Winter ONEderland!

I apologize for my absence here lately, but it's just been insane as we prepared for Christmas and now Emerson's 1st birthday.

Yes, you read that right.

In just 4 short days, our sweet Emmie Mae will be ONE.

I'm having such mixed feelings as this day approaches.  For a 4th time, I just can't wrap my brain around just how fast this past year has flown by.  At the snap of my fingers. At the blink of an eye.  My sweet newborn has turned into a toddler.

This past year has been such a dream.  Emerson is the sweetest baby in the entire world.  Just perfect.  She was so, so easy and Bob and I count our lucky stars every single day with how we ended up with her as our 4th baby.  This year could have been so much more stressful having two little ones only 16 months apart, (andplusalso two additional kids, ha!) but she took it easy on us and cut us some slack.  She was patient as we constantly stopped feeding her to tend to other kiddos (cough:::reid:::cough). She happily played as we cleaned up spills and helped with homework and cut up food and SHOWERED.  She was, and still is, the best baby in the history of ever.

Thank you sweet girl for not breaking us as we wrangled 4 kiddos through this past year.  We all survived and we owe that, in large part, to you!

Here are a few things I wanted to share with you as we prepare for Em's party...

Anyone that follows me on Pinterest can tell that I've been going crazy over there gathering ideas for Em's Winter ONEderland party next weekend. I designed the invites myself and I'm currently gathering RSVP's and making sure there are enough seats for everyone {I'm not kidding.}  The cake has been ordered. The balloon artist/face painter is booked.  The decorations are ready to be put out. The food list is made. The final touches will be done by this weekend. And I took 2 days off next week just to make sure things are in order. Whew.  This is my last 1st birthday party, so I want to go out with a bang, ha!

Here's a glimpse of the theme/style I'm going with... lots of silvers, shimmery whites, soft pinks and touches of blue.

Some of the paper products and party supplies we got are the "Shining Season" theme, and I just love the look!

I can't wait to see everything decorated next weekend!  I also ordered her a special birthday shirt, have her outfit already, and ordered a few special decorations from Etsy, along with some things I plan to make on my own.  We'll see how they turn out, ha! ;)  I'll leave the cake a surprise, but this is the smash cake I ordered.... EEEKKK!  It's ALMOST too pretty to eat.  Almost.

 

And last, but certainly not least, I'm going through Emerson's monthly pics to place in her frame to be displayed at the party.  I swear this year has flown by almost as fast as it's taken me to put these pics together.  This sweet girl is just SO LOVED.  Can't wait to celebrate her!

Just one last picture to capture on Tuesday, January 27th {Emerson's actual birthday} and the year will be complete.  Ahhhhhhh.

You guise, this doesn't get any easier with practice.  It may even get worse.  Prepare yourselves.

More to come...

M Family Pics 2014

You guys.  I don't even know what to say.

As I mentioned before, we had our annual family pictures taken last weekend.  After an afternoon of rushing to get ready, driving to Ridley Creek State Park, awaking 3 out of the 4 kids that fell asleep in the car, trying to make them "picture ready" while dealing with their "I'm tired"(s) and their "I'm hungry"(s), chasing down a rambunctious 2 year old, making sure none of the kids are kidnapped, trying to get them to smile, trying not to have them roll down the leaf hill (Reid) and/or jump off the stone wall (Reid again) and remembering to get all the shots we want to try to take all while not saying "fuck it, let's just leave." That is picture day for us, in a nut shell.  I feel anxious and stressed out the rest of the night. (And immediately head for the wine rack.) I drive away from the session hoping for ONE GOOD SHOT.  Just one.  It's seriously one of the most dreaded days of the year for us.  And it's not because I don't absolutely LOVE to see Stephanie Glover every single chance I get, but because the day is fucking exhausting. 

But the result?  Breathtaking.  And that's why we do it.  I mean, this picture right here???

You have GOT to be kidding me with this one.  It's a picture that I will treasure forever and ever.

Stephanie, thank you so much for putting up with our crazy family year after year.  You've captured some of my greatest moments, and I'll never be able to give you back what you have given to me. I have so much love for you!

And with that, some of my favs from our session on November 9th...

Sorry, not sorry, for the picture overload.  There's even more than this, but I didn't want to over do it ;)

Happy Anniversar(ies)!

13 years ago, today, I started dating a handsome guy that could make me laugh more than anyone has before.

8 years ago, today, I married him.



Even now, after all this time, he makes me laugh every single day. He has seen me though the hardest days of my life and has been there for me to celebrate the best ones. I love him and the family we have created together and I can't imagine my life with anyone else.

Today, I just want to thank him for being an amazing husband and father. I am a VERY lucky girl.

Happy Anniversary Bobby <3

Family Picture Outfits

So, it's almost that time of year again... our annual fall family pictures with Stephanie Glover Photography!!  EEEKKK!  If you can remember from last year, we took a chance and did a purple/grey/white theme and I absolutely LOVED the way it turned out against the fall colors.

Here is my 2013 outfit board...

...and one of our 2013 family pictures {and my 29 week baby belly... Hi Emmie Mae!}

So this year, I've decided to stay on the non-traditional route and go with a navy/grey/white theme with touches of soft pink for the girls.  I really love it and I'm hoping it will look as cute as I think it will!  We'll see after this weekend, I guess, right? ;)  Here's the board I've created...

 

I absolutely adore Brynn's dress, and I got her new grey star boots, since she wore the boots from last year almost every day from November to June {I'm not kidding.  The new ones are hidden until after our session this weekend!!}  And Reid's sweater?  OMG.  Carter wore a tan version of that GAP sweater in our 2010 family pics and it's one of my all time favs {and OMG baby Carter!!}  So when I saw it in navy for Reid, I just HAD to have it.  Emerson is not wearing that exact sweater dress, but a similar grey cable-knit GAP hand-me-down sweater dress from Aubrey.  I adore it and I'm so glad it's the perfect size for her! And Carter's sweater is super comfy, which is basically all he cares about these days, ha!  Should be fun negotiating him into wearing jeans that day though {woo hoo... send wine!}

Here is a link to my Polyvore board this year so that you can see where most of the items are from.  Not everything is exact, as some of the items {like Em's dress, my navy jacket, etc} I already owned and it's no longer online so I found something similar.  But most of the items are new and linked correctly.  Happy shopping :)

And now I can't wait to see how our session turns out! Let's just hope for good weather. And FOUR cooperating kids.  That last one was a joke. {We'll just have lots of wine on standby for after the session. And that was not a joke.  You get me, right?}
 

A Brynn update...

Ya know, I was talking to someone yesterday and realized that I never posted an update about Brynn on here {I actually haven't posted anything in awhile...whoops.}  Anyway, as I mentioned before, I posted looking for advice on what to do since she was acting SO SHY about playing soccer, but still wanting to actually GO to the practice and games. {So confusing, right??}  Well, I wanted to report to you that homegirl is ROCKING IT now.  She LOVES IT.  It only took her about half the season to warm up to it, but she is going in, STARTING and playing with no problem at all!  She's even practicing with her teammates, warming up before the game and everything!  This Friday is her last game of the season and she is SO EXCITED to be getting her very first trophy!  YAY BRYNN!

So, for all the parents out there that commented here, Instagram and on Facebook about having a similar issue, I wanted to let you know how it turned out for us.  Because she wanted to go to practice and games but just didn't want to actually go IN and play, we just stuck with it.  I would have taken her to every game and practice of the season and sat on the sidelines with her, as long as she wanted to go.  Thankfully she finally warmed up to it and started playing more and more each game.  It makes me feel like we made the right decision by continuing to take her and I'm so thankful for that.

Keep on, keepin on, amirite? ;)