The Wilker Family: Blessing Day!

Sunday, August 7th was blessing day for our twin girls. I had been looking forward to this day and couldn't believe we had made it! It felt like an accomplishment in a weird way. It had been kind of stressful making sure everything was ready like the house, the kids and the food (not sure where that started that a tired new mom should be the hostess to a big luncheon, lol!) and I was nervous how the day would go. Thank goodness for 1pm church so we had a lot of time to get everything ready. The morning actually went a lot smoother than I thought it would and I was really happy with how the decorations and food turned out and the kids were really good all morning, which was a big help.

We had a good size crowd for the blessing: my mom, dad and grandpa, my brother Mike, his wife Maile and there three kids (Ellie, Benji, and Kaia), Steve's mom, dad, Angie, Tyson, Steve's aunt Bev, uncle Lewis, his wife Susan and their kids Cody and his wife Jessica, Nicole, Hayley, and Hannah. Riley and Madelyn were both wonderful the whole day. They were content during their blessings and slept through the whole meeting. It was very special to listen to their similar yet unique blessings and to hear them be blessed in watching out for each other and keeping that bond strong. Steve did a wonderful job and I am so grateful for the priesthood that he holds and gets to use in times like these. Since it was fast Sunday, I had the opportunity to bear my testimony, which was a little scary in front of both of our families! I was so overwhelmed with gratitude. We have been blessed with these two amazing and healthy little spirits that have joined our home on top of our three other children that each bring us so much joy and purpose in this life. I get to be their mom which, although difficult at times, is all I ever wanted to do with my life. I am grateful that we are blessed with what Heavenly Father feels is right for us, not what we think is best or right always, these twins are an example of that. I also shared my appreciation for the immense outpouring of love and support from family, friends and our ward family. They have done so much to help us and we are touched by how much everyone cares. Once again, a very emotional day!!

After the blessing and the standard pics outside the church (most of which I don't have yet because they were taken on other people's cameras) we all came back to our house for the luncheon. I had been stressed with what to feed everybody but decided to go with our new found tradition of "breakfast Sundays." With 1pm church it's hard and just no fun to spend a lot of time on Sunday dinner and would always end up stressful or a lot of work for me, which was not how any of us wanted to spend our Sabbath day. So Steve came up with the idea to just do breakfast foods every Sunday. They are all really easy and stress free and something the whole family enjoys. Our kids love our breakfast Sundays and it's become a fun tradition for us. So for our luncheon we had a sausage/egg/hashbrown casserole, a french toast bake, muffins, mini donuts, and fruit kabobs with juice, milk, and chocolate milk. It all turned out great and was delicious. Everyone had a fun afternoon hanging out and chatting and all of the kids had fun playing together. We were sad we had to say goodbye to my parents (AGAIN!) but it really was a wonderful day to celebrate our two sweet baby girls and be surrounded by family. ...of course we were all exhausted by the end of the day, haha!

How did I get so lucky?!

All of the grandkids on Steve's side of the family.

My beautiful babies! Elaine and Angie had gotten these matching blessing dresses from a boutique that was closing. They were a little big but I thought they were just adorable and worked great. Madelyn on the left and Riley on the right.

Riley Monroe

Madelyn Rae

The pink blankets underneath were made by my mom. She makes one for each grand child.

These little white booties were a gift from my grandpa. He had asked a friend to make them as soon as he found out about these girls. We thought that was so sweet of him and loved that they got to wear them on their big day.

Not only did I take a picture at church but I took one during the prayer (gasp!). Preston was holding Maddie at the end of sacrament meeting. He was being so sweet with her holding the pacifier in and then he was whispering in her ear "My name is Preston and I am your big brother!" That moment just got to me and I was so touched. This was my baby boy who has grown up quite a bit and now my oldest was holding my youngest and was being so sweet. Way to make me cry, again!