fathers day.

early morning breakfast for stephen-banana pancakes and bacon 

i was pretty excited about it myself

gave him his fathers day gift:DADDY DAUGHTER ROAD TRIP ESSENTIALS!

inside of the cooler we put lots of fun goodies and necessities for stephen and kiahs 1st annual road trip down to florida without me to visit the grandparents. (red bulls, trail mix, gummy worms, smart waters) he really hopes to do this every single year with her! i love traditions!

i took kiah out for a LONG bike ride adventure so stephen could relax at home watching golf

our picnic destination was FREEDOM PARK and of course kiahs buddy beshu had to come too!

we had to finish our long bike ride playing in some water to cool us off!!! karate chop!

we really had an amazing family day! we finished the evening with a t-bone steak cooked in a thyme butter sauce with green beans and potatoes fries. then brownies and ice-cream for after kiah went to bed!!! stephen! the best dad ever!

to you. my love.

(this song from above is my song to you little kiah)

you are ONE now. we had the most wonderful 1st birthday bash for you ever with our "family" here in Charlotte. 

you took you 1st steps on the day of you big 1st birthday party. it was perfect! i knew the whole day was going to be insane considering our entire neighborhood was anticipating your party so in the morning i woke up early and baked some blueberry muffins for you, your daddy and i to share together in your room for a tea party. 

 we were both there! you stood up. i backed away. i told you to come to me. you took 2 beautiful steps towards me. me and your daddy almost cried.

then we got you in your party dressed and let the craziness begin. all of your friends and family came. your uncle eric, cousin kailer, aunt amber, rachel and steve, grammy and papa drove all drove down from VA to be with you. 

your godmother abby and brit worked super hard on your highchair smash throne and your special birthday cake. all the kids in the neighborhood helped decorate outside and all of our friends who came and brought drinks and cupcakes to share with everyone.

 our amazing friends, the rogers, took pictures for us and even set up a popcorn machine to hand out popcorn to everyone. 

out of all the stuff going on that day YOUR FAVORITE PART OF YOUR 1st BIRTHDAY WAS DANCING AND PLAYING IN THE SODA COOLER FULL OF ICE!

after the party we gave little kiah lily a bath to wash the cake out of her hair and wind her down. she didn't nap a single minute the day of her party and we pretty warn out by 7:00. stephen and i took our friends and family who visited from VA out for dinner to wind down ourselves while grammy and papa babysat our snoozing little 1 year old. -an absolutely perfect unforgettable day- all the planning and stress and energy was so worth it. its been an amazing year. the best year of our life really. 


thank you to everyone who came to birchcroft and shared so many cupcakes and and gifts and bikes and toys with our birchcroft family. we are so blessed.God is so good in His provisions and faithfulness. now that we put on our very first 1st birthday...what is to come next? another sibling? maybe in a few more months. summer is here. school is out for summer vacation in 2 days. the kids in birchcroft will be around 24-7. its about to get fun up in here!!! stay tuned.

more importantly. the love of my life. 3 years ago. may 23.

12 months. the BEST year of our life.

life will never be the same again.

before kiah

kiah in the making

life will never be the same

weaning day 2

so far so good,
   stephen has put her down for her morning nap 2 days in a row.
      i feed her at 7:00ish am and then 1:00ish
i realize weaning is just as important for kiah as it is for my milk supply to gradually decrease.
i got to get a hair cut and color today after 3 months of NOT having gotten it done
    

spring-weaning

w

SPRING
   its finally march and kiah is 9 months old. she is ever so close to turning 1. she just loves clapping with us and waving to people. everywhere we go you try to chat with other kids and they just look back at you like your a weirdo. she is semi-cruising and loves feeding yourself puffs.she does this little plank thing where she is kinda on her knees crawling but everything is up off the ground like she is working on her abs. i guess swim suit season is coming soon. 

for the last 3 weekends we have had people come to visit and stay with us for long weekends. its been great to have friends and family come and spend QT with Kiah at this stage in her life that will change to a new stage so quickly. first our friend Rachel from knoxville came, then my friend LUCy from alabama came and then Stephen's mom from florida came and this weekend stephens brother alan is coming. whoo! lots of love. Stephen's mom was amazing with kiah this past weekend. she was able to witness kiah going down for her naps and hearing her wake up and talking to her favorite octopus toy that we have in her crib. she doesn't scream and cry when she's done with her nap. she wakes up and tells her little stuffed octopus all about her dreams. its the best! she is seriously the squirmiest and most talkative baby i have ever met. grams also witnessed kiah stand up in her crib when she went in to get her. which reminds me that we really need to lower the crib before she decides to climb right out.

   THIS MORNING WAS JUST LOVLEY! stephen and i had the best revelation ever. some days he is just busy all day from morning to night. but as often as we can we figured we should come up with a little schedule to allow each other to sleep in. by taking turns spending the morning with her, it allows the other person to have a chance to either sleep in longer or take their time waking up. so this morning, i got the girlie around 6:15am. fed her, changed her diaper, brought her down to our newly arranged living room, and then ventured over to starbucks to grab my FREE cuppa joe that i get when i recycle the coffee bags back to them. free is so great. 

    

    

but as far as weaning ...i'm nervous, scared

in 10 days...

so your 10 days away from official being 9 months.thats a big deal! the other night we had our friends mitch and josh and andrew over while our friend rachel visited for the weekend. well, you went to bed at 5:00pm and didn't wake back up until 10:00am the next morning. it was really crazy. 17 hours through the night. then i had to go to target to get you some more diapers (my favorite are pampers swaddlers) and i figured you would be needing some of those swimmy diapers for when we take you to the pool and the beach so i went ahead and got those. then i had to just pop into the baby food isle to just look at some of the stuff i knew you could be having now. i love that we are able to make your food from fresh fruits and veggies that we already have but it is ALOT of extra work. so only every once in awhile i will get a jar of baby food here or there. this time i was like...hmmm, i wonder if she could handle those little puff bites that are like cheerios. so i got some of those too...the ones that supposedly have spinach and kale powder in them. turns out. it turns out, YOU ABSOLUTELY LOVE EATING THOSE CUTE LITTLE PUFFS AND BEING ABLE TO FEED YOURSELF.

on sunday afternoon, your daddy and i took you to the YMCA pool for the first time ever. YOU LOVE YOUR BATHING SUITE AND THE POOL!!! we had such a great time with you there. your favorite thing is just watching all the other kids around you. like always, everywhere we go everyone comments on how happy and how beautiful you are. its true. stephen and i have a new favorite song to sing you now. we love just singing this bruno mars song to you! its so true. you are crawling on your knees more and eating a ton. this morning you and i went on a chilly 6 mile run on the greenway while daddy practiced soccer with his friends.
 tonight, and all monday nights i go over to the BAMA house to watch the bachelor and stephen has guy nights while i'm gone sometimes.

i love you.

dear kiah lily,
    its friday in february. cold wet damp. but spring is coming. march 20th to be exact. i am so excited about SPRING we might have to make a count down for it. but its early. you went to bed in a snap last night after taking a little adventure over to watch the urban eagles boys play indoor soccer across the street at the church. those tough high school boys even melt when your around. they all want to hold you but your FAVORITE is by far Girmay! they all say, "hi beautiful" when they see you and you just stare right back. for just being a little baby, you sure do crack me up more than i thought a baby could. like yesterday i was putting together some of those silly mustache, glasses, lips, masks on a stick that you use for photo booths, and you were laughing so hard at me when i would put them on. YOU KISS EVERYTHING.AND ITS SO ADORABLE! stuffed animals, pictures of animals in your books, mirrors, me and daddy. i'm positive its because we kiss you and each other so so so much. you have been loving the delicious combo of banana and avocado with a few drops of juice to make it smooth.
   this morning you woke up around 6:00 am so i was defiantly going to be putting you back to bed little early bird. after a long night of me not feeding you, i have a lot to offer, if you know what i mean. and so first thing in the morning there is always a chance of you throwing some back up on me. this morning, was one of those mornings. but i laid you back down, got out of my clothes and have been able to enjoy the early morning so far.

love.

gosh its february.

    great things are happening. VALENTINES DAY IS COMING SOON and im a sucker for any reason at all to celebrate something.   i'm planning to finally cook the HIS & HERS BRUNCH for stephen and i out of my beloved newlywed cook book. 

my favorite book to "read" lately. 

sugar & spice. because kiahs so nice.

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  this is just a little collage of pictures that i have found that will help be my inspiration for kiahs birthday in may. im pretty excited. stephen and i have decided that we will have it here in birchcroft. why not? it is our HOME. and its normal to have your child birthday party in your own yard. i guess its just not all that normal to share your yard with hundreds of other people but we totally consider ourselves blessed!!!  i love that kiah will grow up in such a rich community of people where we try to literally LOVE OUR NEIGHBORS and we love ourselves. i love that i usually have 8 other women outside who want to hold kiah while i unload groceries or have to pack or unpack the car. kiah loves it too. she loves all the nepali women jewelry so much. all the families in birchcroft are important to us so we want to include them in the celebration! and to be honest, i am not oblivious to the fact that that #1 kiah won't even know its her birthday, #2she doesn't care about what we do, or whose there or how pretty it is, and #3 these kind of parties are def more for everyone else. so, im looking at it more through the lens of having a big neighborhood block party with all our friends.  

i hope all our friends can come

i hope our family can come