The Book of Orton

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.