Isabelle's baby blessing

We had Isabelle's baby blessing on July 13th. I was going to have it the week before (and the weather would have been perfectly cool/overcast, dangit) but my family was just getting back from a family reunion in Colorado and needed more time to recoup.

I was so excited to see her in the dress and bracelet (and headband that I stitched 5 minutes before church) that I made. She was supposed to wear some little eyelet shoes that Madelyn wore for her blessing, but I pulled them out and one of them had yellowed pretty badly. I've since washed it up but it was too late for the blessing. So she wore a different pair that were way too big but OH WELL. She still looked darling.

 Mark got her ready (rather unceremoniously) on the living room floor while the kids were already waiting in the car. We are ALLLWAYYYSS late for church but we did manage to get there 10 minutes early that day. It was a miracle, given everything I was trying to get done that morning.

But the tradeoff was that I didn't get any cute pics of just Isabelle in her dress that day. But I took some a week later, so whatever, man.

Mark gave a beautiful blessing and our dads, my brothers Tyler, Kevin and Shay helped, along with our friend Cam Norton. Isabelle Miranda Yoder fussed through half the blessing, the little dear.

We ditched the rest of church after Sacrament meeting and went to a park near my house for a picnic.

 

It was 93° and super humid that day--Mark said it felt like we were in North Carolina.

l-r: Nora, Shay, Emery and Maria Nielson, Ava, Monica, Nathan and Tyler Murset, Luke, Melissa, Isabelle, Mark and Madelyn Yoder, Megan, Carolyn, Rich, Gary, Lori, Hattie, Kevin and Jack Murset

 The food was awesome--we had this pasta salad, this cheesecake fruit salad (minus the marshmallows), pb&j for the kids, watermelon, carrots and dip, cookies, brownies and sandwich pinwheels from my Smith's deli. Yum yum.

 And my sister in law Monica made some lemon cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and decorated them to look like a little blessing dress!

It was melting hot, but we still had a good time. (My sister-in-law Nikki Yoder was there too but somehow didn't get photographed.)

One of the best parts was that my friend Anya got to come with her daughter Amber and husband James! They happened to be down visiting her mom in Hurricane.

Anya grew up next door to me and we were best buds. She's the one who keeps crocheting me all sorts of awesome stuff. Oh, and it happened to be her birthday that day! Wooo!!

My dad took some nice pics while I was busy running around being hostess:

 Auntie Meg (all my nieces and nephew's favorite auntie, by far)

 
One day shy of two months old.

 

 Mark's folks, Kathy and Frank Yoder. Glad to get a good picture of them!

Not sure if you can see the family resemblance in Mark....*chortle* Actually, Frank looks exactly like the Dalai Lama when he has his glasses on.

I love my in-laws!

 

My folks, Carolyn and Rich Murset

 

Afterwards, we went back to my place to sit in the air conditioning like big blobs. Kevin and Lori stuck around for a few more hours and the cousins got lots of time to play.

  

Hattie and Madelyn

 Luke and Jack

 

Gary :)

It was a great day, but I have to say I'm happy to have that event crossed off my list! Phew!