Piper's 1st Birthday Party

I used this song back when Piper was just a week old.

I'm feelin' it for this post.

"Miracle" - Celine Dion

Well, I've been sitting here for almost three hours now...

I needed one of those nights where I just put on some music (yell at Steve to turn down his video game), look through my photos, and zone out.

Oh, it feels so good to get lost in the memories from the past few months.

I've cried happy tears and some sad ones.  Mostly, grateful ones.

I've come to a few conclusions.

* Everyone was not lying - Time starts sprinting when you have a baby. 

* I take a lot of pictures.  Yeah, uh duh.

* And a lot of those memories - they haven't made it to my blog yet.

I've decided that I'm going to take the rest of this summer to revisit them all.

I'm sure I'll throw in a current post here and there, but the next 8 weeks or so (Isn't it crazy that's all that's left of summer?!) I'll spend remembering a good part of the first half of 2014.

I look forward to it.  I think know it will be therapeutic.

Come fall, I hope to be all up-to-date, and ready to write about our next season of life.

As I went through and chose the photos for this post tonight, I'd turn every so often and look at Steve (sitting in the chair behind me - headphones on, video game controller in hand) and move out of the way, so he could get a good look at the screen. 

We'd make eye contact and smile - No words necessary.

"Turn every so often" really equates to "turn one-hundred and twenty-some times."

Piper's birthday party was on April 12th - A little less than two weeks after her birthday.

"Springtime Pretty and Hello Kitty," was the theme.

I could write a ton, add a caption to every photo, give every detail.

Sometimes, I love doing that.  But I'll save that for the next 1st birthday post (We celebrated a lot!).

Just a few words before all the memories...

Piper has taught me so much in these past fifteen and a half months.

One of the greatest lessons I've learned from her- live in the moment.

 Whether that moment is exciting, heartbreaking, scary, funny...

Get lost in it.

Feel it.

I remember posting this photo to Instagram and literally swallowing the recurring lump in my throat, while wiping tears.  

I wrote - "Of all the times I've sung The Happy Birthday Song in my life, yesterday's was my favorite.

Oh, was it!

I love this photo so much, because I look at it and instantly get the same lump in my throat - the one I was choking back in this photo, so I could belt out "Happy Birthday" to our little girl.  I remember seeing Steve holding the cake all lit up as we walked towards Piper, and seeing so many of our loved ones in a circle around us, singing, smiling, laughing and snapping photos.

  Everyone, especially our daughter, was feeling it...

Happy.

Pure happiness.

And a very happy birthday, it was.

Thank you to everyone who made the day so incredibly special.
You all know who you are.

<3

Let's take a look...

The pictures speak for themselves.

(Thank you Aunt Jessica, and Melissa, for taking so many of these photos!  

We will cherish them always.)

 

 #pippyvid

Happy Thursday!

Thank you for your kind and happy words, always. 

<3

Lovin' the memories,