She's 3!

Our Allie girl is 3! 

And she wanted nothing more than to have a Princess Party.

So that's exactly what she got. 

Now, before I had kids, I had a lot of "famous last words". Some of which included, "I'll 

never be that mom that throws character-themed, Party City birthday parties. Blechk."

While I really would LOVE to be the mom {that some of my friends are}, and throw

Pinterest-perfect birthday parties with handmade everything, professional

photography, and all the things that would reflect back on ME exactly as I'd like them to...

I've learned that these sweet little parties aren't for me; they're for my babies.

So, while I do my best to make them fun and cute, I have to be sure that the ultimate goal

is for the birthday girl or boy to have the most special, fun, memorable party possible.

That said, I have to throw a little bit of creativity in there somewhere!

My brother's amazing fiance happily agreed to do some whimsical

face-painting for all of the little birthday guests.

I'm pretty sure that by the time all was said and done, Allie had designs painted

on both cheeks, both hands, and both arms. Safe to say she was a fan of the face-painting.

Allie requested to be Belle for her party. Of course. The princess dress we didn't have.

You just try going in search of any specific toy-related item the week after Christmas and

see how much success you have. Finally, on the 4th store, I found one. {Thank you, Jesus!}

She also wanted "princess hair". Not sure what her definition of this was, I

figured adding glitter and sparkles would do the trick. I think maybe I'll save the

glitter spray for the next time we're having a tough day. Maybe some mother/daughter princess hair

would lift our spirits a bit!

 Probably the most urgent request of our soon-to-be 3-year-old was a Cinderella cake.

My mom came through on this in an AMAZING way, as you can see.

She should definitely start a cake business. Not only are her cakes always

beautiful, they taste SO good!

Back for more paint... :)

 Even though it was the beginning of January, and half (yes, half) of her little friends

had to cancel on the day of the party, it was a fabulous success. I hope she will remember it

as a fun-filled, sparkly day in which she was loved, valued, and treasured.

A week before, we'd had a little family get-together for her actual birthday.

This girl loves her Grandpa.

One of my favorite party activities was making these tiny versions of her princess cakes.

It was so much fun, and she loved them!

As with every birthday, I cannot believe our girl is 3 years old. She is so full of life, passion, spunk,

love, compassion, and laughter. I wouldn't change a single thing about her. She has changed so much in the last year, and I love seeing the little girl she is becoming! God has great and wonderful plans for your life, sweet girl! I can't wait to see what they are!

Birthday Prayer

A birthday prayer for my Allie-girl. Happy 2nd Birthday, love!

Father who breathed life into this daughter…

I pray for this girl being formed into eternity….

May the wind always be in her hair

May the sky always be wide with hope above her

And may all the hills be an exhilaration

the trials but a trail,

all the stones but stairs to God.

God, clothe this girl in a gown of grace

Grace, the only dress that makes beautiful,

the style of Your spirit.

Nourish her on the comfort food of the Word,

Word, that makes her crave more of Christ,

have hunger pangs for Him.

Enclose her in communion with You

You, Love who makes her love, who folds her heart into a roof

that absorbs storms for souls,

that makes her tongue speak only the words that make  souls stronger.

May her vocation in this world simply be translation

Translating every enemy into esteemed guest

Translating every countenance into the face of Christ

Translating every burden into blessing

When it’s hard to be patient… make her willing to suffer

When it’s ridiculous to be thankful … make her see all is grace

When it’s radical to forgive … make her live the foundation of our faith

And when it’s time to work… make her a holy wonder.

May she be bread and feed many with her life and her laughter

May she be thread and mend brokeness and knit hearts

May she be dead to all ladders & never go higher , only lower, to the lonely, the least & the longing

Her led of the Spirit to lead many to the Cross

that leads to the tomb wildly empty.

Oh, and raise me, Lord, from the deadness of my own sins to love this beautiful girl like You do…

In the name of Christ who rose

and appeared first

to one of His daughters…

Amen…

(borrowed from Ann Voskamp)

A Day in the Life, Vol. 2

Ever just have 'one of those days'? Well, today (Tuesday, I started this draft before bed) was one for me. Fewf! It's 10:57, and I can't even believe I'm awake to type this (except that I had a monstrous glass of tea at dinner, so I'll probably be awake much longer than I'd like to).

Today is Adam's birthday. I'm big on birthdays. I love to do fun things to make them extra special. I celebrate the birthday, the birthday week, and yes, the birthday month. It was my goal today to make the day as fun and care-free for Adam as possible, even though he'd spend most of it at work. (I'll wait to post this until tomorrow, because I just posted my heartfelt birthday note to Adam, and wouldn't want to taint that with the "realities" of my day.)

Not to brag (ok, to brag a little), but I've been working very hard on being disciplined and working out every weekday morning for the month of March. After being at a baby shower until late last night, I decided that this week, I was going back to 3 mornings a week. So, today would be my first day to "sleep in" (until around 6:45) on a weekday in almost a month. Here's how my day began...

Alarm goes off. I knew Adam and I had set our alarms for the same time, but I didn't hear his. I figured he'd changed it - wanted to sleep in a little on his birthday - so I didn't wake him. I got up, went to the closet, and started picking out clothes for the day. After looking around a few minutes, I glanced up at Adam's bedside clock: 6:25 a.m.. My first thought was, "Nooooooo! My alarm was supposed to be for 7:00!!!" I'd set a later alarm, but neglected to turn off my earlier alarm. Ugh, how frustrating. I climbed back into bed - just because I could - and tried to go back to sleep for the next half hour without any success. Then, I had to kick it into birthday gear.

Though Allie didn't wake up in time to wish Daddy a happy birthday before he got out the door, I had fun giving Adam his birthday gifts. He saved his card from Allie to open that afternoon.

Allie was in a fair mood in the morning, but hasn't been eating well at all, and got crankier (and I'm sure hungrier) as the day went on, and her hunger strike continued. I could tell she was very tired, so I put her down for her nap at 1:30 instead of 2:00. Sure she'd sleep awhile, I settled in to watch some Netflix and catch up on monogram designs. 30 short minutes later, she was up. Knowing she was still tired, I went in to rock her for awhile and see if she'd sleep a little longer. After another half hour or so, one of our dogs came to Allie's closed bedroom door and began scratching and clawing as if there was a dangerous intruder in the house. Scared me to death, and woke Allie up crying in fear. Thanks, dogs.

Upon exiting Allie's room, I was punched in the gut by the smell of dog poo. Awesome. Maybe someone should teach my dogs to scratch on the door *before* they poop on the floor.

After cleaning up that mess, I decided to give Allie her evening bath early, so we could enjoy Daddy's birthday time when he got home. After I got her in the tub, I guess all of the running water got to me, and I was dying to go to the bathroom. No big deal, we're in the bathroom, right? Yes, my friends, but without toilet paper. Ahhh!

When Allie was cleaned up, (and I'd retrieved a roll of t.p., praise the Lord), I dried her off, lotioned her up, and reached for a diaper. NO DIAPERS! After a momentary freak-out, I remembered there was a new box of diapers in her closet. I placed my naked baby on her bedroom floor while I dove for the diapers in the closet, had to get scissors to open the box, all the while repeating, "Please don't pee, please don't pee!"

After the bath time fail, I decided to make brownies (to cover the poo smell, of course). I managed to spill some brownie mix, but hey, what are dogs for if not cleaning up my spills?

Brownies were finished just in time for Adam's arrival, the house smelled great, and Daddy's girls were ready to spend the evening celebrating his birthday. Fewf!

Happy 28, Adam!

Today is my amazing husband's 28th birthday. Our 7th birthday to have celebrated together. I never thought I'd say, "We met when we were both 20," and feel like that was such a long time ago.

I'm so very thankful that Adam is the complete opposite of most every boy I ever dated before we met. He's completely dependable, punctual, steady, predictable, and any other word that could be synonymous with 'security' for his wife. I didn't always have that. Security. Predictability. Dependability. Someone who was on my side no matter what. Adam is all of those things.

I so enjoyed our laid back celebration of him today. Gifts before he left this morning, 'Happy Birthday' texts throughout the day, and a relaxing dinner out for our family of 3 tonight. Predictable. Dependable. Secure.

Happy Birthday, love of my life.I pray God gives us many, many, many more birthdays to celebrate with one another...even if the thought of me turning 28 later this year gives me the heebie jeebies! :)

Allie's First Birthday Party

A month late, yes, but I'm finally posting about Allie Joy's first birthday party. Looking back, I feel like I should say that Adam and I 'survived' throwing our very first birthday party for Allie. What a whirlwind!

Since Allie's birthday is just 5 short days after Christmas, it is very important to us to make sure Christmas and birthday are two very separate and special events. For the first time, this year, we decided to adopt the tradition of taking down all of our Christmas decorations as soon as possible after Christmas. By the evening of the 26th, the Christmas season had ended in the Rieger household, and it was Birthday Central!

My mom was such an awesome help in putting together the vision I had for my baby girl's first birthday party. I'm not really into characters or themes, so we just put together some simple decorations while the house underwent a MASSIVE, wonderful, deep cleaning. It was hard to decide whether to host the party at our small house, or elsewhere. We opted to have it here at home, and squeeze as many friends and family in as we could. It was tight, but we made it work! Since her birthday is the 30th, we couldn't plan the party for the weekend before, because it was Christmas. It couldn't be held the weekend after, because it was New Year's. That made it pretty tough! The best option seemed to be having her party on her actual birthday, Thursday the 30th, from 5-7. All of these details are really just for this mama to come back and read someday. Here's the part most everyone is interested in: the pictures.

Some of the beautiful tissue-paper flowers my mom made!

Ballons = Party!

Super fun banner that I embroidered for the party :)

Smash cake, Cupcake Cake, and Cake Pops. Do you think this girl had enough cake?!

Cake Pops. Sheesh. They were a fun idea, but a lot of work! I secretly can't wait for an excuse to make some more and get more practice! :)

Allie's 'almost full' First Year picture frame...*tear*...

Allie Joy enjoying all of her birthday attention.

Not sure what to think about the fire on top of her smash cake, haha. 

Ohhh, yeeeahhh!

Memaw & Allie. This makes my heart smile.

I think she likes it!

The Birthday Princess

Happy Birthday, baby girl!

All in all, it was a great first birthday for Allie Joy. She got so many wonderful, fun things! We still have many toys still in boxes, so that we can get them out over the next year, and she'll always have something new! (This is also a big treat for mama and daddy, as these fancy new toys keep miss Allie occupied and entertained!) So thankful our baby girl is so very loved!

Happy First Birthday, Allie

I know I've said it before, but I really, truly, cannot believe how quickly this year has flown by. Everyone warned me that it would, and I didn't believe them.

Our baby girl is 1!

We had so much fun celebrating her last night! Needless to say, it was an absolutely crazy few days going from Christmas Eve, to Christmas Day, then preparing for Allie's birthday just 5 short days later. It was worth all of the exhaustion, though, and everything went so well! (And by "everything", I mean "everything except the fact that the only available toilet in our house broke about 20 minutes into the birthday party, and our house was packed to the brim with people). Those are the moments I've just learned to laugh about, because really, what else can you do?!

A few of my favorite pictures from Allie's big day..

Balloons on the mailbox = Party Time!

I got to make this fun banner for the party, and it turned out so cute and fun!

Decorating for this girly party was so much fun, and so much work! My mom was an amazing help in crafting all the fun decorations. They turned out so pretty! We used lots of tissue-paper flowers all over the house in different sizes, and they made it so festive!

Smash Cake, Cupcake-Cake, and Cake Pops!
I made the cake pops, and was so excited that they turned out (especially since I am NOT a stellar baker).

Allie wasn't too sure what to do with her cake, as is the case with most 1-year-olds, I'd think.

Becoming a mother has changed, challenged, blessed, and grown me in ways that I never could have imagined. I am constantly surprised by the new things Allie is learning, and I am so proud of every single little skill. She's amazing!

Several friends of mine write letters to their children on their birthdays. I completely love this idea (because I'm horribly sentimental), and I'm excited to begin that tradition with Allie's first birthday letter.

Allie Joy,

   Happy 1st Birthday, sweet baby girl! I cannot believe a year has passed since I first laid tearful eyes on you in that hospital room. You were - and still are - the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. Getting to know you this year has been one of the most incredible experiences of my life. Watching you grow from a tiny, helpless (and sleepless) infant into the toddling, inquisitive, smart little beauty you are today has been an amazing adventure, and I am so excited to know there are many more years, Lord willing, in store for our relationship to grow!

   This year, I have watched you turn my husband into a loving, tender-hearted, gentle Daddy. His eyes light up when he sees you, just as yours do when you see him. Over the past few weeks, you have become especially attached to your 'Dada'. As soon as you hear the garage door begin to open in the afternoons, you begin to clap your hands and excitedly say, "Dada! Dada!" as you move toward the door. I love watching your love for him grow. He treats you with such tenderness, and I am amazed by his sensitivity to you. He knows you don't like the sun in your eyes when we're in the car, and he is so attentive and concerned if you're bothered by it. When he washes your face and hands after you eat a messy self-fed meal, he always uses warm water on a soft wash cloth - never cold water or paper towels. He takes care of you like every good daddy should care for his little princess.

  A year ago today, I thought it wasn't possible to love you any more than I did when we finally met for the first time. Today, I know differently. Next year, I'm sure my love for you will multiply exponentially yet again. Several times this week, when I was rocking you (and your 'little blankie') at nap time, you picked your sleepy head up off of my shoulder to lean over and give me a kiss before falling asleep. I am so blessed to see this gentle, loving spirit beginning to develop in you already! I hope and pray that I am doing a good job of teaching you what it means to be a girl after God's heart, precious one. I love that any time I turn on music, you love to raise your hand in the air and praise Jesus. I pray you will learn at an early age what the significance of that praise is. This has been the most amazing, exhausting, challenging, emotional, wonderful, fun year I've ever experienced! I will never take for granted how blessed I've been to spend the first year of your life at home with you, watching all of your "firsts", and enjoying every single second.

  I can't wait to see the things God has waiting for you in 2011, beautiful girl! Your Dada and I love you so very much, and are so thankful God entrusted you to us! Happy Birthday!