Before another holiday hits, (tomorrow) and I need to post about a special day.

I have been putting off documenting this day.

Not because it wasn't a special day.

In-fact it was very special.

A day that we or at least I felt a taste of heaven.

It was Gage's blessing day.

The reason i've been putting it off is because

we may are maynot be struggling with changing his name....

And if we do I'll let you know.

Are we the only ones that go through this AFTER a babies' born?

i think we might be.

 Anyway. 

Don't judge.

Much like other religions do christenings (except we don't believe in baptizing babies)

In our religion when a baby is born it is a tradition to give him a name and a priesthood blessing.

Devin gave him his blessing.

It was truly, truly beautiful.

When I think of this day I smile and feel the need to talk about it in a quieter voice because it was that special to me.

 Instead of doing it at church we blessed him at my parents house in Oregon.

home.

I love my home. 

a beautiful fall day 

in the country

surrounded by family

my sweet new baby boy 

dressed in the same outfit that his brother was blessed in.

perfect.

All the men in Gage's blessing circle:

Great Grampa Calvin(my gramps), Grandpa Orton, Devin, Uncle Nick, Grampa Dave(my dad)

A home truly can be a heaven on earth.

I would like to rephrase that last sentence. 

Home can be a heaven on earth and then my huge 17 yr old brother Joey barrells through the house and through all the family saying:

"I'm gonna kill that CAT!" 

(we don't have animals in the house, and a new gray barn cat snuck in the house)

Sorry Orton family of cat lovers.

We tried to get a family pic of this special day.

Failed.

ya these pictures stink,

 But it was THAT one

OR 

this one:

Devin's sister and her five little K's traveled all the way from Boise to be with us.

Thank you.

That meant a lot.

Let's just say their name's cuz it's fun...

Klora, Kendra, Kyle, Krista, Kaleb.

specially when you say it faaaast.

Of course Grandma and Grandpa Orton never miss a special occasion.

i love this picture.

i'm sad I didn't get um ANY of my family...they were all runnin around everywhere.

I will tell you my mom looked extra beautiful that day.

Really.

Perhaps the reason this day just had an extra special spirit to it was that all of us adults 

attended the temple that morning.

My little sister Ashley is going to be a missionary! 

And in preparation went through the temple for the first time.

So special.

All my family, grandparents, sisters, parents, friends all dressed it white.

Thank you Ashley for letting our baby share the spotlight with you on this special day of yours.

If I could tell anyone, live your life to get to the temple!

It was a taste of heaven and I thought of every family member not there, for whatever reason and wished they were there.

Anyway back to home:

My mom made tons of food....

Except for the pumpkin roll. That was made by Devin's mom.  Since all of my babies are fall babies, 

she has made a pumpkin roll at each blessing. Even when we lived in Missouri.

lovely, tasty tradition.

I only took pictures of the dessert table.

A couple weeks before I said: "Mom, I'm thinking I'll make one or two little desserts for refreshment afterwards." 

Mom: "Oh you want to do food?"

Right then and there I knew I had opened a can of worms.

Except it wasn't worms it was my mom's plethora of tasty fall soups and chile and pumpkin rolls and veggie platter, fruit platter, desserts and a bunch of other stuff she prepared/bought and forgot to bring up from the basement because THERE was NO MORE ROOM FOR MORE FOOD!

She did this at all our weddings too.

What can we say?

 She is a mother of 7 children. She knows how to feed a crowd, and feed them good.

Under preparing or taking it easy is just not even possible for my mom.

NO matter how hard her daughters try to get her to.

Love my Mother.

Thank you.

Look who's guarding the dessert table.

Cache was guarding it from Naomi

and Naomi was in turn guarding it from "Tash."

After everyone left, Sarah and I went upstairs and tried to work with what little light was left to take some pictures....not so good.

Low lighting = grainy pictures.

But some are okay. 

 I told myself I was going to retake them... but he grew outta that outfit in like

one day.

Deer in the headlights

still love it though. 

Whoops how'de that one get on here?

:)

OH man I just love Danny.

This was the moment they stared into eachother's eyes for the first time and in baby talk said:

"Hey our mom's think we're gonna be best friend cousins, but I'm just tellin you now, Uncle Sam's light saber is MINE!"

 It was a peaceful blessed day,

 WE just love you sweet baby so much.

You are so loved by your parents and brother and sister.

So thankful you're part of our family.

Super sick Nay today.

Genuine croup.

 Spent the evening trying every natural remedy ever lived.

It helped. 

But no sleep. Nada. 

I drifted off out on the couches with Nay watching the Grinch.

 Woke up to raspy screaming at 2am.

Not only was she awake, but got herself a bag of cut up raw sweet potatoes out of the fridge
(i know weird but she likes these)

 buckled herself  in the babies chair and was stuck.

sheesh loueez. Give me a heart attack.

Today she started sucking air and barking even worse so I took her in.
Not too soon either.

Thank heavens for modern medicine in situations like these!

Steroids, breathing treatment, she is a lot better.

Times like these I miss living next to these two Gals:

Who would have been at more doorstep at 11 pm with peppermint tea, a handful of home remedies,
advice, encouragement, validation, a good book to read to Naomi and another to myself and all kinds of motherly advice that I would drink up.
Even taken my child and did it themselves if felt needed.

Anyway they wanted to admit Naomi to the hospital, but she got a lot better with the treatments.

But whatever we do "don't let her cry." Doc said.

This is hard. 

Girls are girls.

So she has been watching Dora over and over aaand over.

She undecorated the tree.

I love her but..

Starting to get on my nerve.

Anyway the point of my wordy post today:

 Cache has been funny through all of this.

He is worried for her and prays:

"Bless Lucy and Uncle Jay and bless Naomi to eat healthy food so she can't cough any more."

 Peeled himself a giant carrot for breakfast and ate it as he sat next to her on the couch so:

"Nay won't make ME sick."

:)!

Also peeved that Naomi had a popsicle instead of dinner, because the

 "Salad would make her feel better."

We somehow brainwashed this little boy.

Love it.

He still ate his fair share of popsicles, chocolate chips and whatever else he could sneak today.

That's all.
just wanted to remember Cache today.
I also found this on the counter:

I'm not really sure how he figured out how to spell my name.
Thanks Cache.
Let me just take credit for all YOU really did despite of me today.
Thanks for helping me appear as if I'm not totally failing.

So we are really enjoying our thanksgiving weekend.

Quietest, most CHILL Thanksgiving we've had in a looong time.

Stayed in our pj's till noon, cooking up food and watching the Macy's day Thanksgiving parade,

 and reminiscing how  last year we watched it too...but in person!

that was awesome. And also spent some time touring Pennsylvania...

Naomi's face kills me in the above picture.

 The year before that we spent on George Washington's plantation on the Potomac river.

**special thanks Sarah for being a great butt model.**

:)

 A must visit place.

I love George Washington.

We  think it would be cool  to somehow incorporate him

into naming a future child.... hmm somehow.

We adopted the Washington families motto and made it our own family's:

"Aspire to the Heavens"

I plan on painting it on wall in a future home.

What incredible Thanksgivings we've had.

Cache and I decided that that was not the last time we will spend Thanksgiving in NYC.

We love the parade. Especially the Rockettes.

This year was perfect too.

Spent with family at home.

Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, cousins, christmas movie.

Too much food, threw it up all night.

Black Friday, christmas tree hunting.

perfecto.

Who woulda thunk last Thanksgiving as we ran up and down 5th Avenue in New York, 

that on the same day the next year,
we would have this li'l bobble head?

We sure didn't!

By the look on his face I think he mighta known....

:)

i really do love pictures.

if i'm not careful i will think about them all day and night.

i wish i knew i would come to love pictures so much when i was younger.

maybe i would have skipped a sport or two and choir and taken a photography class or photoshop class...

but hindsight...seems to be 20/20.  If I hadn't done sports and choir i might not have met devin.

and i am convinced i would never be loved by anyone like he loves me.

SO i will be patient with my lack of knowledge now.

and thank heavens for photoshop to fix what i don't know how to do with a camera.

YET.

the happiness level of my life dramatically increased with the purchase of my digital slr camera.

I use to feel guilty that a possession could bring me so much joy.

But then I read this talk about how women innately are born to create.

don't we all love President Uchtdorf?

favorite line from the talk:

"The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul. No matter our talents, education, backgrounds, or abilities, 
we each have an inherent wish to create something that did not exist before."

We need to create.

We  as women create life

we create a home.

some sew, some scrapbook.

my sister, well she creates cakes.

and my other sis creates music(the opera kind)

i create pictures.

it makes me happy.

I don't feel bad anymore.

So if any of if you're feelin down go create somethin

food, pretty hair, color a page in coloring book,

anything

some may think your creation isn't so pretty...who cares. 

you do and 

 Iiii think it will make you happy. 

:)

"Don’t let the voice of critics paralyze you—
whether that voice comes from the outside or the inside. If you still feel incapable of creating, 
start small." 

here is a before and after photoshop of Naomi today:

I'm sure someone who knows photoshop coulda done much better or at least more suddle and natural.

buuut this is my picture.

and I like it.

It makes me happy.

Before:

 After:

Naomi...she creates havoc. :)

H a p p y  T h a n k s g i v i n g!

Today I am totally guilty of finding not one but multiple wet/dirty diapers around the house.(There were five....)

How did this happen?

NEVER say never Amie. Never EVER say never.

It is a universal principle that if I say that it WILL happen to me.

Hello life of a mother of Three!

Watch this only if you feel like peeing.
 In your pants.
The last 1 second of this video clip is Devin's favorite part.

Thank you Sambo for sharing.
And visiting us this weekend.



And here's my shameless ploy to get  more visitors...
We'll take you here:

Can you find Devin?

We'll feed you this:

And you can cuddle this now smiling little munch munch:

So sweet you'll want to just eat him.

Please stick to the caramel corn.


But watch out for these guys.

 They'll shoot your eye out.

Please come anyway.

.F i v e  B i r t h d a y s.

.Five cakes.