Eli's Baby Blessing, as promised

 I just finished typing up Eli's baby blessing and wanted to share it with all of our friends and family that were not able to make it. Read the post below if you are unsure what a baby blessing is. Reading this makes me so excited to watch Eli and all of my children to grow and to see what they acomplish and who they become in their lives. I feel so honored to be entrusted with this little ones and to guide them and love them.

Heavenly Father, We a few of thy sons holding the Melchezidek Priesthood come before thee to give this baby a name and a blessing. The name by which he shall be known here on the earth and upon the records of this church is Elijah Alexious Jones.

Elijah, you have come here to Earth from the presence of a loving Heavenly Father. And have been chosen to come here to fulfill a number of callings here on the Earth. And you have been blessed to have entered into a family under the covenant where the blessings of the temple are in your home. We want you to know how much you are loved by your Mother and Father and siblings and members of your extended family, and how much we welcome you. And we bless you that as you grow you will grow to love your family and understand your nature as a child of God and that you will love your Heavenly Father and strive to get to know him and to get to know his son and your savior Jesus Christ. That you will recognize his hand in your life as you go throughout your life and that you will make wise decisions and when the time is right you will decide to be baptized and also later in your life that you will partake of the other ordinances of the gospel.

We bless you Elijah with a light in your countenance. Which will show unto others the blessing that you have in your life as a result of living a righteous life and following the plan of your Savior. And as that light shows you will be presented with opportunities to share the gospel. And that you will do so with the spirit, which will help you bring souls unto Christ.

And Elijah you were also named in part because of your Mother’s passion for family history work and the work of the Temple. And we bless you to follow in her footsteps, that you might also have this passion and that you might seek out your ancestors and feel the joy as you have ordinances done for them in the temple. And we bless you as you partake yourself of the ordinances of the Temple that you will feel of your Heavenly Fathers love. That you will be able to serve an honorable full time mission. And upon your return you will be able to seek education that will benefit you and your family. And that someday you will find a loving woman who you will cherish and take to the temple to be sealed to you. That you will be able to start your own family, also under the covenant. 

Elijah, yours is a blessed life and we bless you with all of these things and all of the things that Heavenly Father has in store for you and we say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Eli's Baby Blessing

We had Eli's baby blessing this past Sunday and all I can say was that it was wonderful! An experience I will never forget. For those of you who are not of our faith, a baby blessing is done after your baby is born. His/her father and some other male family members and friends will gather in a circle around the baby and the Father will say a prayer/blessing. This is usually done at the beginning of a church meeting. 
In it, he gives the baby a name and says whatever he feels prompted to say in regards to blessing the baby to have certain qualities and experiences in his/her life. 
Mike has a special gift/talent for giving blessings and there was no exception at Eli's blessing yesterday. Tears came to my eyes as I listened to Mike bless Eli and touch on certain points in his life and what he wished for him to have and accomplish. It made me realize how short of a time we really do have here and how I should work everyday to do something important, to fulfill my role here on the earth.Not just keeping the house clean, but make sure I am helping someone in need, reading and learning more from the scriptures, praying, and being an example to my children. To give my family love and put others before myself. These are the things that really bring true joy to my life. It is funny to me that when you lose yourself in the service of others you really feel more joy than if you were just catering to yourself. My mind would argue with that fact, but the truth is our minds are not the most important things to go by.I think our hearts know and teach us much more. I think our motherly intuition, promptings from our Heavenly Father, they all seem to come straight from our chests, or at least they do for me. So I will follow that over having it make sense in my mind any day. Thanks for reading my rambling thoughts. I will post Eli's blessing on here after I get it typed up. For now enjoy the pictures from the weekend. And thank you to all who came, it means so much to us.
















Cousins- Are these boys cute or what! Grandma Melinda- you have the cutest grand kids ever! ;)

Deacon and Malia

My favorite pic from the weekend. All the cousins with Gabe and Malia (well, some of the cousins). I look at this photo of these sweet beautiful kids and can't help but feel full of love for each of them. I am so lucky to have all of these kids in my life and in my family. They really are choice spirits and I get excited to think about all they will accomplish and how they will grow and just love that I get to be on the side lines watching and routing for them.