Last weekend was Lily’s 1st birthday, and it sure was an exciting time for everyone, especially for her. She is such an energetic little beautiful girl that has grown up so quickly. Its insane how quick children grow up right before your eyes, and I can speak from experience. My son is now 6 months old and it felt like just yesterday my wife was pregnant. Lily was all dressed up and ready to celebrate her big one year birthday in style, and that she did quite well. Happy Birthday Lily!!!

Last Sunday I had the honor of documenting Joey, Anthony, Zion, and Aaron’s baby dedication at the Harbour Church in Pompano Beach. It started with an awesome christian rock band jamming out some powerful lyrics followed by the dedication for the four young boys. I was pleasantly overwhelmed with lots of love that filled this church, while singing, praying, listening to stories, and laughing.

Anthony was practicing wearing his “Prayer Shawl”.  The Lord spoke to Moses saying, “Speak to the children of Israel: Tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a blue thread in the tassels of the corners.  And you shall have the tassel, that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of the Lord and do them, and that you may not follow the harlotry to which your own heart and your own eyes are inclined.  And that you may remember and do all My commandments, and be holy for your God.

Joe and Rachel’s special blessing from Mother and Father to Children:  “Your mother and I pray that you would be like trees planted by streams of water, yielding fruit in your seasons and whose leaves would not wither.  May whatever you do, prosper.  May your bows remain steady, may your arms stay limber, because of the hand of the mighty one of Jacob, because of the Shepard, the Rock of Israel, because of Your Father’s God who helps you, because of the Almighty who blesses you with blessings of the heavens above, blessing of the deep that lie below, blessings of the breast and womb.  May you be poor in Spirit for yours is the kingdom of heaven, in your times of mourning, be blessed, for you will be comforted.  May you be meek, so that you will inherit the earth. May you be hungry and thirsty for righteousness, for you will be filled.  May you be merciful so that God will show you mercy”.

“Lastly, may your lives be full of the fruit of the Spirit which are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  Amen”.

Ephesians 6 Armor of God.  “Be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.  Put on the full armor of God.  Stand firm with the belt of Truth buckled around your waist, the breastplate of righteousness in place and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.  In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God”.

Uses for the Shofar “Trumpet made of ram’s horn”: signal God’s Presence, regulate marchings, call assemblies, announce a feast, gather the nation, alert against the enemy, herald a new king, hail a religious event, & assist in worship.

Numbers 10:10
Also at the times of your rejoicing – your appointed feasts and New Moon Festivals- you are to sound the trumpets over your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, and they will be a memorial for you before your God.  I am the Lord your God.

Rabbi Neil gave the family a Aaronic Blessing.  “May the Lord Bless you and Keep you; May the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace”.

This is an amazing couple with wonderful children.

Well I told all you bloggers that I would have plenty more baby stuff for ya, so here ya go. Last weekend we had our Jack & Jill baby shower, and it was a hit. The thought of the men being included in the whole baby shower thing is pretty cool, especially if you’re an excited dad-to-be like myself. Now since I had to partake in the events, I couldn’t shoot the entire shower myself, so good old Mom helped out with a few of these shots. A ginormous thanks goes out to both our moms (Loretta & Karen), John, Sarah, JT, Stephanie, Alex, Veronica, & Lori. You guys did an AWESOME job!!

Thats us around 1 years old. Gota love those cheezy studio backdrops, LOL.

My brother-in-law designed our customized “Lion” cake.

These pins were for the guys, but somehow one ended up on this cutie-pie

Go figure, out of all the gifts I open the “Butt Paste”.

Kristy was looking super fresh, and was overwhelmed with all the gifts.

These are my grandparents, Mom mom is 85, and Pop pop will be 90 in December, we were so happy they came.

Keagen with her little dimples was beautiful as always.

Last Sunday Lily “Bean” Mae was christened at St Ambrose Church in Deerfield Beach. The Deacon gave a wonderful service and we all were amazed when he blessed the babies with holy water and not one of them cried. I have seen tons of pictures of babies being christened and them wailing at the alter so this was truly amazing, come to find out later it was no divine intervention, the deacon uses “warm water” to bless them and this keeps them happy campers.