Thanksgiving

We celebrate Thanksgiving this year at my Ami's (grandmother) new house.  So many prayers, so much work, and so much love went into bringing Ami to live two doors down from my parents.  It was a happy thing to celebrate with thanksgiving in our hearts!

Kayleigh got to sit in the highchair that her mom, uncle, and aunties used as kids

(she also got to show family her "prayer hands")

In the evening, Kayleigh played with Aunt Megan in a box...

...tried to wiggle out of family pictures...

...made silly Uncle Jon Jon sing Hickory Dickory Dock...

...and cuddled with Ami.

Surely though, the best part of the night was when we received a call from Romania.  It had been two months since any of us had heard my sister Kate's voice, and joy and love overflowed in the room that night.  

Grownup Thanksgivings are certainly different from childhood ones.  I don't know if I'll ever get used to not having all of my loved ones under one roof during favorite holidays, but I'm thankful for technology and the fact that both of my sisters were able to call home that day.  It truly completed Thanksgiving for us this year!

I Miss You

I realized something last month.

I'm not omnipotent.

God gives us so much on this earth to do and love and be...and sometimes I think David's phrase, my cup overflows translates to daily life, too.  Too much goodness to fit in one day.

I love my family, I love being home.  I love crafting, I love teaching.  I love you.  

I love this beautiful blogging community that has developed on Happy Homemaker Me over the years.  I love the sisterhood, the support, the I've-been-there's, the lols.

You may have noticed something...I have, too.  I can only fit so many things in my cup.

My days are filled with tickling a toddler, reading her stories, singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider," picking broccoli up off the floor, and wondering where she learned to apply lipstick and bat her eyes.

I've also added a new little joy to our days by taking care of 3 month old Sabine, the daughter of some of our dearest friends.  

Since it's always been my goal to have the computer put away while Kayleigh is awake and focus solely on her, "me time" on the computer has been pretty small lately.  When Kayleigh and Sabine are both napping, or Bine (her nickname, pronounced "Beena") is home with her mom and dad and Kayleigh is asleep for the nigh is the only time that I bring out the computer and work (and by work, I mean grade essays from the two online ESL writing courses I'm teaching).  And then Jesse comes home, and I only want to be with him.  Blog time has been pushed out the window lately.

But--all for good reasons!  I'm so thankful for our place in life right now.  I'm thankful that by teaching and watching our little baby-friend, I'm back to being able to contribute to our family.  I'm thankful for the work that my husband does outside of the home, and I'm glad to have a way to help again.  I'm excited that we're on the road to banishing debt, looking forward to buying a family car within the next year, and able to spend time together.  Last summer, Jesse tried to carry two jobs to support us, and we never saw him.  This is such a healthier alternative!  God is good.

I'm not saying goodbye to this blog.  I'm just letting you know what life looks like right now.  It's crazy--in the most beautiful way possible.  Some days, I still feel stressed and wonder how I'm going to do it all, but most days I'm just thankful that I can.  

Things are slow here on HHM right now, but I'll still be around.  It just might mean that I'm posting less tutorials and series, and sharing more pictures of my lil cutie pie and moments from our daily life.  She is the joy of our lives, and certainly the bright spot in every day!

p.s. Kayleigh's shirt in this post was made by my friend Stacey (Bine's mommy!) only a few weeks after we found out that we were pregnant last year.  It's been sitting in my hope chest waiting for the special day our little Brubaby (nickname for the Brubaker Baby) could wear it :)

Kayleigh and Emily

Kayleigh and her little BFF Emily go to the same Mommy and Me class.  They have an absolute blast there, and Kayse and I love watching their little friendship grow.

This week, they got to dress up in Halloween attire :)  Just had to share some pictures of our little cuties!

Little girls are cute and small only to adults. To one another, they are not cute. 

They are life-sized.
- Margaret Atwood

Kayleigh's 1st Birthday

Kayleigh's 1st birthday was a very special day.

Our original plan was to spend the day at the zoo, since animals are just about her favorite thing ever.  But then it turned out that it was going to be over 100* inland, so we decided to head toward the coast and celebrate Kayleigh's birthday at the Aquarium.  We had a wonderful day!

Two birthday girls ready to party!

Kayleigh loved her birthday "boon" :)

And her adorable birthday shirt, custom made by The Sassy Squirrel

Once we were inside, we were happy to see that Kayleigh's enthusiasm for animals carried right over into excitement for fish, too.  Basically, this kid loves anything that moves (plants included!)

"WOW!"

The highlight of the day was definitely when a scuba diver descended right in front of Kayleigh.  He waved and smiled, blew bubbles, and clapped his hands for her.  Kayleigh was entranced.

After watching and taking pictures for a few minutes, we realized, "Why aren't we getting this on video!?"  So we grabbed the Flip quickly and caught the rest of their cute interaction.

After saying goodbye to our scuba friend, we headed outside to play in the fountains.  My goodness, did Kayleigh love that!

It was a truly wonderful way to celebrate our sweet girl!

"Stay as Sweet as You Are" 1st Birthday Party

On my 13th birthday, my Papa Chuck gave me a birthday card in which he had simply written,

Stay as sweet as you are!

Love, Papa Chuck

It surprised and touched me at the same time.  My papa wasn't a touchy-feeling teddy bear of a man; he was a quiet, hard-working, serve-others-with-everything-you've-got kind of man.  Somehow, seeing those words, "Stay sweet," written in his block lettering gave me a new perspective about who I was.  My papa thought I was sweet.  He wanted me to stay the way I was.

I loved that.  I felt more valuable, more precious, just knowing that this man of few words felt that way about me.  Those words have always stuck with me.  Through my teenage years, through my college days, through losing my Papa to cancer two years after I got married.  I've always wished that Papa Chuck could have met Kayleigh.  I can imagine the way his blue eyes would twinkle mischievously at her, and the way his laughter would echo hers.

Jesse and I started talking about birthday party themes for Kayleigh at the end of July.  We played around with different ideas, from ladybug-themed parties to cupcake-themed ideas.  We wrote down lists of ideas to go with each theme, and had fun getting creative with it.

But as her birthday came closer and closer, I realized that a cookie-cutter party theme idea just didn't fit. I didn't want to build a party around a theme, I wanted to build a theme around my sweet girl.  My beautiful little girl who I wish I could just freeze at this sweet stage and cherish her forever.

Nat King Cole's song fits my sweet girl perfectly.  Kayleigh's birthday party was a beautiful day of celebrating the sweet little person that she is.  Jesse and I pray every day that she always stays this sweet.

Here are some ways that we decorated for her special day!

I covered an old bulletin board with batting and fabric to create this photo timeline with one picture for every month of her life clothespinned to string.

The mantle decor is string with 2" diameter circles folded over it in alternating pastels.

You guys, the party-planning craze came over me and I actually hot-glued the string to my brick fireplace!  Thankfully, it comes right off :)

Three hurricane candle votives were used to hold some of Kayleigh's special items from her first year.  Her first pair of shoes, her newborn pacifiers, and her everyday hair clips.

The lyrics to Stay as Sweet as You Are were printed out and posted near the entryway of our home

Continuing with our "Sweet" theme, we listed some of Kayleigh's favorite words on a cabinet.

And, I forgot to take a picture of it, but we had a basket full of candy on the table with a sign that said "Sweet Treats--help yourself!"

I never managed to get a picture of the dining room once it was all set for the party, but here it is halfway there.  I made more paper garlands (I added doilies to these) and strung them from the chandelier, along with lots of tissue paper flowers.

I used doilies on the table and also to decorate the three mason jars which held the utensils.  Jesse helped me punch out little circles using scrap paper and we sprinkled it across the pink tablecloth.

Flower-shaped brownie pops were Kayleigh's party favors, and we had footprint leaves with "Thank you for sharing in my special day! Love, Kayleigh Grace" printed on the back of each.

The house simply overflowed with loved ones that day, and Kayleigh was showered with love.

It was a beautiful day to celebrate our sweet girl!

Wrapping up September

I've decided that God created 1st birthday parties so that moms could get off the couch, wipe their "My baby's turning ONE!" tears from their cheeks, and realize that birthdays aren't so bad when you get to plan a party.

Kayleigh's first birthday party was a very special one, and I can't wait to share pictures with you and tell you more about it!

I also can't wait to tell you all about our special 1st birthday trip to the Aquarium.  We had a blast.  And ohmygoodness, our little girl loves fish.

And I don't have any pictures from the day, but I had a wonderful 26th birthday spending the day with my childhood friend Emily and enjoying Handsome Man's homemade fish tacos for dinner--and my faaaavorite new treat, pavlova for dessert!  It was a wonderful day :)

Sunday was also a special day for our family, as Jesse was officially called and installed as the Director of Christian Education at our new church.  It's been 4 years of praying and searching for the place God wanted us to be, and now we are happily at home in the church He called us to.  We are so thankful for His providence, and for this wonderful congregation's love and appreciation for my Handsome Man!  

September was a blessed, busy, wonderful month!

Looks like life should be settling down now, though, and I'm looking forward to catching you up this week!

Blessings!

Bethany