Ezra's Blessing

 

SOOOOOOO, how old is my Z baby in blogland now?  A month?  Great- let's continue. 

 

Mike's parents decided to come visit us on their way to meet some friends in Canada at the beginning of July.  Since they were meeting their friends in Calgary, we decided to meet them at my parents house in Helena rather than have them drive all the way to the eastern side of the state and then all the way back again.  And while we had all the grandparents in one place, we might as well give Ezra his baby blessing, right? RIGHT!!!

Most of the time blessings are done in church in front of the congregation, but we decided to do Ezra's at my parents home on July 3rd.  My sister's family came and my Aunt Carol and Uncle Tony.  It was small and simple and absolutely perfect. 

 

We were so grateful that my parents opened up their home and that Mike's parents drove all the way from California.  It was SO fun for my kids to spend time with both sets of grandparents.  CJ kept saying "MOM!  Grammy and Papa Lay and Grandma and Grandpa Vincent KNOW EACH OTHER!   

 

If you're not LDS- baby blessings are simple blessings given by someone in our church with the priesthood- in our case that is Mike.  Mike and the other worthy priesthood holders who were there held Ezra in their arms and gave him a name that will go on the records of the church and asked God for blessings to come to him throughout his life.  It's really a wonderful way to celebrate a new life in your family.

The picture's fuzzy, but you get the idea....

 

These were the men who stood in the circle and held Zbaby while he was blessed.

Daddy

With Mommy and Dad.
PS- how darling is my child???

Grandma and Grandpa Vincent

Grammy and Papa Lay

 

I am still in love with his blessing outfit.

And his toes. 

Pictures

This is just a random smattering of cell phone pictures. Not a whole lot of substance. But, since this blog is a way to document our life, you get to see them. And in case you care, I'm cooking up a post about our new diggs in colstrip, but that's for another day. 

Remember way back when when I mentioned that when Nolan falls down he looks like an Albatross landing?  Well, he was bounding through the park last week and had an unfortunate meeting with the sidewalk. As in, he slowed himself down with his face.  So sad.  So cute.

Mike has a hardhat at work because occasionally they let the nerds out of the office and they're able to go out on the mine and watch stuff blow up.  We were visiting him the other day and Cecily really wanted to "try on that cool orange hat!"

Mikes new job is amazing- more on that later.

We were visiting because the office threw us all a pizza party to welcome us to town. 

 Seriously nice people. 

This weekend for conference I decided to try "conference jars" with the kids.  Cecily chose the squares that said Temple, Prophet, and Jesus Christ. So every time someone said one of those things in conference, she got to get a candy from the jar and share one with Nolan.  It worked well at first, but they were so strung out on sugar by the end that we ended up DVRing the last 2 talks on Sunday and taking them on a walk to burn off the high.   Next April I'll try something different.

This was Cecily's lovely General Conference coloring page.  Do you like how she colored Thomas S. like Frankenstein?

Here's Nolan's.  Not as colorful, but he showed his love for Thomas S. in his own way.

I Believe

The other day I was out and about in blog world, and I came across the blog of a woman who is not now, but used to be LDS. 

She wrote a post listing a few of the reasons why she decided not to continue in the Mormon faith, even though she was raised within it  (one of the reasons was because she didn't like dressing up for church- not even joking-but that is totally beside the point, sorry). 

It got me thinking about my own life, and my choice to stay true to the religion of my parents.

In terms of the world, Mormonism is  a bit strange and can be misunderstood.  I hate confrontation and controversy, so when something comes up in the media portraying the Mormon faith as snobby, un-christian, or as a religion full of hate- it hurts my heart.  That is not the case at all.  I always think "if only I could tell them how much love is within my faith!  If only I could explain to them that our church, at it's core, is based on the belief that God loves EACH of his children!"   Yes, there are people in the church (in ANY church) who do or say hurtful, mean, awful things.  But that is because they are people. Flawed like the rest of us. 

I don't have all the answers to all the questions out there- (if only, right?).  I only know what my experience has been. And I felt like I should put it out there.

Anyway, so here it is: my manifesto to the world about why I believe what I believe. 

There was a defining moment in my life (summer of 2001, actually) where I wanted to make the decision to hold on or to let go. 

I questioned everything.

I studied.

I meditated.

I searched.

I prayed.

Holy cow, I prayed so hard.

And then, gradually, I knew.  I knew it was true.  I know it is true.

Not because of my parents, or my family. Not because of my roommates or my friends.

Because I had searched and found an answer.

I've heard people say that Mormon's indoctrinate their children and force them to believe certain things, but in my case, that couldn't be further from the truth.  I was always taught to question things and find them out for myself.

 And I did.

And I still do.

Mormonism isn't about Joseph Smith, although he's an important part of it. It isn't all about our prophet now. It isn't about casseroles and jell-o and pot lucks. It isn't about dressing up on Sunday. 

It's about the love of God and Jesus Christ.

I know they love me.

I know they love you.

And my life is fuller, and richer, and more meaningful, and HAPPIER because of it.

Bottom line is, I have more joy than I thought possible. 

Bad days? Yup.

Hard times? For sure.

Catastrophes to come? My guess is yes.

But, peace and joy and the knowledge that I can get through anything with the help of the Lord.

And that is why I believe.

Post edit:  I re-read this today and realized that the way I wrote it might have come across the wrong way.  I wasn't sad or offended at the blog of the woman who used to be LDS.  She simply wrote about why she does not believe anymore.  All she did for me was get me thinking about WHY I believe what I believe and the circumstances that led to me living my life the way I do.  Really, she has every right to live her life the way she chooses.  I don't in any way begrudge her that, and if she's happy, that is great.  I'm sorry if the way I wrote it came across judgemental. 
The part about the media was just that:  about the media.  Because I live in Utah, theres a lot of good press, as well as bad that the church gets, so that's where that came from. 
Hope I didn't offend. 
Love you all,
Wendy