Hi buddies!  Although I’ve been swept away by Instagram, blogging still has a special place in my heart.  I always love looking back at all the special posts I had for Evan so I want to make sure I do the same for Joy. 

Anniversary and First Birthday Photo Shoot

Our 6th wedding anniversary was on the day of Joy’s first birthday party so we wanted to commemorate it by taking photos!  The super talented Sako from Sky Blue Seed took our family photos for us.  For our formal photos I wanted it to be reminiscent of our wedding.  Andy wore his tux, I wore a white dress and the kiddos dressed up too!  Joy’s dress is actually a size 7-8 girl’s shirt but I loved it so much I turned it into a dress.

I also wanted to capture just the simple yet wonderful things that our family does together.  We went to Whole Foods for some fun shots!

We ended our session at the park!  By then Evan was pretty much done with having any photos taken, lol!  Thank you Sako~~ for your patience and talent.  We will always treasure these photos.

Letters to Joy 

We have a book of letters that we write to the kiddos.  We found it impossible to keep up with it regularly but we try for important events!

Here’s a letter from her daddy~

Dear Joy,

I can’t imagine my life without you, you are the light of my life and always always bring a smile to my face, whether I see you, or I’m thinking of you.  You’re always so sweet when I see you first thing in the morning, or when I come home from work. I miss everything about you when I’m away from you; your little smile, your warm little arms around me when you hug, the little pats on my back that you give me, the kissing sound you make when I kiss you, your little voice copying my voice when I read or sing to you, your beeline crawl for me when you see me, then pulling yourself up onto me and when you snuggle your little head in the crook of my neck.

On our morning strolls with Bella, you’re strapped in tight with me, but you never complain or cry. Me singing songs, Bella pulling us along, your little hands reaching out to touch the trees and flowers. Always friendly to neighbors, smiling on cue when they make funny faces at you, you are the best little girl. 

At night when you get a bath, again you never cry and just play with the water or soap bottles; and when I lay you down for bed, you always sneak a peek back out at me to check if I’m still there, but the long day usually gets to you and you doze off like a little angel. Our days together are short for now, but that time is precious.

However precious that time, it has flown by, you are almost 1 year old now. How I wish we could rewind and re-live the last year again, again and again. Happy Birthday my daughter!  I love you. 

Love, Daddy

Here’s a letter from me~

Dear Joy, 

This was the hardest letter for me to write because it means that our first year together is over.  A year where I got to spend every single day next to you...loving you, holding you, singing to you, laughing with you...so many incredible days.  As you grow we may not get to spend every day together but just know that our bond and love will only get stronger.  I will always be here for you...to cheer you on, cry with you, laugh with you and just sit with you & hold your hand whenever you want.  

You are one of the greatest gifts I’ve ever received.  There’s just something so special about you.  You bring out so much happiness and gratitude from deep within me.  You make me want to be a better person, to help others and to see the bright side of things.   

I pray for you every single day...that you are happy and healthy, that you’ll grow up to be a kind, grateful and giving person, that you’ll love God, that you’ll always be close to your family, that you’ll find the joy in the simple things in life and that you’ll know you can truly do anything when you put your heart into it.  I know that you are going to have an incredible life filled with so much happiness and great adventures.  I look forward to a lifetime of priceless memories with you.       

Happy birthday to my beautiful amazing Joy...my daughter...my best friend.  I wished for you...and my wish came true.

Love, Mommy 

Free Blurb Book!

I came across an awesome deal~ a free Blurb book!  You can read all the details from the awesome Jen at I Heart Organizing (link).  I made one for my Instagram photos and it was the easiest photo book I’ve ever made~ finished it in 15 minutes.  If you don’t have Instagram you can use your photos from your computer or Facebook/Flickr/etc. 

Digital Washi Tape

You’re in luck!  My amazingly creative friend, Sooki, just made some digital washi tape and she’s sharing!  You can find more info here.

Hope you’ve been doing great!  Wishing you a very happy autumn season! 

Hello buddies!  The past few months were really hectic as Andy was really busy with work and traveling a lot.  Having both kiddos on my own made the days and nights extra long and didn't leave a lot of spare time for blogging or anything else.  Just wanted to say a big thank you to my family and friends who were there to help out and encourage me through such a rough time!  

NEW YORK CITY 2012

 

 

My in-laws were going to spend a week with Evan and Andy had a conference in NYC so Joy and I decided to tag along!  NYC holds a lot of fond memories for us because that's where we spent a lot of time in the early days of our relationship.

 

 

 

2 Flight Tips

 

We've traveled by plane a lot with both kiddos yet I still get nervous for each flight.  It's different at every age so the tips always change.  However, I've found there are two things that have been helpful for us no matter what the age.

 

1 - Book the earliest flight possible.  The best flights we've had were when we left first thing in the morning.  The problem with the later in the day flights is that the kiddos are already tired and cranky from having already been through an entire day.  I know some people say to book night flights but that hasn't worked for us.  There's no guarantee the kids will sleep and it might backfire and interrupt all the other sleeping people on the flight.  

 

 

2- Have a mini must have bag.  Every flight we take we always have tons of carry-on items with so many things we "might" need.  I've learned that we don't even use most of the stuff and when we do need it we're always scrambling to find it.  Plus, we can't even get to any of it when we need it most~ during takeoff and landing!  Now we have a small mini bag of absolute essentials that we keep with us the entire time.  It has one diaper, a small pack of wipes, individually wrapped sanitizers, snacks and a toy.  We just refill things as necessary.

 

 

 

Favorite Memories

 

* Walking!  I don't remember the last time I walked that much~ 3 to 5 miles a day!  I even walked in the rain...in flip flops.  It was tiring but fun!

 

 

* Seeing NYC through Joy's eyes.  Everything seemed bigger and brighter as we were showing Joy the city.

 

 

* Spending lazy mornings in our condo.  It was really nice to have a "home base" where we could relax and have useful amenities like a kitchen and bedroom.

 

 

 

* Daddy-daughter and mommy-daughter moments.

 

 

 

Buddy Time

I got to meet up with my wonderful Xanga buddies @tubecozy and @jpjchen.  It was the first time we met but it felt like we were old friends.  We've known each other through blogging for so many years now.  I feel so blessed to have them in my life even though we live so far apart.  Thanks @tubecozy for our awesome NYC memorabilia!     

 

 

One of the highlights of the trip was being reunited with my childhood buddy~ @justbee and her gorgeous Olive!  It's funny because even though we don't get to see each other often we are still so present in each other's lives through blogging and Instagram.  It was so nice to see what a wonderful life she had built for herself in NY.  Bee is such an incredible person~ so nice, caring and beautiful.  The thing I admire most about her though is how much of a loving and dedicated mom she is.  She inspires me to be a better mama. 

 

 

Bee got me such an awesome gift~ the Dria cover.  Thanks so much buddy~ I love it!  It's a nursing cover, stroller cover, car seat cover and you can just wear it as a regular top too.  You can read more about it on Hellobee!

 

MY FAVORITE BABY ITEM

 

One of my all-time favorite baby items actually isn't a baby item at all!  It's a home security camera called Foscam that we use as our baby monitor.  Here's the LINK for one and the LINK for a pack of two.  Lots of friends have asked us about the camera so I wanted to be able to have the info in one place to point them to!

 

 

Here's a page of monitor screen shots I made for a photo book...

 

 

Pros

 

- Motion Detector.  You can set it up so it'll email you photos when the camera detects motion.  We use it as a security camera when we're out of town.

 

- Zoom.  This one is huge for paranoid parents out there.  I zoom in to check on Joy's breathing!

 

- Move!  You can actually move the camera around.  Perfect for when your baby starts rolling around, sitting up and walking all over the crib.

 

- Sound.  There's a sound sensor alarm so you can set it to alert you when the sound goes above a certain level.

 

- It Talks!  Not only can you clearly hear sound~ you can actually talk into the camera too!  There were times when we saw Joy with her face flat down so we would tell her to lift up her head and she would do it without waking up!  We also use it to talk to Evan to tell him to get back to bed.  Makes it easier than having to go up and down the stairs multiple times to say the same thing. 

 

- Access Everywhere.  We have it set up on our iPhones, iPad and computers.  I love being able to see the kiddos when I'm not home.  I don't have to ask if they're sleeping because I can just check for myself.  Andy can also check from work!  

 

- Photos!  I'm a bit obsessed with taking screen shots on my phone of them sleeping.

 

- Quality.  The quality is so good especially considering that most of the time I'm viewing rooms that are pitch black.  

 

- Dual monitors.  I love the fact that I can see both monitors on one screen.  

 

 

Cons

 

- Glitches.  As with all technology there are glitches.  They aren't problems with the actual camera but with the apps and programs that use it.  It's just like your cell phone though~ sometimes you don't get good reception but you're fine with it because the benefits greatly outweigh the negatives.

 

- Setup.  The setup is a bit difficult.  Any moderately tech savvy person could do it though!

 

 

JOY'S KOREAN BUNNY

 

I fell in love with the bunny dolls that they use in Korean photo studios.  When I went to Korea I made sure to grab some for my friends.  I also got an extra one to do a giveaway for my blog buddies who have asked about it.  Let me know if you're interested~ I have one to share!  [Congrats orangemomo01!]

 

INSTAGRAM FAVORITES

 

If you're on Instagram you've already seen these!  I just like to put them all in one place so I can look back later.  Hope you're having a fabulous summer!

 

 

Korea 2012

Finally~~ I had a chance to sit down and go through my Korea pics which were mostly on my phone.  In fact, only 4 photos below were taken on a regular camera~ lol!  I loved this trip because we were just in Korea a year and a half ago so I didn’t feel any pressure to go sightseeing or take tons of nice photos.  Here’s a photo tour of my favorite moments in Korea, the 2012 edition. 

* Hanging with Joy on the flights.  The flight there was pretty tough but then she slept most of the way back!

* Seeing my brother meet Joy for the first time.

* Being smooshed in the back seat of my aunt’s car while taking silly photos with my grandma.

* Giving my mom the opportunity to celebrate her birthday with her mom for the first time in decades.

* Baby’s Lounge!  By far the coolest thing I’ve ever seen in a department store.  They have an area for sleeping, changing, nursing/feeding and even measuring your baby’s stats.  There’s a helper who cleans and even looks after your baby if you want!

* The Banyan Tree & our views.

* Seeing how my family loved Joy so much.  They told me she reminded them of me at that age.  Photo on the left is of my former movie star uncle teaching Joy how to be dramatic~ lol!

* Hearing my grandpa’s wise and funny stories.  He is truly an amazing person.  He’d probably give you a copy of his book if you met him, lol!  He’s 89 years old and still blogs for his church and invests in the stock market.  He once represented himself in a case against a huge corporation and was touted as a “David” winning over “Goliath” in the newspapers.

* Loved getting to experience life as a local since we got to hang with our family & friends who live there.

* We took Joy swimming for the first time.  Loved the pool in our room~ perfect for a little one to learn how to swim.

* We’re so lucky we got to experience jjimjilbang (Korean sauna), Dr. Fish (where fish eat the dead skin off your feet…eww!) and many other adventures with one of our favorite couples in the world, Miny & Steve.  Thanks to Steve’s friend (thanks Jay!), we got chauffeured around Seoul in a limo taxi.

* Wandering around the streets of Seoul late at night.  We noticed a lot of the taxi drivers watching Korean dramas while driving~ lol or eek?

* Being an honorary groomsbuddy for my dear law school friend.  Congrats Sam & Crystal!  It was also awesome seeing my buddy Dave and my beautiful @petitetokio.

* Loved getting to spend quality time together.  Just the two of us…along with thousands of Seoul locals.

* Our favorite part of each day was getting a letter & photos from Evan & my in-laws.  He was having a blast on “vacation” and loving all the extra attention.  So blessed to have such amazing in-laws.

* Joy was so happy during our trip!  My grandpa read somewhere that a baby smiles more than 300 times a day.  He told us that we should strive to do the same!

* Saying goodbye to my grandparents and aunt broke my heart but it just made me realize how lucky I was to have spent this time with them.  They have a special place in my heart.  They basically adopted me from when I was 2 to 5.  My parents couldn’t afford to take me to the US so I had to stay behind.  These were the days before the Internet, Skype and cheap international calls so they were all I had.  And for that…I will love them forever.

* My favorite moment of the entire trip…fulfilling my dream of having all four generations of women together.  An image that will inspire me for a lifetime.

What a whirlwind of a trip!  I learned that the best memories aren’t made from grand events but from the simplest things…like culling mini anchovies together or staying up late talking.  I saw how even the smallest gestures like putting curlers in your mom’s hair show immeasurable love.

We didn’t get to make a video for this time but if you haven’t seen it yet~ here’s the link to our video from our last trip. 

Korea/Japan Goodies

The last time I was in Seoul I spent a lot of time putting together gift packages for my friends.  Unfortunately I wasn’t able to do it this time around!  I did make one set though to give away here.  Just leave a comment telling me you’re interested and I’ll pick/send out the package next week!  [Congrats wizki!]  

These are just a few little favorite things from Korea/Japan.  We made a quick day trip into Japan on the way back.  Here’s what it includes:  coin bag made of hanbok material, hair turban, stripey twist ties, fuzzy socks, white board (perfect to write stuff on & take photos), non-stick self-standing rice scooper, 22 pack of colored thread, oilcloth bag, flower stickers, brown rice green tea, embosser, lunch bag, giraffe socks, plastic gift bags, metallic markers, 6 patterned tapes & a reusable bag.  

iPhone Photo Apps

Since most of my Korea photos were taken with my iPhone I wanted to share a few of my favorite apps. 

Instagram, Be Funky, Pic Fx and Tadaa are great for editing and fun borders.

Pic Frame and Diptic are what I use for collages.

Tegaki Camera, Label Box and Phonto are what I use for text.

Enjoy~ and share some of your phone photo creations! 

Hi hi~ didn’t mean to not update for so long!  We all got really sick after Korea so I was totally out of commission for a long time.  Hope you had a wonderful Easter!  Evan was sick so I almost didn’t take Easter photos.  At the last minute I said let’s just try for a few minutes and I’m so glad we did.  Thank you Aunt Moy for Joy's beautiful romper!

Evan grabbing the bunny ears and Joy holding Evan’s hand and pants~ these photos just melt my heart.

First Day of Preschool

Okay, so I was making these signs for the future too and it was just mind boggling to me as I saw the words 12th grade and 2026!  We decided to send Evan to a Korean preschool so he can learn Korean.  His Chinese & English are great but his Korean isn’t.  I was worried it would be harder for him to adjust because he’s not as comfortable speaking Korean…but so far so good.    

We’ve spent nearly every day together for over 3 years.  It was hard letting go.  Knowing that a big chunk of his day would be in the hands of others.  I know this is the best for him though and that the time is right. 

7 Months of Joy

I can’t believe Joy is already 7 months!  She doesn’t sleep through the night and won’t take a bottle or eat solids but she sure has won us over.  I’m really head over heels in love with this little one.  She’ll ferociously bat away pacifiers/bottles and cry at the top of her lungs but I still can’t help smiling at her.  Last night she cried for over an hour on & off until I finally just held her.  She let out the biggest drama queen sigh and then a final wail before snuggling deep into my arms and falling asleep.  I had to laugh.  She’s feisty and sweet.  And I love every bit of her. 

Joy loves her family.  She lights up when she sees Daddy.  She watches Evan’s every move and smiles her biggest smiles for him.  She loves caressing Bella’s fur and giving her bear hugs.  She loves snuggling with me and can stay in my arms for hours if I let her.    

Some Days

Some days are just bad.  I usually try to just forget about them.  I realize though that in remembering the bad days it’ll help me better appreciate the good days.  Most nights we eat dinner alone.  A lot of mornings we are up from 5 or 6am.  Sometimes I have to make a choice.  Leave Joy crying upstairs so I can finish feeding Evan.  Leave Evan alone crying so I can put Joy to bed.  Most of the time when Bella cries she has to be the last one I tend to.  Sometimes I wish I could crawl into bed and block out everyone’s crying.  But I don’t.  I take a deep breath and move on.  Sometimes I wonder how other people just easily breeze through motherhood.  Their kids seem so well behaved, their homes are nicely decorated, they make awesome meals, go to cool places and then have time to blog/facebook/pinterest/etc.  Maybe I just need to be more efficient with my time??  Maybe I'm doing something wrong??  I don’t know!  Thanks for listening though!

Instagram!

My guilty pleasure is still Instagram~ you can find me under skippee.  Hope to see you there! 

* Mommy & Evan date to Disneyland.

* Joy was 2 pounds heavier than Evan was at 6 months.

* I love living near the ocean.

* We sure do love our stripes.  Thanks to Evan's Gu gu and Aunt Sooki for adding to the stripey goodness!

* Triplets?

* She’ll always be by his side.

* Joy is madly in love with Bella.

* A collection of hairpins I made.

* Dinner was all set but we just couldn’t interrupt a moment like this!

* Evan spending time with Harabuji. 

* Daddy & Evan are seriously BFFs. 

* Does anyone shop at G by Guess?  I won a $30 gift card that you can use in the store or online.  I’d like to give it to someone who can use it!  [Congrats ake_mom!]

Next up~ photos from our Korea trip!  Hope you’ve been doing great! 

Happy Valentine’s Day!  Hope you’re having a wonderful day celebrating with your loved ones.  Sometimes when you have kids you’re home in your pjs long before most people’s dinner reservations have even started.  Lol!   

Cards

The first card is from Tiny Prints and the second one is from Shutterfly!

Valentine’s Day Thank Yous!

Joy is so lucky to have aunties who love her so much to even plan ahead and get her outfits for Valentine’s Day! Thank you Lisa Eemo for the beautiful tutu & headband!  We’ll be using them for many years to come.  

Thank you Katherine Eemo for the perfect little Valentine’s Day dress!  Joy is wearing one of the hair pins I made for myself a long time ago.  She’s sitting on an awesome chair I found at Ross for only $160!

The Sweater

It was 5 or 6 years ago and I don’t think I was even married yet.  I remember running my hands over the fabric thinking…do babies even wear cashmere?  I loved it though and imagined my future daughter wearing it.  I bought it thinking I could just give it away as a gift.  Years went by yet whenever it was time to give a gift I had to pass over this little sweater.  Deep inside I still held on to the hope that I’d have a daughter one day.  And now, to finally have my little girl and for her to wear this sweater~ words can’t express how happy it makes me. 

Impossible!

So now with 2 kiddos and a furbaby, the difficulty level of taking photos has increased dramatically.  Sometimes I just want to give up because it seems like an impossible task~ lol!  The funny thing is that the best photos usually come from the outtakes!  Here’s my favorite photo from our Valentine’s Day session.  Joy kept lifting up her tutu and covering her face.  Evan rose to the occasion and actually directed her to put her hands down.  Lol!

It used to feel like I was always trying to catch up on everything…emails, photos, projects, etc.  Lately I’ve been trying not to stress about it and just enjoy the moment.  Hope you’ve all been doing great and appreciating the beauty of little moments too! 

iPhone Blues 

My iPhone broke and I lost a lot of data.  Nothing past October 2011 was saved.  When I look at my phone it’s weird…all the settings and everything are as if it were still October.  I lost so much that I can never get back.  I’m probably the only person in the Apple world who didn’t know that syncing and backing up are two completely different things!  If I think about it too much I want to cry so I just have to move on!

Instagram 

So I have a new internet love and its name is Instagram~ a photo editing & social network app for the iPhone.  I love it so much!  Until my friend Linnet found me on Instagram I had been using it for months without knowing it was a social network too~ lol!  You can find me under skippee.

Here are some of my recent favorites~

For Joy’s Room

I recently ordered some photo projects through Shutterfly.  I’ll share them with you once I get them!  Here’s one I made to put up in Joy’s room.

Appreciating Life

There are moments in your life that just change you forever.  When I was younger I said good-bye to my best friend on life support and later saw her mom bury her only child.  Just recently a dear friend passed away and I watched as a young boy cried for his mom.  Heartbreaking and impossible to wrap your mind around events like that.  It does give me a bigger appreciation for life though.  It makes me want to hold my loved ones even closer and say prayers of thankfulness.   

B touched the lives of so many people~ through her kindness, courageous battle with cancer, recipes and photography.  She will most be remembered for her profound love of her baby boy.  Helen is making a scrapbook for J so I wanted to include a letter for him to remember his extraordinary mom.   

Dear J,

I just want you to know what an amazing person your mom is.  She touched so many people’s lives with her big heart, bravery, photography talent, cooking skills and her unconditional love for you.  Just remember that she is always with you…in your heart, in all the happy moments and sad ones too, when the sun shines brightly, when you pray, when you’re feeling scared or lonely…she will always be there.  She is going to be so proud of the incredible boy, man, husband and father you will be one day.  Always know that there are so many people who love you so much.  We will always pray for you and wish you the best.  Here’s a quote from your mom that I will always hold close to my heart:

“Cherish each and every moment and live your life like there's no tomorrow.”

Love, Jenny Eemo

To Hold My Grandma’s Hand 

Although I never imagined I would take a trip internationally with a baby, B has inspired me to live my life to the fullest and not to have any regrets.  We are headed to Korea to see my grandparents and attend a wedding.  I know it’ll be hard but totally worth it to hold my grandma’s hand.  Luckily Evan gets to stay with his favorite people (his grandparents!) so we don’t have to worry about him at all.  However, I really need your help because I’m so nervous about the trip with Joy.  Any tips on how to take a 6 month old on a 12-13 hour flight?  Also, Korea will still be really cold when we go.  How do I go from a warm suburb to a chilly metropolitan city?!  Thanks in advance!

Better late than never, right?  Lol~!  I realized I never posted photos of Evan’s 2nd birthday party.  So~ before his THIRD birthday party I wanted to crank out a post.  I also just wanted to include some info for you to use for your future fabulous parties!  Photos were taken by our awesome photographer Tim Park or me.  

Theme/Colors

Evan loves the Korean cartoon character Pororo so I based the colors off of that.  I wanted to bring the essence of Pororo to life without being too commercial.  Bright, bold & happy!  I also incorporated letters since Evan has always loved the alphabet. 

Here’s photo of Evan when he was almost two.  You can see the Pororo play mats that once ruled our home.

Goodie Bags 

One of my favorite parts of planning a party is giving out goodie bags!  We made drawstring bags to hold all the goodies. Here’s the LINK to the tutorial. 

Here’s a list of ideas for goodie bag items:  coloring books, crayons, play-doh, DVD, juice box, snacks, lego favor packs, sticker books, travel games, lip balm, mega bloks mini packs, bubbles, small stuffed animals, books, bath toys, flash cards.

I love Avery shipping tags!  I just replaced the string with colored twine and designed a simple tag in Photoshop.  I think plain ol’ white paper looks great on these tags!

Cupcake Stands 

These cupcake stands were super duper easy to make and really cheap!  Just a bunch of Bare by Solo disposable cups and plates made out of plant-based renewable resources.  Here’s the LINK for the tutorial.

For the stands I put actual cupcakes on some and bowties/hair clips on others.  I also filled up some empty cupcake liners with little tissue paper flowers and fuzzy pom poms. 

For the cupcake stand toppers I glued on scrapbooking paper to wood/foam letters/numbers.  The rest of the toppers were just random items we had at home.  Cupcakes and cake were made by A Cupcake Story.

Bowties & Hair Clips

I made a little accessories dessert bar for the kiddos to take some hair clips and bowties.  I love the bowties because they can actually be used as hair clips too!  Here’s the LINK to the bowtie tutorial and the LINK to the felt rosette tutorial. 

Birthday Crowns

I wanted each kiddo to feel special so we made birthday crowns with their names on them.  Here’s the LINK to the tutorial.

Invite & Thank You Card

I just made some simple designs in Photoshop and printed them at home!

Thanks to all the help and support from our friends and family we were able to pull off a super fun party for Evan!  Hope I’ll be able to post about Evan’s third birthday party before his 4th birthday!  

Countdown on Eastern Standard Time

We wanted the kiddos to experience the countdown so we just decided to have it at 9pm since it would be midnight in New York. 

I love how sweet Evan is sometimes with his sister and fursister.

This is what most of our photos look like!!  

A New Year’s Eve Prayer

Christmas (and all other holidays) have gotten so much more fun for me once I had Evan and Joy.  Just to see the magic of each holiday through their eyes is amazing.  This year was a very special Christmas since we got to celebrate it in our new home. 

Santa’s Visit

One of the awesome perks of our new neighborhood is that they close down the street just to have Santa visit the kids on the block.  It was so fun seeing Evan’s eyes light up when Santa drove into our street. 

2011 Holiday Card

Photos with Santa

Baekil 

The tradition of celebrating the 100th day (baekil) stems from a time in Korean history when many babies didn’t make it through the early months.  When a baby did make it to the 100th day the whole village would celebrate.  

For us, the baekil party was about gathering our closest family and friends to celebrate Joy and all the happiness she has brought us in the past 100 days.  As you know, the past few months haven’t been that easy so it was especially nice to celebrate this milestone.   

Details

At first we weren’t going to do anything at all, especially in terms of decorations.  As it got closer to the date I realized I really did want to add some special touches even if everyone around me told me to forget it~ lol!

Although there were many more things I would’ve liked to do~ I’m happy with the results because it’s surely better than having done nothing at all.  I bought some supplies from Target and stayed up the night before making a few things.

We had a simple head table set up.  The cake and cupcakes were from I Heart Cupcakes.  I made the fabric toppers~ super easy to make!

One of my favorite last minute projects was the photo board.  I printed out a bunch of 4x6 photos from the past few months and cut them into squares.  I just taped them on some cardstock and left a space for messages.  I loved reading them and also seeing a snapshot of Joy’s first 100 days.

Family

I always love seeing big families and envy their closeness and get togethers.  At one point during the party I realized...this IS my family.  These are the people who are always there for me.  They are the ones who celebrate my achievements, hold my hand as I cry and always pray for me.  I am truly blessed.

From my wedding day to Joy's baekil...

Big Bro + Big Sis

I was worried about how the big bro & big sis would feel when we had a party where all the attention would be on Joy.  It’s hard for a 2-year-old (and a dog) to understand why your little sister gets her own party!  Teresa was so nice and baked Evan her famous carrot cake!  I just stuck a little banner and sign on it and Evan loved it.

Of course, Bella got a special treat too!  She’s such a wonderful dog.  She’s had to give up a lot of her princess lifestyle to make room for two babies.

Happy 100 Days!

Dear Joy,

It seems as if I just blinked and now you’re already 100 days old.  Yet I’ll never forget that first moment I held you in my arms.  I just held you close and breathed you in.  It was truly a wish come true.  I thank God every single day that I have my little girl~ healthy and beautiful.  I feel like I could sit and watch you for hours.  When you give me that goofy little smile of yours I just melt.  I’m so excited to show you all the wonderful things in this world and to pass down all the motherly wisdoms that my mom taught me. 

You fill our lives with so much love.  Bella loves snuggling up next to you.  Evan loves squeaking your giraffe toy for you.  Your daddy loves singing with you.  I love having little conversations with you and hearing you coo.  There’s just so much love here for you.    

Love, Mommy