Blessing Day.

The main purpose for our trip to UT was to attend Scarlett's baby blessing.

The whole family had shopped and worked on preparations for the big event the day before, in hopes that everything would go as smooth as butter for Sunday.

Shi and I stayed Saturday night at Britt and Austin's so we could work on last-minute prep early Sunday morning, and so Britt just had to focus on getting Scarlett and herself ready. Timing is so important with a wee one, and a 9am church meeting left no room for error.

After sending the rest of the fam off to the church (just kitty-corner from Britt and Austin's home), we snapped a few pictures... just in case Scarlett came undone at any critical point in the day.

Since I am such a non-photographer, these first few shots were not taken in ideal lighting {wink}, however, they were so darn cute I had to post them.

 (This lighting was a little bright for sweet Scarlett.)

After Sacrament meeting (and Austin's beautiful blessing), Britt had invited their friends and family to a brunch held at a park directly to the south of the church building. It had a beautiful pavilion (not necessarily clean, as it was a public park) with plenty of room for the expected crowd. Shilo and I had gone over earlier that morning to tidy things up, cover the tables (oops... we didn't quite have enough kraft paper), and get things ready for the after-church eat-and-mingle. Once the meeting was over, Bill, Shi and I ran back to Britt's to pick up the food.

Our amazing family pitched in to help get things set up.

On the menu (for history):

Breakfast burritos 

(I had learned at girls camp that they are well-loved and easy to prepare ahead of time)

Yogurt parfaits

Fresh fruit - pineapple, strawberries, watermelon, red and green grapes

(as anticipated, pineapple was the first to go, we had a lot o' grapes left over)

Assorted muffins

(provided by family members)

Assorted bagels

Assorted cream cheese spreads

(we tried milk chocolate cream cheese for the first time - it was a hit)

Ice water

Sparkling OJ

Friend and family {and framily} shots:

Shi, Jason, Lex, Hailey and Ashlyn.

Tay and Lynnea 

 The Goldsberry section: Meredith, Sookie, Evelyn, Rob, Great Gran'ma and Gran'pa G, Jana and Jon.

 Angela and Matt

 A Syddall section: Jeff, Brian, Hayden, Robyn and Hunter

 The {married, some with children} friend table:
Brittany and Jesse, Abe, Kaitlin and Bennett, Matt and Amanda.

 The Anderson section. 

They win the prize for family togetherness for fitting the most people at one table.

Another Syddall section: Angela, Great Gran'pa and Gran'ma S, Grace, and Matt.

(and William, Justin and CeCi's plates).

Late (but welcome) arrivers Matt and Jill.

We repurposed the sign I had worked on the day I was impatiently waiting for Scarlett to arrive (while demonstrating to Great Gran'pa S how to use a Cricut). I couldn't find a way to get it to Scarlett's house for her arrival home from the hospital.  Britt told me later that they discourage announcing a new baby so publicly anyway. It's a sorry-sad world we live in, that's all I can say.)

We did snap a quick pic of it on the garage just to remember that Grammy wanted to welcome that sweet babe home:

 Picture time again. 

It was a genuine tender mercy/blessing that Scarlett was so darn good all day.

 First-cousins-once-removed: Grace and Scarlett

 First-cousins-once-removed: Evie and Scarlett.

The Grands.

 The Greats.

 Lex and Jason, just before heading back to ID (via Logan to visit Jason's brother)...

but not before a few more pics.

 The Auntie shot,

(You can bet there was a heated discussion between two of these Aunties about who should be holding Scarlett. Mar won.)

 and the good-bye-I-love-my-sister shot.

 It was Austin's brother Mitchell's birthday, so we had to snap a Birthday Uncle shot.

The Gramps'. 

Both currently serving as Bishops, chuckling about skipping out on their wards for the day.
(For whatever reason, that seems to be anxiety producing, at least in my experience with Bill.)

After everyone had left and things had been cleaned up, I took a few parting shots.

 Scarlett wore these sweet booties with her blessing dress. Her Grammy{A} made them for her. So presh.

Shi and Mar had to give Scarlett their God-be-with-you-till-we-meet-again hugs and kisses.

Scarlett was oblivious.

 (This is one of the cute onsies Britt and I made when I stayed with her a few weeks back.)

Smooth as butter.

Scarlett was a dream.

Everyone was able to hold and love and shower her with affection and she handled it like a champ.

She was given a beautiful blessing. The three things that stood out to me (I have limited recall, you know) are that she will be known for her kindness, her light, and her example.

Good-bye, sweet Scarlett, till we meet again.