Isabelle's Blessing

The preparations for Isabelles blessing day began June of 2005.  That's when Amanda traveled Europe and called me one day from Sevilla, Spain and asked if I had any suggestions on what souvenier she should bring home.  I suggested she buy a piece of lace for her first born daughters blessing dress and that is what she did.  Here she is in Spain.

She walked through many shops and finally found some lace.  It was sheer with little bouquets of white daisies on it.

Then the big day came that Amanda and I got to go shopping for a pattern and all that goes with it and then the sewing begins.  Sewing this dress had it's stressful moments!

The dress was very long...Amanda are you sure you want it this long...yes mom I love it! 

My sewing machine was broken/thrown to the floor by two evil twin cats a couple years ago and finally quit workings so I borrowed Amanda's sewing machine.  Then my iron quit working so I borrowed DJ's.  I was ironing when I thought I smelled something funny so I quickly grabbed the satin and yanked it away just in the nick of time!  What in the world is that?  I mean this stuff bubbled and spit out of this iron I was shocked it didn't ruin the dress.  So I called Teele, who happened to be at Crystals house building a swing set, and he brought me home her brand new ironing board and iron. 

The sewing went smoothly after that...thank goodness.

I love the sleeves on the sheer outer robe  and the daisy lace and trims with little pink bows.

This is the under dress made from the 50 yards of white satin I bought years ago that I have used for all the girls wedding dresses, ring pillows, grand daughters blessing dresses and most recently Sage's burial clothing.  I think Isabelle's dress was the last complete dress I will get out of the fabric.  I have pieces left to use on others for smaller parts.  Now here is RaLee holding up the completed under dress...see how long it is?  Teele walkin in and said, "Now that is just silly!"  So I started worrying and worrying until I made myself sick over the "Silly" dress!

Finally the dress and the satin blanket are done and her blessing day has arrived!

Amanda and Isabelle

Griggs Family Photo not all of them were here.  Shown are his sister Tara and her daughters Alivia & Paige, his parents, Linda and Vaughn from Logan, Utah.  And left is Kevin and Lisa from Missoula, Montana...Amy is a Shumway from Eager so they visited her family this week too.

Reidheads

Sisters

Proud Parents

And of course Izzy's photo shoot

We went to Amanda's for a dinner and had a wonderful time!

div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;">

John did a beautiful job blessing his first baby!  He did say Izzy was pretty "slickity" in all that satin but she was beautiful.  We had a wonderful time getting together and celebrating the birth and blessing of our little Isabelle Kay Griggs.

Fourth of July!

Teele and I lived in Heber for a few years and fell in love with the 4th of July celebration and their beautiful firework display.  Turns out our kids loved it too so we make the yearly trek up the mountain and enjoy the day.  We started out with taking a few family photos...it's always interesting getting the kids to comply as you will see...this cracks me up

Spencer says with his most excited daddy voice possible  "Come on Jaybug lets take a picture!" 

Now notice Jaybug and Trey

Can you see William being "big brother" and telling them to "Knock it off!"  Eventually we get a "Keeper" and their torture is over...until next time.

Jessica and John's sweet family...we just couldn't talk Payten into smiling.  I love seeing the kids in all their Red, White and Blue every year!

Jayden was in a photogenic mood and posed lot's for grandma...I love it!

Everytime Payten caught me trying to take a picture of her she would point and show me her "angry face" as if to say, "Hey!  You there with the camera...STOP!"

It was so relaxing sitting in the shade, enjoying the COOL weather, talking and eating.

Grandma Mary (my stepmom), Kathy (my Sister-in-Law) and my sweet girl Crystal

Uncle Mike bought snow cones, body paint, and rides on the slide for all the kids!

Then Amanda, John, Royal, and the Griggs gang from Logan, Utah arrived around 6pm.  It was so nice having them here with us.

Then there is RaLee...she just has a way of making everyone happy!

RaLee has a special relationship with her Grandpa Pat. He calls her his "Little Darling"

Then RaLee left and returned with a surprise for her grandpa

Dad fought in the Korean War and picked up a few tat's in the Army.  One is this "Pin-Up Girl"  so when RaLee went to have some body art sprayed on she couldn't resist getting an "army green pin-up girl" to match her grandpa's!  Dad got the biggest kick out of this...as we all did.    Speaking of the Korean War...a special thanks to my Dad and to all the the men who have served our country so we can enjoy our many freedoms!

Daddy's and their little girls!

Izzy looked so cute in her Red, White and Blue!

Me and Izzy

We also discovered that my Niece Tara Lee Porter was camped with her family just feet away from us!  It was so nice getting to see her and meet her "little Brody".  I don't know how much longer she is going to be able to carry that little guy around because he is almost as big as his momma.  What a cute little boy his is!  I didn't have my camera on me or I would have taken a picture :(

The kids were so excited for the fireworks!  I got the biggest kick out of Trey, he's only four and I don't think he remembers the fire works from years past so it was like his "first" time.  He was hilarious!  He started screaming and when the fireworks started falling to the ground he just screamed more..."Oh oh!  They are falling!"  Then he would duck his head...his little feet were dancing around...and he just kept pointing and screaming.  He was both excited and scared.

Then he turned around and ran away screaming bloody murder straight into his mom's arms!  All my camera would catch was the blur of his glow sticks running away!

Izzy slept through it all!

I am so thankful for this country and my many freedoms.  We are so blessed!  We didn't go to Heber last year because we didn't want to risk Crystal going into labor without a doctor skilled in V-Back deliveries so we stayed near the hospital and looked forward to Sage's birth.  I remember Crystal and I saying, "next year we will have a one year old to dress up in red, white and blue and enjoy the fireworks."  So it was sad for all of us because we felt like a piece of us was missing, like we have been robbed.  Then Crystal said, "I wonder what it's like to watch the fireworks from Heaven?"  I decided that our little Sage probably had the best seat in the house and it was comforting picturing him watching them from above and watching over all of us.