Tess's Blessing

Today was extra special because Tess was finally blessed at church.  It was even more special because it was Father's Day and Tess was the first baby ever blessed in our brand new building.  (Side note: LOVE the new building!  It's so pretty and clean and nice.  Plus, it's only 6 minutes away from our house!)

Our Hoosier Family, the Souths, came to Sacrament Meeting for the blessing.  We are so lucky to have good friends like them!  Both of our families took up an entire pew.  Despite the fact that we have 7 children, ages 7 and under, and 5 of them very active little boys, everyone behaved reasonably well.  I mean, we certainly added to the general din of a large family ward like ours, but we certainly didn't contribute more than our fair share!

I was worried that Cole would freak out during the blessing.  And he did freak out - only it was when Lance left to go pass the sacrament.  So Cole was actually pretty happy during the blessing.  Too happy, in fact; he was sat on my lap and babbled happily the entire time.  I only heard about half of what Lance said.  Oh well, I'm sure it was lovely.

After the meeting we were able to get a few pictures.  Here's our now rather large Madsen family.

Nice ties, boys.

And one with our Hoosier Family.  That pose is pretty awesome there, Spence.

Because this is not my first rodeo, I knew that I probably wouldn't get any pictures of Tess in her blessing outfit after church today.  (I don't know about your family, but things are always a bit crazy after church in our home.  Kids are hungry and grouchy, mom and dad are tired, and baby always makes some sort of mess and wants to be fed... NOW.)  So I decided to dress her up and take a few pictures a few days ago.  I could never get her to smile, but she's still pretty dang cute.

Did you notice to the cute headband?  After my post last week I got lots of good ideas from friends and family about what to use.  This winner was from Bekah, who told me to use white nylons.  GENIUS!  Not only are they cheap, but they're soft and gentle on baby's head.  And they look pretty great, too.  Thanks, Bekah!

I had extra roses, so I also made her a little wrist corsage.  And she is just the perfect size for the dress right now.  I'm lovin' all that lace!

Ohmigoodness, I don't know how, but Lance and I sure make darling babies.  (C'mon, you know it's true...)

Isn't her little mouth so cute in this one?

Allllmmmost a smile...

Half smile or half smirk?

Of course we had to try on the little bonnet as well.  I liked the headband better.

Tess did, too.

Suddenly, a random Cole appears!

I tried to bribe him to go away.  It was not very effective.  I could hardly get Tess to look at the camera again.  (And who can blame her?  Cole is not exactly gentle around Tess.  I'd keep an eye on him, too!)

One last shot.  Look, her cheeks and chins are filling in, like a proper Madsen baby.  We're not exactly starving her here.

Josh then had to join in on the action.  Shortly thereafter the boys decided to have a battle to see who could kiss Tess the most.  Tess lost and the photo session of decidedly over.