Wednesday, January 31, 2018

12 months of August


I finally made a collage with all of August's month photos, and it's so amazing to see how he's grown! I'm sorry the collage is so small. I tried really hard to enlarge it, but Blogger won't let me. 

If you've ever tried to take month photos, it is a labor of love, especially once the baby starts trying to crawl away (the whole second half of the year). But once you take month photos for the first and second babies, you feel compelled to be fair for the third :)


August went from this tiny guy at 10 days old,


to this HAPPY seven month old with juicy thighs (right before he learned to crawl and unfortunately thinned out those legs),


to this walking, laughing, almost-talking, one year old!

Next month, he'll have spent half his life in Pennsylvania and half his life in Indiana. This has been such a whirlwind of a year.

Auggie Bear, we love you!


Friday, January 19, 2018

August's 1st Birthday Party



While we were in Pennsylvania for Christmas, we threw August a little first birthday party. It was a week and half before his actual birthday, but we wanted to have the party so that his grandparents could all be there. It was a little bit of a rush to have a birthday party two days after Christmas, but everything turned out well!


When I was thinking of party theme ideas, my mind landed on the book, "On the Night You Were Born" by Nancy Tillman. August was our only baby born in the middle of the night (1:00 am), so I thought it was fitting! The book is so so sweet, and we love reading it at our house!


For the cake, I found a recipe in an old Good Housekeeping magazine for Cranberry Vanilla Cake with Whipped Cream frosting. It was actually my first all-from-scratch cake! The frosted cranberries were surprisingly easy to make, and I thought it looked cute for a winter party.


We had brunch fare: donuts (of course!), French toast, ham, coffee, juice.



I designed the signs and the invite and had them printed at Staples. We set the time for 11 in the morning, and we later realized that's typically August's nap time! Luckily, he went down a little early that day, and he was awake and happy for his party!


August opened sweet gifts from his grandparents and close friends!



We gave him his own mini version of the big cake. He was curious about the flame!



 I love this one!

He was really cautious and careful with the cake, but decided he liked the frosting. :)



He still hadn't tried the actual cake part yet, but he put a cranberry in his mouth and made this sour face :)




 It was such a great time celebrating our littlest guy! Steve and I realized this was our TENTH birthday party for our kids. How can that be possible? And number eleven is coming up at the end of this month!

Happy 1st Birthday, August!! 

"On the night you were born,
the moon smiled with such wonder
that the stars peeked in to see you
and the night wind whispered,
'Life will never be the same.'
Because there had never been anyone like you...
ever in the world.

So enchanted with you were the wind and the rain
that they whispered the sound of your wonderful name.

It sailed through the farmland
high on the breeze...
over the ocean...
And through the trees...
Until everyone heard it 
and everyone knew
of the one and only ever you.
...

For never before in story or rhyme
(not even once upon a time)
has the world ever known a you, my friend, 
and it never will,
not ever again...

Heaven blew every trumpet
and played every horn
on the wonderful, marvelous
night you were born."



And PS: Thanks Mom and Don for letting us host the party at your house! :)

Tuesday, January 16, 2018

Pennsylvania and some homemade pumpkin pie


I know Christmas was already a few weeks ago, but I am finally sitting down and sorting through our photos from our time in Pennsylvania. It felt so good and comfortable to be back home, and we really enjoyed our time with Steve's parents, brothers, nieces, and my parents as well. 

Of course we like our new life in Indiana, but every time I saw our old house, I just about burst into tears. We left behind so much in our big move.


It takes us about 9 hours (including stops) to get to PA. Here we were at a rest stop, and August was taking his turn at the wheel. :)


We made it to Grandma and Grandpa's house, and the older kids played Monopoly until their attention spans faded.


We exchanged gifts with Steve's side on Christmas Eve Eve.


The Legos came out of their boxes quickly! I can't believe how good the kids all are at building.



Uncle Phil and Aunt Dana got August a xylophone, and he wasted no time showing us how it's done.


Our sweet third baby does a great job at going-with-the-flow when it comes to nap time. Knock on wood, he still easily falls asleep in the car.


While we were in PA, it seemed like August learned to do a lot of new things all at once. Here he is showing us "SO BIG!"

On Christmas Eve, we ate our traditional ham and rice pudding dinner with my mom and Don, and we opened presents with them.


The Christmas Eve service at church is always so special. We sing"Silent Night" with everyone holding candles, all in a huge circle around the sanctuary. It always is a little nerve-wracking to give three-year-olds candles, haha.


The boys on Christmas morning at MorMor and Papa Don's house, opening up Cars' "Miss Fritter" and "Rusty and Dusty" from Santa. They were super happy!


Christmas Day is also Uncle Phil's birthday, so here the kids are singing to him and helping blow out the candles on his birthday brownies.


Grandpa and Grandma Zimm with their seven grandchildren. :)


August was trying to play with N's beautiful curly hair, and when she moved away from him, he took two steps toward her!


He waited a long time for his first Christmas! Our Christmas tree was still up when he was born last year.


Three bros.



Phil and Dana stayed in a hotel, so we went with them to check out the pool. Nolan had fun going down a water slide for the first time!


Ivy was happy to spend some time with us. We miss her very much, but she is doing well in her new home with my in-laws.


My mom found us matching mother-daughter jammies. Maybe this can be a new tradition? :)

It was such a wonderful Christmas, and we were thankful to spend an entire week with our family and friends. We celebrated August's first birthday with a little party while we were there, and I'll get those photos up next!

xo,
Rachel

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...