Tristan's Baby Dedication

I've been making some waves at our new church. I realized that we were going to miss Baby Dedication Sunday at our church in Kentucky, and I was so sad about it. I love that service, seeing all the new babies and their families dedicating their children to the Lord. It's really an emotional service for me and I wanted so much to be able to do that with Tristan. Unfortunately, we're not going to be able to do it with our home congregation, so I started asking about baby dedication here in Georgia. Apparently they haven't done a dedication service at our church for about two years, but I just kept asking and they agreed to do one. There are five babies in the congregation who needed to be dedicated and four of them were able to be there last Sunday for Dedication. The Allen family. It was really hard on me to be there without family. When Maura was dedicated, both sets of grandparents were there and we did a big party afterwards complete with cake. It seemed a little anticlimactic to head over to IHOP for lunch afterwards with just the four of us!

Little Man. He's so handsome. I catch glimpses of him from time to time and he looks so old. I'm really starting to see what the little boy Tristan will look like. We were so proud to dedicate this sweet baby to the Lord. We pray that he will grow to be a strong man of God, someone who will live with integrity and character and will lead his family someday. God has truly blessed us with this sweet boy. Beautiful Maura. She put on this dress, looked at her daddy, and said, "I look pretty!"

Three minutes into church and Maura has already broken out the snacks. Don't look now, but the Allens were actually at church early!! It's a lot easier when your church starts at 10am and you live ten minutes away! Dedicating our sweet baby. Tristan was presented with a little blue bible with his name on it and Maura was given a bible storybook to read to him. Buddy prayed for each of our children. It meant so much to us that they had this service and that we were able to celebrate Tristan's dedication with our new friends.

OK, flash backwards one day to Valentine's Day. It was so great that it was on a Saturday this year because we were able to spend all day celebrating. I love any holiday and figure that any special day is an excuse for celebration. Here are the kids first thing in the morning. My first attempt at a Valentine's Day picture.
My second attempt. Can you feel the love? She's going to make a fabulous teenager when we're already getting this much attitude at two! At least Tristan was happy! Maura loved opening up the bag and deciding which gifts belonged to her and which belonged to Tristan.

Tristan got the purple puppy! Little Heartbreaker! Maura got the pencils, kitties and books. Well, the books are for both of them.

I got a gift from my sweetie too--diamond stud earrings. Brent does good gifts! Thanks honey! Check out Maura in the background. She'd broken into her chocolate! Brent got a gift too--no diamonds, just a book he's been wanting.

I really wanted to go to IHOP for breakfast, but we didn't get out of the house quickly enough, so we settled for a snack at McDonalds to tide us over until after Saturday Morning Sillies when we would have time for IHOP. Maura got her customary parfait. I think she could live of these things! Tristan got nothing but puffs and a few licks of the table. He chewed a hole through his place mat with those razor sharp teeth of his and gnawed on the McDonald's table. Ewww!


Once a month, our Children's Minister does a program called Saturday Morning Sillies. He is a clown and he used to dress up as a clown and do the whole program. The problem is that there are a few children, mine included, that are terrified of the clown costume. Now, he just does the program in plainclothes. It's a cute program, lots of songs and hand motions and even some magic tricks. Maura loves it. She also loves all the food they had there!

Look at my girl, coming out of her shell and going to the front during the singing. Maura isn't a joiner, so this is a big step for her. I think she just really likes Mr. Benny and she likes showing off for him. Making Wally the weasel disappear! We're so blessed to have a children's minister who really tries to reach out to the community with events like this. It was fun for all of us.

Maura even got up and did the fruits of the spirit! She does them for us at home, but I never know if she'll perform in public. What a ham!

We spent the rest of the day celebrating Valentine's Day. We didn't make it to IHOP that day, but we went the next. I was having some serious pancake cravings! We had cheese and chocolate fondue for dinner that night, our Valentine's Day tradition. I'm grateful to all my Valentines for a wonderful day. I love you Brent, Maura and Tristan