Dayton's Dedication

April 7th was a big day for little Dayton! We dedicated him to the Lord at our church on Sunday, April 7th in front of our family and friends. Dedicating him meant that we were vowing to raise him in church, teaching him to walk in the Truth of scripture, and praying over him daily. We are going to raise Dayton (and Sawyer) to love Jesus and hopefully they will come to know Him at an early age. Isn't that every Christian parent's dream? It is certainly ours. We searched for verses for both of our children and the one we chose for Dayton is Psalm 84:11 "For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly." DAYTON has many meanings (such as town of David and dairy town), but one meaning we found is SUN. We loved that one of the verses we found for him said "God is a sun…" and so that helped us narrow it down from about 3 verses to this 1. 

During Dayton's dedication we were called up on stage where they showed a slide of him with a cute picture and his life verse. Our friends and family stood in support and Casey & I were each asked to vow that we would raise our child under Biblical authority and with the support and encouragement from our friends and family. We vowed to love and nurture him and pray over him. We closed the service in prayer. It was a sweet time. :)

Here is Dayton's slide from the service!

A recap of the day:)

 my handsome boy

 Several of the families on stage…

Our little family of four :) 

praying

 The little reception area in the lobby!

 

My family

 Casey's family

 The Coats and The Rickersons

Dayton & Mathis are 4 months apart and are sure to be good buddies :)

Dayton got several gifts! Ginni got him a super cute little Bible with a furry Lion front. So cute! He also got a "My First Bible" from c|Life as well as the cute cookie bouquet!

Such a sweet day dedicating our baby boy to the Lord!

We love you so much, Dayton Lee!

Daddy-Daughter Dance 2012

c|Life hosts a daddy-daughter dance every year and this year Sawyer & her daddy made their debut! :) Casey said they had a great time on their first date! :) I had a good time, too, treating myself to a manicure and pedicure with my free night off. :)

Here are some super cute pictures I took of my two loves before they left the house. Notice that Sawyer is even wearing a tiny little pearl bracelet with a cross pendant. So cute!

 

 

The picture from the dance! Such a big smile! :)

Sawyer is so lucky to have such a great daddy that loves and adores her so much! I know they are going to have many years of fun daddy-daughter dates in the future. :)

My 1st Mother's Day & Sawyer's Baby Dedication

My first Mother's Day was extremely special. I had a gorgeous 3 week old baby in my arms and it was baby dedication at our church! It was a wonderful celebration of the beautiful gift that God gave me! All of our family came to church to see Sawyer's big debut - both of our parents, Chris & Stephanie and their 3 kiddos, Casey's grandmother, Momma Sheila (my grandma), and my Uncle Russell! We also had lots of church friends their including Jenna and Charlie and Ginni who all took pictures for me :)

Before the dedication Paul McDill asked all the mothers to stand so they could pray for us. It was so weird to stand up with all the mothers including my mom, grandma, Casey's mom, sister, and grandmother.

At the end of the service we went up on the stage with 2 other families to dedicate our babies. Sawyer was the youngest at 3 weeks. She wore the dress that Casey's mom gave her before she was born. It was still big, but it was definitely cute on her! I will always remember my first Mother's Day as the day that we dedicated our first baby, Sawyer Grace, to the Lord. We hope to raise her to love and accept Jesus at a young age. 

 

 

my beautiful little baby :)

Casey was so creative and made me the sweetest video for Mother's Day. It documents my pregnancy and Sawyer's first 3 weeks of life. I absolutely love it and will treasure it forever!!

Isn't is just wonderful? I thought it was so incredibly sweet. Love my husband and my baby girl!

PS. There is a very unflattering picture of me in the slideshow (one of me giving Sawyer a bath) that Casey put in there as a joke. He thinks it's the funniest picture ever. Weirdo.

14th Annual Micah Johnson Memorial Golf Tournament

On April 24th Casey put on the 14th annual Micah Johnson Memorial Golf Tournament at Buffalo Creek to raise money for c|Life's youth group! This year the tournament raised $17,000! That was a big increase over last year! I even had some fun at this tournament, but I was not playing golf. Instead, I got to drive around a golf cart and at the 9th hole I asked each team if they would like to "buy a drive" and take their first shot a lot closer to the hole for $20 a team (also part of the fundraiser). Another cool part of this golf tournament is the silent auction! Casey and I won a portrait session with Jared Rey, a photographer that Casey went to high school with and that we now go to church with. We're very excited about this because many of our friends at church have had their pictures done with him and they are very good!

Let me leave you with the 1st place winners at the golf tournament and the tournament host (Casey)!

Invisible Children

A few Sundays ago c|Life had Invisible Children there for the entire service. It was amazing. The people of Invisible Children are amazing. They are an organization started by 3 guys that went to Uganda in 2003. Since their documentary they have traveled the world raising support and awareness for the child-slaves that are forced to go to war for Joseph Kony - the head of the LRA (Lord's Resistance Army). They raise awareness and ask people to ask the US president to pass a bill to stop Kony.

GOOD NEWS! 

The bill passed congress this month and hopefully this will all be ended soon! Another thing Invisible Children does is raise money for children to go to school. Many of the children don't get to go to our type of high school and only 1% of girls get to go to university, as they call it.

Here is a picture of me with Lillian, a young girl from Northern Uganda here to spread awareness of the child-sodiers under Kony's rule.

This girl is truly inspiring. I hope everyone gets the chance to hear from an organization as neat as Invisible Children. If you are interested, please let me know - I have several CDs you can have or borrow!

Ski Trip

As most of you know from Facebook, we went on a ski trip over spring break! We took 34 kids and 7 adults on 3 vans! It was great fun, and I am proud to say that my skiing skills were very much improved! Here are some of my favorite pictures from the trip! Be prepared that some of them are so beautiful they almost look fake, but do not be deceived! They are real!=)

Hope you are having a fantastic week! I found out tonight that there are only 50 school days let until summer! Woo hoo!

Double the Fun

Last Sunday after church two of my students from last year got baptized. I wrote about their story before, here http://caseyandlaurencoats.blogspot.com/2009/08/power-of-prayer.html?zx=c344d56dc7615d99 They are now in 7th grade and in Casey’s youth group. It has been awesome to see them accept Christ and then show that step of faith by being baptized. I love both of these girls so much and it makes me love my job so much more! It is cool to have kids who I taught last year join our church and youth group the next year when they are in 7th grade. We have 3 of my former students at our church now, and none of them were members before. I can’t wait to see if any of my current students will start coming!

I love this picture of Madison getting baptized with her sister, Paige watching in the water, waiting her turn.

Madison

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Paige

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It just so happened, that on the same day, Kristi’s (my team teacher from last year) neices were getting baptized as well! So, Kristi was there! It was a funny little coincidence that both of the twins’ 6th grade teachers were there to see them get baptized. Here is our little reunion picture! :)

Kristi, Lauren, Madison, & Paige