There’s something so special about making the decision as a parent to commit to raising your children to have a relationship with the Lord. We are trying our best to lead and guide them in the right direction and build a strong faith filled foundation.
If you aren’t familiar with what a baby dedication is, the best way to describe it would be that it’s somewhat similar to a christening, but not really. There are no additional names involved or a baptism. We believe that our children should make the decision to decide if they want to get baptized when they are at an age to fully understand and commit their lives to Christ. A baby dedication is more of a family symbol that we are dedicating our children to Jesus and committing to encourage them and raise them to have a relationship with Him.
A baby dedication is typically done in front of the whole church after morning worship and before the pastor starts preaching. It’s a great opportunity for us to invite friends and family who might not regularly attend service to come and celebrate with us. During the dedication there are typically three roses that are presented. One for the father, one for the mother, and one for the siblings. Some churches will give the baby their first bible or a certificate of some sort. We made a suggestion to our current church that our previous one had always given the kids a certificate with the spiritual connotation of their name. They loved the idea and it’s something they want to implement. They started it with us and gave us the most beautiful picture with a scripture verse and the meaning of baby C’s name. It’s definitely going in his room. And the cool part is, it matches his decor and they didn’t even know it.
One of my favorite things has been sharing a few special moments with my babies when getting them ready for the big morning. You know sometimes babies can be fussy and just off for the day, but thankfully all of them have always been extra sweet, full of smiles, and really mellow on their dedication day. It was so special because this was the third time this sweet little dedication outfit has been worn. All of the boys have worn the same one and it’s been so sweet to see each of them in it.
A and little nugget were so excited to go on stage and could not stop talking about it all weekend. Every morning they would wake up and ask if it was Sunday yet. They practiced saying their names and knew that they would get a chance to hold one of the flowers. When it was finally time to go up, they said their names and were doing great. All of the sudden out of nowhere little nugget started to hop like a frog on stage. The first time he did it I just ignored it and hoped he wouldn’t do it again. Nope, I should have known that was wishful thinking. Well, after the 4th time (check out his bending frog pose below) the pastor joked that he liked to jump up and down when he preached. Everyone started laughing and I chuckled right along. At least everyone had a sense of humor about it. Little nugget must have gotten all of his hops out because after that he didn’t do it again. It was really cute though, and these things are so unpredictable with kids. It always adds for some fun entertainment. The baby did great even though it was getting close to his nap time. He wasn’t all smiles like he usually is but there were no tears or accidents in his cute little outfit.
We always have a party afterwards for everyone to get together. For A’s dedication (which was also one of my first posts) we had it at a restaurant and we also did the same for little nugget. This time around we wanted to have everyone back to our house and it worked out really well. The baby had his crib so he could take his afternoon nap, we didn’t feel rushed or on a time schedule, and the boys had plenty of room to play with their friends. The only downfall, oh, it was only 99 degrees that day but felt like 108 without a cloud in the sky. We knew that no one would really want to be outside so we decided to have all of the food inside and let people go in and out if they wanted. The kids were really the only ones that wanted to go out there and a few of the adults to keep an eye on them. We had a bounce house, sprinklers, and tons of water balloons going for them.
If you caught my insta stories over the weekend you might have seen I was working on some diy projects for the party. We won’t talk about the time I actually got to bed on Saturday night, but it all paid off and came together just as I was hoping. It wasn’t so much the decor side of things that kept me up, it was cleaning the house after the boys went to bed.
I’m not even going to lie, I enjoy a good Pinterest inspired party. I won’t drive myself crazy with things that aren’t realistic or spend beyond my means, but I love a good focus table and some of the small details. The best part is, I recycled so many things I already had from other parties that the only thing I did buy was these white pinwheels. I did also stain the pallets we had because I wanted them a darker wood and I know these will be great for so many other parties. If you haven’t noticed from my kids other parties, I love a good pallet for a backdrop.
All of the greenery was clipped from around our yard and I made these little wreaths from some of the vines around the yard.
For little nugget’s baby dedication we had everyone highlight their favorite verse in the bible and sign their name. The goal is to give it to them when they’re older so they can read through what everyone wrote. We loved it so much that we knew we needed to do it for baby C, too. I wish we would have thought to do it for A but instead we had little prayer cards for him. I’m thinking about starting one for him and picking a verse to highlight each year and then give it to him for his 18th birthday.
My sister made this beautiful cake that not only looked amazing but was absolutely delicious. It was a lemon blueberry flavored cake that everyone loved. She has always been so talented with baking and has made several cakes for the boys.
Aside from the heat, it was a beautiful day celebrating our precious boy and so nice to be surrounded by our friends and family to share in this special time. Many of you know how strong this little boy is and how he’s been such a beautiful blessing to us. He’s endured a lot, and still has a journey ahead of him, but we know God is guiding him every step of the way. We can’t wait to see what He has in store for him.
