Lydia's Baby Blessing! And first time swimming/going to the park!

Lydia received her baby blessing on Sunday, July 5th! It was so wonderful to listen as Mitch gave it to her and to see family on the Steed and Harper side who came for it! Poor Lydia, she was hungry as church started and I took her to the mother's lounge to feed her but soon it was time for her blessing so we had to cut the feeding short, which she wasn't happy about! Once her blessing was over though, we went right back for her to finish. :) We had lunch at a park by the Provo Temple and we took some pictures! The lens on our iPhone camera was a little fuzzy, so it makes it look like Lydia is glowing in her pictures. She seriously looks like a little angel! (Which she is!) :) It was a wonderful day.

Here's Mitch with Lydia, who's really glowing next to the black of his suit. :)

Lydia also got to meet Grandpa Harper for the first time! It was so great to be with family!

The morning of Lydia's blessing, something so sweet happened! I was sitting in our bed, burping her after a feeding, and she was smiling so big up at the picture of Jesus behind me on our wall. :) She was making little cooing sounds and I called Mitch in and said, "She's smiling up at Jesus and making little sounds to Him!" Mitch said, "What a great Sabbath Day activity! She's bearing her testimony!" :) 

I know that Lydia knows Jesus Christ; she was with Him not long ago. What a wonderful thing it was to see her do that. 

The picture of Jesus is one that used to hang on the wall in our house since I was a little girl. It got pretty faded over the years, and I didn't know what to do with it other than the canvas and frame were both really good, so I figured I would paint a waterfall from Brazil on it, Foz do Iguaçu. It would be a Father's Day gift for my Dad since we went there after my mission to visit and we LOVED the falls. Just as I was about to paint on the canvas though, I realized I couldn't do it! I just couldn't paint over Jesus! :) So I decided to repaint it...it isn't quite the original...but I like it. :) Almost daily now, I see Lydia looking up at Him. :) 

Lydia celebrated her first 4th of July! We didn't go see fireworks (too loud for her) we didn't go to the parade (too hot for her) and she didn't get to eat a hot dog ;) (no teeth yet!) but we did take her swimming for the first time!!! We put her in her flamingo swimming suit and it was the CUTEST thing in the world!

We went swimming in Grandpa and Grandma Steed's pool, and it was a blast! Lydia was pretty indifferent...but we were having a blast! :D Uncle Dave recorded this video for us!

Lydia also got a picture with Great-Grandpa and Grandma Steed on the 4th! It was great! She only has one living great-grandparent on my side, Grandma Kathryn Brown, but she has all 4 on Mitch's side, the Robisons and the Steeds. 

It was good to see them. As Lydia's recently deceased Grandpa Sherman Brown would respond to that, "You know what that means? It means your eyes are working!" :) This is the last picture we got with him before he passed. I was pregnant with Lydia at the time. I sure love him and miss him!

I went to my classroom for the last time and visited my students! It was good, but also emotional. I've been teaching for three wonderful years, and this was such a special group since they were there with me for my whole pregnancy. They LOVE Lydia and got her so many gifts. It was hard to pull all of my things off the walls and close the door for the last time on that beautiful, magical room. So many wonderful things happened there, and my students are just amazing! I love them so much and plan on visiting them next school year when they do Portuguese presentations and such. :) I made a video after I took all my stuff down that I was going to take...I should have taken a video before! But the best part is the word wall, the painting that I did with my friend, Ashley Haderlie, of the Brazilian waterfall I talked about above, Foz do Iguaçu. :) I spoke in the video Portuguese since there were some of my students in the room.

This is a picture of my beautiful bulletin board that my sister-in-law, Summer, did for me two years ago when I started teaching there. I'm so glad that the next teacher, Mia, likes it and wanted me to leave it up for her. :)

I also said goodbye to a wonderful team. Lynsie (second from right) will be going to teach Kindergarten, Harmke (center) just retired, and I am staying home now. :) Janaly isn't in the picture, but she was a wonderful team-lead and I'm so glad I had the privilege of working with these amazing women! I loved chatting with Sandy (far right) all the time, especially about her amazing trip to Brazil that she took with her son after his mission.

I am especially grateful to RoyAnn (far left) for being such an amazing partner-teacher!!!! I really think that English partner teachers in dual immersion are heroes! She and my partner teacher last year, Jennifer Romriell, are AMAZING and I think they should get a raise! :) They do double the work and do a fantastic job of it and I'm so thankful for them! (My student Avery gave me that flamingo shirt I'm wearing by the way...it's pretty much my new favorite and I wear it all the time!)

I'm making a quiet book right now for Lydia!!! It's a Book of Mormon quiet book and it's the best thing ever (in my humble opinion) :) There is a page where you move people along the iron rod and give them fruit from the tree of life, one where you help Moroni bury the Gold Plates, one where you help Alma baptize people (you dunk them in the water), and one where you turn the spindles on the Liahona, the compass that God gave to the Nephites to guide them in the wilderness to the promised land! I've done only one and a half pages, but when I finish I'll post pictures of all of it because I'm pretty darn excited about it! :D Here's the Liahona!

The book is 11'' by 14'' and it's going to be great! Here is some of my work-in-progress:

The last exciting thing in the Steed family lately is that we took Lydia to a park for the first time! We went to Kiwanis Park and Mitch took her on the swing for the first time! Like swimming, she was pretty indifferent and we the parents were the ones having all the fun! It was great!

Finally I just wanted to add two cute little pictures of Lydia, one of her this week where she put her hands behind her head and relaxed on her blanket, and another of one of her huge smiles that seriously are the best smiles ever!!!! :D

 Have a great week!