A's Big Day

I've been meaning to write every detail of Annabelle's blessing day down, but first I wanted to make sure I had beautiful pictures to go with it: so Sunday I put her back in her dress and had a little photo-shoot.
First of all, I'm in love with her dress. My mom did an amazing job crocheting it!! Yes. By hand. I cannot even express how much I cherish that dress. Next to our wedding blanket, it's very very dear to me.
She looked so beautiful on her blessing day! And it was especially special because so many people came that love her, including her favorite Grandpa Tracy! That, in and of itself, made the day perfect. We loved having you there dad -- and we're counting down the days til we get to see you (& co) at Christmas!
I love you, dad.



It was also a super special day because beautiful MADISON LYNN was blessed as well :) And she looked absolutely adorable in her dress and bonnet -- I'm so glad Annabelle has such a close cousin! We hope for them to be best friends.
Since we planned a joint blessing, we also got special permission to have our own little meeting after church. And for history's sake, I'd like to list everyone that participated (Annabelle's gonna read this blog when she's older, right?!)
Brother Vlaardingerbroeck conducted (I promise I didn't make that name up!!), Grandpa Dave said the opening prayer afterwhich Jake gave Annabelle her beautiful blessing. The Spirit was so strong, and it was one of the very few times I've ever heard Jake get choked up - so sweet. I was sorta worried Annabelle would jabber through the whole thing ("All this attention at once?!"), but she was very calm and quiet and fell straight to sleep as soon as she was placed in my arms. Then Danny gave Maddy a beautiful blessing. And then my biggest fear took place: Public Speaking!!!! (We decided it'd be nice to have the mom's bear their testimonies)... which turned out to be great. I got to bear my testimony with my sweet girl in my arms, and couldn't help but feel Heavenly Father's love for both her and I. We are so blessed to have her.
K, then Ashley bore her testimony, Grandpa Tracy said the closing prayer, and we can't forget Aunt Julie -- she played the prelude and hymn music (very beautifully! Thanks for doing that so last-minute)

After the meeting ended, we had a super yummy dinner thanks to THE QUINNS!! Without them, everything would've been a mess, but thankfully they're angels from heaven and took care of everything I didn't think of -- which was pretty much... everything :D
It was so fun to see so many family and friends. Sadly I didn't get nearly as many pictures as I would've liked, but here are a couple.





And here are her post-blessing day shots:





We love you Angel-Girl and are so happy we get to call you "ours" ...