My Little Girl in Her White Dress

We have hit another milestone as parents. We have another child that is going to be baptized. Alyssa is 8! I can't believe the time has really gone by that quickly! Whenever I ask her if she wants me to help her with something she says, "Mom, I am 8 now! I can do it myself!" What would I do without my precious little mama?

Once again our talented friend, Kim has taken some beautiful pictures of her in her "Princess" gown (Alyssa likes to call it that)! You can see them here!
This dress ended up being very hard to make! I have messed with hard patterns before and when I ran into a problem I was able to fix it myself or ask advice and then do it myself with no problems, but this one was just stubborn! Mostly because the directions stunk ( I am going to write the company about their problem) !!! I made the bodice and it looked beautiful until you tried to put the lining with it! So, I asked for my friend, Shari's, advice and she worked on it with me and ran into the very same problems...so she took the bodice and worked while I worked on the skirt and petticoat. It took us a couple of months, many moments of unpicking, and getting together to figure out problems, but we FINALLY pulled it off! I ended up doing a lot of hand sewing for the last several things that needed to be done, but it all turned out beautiful. I am grateful I have a very talented and very good friend that was willing to help me in a jam!

When I was married a very talented friend made my wedding dress for me. I had run across this poem:

MY THREE WHITE DRESSES
My mom bought me a white dress, Not red or pink or blue.
She said it was a special dress, Like very other few.
There has been just one before, A dress now put away,
That I wore some time ago, Upon my blessing day.
As a little baby clothed, In my first white dress,
My dad held me in his arms, There to name and bless.
So pure and clean was I just then, With time to grow and learn
About the Father's plan for me, My glory I must earn.
Now I've reached the age to judge, The wrong road from the right,
And I am here to be baptized, In this dress of white.
So once again I'm free from sin. The path is clear to me
I'll grasp the rod and hold on tight, I vow with certainty.
Just as mud would stain my dress, Sin would stain my soul.
The key is to repent or bleach, For whiteness is my goal.
And if I try my very best, Then richly blessed I'll be,
Wearing inside God's holy house, White dress number three.
So today I make this pledge: I'll strive to choose the right,
Through this sacred baptism ordinance, In my second dress of white
This was by Linda Gay Perry Nelson, 1993

Since I ended up having left over material from my wedding dress I decided to make my first daughter, Alyssa, a blessing dress and one day a white dress for her baptism day. I am grateful that I was inspired, by this poem, to do this because it has been a special thing between my girls and I. Bria has already worn the blessing dress and one day she will wear the baptism dress too!