Thirty Two

I've returned once again to this little blog of mine after experiencing many weeks of wondrous things, the biggest of all being our trip to Scotland. It was amazing, it was beautiful, it was dreamy, it was epic. I will be sharing many posts all about our trip in the coming days, so please stay tuned!

But first, a little something about my birthday...

Last week I celebrated my thirty second birthday. The funny thing is, I don't feel an ounce of sadness about "getting older." I feel it is a wonderful milestone, getting to celebrating living thirty two, wonderful, joy-filled years here on this earth. Maybe I feel this way because I've shed too many tears this past year for those who have passed away. A few, like my Gramma Dorsey, lived long, full lives, but many others were lives that were much, much shorter than anticipated, making the sorrow of being parted and the sting of death that much deeper.

Although I couldn't tell you the exact reason why, I so often found myself in quiet introspection over this past year. This has left me in a place of thankfulness, joy, and contentedness such that I've never known before.

Shades of pink: peonies from our garden. They are in full bloom every year just
in time for my birthday.

So to me, turning thirty two has symbolized the turning of a page in my life. And anyhow, I've always felt like the passing of each birthday was more of a fresh start at new beginnings than the passing of each New Year's. But that's just me.

On my actual birthday, I received a gift in the mail from my sister, Erin. We don't normally exchange birthday gifts, but she surprised me this year. She presented me with the most perfectly perfect gift because 1). I've been in need of a new daily devotional book, and 2). the title and theme of this book coincides exactly with my current state of mind.

The beautiful cover to this book makes it a worthy edition to be displayed on the coffee table.

The title sums up my newest mission: to truly savor life and all it's little moments.

It's taking a step back, removing unnecessary distractions, and truly being present in each moment. It's very much what I endeavor this blog to be all about--noticing little details and taking delight in the small things of life.

A few weeks ago, I was busily washing dishes at the sink. I glanced up out the window and noticed a small sparrow sitting on the fence. It was windy out, and I could see the breeze ruffling his feathers. I turned off the water and watched him for the remaining thirty seconds or so he sat on the fence. I took in the details of his adorable face, noticed the whiteness of the feathers on his chest, and watched the branches of the lilac tree next to him sway in the wind. It was such a small and quiet moment, but it was so very lovely.

I enjoyed that moment so deeply and I was so happy I glanced up from my busy work. It was a moment of perspective where I realized that taking in the small things must become a daily exercise. I need to put forth a real effort everyday to push aside distractions and take notice of the life that is happening all around me, of the beauty that is so near.

May I take it all in, little by little: the bright blue shade of the summer sky, the smell of the flowers in our garden, the feeling of the breeze brushing my skin, the smell of my daughter's hair as she rests her head on my shoulder, the sounds of birds chirping and neighborhood kids playing at the park. I want to slowly and deliberately savor the flavor of my food and drink. I want to relish the comfort of laying in my own bed. I want to write handwritten notes and letters instead of texts or emails. I want to drink tea from china teacups. I want to stop saying I'll do this and that later, saving it for a special occasion. Today is a special occasion, filled with endless gifts orchestrated just for me by my loving Savior, and he's just waiting for me to unwrap each one of them, if only I'll take notice.

Now I begin the next year of my life, filling the hours with these exercises in savoring. My prayer is that after diligent practice, I'll no longer need to force myself to take notice, that savoring the moments will become my second nature.

Makenna Turns Two

We can scarcely believe it, but our little Makenna Rose turned the big *TWO* this month. Wasn't it just yesterday that we brought her home from the hospital?

We decided to forgo a big party this year and have a small, intimate celebration with family. Our home is teeny-tiny, anyhow; eight adults, one toddler, and a small dog make it feel plenty crowded enough!

Both sets of grandparents were present, as well as "Uncle Aaron" and "Aunt Hunter." Temperatures were bitterly cold outside, but we stayed warm and toasty as we celebrated this special little lady of ours.

Like last year, I decided to make a homemade birthday cake for Makenna. Randomly enough, I took a Wilton Cake Decorating course at age fourteen. It was me and about eight other middle-aged women. I loved it! I've kept all my specialty cake-decorating tools since then but sadly have seldom utilized them. I figured if there's any good excuse to put my mediocre skills to use, it's for the birthday of our own child!

In case you're wondering, that's Peppa Pig on her cake, from Makenna's favorite TV program. {It's really rather adorable because it's a British show, so all the little characters have British accents!} I'm pleased enough with how the cake turned out given that I began the process of decorating it at 9:00 p.m. the evening prior to our celebration. However, it's made me itch to put in even more time and effort into future cake/cupcake decorating endeavors.

I utilized the banner I made for Makenna's birthday last year and simply replaced the "1st" with "2nd."

As the party got underway, Makenna was relishing being the center of attention!

It was such a fun-filled, happy event. Makenna loved every moment, as did we! A special thank you to all our families for putting in so much effort to make our little girl feel loved, even if you weren't there to celebrate with us in person!

Another ONEderful Party

The weekend following Makenna's party at our home, we drove down to my sister Erin's home in Indiana to have a triple birthday celebration.

If you remember, Makenna has two boy cousins almost the same age as her. Noah is three weeks older than Makenna and Jake is a mere ten days younger. We love to get these kiddos together as much as possible and with Erin's eldest son being only two and half, they are all growing and changing rapidly.

As fun as it was to be pregnant at the exact same time as Erin, and with the adoption of Noah within the last weeks of our pregnancies, it meant that we didn't get to meet one another's babies right away. Then the other unforeseen events stacked against us--Erin having a C-section and Makenna getting RSV and being placed under a quarantine of sorts. We were aching to hold one another's babies and it was pure agony to have to wait a few months to be able to arrange this first meeting.

In light of that, we especially wanted to take advantage of celebrating all three 1st birthdays within a single bash. And it was perfect for Matt, Makenna, and myself because Matt's two younger brothers and their families also live in Indiana, so they could join in the family celebration!

Erin was responsible for all of the fabulous decor and I made the cupcakes:

Seriously, how cute is this?!

I should've taken a photo of the living room after the presents were opened...

Noah seems perplexed by all of the crazy party prepping.

Jake is equally dumbfounded. {Oh, how I love these boys!!}

Now all three look thrilled about cupcake time:

Then they began to dig in:

Unlike at her own party, Makenna really seemed to enjoy the cupcake this time around. 

We put all three in the bath together after the cupcake eating, but I failed to get a photo of that. Bummer!

Oh, and this is Makenna with her Aunt Hunter. That's right!!! When I bowed out of the blogging world for a couple of months, I missed sharing that Matt's youngest brother Aaron got engaged to the sweetest, lovliest girl, Hunter. We are beyond thrilled to be adding her to our family officially this October! Makenna loves her Aunt Hunter and of course I'll be sure to share all of the wedding fun on my blog in the coming months.

At the end of the day, we tried to get a photo of the three babies with the cute "1's" Erin had made for them. We knew it'd be a long shot and with the babies being tired, our chances were next to nothing.

And...this is about the best that we got:

At least we can say we tried!

We had so much fun and it really was the perfect party for our three sweeties. We even had extended family (my Aunt and cousin) drive in for the occasion and being together with lots of family made it so incredibly special. We sure wish we lived closer but we are also thankful we don't live further apart {like my brother and his family who live in Oregon!}.

1st birthday parties are fun enough on their own, but times it by three and it was an especially marvelous day of celebration and baby love!

Makenna's 1st Birthday Party

I am so excited to share the photos from Makenna's birthday party! And these photos are all gorgeous, thanks to our wonderful friend, Jay. A few days prior to Makenna's party, Jay offered to bring her camera to capture the fun. And because Jay is a former pro photographer with absolutely amazing talents, you can only imagine my delight! We are forever indebted to Jay for giving us this tremendously beautiful gift of documentation.

Thankfully the weather cooperated enough not to be an issue for the party as we had lots of party-goers coming in from out of town. Our house is tiny to say the least, which works well normally since it is only Matt, Makenna, myself, and our little dog Annabelle, but throw in a slew of guests and things were pretty cozy, indeed. We really would have loved to invite many more people to the party than we actually did, but we got to the point where we knew that there was much potential for our home to become uncomfortably cramped, unable to accommodate more.

I had decided at the forefront of all the party planning that I wanted to make everything for the party myself. After browsing online and in-store to see what my options were, there wasn't anything I loved enough to pay the asking price. Since I own my own Cricut machine, I knew I could easily make the things I wanted.

I also decided to make all the food. Both my mom and Matt's mom were great helps in this area, making things at home to bring so that I didn't do all of the work.

I tackled the cupcakes and Makenna's cake myself, too. I found an awesome tutorial for a rose cake on Pinterest and since it was described as "easy--anyone can do it!", I was sold. I also felt confident since I had taken a multiple-week Wilton cake decorating course when I was fourteen {I know...kind of weird, right?}. But I am telling you, the cake was truly a breeze to make and I feel confident any person could easily make it. I used the "rose" design of the cake to decorate the cupcakes, as well.

Enough with the explanation of details! Here's the party:

Chocolate and strawberry cupcakes with my homemade vanilla buttercream frosting.

I decided to use a mix of dark pink and light pink with gold accents. There wasn't really a theme but I used a few rose pieces and made the rose cake, of course, in honor of Makenna's middle name Rose.

We had lots of help with the party prep

Jaela adding the finishing touches

We were so grateful for all the helpers! I love the giggles happening in this photo

Oh, how Makenna adores her Daddy

One of my favorite photos! 
And yes, that is duct tape on her high chair.This girl loves to chuck things in front of her, and I wasn't going to risk disaster with the cake!

Makenna liked the frosting, but not so much the chocolate cake. She was shy with the cake and didn't "dig in" as we'd hoped!

FaceTime with her Aunt Jennie

We were just looking at the book and she cried when I set it aside. This girl loves her books!

A little confused at first to be set in a giant gift bag, but then...

{Makenna screaming with excitement as we clap and say "yay" for her}!

Excited to be with Grandpa, Grandma, Nana, and Papa

Melt my heart!

One of my very favorites

It was such a splendid day, celebrating our darling Makenna. It was so much fun to make such a big deal out of her 1st birthday, and we were so thankful to everyone who came out to help us celebrate. We are blessed to have such lovely memories of the event to treasure for always.