Blessed

Ahhh...I'm sitting here listening to my Ray Lamontagne Pandora station while the kids are both upstairs napping. It's been a nice peaceful time for me to reflect on how truly blessed I am. It's also a time to reflect on Abigail's baby blessing and how that happened over a month ago and I still have not posted anything about it (or any pictures).

She was blessed on a cold Sunday at the end of January. We were nervous about our parents getting into town that week because there were snowstorms like every other day in the month of January. Thankfully, everyone made it into town for the big day:

We were lucky enough to have Jiichan and Baachan

AND Grandma and Grandpa there for the special occasion.

My mom came a week early to help out with the kids and make Abigail's dress. It was beautiful dress for a beautiful day!

I've been scrolling through all the photos and there are some doozies. I guess that's what happens when you try and get two little kids to smile for four cameras after sitting through an hour and a half of church. Here are the best outtakes:
Abigail's had enough of the paparazzi gettin' all up in her face
Don't get too distracted by my laughing face - check out Thomas's expression
Thankfully he was in good spirits...
...unlike his little sister.
He's always loving on her.

A lovely day, made even more memorable by a lovely blessing from Kenta to Abigail. It's pretty amazing to think about all the potential these little people have when they come join us here on earth. Abigail was blessed to accomplish many great things in her life. It was an important reminder to me of what a tremendous responsibility we have as parents to teach our children (as the Primary songs says) to "walk in the light". I sometimes feel like I'm not worthy of such a task, but then I realize that I need my children to teach me important things (patience, selflessness, unconditional love, etc.), just as they need me to teach them. And here I am getting all teared up about it. I blame the Pandora station (and the fact that I love my kids so much, it makes me a little verklempt to talk about how special they are to me).

Here's some up close pictures of Abby in her dress:





Oh, my. Those eyes! I'm so in love.