There are people who say that holidays like Mothers Day and Fathers Day are superfluous celebrations created by greeting card companies in an attempt to rake in cash. That may or may not be true, but that shouldn’t take away from an opportunity to celebrate some of the most influential people in your life. Sure, we should honor and celebrate our parents year-round, but taking a day to really focus your attention, appreciation and gratitude is very meaningful. It’s like saying  you shouldn’t celebrate your anniversary because you should love your wife year-round. Again, true, but your anniversary serves as an opportunity to pause, reflect upon and celebrate your marriage.

Although my own dad has been geographically distant since I was a youngster, I have been incredibly blessed by the men God has brought into my life over the last decade to show me what a true man of God looks like, and how to be the godly man, husband and father I am called to be. I honestly don’t know how people can hold together their marriages and families without following the blueprint God set in place. It’s hard enough with the Holy Spirit empowering, convicting, leading and transforming me.

Here’s my official Father’s Day shoutouts:

Pop, thank you for embracing me as your son and showing me what decades of being dedicated to Jesus looks like, and the impact it has on your own life and your family. I pray every day that Eisley is half the woman Kate and Em are.

Dad, thank you for your generosity and the reminder to love what you do and do what you love. You love giving to your kids, grandkids and friends, and I hope I can do the same for others.

Dan, thanks for jumping into the chaos and loving grandkids as if they were your own. Your quiet and faithful service to family (and the grill!) remind me what it means to be a husband and father.

Steve Larson, thank you for being a father when I needed one, emotionally and spiritually. I can honestly say I would not be the man today if it were not for you and your tireless devotion. You have shown me wisdom, compassion, generosity, hospitality, love, kindness, the list could go on. I pray that our family would leave a fraction of the legacy yours will. Thank you for your unending work in my life.

I have learned a few lessons in my short tenure as father, but they have radically transformed the way I think and act. I continually pray that God would remove the yuck in my heart that gets in the way of being the husband and father I am called to be.

1. If you realized you were selfish when you got married, just wait until you have kids.
2. Loving your wife sacrificially just became a lot more important.
3. It’s surprisingly easy to exasperate even a one-year-old.
4. Eisley doesn’t care how my day was, she just wants to play with Baba.
5. I thought I couldn’t love more than when Kate and I became one, then we had Eiserpants.
6. Kate is the jewel in my crown, and Eisley is my glory.

I think this sums up fatherhood pretty well:

Gently encourage the stragglers, and reach out for the exhausted, pulling them to their feet. Be patient with each person, attentive to individual needs. And be careful that when you get on each other’s nerves you don’t snap at each other. Look for the best in each other, and always do your best to bring it out.

Thanks to all the fathers and father figures! Keep fighting the good fight!

We’ve had quite the last few days. Miss Baby has officially come down with her second ear infection of her short little life. If I were suffering from ear infections at her rate, I would have just come down with my 60th ear infection.
She’s currently fast asleep in her bed. Good thing too because the last few nights have been doozies. Like, waking up every two hours, only wanting to nurse (good thing I’m still nursing because Sugar hasn’t wanted to eat ANYTHING. Not even graham crackers. Yikes!), crying uncontrollably, arching her back. Repeat two hours later. I’ve already have 2 and a half cups of coffee, am contemplating brewing another pot and I’ll be darned if Christopher hasn’t been a frequent visitor at iMed’s Keurig machine.

After a scary night last night, where she was wailing so hard, we contemplated taking her to the E.R. because it was SO unlike her (we didn’t – she ended up calming down in the car), we took her to see her Dr. Allison this morning. Homegirl has another whopping case of infected ear. We started antibiotics, so hopefully, she’ll start feeling better soon.

And, no sicky pics because I dropped the camera and the only pictures on it are TWO of Chris and Liam from SUMMER TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT. Yep. How weird is that?

Aaand…I also managed to lose my keys. As in, they are absolutely NO WHERE to be found. I was checking the potted plants this morning. We combed the grass, checked in the microwave, looked underneath the basement stairs. They are GONE. So gone, in fact, that I am pretty confident that I dropped them outside and someone up and stole them. That’s how gone they are.

Here’s hoping Tuesday fares a little better.

On a brighter note, here are some cheery pics of my loves:

Ahh…warm sunshine. These two loves are my outdoorsy loves. Bean simply adores A) her Baba, B) sunshine, C) paisley blankets, apparently

Eisers has been into opening and closing the cabinets lately. Her FAVORITE cabinet is the one with all the pots and pans…her favorite being our replacement strainer when I thought I had lost our colander.  (I know, who loses a colander!?)
Alien Robot Eisley visits our planet every now and again. She’s MY Favorite Martian.

We go on at least one walk a day…and this is my view…pretty sweet, yes?

And at LEAST once a day, we lounge with our stuffed hippo on the floor in jean skirts. Typical summer day, I think. (Oh my word, Katie, vacuum your floor!)

And finally, my bathing beauty all suited up, ready to swim at Grandpa Benny & Uncle Josh’s birthday party last weekend. I wish this blog was scratch and sniff because the smell of her cheeks with sunscreen is absolute heaven.

Over the course of 16.5 hours, I drove 500 miles, watched a soccer match, snaked up a couple ice cold cruisers, caught a few hours of sleep, and had an Egg McMuffin. What does this all mean? Last night I drove to Kansas City to watch the inaugural match at Sporting KC’s brand new Livestrong Sporting Park with my good friend Aaron and was back by 9am. Many thanks to the incredibly gracious Kathryn for not only letting me go, but encouraging it, even in the wake of Miss Eisley coming down with a fever.

Many have said that Sporting’s new stadium is the most state-of-the-art soccer stadium in the country. Sure, it’s about 50,000 less seats than the largest soccer stadiums in Europe, but the energy was incredible. Everyone was excited to be there. It was a great day for American soccer.

Even Lance Armstrong was there.

We had great seats behind the goal.

And were ready to cheer on Sporting to victory over Chicago Fire.

But unfortunately, a victory wasn’t to be had. It was a thrilling draw, and we were robbed a goal that was called back because someone was supposedly offside. There was drama, excitement and heartache, all-in-all a great match. It would have been nice to walk away with a victory, but in the end it’s not just about the game.

It would have been great to spend more time with the Aarinn’s, but home beckoned and I was ready to see my girls. I hit the road early, fueled up – the car and me – and was home by 9am. It was a fast trip, but a great memory.

Thanks, Kathryn!

First, thanks to our wonderful friends, we are now the proud owners of THIS amazing wading pool!

Those are STAIRS everybody! Leading up to a SLIDE! Luckily for us (although not so much for THEM), our friends’ children are too big for this pool, so they just GAVE it to us! Although, we will NEVER turn Kaylee, Creighton, and Sawyer away if they want to come back and “help Miss Eisley swim.”
That’s what I have been doing the past two days…helping Miss E swim…

…or watch her chew on our pathetic swim toys.

But what a lady! My oh my…so fetching in her swimwear attire…fetching AND modest. Startin’ early on modesty! Yep!

Bathing. Beauty. Many thanks to our dear friends the Pierces for donating Savannah’s old swimsuits! Good thing Eisley has stylin’ friends!

And secondly, last week I came across this cool thing you could do if you had some stained clothes. No, mother, not cross stitch a panda over it. But a cool bleaching effect…here, let me show you!

First of all, who knew watermelon stained?

I, clearly, did not.

So I found a super cute ‘e’ and printed it out

(C & E are discussing just how cuddly Fisher the Hippo is. How we came up with Fisher as his name is another blog post entirely. Oh, and the answer? Cuddly…VERY cuddly)

Then, I traced it onto some freezer paper and cut it out.

After placing it where I wanted it, I ironed it on to her shirt.

Then, you fill a little spray bottle that has a fine-mist setting with bleach and go to town! According to the magazine, it should have a really splattered effect, stains gone, cool initial or whatever stencil shining brightly on the shirt!

Are you excited to see the end result!?….

…….

….Here it is!!!!!

Um.

The ‘e’ is nowhere to be seen.

Cool. Now I smell like bleach and Eisley’s shirt is 2 toned.

Oh well…I’m not out anything…it was ruined before I started working on it! I was just kind of disappointed, because how CUTE would that have been?

And finally, how cute is she in her bathrobe? Sad, but stinkin cute.

Have I caught the blogging bug again? Not sure…maybe it’s just because we have way too many cute shots of Eisley. And it’s selfish of Chris and I to keep them all to ourselves. The world is too sad a place to deprive it of THIS face:

Wearing her Baba’s hat. And a tank top. Because it’s Memorial Day!
Oh, SORRY. That’s Eisley. I assumed you didn’t recognize that big kid?

I’m bummed that this pic is blurry because how amazing is she? And Miss Stripes! Holla! Lookin good, Sweets! Here she is, posing like a junior high cheerleader, with her new alphabet train, courtesy of Grandpa Rui! We love it! Because it has an adjustable volume! Chris was able to see his dad while he was in California last week, so Eisers got just a FEW gifts from her sweet grandpa!
Speaking of Chris being gone in California, we girls had a heck of time being happy. We missed him so much! Even graham crackers only made us a LITTLE happy.

But he returned, and all was right with the world again! She and I did just fine (with the exception of one terrifying dream I had of someone crouched in her room at night right by her crib) but we just PREFER it when he’s home. Because he’s so much fun!!

Like…cuddlin and watchin the Champions League final! We (well, Chris) were all decked out in our Red Devil red, even drinking coffee out of a ManU cup. However, our boys in red did not prevail against BarTHelona.

Oh well…Chris taught Eisley how to be a good sport and not be TOO sad about a defeat.
We also love when Baba’s home because we can do things like this:

play in her bed while he plays guitar…or…

…go on walks to Ames’ Memorial Day parade! We missed most of it. We saw about two cars and a lady threw us one piece of candy. A sour apple WarHead. No thanks.

He’s pretty much the best. Eisley and I are kind of in love with him!

He and I have been able to get out just the two of us a couple times lately…we had a banquet at church a couple weekends ago…

…and a wedding for our dear friends Marty & Anj LAST weekend…

He’s so handsome. Although we should come up with a new pose…

“WHO CARES?!?!?” you protest, “WHERE’S EISLEY?”

FINE.

Happy?? Yes, of course you are.

“Uuuugh…mama! Quit showin everybody my PICTURES!!!”

Almost a month later, and here I am posting about her birthday party. Oops.

We had a lovely morning for her garden party…sunny and 70ish. Perfect. I had a little bit of a emotional crisis – as people were arriving, my bacon wrapped dates came out of the oven charred. There were some that were salvagable. Oh well…THOSE were delicious. You’d think after 30 years of realizing that things don’t always go as planned, I wouldn’t panic. I’m getting better though. I think. Enough of this typing…let’s look at pictures!

My wonderful and talented  friend, Laura, gave me the food ideas as well as helped me prep a few things a couple days before her party. I would have never attempted goat cheese and pistachio covered grapes, but she insisted they were easy to make and delish. She was right. Thanks Laura!

My mom lent me her silver coffee service…because a garden party calls for one of these, don’t you think? I had a heck of a time polishing it, but it was so lovely seeing it start to shine after a while. I’ve already called dibs on that in mom & pop’s will. Insensitive? No. SMART. Hands off, Em.

Speaking of Em, here’s my beautiful sis and her bookend boys, Gavie & Taters, enjoying birthday muffins (courtesy of Chris’ sister, Bridie!) These two are goofballs and bring so much joy to my heart! And Em’s, it would seem.

Here’s another one of Eisley’s FIVE boy cousins, Mr. Liam, enjoying the sunshine!

But where’s the birthday girl, you ask? Oh my word! HERE she is! Miss Lady was a little confused why all the people she loved were at her house, and why on earth people were giving her boxes covered in paper.

Inquisitive. Pensive.

Oh! You’re all here celebrating ME! Oh lovely!

Eisers and 4 of her 5 cousins!

Eisley and her Grandma Janet and Grandpa Dan!

Eisley and her Grandma Barbie

Eisley and her aunt Bridie. Who will probably be Eisley’s personal ballet teacher one day! We already have the tutu!

Cousin Sammy enjoying Eiser’s swing. Which she has yet to warm up to…

Cousin Gavin was having FUUUUN!!!!

E & her grandpa Benny!

“Chuckling” over her birthday card

Eating her birthday ‘cake’

Chris looks happy, I look tired, and Eisley looks a little concerned.

And finally, maybe the thing I’m most proud of – her homemade bunting. Flags. Decorative triangles. Whatever you want to call them, I think they are most lovely. Pretty cardstock from Hobby Lobby, cut in triangles and hot glued to twine. Easy. Adorable. AND, reusable! They’re now hanging up in Bean’s room! See?

Sorry I gradually eased up on the descriptions. The ManU v Barcelona game is STARTING NOW! Glory glory Man United!!!

Get excited – upcoming blog posts include: “Katie Paints Her Kitchen!” and “Eisley Runs!”

I don’t have a whole lot of time…a sweet friend is coming over in a few minutes and I want to cut fresh lilacs for the living room before she arrives.

But I DID want to post Eiser’s 12 month comparison photo. When I have a little more time, I’ll do a lovely post about Lady Bean’s BIRTHDAY PARTY!

Here is our girl, twelve months in:

Um…hahahahahaha!!!! LOOK at Miss Twelve Months! What a goofball! And the night we took her picture, her constant companion of choice was her Burt’s Bees Apricot Oil, so there it is in the picture.

Our one year old girl loves:

• kicking the soccer “bah! bah! bah!”
• getting Rosebud Salve put on her lips
• pears and watermelon
• wild rice
• bunnies
• babies
• puppies
• her snow queen (her plush white blanket. when she’s wrapped up in it, she looks like a Snow Queen, hence the name, ok? geez)
• pointing
• books
• walking on her toes…with the help of mama and baba
• making elephant, lion, owl, and fish sounds
• smiling at strangers
• ppphhhhbbbbttthhhh-ing
• chewing. on. everything.
• especially the clasp on my planner and my wallet
• being tickled
• her face being covered when she’s drifting off to sleep
• grabbing. at. everything.
• drinking milk and water out of a big kid cup
• being chased on her hands and knees by baba…she just squeals as she crawls as fast as she can
• prat-falling in her bed
• physical comedy. seriously. she sat on Chris’ lap for a good 20 minutes WITHOUT MOVING, watching The Three Stooges. She had the hugest, goofiest grin on her face and was LAUGHING AT APPROPRIATE PLACES.
• scrambled eggs
• courtesy laughing
• standing on our bed looking out the window
• going on walks
• bathtime (but NOT shampoo time)
• straws
• Bob Ducca (no wait, that’s me and Chris. I just couldn’t help myself…I was making a list…)

I could go on and on, but it looks like it’s about to rain, and I best be getting on those lilacs!

Eisley Christine, this year has been SO joyous and fun and interesting and exhausting and wonderful and laughter-filled and perfect and way way too fast. We love you oh so oh so oh so much…Baba and I even talk about you when you’re sleeping wishing you were up playing with us!
Sometimes.
But sometimes we’re just super glad you’re quiet and asleep.

Well, we have an almost-one year old. Tomorrow, Miss Eisley Christine turns ONE. Fastest year of my life. Party prep is underway big time…the garden soiree is scheduled for Sunday morning. I will post plenty of pics of the party! And we’ll get the month to month comparison shot up too. Sorry we slacked on posting month 11.

But for now, I’ll leave you with a quick glimpse into Katie’s Krafting Korner. (I desperately hope that you read that knowing that my eyes are rolled SO far back into my head that it’s ridiculous.)

A couple weeks ago, I spotted this lovely thing on our neighbor’s curb:

Ew la la, right? But as Eiser’s and I drove past it (slowly), I realized, “hey wait! that ugly couch could be a darling little garden bench!” As much as the Saldanhas love having backyard bbq’s in the summer, and as much as Little Miss is going to have pool parties aplenty this summer, we really needed more seating! So, Sweet Handsome Chris stole away with me in the dark of night while Eisers was sawing logs, and we hefted it back to our house.

We chucked the cushions.

I painted it Almond.

And of course, my crazy talented mom saw a pic text of it and said, “Oh, I could make you a cushion and pillows no problem!” And after we picked out some springy garden fabric, VOILA!

My new favorite place to be in the morning! As Miss Eisers was taking her morning snooze, I brewed up some coffee, grabbed my Bible, let the sunshine wash over me, listened to some cardinals sing, and read the Psalms. Ahhhhhh……oh sweet spring mornings, you are the BEST!

Sidenote: Our lilac bush is starting to bud right next to our bench. As I was looking at the impending awesomeness of lilacs, I was struck by the thought that lilacs don’t HAVE to smell that way. They don’t have to smell at ALL, actually. But our Creator made them smell the way they do. Because He loves us. Awesome.

In case you’re not hip with the lingo, and yes, we are, “the haps” is the super cool way of saying, “we haven’t blogged in a long time so we should probably let everyone know what is going on with the Saldanha’s because they all care so much.” You know you do, moms.

So what has been going on? A lot, actually. Currently, Katie is super sick and Eisley is napping, so that leaves me with blogging. We are officially 12 days away from Eisley’s first birthday, which is insane to us! She has been growing and a-growing. A lot of our activities are winding down for the semester, so we’re excited to welcome warm weather and a lighter schedule.

Rather than tell you what’s going on, here’s a look into the daily life of the Saldanha’s the last few weeks.

Spring time gal is gearin’ up for her birthday party! Woohoo! She turned 11 months old on Tuesday (and yes, we’ll get around to her 11 month comparison shot) so that means Mama has got to get busy with birthday plans! Doesn’t she look so lovely relaxing on Grandma Barbie’s garden bench? Perfectly sized for little ladies?

So here’s what I’m thinking: A 1st birthday party for a Lady needs to be soft, beautiful, flowery, gossamer-y, pink. I’m hoping that the first weekend in May is going to be sunny and 74 degrees. With a light southwesterly breeze. I would love to have her birthday party be reminiscent of a petite, feminine garden party (although I would kinda like to see what a MANLY garden party looks like!)
So far, I have only ideas and a FEW table (or tree, depending on if we’re outside) decorations completed.

What do you think? Lovely little flower…um…balls, I guess? Stickless topiaries? Super pretty and soft…and PINK! Perfect for a lady’s party! I got the idea from my mom, surprise surprise. Super easy! Watch!

Take some lovely cardstock paper and a flower punch and go to town.

Then, take some lovely pearlized straight pins…

…and place one flower on a foam ball…

…and then with your straight pin, place ANOTHER flower on top of it, with the petals somewhat bent up. Adjust the petals so they are not symmetrical.

And…voila! Easy! I am going to do several of different sizes and the hope is to hang them from the tree from some twine or pretty ribbon. Not sure yet. Maybe even a lovely bird will alight on one of them during her party! Her BIRTHDAY party. Oh my word. Fastest year of my life.

How did THIS baby…

…turn into THIS big girl?

Oops! How’d THAT get in there!

I mean, THIS big girl?

Look at her…just chillin in her seat at the table, snackin on Cheerios, drinking her ‘wa-wa’ and chewin on her whale. What a big girl.