Pepperidge and Pigtails

Mom drove up recently, and unfortunately for her but fortunately for us, left Dad's camera at our house, so she made a return visit. On the second go she stopped at the Pepperidge Farm factory and brought a large bag of broken mint Milanos and of goldfish crackers. We split them to share with siblings, but our portions didn't last three days. Thanks, Mom, or Grandma Hooper, as I'm now getting used to calling her instead of Dad's late delightful mom.

Having three girls in a row, Grandma is used to playing with hair, and gave V adorable pigtails, which only slightly look like tiny horns. V's hair curls when wet, but as soon as it dries, goes straight as a stick. Hopefully she'll become accustomed to people doing her hair without causing tears.

V's first ponytail

Pigtails with Grandma Hooper. There V goes, sucking her tiny thumb.

Jackson Hole

We've lived in Idaho over a year-and-a-half, and haven't done much exploring. Last year we didn't go anywhere, foremost because we're homebodies, but secondly because we were still paying off our debts. This year we are still theoretically saving our six month emergency fund, which I haven't been great about doing, but we have a little more to use for trips and activities. I love visiting family, so I think, If we drive any reasonable distance, we may as well visit family instead of going other places. This has made for some very enjoyable visits, but at some point it's worth exploring the area around us. Zak suggested driving to Jackson Hole when we discussed activities for our third anniversary. We've had a wonderful month so far, with lots of activities, so the day trip moved to the end of the month. Fortunately, it landed on a perfectly warm Saturday. V travels fairly well, especially when we're prepared. She did fight sleep in tears after we detoured to see a waterfall, but drifted to sleep after a brief rest stop. Driving around mountains and canyons reminded me of when Zak and I dated, and is a nice break from everyday life in our basement apartment. I even tried to utilize skills from my rock climbing class in college at one of the local parks. I'm glad Husband enjoys spending time as a family, and holding our baby girl. He's such a good dad. Also, I'm glad he likes to drive.

Baby's First Cabin Visit

Just as she always does, Baby V dazzled everyone when we drove to the family cabin for General Conference weekend. Our first overnighter with her involved the Beefy SUV full of our bags and lots of baby stuff we thought we might need. We ended up using most of it, although I probably over-packed the clothing bag a bit. Her grandparents and Aunt Niki surprised us after changing V's diaper with an adorable Halloween outfit, complete with onesie, pants, personalized Halloween socks, and a festive headband with ribbon flower fashioned by the lovely Niki. Zak nearly caught up on some sleep he'd been lacking the last several weeks, and we got to listen to President Monson, the Apostles, and other church leaders speak via the inter-web. One of my favorite talks was by Elder D. Todd Christofferson, entitled "The Moral Force of Women." Listening to his talk, I felt empowered, uplifted, and important. I want the Young Women in our congregation to recognize those feelings in themselves. Well, it looks like our little family's home evenings for the next several weeks will be easy to plan, just popping up one of the many amazing conference talks to watch and discuss.

During our weekend away we also saw my parents and all of my siblings. I love visiting family, even now that we're packing all sorts of baby items and trying to calm a child in the middle of the night. We had lots of fun and look forward to seeing everyone again.

Borrowing Grandpa's hat

After demolishing the previous targets, Cohen and Niki began weeding with bullets.

A Name and a Blessing

 

In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we don't baptize infants, believing that until they reach the age of accountability, around eight years old, they are perfect through Christ. We do still give children blessings. This is done by members who hold the priesthood, who put their hand on the child's head, or hold up the babies. Babies are given a name by which they are known, recorded in the records of the church, and promised individual blessings from Heavenly Father. Zak holds the priesthood, and was able to give V her blessing. Beforehand he joked that he'd give her "Supafly" as a middle name. No. Fortunately I'm the one who filled out the social security application. 

Our parents, siblings, and a few other relatives joined us. Grandma Porter made V's blessing dress, much like a Christening gown. It's beautiful, and twice as long as V. Great-Grandma crocheted a blanket to wrap around her. Zak had slow cooked some sweet pulled pork that turned out great, so after the blessing we gathered at the park, since our apartment is too cramped with everyone, and enjoyed the food and company.