Homegrown Photography » Your Homegrown Stories

I completely love Pintrest! I’ve actually been pinned once. I know… I’m super cool!

I’ve used Pintrest for lots of things! Dinners… craft ideas… as a way to procrastinate… find different ideas to help Jillian with her sensory issues… just about everything!

I’m not sure how we would have planned Amanda’s wedding without it! You’ll have to wait for those pictures, but trust me! It was completely amazing!

And 13 months ago I used Pintrest to plan Jillian’s 1st birthday party that I never blogged about. I know. Kinda lame. Its just rough for me around her b-day. Blogging gets pushed on the back burner. Not that I’m a complete mess… its just kinda rough.

Anyhow! After the wedding I feel like I’m a total Pintrest Rockstar! I shouldn’t be surprised. I mean this party was my first party planned with Pintrest and it was great!

Just because I like being fully honest… another common thread to the wedding and this b-day party is Danielle. AND for each gathering we had LOTS of wonderful helpers! 

How about some pictures…

On each table we put pictures of Jillian and on the tiny bunting we put how old she was so you could really see how she changed. And Nicky made the cookies I really wanted!

her 3 month picture on the right… it got placed sideways and I didn’t catch it! I’m so annoyed. 😉

A bunch of Jillian’s nurses came. We had her party close to the hospital hoping a few would show up. Being close to the hospital and having her nurses come celebrate Jillian was important to us.

See Jillian’s headband… Pintrest.

Lots of friends and family made the trip into the City and helped make the gathering super special.

Bunting… Pintrest.

I actually blogged how I made mine WAY BACK here

I asked my MIL and FIL to make these tents… a year later we are still using them!

Tents… Pintrest. 

For the cake we did cupcakes in mason jars… Red velvet to match with the color scheme.

Mason jar Cupcakes… Pintrest

Red velvet cake recipe… Pintrest

Chalkboard painting the lids… Pintrest

Sister… Pintrest. Okay, not really.

Of course we had Queen Anne’s Lace…

Flowers in Mason jars… Pintrest

I delegated lots! We had roast beef sammies and salads thanks to Nancy!  (See the wicker plate holders? Those were Jeramy’s grandmas… I love using them and telling people who’s they were. She can’t be with us at our parities, but we can remember her.)

And that salad… I need to blog about that and put the recipe so I someone can pin it!

The party was so fun! It was a group effort and so special that people traveled far to celebrate with us.

Now someone pin this! 😉

Today is Jillian’s birthday! Whoo hoo! If i’m going to be real about it… it’s a very happy and sad occasion. It’s Jillian AND Anne’s birthday. I’m not going to lie or ignore my real feelings… this hurts. I miss my baby and I want to hold her… its been two years. My heart aches. It did take lots of prayer and… I don’t know… determination (?) to get myself out of bed. I could have just laid there and cried my eyes out, but I have a sweet little birthday girl and 4 other children to spend the day with! Lay in bed crying? or Celebrate the good parts of the day! I’ll take celebrating! That is our family motto this year, “There is much to celebrate”  It’s hanging up in our home with bunting and everything reminding us all that everyday has its ups and downs, but there is always MUCH to celebrate!

So lets remember Anne, and her super special self and remember this is still a very special day. Our Jillian is two! Sweet Anne held on to life, as difficult as that was… and because of that her sister survived. She is forever our sweet daughter and hero.

Speaking of heroes… Today also brings to our hearts the memories of how much our friends and family helped us during the difficult time surrounding the girls birth. AND of our doctors and nurses who so lovingly took care of us. Not that we don’t think of them daily. I think of the girls nurses and doctors every time Jilllian does anything wonderful! No joke… I send them video clips. We would have headed up to UCSF today if Jillian didn’t wake up with a drippy nose! I’m THAT annoying! 😉

With each kiddo I’ve tried to take a picture with the same object next to them to show how much they have grown… usually is in an old rocker, or a teddy bear. A couple of my friends make a cake each month and take a photo of the baby with the cake. Well… Jillian has a bath tub. I couldn’t get over how when she was finally able to take somewhat of a real bath it was such an ordeal AND how small her bath tub was! Jeramy and I watched videos of her first bath last night… the first thing we both commented on was the beeps! Oh! All the beeping! Then we heard and saw Josie and we about melted. Josie…

Each month her first year I took a picture of her in her tub. After that I stopped. She hasn’t grown all THAT much since her first B-Day. 😉 Her hair has! I think its all that olive oil they have me adding to her food! 😉

 

 

Happy Birthday Jillian and Anne! We love you BIG! And we are SO very thankful for you two! XOXOX

Her actual Birthday is this week, but her adjusted Birthday is in October. So… she’s kinda almost two. On her name tag at the gym is says 2ish. 😉 In some ways she’s very two and in others… she’s not quite caught up. I’ll explain more later. For now here is a little sneak peek of her mini photo shoot.

And yes, I had to bribe her with a lollypop. If you think that is bad… you don’t want to know that I had to give her ice-cream to get the lolly away from her. I was desperate! 😉

So this year our city allowed fireworks. Not the crazy ones that your dad would light and it would spin out of control under cars or right at you… the Safe and Sane fireworks. Safe and Sane fireworks? Is there such a thing?

Our day started off slowly and little by little people came over. We talked and ate… ate and talked… it was great!

Our little decorations… I almost died getting that lavender. And the piece of wood under the mason jar… well, thats from Japan. At least we got it off the beach in Aptos after the tsunami.

This image screams THE 4TH! (at least to me.)

I set up the tents my MIL and FIL made for Jillians 1st birthday. The girls loved them under their Wishing Tree.

Jane bathing before company… 😉 Jeramy made these!

Water balloons are now a MUST at our house on the 4th.

Krissy and Sarah… THANK YOU!!!!

NO joke… This was the most unsafe fire pit to date! Sparklers are not safe. And we had a dead Christmas tree and WAY too many kids… it was a mess, but kinda fun!

The now yearly sit on the fence and wait for the fireworks picture.