Bless This Tess

I love baby blessings. Who doesn't? It's hard to go wrong with cute babies and loving fathers (and the mothers who support them). Definitely one of my favorite ordinances. I especially love it when one of my own babies gets blessed. It makes me appreciate my family, the priesthood, and the gospel so much. And because we're always showered with love and support by amazing friends and relatives, it makes me incredibly grateful for all the wonderful people in my life. Tessa's blessing yesterday was no different from the others. Tessa managed to draw quite the crowd and she was blessed with some incredible gifts (Carter, as always, did a beautiful job). She looked lovely in the gorgeous dress Grandma Durham sent from England when she was there. She looked just like a little fairy! After the meeting, we all headed over to the Durhams' for the most delicious luncheon.

This could have been a dynamic post if I had had the presence of mind to pull out my camera before 90% of the guests had left. I'm trying not to beat myself up too much because I neglected to take one single picture of the last two blessings (um, my poor middle children are going to hate me!), so at least I did a little better this time.

uh, what is up with my hair?

Tessa was so good. Not a peep during the blessing and then she submitted happily to being passed amongst her friends and relatives. She was a little worn out by the end but still incredibly sweet!

And, for those interested in insane odds, "With Humble Heart" was the Sacrament hymn (Carter's dad wrote the music for this one). And this isn't the first time it was selected at one of our baby blessings. It happened all four times. Our poor organist was mortified yesterday when she learned that the author of the music was in the congregation as she played (nobody told her until afterward). Since the odds are astronomical for it to be selected randomly all those times (Tom actually calculated them and the number was terribly impressive), we're thinking maybe the music coordinator might have done it on purpose. But either way, it's pretty cool that hymn #171 was part of each of our baby's blessings!

Thank you to everyone who was there for us, both in body and spirit! Tessa's one lucky little lady to have so many people that love and care about her.