Shasta's Blessing

Yay for finally blessing Shasta on August 7, 2011! Three and a half months is a long time to wait, but with my family coming from Arizona and Oregon we had a lot of schedules to work around to get as many as we could here. My parents and all of my siblings except my brother were able to come. I honestly didn’t think any of my family would be there so it was a nice surprise that most all of them were able to make it. And all but one stayed at my house! My little tiny townhome housed my parents, my sister Kiley, her husband and two kids (ages 12 and 7), my sister Lacey and her 9 month old baby, and Nick, Wedge, Shasta, and me! My sister Sally and her family stayed with her husband’s Aunt. It was fun having all of them at my house the whole weekend! It’s been a while since we’ve all been together.

Shasta looked beautiful. Nick’s incredibly talented Mother made her dress, shoes, and bonnet. It was Nick’s idea for the bonnet. I was skeptical at first, but she looked super cute and I thought it was fun because it’s not something you really see anymore (or ever?). My contribution was her bracelet. I wanted to make something for her, but I can’t sew to save my life and it’s August so a blanket would have been silly. A bracelet was perfect!

Nick gave her a beautiful blessing. Afterwards he told me he didn’t say half of what he wanted to, but that’s okay because what he did say was perfect for her. He also shared his testimony which was something I was looking forward to. The first fast Sunday after Shasta was born he promised me that he would share his testimony on her blessing day. I patiently waited for the day to finally come and it was well worth the wait. I love listening to Nick talk about the gospel and what he knows to be true. I didn’t share my testimony mostly because it seems to be some unspoken tradition among the LDS community so I decided to be different! Nick said he felt like the Bishop was giving him a stare-down to persuade me to take a turn and I told him I felt the same way which is why I didn’t make eye contact with him! Plus I would have talked about Shasta’s birth and how it affected my testimony and I feel like everyone’s already heard it from reading my blog so there it is. Maybe next month!

Afterwards we had lunch in the pavilion behind the church and served Mexican Haystacks, dessert, and Shasta drinks. Aww! Everything was delicious and even some of my neighbors got to share in the leftovers. There were THREE CROCKPOTS OF BEANS left after all was said and done. Holy have some beans! So three of my neighbors got some beans and salsa because the next day I was headed to Oregon for a few days and I didn’t want any of it to just sit in my fridge and go bad.

I’m glad everything went smoothly and I didn’t feel stressed about it. The Hendricks Bed and Breakfast (where we provide the bed and you provide the breakfast) is officially closed until next summer when I hopefully convince all of them to come and stay again! If they haven’t moved here already that is!