ONE

Our baby girl is ONE!

a letter to my almost one year old

Sweet Londyn Gracie Girl,

          I just rocked you to sleep for the last time before you turn one. ONE. Never before has such a small number held such big meaning. Never before has the mention of it, brought tears to my eyes, but tonight it did. 

Tonight, you nursed as we rocked as you have every night for the last 364 nights, but tonight it meant so much more than it ever has before. You made me giggle as you played while eating, making silly sounds, pulling off to smile at me, and even playfully biting. I let you play a little longer than I normally do before singing the only song that will help you drift off to sleep. A song I made up many months ago while we were still trying to get used to each other, figure out this mama and baby thing, find our groove with nursing. It’s quite repetitive and there’s really not much to it, but it’s our song and that’s what makes it so special.

Go to sleep. Go to sleep. Go to sleep, little Londyn.

Mama loves you so much. Mama loves you, Londyn girl.

Go to sleep, sweetie babe. Mama loves you, my darlin’.

Go to sleep my Lovey Lou.

Go to sleep, baby dear. Mama loves you, sweet baby.

Go to sleep. You need to rest. Mama loves you, Londyn girl.

As I began singing, your eyes got heavy along with my heart.

Sleep came easily for you tonight. Some nights you put up quite a fight. I played with your hair and rocked and rocked some more, stroking the softness of your legs, touching each of your tiny toes.

I couldn’t seem to find the ability to get up out of the chair to lay you in your crib. Your birthday cake sat downstairs needing to be iced and there were a few chores left to do before we have company tomorrow, but I rocked a little longer anyway.

When I stood up, cradled you in my arms, and took the first steps toward your crib, they came.

The tears came. 

I kissed your cheek and whispered a prayer of praise to the Lord for the precious privilege of an entire year with you.

With an “I love you” and another kiss came more tears.

Instead of laying you in your crib, I took you into Daddy so he could kiss you, too.

He did and told you how much he loves you.

He told me he read all of your monthly posts today and couldn’t believe how much you’ve grown and changed.

He wanted to hold you, too, so with more tears and another kiss, I placed you in his arms.

It’s so hard to believe it has been almost one year since we first held you. 

Now we can’t imagine not having you in our arms.

Last October 2nd, I went to bed with you in my belly, unaware of the fact that you would make your entrance within just a few short hours.

Now, you are resting on Daddy’s chest while I finish up the preparations for big day.

My life will never be the same because you are in it. You have shown me a whole new level of love. The Lord has used you to teach me so much about Himself, to help to understand just how much He loves me. The love I have for you though greater than any love I’ve ever felt pales in comparison to His love for His children. Oh how I pray, you will understand what He did for you at a young age!

Over the last year, we have become the best of friends. Living three and half hours from family is hard, but you have filled that void in the most wonderful way. We do everything together, and I wouldn’t change that for anything. 

You sleep best when snuggled next to me.

You cry when I leave the room without you.

You are my constant companion.

You are in the backseat on every errand I run.

I know you won’t always need me like you need me now, but I’m savoring every second while you do.

Words usually come so easily for me, but tonight my thoughts are all over the place.

There is so much I want to express to you, so you’ll always know what an incredible blessing you are.

Mama loves you, Goosey. Just know that above all else.

Know that you made her dream of becoming a mama a reality.

Know that you filled her heart with a joy she had never felt before.

It’s been an amazing journey. We’ve accomplished so much, by God’s grace!

We met our goal of nursing for a year. During our struggles in the beginning, I often wondered if we’d make it through the day. Your mouth was so tiny and mama made just enough milk for you, not a drop extra! I’ll never forget how hopeless I felt when there was barely an ounce combined after pumping for a half hour! After we put the pump away and just let you nurse as much and as long as you needed to, we finally got the hang of it.

And here we are, you are a healthy 18 pounds and have never tasted another milky but Mama’s. 

We have the Lord and your Daddy to thank for that! Daddy kept encouraging Mama to keep going even when I worried if I was giving you all that you needed! The Lord enabled me to make what you needed and to sustain you through your first year!

I am so glad we kept going.

Looking back, I don’t have many regrets. I truly believe I have treasured your baby days.

You’ve only slept through the night once, but instead of getting frustrated with you, I remind myself that you are only little once.

Some may think you are spoiled and held too much, but that’s okay with me.

I’ll be thankful I did when you no longer fit in my arms.

Watching you grow has been one of the biggest blessings I’ve ever been given. 

You are so curious, so determined, so sweet.

You are friendly and happy.

You are my baby and always will be. Daddy reminded me of that tonight as the tears fell. You may grow up, but you will always be our baby.

I love you. Always and always. Forever and ever. No matter what.

Happy First Birthday, Silly Head! I can’t wait until you wake up in the morning! 

Love, Mama

10.2.13 11:17 PM

Londyn Grace's 1st Birthday Party

Londyn Grace turns ONE...

in just three days!! So of course, we had to celebrate! We had her big party this past Friday night back home in Maryland, and it was pretty much perfect!

It was so special to share the celebration with our family and friends especially since we don’t see them nearly as often as we would like due to living over three hours away.

I spent months planning and preparing for the celebration and was so happy with how my vision came to life! We spent all day Friday transforming my parent’s church’s fellowship hall into a vintage space filled with buntings, burlap and floral decor! {I can’t thank my Mama and Daddy, my sister, cousin, and my sweet hubby for all of their help! I couldn’t have done it without them!}

Two months ago, I found a floral fabric with baby blue, light pink, magenta, robin’s egg blue, and sage green in it! I fell in love with the combination of colors and picked a coordinating sage green polka dot fabric as an accent. I also bought a few yards of fabric in solid colors. I wanted to pull out all of the gorgeous colors from the fabric. My Mom Mom (maternal grandmother) made LG a dress to wear for her one year portraits (portrait post coming soon!)  and to use as the basis for the party decor. I love the fact that she has this handmade dress to keep as a memory of her first birthday party!

I painted the antique highchair I mentioned in a previous post light pink and dry brushed it with white paint. It served as the perfect seat for Londyn Grace to dig right into her smash cake. Behind her highchair, we screwed four vintage shutters together and hung a burlap bunting with her name on it at the top.

Next to the highchair was the sage green chair she's sitting in in the one year portrait at the top of this post, that I just so happened to snag for free on the side of the road a few years ago, for opening presents in front of old barn doors topped with two more burlap banners.

One of my favorite details of the party was the wooden block guest book! Each guest was asked to sign a wooden block so that when Lovey Lou is playing with them for years to come she will always have a memory of who shared her special day with her! Reading some of the sweet little notes made me tear up!

I used vintage windows we used for the seating chart at our wedding to display her monthly chalkboard pictures.

The dessert table was the focal point as soon as guests entered the hall. Behind it I hung a light pink ruffled backdrop and topped it with a colored pennant banner featuring the various fabrics I mentioned before!

The ruffled backdrop is actually a twenty dollar shower curtain from Amazon! It served the purpose though and now I have it in case we ever move to a place where LG has her own bathroom!

Each table had a blue mason jar filled with two roses, one white and one pink, and baby’s breath, and a scrabble tile tray with one of Goosey’s many nicknames on it. Scrabble played a role in Daniel asking me out on our first date so we have incorporated it into our engagement pictures, our wedding reception, maternity pictures and now into our baby girl’s first birthday party!

For favors, I stamped mason jars onto cardstock and tied them to small bags of mints. Well, Daniel tied them to the bags of mints that he also filled! Thanks, Babe! I wrote “Hope you had a Ball!” on each tag. I ordered precious printed napkins, too!

This chalkboard greeted guests on their way in!

After a busy day of decorating, we headed back to my parents’ house so that LG could get a nap in before the party.

She and Daddy napped while I iced sugar cookies Daddy made earlier in the morning.

When she woke up, I gave her a quick bath and dressed her in the dress my grandmother made, robin’s egg blue leggings, her new gold shoes, and added one of my Mama’s pearl necklaces. She looked SO precious!

When we got back to the church around 5:30, guests were already arriving! 

It was the sweetest thing ever watching her greet them with her signature smile and adorable little wave!

For dinner, we ordered food from a friend’s restaurant. We had a variety of sub sandwiches served on vintage china, salad, and different soups. We drank pink lemonade out of mason jars with precious pink and white polka dotted and bunting straws!

After we ate, it was time for cake!

Everyone sang “Happy Birthday,” we helped her blow out her single candle and then put on her party hat and monogrammed bib to prepare for the mess that was about to be made!

She dug right into the rosette cake and even wanted to share with Daddy and Mama!

For dessert, we had birthday cake, cookies and ice cream!

After dessert, we had a table full of presents to open. Everyone was so gracious! She received so much, including money and gift cards, lots of new fall/winter clothes, adorable handmade bows, a musical tea set, a stroller for her baby dolls, a Tigger that bounces, a few stuffed animals, a puzzle, and her very own toy iPhone and even a personalized Tervis tumbler!

 

It seems so surreal that this time last year, I was folding tiny newborn clothes I received at my church shower, and now I’m putting away presents from my big girl’s first birthday party!

Having a baby changes everything including your concept of time! A year has never passed so quickly!

It was such a wonderful evening! Watching LG have a ball was truly the best part!

We are looking forward to continuing the celebration for the rest of this week as we approach her birthday on Thursday! 

Friday Five & Five on Friday :)

I'm linking up with two link-ups on this Fall Friday!

 1. {Homemade} I have recently begun thinking a lot about processed foods and their impact on our health. I guess it stems from a combination of my sister and her battle with digestive issues, brother in law and his battle with Crohn's disease and now having LG's diet to think about. It also has do to with my weekly grocery budget. (So often my latest Pinterest recipe calls for a packet of Hidden Valley ranch dressing mix or Italian dressing mix and these mixes are around $2 a packet with lots of yucky hard to pronounce ingredients.) This week I made my own mixes!! I ended up having most of the spices I needed on hand and only had to buy one or two. Not only did this save me from having to buy the packets this week, but the recipes I used made enough to equal several packets! I stored the extra in mason jars and will now have it ready the next time I make a Mississippi Roast (Daniel's favorite!) or Pesto Ranch Chicken (a newly added (and super yummy!) item on our menu!)

2. {Big Girl Carseat} We had planned to wait until after the party to buy Londyn Grace's new carseat, but when we received a mailer about a promotion that Babies R Us had going on, we decided to get it now! With any purchase of $150 or more, you could get a video monitor for free! We used a 20% off coupon on the $169.99 seat making it $135.99 so we grabbed two pairs of pajamas and a package of drawer locks to get us to the $150 mark! Unfortunately they were sold out of the monitor so they gave us a raincheck and will call us when they get the shipment in! Daniel installed the seat today and she tried it out for the first time! She wasn't too sure of it and neither is mama! She is getting too big too fast!

3. {My other Blog} After much nudging from the Holy Spirit, I have finally resurrected my first blog! I wrote devotionals at Loving my Lord on a daily basis for around 5 years, but had neglected it since LG's birth. I plan to make time for writing again at least a few days a week! I'd love it if you'd follow me there as well!

4. {Almost Party Time} Lovey Lou turns one three weeks from yesterday! Her BIG party at home in Maryland is two weeks from tonight!! I've gotten a lot done, but still have several projects to tackle in the next fourteen days! I can't believe it is almost here!

How cute is this mason jar stamp?!

5. {Saying Goodbye} We went to Maryland on Monday to say goodbye to my Aunt Mary Ellen. The first of my Daddy's nine siblings (he is the baby of ten!) to pass away, she left an incredible legacy. I was blessed to spend 3 years with her when we worked together and carpooled each morning. She was only 57, but the Lord knew her body was too weak to face the cancer treatments ahead. She always put others first and served so selflessly. I'll think of her often, every time I use a coupon as she would typically finish a grocery trip with bags of groceries and the store owing her money, eat a chocolate chip cookie, she knew they were my favorite and always saved me some or watch a Christmas movie, she loved the 25 days of Christmas specials on ABC. I'll miss calling her every once and awhile, just to talk. I'll miss her sweet spirit. I am grateful that she knew Jesus as her Savior and is no more bound by this body of clay. Heaven is a little sweeter with her there and I have the assurance of seeing her again.

What are your Friday Five? Head over to The Sowell Life or to The Good Life Blog and link up!

My Dolly

If you remember from my weekly pregnancy posts, I thought for sure that Londyn Grace was a boy! The busy baby in my belly just had to be a boy because it was always moving. I was shocked and thrilled when we cut into the cake and saw PINK! I would've been just as thrilled if the icing was blue, but knowing we had a sweet baby girl on the way made me so very happy!

And even after almost a year with her, I am still having the time of my life dressing up my real-life dolly!

This afternoon, after our chores were finished, I wanted to take advantage of the lovely weather and get a few pictures of LG outside.

We are sort of between seasons and between sizes right now, growing out of all of her summer clothes and not quite ready to wear her fall outfits so I didn't find anything in her closet. Just then I remembered, a tote of my baby things in the attic.

So I chose a precious yellow dress with eyelet lace around the neckline and even found one of my old dolls for her to play with. My white shoes that she wore for her dedication matched perfectly!

We headed out back to capture the sweetness of her interacting with it, dressed in my vintage dress and wearing my shoes! Oh, how sweet it was!

We were only outside for less than ten minutes when the bugs started biting, but I am thrilled with the shots I got!

I emailed them to my Mama when we came in. She often says how much Lovey reminds her of me, so seeing her in my dress and shoes playing with my doll, made her cry!

LG has been carrying around the doll all evening!

I love watching her give it lovin'! 

My dolly with her dolly!

Be still my heart!