Simply Happy: Ellie's Blessing [8/7/16]

My excitement for Ellie's blessing began in high school. That's when I found out that my mom had saved the blessing dress she made me for my daughter to wear at her baby blessing someday. How tender is that?? As my 10 nieces and nephews who came before Ellie were blessed my excitement for my own daughter's (or son's! but you know, the dress) blessing grew and grew. When we found out we were having a girl I once again remembered the blessing dress and was beside myself with excitement to see my own little girl in my dress. I'm sentimental, okay?

Anyway, fast forward to six weeks after Ellie was born. I was a little nervous about the dress fitting because girlfriend was over 9 lbs at birth! But we tried it on a few days before and it fit perfectly. Cue our family coming into town! Family members started rolling in on Tuesday when Hailey and Kody came to spend the week with Grandpa and Grandma. Wednesday brought the Gandolas, Thursday brought the Hamblys, Friday brought Kenny and Grace and the rest of their cute kiddos as well as Mandi, and Saturday brought Ben's family! We were so happy to have all of our family in town! Ellie got a lot of love and attention and experienced a lot of firsts. I'll start with Friday because honestly I can't really remember what we did before that (mom brain?). Friday was Ellie's first time at the pool! We went to Sand Hollow with most of her cousins and she had such a good time that she sleep through the whole thing ;) But hey, I wasn't complaining. I was actually kind of surprised because it was really noisy but I guess all that noise lulled her right to sleep! We'll have to visit Sand Hollow more often :) She did look adorable in her teeny tiny swimsuit and I had fun watching the other kiddos swim and go down the slide! That night all of the adults went to the temple to do baptisms with Hailey for her first time (she just turned 12, which is SO crazy). They found over 100 family names to take and had an amazing experience. I'm so sad I couldn't be there! Meanwhile, I was at home with the other 10 grandchildren (9 years old and under, including 2 babies!). Thank goodness for Brielle who came and watched them with me. She took care of Nora, I took care of Ellie, and the other 8 just kind of ran wild and did their thing while we tried to get them to watch a movie haha. It was an adventurous night :)

Nora Grace and Ellie Grace--baby cuzzies/destined BFFs born 3 months apart to the day :)

On Saturday we went to Glitter Mountain! Yes, that is a real place. And it's awesome. It's a little mountain (pile of rocks?) in the middle of nowhere covered in gypsum which makes it look like it's sparkling. Getting there meant Ellie got to drive on her first dirt road, which she actually loved, and cross her first state line! Glitter Mountain is right across the Utah/Arizona border. I always forget how close we are to AZ. After each kiddo collected a bag full of gypsum we headed back to Utah to eat lunch at Freddy's (yum!). We had to push 5 tables together to accommodate our family (all of us weren't even there!) and we were quite the sight. That afternoon some of Ben's family came over and Ellie got to meet her Oma Bluth as well as her husband Kris and his daughter Sam. We had fun visiting with them and getting to know Kris and Same too! After that it was time to get ready for family pictures. As you can imagine, family pictures with 22 people (11 of these being kiddos) was a little crazy but fun :) It's always fun to watch 5-10 adults trying to get a few little kids to smile and some of those little ones had us cracking up. It's so fun to see all of their little personalities come out (Madison eating her sign, Ellie screaming, Finn being a little charmer with his curls, converse, and cheesy smile). That night we had homemade ice cream and played Smart A!

Sunday! The blessed day! See what I did there? We had a brunch before Church and had fun visiting with our family and friends while eating the delicious feast of breakfast foods my amazing mom and sisters made. Then it was time to put Ellie in "the dress" and head to Church! Ells was not too happy when we got to church and I was praying so hard she would fall asleep, or at least calm down, before it was blessing time. However, as soon as Ben stood up to head to the front of the chapel to bless her she spit out her binky haha. She cried through the whole thing but Ben was still able to give her a beautiful blessing! What a sweet experience that was. I was so filled with love for this sweet little girl. I still can't believe she is ours and I'm so grateful that Heavenly Father trusted us enough to let us have her. Ellie was blessed that she would be able to peaceful and happy despite the craziness (my wording) of the world we live in. What a sweet promise. She already brings so much peace and happiness into our home! Ben held her up after the blessing was finished and there was an audible 'awe!' in the crowd. Melted my mommy heart. After church we snapped a few pictures and headed home. The rest of the day was spent with our family before they had to head home.

It was such a whirlwind of a weekend but I'm so grateful for everyone who came and all of the experiences we had. Ellie is one loved little girl (just ask her cousins!) and we are so grateful she is a part of our forever family. We truly are blessed. We love you forever little Ellie!