Bentley's baby blessing...

After putting the blessing off for more than 3 months now, we decided it was time to finally bless Bentley; if we had chosen to wait any longer we wouldn't have been able to find a blessing outfit big enough for the kid! He's getting HUGE!

In the past, we've always invited a mixture of friends and family to church with us to watch our infants be blessed (a blessing in the L.D.S. church is unlike blessing a child in the Catholic church; a blessing is usually administered by the father, or another worthy priesthood holder in or close to the family, and it's a prayer to God, in which that person giving the blessing gives the child a name, and ask good fortunes such as health and a meaningful life upon the child as he or she grows)... following the baby blessings, we've always done a luncheon for everyone, either at the park or Trish's house... this year though, I decided I wanted to keep things more low key, stress less about feeding a huge crowd and rather enjoy the moment and meaning for why everyone has been brought together. click here and here to read & or see pictures from some of our kids previous baby blessings.


We decided to bless Bentley in our home with only our family present... not all of our family could be there of course; we were missing family whom are living in Uruguay, my grandparents in New York, my sister Janna's family in San Diego and my brother Jeff and his wife and daughter who are also in San Diego. My parents were in town for Thanksgiving, so we decided to do the blessing that Saturday morning, the 28TH, after the holiday.

My sister Tricia snapped this picture of Spencer & Bentley just before he gave him his blessing.
I believe Spencer was trying to tell Ian to settle down and fold his arms.
It took a good minute or two to settle all the kids down so there was reverence in our home
for the blessing;
we had to wait a half hour for someone from our bishopric to finally show to witness it.
Read about that here.

The actual blessing itself was beautiful!
Of course I cried upon hearing it; what mother wouldn't?!
Bentley was very content and composed as family took turns passing him around that morning.
He didn't make a peep.
He's such a good natured baby.
He looked adorable in his blessing outfit;
I joked earlier about not being able to find an outfit big enough for him but that wasn't a problem;
Tricia lent me a blessing outfit she'd used for her son Israel and Janna's boy Kyse.

Grandma Truesdell holding Bentley...

Grandpa Truesdell & Bentley

Grandma Campbell & Bentley

Grandpa Campbell & Bentley

Our family picture...
between 4 cameras, we had probably 100 pictures taken,
but this was the best shot we got.
We need a real seasoned professional to take a picture of our fam.
Getting 3 toddlers and one baby to cooperate for the camera at the same time isn't so simple.

Just a couple pictures of our guests;
namely the cousins who were attendance...

Alec & Eli

Bella & Rayanne...

After giving Bentley his blessing
we served the fam a breakfast brunch...
country fried potatoes, ham, fruit salad and french toast with all the toppings one could ever want...
syrup, fresh whip cream, chocolate syrup, warm ooey gooey apples, blueberries, strawberries, sprinkles, peanut butter, and powdered sugar.

Spencer made the french toast,
wearing his "flirty apron".
He made enough french toast to feed 17 hungry kids and 12 adults!

He even made special "gluten free" french toast for myself, Noah & my dad to eat!
It was SO GOOD!

My boys sat up at the island next to the food, instead of at the dinner table with the rest of the kids...
every time I looked over I caught Noah and/or Ian dipping their fingers in some of the food and toppings.



Some of our guests hung around after the blessing and brunch to play or chat;
there were a couple we caught even napping on our Luv Sac!
(this is Jim, Celeste's husband.
He was up at 5 that morning and out of his house in Kaysville with his 4 kids by 8 in order to get to our place on time by 9:30!
It's no wonder he was he crashed on the Luv Sac!)

After I packed away the left overs from brunch
I met up with my family at the indoor pool of the hotel where my parents were staying.
The two older boys swam and played in the water with their cousins for a while
before it was time to head home and take naps.

I couldn't find any of Ian's swim trunks
so he had to wear the little baby Speedo (a.k.a. the plastic baby swim diaper)...
he wore it pretty confidently too!
Perhaps this kid has a career in water polo and competitive swimming ahead of him...

This babe, Bentley, got LOTS of extra cuddle time in with fam,
both at his blessing and at the pool.
He was enjoying EVERY minute of it!

Isn't he just a DOLL?!
He's mine!

And a funny incident occurred when we returned home to take naps;
I walked upstairs into my bedroom to find Cohen swinging in the baby swing,
with Bentley's bottle & his blanket!
I don't think this little man likes sharing the spotlight with his baby brother.