Carma's blessing day

This ridiculously sweet girl was (finally...) blessed in church at the end of September:

And in keeping with 'only daughter' tradition, she wore the same blessing dress that I wore in 1985 (pictured on the left) and that my mom wore back in the 50's (no picture - I think they didn't have cameras back then??).

 We gathered my brothers + families for some pre-church pictures with my dad:

 What a bunch of really swell people! Things to note: I love that my two youngest children are looking to the left and Sam's two oldest children are looking to the right. It's possible there were loads of people around to keep an eye on... Also, Will is highly ticklish and Grandpa found juuuust the right spot!

 Two more versions of the picture real quick. Jack's sticking out his tongue in this one, which rarely leads to anything good:

 And I love that in this one, he's checking to make sure I see that his tongue is out. If Jack had his way, our eyes would be locked in a permanently mutual gaze of adoration, a bit of control (on his part), and acquiescence (on my part).

 Right after sacrament meeting, we headed back outside for some more pictures before attending our other meetings. Jack thought it best for his image to stand as far away from the rest of us as possible...

Will thought it best to actually smile for a picture really nicely (for once in his cute six-year-old life!) right at the beginning of the little photo shoot, aka when I was still whippin' my hair.

Of course, Jack coincided his one-and-only-smile of the day with the shot where Will is ... ?? I don't even know - checking Clyde's heartbeat? Preparing to strangle him?

 

 Here you can tell that someone helpfully suggested Will move his hands, leading to this Frankenstein-ian pose and Will surely thinking "Okay! I moved my hands! Suckers!"

 

 At this point there was a mini-mutiny and Clyde and Will both attempted to bail...

 

 only to be called back for one more shot in which Jack and I look like a dummy/ventriloquist duo... so that's not awkward at all.

 Whatever, we got this picture and we're going to roll with it:

Next up was Izatt extended family:

 Don't mind Will's despair, he'd just been told he couldn't go inside to Primary yet. He like, really, loves Primary.

 

 My side with Grandma Pam!

 This was, arguably, our best shot. 

Here's a couple from along the way:

I don't even know who looks sadder in this picture - Will or Isaac. I feel like they both have decent future careers as Newsies on the streets of NYC: 

"(cough, cough) Buy me last pape, mista?"

Fun fact: Carma really owes her existence to peer pressure. Hazel and Jack and Isaac were all born within a five month stretch a couple of years ago, so when my brothers announced their wives' pregnancies within a couple of months of each other, I figured we might as well make it another trio:

 And here are the sweet little girlie cousins! L to R: Eden with Leila Jade (born in December), me with Carma June (born in May), and Terri with Emiko Jane (born in October). They're going to be best friends and call each other by their coincidentally-similiar middle names and it's going to be the cutest thing ever.

 This was such a special, spiritual day for us - Carma is the last baby for our family, and we're so thrilled to end on such a sweet note (someone remind me of this sentiment when she's a teenageer, eh?). The blessing that Chuck gave her was so nice and Chuck and I were both able to bear our testimonies during the meeting and share our thoughts and hearts. Thank you so much to all of the extended family that traveled and sacrificed to be here with us!

 We sure love you cute girl! Thanks for coming to our family!