cora's blessing day

beautiful cora had a wonderful blessing day back on may 1st.

she was a perfect angel and didn't cry once during sacrament meeting! one benefit of waiting a few months to bless her was getting such smiley pictures! newborns are sweet but they sure don't smile.

 she is a clearly a happy girl! and who was making her so happy?

 uncle richard!

 they have bonded already over being second children and having an older, bossy sister.

who me?

 miss shelby wore her cute white church dress in honor of cora. it went nicely with her still healing, still glue and steri-strip covered boo-boo. 

(note to self: linen dresses for kids are no good! i hate ironing!)

 my parents were kind enough to hold the blessing day luncheon at their house.

thanks dad! he's a proud grandpa.

 grandpa rich LOVES the baby stage. that's for sure!

 while shelby got out her energy, the rest of us started eating. yum yum.

we had roast beef sandwiches with carmelized onions from whole foods, along with potato, cole slaw and caeasar salads, lots of lemonades, and an all chocolate covered edible arrangement. it's the only way to go if you order one. otherwise it's just fruit on sticks.

 

 and we barbecued chicken. not "we" actually. our friend brian prepared and barbecued them. he is a culinary school graduate who worked as a sous chef at the french laundry in napa. so pretty much it was the best chicken any of us had ever eaten. no joke. the two full cookie sheets of chicken were almost empty afterwards!

 for desert we had "nothing bundt cakes" in lemon, carrot, chocolate, and cinnamon swirl. on top that's their signature cream cheese icing.

we all had to be rolled out of the house after that feast.

 but first we had to take our family pictures! here's cora with her beautiful grandma kathi.

 we tried our best to get shelby to join in on the fun.

 we gave her marshmallows to try to coax her to smile. grandma kathi, you look fantastic!

 but there weren't enough marshmallows in the world to get her to happily take pictures.

 no biggie. it was cora's big day after all! here she is with her wonderful grandparents.

thanks for driving up from fresno!

 cora loves her grandpa curtis!

 family pictures were pretty hilarious.

 well, i thought it was funny. my kids don't seem to be as thrilled.

 finally, we gave up and let shelby run away. 

 our pictures with cora turned out terrible because my camera was on the wrong setting and because trevor was not in the mood to take pictures at all. like father, like daughter.

 my mom has a wall of all of our blessing day pictures and so we tried desperately to get one with all of us. for some reason the flowers worked for shelby.

 and this one would have been perfect if mom hadn't closed her eyes while laughing! 

oh well. it's a memory!

we had wonderful friends come and participate in cora's blessing. 

in the circle during her blessing at church were : trevor, grandpa curtis, grandpa rich, uncle richard, bruce bird, forrest yee, brian curl, and steve clegg.

it was great to spend time with the yee's. 

olya was super mom, running around with her kids while 8+ months pregnant!

 our friends the cleggs, who had just barely moved away to roseville came back for the blessing too. 

it was very confusing to some people at church! :)

 we will be sure to return the favor and attend the blessing of their baby later this summer!

 

move back. now. 

 see? olivia is already packed and ready to come back.

 miss olivia is shelby's very best friend. 

she definitely wins the award for most expressive face ever. she is hilarious.

and so sweet too! olivia is going to an awesome big sister to her baby brother. 

cora has been good practice for her!

i love baby cora's sweet, poofy dress. her daddy picked it out for shelby and it was just as cute the second time around. he liked that it wasn't the super traditional crazy-long blessing dress. 

though cora did get to wear a new headband. 

and it was just right, not bigger than her head but still big enough to complement the frilly dress.

 i love my baby girl! happy blessing day!

 we spent the rest of the perfect afternoon of 70 degree weather just having fun.

 the girls ran around with their daddies so jen and i could chat.

 there was hugging and chasing and spinning.

 and extreme cuteness.

 sigh, from this side you can't tell she's wounded. 

there she is checking out her boo boo in belle's magic mirror.

wasn't it just last week that we blessed shelby?

 

my dark haired sister. 

okay, technically i have dark hair too. but just pretend. 

 you can't quite see it, but cora had a wardrobe change and wore her pink and white dress with her pink headband for the after party. she is so fashionable. i am blessed to be her mommy!