Breaking News: Biggest Baby Ever Blessed!

In the L.D.S. church, we don't baptize new babies.  We do, however, bless them.  Specifically, a worthy male member of the church holding the Melchizedek priesthood, usually the Baby-Daddy, will give the newborn a name (officially entered into church records) and a blessing.

Baby blessings generally occur in front of the congregation on the first Sunday of the month.  (The first Sunday of the month is also reserved for Fast and Testimony meeting.)  Most babies are blessed at around two or three months old.

(Top two photo's by Maxwell.)

Unfortunately, when Baby Gray was born, Doug's good friend Merrill was still deployed to Afghanistan.  Since our friends here are our family, we wanted to wait for him to be able to participate.  

But by the time Merrill came home, Doug's good friend Wes had been deployed to Korea.  So of course, we wanted to wait for him to be here to participate.

Which is why Baby Gray was just blessed this month at the ripe old age of six months.  (And he wasn't happy about it.  He cried all the way through the blessing.)  I'm surprised the men didn't drop the little tank!  Had we waited any longer, he could have hopped down and crawled away.

Now, these blessings can be audibly recorded, (we usually drop a tape recorder in Doug's suit pocket) but video recordings and photographs are generally (okay, always) frowned upon in the Chapel.

(These are some of the best men I know.)

But Doug's Catholic dental assistant didn't know that when she recorded the blessing on her i-Phone and took a bunch of pictures!  Which is why we're probably the only family you know with a video recording of their baby blessing!  :)  (Thanks May!  You rock!)  :)

Anyway, we were very happy to finally bless our sweet little Grayson, incredibly grateful to have Merrill and Wes back safely to participate, (with Doug's other wonderful friends; Mark, Rob, Ryan, and Dave), and thrilled that so many other friends and co-workers not of our faith, made the effort to be there to support us.  

(Yes, his name is still Grayson Brandon.  Doug didn't pull any last second switch-a-roos)

It means a lot--especially when we're so far from home and have no "real" family attending.  (I say "real" to differentiate--not diminish--their importance since, as I said, our friends here are our family.)

We love you Gray-Gray!  Glad you're finally "official"!

(By-the-way, the two blog posts linked above are two of my favorite posts ever!!!)

Rhymes with "Great's"

Last night we went to dinner at the home of our very good friends. The very first week I went to church here, I met 'the husband'. For the sake of anonymity, we'll call him "Brother First-Counselor-in-the-Bishopric". He was very friendly, introduced me to various members of the ward, and immediately called me to be a primary teacher. (And yet we still became friends!)

His wife I got to know in a different way. We sat in front of their family in Sacrament Meeting a few times, and based solely on one sarcastic/hilarious comment she made, I knew we could be friends.  So I invited their family over for dinner.  When she took my side teasing Doug and laughed at his jokes, (which most people don't know are jokes) I knew we'd be BFF's. 

It's one of those rare and covetous situations where you and your husband get along with both husband and wife, and the kids all get along with each other. It doesn't happen very often and we're really going to miss them.

Anyway, before I get teary, I'm going to post some pics I took. I was really trying hard to take super cool/hip/edgy/artsy pics like my Cousin Wendy and Fab-Photog-Jen take. But as usual I only succeeded in making them look crooked and out of focus. 

Oh well. 

Here they are:

Babies:  Seth and Gabey

Sweet and funny Heather with brother Seth.  (Doug calls her 'Leather'.)

Joshua and Doug are always discussing similar books and authors they like.  Josh is a super smarty.

Isaiah is a very sweet kid and is always nice to my little boys.  And he's got a great sense of humor.

It's important to note that Leslie is older than Max.  But she still plays with him.  

She reminds me of me as a kid.  Only she's nicer.  But that is TOTALLY my childhood hairstyle.  Cute girl!

This is our most auspicious Good Luck Cookie with Japanese characters.  I may or may not have had more than two pieces.Thanks for the fun night!  Sorry for keeping you up so late.  We'll miss you guys!!!

Must stop blogging and clean the house now!  

Must stop blogging and organize the house now!  

Must stop blogging and get something done now!  

Must stop blogging!!!!

***Not a Mormon?  Want to know what a Bishopric is?  Click here!***

Where Dreams DO Come True

I'm sorta bossy. It's one of my worst characteristics and one that made me a very annoying person to be around from about the 3rd to 9th grade. Starting my sophomore year I learned a TINY bit of self-control, but still managed to get into trouble occasionally by trying to bend people to my will. Which is what I did last night.

I made our friends have a "sleep-over" with us. The whole family. All five of them. I begged, and coerced, and hid their daughters shoes (I really didn't but I should have) and bribed, and bossed, until they were too tired to fight anymore and they gave in. Score one for the bossy chick!

See, what happened was, they came over for dinner last night...but we didn't get started until late, and their baby was already asleep in the Pack 'n Play, and then the other kids were just having so much fun, and they still hadn't watched the "Lost" season finale we DVRed for them, and their house is all packed up, so...

I just got out the Aerobed, and after that...resistance was futile. And besides, we do have about 3,648 extra toothbrushes so it's not like THAT was a problem.

The thing is, Diane is one of my first Rhode Island friends! (Right after Fabulous Photographer Jen!) And we have quite a bit in common! We both moved here right out of Dental School so our husbands could start the same Pediatric Dental Residency. We both have little kids who like to play together, we both had our third child here within weeks of each other, we both got called to work in primary, we both love to read and eat ice cream (not necessarily at the same time )and we both have had to adjust to East Coast life and Resident-Wife status together.

And now they are moving to Arizona in a few short days, and we're moving to Japan in a few short weeks, never to see or hear from each other again!!! (Except when we meet up at the AAPD convention in Hawaii next year. And except for blogging, letters, e-mails, and phone calls. But you know what I mean!)

So, we convinced them to stay over last night. And this morning we had yummy Crepes for breakfast. And tomorrow we're forcing them to come over for dinner again.

So at least now I feel a little more bonded to them and a little more prepared to say good-bye.

But not really. Maybe I can talk Diane into two more sleepovers!


Gotta go. I've got a phone call to make!

P.S. Doug wrote a good summary of all of our adventures this last week. You should read THAT next!

J is For...Cheesecake

I have a lot of Jennifer's in my life. First and foremost, there's my sister Jenny. You may recall she recently visited here from Virginia. Next we have the "ward Jen's". J-Co the Primary President and her counsellors Jenni M. and Jen T. All good friends of mine. Of course, we can't forget FabulousPhotographerJen (previously of R.I.) of Jen Lee Photography.

Friends Jenn Ross and Jenny Fairbanks were in my San Francisco ward, and Jennerator I've know since High School.

That's eight Jennifers, but I'm probably forgetting a few.
{Sorry Jen(s)}

Anyway, for the most part these Jen's don't have a lot in common. Except two. My sister Jenny F. reminds me of my friend Jenni M.

Here's what they have in common: Both of them are soft spoken, both have serious Internet Safety concerns, both have recently had serious below-the-knee fractures, and both love to BAKE! While Jenny my sister was visiting, she made us the best Ciabatta bread to go with our pizza one night! I'm getting hungry just thinking about it. She's also the source of numerous other delish recipes.

Sort of like Jenni M., my friend and neighbor who stopped by with this yesterday:

Yep, that's right. Chocolate Cheesecake. But not just any Chocolate Cheesecake. Only the most delicious Chocolate Cheesecake I've ever eaten. (Better than any Cheesecake Factory offering I've tried...and that's sayin' something.) One of the best Chocolate desserts I've ever tasted! Like top three.
What did I do to deserve this? I had a birthday.

Bet you wish you were me, huh?!?

THANK YOU Jenni M.!!! You're my new favorite Jennifer!
Not that I have favorites or anything...

Gotta go. I have some eating to do.

I love Jen's!

Random Kindness

FIRST: I would just like to state that we had an extremely fun visit this last week and it's all thanks to blogs. Yes, that's right, BLOGS!

If it weren't for the fact that I'm a loyal reader of the "D" family blog, (and therefore in the know about practically everything happening in their lives,) I never would have invited them to come. BUT since I am a faithful reader, I had no problem asking Lindsay, whom I've previously only met two times, to drag her family from Utah to Rhode Island to help celebrate Doug's birthday. And I'm pretty sure, if it weren't for the fact that she reads my blog, she wouldn't have come.

So YAY for blogs and YAY for visitors!!! (So is that the way to spell "yay", because I used to spell it yeah, but in the Bible it's yea, so I'm just not sure...)

ANYWAY!!! Back to why I started this post. Driving to Boston with the D Family the other day, I remembered something that happened on my previous trip to Boston. And it made me want to write a post in honor of all the people in the world whom I don't actually know but who rock.

So here goes;

Two Boston trips ago, I went to pick-up my mom at the Logan airport. She was in town to meet Baby Gabe who was only a few weeks old. By the time I got to the airport, he had been screaming for about 10 minutes and was ready to eat. I made the first loop around the pick-up area, didn't see her, and kept driving because the traffic cop wasn't letting anyone stop. Second time around, I couldn't handle it any more. It was killing me to hear Gabe crying and the other two boys loudly telling him to stop wasn't helping. I pulled over, hopped out, and got Gabe quickly out of his car seat. I figured the cop would soon be over to get me to move but figured it was better than nothing.

I was right. He saw me pulled over, saw that no one was being picked up, and came right over. Then he saw how frantic Gabe was and how distraught I looked because he said, "I can't let you stop here because I just got rid of all those other people, but if you want to pull around again, you can park right over there in the taxi area and tend to your baby."

He was a big burly black cop but I so wanted to kiss him right then! I quickly strapped Gabers back in, drove the loop again, parked where he had shown me, and proceeded to nurse Gabe until Faezer came out 15 minutes later. (That's how long I would have been driving in circles with a screaming baby if it weren't for that wonderful, wonderful man.)
THANK YOU WONDERFULLY KIND AND BRILLIANT LOGAN AIRPORT TRAFFIC COP!!!

Next: More recently when we were on our trip to Maine we stopped at a beach in Acadia N.P. To access the beach you had to take a long, narrow wooden staircase down to the water. When we were leaving, I got a head start up the stairs with Max, and Gabe in the Baby Bjorn. Half way up, Max, who was (as usual) running, tripped and fell pretty hard on the stairs. Hearing him crying, a boy around the age of 10, stopped, turned around, saw me with a baby strapped to my chest, and walked back down to Max. He asked him a few times if he was okay, then waited to see if Max needed help getting up and watched him with concern until he did. None of the nearby adults bothered to help, including the boys mom who looked at him with confusion. He was obviously nervous and a little embarrassed, (he kept looking at me like I might shoo him away) but he stayed put right by Max until he was sure he was okay and could make it the rest of the way up the steep stairs. I was VERY impressed by him and thanked him profusely for trying to help my little Maxer. THANK YOU YOUNG BOY WHO GAVE ME HOPE FOR THE FUTURE OF MANKIND!!!

Last one: This one is a bit old, but we still praise the unknown name of this unknown lady. It was last summer. After dragging two kids around New York City all day on foot, we found ourselves at the Empire State Building. Since we'd been wanting to see it, and we were there, we bought tickets to go up to the top. Then we got in line. Turns out, you have to wait in line to take the elevator to the top and the line was about 2 hours long. We were despondent. We didn't know what to do. We had already purchased our tickets, but we also had two tired boys with us, and a long way to go to get back to our hotel. We were planning to give up and get out of line when Doug stopped an employee to ask her advice. He told her our boys were exhausted and asked if it was really going to take 2 hours? Should we wait? Could we come back and use our tickets later? She looked us over and said "Come with me." Confused, we got out of line and followed her through a back hallway that led...

...to the front of the line. She left us in front of some elevators and said "Wait here." and then left to get back to her job. It took us a minute to figure out that she had just placed us two hours ahead of where we had just been! Doug barely had time to rush back over to her and thank her before the elevator came and whisked us up a million stories. (Where my fear of heights was further cemented. But that's another story.) THANK YOU ESB EMPLOYEE WHO SAVED US FROM AN EVENING OF MISERY!!!

SO! to you three kind people, we send you positive psychic vibrations whenever we think of you. May you be eternally blessed with the closest parking spot to the mall entrance and freedom from indigestion for all of your days. Because YOU ROCK!!!