Violet TWO years old!

And just like that...she turned two.  My sweet Violet celebrated her second birthday two weeks ago.  We are mid renovation on our new house and currently living with family, so she had a sweet little birthday party with just our family.  Our world has been a circus for the last several months and I have struggled to balance working on our home and being really present with my family.  A little cake and laughter was exactly what we needed!

My little birthday girl!

I'm sure moms say this all the time, but I really want to freeze this age.  She is two and full of opinions, but I love this age so much.  These are a few things I hope to remember about Violet at two years old.

*When she "runs", she swings her arms back and forth but her little legs barely move
*She loves to snuggle 
*She adores her sister and is constantly watching and learning from her 
*She calls Miller " Milmur" 
*She started Mothers Day Out and loves her new teachers and friends
*She was Lambie for Halloween
*Her favorite foods: blueberries, mash potatoes, spaghetti, and applesauce
*She loves Minnie Mouse, Princess Sofia, and Doc McStuffins
*She plays with her toy kitchen and "cooks" for me.  She loves to tell me it's hot
*Those blue eyes

My friend, Susan Hudson Photography captured so many sweet moments of my family in our recent photo session.  These pictures are priceless to me.  I can't wait to share more, but this post is all about Violet!

To my sweet girl, Our life is richer with you in it.  I wish I could bottle up the sweet moments early in the morning and right before your bedtime when you snuggle up on my shoulder and play with my hair.  When I pick you up from MDO, I smile and watch you before you know I'm there.  The best part of my day, is seeing your eyes light up as you squeal and skip your way over to me!  I think you look like me when I was a toddler, but you have the cutest curls and I missed out on those!  Your big sister...she adores you.  I catch her smiling and watching you play and it warms my heart when she hugs you and talks softly to you.  I hope you both take care of each other as you grow up.  And your daddy, he loves you so much.  He tells me every night how much he misses you after you are asleep.  We thank Jesus every day that he lets us be your mommy and daddy. Happy two years sweet Violet Anne.

 November 2015

Homemade Apple Crisp and Waiting

Fall is in the air in middle Tennessee.  This morning, the air was crisp and the sun was shining.  It was a beautiful day to spend outside with my sweet little family!  We packed up early this morning and drove to Mt. Juliet to visit Breeden's Orchard.  

The last three months have been a little crazy for our family.  With our house on the market, most of our Saturdays have been spent cleaning, staging, and staying out of our house.  Half of the girls' toys have been packed away in the garage for three months. Since showings can be scheduled on a short notice, we have tried to maintain a clean house with minimal clutter.  Our emotions have been up and down as we have had three different contracts on our house since July.  

But today,...we played in the sun!  My poor camera is packed away somewhere in the garage so I was only able to snap pictures with my cell phone, but I am so happy to document our first family visit to the apple orchard!  

This was a sweet little orchard y'all!  I saw a sign stating this was their last year to run the country store and allow picking so if you live close by, this is worth the drive.  They have homemade apple slushies and apple fritters in the little store that will make your day!  You're welcome.  

God is teaching me so much through this season of uncertainty and waiting, but in all transparency, I have pouted through most of it.  I trust the Lord's plan for my life and I know when He makes me wait, there is a purpose.  So as we packed up this morning for yet another inspection on our home for a potential buyer, I reminded myself that I don't want to miss precious moments with my family.  Difficult circumstances and hard seasons of waiting can steal your joy and trap you in your self pity if you aren't careful.  So today, we picked apples.  We laughed and I watched my babies giggle through beautiful rows of apple trees! 

Hopefully, this buyer will stick and my family can stop packing and cleaning, but in the meantime, I am going to do my best to stay present for my family.  I don't want to miss any more sweet Saturdays full of giggles, because I'm feeling sorry for myself.  Baking homemade apple crisp with my girls is a much better option! 

My marriage lesson of Year 7

Mike and I celebrated our one year anniversary by backpacking through Italy.  We traveled through five cities in twelve days and packed in a lifetime of beautiful memories.  We are both explorers and we really enjoy new adventures together.  This picture was taken in Vernazza, my favorite little town of Cinque Terre.

Before we had our girls, friends and mentors urged me to guard my marriage by carving out time for dates and quick getaway trips.  At the time, I never thought I would blink at the opportunity to take a trip with the love of my life, but those little babies are sweet y'all!  

The last four years have been such a sweet season for us as we became parents and learned how to adjust in our new roles.  We love being parents and if you talk to either of us long enough, we will tell you how special those babies are to us!  But, that handsome man in the picture is my first love.  I think I really learned a valuable lesson this year and it's that I need to keep dating my husband.  

I realized this Spring, that Mike mostly gets a depleted version of myself.  When we finally get to have some time together each night, we are exhausted.  We usually team up to get both our girls fed, bathed, and in bed.  Most evenings I sound a bit like a drill sergeant or a referee trying to maintain order and peace.  If I'm lucky, my sweat pants might still be clean but my shirt is usually covered in snot and food.  As we make our way to the front porch with a glass of wine, we smile and somehow keep talking about the little girls we are blessed to raise. 

This year, we decided it was time to leave our girls with family and get away for a few days to celebrate our seventh anniversary.  A friend told me about a little gem tucked away on Monteagle, and I fell IN LOVE.  Sewanee, Tennessee is such an adorable town and was the perfect destination for us to do all of our favorite things!  I felt like we had taken a trip to Cambridge or Yorkshire! 

We stayed at The Sewanee Inn, which is a little boutique hotel right near The University of the South.  The architecture was incredible and we were delighted with our stay.  The Inn has complimentary bikes that we were able to explore with and they even packed us a fabulous picnic lunch for our hike the next day. 

We spent our first afternoon on a leisure bike ride exploring incredible overlooks and beautiful churches.  It felt so good to be with my man, doing the things we enjoy most.  I am learning that I need to be intentional to spend more quality time with my husband having fun.  

{All Saints Chapel}

If you take a trip to Sewanee, I would highly recommend a romantic dinner at High Point.  You will feel like you are stepping up to a quaint little cottage under a gorgeous tree, and every thing you put in your mouth will taste amazing!  You're welcome.

I feel so lucky that Mike and I actually enjoy doing the same things.  I don't know if everyone wants to spend their anniversary trip running and hiking...but we loved it!  There is a beautiful four mile run through the middle of the campus and at your half way point you can see one of the most beautiful overlooks and check out the Memorial Cross.  

There are great hiking trails along the perimeter of the campus as well.  Abbo's Alley is one to check out.  We spent our last day hiking out to Foster Falls and enjoyed a lovely picnic by a beautiful 80 foot waterfall! 

There is about a two mile trail that loops around the waterfall and back to the trail head and it was really scenic.  You will most likely pass rock climbers on your way because there are a few sweet spots to climb, but watch out for the rattle snakes! 

I think this trip reminded me how special my husband is and how thankful I am for our love story.  I am grateful for friends along the way who urged me to continue exploring and traveling with my first love.  Being a mommy can make it a little more challenging, but I saw how refreshed and recharged we both were after our night away.  I hope I can encourage other young moms to continue dating their husbands.  Raising children is hard and I am learning that I have to be intentional with my marriage.  Getting out in nature and doing what we love was exactly what we needed! 

{Happy Anniversary to Us}

Missional Mother's Day

I love being a mommy.  The Lord has blessed me with the responsibility to love my babies and raise them in a home that honors God.  My desire is to be the best mom for Abigail and Violet that I can be and to shape them into fierce arrows that will one day be launched out into the world for Christ.  And I have a lot of help on my side to accomplish that, Lord willing.  But what about moms who don't?  What about moms who CHOOSE LIFE but then walk that hard road alone?

{my first Mother's Day with Abigail}

Many teen moms choose abortion because they can't see past the fear that grips them.  Raising a child alone, young, isolated, scared, and poor can be a devastating reality.  Some teen moms are rejected and abandoned by their friends and family.  Some have never heard the Gospel or will leave their church out of shame.  As a Christ follower, my heart is overwhelmed with the reality that there are moms in my city who don't have anyone in their corner.  What would it look like if we linked arms with these young moms who are themselves just kids?  There is a great mission field right here in Nashville and here is one way you can get on it!

1.  Check out www.mothersdayhope.com and get a locally designed Mother's Day card for someone special in your life.  Proceeds help send a teen mom and child to the Young Lives Nashville Summer Camp!

2.  Pray for this growing ministry in our city and the volunteers that lead it

3.  Get to know a teen mom and pray for her

4.  Consider becoming a Young Lives mentor

5.  Invite a young mom to church and help her get there this Mother's Day!

The Story of our little Kitchen

I love kitchens.  I can spend all day looking at pretty kitchens on Pinterest and following renovation projects on my favorite blogs.  I love seeing furniture re-purposed and watching creative transformations come to life with a little paint and fabric.  This post is about our little kitchen and the story it tells. 

We have lived in our house for five years now and it has taken me years to get a vision for exactly how I wanted to decorate our kitchen.  I will apologize now for the many bad pictures taken from my cell phone...I got a little smarter over the years and learned how to use camera plus! 

This is how the kitchen started out back in 2010.  

I was so happy to have this farm house style table handed down to us!  It fit so perfectly in the space of our eat in kitchen.  Other than buying cribs for our babies, Mike and I have purchased only two pieces of furniture.  Everything we own is literally hanging on from our college years or was passed down from family and I am grateful for every single piece!  I wrote This Post a few years ago on letting your furniture tell a story.  I love that our pieces have history and memories tied to them.  Some pieces of furniture are timeless to me and I will never touch them.  Others just need a little love to give them life again.  That is what I wanted to see happen with our little breakfast area and our kitchen table! 

I remember standing in the kitchen when I was pregnant with Violet and feeling absolutely certain that the walls could no longer be gold.  I have learned over the years that I gravitate toward soothing color palettes.  Every room in our home is a very calming shade of blue, green, or gray.  Sometimes, you just need a strong dose of hormones to kick you into gear!  And just like a good husband who tolerates his pregnant wife, Mike let me call me the painter!  

I really liked the paint color and that seemed to settle my nesting at the time.  It took me a few more months to really think about what else I wanted to change and how much I wanted to spend to do it.  I started by lightening the curtain panels to a linen shade which allowed a lot more light to come in.  I also built Restoration Hardware inspired shelves to fill the space beside my cabinets and to display a few of my favorite glass bowls and coffee mugs.  The glassware was also handed down from family.  So special. 

This was a really fun project and super easy to make.  I bought everything at Home Depot. I showed the nice man who helped me how much Restoration Hardware charged to create the same look and he was thrilled to collect all the materials I would need to make these industrial shelves!  Total cost $45. 

*wood
*stain
*4 galvanized pipes 

*4 flanges

*4 caps 

As I continued to see things lighten up, I realized it was time to recover my benches and chairs.  I had already recovered my dining room chairs which were originally my great grandmother's, so I wasn't afraid to tackle this project myself.  After a quick trip to The Fabric House, I was ready to update my fabric.  The original fabric had a lot of green, red, and gold.  Of course I picked blue and gray...

You can learn how to do anything online now and I have found that people are usually excited to help you with your project, so don't be scared to try.  I literally walked in to a fabric store when I recovered my dining room chairs years ago and begged for help.  I think I told the nice lady "I am a physical therapist.  Please tell me everything I need to do and don't leave anything out.  I have no idea what I'm doing."  There are fabulous tutorials on line to get you started!  Here is one I used from HGTV.   How to recover a dining room chair

On a side note, if you decide to change out your fabric and you are worried about little hands, this is your new best friend!  Where has Scotch Gard been all my life y'all?  I tested a scrap piece of fabric with this and rubbed blueberries, spaghetti sauce, and olive oil into the white areas.  I was able to get everything out with soap and water.  In love. 

I am so happy with my shelves and my new fabric!  It really helped to tie my style together and I love the lighter colors in this room.  My last step was to paint the table legs.  I wanted a fresher look and something a little cleaner that matched the style of the room.  I have used Annie Sloan Chalk Paint on several other pieces of furniture and it is my go to paint for quick transformations.  I don't use it to paint everything because it definitely has a matte finish and will look a little distressed.  But it was perfect for my table legs and super easy!  I mixed French Linen with Old White to make a very subtle shade of gray.  This is roughly 2/3 Old White and 1/3 French Linen.

I am so happy with the results!  This is a table with a lot of life left in it!  I love the stories, laughter, and tears that have been shared at it.  We spend so much of our family time in this space and when my friends come to visit, we always end up right here.  I smile thinking of all the snacks and pancakes and projects that my girls will enjoy at our table.  As you can see, I kind of love kitchens. 

Happy Birthday Abigail {Princess Party}

I'm pretty sure the Lord knew how much fun I would have being a mom to little girls!  I played college basketball, love to fish, and can build things with my own hands.  But make no mistake, I think life is more fun with a little sparkle!  

I love the innocence of little girls in their whimsical tutus and sweet princess costumes so when Abigail told me she wanted to have a princess party for her third birthday, I decided to go all out and make it a special day to remember.  

Decorations were simple and so much fun!  My sweet friend at work made me a tutu skirt for the craft table and I bought an obscene amount of tulle and sparkly garland at hobby lobby.  I made her banner out of princess invites that were pre-cut and hung Abigail's princess dresses and tutus throughout the house.

 I also wrapped a few princess invites around my lamps on the buffet and used mostly glass and silver for a little extra sparkle!

Of course, Pinterest has the sweetest ideas for princess party foods.  We made grill cheese sandwiches cut out as princess crowns and ballerina marshmallows.  Dee Dee made a castle cake and a princess cake.  Hello sugar!

As we watched each little girl arrive in her favorite princess costume, I got more and more excited for my big surprise.  The Learning Express is a fabulous store in Cool Springs.  I recently had a patient that worked there and she gave me the scoop on the princess scene.  I emailed the store to see if I could find a princess that would come to my house for our party and we hit the jack pot.  I hadn't met this particular "Elsa" but let me tell you, she is amazing!  She rang the doorbell and instantly Abigail was in awe!  We gathered the most adorable wide-eyed little girls into our living room while Elsa read a story and sang her song.  And then she took the girls outside to make a little snow and... "let it go" of course! I only took pictures with my phone once the party began, but these are my favorites!  

This first one is priceless.  Abigail just stared at her for about five minutes...

Every now and then, Abigail would look at me and smile as if to say " Mom!  Do you see?  It's really her!"  I would also like to point out that my super crafty brother made his niece her Elsa cape.  Thank you Uncle John!!

Elsa was sweet enough to stay and sing Happy Birthday to my little princess and take a few pictures.  We will definitely be making future trips to the The Learning Express to see her again!  You can follow them on facebook for updates and schedules on their princess story hour which is free! 

With our culture sexualizing little girls at such a young age, I am refreshed to see little girls be just that.  Little girls in whimsical dresses and little crowns twirling around and singing songs with their friends.  Focus on the Family's James Dobson touches on the recent princess phenomenon in his book "Bringing up Girls."  He talks about how every little girl wants to be pursued, feel beautiful, and know that she is valued.  I can totally relate to the downside of the princess and diva marketing strategies and movies out there today, but my heart is overjoyed when I see my innocent daughter twirling in her little dress with her sparkling shoes and her cape.  I hope to teach her as she grows up that she is a daughter of the one true King and that to Him, she is a special possession worth more than gold.  I am praying that the she feels the Lord's pursuit of her heart and that her beauty will be grounded in her identity as a daughter of Christ. 

"But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light" 1 Peter 2:9

Abigail at three years old: 

* you love your baby dolls, stickers, and your princess castle

* you tell daddy to wash the dishes so you can have extra snuggle time with mommy at bedtime (mom score)

* you sing " let it go" at the top of your lungs at any given moment of the day
* your favorite foods are quesadillas, blueberry muffins, and applesauce 

* you can count to 10, sing your ABCs, and say your full name 

* you love to watch basketball with Daddy after your bath and one day you will      know this melts his heart. 

* you now ask for mommy to braid your hair or give you a pony tail...tear 

* you give the best eskimo kisses at bedtime

* you are learning to use the potty and will do so fully when you are good and ready! 

Thank you to everyone who celebrated Abigail's third birthday.  She felt very special and we had the best day! How adorable are these little princesses?! Happy Birthday sweet Abigail!

Violet's first birthday {ONE}

I heard myself finally say it this week.  I have a two and a half year old and I also have a ONE year old.  Oh my.  

I had plans for a low key birthday party at the pavilion in our neighborhood, but after a cold halloween night in the wind, we decided to move Violet's party to our house.  A friend let me borrow her bounce house and my dad brought his corn hole set up for me.  I also convinced my dear husband to make a fire pit in the backyard and I made a pumpkin craft station in our living room.  Our home was full with family, friends, and sweet little pumpkin decorators!

I will never forget watching Abigail's frightened face and look of confusion as we all sang Happy Birthday to her.  She looked at all the faces staring back at her and as we blew out her candle, she started to cry.  We couldn't even get her to taste her cake for a few minutes, because she was so upset!  This is the picture I have of my little Abigail crying and reaching for me to save her from all the singing people!  Sweet girl.  Just like her mommy!

Violet, however, is not my shy child.  She is not scared of a room full of people, and she laughed as everyone sang to her.  She loved her cake and I almost didn't get the candle lit before she reached for the icing! 

Dee Dee has perfected her craft at making yummy cakes and cupcakes!  She even made the sweetest shade of purple icing just for Violet!

This is what Violet is doing at ONE: 

* Pushing toys around the house and cruising along the furniture 
* Hasn't found a food she doesn't like... she loves it all!
* She has the cutest little belly laugh
* She can't stay away from the dog bowl
* She learned to crawl up the steps by herself
* She says mommy and daddy
* She learned to drink through a straw
* She is still a mommy's girl...for now anyway!

We had fun celebrating your first birthday Violet!  You are one loved little girl.