birthday, Blog, Clementine, Fall, st. louis

Clementine is Two!


I’m not quite sure how it’s possible but last week (October 4th) we celebrated Clementine’s 2nd birthday. It’s hard to believe that she is already 2 years old! Those of you who have been around since her birth may remember the sweet baby girl with dark hair, chubby cheeks, and the most perfect eyebrows I have ever seen on a newborn. She’s grown up so much over the past couple of years and it has been such a joy to watch her grow!

I was so excited to do a fun little photoshoot with Clementine for her birthday. With 2 year olds, you just never know if they’re going to even cooperate. But I knew I had to at least try. I ran to the store and bought a bunch of balloons (70+!) and got to work, blowing them up to different sizes. I used some packing tape to stick them to the wall and to each other. If I was wanting to keep them up longer than a quick photoshoot, I would have used better tape. But they did manage to stay up until the next morning when Primrose started to destroy them haha.

As you can see, she had so much fun with the photoshoot! Clementine is a major girly girl and was so excited to put on the pink tutu dress and crown (from Little Blue Olive.) She’s very opinionated when it comes to her outfits. So when she’s happy about what she’s wearing, it makes all the difference. The balloon backdrop was also a huge hit with her.

She has an obsession with “Baby Shark” and “Daddy Finger” that may drive us to insanity. But she also loves to sing the ABCs and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star with the sweetest little voice in the world. She loves to dance, make silly faces, and has the most contagious laugh in the world. Her favorite thing to do is pretty much anything Desmond is doing–which is not Desmond’s favorite thing for her to do haha. She’s perfectly sweet and equally sassy. And I’m so thankful to be her mom.

On Clementine’s birthday, we decided to go to one of her favorite places–the St. Louis Zoo! They had their fall/Halloween decorations out which made it a little more fun.

Like I already mentioned, Clementine is very opinionated with her outfit and she insisted on wearing her crown to the Zoo. Everyone kept telling her she looked like a little princess. It was so sweet!

We’re in the process of letting Evangeline’s bangs grow out. Obviously the hairspray didn’t hold them to the side very well but I loved this picture of her.

One of our favorite places in the Zoo is in the sea lion tunnel. It started to rain right as we walked in so we hid in there for a little while until the rain passed. It was Primrose’s first time to notice the sea lions. It was so fun to watch her expressions.

Watching them line up like this is one of the best parts about the zoo. It won’t be too much longer before Primrose will be lined up right next to them!

Liam was very set on getting a picture with Clementine in front of the flamingos. Obviously she didn’t have the same enthusiasm as him haha.

I have a memory card full of pictures like this. But I’ll spare you and only post one haha. Everyone always wants a turn as each character so we always spend a good chunk of time at these cutouts anytime the kids spot one.

We just learned about bears in Science so it was neat for the kids to get a close up look. It was also encouraging to hear them list some facts about bears that they had learned. It helps me to know that they’re at least retaining a few things 😉

Clementine was so excited to watch the “dino” swim by her over and over.

When you look over and see your 5 year old planking haha. It just made me think of that episode of The Office. Anyone know what I’m talking about??

I usually try to get a group shot at the beginning of our outings. But people kept walking in the background of our shots. So we waited until we were walking back to the van and everyone was crabby haha. But getting (mostly) everyone in the shot always makes me happy and we managed to get a few shots with no one looking too crabby.

We came home to an unexpected little package. This tray of cupcakes was sent to Clementine from our friends at cuddle+kind. I honestly could not get over how kind and thoughtful it was for them to not only remember her birthday, but to send a treat to her with a little birthday note. I know I often talk about my love for this company. But my love runs deeper than just for their dolls and their mission, the people who make up the company are just so special to us as well. They certainly made the day a little more special.

The past 2 years with Clementine have been so much fun. I’m so excited to continue to watch her grow!

You can read her birth story HERE and see her 1st birthday photos HERE.

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August Rush


This blog post has nothing to do with the movie, “August Rush”, and everything to do with the fact that I’m trying to rush to get caught up on posting by sharing a quick summary of August. Although, I did watch the movie on Netflix last month while I was avoiding blogging. It’s such a good movie with some amazing music! Fun fact–after I first watched the movie years ago, I put the name “August” on my list of boy names. Obviously we never did use it but I still love the name so much! Okay, so I guess this post does have something to do with the movie– now it just makes the title a little more relevant.

This past August 11th marked 3 years of living in our home. We started a tradition on the day that we moved in to get a family picture in front of our door every year. It’s fun watching our family grow (and door color change.) You can click HERE to see all 4 pictures.

This sweet girl will be 2 years old tomorrow! No matter how many kids we have, I will never get used to how quickly time flies by! We’re going to take the day off of school to go to the zoo and have donuts and milkshakes (her favorite treats!) I’m going to be setting up for her birthday pictures today so hopefully it turns out how I envisioned so I can share tomorrow!!

And I’ve learned that everyone is most eager to join pictures when I say “can you guys stay out of the picture please?” Don’t worry, I’m definitely taking advantage of it and have been known to use reverse psychology to get them to willingly join in haha.

There is a fun wall in an alley in St. Louis that we like to use for pictures sometimes. (It’s right by the Fox on the KDHX building.)

I don’t get as many pictures of the 4 oldest together. They’re usually running off to play (as opposed to the little ones who are always right by us.) So I love that I got a few pictures of these 4, showcasing their personalities.

Even at 10 years old, Liam loves matching his siblings and parents. He is actually often the one who suggests it. I don’t know how long this will last but I’m loving it right now!

Getting a group shot of all the kids is almost never easy and it sometimes ends with me swapping faces/bodies in photoshop. But the results are so worth it. Eventually we will make a video from start to finish of getting a group shot and the things we do to make it happen. I’ll probably also write a corresponding blog post. Would you also be interested in a quick run down of how I swap faces? I am nowhere near qualified to teach anyone to use Photoshop (my husband just taught me a couple of months ago.) But I also don’t have any tutorials to refer you to. So if you’re interested, I can just quickly show I how do it.

We don’t typically do birthday parties for the kids. We usually just make their birthdays a special day with our family. But since Liam was turning 10 this year, we made it a little extra special by letting him invite his friends over for a party. He chose a LEGO theme (which he had been talking about since his 9th birthday.) He had such a great time and it was so fun to decorate for him (even though primary colors are my least favorite haha.)

Anyone have any idea what color her eyes are? I can’t decide if they look green or brown. Maybe they’re hazel? All I know is that they are not the obvious blue that her big siblings have had. Even Clementine, who doesn’t have bright blue eyes, still has some blue to them. Primrose is just mixing things up for us.

On Liam’s actual birthday, we had plans to go check out the renovations at the Arch. But as we were heading there, it started raining. So we switched it up and went to the Magic House instead. We got a membership for Christmas last year and we have loved having it!

Liam’s birthday was also Primrose’s half birthday as well! That smile melts me every time I see it!

And of course we had to get a picture of the (half) birthday girls together! Their first birthday party is already in the works and I CANNOT wait.

And I just thought this test shot of Evangeline was so sweet!

We didn’t get to go to the Arch on Liam’s birthday but we went a couple of days later. We checked out the newly renovated museum underneath but we didn’t go to the top. However, our family has been invited back to take a ride to the top. I’m a tad bit (okay, extremely) nervous about it but I think the kids will love it so I’m trying to get over my fear!

Thank you all for being patient with me as I get all caught up on posts! We have a very full, exciting fall this year and I’m so excited to be able to be able to share it all here!!

One last question before I go–

I am not very active on Facebook but I know some people prefer it over Instagram. What kind of content would you like to see over on my Facebook page? I’d love for you to follow along over there and give me ideas on what would make it more exciting!