of the church is Olivia Grace Heumann...Brothers and Sisters who love you...look up to them...you have a strong family - strong bonds - many cousin's uncles - aunts who love you...be close to your Heavenly Father. We Bless you as you grow...follow good examples...go to the temple...Bless you to be service-minded...to help when you can...There is so much love...so blessed...appreciate..& have great gratitiude for what you have in this life. We love you Olivia and say these things in teh name of Jesus Christ Amen." Steven had invited several people form his office to attend. He is the only member of the church at his office. Chad (his boss who was a member in his youth) came. He and Steven have had several spiritual discussions and he and his wife- who is Catholic -  often visit their LDS ward. Well anyway - Chad came and sat right by us. He wanted to hold Olivia and he wouldn't let her go. I told him that if his back got sore to hand her back. He said he didn't care if his back was sore. In fact later he admitted that it was sore the next day. People love to hold Olivia! There is something extra special about her! There will be more about that and other's loving to hold her in future posts.  Anyway - Chad's daughters are grown now and he missed a lot of their childhood - it was so fun to see him hold her. He even got a little emotional. I had to break church rules and sneak a picture.

After the blessing we headed over to my mom's for Tyce's lunch. Eric and Suzy hadn't met Olivia yet so they got to hold her and see her for the first time. My mom's health had been giving me some concerns so my brother's and I had a little discussion while we were all together. I scheduled her a doctors appointment a day or two later. We also (this may have been later) set up a time to get together and discuss what we could all do to help her and what plans to make for the future.

It was a great day and I was so happy to be able to spend it with all four of my brothers.