Dylan's Baby Dedication

This past Sunday, we had Dylan dedicated at church. Dedications are commitments before the church and God to submit a child to His will and to raise that child according to God's Word and God's ways. In the bible, Hannah made a vow to God...."As surely as you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the LORD. I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the LORD. For his whole life he will be given over to the LORD." And he worshiped the LORD there. 1 Samuel 1:26-28.

Cathy, presented Dylan with a gift to commemorate the special day which include a certificate, a blessings book, a kid's worship CD, a stuffed lamb and a letter from our pastors for him to open the day that he accepts Jesus as his Lord and Saviour. How I long for that day. I pray that he will walk in the Light.

Unfortunately, it was really dark in the service, so the pics did not turn out so well, but here are a few.

Caving In

Damien has been on my back about blogging on an incident that occurred last week. He's all, "have you not blogged about it yet, it so blog worthy...if it were anyone else you would have blogged about it already", so here it is I am calling myself out. 

A few weeks ago, we cooked some pizzas for a friends surprise party.  There were 3 pizzas and they called for direct rack baking, so I didn't use my pizza stone.  These were some cheesy pizzas, so there was some spillage. Damien had asked me to clean the oven (another chore I don't like to do), so right before his family got in town (another post coming soon) I got this bright idea. I am going to try out the self cleaning oven....this should be easy peasy, it's self cleaning...I don't have to do anything. Now, I have never used this feature before, and if you haven't either and are considering using it, my advice to you, read the directions. I put it on self clean, set it for 3 hours and embark on cleaning the rest of the house in preparation for their arrival the following day.  Like 20 minutes, in to the self cleaning, I notice that it's is putting off some burnt smelling fumes. Time passes by and as I pass through the kitchen, I see that there is a fire in the oven. I begin freaking out and yelling for Damien. I am jerking at the oven door, and if you don't know this, the door locks until it has cooled off enough to open. I am in panic mode...apparently you have to wipe off any spillage before using the feature. To me, that defeats the whole self cleaning part of it. Anyway, Damien tells me to get the instructions.  I am going through our junk drawer were we keep all the appliance information and warranties, and I cannot find it. Finally, the fire fizzles out and all is well.  Damien said, now I know how you act in emergency situations. I said, yea, I panic. He said, I thought I was going to have to smack you.  Needless to say, it will be a while before I use the self cleaning again.

Gag City (warning not for weak stomachs)

How can something so sweet and innocent do this?

Luckily, I was warned that babies could do this or I would have been completely shocked and disgusted.  For some reason, while it is disgusting, it's not near as bad when it's your baby's poo.

So much to be Thankful for

As Thanksgiving day is upon us, I thought that I would take a moment to express my gratitude for all my blessings.

First and foremost, I am thankful for God's unending grace and love. We could never do anything to earn it, and yet, He gives it freely as a gift to all who are willing to accept this amazing gift. I am honored to be His child.

I am thankful for my parents who raised me in a loving, christian home. Who taught me the importance of being loyal, passionate and caring. They taught me a strong work ethic and how a loving family should be even if we don't express our love verbally as often as I would hope. I know they love me and I love them...in this, there is no doubt. They have always been there for me, and I know they always will.

I am thankful for my husband, Damien, who loves me despite my many flaws :) He works hard everyday and allows me to stay at home with Dylan. He is my best friend, my husband, my baby's daddy, my all. I am thankful that God brought us together. I could not imagine my life without him.

I am thankful for Dylan, who gives me unmeasurable joy and unending love.

I am thankful for my family, friends, church family and may mommies who strengthen me and give me support. Each of you have helped me develop more into the person that God designed me to be.

I am thankful for our country, leaders and the service men and women who fight for country, so that we can continue to have freedom.

I hope you take the time and reflect on what you are thankful for this holiday. Don't let it slip away as just another day with a big meal.

Standing Tall

Dylan thinks he's hot stuff since he has mastered pulling up. Now he tries to pull up on everything, including poor Sophie.

Story Time

Dylan's favorite book is Animal Sounds.  If he's fussy, we can start reciting the book from memory and he calms down. If we pull it out, he starts smiling, as he does in this video.  Watch for his smile when I show him the book. Then he books it to me :)   

(Don't forget to turn the music off at the bottom of the page)

2nd Annual Special Weekend with the Fallers

Our road trip to the Alabama/Mississippi State game, got the name "Special Weekend with the Fallers" from a comment that Daniel (Faller) made. Last year, for the first annual, Rachel's sister flew into Nashville to ride with them down to the game in Starkville, MS. Daniel thought Rachel should have asked us if it was okay as it was their special weekend with the Weavers. Now we have adopted that saying as a knock on Daniel.  (On a side note, this would be my first weekend away from Dylan. I was concerned that he wouldn't eat from a bottle, but luckily he did very well. He stayed with Nana and PePaw, and they loved having him. Overall, I think I did well. I only called to check on him like 6 times.)

Rachel and I

This year, we (Alabama) were the home team. Thankfully, Damien booked our hotel rooms as soon as the football schedule was announced. Otherwise, we would have been staying way out of the way. We left Nashville Friday around 5pm. I asked our friend, Mande, who lives in Birmingham, where we could eat for dinner. She suggested a few places and we ended up going to Cajun Steamers. I was so excited. I love New Orleans style food. I had been craving etouffe for some time. As we sat down, I looked at the menu....there were 2 other Cajun Steamers, one in Alabama and one in Franklin, TN. I was so excited. If I liked it, I knew where I could go from now on. I got the Tilapia and Shrimp Rockfeller. It was, of course, tilapia and shrimp with a bacon spinach topping over a bed of mashed potatoes. It was so yummy, and I got a side of crawfish etouffe. Next time, it will be my main dish. Damien got a steamed shrimp platter. I couldn't have eaten it.  See why...

My yummy dish

After dinner, we continued on to Tuscaloosa battling some hard rain. Saturday morning, we ate breakfast and headed to the campus. We took the Fallers on a tour and Damien was happy as a lark. He hadn't been to the Bear Bryant museum since none of his friends that we usually see would want to go, so he got to go to it. He showed us fraternity/sorority row, Denny Chimes, the Quad and more. Also, we hit up all the bookstores and shops as we needed to get some new Alabama gear. Damien had to hit up a lot since he's super picky, but we made out with 2 shirts for me, 5 for him, magnets, license plate for the car and a gift for a friend and our tailgate host. We tailgated with one of his fraternity brothers and good friend, Thomas. He was such a gracious host. He had a nice spread of appetizers and a big pot of chili to keep us warm. Not to mention a fire and a warm heated RV. 

Bryant Denny Stadium

Denny Chimes 

Damien in the Bear Bryant museum

Tailgating at Thomas' RV

For fun, we played corn hole and rode the segway.

Damien and Thomas playing cornhole

Me on the segway

Kick off was at 6:45pm, so it was a long day. We headed to the stadium to watch the #1 team take on MSU. Alabama hadn't scored a touchdown on MSU in 3 years and had lost to them the past 2 years. This was the year for that to change. Final Score Alabama 32 MSU 7.  Bama's still #1 in the nation.

Damien and I at the game

The Fallers

Sunday morning, after breakfast we made our way back home with a pit stop in Cullman, Alabama to visit Uncle Buddy and Aunt Nancy who treated us to lunch. 

I could barely contain myself as I wanted to get home and get my baby.  Once I got my arms around him, I didn't want to let him go. How can I resist him?

What were you doing at 1am?

I know my blog has turned into the Dylan Diary, but promise I will be filling it up with variety soon. It seems like he's had so many thing happening lately with holidays and new milestones. With this blog, yet another milestone that he's been trying to achieve. 

Lately, Dylan has been waking up a lot. Damien blames me for this and says that he is spoiled as Mommy use to take naps with Dylan during the day. We would cuddle up in my bed and snooze together. Well, for the most part, I have cut napping out, so Damien says he misses our cuddle time and wants to be in bed with me. Thus the frequent wakings...me, deny, deny, deny. Monday night, we put him to bed around 8:15, after home group, and he woke up at 11:00. I knew he wasn't hungry as he ate 5 oz before bed. I went upstairs and rocked him, then put him back in his crib. Then he woke up at 1am. I thought okay, maybe he's hungry, so I went upstairs and nursed him. He fell asleep, and I laid him in his crib. Only this time, it didn't stick. He woke up. I patted his butt and rubbed his back. Then sleep. Then I would stop. Then he wakes up. This goes on for a few minutes. Finally, I throw in the towel and say your just going to have to cry it out. I am going to bed. I leave and he proceeds to cry. I come downstairs, not happy mind you and turn off the monitor. (We can still hear him crying.) After about 10 minutes, it got quiet, so I turned the monitor back on. I hear these noises. They sound familiar. I say to Damien, those are the noises he makes when he is standing. I went upstairs to peek in on him, and he's just standing there. I gasp, he could have fell out. I yell to Damien to come upstairs. I would have just taken him to bed, but Damien being the 'in the moment" guy he is, gets his tools and lowers the mattress. Also, he gets batteries for this vibrating unit to go under his mattress, so when he cries, it will vibrate. We are going to get his goose. After about an hour awake, it's all finished, and Dylan's sound asleep in my arms. Damien joked, "that's why God made kids so cute, so you don't kill them." All that, we are wide awake and he's snoozing.  

Soles 4 Souls

Check out this awesome ministry. For just $5.00, you can buy two pairs of shoes for the souls served by this ministry. How many of us would jump at that opportunity to buy shoes for ourselves for $2.50?  Every one of us would, so why not make the day for someone else. It's much more rewarding. 

If you buy shoes during this 50 day challenge, you are automatically entered to win a trip to Mexico. You and a guest will deliver shoes with Soles4Souls! 

6 months

Today, we had Dylan's 6 month check up and his stats...(think boxing announcer voice)...weighing in at 16 pounds, 3 ounces and measuring at 26 3/4  inches in length. He's a lean, mean, fighting machine. 

Seriously though, he's getting so big, too fast. What happened to my baby?

I am, and there is no one besides me

No, that's not me talking, but it's the motto of the Babylonian culture of the Old Testament and one could argue the motto of many people in today's culture.  I am in a women's bible study, and last week, we concluded the first half of Daniel a la Beth Moore.  It's an amazing study and I look forward to my daily quiet time and our weekly meeting time, so that I can get fed more of God's truth. 

The first part of Daniel is all about integrity. Beth Moore challenges her participants to give up something of value to set a stake in the ground, to say I am not of this world. I gave up buying anything for myself...no shoes, no clothes, no stationery, nada. It was hard! Especially when I went into Old Lady...I mean Old Navy and they had a great sale on their summer items. I bought Damien a polo shirt for 99 cents. I didn't dare go on my side, I didn't want to be sucked in by the, I am and there is no one besides me attitude - self absorption. How are we to live in this extravagant, excessive culture without being poisoned by it...that's the question the first half of the study poses. 

I am amazed by how much I have learned from this study. You think, oh I have heard the stories of Daniel time and time again, but when I really read them and discovered the treasures God left, WOW, that's all I can say.  I just want to share with you some of the things that really struck me.

Daniel refused to eat the food of the King's table. Thus maintaining his integrity. If he would have partaken of the food on the king's table, would the king have some kind of hold over him, a little friendly captivity? In eastern standards, that sharing a meal with someone was to commit oneself to friendship with them. Instead of eating the rich foods, Daniel asked for food that grows from sown seeds which would have included fruits, vegetables and grain. The men scoffed that such foods were not suitable, but God proved them wrong. Daniel's health and strength far succeeded those who ate of the rich foods.

Belteshazzar....does this name ring a bell. If you are like me, I didn't realize that it was Daniel. The king renamed Daniel along with 3 of his friends Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah (better known as their new renamed names, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.  All of their original names referenced their God. While their new names referenced the gods of Bablyonians. Assigning new names was common and the purpose of such practice was to change the identity of the bearer until his life matched the name. The thing that I found striking was that we know Daniel by his original name and the others by their Babylonian name. Beth Moore didn't speculate as to why this is the way it is, but I would love to know.

Nebuchadnezzar was a dreamer as we know. His first dream discussed in Daniel was that of a statue made up of different elements. I never knew the symbolism behind these until this study. That each element referred to a specific empire: gold - babylon, silver - medo-persian, bronze - greek and iron - roman. The rock that took the statue down--- the ultimate kingdom, Messiah's. 

The fiery furnace is a famous bible story we hear growing up. In fact, we covered it on Sunday for the 3-5 year olds. It's ageless. The story of God delivering those who are faithful through a fire, literally. Meshach, Shadrach and Abendego refused to bow down to the king, as a result, they were put into the furnace. I didn't remember from the story that they actually turned up the heat, higher than usual and that those who delivered the guys to the fire were consumed by it. Also, I didn't remember that once they were out of the furnace, they didn't even smell of smoke. AMAZING!  How big is our God!!!

 Ok, I don't want to reveal too much or make this post so long to keep people from reading it, so I will end it with these points.  I encourage you to find the truths for yourself. If you have a Beth Moore bible study at your church, join it, you'll be glad you did. It is an investment. This particular study is 12 weeks long with daily devotional time, but the benefits are priceless. The second part of this study will even be more intriguing as it's about prophecy: the antichrist, end times kind of stuff. At the end of it, I will share with you some snippets. 

Introducing Vaileth

God had laid it on our hearts to sponsor a child through Compassion. I had checked out the website a few times to look for the right child to sponsor, but Damien and I wanted to make the decision together. We searched for a child who shared Dylan's birthday, May 10, and the search resulted in 6 children. Vaileth was ultimately the one we chose as she lives in Tanzania (Africa). We choose her as she lives in an area affected by HIV/AIDS, and my heart goes out to people devastated by this disease. Also, my hope is to go to Malawi next summer on a mission trip, and Tanzania borders Malawi. I don't know if I would be able to visit her, but I think that it would be neat to be able to see what her life would be like first hand. 

She is 5 years old and attends kindergarten and bible classes. She lives with her grandparents and 7 siblings. I look forward to hearing back from her, getting to know her and watching her grow into a young lady.  I can't wait to see how God uses this opportunity to bless her and us.  I know that our lives are forever changed. 

I encourage you to consider sponsoring a child. God calls us to help the poor. I read that one family gave their sponsor child a special gift of $20 in addition to their monthly gift, and he was able to purchase a cow for his family. A little can go a long way.  Think of the difference you can make. 

Now this?

Dylan and I went grocery shopping today, and when we came home, I put him down in the floor to play, while I unpacked the groceries. After unpacking them, I went to change clothes so we could take the dogs for a walk. I come back in the living room, to find this...

I predict that he will be walking by 9 months seeing that he's not even 6 months and doing this. Is this the norm?

On your mark, get set, crawl

Dylan's been army crawling all over the place. He knows how to move his knees forward, but he doesn't quite know how to move his arms. I give him a few more weeks and he will be off and crawling every where, which means, my job gets a lot harder.

Snip Snip

Dylan got his first hair cut today at Sweet and Sassy. He did really well, but we had to keep giving him stuff to chew/play with to distract him. We couldn't bare to cut too much as we want to keep him looking like a baby and not a little man, so we cut most of the length off the back (the mullet) and some around the ears and trimmed his bangs. I hope it doesn't look too much like a bob...we don't need him looking like a girl, that's for sure. Hopefully the hair in the back will thicken in and not be some sparse.

Sweet and Sassy

Before

During

After