On April 30, 2017 we had Caleb's baby blessing. We are so grateful to have Caleb in our family and to give him a name and a blessing. We were also so grateful to have some many family members come and support us and Caleb. We had parents, siblings, aunts and uncles, cousins and a grandpa all there and it was wonderful. Since we don't have church until 12:30, we invited everyone over for brunch at 10:30 before church. We had waffles, eggs, fruit and sausage and everyone was able to eat and enjoy time visiting. We also had so many people help bring food which was really nice. Here are just a few of the many photos with family.
Everyone just visiting in our main room.
Caleb's Grandma and Grandpa Peaden
Jake, Kevin and Matthew enjoying second helpings!
Lydia and Aubrey playing. Aubrey is always so kind to play with Lydia, although I think she secretly enjoys having another girl to play with.
Amy and Caleb.
Melissa and Blake and Caleb.
Wendy and Sam and Caleb. It was so nice to have Sam there to be able to stand in as part of the blessing since Caleb's middle name is after Sam.
The Haderlie clan and Caleb.
Matthew and Caleb
Kevin and Caleb.
Grandpa Walker and Caleb.
Shantel and Caleb with her Grandpa. She definitely missed having Grandma Walker there.
Shantel with her Dad and Caleb.
We headed over to the church pretty early since there were multiple baby blessings and got a few more pictures. However, these are my two favorite pictures from the entire day. Austin is pulling Lydia and Camille in the Wagon. First of all, it is so awesome how well they play together. Also, Austin is so strong, he just pulled those girls along and all through the house weaving in and out of legs like they were cones on a driving course. It is also funny because Lydia and Camille loved being pulled around, but Austin actually loves doing the work to pull them.
Pictures from the church.
Caleb Samuel Peaden is the name he was given in his blessing. He was so good for the blessing and did not make even a sound. Some of the things that I was inspired to say during his blessing were:
-He was blessed with the gift of Faith in Jesus Christ
-The ability to be kind and have empathy to others
-He was blessed that in the world that confuses good and evil that he will have the ability to discern good and evil through the spirit.
-He was blessed to develop lasting friendships with siblings that would last through this life and that they would be more than siblings, but true friends.
-He was blessed with the love of the study of the scriptures and that he would turn to the scriptures when faced with trials.
I know that the words and his blessing were inspired of Heavenly Father. I prayed in the weeks beforehand to know what blessing and gifts he would need in his life and had various things come to my mind. In the days before I thought of the things that he should be blessed with so that I would be prepared for the blessing. I feel that by preparing beforehand, you give Heavenly Father and opportunity to inspire you. However, once I began the blessing as always, some things did not come back to my remembrance and others replaced them as guided by the spirit. One of the first things that I really felt strongly he should be blessed with was the Gift of Faith in Jesus Christ. However, not one time had I considered blessing him with the love of scripture study, but clearly had that come to my mind during the blessing. I know that blessings are inspired and that these gifts and blessing will help Caleb in his life.
We are truly grateful for our three children and so happy to have Caleb. We understand what a tremendous responsibility we have to teach and raise our children as Heavenly Father would have us do it. I am particularly lucky to have Shantel by my side to lead and guide our family.
