Reveal

On one of the most beautiful evenings we've had this year tonight....

Family gathered,

and played,

(My sweetest niece, Addie)

(Kisses for Ellie's GREAT Papa)

and loved.

The table was spread,

the stories were told,

and finally,

the gender reveals were made.

I'll share just our own announcement for this evening...

See, my sister ordered chocolate cupcakes with her baby announcement color inside,

I ordered vanilla to share all around.

She took mine,

I took hers.

And what do I have to announce?

A healthy, healthy beautiful.......

baby BLUE!

A testosterone tie breaker in this very, very lucky home!

T is already practicing his fastball, his wrestling moves, his big brother smack downs.

Girl, you and me gonna have to stick together.

And just one last little thing,

See, my birthday is August 20th, my hubby's the 22nd...

Our due date?

Officially, confirmed projected as

August 21st.

Baby boy, now we just count down to your birthday sandwich.

Favorites

We made the day a day of just favorites, for our favoritest little birthday girl.

Strawberries, syrup and homemade waffles,

followed by a morning of baking with her momma,

interrupted by a few happy birthday song calls.

Jonah and the Whale is her favorite all-time story (“Don’t bite me!” She always squeals when we get to that page in her Storybook Bible) so we made sure to sneak in her new Veggie Tales movie,

And then an outing just the four of us, a first for all of us, actually.

And little El built her own little bear,

a new car-companion favorite, picked out her stuffing, pink romper

and bows,

a little overwhelmed by it all, actually.

Followed by a totally unhealthy favorite meal of burgers and fries.

But worth it.

Finished by a momma's favorite, a mini-photo sesh in way too much wind,

Oh sweet thing, you're growing so very fast.

Each day that goes by, you change, you blossom, you bloom, you shine.

I don't want to keep you small, your dreams must be so very big,

And our world, our life, needs you for all you were meant for.

You were meant for big things, good things, great things.

My little girl, you have such joy.

Just be you, little girl, always.

You're beautiful.

So then our favorite day was completed by our fav birthday cake, candles,

and our favorite birthday girl was happy.

Side notes:

For your own celebrations and decor, check out a fav friend's new business, The Lovely Apple. They're running a giveaway right now!

And in case you're in need of more fav websites to check out, "like" my photography page here and blog here.

Busy

Well, January is almost over and I'm just now posting Christmas Part Two.

Our Christmas.

I'm still hoping to post from New Years before February...

But, we'll see...

I know I've said that we've been busy,

but,

can I say it again?

I mean,

I've got two People magazines sitting on my nightstand

completely unread.

That's how busy I've been.

But,

Christmas morning?

Not busy.

And it was lovely.

A whole day in jammers

started with pumpkin waffles, maple syrup and greasy bacon.

Followed by gifts and surprises and playing,

And gingerbread house makin'

Or actually, attempting, really.

Followed by a nap.

And a goodwill trip once we realized and got overwhelmed by just how much stuff we had.

Moral of the post?

Christmas 2011...

Success.

Eventually

Eventually we'll get caught up around here.

See, it's been a little nutty for us the past few weeks.

With travels and visiting family and a funeral and sickness and fevers,

we've made time for cuddling but not much more.

I've known I'd get around to posting about our Christmas eventually,

and so our red and green post part one is here.

It started with our last family pic of twenty-eleven,

And then the rest of Christmas Eve was spent with lots of cooks in the kitchen,

And Dad reading the Christmas story,

My sister on the piano,

With little El looking on,

trying her own little finger on the keys.

And Secret Santa gifts

With just one attempt for a family pic before we left for church,

Which included an emergency run to the grocery store for a much needed diaper and even more needed wipes.

Which is just pretty much our blessed life these days...

Diapers and wipes...

And that's really why I blog,

loving the messes and moments,

finding the miracles in the mundane,

knowing eventually, I'll look back and know

we are living the blessed days.

Finally

With a day at home for appointments and catch up,

I have to take a minute to start the new year with a blog post,

finally.

I've got so many memory shots to go through from Christmas and New Years,

and the celebrating isn't even over yet,

with more family arriving tomorrow for more loving and hugging and eating.

I've been a little caught up lately having shot my first wedding over the break.

I did their engagement pictures just a few months ago,

oh,

they're one of those really neat couples.

One of those couples who are going to be so much greater together than they ever dreamed of on their own.

The best is yet to come, precious people.

And now, with so many pictures to choose from of their happily ever after night,

Chris and I have been busy, busy bees working to make their memories just right,

but, oh, she was so, so beautiful.

And other than that, it's all been sweet around here,

With plenty of smushie lovin',

And at some point in time, I will catch up with everything

and finally really blog.

But, that finally won't happen today.

First

Merry to you, dear friends,

on this little boy's first,

Christmas Eve.

Pictures

Sometimes,

pictures

tell it quite simply

the best.

(partay pics: half mine, half Aud.)