A Name! A Name! He finally has a name!

 Aunt Jamie came for the long President's Day weekend and for Mitchell's baby blessing.  We had lots of fun and Jamie loved Ohio sooooo much that she extended her trip for another day!

Baby Blessing - In the LDS church, a baby blessing is similar in importance to a christening.  It's a special day for the baby/family and performed in front of the congregation by someone holding the proper Priesthood authority (Andy in this case).  The child is given a name and a blessing.

Above, Ben was keeping Mitchell happy for me.  Here, he's had a shower and is waiting patiently for Mom to get him dressed.  Mitchell found his fingers this week and alternates which fingers he likes to suck on.  My favorite is his hand gripping his hair - yes, he fell asleep just a few short minutes later!

Here is our cute little family - with Aunt Jamie and Miss Linda (our fabulous next door neighbor).  Mitchell slept for most of our Sacrament service and was not all that thrilled to be woken up for pictures!

 This is the most typical family picture -- Emily touching Mitchell's head, Mitchell pulling Annie's hair, Ben squeezing Mitchell's leg and Andy and I trying to keep everyone together!  I've learned that two or three is the most pictures I can hope for with kids being cheerful - it gets extremely painful after that if we aren't with a professional!

 Loving on our baby!  This boy gets so many kisses each day!

 Aunt Jamie and Mitchell - he's the most awake here!

 And proof that he really does smile!  This was our happy boy after a real nap in his bed.  This little hat is almost too small as Mitchell's head is a little on the large side - you just can't tell because he has so much hair covering it!  (On a side note - last weekend we took the kids to the local high school's production of Beauty and the Beast.  A few kids from church were in it and one was in the orchestra pit.  As we walked from the front of the auditorium to our seats near the back, there were constant twitters of, "look at that hair!"  It was really funny - most of the time I just pretend not to hear, unless I'm ready to engage in conversation.  I only had 3 people that night ask his age and if I had heartburn during my pregnancy.)

 Fake-Baked Alaska Cake!  I have been looking at this recipe in on of my Pampered Chef cookbooks for 4 years now, but it just looked so hard to make.  I reasoned that since Mitchell didn't have a big family and friend dinner to celebrate his blessing, I would take extra care with dessert.  It wasn't hard at all!  I loved it, Andy adored it, Kids really enjoyed it, and Jamie thought it was okay but didn't want another piece.  You must like Cool Whip to enjoy this recipe...and cream cheese...and butter...and cake...and chocolate...and powdered sugar.  Again, I loved it!

 Monday we went to Pump it Up with a fabulous Groupon that I bought (3for1) so the kids could run out some energy!  It started barely snowing when we got there.  Two hours later, it was almost blizzard conditions.  We stopped at the grocery store because we were out of milk and Jamie got the call that her flight was delayed and she would miss her connection and to please call to reschedule her flight.  She got to stay a whole other day and enjoy this beautiful snow!!!

Our family believes in sharing, so I let Jamie share the joys of snow-shoveling with me!  There was a LOT of snow.  We shoveled together twice (Miss Linda from next door helped us the second time - we gave her some cake as a thanks!) and I went out one more time while she put the kids to bed.  I'm pretty sure the Camry wouldn't have made it through!  Thanks for a fun visit and all the snow help!  We're so glad we have our little guy!