Nate's Birthday and Ethan's Baby Blessing

For Nate's birthday, we went on a simple date of dinner and movie. We went to Cafe Sabor (a yummy Mexican restaurant in an old train station) and watched the new(ish) Star Wars movie. It's always nice to get out without the kids every once in a while.

Then next day, we blessed Ethan on January 21, 2018. We have 11:00 church so we had a little bit of time to prepare for family that would be coming in for the blessing. The only problem was that I had ward council and then Brother Thompson (the counselor over the youth) met with me about Young Women stuff for 45 minutes. Nate was at home stressed trying to get all of the kids and himself ready for church as well as trying to set everything up. Apparently, he started to get worried (because his family worries) because I had had really bad back problems in the morning (more on all that later) so he was afraid I had not been able to move anymore somewhere on my way to or from the church. If I had known he was worried about that, I would've sent him a text. Luckily my parents came early to help setup tables and chairs and help with the food. I did Smorgasbord soup. I just had to make the tomato base and a couple of other things and I asked those who were coming to bring other toppings. So it was easy and yummy. The way the soup works is that you put in spoon fulls of whatever you want, then add the base in to make it a soup. That made it easier to get ready in time. I got back soon after my parents got there. We got everything done and made it to church on time.

There was another baby being blessed the same day, which is unusual. We hadn't had a baby blessed in months and suddenly there was two in one day. It wasn't even the traditional fast Sunday. The day was perfect. All of the Utah family members made it except David. In the circle with Nate was the Bishop, my dad, Steve, Nate Cederlof, Karl, Shawn, and JJ. This is from Nate's journal, "I felt the spirit strongly as I started the blessing. It felt like energy going through my body."

Some of us took notes during the blessing so this is what we got:

Ethan James Summers- Blessing by father
Heavenly Father has a plan for you as one of his children.
You are blessed with the ability to be a peacemaker.
You are blessed with the ability to be a light to others- to members as well as non-members.
You will have the opportunity to share the gospel with many different people.
You will have the blessing to hear the words of the spirit come to you.
We bless you to do well in school- you will learn quickly and easily and you will help others to learn.
You will be blessed with a family of your own that you will be sealed to and you will help them on their journey back to Heavenly Father.
We bless you with any other blessings that your Heavenly Father may have in store for you.

It was a special day and I'm glad family could come to celebrate our special boy!