"Baby" Dedication

See, the way it usually works is that a child is born, and his parents dedicate him sometime within the first year to 18 months of life. But, since we are terrible procrastinators and oddly disorganized for being such obsessive compulsive planners, we kept getting pregnant before we had a chance to dedicate the first two babies. So, we dedicated all three of them at once. Some might consider the the model of efficiency, but we know the truth. The dedication was a ceremony during which Patrick and I publicly declared our commitment to raise our children in the Christian faith, teaching them to obey and follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. It is not a baptism, which is a public declaration of one's own faith in Christ as his Lord and Savior. That is a decision that each child will have to make in his or her own heart. But, it is a time to mark our commitment to bring them up in the ways of the Lord, and to pray for our family to be blessed by the Lord's presence in our lives. It is a time we can look back to as a reminder of what our ultimate goal is in parenting our children: to make disciples of each one and foster their growth in a personal relationship with the Lord, Jesus Christ.

Mommy, Charlie, Maddie, Daddo, and Fi at home before we left for church.

Chachi awaiting his stage debut

A deer in the headlights?

The Misses Sassafrass

Aunt Dondie and her doppleganger

Maddie refers to this picture as "silly, googly eye Uncle Chris."

Daddo and I shared our prayers that we would be godly parents and teach our children the miracle of the gospel. Steve prayed for each of our children that they would be pure and strong in their faith.

So many of our friends and family blessed us by coming to church and sharing this special day with our family. We had everyone over to our house for dessert after the service.

They finally meet! Charlie hanging out with Grandpa Les.

Melanie noshes, Rick and Matt are hotly debating something, and Heidi visits with Julie.

Mommy and the crowd

Chris, Bebbess, Rhonda and Grandma Sue visit at the table; Tom shows off his new diet

Jared and Jen lounge on the couch while Jon tries to uswe his mind power to explode the baby on the table; Tom and Robyn, the lovebirds

Kimmy showing us some sort of reverse obscene finger gesture, no doubt something Jared taught her.

Beautiful Baby Mackenzie - According to Fiona,"she has eyes."

Great picture of Casey and Heather

So-so self-portrait of James and Pat

Gigi and Grandma Margred

A very brief video of the kiddos

Daddo is stirrin' up trouble.