Baby Blessing

On Sunday, December 5 we blessed Lester McKay Essig, making him 4 months old. If we had waited much longer he could have crawled up there! It was such a special day to have both of our families, including extended family, there to support us. I can't express the joy I felt seeing our sweet boy surrounded by the Priesthood and by so many people who love him. I am so grateful to have a worthy husband who was able to give him his name and blessing. I woke up at 3:50am on Saturday night to feed baby and noticed Les wasn't in bed. I found him on the couch studying the scriptures and writing in his journal, preparing himself for the blessing. McKay was blessed with a healthy body which will serve him well all his days, and with patience, kindness and charity. He was given the ability to have a sound understanding of the gospel and will be a good example and leader as the oldest child of our family. He was blessed to serve a mission and to marry a righteous girl in the temple. It was a beautiful blessing. Les' dad stood next to Les and had the assignment of keeping the Binky in Mac's mouth, since my biggest fear was that he would cry through his blessing. Thankfully, he didn't make a peep! In fact, my dad (yes his eyes were open...it is an inherited trait in our family) said McKay was wide-eyed looking around the circle at everyone. He was probably wondering what in the world was going on! I was an emotional wreck during and after the blessing, my heart was so full. I leaned over to Shauna and said, "On days like this I totally get why you had 11 kids! These are the pearl moments of life. Les and I both bore our testimonies. I was so happy to hear Les' thoughts. He too was emotional and said, "Let me assure you, I have cried in just about every corner of the church today!"  It is crazy what a baby does to a tough guy, because Les rarely cried before McKay. We are so crazy about our little boy and had such a wonderful day. Following the service, we all drove out to my parent's house for the funniest dinner. The ham was "shoe leather," the potatoes were burned, a batch of cookies were spilled and thrown away, and a whole salad was dropped outside. Someone was trying to get us down after such an uplifting meeting!  Even still we had enough food to go around and it was a nice evening spent with family. 

In his blessing outfit

On the way to church. I wasn't taking any chances on him pooping through the pants. Those were put on minutes before the blessing.