Before I get to Brielle’s 1st Birthday, let me show you some other things we’ve done this month.
1st time driving a boat
“How do I speed this thing up?”
After a long morning of boat driving, she took a nap in the bow.
Studying the intricacies involved in vacuuming.
Ah, fresh picked blackberries.
At the fair, she really liked the chicks.
Not the sheep so much…
How precious, first tattoo.
And now, onto the Party!
Before the party, we chose to have Brielle dedicated. A dedication is not to be confused with a baptism. You are not saved through baptism, baptism is a public statement of faith, something that Brielle cannot do on her own yet, and something we cannot choose for her. A dedication is a way for us (her parents), to say we are going to raise our daughter in the way of the our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We hope through our teachings, our churches teachings and our families teachings that she will one day accept Jesus as her own personal savior and begin a relationship with him. At that time, she may choose to be baptized.
Here’s the happy family pre dedication. Unfortunately, not the best pic of Steve, but hey, I’m doing the blog and I look great, so the pic made the cut.
The gentleman on the far right is Pastor Gary who performed the dedication. He spoke on Deuteronomy 6 which teaches us to “impress” God’s commandments on our children.
Ah, a better picture of Steve. Notice how intently Bri is listening to Pastor Gary.
Pastor Gary then prayed for us while everyone in attendance laid hands on us.
On to the party. Here’s Papa letting Bri attempt to pull down her party decorations before the party! Ah Papa.
I had a quiz on “How well you know Bri” during the party. One of the questions asked what Bri does when she gets excited. This picture demonstrates the answer. She climbs. =D
Brielle decided to add some excitement all her own. We didn’t catch the actual moment, but you can tell by Auntie Bo and Auntie Esther’s face that it was pretty exciting. What you ask… Bri just took her first step!
On to the cake. Notice I’m nowhere near her with a lit candle on her cupcake. Steve and I attended a 1st birthday party years ago where they put the lit candle in the cupcake next to the child so he could try to blow the candle out. Well, he had other plans. He reached out and grabbed the flame before anyone could react. He was fine, mainly scared, but lesson learned… Bri was getting nowhere near the flame!
Originally she was not too sure about the feel of the frosting on the cupcake.
I helped her out by putting a little on my finger and giving her a taste. She quickly got the hang of it after that.
Yay, all done!
Downstairs we set up a photo opportunity with Jr. Cowboy Fingers, Bri’s big bear. I let people come up with their own interpretations on what ages they wanted to put on the paddle. For example, this one of Steve, Dad and I is the age we appear. 
Here’s Aunti Bo with Trevi (and Uncle Dick holding her from behind the chair).
Here’s Brett with Trevi, using his own interpretation of the photo area.
Here’s Bri with Nana. She seems to think Brett’s eating the paddle idea was a good one.
Bri has some great helpers to open her gifts. Cousin Elisa is on the left, and Cousin Sofia is on the right.
Bri even helped open some of her gifts.
And this picture is payback from Steve for the bad picture I used of him earlier. Look at my crazy eyes!
And finally, she got to play with some of her toys. She just loves this swing. And she loves her papa. 
Happy 1st Birthday Baby Girl!
