Baby Dedication

Claire Elizabeth was dedicated to the Lord at Church in the Valley last Sunday, December 8th!  It was a fun morning celebrating with family and church family.  Brad and I committed to the following:

"I recognize that my child belongs to God

The Lord has first claim on her life

I dedicate Claire Elizabeth to the Lord

I commit myself to bring her up in the training and instruction of the Lord

And for this I ask the power of God."

Lord, please help us to raise her in a way that honors you.  We pray that Claire will want to love you and follow you one day. 

In family news, we are continuing to pray for healing for our niece Lizzie.  She was in Texas Children's Hospital over the weekend with a bone infection in her ankle. She is home now and on antibiotics, which we are grateful for.  Please pray for the antibiotics to work and for protection for her growth plate (the infection is near it).  We love you Lizzie!  We are also continuing to pray for Susan's Aunt Dorothy as they are about to begin treatment for her cancer and recovery from her surgery.  We enjoyed a visit from Walt and Jean (Susan's parents) and were so happy they were able to meet Claire!  It was great to see them.

Logan (actually, all of us) are enjoying this holiday season!  Logan loves the Christmas lights, our decorations, and reading Christmas stories.  We are doing an advent activity this year!  Logan colors a picture from the nativity scene each day, we read a story about baby Jesus being born, and then put the picture up on the Nativity scene that we are creating.  It is fun to watch him learn about the birth of Jesus, the greatest gift of all!  We are also practicing two songs for Logan's first participation in the Family Christmas Celebration at our church on the 22nd!  We'll see how that goes!  =)  I enjoyed the annual Women's Ornament Exchange last night!  The theme was "The Gift of Grace" and it is always one of my favorite evenings of the year!

Here are a bunch of pictures from the past couple of weeks:

 Claire wore a dress that Aunt Leslie saved for her!  It was Alex's first Easter dress, and it is beautiful!  Thank you to Leslie!

 After the dedication I had several people tell me how adorable it was that Claire was staring right at Brad the whole time.  She wanted Daddy's attention!  =)  

Here is a video of part of the dedication that my mom took.

 Our friend Flor took family pics after church.  =)

 Randy Lanthripe holding Claire.  =)

Silly boy.  Yes, he is eating M&M's.  Yes, Daddy (and all of us) bribed him to smile and be patient during the pictures!  His reward was CANDY (his favorite).  Logan is talking so much more.  He came in my room yesterday and said, "What's going on in here mom?" and then said, "Okay mom, see you soon" and walked out.  He is too funny.  

 Walt and Jean with Claire!

We realize that Walt is cut off here but this is still pretty impressive because the photographer was Logan!  This is the first official picture that he's taken all by himself!  =)

 A picture from the Ornament Exchange- sweet friends, beautiful decor, delicious food, wonderful music (the ladies sang an incredible version of "Amazing Grace") and hearing from a wise woman who has devoted her life to sharing God's grace with others in Central Asia- a great evening!

 Neil Walker held Claire and made her smile a lot at our friend Jami's party!

 For Christmas Uncle Bud took Logan to Toys R Us and let him pick out his own toys.  Bud is brave to want to do this!  Logan loved it, loves his toys, and loves Bud.  Here is Logan in the Police car big wheel in the store.  Logan sat in EVERY big wheel and pretended to drive.

Claire happy and smiling on her play mat after we read a Christmas story.