Veronica's blessing day and name

Veronica was blessed on Sunday in our ward in Texas.  We thought about waiting to have her blessed until we were in Utah, but that thought only lasted about two seconds.  We couldn't think of anywhere in Utah where it would make sense to have her blessed.  Brandon's parents have moved away from the ward he grew up in, and my parents are service missionaries in a Spanish Branch in Magna,  We still have a lot of friends in our branch, but it just seemed weird to invite ourselves and all our family back to the branch for a baby blessing. And we didn't want to have her blessed in someone's home.  

Ultimately we realized that we LIVE in Texas and so that is where Veronica should be blessed.  We have a lot of friends in our ward that were able to attend.  We also invited some of Brandon's co-workers and a lot of our neighbors - especially the ones who were involved with Veronica's birth.  We thought it was only fitting that they should attend her blessing.  And best of all, my sister Lindsey was able to drive up and be there too.  

Even though most of our family couldn't be there in person they were there in spirit.  Veronica wore the dress that my mom wore when she was christened in the Lutheran Church as a baby.  I liked thinking about my Grandma who picked out the dress.  My Aunt Diane also wore the dress.  All three of my sisters were blessed in that same dress.  (I was blessed in a dress that my Aunt Karen made for me.  That I haven't been able to find for a few years.)

Since the dress represented my family I asked Brandon's mom to send something to represent his side of the family.  She sent a flowery hair bow and a bracelet with a pendant that Veronica can also wear when she is baptized and married.       

Our neighbor Ange came to our Sacrament to see the blessing with her family.  We were so honored that they would come.  Linda, who was also involved with Veronica's birth, wanted to attend but she was sick and didn't want to spread any germs.

 Lindsey's husband John had to work so he couldn't come.  That meant we didn't have any "real" family members stand in the circle with Brandon during the blessing.  But we had some friends from the ward stand with him.

After sacrament meeting we stayed for the other two meetings.  Rocklond went to primary and Knoxx went to nursery with his cousins.  Lindsey and Viktoriia came to my Gospel Principles class that I teach every week.

 After church we went back to my house and had a little party.  Brandon and I had stayed up until 2:00 am (again!) cleaning the house and prepping the food. It was all worth it when Viktoriia walked into our house and said, "it's so clean!"

It really was super clean.  The girls and I had even washed the walls and polished the furniture during the week.  They had fun helping me get everything ready for "Vewonica's Party."

We served little make your own deli sandwiches, chips and dip, crackers and cheese, banana bread, strawberries, and pomegranate punch.  All the food was really yummy.

I'm so glad Lindsey was able to come.  She helped me out every step of the way while I was pregnant with Veronica.  It was nice to have her come to a party at my house instead of her coming to be the care taker.

The kids had fun eating the food.

Many people from the neighborhood came to our little party.  It was the second time we had a ton of people in our house because of Veronica.  Only this time they were all invited.  One of Ange's boys said, "last time I was in your house I was helping clean it after you had your baby."

Many people held Veronica.  She fell asleep in Ange's husband Jason's arms.

Lots of shoes by the door is always a sign of a good party.

The kids all had fun playing loudly in the toy room.  The new buckets were a big hit.  They are my new favorite thing because they hold so many toys.  The toy room cleans up super fast now because I just have to throw all the toys in the buckets.

The party was lots of fun.  Brandon and I have missed hosting parties.  And you Salt Lake City people shouldn't feel left out, because we are hosting a second party at my parent's stake center in Kearns.  If we are friends on facebook you should have an invite.  If not, e-mail me at 51centadventures at gmail dot com and I'll give you the info.

For those of you still reading, here is how we picked Veronica's name.  We wanted to continue our roman numeral trend.  So again we were thinking of names that started with C, D, I, L, M, V, and X.  Before we found out her gender I wanted the baby to be a boy. I thought it would be nice for Derrick to have a friend.  But all I could think of were girl names.  I really liked the name Melia, but we have a friend named Melia so it didn't fit the "we can't know anyone with the name" criteria.

When Brandon went to the JRTC in May I was re-reading Mistborn and Brandon was reading Hero of Ages.  The main character of those books in a girl named Vin.   We really like her character and decided that if our baby was a girl we would want to name her Vin.  But Vin Illguth sounded too much like "vanilla."  So we started looking for a name that Vin could be a nick name for.

One day Brandon and I were talking about the Veronica Mars movie that will come out next year.  I am a HUGE Veronica Mars fan.  Brandon said, "you know, I've always liked the name Veronica.  Even before I knew about the TV show."  I thought about it for a second and I knew that was the right name.

Her middle name was even easier.  I'd asked for suggestions for names on facebook.  My friend Joseph commented that IV was the Roman Numeral for 4 and this was our fourth child so we should name her Ivy.  I didn't like it as a first name, but I LOVED it as a middle name.  Ivy is short so it balanced out the 4 syllables and 8 letters in Veronica.  And it goes with the nature theme that the twins' middle names, Skye and Brooke, have.

So that's how our little Vin got her name.  Maybe she'll marry a man with a last name that starts with N and her initials really will be Vin one day.