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birthday, Blog, Clementine, photoshoot

Our Darling Clementine is One!


Two days ago, on October 4th, Clementine Eloise turned 1 year old! It seems like I should be used to how fast time goes by but this past year has absolutely been the fastest of them all.

Ever since Clementine was tiny, I dreamt of a clementine themed first birthday party. I daydreamed about different decorations and foods. And in my mind, it was all perfect. But as the months went by, and our calendar filled up, I realized how difficult it would be to plan and execute an entire party during this busy season. So I decided that we would just do a little cake smash photo shoot with all her siblings watching and cheering her on.

Party Details: I collaborated with Fancy Free Finery for Clementine’s cake topper and headband. The colors that Katie (owner of FFF) chose were perfect and truly completed my vision!//The romper is a thrift store find from a few years ago. The tag says h&m.//Shoes are from Starry Knight Design.//And the clementine felt garland is something I had custom made by Hooray Everyday before Clementine was born.

Of course my “easy” photoshoot wouldn’t have been complete without last minute driving around to stores to get supplies. But in the end, everything turned out how I pictured. Well, except Clementine’s reaction–which I’ll get to in a minute.

Being the classy baker that I am, I splurged on a box cake mix and icing in a can for her cake. I dressed it up with the finest of faux greenery and rested my masterpiece upon a wooden (I think it’s supposed to be a base for a DIY clock) base. And of course, topped with our beautiful cake topper from Fancy Free Finery.

Oh yeah! The balloons! The balloons were basically the inspiration for the whole thing. After finding inspiration for our gender reveal from the Oh Happy Day instagram feed, I scrolled through their pictures and it gave me the idea to make a clementine with balloons. As far as I know, they have never made a clementine so there were no instructions. But it’s obviously pretty easy and doesn’t require a DIY. The hardest part was just keeping the balloons stuck to the wall because their weight was a bit heavy for the tape. 

This picture of her walking/running away pretty much describes her personality currently. She’s still about 50/50 with walking and crawling but she loves to practice her walk. And she finds that the best time to practice is when I’m trying to get pictures of her. So that’s fun.

It may not show on these first pictures as much, but Clementine was actually sick on her birthday. She was one of the unlucky few in our family that got hit with the stomach bug. I could tell she was not acting like her normal self but it became pretty clear when she threw up later that day. Poor baby girl! I’m glad that we managed to get a few happy pictures of her though!

The picture of Clem with her parents, taken by Kai ^^ It totally cracks me up because she wanted nothing to do with it.

We actually started taking pictures in the high chair but she kept crying. So then we attempted on the floor. Then she kept crawling away. Since she had just woken up from a nap and hadn’t had any real food, I ended up feeding her a bit in hopes of her destroying her cake afterwards.

I did manage to capture a few smiles. But overall, she did not enjoy the experience. The one chance I give her to go crazy and make a mess–and she is not interested at all. She hated being messy.

After a little bit, we gave her a fork and she cheered up for a couple of minutes…

 

Until she finally realized that, nope! She didn’t enjoy this all. Cake smash fail! But I got some adorable pictures…so is it really a fail? You decide!

This past year with Clem in our lives has been the best year! We have loved having her sweet personality in our home, making all of us smile daily. We are all 100% obsessed with her. I have a hard time imagining her being a big sister but I know she will grow into her role beautifully. To the little one year old who wakes me up every morning by saying “mama, mama, mama,” we love you dearly and we’re so blessed to have you in our family!

If you want to read Clementine’s birth story, click HERE.

birthday, evangeline, spring, st. louis

Four is Fantastic


I’m afraid to even put it in writing but I think we have finally exited the season of sickness in our family! The past few months were rough but I am grateful that all the sicknesses were just minor and that we are all finally back to our “normal” selves.

I’m behind on my blogging but I have multiple posts lined up if I can ever find the time to sit, edit pictures, and write. But of course I had to start with Evangeline’s birthday. On May 5th, our little Cinco de Mayo baby turned 4 years old. Our baby girl, my best friend, our firstborn daughter. The girl I had been dreaming of for so many years. There were many days when I thought I would forever be a boy mom (and that would have been perfectly okay.) But I am so thankful that I have been blessed with, not one, but TWO precious girls.

At 4 years old, Evangeline loves all things pink and purple. She loves changing her outfits approximately 357 times a day. She loves princesses, fingernail polish, lipstick, and braids. She loves My Little Pony and all things girly.

But at age 4, she also loves playing with Legos with her brothers (what she is currently doing.) She loves playing in the dirt and racing with the boys until she eventually falls over and scrapes her knees–which then leads to the next 5 hours babying those scrapes. She loves Star Wars and Transformers and doing everything her brothers do.

If you ask her her name, she will give you one of a few different answers: Miss, Missy, Miss Evangeline, and rarely, she will let you know her name is Evangeline.

She spends most of her days sitting at the table, drawing and coloring pictures. And writing “miss” in her sweet handwriting.

She is the sweetest, outgoing child with a hidden switch somewhere that turns her into a shy, stubborn, sassy little girl (I’m still working to find that switch to make sure it gets permanently set to “sweet” haha) She loves all of her siblings so much and has such a special unique relationship with each of them.

We are so blessed to have this sweet girl in our house!

On her actual birthday, we went to the usual Mcdonald’s and came home for her choice of dessert, “a heart cake.” I know you all are currently in awe and praising my decorating skills on that cake but I have to just let you know, I charge a high price for cakes like that. (Can you read the sarcasm there?)

A few days before her birthday, we headed out to the zoo for the morning. Of course it was the first nice day we had had in quite a while. We had so much raining and flooding leading up to that day so I’m pretty sure everyone flocked to the zoo all at the same time.

We ended up at the park that evening, trying to find some photo locations for a project. We ended up not caring for any backgrounds but took a few shots of the kids while we were there.

Clem’s face makes me wish for the heart eyed emoji on here.

Actually, so does Desmond. Most pictures of him involve him pointing at the sky and saying “bird” so I’m glad Don caught a candid smile as Des was running towards him.

Okay, and one more time…this picture of both of them together. Des loves his baby sister with all of his heart–he even shares big bites of his food with her. Food that she doesn’t even know how to chew. That is love.

The past 4 years have zipped by so quickly. I can barely remember Evangeline as a baby..which is so sad. But I absolutely love having this sweet 4 year old.

also–a little throwback

Evangeline’s first birthday pictures and her first birthday party

Evangeline’s second birthday

Evangeline’s third birthday

I hope you all are having a great week! I (along with Don and 6 of our closest friends) are on day 7 of Whole 30. I was actually considering writing up a few posts about it. Not as an expert, but as an honest perspective from the pickiest eater in the world. So I’m hoping to recap the first week pretty soon! In the meantime, I hope you all are thoroughly enjoying cheese right now. Because I am not 😉 Have a great day!