A Year Ago Today

To my Little E, born a year ago today at 9:56 AM;

Cease not to give thanks for you,

making mention of you in my prayers;

That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ,

the Father of glory,

may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation

in the knowledge of him:

The eyes of your understanding being enlightened;

that ye may know what is the hope of his calling,

and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who BELIEVE.

according to the working of his mighty power.

Ephesians 1:16-19

A year ago today my seven sisters were planning to throw me a little sprinkle. (Since I was pregnant with my second you can't really call it a 'shower'). I was 38 weeks pregnant and was super excited to go. My sister S had been planning it for months, busy making decorations, food and all the other little things that go into having a party! However, as many of you ladies know, babies have a plan all their own. I woke up suddenly at 4 am to an enormous rush of water down my leg. OH NO!!! The first thought was my party is today and my sister's gonna kill me; as I am sprinting to the bathroom. Sure enough...my water broke...on my party day!!!

I "loved it" when I jumped out of bed and yelled to my husband "Honey my water just broke," his only response was "Are you sure?!!" "What!!?? Am I sure!!??...are you kidding me... well unless I just got the habit of peeing myself in the middle of the night then I'm sure!!" I responded...

So there I was 4am calling my sister S to let her in on the news (since she had to come and get little L in the middle of the night). She was just as shocked as I was...yes...today...on my party day. After letting my sister know about the change of plans I had to text the seven sisters and let them know that I wouldn't be attending my party.. due to an unexpected arrival!! I was unbelievably excited to meet my little baby girl. While in the delivery room I told my doctor that I was missing my party, so this baby needed to be out by 11am. He got a big kick out of that and even told me that if I really wanted to go I could go, he would sign me out for 2 hours to attend my party and then come back!! What!? Really!? What a guy!! I loved him for that! And so at 9:56 am My Little E was born. All ten fingers and all ten toes and a full head of dark black hair. I immediately began thinking of all the cutie patooti bows I could put in that full head of hair. But I also couldn't help but feel overwhelmingly blessed with my little family. God had given our family so much love and joy and happiness. And then I began to think about how much God loves us. It must be like this but more, and to me that is amazing!

Needless to say my seven sisters enjoyed my party without me and little L got to open up all the presents for little E before coming to the hospital to meet her new baby sister. It turned out to be one of the most wonderful day's of my life.

And so, on Saturday we threw Little E her first birthday party. My husband (aka The Physician) and I rented a little lodge in a nearby park and had a sledding party. The funniest part being while everyone was sledding little E was fast asleep napping. Below are some pictures of that wonderful day. The weather couldn't have cooperated any better than it did.

Best time of year to find cute stuff for a birthday party is around valentines day. I found these little heart shaped bowls at Joann's for 50 % off. I also used S's design for her Candy Wrapper and made little favors for all the guests.

I also borrowed some of the decorations S had originally made for my sprinkle in Little E's party. The flags are cut out from craft paper and then hung up on ribbon. They are really cute. The decorations hanging from the ceiling are tissue paper pom poms made out of twisty ties and tissue paper. This idea came from martha stewart.



Some more cute decorations

And of course it wouldn't be a sledding party without sledding!!! It was a BLAST! The best part being that Little E slept through the sledding.

P.S. one of the best idea's my sister did at the sprinkle was making little "I hope" cards for Little E (you can find them here). Every sister got a card and they just had to fill in the blanks. It is an awesome idea for a shower and is sure to have the mom-to-be in tears, like myself. My sister brought them to the hospital to give to me all filled out by my best friends and my mom. It couldn't have been a better gift. She also gave me a blank one to fill out on my own. (The italicized words in color are what I filled into the blank.) They are very easy to make on the computer on pretty craft paper, just print them out and hand them out to your guests. This is how mine went.

I hope that you love Jesus
I hope you aren't afraid of spiders
I hope you love unconditionally
I hope you get daddy's jokes
I hope you laugh at yourself
I hope you never forget to choose right
I hope you ignore discouraging words
I hope you become a mommy
I hope you respect your husband
I hope you grow with grace and beauty
Love Mommy