dear lincoln. {you are one}

[I began the tradition of writing a letter to each of my children on their birthday.]

Dear Lincoln Wayne,

It's your birth date. One year ago exactly you came into this world--the doctor tried to tell you when to come, but even with being induced, you were coming on your own. The moment you entered this world, you brought me and your daddy so.much.joy. Being the third child, I can't ramble off your birth stats, I'd have to look them up if you asked. But you know what? My love for you is just as deep and wide as for your sisters. You see, being a boy, you are probably going to be judged a lot on your stats. How many goals you made. How many dunks you made. How far did you run. How many laps did you get in. I want you to know, I will never base my love for you on your stats. I don't even care if you have stats. My love for you is immeasurable. What I want you to know most and understand most is grace. That no matter what you do, my love for you, your daddy's love for you, and most importantly, God's love for you is never-ending or changing. Grace. Write that word on your heart.

We just finished up your first birthday party. Buster (that's what we call you), you are loved. Like, seriously, loved. I didn't do a head count (remember, stats aren't important), but there were so many at our home to celebrate you turning one. Being that your daddy loves having a boy and he's a crazy IU fan, we went with an IU Basketball themed party. We gave away IU cards autographed by you, in case you know, you become famous for being some big basketball player. The thing is, you may absolutely love basketball (you do love balls in general) or you may not. And that's okay. We want you do to what your heart desires with the gifts God gives you.

You got so tickled when we sung Happy Birthday to you. 

Cupcakes made like the shape of Indiana. Now that's some love. Your cake was made by your Aunt Allie and my good friend, Debbie. See how cool it is to be able to use the gifts God gives you to help and encourage others?!

Not only did we have your party today on your actual birth date, we also dedicated you to the Lord at church. Dedication is a fun day--lots of family come to church to see this event, you wore the sweetest little outfit that used to be your daddy's that your Great-Granny made. But those are just layers that can be stripped away, the core of us dedicating you to the Lord, is to do just that--we made a public commitment to raise you up in the admonition of God, we pray that one day you will have a personal relationship with Christ Jesus. And remember that word grace? We pray that you will truly understand it.

Lincoln, we love you so. We love how you let your sisters touch you and try to pick you up and pat you, and for the most part, you let them do that. I love how you try to make a car sound when you are playing with your toy truck. I love how you want to be outside all the time. I love how you say "a dog a dog a dog" over and over. I love how you snuggle. You were our first baby that actually liked to be rocked and it's the sweetest thing. I love how your favorite food is homemade calzones that we make every Friday night for family fun night. I love your dimpled smile and five tooth grin. I love you so and
I look forward to many many more "Dear Lincoln" letters to you, as we watch you grow.

Love,

Your Mama.

fairy party.

I'm not going to lie, I love that the girls' birthdays are just two weeks apart. That means I can combine their party and have a lot of fun with it. I'm kind of ridiculous too in the sense that I start thinking about their party way way ahead, say springtime. This past spring I came across a super adorable fairy cupcake set at TJ Maxx, that was not Disney Tinkerbell.  [I love that store. Probably too much.] And within the same week I saw some "decorate your own wings" at Michael Craft Store. (I didn't buy them then, and ended up purchasing them through Amazon.) After agreement from Audrey, we were set on a fairy party.

Of course, even though I start planning in my head months early, I usually don't do hands-on planning till the week before. I scored this Fairy book at a garage sale this past summer for a dollar. I used the beautiful whimsical fairy pictures for the invitations, which the girls helped make, and for a pendent banner to hang.

The kiddos decorated their own wings and wand. The day of the party I thought about having them put "fairy dust" on their cupcakes, but I didn't have sprinkles (beside chocolate) on hand that would work. Ah well, it was still a lot of fun!

I think my favorite part were the pictures I hung of each of the girls. I spray painted some frames from the Dollar Tree pink and added a picture from birth and each of their birthdays since--so Naomi had two pictures and Audrey had three. 

The girls Gamma (Andrew's mom) made the sweetest fairy outfits for them. But I didn't manage to get a good picture of them all dressed up, I still need to do that! I did get one of each of the girls before the party started, but Audrey was just wearing her pre-party outfit. 

It was a fairy good party. [har har har, I couldn't resist.]

Happy 2nd Birthday Naomi Fae and 4th Birthday Audrey Rose! 

P.S. Lincoln napped the entire time during the party. He is already trying to ignore all things girly.

THREE. {snow white birthday}.

Since probably June, Audrey has been asking for a Snow White birthday party. I thought she might change her mind by the time October rolled in, but nope, Snow White was definitely still it. So, we went with it. After all, she only turns three once, right? I'm not one to be into characters and themey stuff, but, I am one to be into making my littles happy. And she definitely glowed that morning.

I didn't go all out. But I did do a couple of things to make the party special. Like make a banner to hang from a vintage Snow White book I found at goodwill.

I bought some vintage-looking Snow White pieces I found on Etsy from the store Hey Yo Yo. And used them to decorate the table and for a game. (They played "find the missing dwarfs." They had to ride a pretend horse into the kitchen and find a dwarf to bring back for a treat. It was pretty cute seeing the kiddos riding as fast as they could to find a dwarf.)

We played Pin The Nose On Dopey. I spent a good 45 minutes of naptime the day before drawing and coloring in this Dopey.

What would a Snow White party be without a real Snow White costume, compliments of Audrey's Gamma (Andrew's mom), who made it for her!

Now that I have shared all the nice posed, pretty pictures. Here is real life. And what 12 toddlers plus moms and babies, look like entering your 1150 square foot home. [Also, once Audrey saw all her friends come in with princess dresses, Audrey wanted to change again...into Repunzel.]

We had a blast with a house full of kiddies. They even decorated their own cupcakes!

Happy Third Birthday, my dear Audrey Rose!

hot air balloons and bows. oh my.

I've been meaning to share Naomi's first birthday party that we had on Sunday. So here it is, mainly in pictures...

A couple of months ago I ordered a dress for Naomi and it became her birthday party theme inspiration. Hot air balloons. Bows. Black and white. Yellow, blue, and pink. I thought it was incredibly adorable and unique. [Golly, I sure do love Misha Lulu. If only I could afford the line more often then just a first birthday dress.]

Three days after the dress arrived in the mail, I made the invitations.

I drew it up and used crayons to color it, and then had copies made.

The cake was made by my talented sister-in-law and friend. In fact, they also made the cupcakes as well!

Vintage suitcases for decorations.

 I made the cupcake toppers, the hot air balloon was a stamp.

The table decorations were simple. I bought some baskets on sale at Michael's

and added some balloons to make them look like hot air balloons.

 (We rented a building for the party, I wasn't ready to hold 40-50 people in our house again.)

Like Audrey's first birthday, I made a banner with pictures of Naomi on the 5th of each month.

We removed Naomi's dress for the cake eating. She was so, so cute with it.

Stuck her hands in and then we told her to take a bite and she went face first into it.

A couple of months ago I made Audrey a dress to coordinate with Naomi's birthday dress. It is her favorite dress to wear, she puts it on at least twice a week. I was glad she was finally able to wear it for the reason I made it. It's hard to tell from the picture, but the light pink part of the dress actually has hot air balloons on it--used an old tshirt of mine!

The party was just lovely. We were surrounded by so many wonderful friends and family. I would have to say my favorite moment was when Naomi got embarrassed when we were singing happy birthday. When we got to her name in the song, she laid her head down on the highchair. And then I melted.

I Wonder How Many Adults Still Dress Up For Halloween.

5 years ago we started a tradition with our friends to have a themed-Halloween party each year. It's pretty much an excuse for adults to get dressed up together and look utterly ridiculous. But it's so fun. The costumes are hand-made for the most part- usually coming from our parents closest or a Goodwill find.

We each bring a dish to share. And then we eat. A LOT. Laugh. Drink wine. And vote on the best costume for that year.

This year, the theme was service jobs. Being that we have been overly busy with moving and remodeling our new home, I didn't had a lot of time to think about our costume. But I did manage to pull something together the day of the party. We went as (drumroll please)...

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.

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Lakeview Lions Lunch Servers. I mean, who didn't love Wednesday lunches at your elementary school? You know, salisbury steak and roll day. Delish. So I thought back to my awesome lunch servers and came up with some outfits. Complete with trays of food and some life-size peas to go along with it (aka Audrey).

[Please note: I am rather embarrassed of this hilarious costume. We look like complete dorks. I even rolled my socks. I assure it is the costumes fault, no one looks good in a hair net. Right?]

In 2008 the theme was going to be food. For a year I had planned that if I got pregnant, then I wanted to go as a pea in a pod. I was going to paint my belly green. Sure enough, I got pregnant and was even due right after Halloween (Nov. 2). I bought a green dress months in advance. Party was scheduled for Oct. 18. It was set early, in case I went into labor early. The party never came that year, because, Audrey decided she would make her appearance on October 18.

2007 the theme was cartoon characters. Andrew told me I had to take it easy since the previous year he was practically in tights. We went as The Jetsons. I thought we pulled it off rather well. (The purple dress I am wearing used to be gigantic and long before I cut it and sewed it).

2006 was my favorite year yet as far as costumes go. The theme was movies. Inspired by one of the best Christmas movies ever, Elf, we went as Buddy and Jovie. I even went as far as to dye Andrew's long-john's yellow and detail yellow snowflakes on his jacket.

2005 was our first annual Halloween party. We actually didn't have a theme, so we went as ahem, Jed Clampett and Elly May Clampett. Ever since I married into the "Clampitt" family, I had to take on the jokes. So, for Halloween we decided to embrace the jokes and go as the "Clampet's."

So, do you dress up for Halloween? What has been your favorite costume of the past?

O-N-E Amazing Party.

It was a beautiful day. It was sunny. And warm. [Okay, sort of warm. Warmer than the nasty, rainy, 40 degrees we have been having.] But what made it even more beautiful, were the people that surrounded Audrey on her first birthday. Seriously. She. We. Are so blessed. I stopped and took it in. This warm fuzzy feeling just came over me while I looked around and saw all the people that love Audrey so much.

It was a celebration of Audrey turning one. It was a celebration of us surviving our first year of parenthood. It was a celebration of Audrey's heart beating well for a year with no complications (after her heart procedure done at 5 days old). It was a celebration for sure.

We had a cereal bar. Which now results in us having to eat cereal at every meal for the next three weeks. We had lots and lots of cupcakes with cupcake toppers on them that I made (I think I made almost 70). Audrey had her very own cupcake cake made by her Aunt Allie and my friend, Debbie. It was amazing. She only ate a little bit of it and I felt like I should be freezing it and keeping it till her next birthday. You know, like people do with wedding cakes. But then people may have thought I was really strange. Oh wait, I am slightly strange.

We had strawberries and bananas and fruit dip and devilled-eggs and chocolate covered pretzels. We had cupcake decorations (it was a cupcake themed party, of course). I used vintage tablecloths.

I made a banner that had a picture of Audrey on the 18th of each month for the last 12 months.

We had books as favors. Elmo, no less. [Funny thing is, Audrey has never actually watched Elmo on TV. But Grandpa has a tickle me Elmo and she loves it. Now we watch the Elmo song on youtube all the time. I actually like it. Okay. Maybe I shouldn't be admitting that.]

We had fun. Audrey received some super amazing gifts too. Like a hand-made blanket from my best friend. A pink grand piano. [Seriously. She has her own grand piano now. Next Mozart? I think so.] A shopping cart. A picnic table. A wooden duck to ride. Lots of pretty outfits. A Colts jersey-onsie. A pink Colts hoodie. A tea set from England. A wooden shape sorter. A pink flower bath towel. A vintage purse. Instruments. Hand-knit hat and mittens from Etsy. And her very own, custom made PINK playhouse for outside. Really, it's like a mansion. And it is amazing. I can't wait to share pictures of it. My sister and brother made it for her, along with a lot of other family members chipping in.

Not that material things represent the amount of love by any means, but Audrey is seriously loved. Her friends and family gave very thoughtful gifts. And we are thankful for that. Things that we were never be able to give her.

It was a day to remember. Every first birthday is a day to remember. No matter how big or small. It's the memories that are made.