first birthday – The Late Stork

Faith’s 1st Birthday ♥

SherryJuly 4, 2013July 4, 2013

TODAY is my baby girl’s very first birthday. It has been an amazing year. She has grown and changed so much, it makes these fleeting moments so precious to me. Aaron and I are so blessed, and SO THANKFUL that God placed her in our lives. Today is a very very special day :)

This past Saturday, June 29th, we had Faith’s 1st Birthday party! It was a wonderful day. All of Faith’s family was over at our house to celebrate. I decorated the backyard, but unfortunately it was raining on and off all day long. Fortunately, God gave us a bit of sunshine here and there, so we could go outside and take some beautiful pics!

And there are LOTS of pictures! So grab a cup of coffee…. you will be scrolling for awhile!

The Decorations

I made the chalkboard. It was so easy. I just bought a poster board frame from Walmart. Sprayed the Plexiglas insert with chalkboard paint. Painted the frame a pistachio green. Put it all back together, and got out my chalk to write on it! I absolutely love it!

I made this birthday wreath, too! It was so fun to make. There are lots of creative ideas on how to make one on Pinterest, and Google. Just search for “birthday wreath” and you’ll find lots of great examples!

The Cakes

I designed her birthday cakes. I scanned the images from her birthday decorations; the butterflies, bumble bees, flowers, and ladybugs… then I got to work in Photoshop adding the images all together. I took the images to Walmart, and had them print it out on edible sheets to place on a sheet cake, and her own little smash cake.

The number 1 image was not only on her smash cake, but I also ironed the image onto her birthday onesie!

Happy Birthday Dear Faith, Happy Birthday to youuu!!! ♥

Here is a video of us singing Happy Birthday to Faith, and her digging into her cake!

The Gifts

Our neighbor, Robert, gave Faith this card. I love what he wrote :)

Faith’s cousins, Abby and Lilly, made her birthday cards. I love them!

Here is a video of Faith opening her gifts!

The Sandbox

Aaron made Faith a large 4′ x 4′ sandbox made of cedar. It took about 16 bags of play sand to fill it. I absolutely love it! I hope it lasts forever! He put so much love into it. I painted some flowers, and her name on the corner seats. We also got her some sand toys to play with :)

And lastly, here are some family moments with the birthday girl ♥

Aaron also made this picnic table for extra sitting room.

I made Faith’s entire birthday outfit in these pictures below. I made the tutu with hot pink and lime green tulle (so easy to make) and I ironed on the number 1 on her onesie, and I also added a number 1 sticker, and pink feather trim to her birthday hat!

Although her birthday party is over, we still wanted to do something special today for her birthday, so Aaron and I decided to go out and get her one last birthday present…

We named her Cleo… after the goldfish from Pinocchio! :)

Today, I also made a handprint of her hand…

What a year it has been! We love you, Faith, with all our heart! ♥

In Blog

Let’s Celebrate!

SherryJune 25, 2013

We have had a busy couple weeks! Firstly, Father’s day was wonderful. I didn’t have money to spend, but I made a little video for Aaron to let him know how blessed we are that Faith has such a wonderful father.

We have been busy preparing for Faith’s first Birthday party which is this Saturday! Yay! And just a few moments ago, I captured Faith on video walking from the living room all the way into the kitchen for the very first time!!! My big girl!

We have so much to celebrate! I can’t wait until my baby girl turns one year old in just 8 days!

In Blog

Faith is 9 Months Old Today!

SherryApril 3, 2013

A whopping 9 months old! Yay Faith! It seems unreal that in only a few short months we will be celebrating her very first birthday. Wow.

She will be going in for her 9 month check-up next week. I’m sure she has gained a healthy amount of weight, despite the fact that she rarely eats solid food. Her main nutrition still only comes from my breast milk. Trying to get Faith to regularly eat solid foods for the past 3 months has been difficult. Once she turned 6 months old, I started her out on baby cereal…. she didn’t like it. Then I tried pureed vegetables of all kinds…. didn’t like any. I tried pureed fruits of all kinds…. didn’t like any. I’ve tried Gerber baby desserts… and she doesn’t like it. Any of the foods she may like a little bit … she will eat a few bites and be done with it. She has never had a full serving of any kind of baby food yet.

She is still getting up every night for milk as well. To be honest… her nursing schedule is still pretty much the same as it always has been ever since she was a newborn. She wants milk about every hour throughout the day, and during the night she will wake up sometimes every hour… sometimes every couple hours… and occasionally she will sleep 3 or more hours before waking up for a feeding but that’s rare. I’m tired. I wish I could add some baby cereal to my breast milk in a bottle for her to drink before bedtime… hoping that it will satisfy her enough to sleep through the night … but she refuses bottles. She never drinks from a bottle. Bottles are toys to her. She’s no dummy… she knows breast milk is best, but c’mon! :)

New mothers with newborn babies are always tired because newborn babies want to be fed every couple hours around the clock. I’m still feeding Faith every hour to two hours, and I still get up anywhere from 2 to 5 times a night. I haven’t slept all night since I was pregnant. I am TIRED.

I will be weaning her when she turns 1 year old. How will she adjust to being weaned when she refuses to eat solid food? I plan to start her on bottles of organic cow’s milk when she’s a year old… but she has always refused the bottle. I expect the transition to be rough. I believe she will probably lose a pound or more until she finally accepts solid food for nourishment.

I really hope she will happily dig into her birthday cake and gobble it up like most one year olds do. We shall see soon enough!