My love affair with birthday parties continues. You may see a repeat of this party again next year for sweet Gianna. She shared her big three-year-old birthday with her oldest brother, who was celebrating his Confirmation the same weekend. I figured, let's do a two-fer. Double the cookies, double the party, double the fun. Plus, we like to do things big here in Texas. Because it was just friends and family coming over after the Confirmation Mass, I opted to decorate Gianna's birthday dessert table and save the activities and all my cute decorations throughout the house for another day. I only had so much bandwidth, y'all. I'm already dreaming of how we can go all out next year … [Read more...]
The Confirmation *Par-tay*
Where there's a dessert table, there's me. True story. Nobody loves throwing parties and having company over more than I do. Hospitality is my charism. I realize some of this stresses people out, but it is life-giving to me. My love is found in the details. All my work to make it beautiful was my gift to Will and I so loved doing it. Mr. Whitaker was a huge part in making it happen. He's such a keeper. While I put great time and effort into choosing what food to serve, I put an equal amount of emphasis on making this a true "Confirmation" celebration with the decorations. I wanted our friends and family to visually see Will's formational growth and to be reminded of his earlier … [Read more...]
Confirmed! And I Have All the Feels.
While I've written about mine and Scott's love story, I don't think I shared about our engagement and wedding story (coming in July!). It's important to note that my own confirmation took place an hour before my rehearsal dinner. Crazy, I know. Twenty years into this Catholic gig and Will's Confirmation was my very first one. We had a slew of family and Godparents in town for Will's big day and the weekend did not disappoint. There was cornhole and good food, late nights and cold beer, chrism and a lot of sacrament love. Because I had never been to a confirmation before, I had zero expectations. Mostly, I was just excited to be there. This entire year, but especially the spring, was … [Read more...]
In a Blink, 12! Happy Birthday Anna-Laura!
Our last year before the teenage years with our oldest girl and I keep shaking my head. Not possible, I think. But, it's happening so I best jump on board. Anna-Laura is officially 12 today and that means one thing: sappy letter from Mom. Here goes. Dear Anna-Laura, If I could give an award for kid who has changed the most, it would be you. Hands down. And, please know, those changes have come in all the best of ways. I'm seeing such a confident, self-assured, bright, affable young woman emerge. You have a great desire to learn and improve yourself. Even though you sometimes still lose your brain, slam your bedroom door and stomp loudly up the stairs, you are just as quick to … [Read more...]
Numero Tres, Happy Birthday Gianna!
I had big plans to get this published this morning and, well, life. We had a beautiful day of celebrating with family and the party continues tomorrow as we host a joint confirmation/birthday party. You know us, there will be hard liquor, sweet tea, lots of good food and sweets. It's how we sacrament. If you're the nostalgic kind, then I'm pretty sure you'll love this. Oh, and remember this? I'm sorry. I'll stop. That's enough rabbit hole for tonight. Birthday letter, coming at ya. Dear Gianna, Or, should I say Gigi/Geejers/G-Money/Geejer McGeejerson? So many nicknames. So much love. When all your siblings can't stand the sight of one another, they always love seeing you. … [Read more...]
