I know I write this every month, but I cannot believe how
fast time is flying! We recently celebrated Emory’s 1st
birthday…WOW! We no longer have an infant, we now have a toddler. CRAZY!!! What
a fun and exciting year it has been. I could probably write an entire post
reflecting on this past year, but I guess I can just go back and read all of
the monthly posts that I made instead.
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| Hudson and Emory |
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| Lane and Cam |
We spent a lot of time trying to decide what to do for Emory’s
first birthday. Did we want to have a theme? What kind of cake should we get?
Who should we invite? After a lot of thinking we finally decided that this was
all a little ridiculous. She was turning 1, which means that she will not
remember this party at all. We would really be putting all of our time, money,
and effort into throwing a party for the adults. So, we decided to have a small
get together with just our family and a few close friends. We can save the big
parties for when she gets older.
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| Opening presents |
My parents flew into town on Thursday to spend a nice long
weekend with Emory, and Martin’s family made it into town on Friday. We had the
party on Saturday November 16th at 2:00. We ordered chicken nuggets
and fruit from chick-fil-a, had a vegetable tray, and made a cheese dip.
Instead of getting a cake we ordered cupcakes, and Martin made a smash cake for
Emory. He found a great recipe that actually had no added sugar!
Like I said, we didn’t invite a ton of people. Both of our families were there, with the exception of Kevin who couldn’t make it in from Orlando. We invited just a few close friends. The Hynicks (Shea was my roommate in pharmacy school, her husband Brandon, and Hudson is 6 months older than Emory), our neighbors Ali and Cami (Cami is 2 ½ and loves playing with Emory), and Cam and Lane (Cam and I went to Georgia Southern together and Lane is a month and a half younger than Emory) all came to celebrate with us.
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| Parker |
We let the kids play for a while, opened presents, and finally let Emory have her smash cake. We put her in the high chair and placed the entire cake in front of her, anxiously waiting to see if she would dive in head first. Surprisingly she was quite neat while eating her cake. She would grab a small piece with her hands and eat it, so of course some of the icing was on her face, but it really wasn’t bad. We were expecting her to have it everywhere, but I guess she didn’t want to get messy during her party J She did really seem to enjoy the cake, Martin is a great baker. After the party was over, the family stayed and hung out for a while, we ordered pizza and watched football while Emory and Parker played with all of the new toys.
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| She did NOT like the birthday hat!!! |
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Sunday, on Emory’s actual birthday, she was baptized. We
planned on doing this a long time ago, but this was the only weekend that we
could get both of our families in town. The ceremony was at our church, Belle
Meade United Methodist. Emory wore the baptism dress that Martin’s Grandma Storm
made, and all of the girls on that side of the family wore. We thought it would be a
great tradition to continue, and the dress was gorgeous! They called us up
during the church service, along with Josie and Bobby who are Emory’s Godparents.
The pastor went through the baptismal service, and then took Emory and placed
the water on her head. Emory had been so happy during the entire service,
smiling and making noises, until the pastor took her…..she did not like that!
She started crying and reaching for me, and once he put the water on her head
she started crying even harder. He let me hold her and we walked up and down
the isle of the church so the church family could see her. After the ceremony
they gave us a nice children’s bible and the candle used during the ceremony.
It was such a special time for Emory. We are blessed to have a church that will
help us raise her to know and follow Jesus. After the Baptism we ordered
catering from Moe’s, and Martins parents got Emory a beautiful cake to
celebrate the big day. Martin’s family left Sunday afternoon and my parents
flew out on Monday.
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| Emory and her Godparents |
We couldn’t have asked for a better weekend to celebrate our
little girl. Emory is blessed to have so many people that love her and care
about her. She truly has been the biggest blessing in our lives. She has
brought so much meaning, purpose, and joy to our lives (along with a little
stress and worry also). I thank God EVERYDAY that we have a child who is
healthy. I know she has been sick a lot, but nothing too serious. I know it
could be so much worse, and I seriously cannot thank God enough for her health.
The love that we have for this child is unreal, it is like nothing I ever
thought was possible. As I am writing this I am starting to get a little
chocked up just thinking about it. I am just beyond thankful for her. I am also
thankful for my parents and Martin’s parents. It isn’t until you have a child
of your own that you truly realize the amount of love that your parents have
for you, and also the amount of sacrifices that they made on a daily basis for
you. If we can be even half that parents to Emory that our parents have been to
us, I think we will be doing ok. This love that we have for Emory has also made
me realize just how much God loves us. We love our child more than any words
can describe, and God has that same love for us, His children. What a great
love that is! Thank you God for a year that has surpassed anything that we
could have imagined, and I pray for many more years like this one!
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| Newborn |
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| 1 year old |
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