Emma's dedication and a new milestone

Yesterday was Emma's dedication service and we had an absolutely lovely day. The weather was fab; the food was good (I was nervous that we hadn't done enough but it turned out to be just right although I'm going to ignore the two boxes of Jacket potatoes on our doorway!); it was great to see all our friends and family and generally, everything went extremely well. My brother even dressed up for a change! (When he was Jack's godfather he dressed in jeans and a hoodie!) lol.

It was the ministers first time of doing a Dedication and I thought he did really well. :) In our Baptist Church we believe that faith is a personal journey and decision therefore rather than Christening the children, we do a service of Thanksgiving for them, promise to raise them in a Christian family but ultimately the decision of whether they become a Christian or not will be down to them. If when they're older they decide they want to, then they can be baptised.

This was Ray, the Pastor, doing the service with Emma's godparents looking on:
The 'official' cake:

My attempt at a cake using an adapted Nigella recipe (there's a domestic Goddess inside me desperate to get out! I actually think mine is tastier too if I'm honest. lol. ):

Kev, Emma and I with the Godparents (and week old Robin!)

My beautiful girl:

Us:

Emma in the christening gown and shawl that both myself and my brother were Christened in:

All smiles:

I love those last 2 shots as I have identical photos of myself at the same age in the same dress and pose so I can't wait to scrap the comparison.

As an extra bonus this weekend, Emma learnt to roll (15 weeks exactly) so my life is going to get my interestng from now on. I'd left her on the playmat and Kev went into her as she was crying. 'Did you leave her on her front?' he asked. 'Er? No,' I replied. My little girl is growing up. :)