beck's blessing

Do church related baby ceremonies seriously stress anyone else out or am I the only crazycake that makes an Everest out of a speed-bump? I can never remember to order a legit baby blessing outfit in time (hence Beck's fancy button down sweatshirt and pants a la Target), I wait till the 11th hour to find the white crocheted blanket used with the other boys' blessings, there's the worry that the baby be attacked by a case of the audible hangries during the blessed event, the heathens should probably be bathed prior to the big day, and "a light luncheon afterward" with fancy plans turns stupidly into lunchmeat and croissants smorgasbord - accompanied by an array of distractions that consume and consume some more.

Blurg.

Last Sunday after we bathed the kids, fought and beat Rhett's strict, "never ever wash my hair and if you do I will scream like a banshee" policy, got them dressed in their finery, changed Rad into lesser finery after he spilled juice on his brand new oxford purchased solely for the occasion, chased some Excedrin with some sugary cereal, were only six minutes late for sacrament meeting, broke up a fist fight betwixt Rhett and Rad in the pew, and made multiple Mike & Ike bribes...Beckett Alan was blessed.

He was ecstatic. 

In our rush to get to church no more than the 6 minutes late that we were, we forgot Rhett's shoes (and socks) and thus began the great shoe hokey pokey of 2015. As seen above. ^^^

We put Rad's socks on Rhett.

We put Rad's shoes back on. 

We put Rad's socks back on Rhett.

And Rad shook himself all about.

We did the hokey pokey (ie reverent child wrestling to sshh and sit the h*** down) and we turned ourselves around (in the pew).

And that's what it's all about. 

Jake blessed Beck with my dad and some of our wonderful friends. (You can read more about what a baby blessing in our church is HERE.) I took notes of what Jake said in the blessing and all anxiety I always get over baby blessings (yes, crazy is my middle name) went away. Beck did great, the boys did great after only one extra loud "SSHHH!" command and it all sort of evened itself out. Especially when a friend told me that from her seat in the chapel she could see Beck smiling the whole time Jake was blessing him. And there aren't enough sappy emoji combos for those moments.

When it was all over we slipped outside and I bribed a sweet friend to essentially heard cats while she tried to get a family picture. (Editors note: I had some great outtakes of Rad throwing his tank-self around (and subsequently throwing my balance waaayy off) refusing to participate at all if the festivities. However in a minute of stupidity I cleared my camera to make room for a upcoming camping trip and didn't get those unedited pictures onto the computer. Dumb. Because there were some good ones to up the guilt trip in his teenage years when I remind him what he put me through.) 

So basically Rad was not willing in the slightest to throw a grin at the camera and he didn't let on that he was wearing zero footwear, Beck demonstrated his signature calm, and Rhett didn't freak the freak out when we asked him not to show us his "cool tricks" in these pictures. All in all I'd count it as a successful 49 second photo shoot. 

And really, it was a weekend I'd happily rewind and replay multiple times.

Because family. Blessed family. :)