Don't Forget Big Brother!

With all the excitement and anticipation of Baby #6's arrival, I temporarily forgot my "baby" was having a birthday soon.  Sully turned 2 on January 5.  I knew having a newborn would make Sully seem huge soon enough so I tried to enjoy my little 2 year old all day long on his birthday.  Here's a recap of how Sully spent his birthday.

Chocolate candy before breakfast is the way to start a birthday!

Reminiscing back to his first few days.

Trying out our new double stroller he will share with baby brother Ezra.

Helping Mommy with laundry.

Playing with his Christmas toys.

Watching some Disney Junior.  We love The Lion Guard.

More candy!

Lunch with one of his favorite buddies.

Giving me those silly eyes.

Skip ahead a few hours because Sully napped and Mommy forgot to take photos at dinner.  He was still the "baby" that day so got all his big sisters' attention.

Our super happy Sully jumping in the crib.

With the snow storm blowing in the next day, Sully's family party was postponed until Sunday when Grandma and Nana could both be there.  Nana spent the weekend with us just in case the baby came, but Grandma was snowed in at her house. Daddy knocked it out of the park with an awesome Minion cake.  Sully loves those minions and has even learned to say, 

"Ba-na-naaaa!"

What is all that white stuff?

Nana played in the snow with Braewyn and Rylan.

Sully wasn't sure he wanted to play.  This is where he stood until I took him inside 10 minutes later.

Super cute none the less!

Super yummy Minion.

Happy Birthday to Sully!

And Minion sheets to celebrate sharing Rylan's bed in a few months once Ezra moves into the crib and Sully moves out.

Sullivan James, you are definitely a gift from Jesus and you bring such joy to our lives!!

Firsts and Lasts in a Baby's Birthday

When your little baby turns one, there are so many emotions involved with his birthday.  Do I want him to grow up?  He seems to be growing so fast!  What will the second year bring?  Where did the year go?  I was thinking all of that and more this past January when our little Sully celebrated his first birthday.  The day came and I thought, Really I don't have the heart to do much.  What?!  I couldn't pinpoint it.  Just because he is baby #5 doesn't mean he shouldn't have a great party like the others did.  Was I just feeling overwhelmed because the big plans in my mind don't always pan out?  Finally a friend nailed it for me.  She sent a text saying how bittersweet all of my children's birthdays will be this year.  This first year without Papa coming to their birthday parties.  That was it.  Grief had reared its ugly head again and I just didn't recognize it.  I hugged Sully a little tighter the rest of the day.  I showed him the picture in my room of my Dad and me.  I told him to say, "Hi, Papa," even though I know he hasn't even said "Mama" yet.

Thankfully, Sully's birthday was on a Tuesday so we didn't celebrate on that day.  By the weekend, I had climbed out of that place I was in and ready to make some memories for this precious baby boy. Before we remember his birthday, let's look at his first year.

 Here we have the inside and out photos of Sully from a year ago!

One month old Sully at Philip's basketball game.

Two and three month old Sully!  Figuring out his eyes and checking out his feet.

 Four month old Sully at his first time to Waffle House celebrating Braewyn's birthday.

Five month old Sully and a memory I always want to remember.  Saying goodbye to Papa.

 Six and seven month old Sully.

 Eight and nine month old Sully.

First Thanksgiving at ten months old being snuggled by Cousin Marie.

Eleven months old and sitting on the steps of our state capitol building.  Fun family trip!

More fun on our trip at the EdVenture children's museum.  He's a big kid now!

So now, on to the birthday photos!

I had been holding him off all year from chocolate.  Chocolate chips for breakfast sounds good on your birthday, right?

Little guy would not take a bottle until the week before his birthday.  It seemed tough then, but now I'm thankful I could nurse him all those months.  How strange for something I did several times a day to seem so very long ago now.

This is the everybody cake.  That white blur in the middle is "1st" written in drippy icing.

And this was the Sully cake!  Can you believe I forgot to take the all important "after" picture??

I'd say Sully enjoyed his first birthday as well as anyone can who doesn't understand what birthdays are.

Thank you for this precious gift named Sully.  You knew so much more than we did just how much we would need his baby snuggles, baby firsts and baby joy this year.  I miss my Dad, but will enjoy telling Sully all about him throughout his life.

Christmas Blessings

Wednesday morning, Matthew, Ruth Ann (my mother-in-law), the kids and I drove to Greenville for my colonoscopy.  Honestly, I was very nervous.  What if the doctor found cancer?  What would that mean for my family?  The Lord is good and filled the office with very sweet, friendly nurses.  The doctor himself was a great man, and he and I had actually lived in the same neighborhood when I was in middle school yet we had never met.  One of the nurses helping with my procedure had gone to the same high school as Matthew, just one grade behind him.  Things went just as I hoped.  The anesthesia was administered, I closed my eyes and opened them about 40 minutes later.  My first thoughts were to tell the nurse, whom I assumed was one of my children, that she should go downstairs and find her own breakfast.  I was sleeping GOOD!!  Matthew assured me that the doctor said everything was great, nothing found in my colon!  Funny how discussing your large intestine can bring such happiness.

The anesthesia used wears off pretty quickly so by the time I was in our car, I just felt that normal sleepiness after a good afternoon nap.  We drove to Waffle House as I was looking forward to some grits and a plain waffle... solid food!!!   These days we don't go many places without glances from strangers, hopefully smiles and not grimaces, and it proved true again as our party of three adults and five children took up two booths in WH.  The food was yummy and we drove on into downtown Greenville.  We were hunting festively decorated Christmas trees!

Upon not finding a parking spot for our Transit van near the Hyatt Regency, we continued on toward the Hampton Inn near the river.  We found trees!

And here's a photo of Rylan to insure that he was along for the trip! 

The next day was Christmas Eve.  It brought tears and joy.  The Christmas Eve service at our church is my favorite of all year.  The carols, reading of the birth of Jesus in the Bible, and concluding with everyone holding candles.  Jesus came to earth to bring light into this dark world!  My mom had driven to GA to be with her mom and sisters for Christmas.  My mother-in-law had driven to NC to spend Christmas with her other son, his family and newest granddaughter.  My heart was missing my Dad very much.  I wrote him a letter.  I will write him a letter each Christmas and around his birthday in June each year.  Writing to him helps me feel that he is still close.

After coming home for the service which was beautiful (Philip was asked to read Luke 2:1-20 and did a wonderful job!), we had our newest tradition... mystery gift swap.  The last two years, I've wrapped up new pajamas in matching paper.  This year, I had ordered "My Adventure Books", the kids' names are written into the stories of some of their favorite TV characters.  So they each picked which wrapping paper they liked best.... 

And Philip got Barbie, Rylan got Disney Princesses, Braewyn got The Lion King, and Juliet got Star Wars.  You can see that only one child was really upset!  They swapped to receive the correct books and were excited to see themselves written in as characters in each story.

Sully's first Christmas!

I don't mind finishing the sugar cookie Santa left behind.

A neighbor gave us this nice 20-pound turkey which he was given free from work.  I decided it was time, I am now 40 years old, that I cook my first turkey!  Matthew always deep-fries them at Thanksgiving, but I prepared this bird and into the oven she went.

Four hours later, and with a much yummier smelling house, we had this beautiful turkey to eat!!  It was fabulous and from the amount of leftovers, will be for a few more days.