This may be the longest, albeit unintentional, post-holiday-hiatus in the six years of this blog! It is hard to believe that over three months have passed since I last popped on here. Of course, much of the reasoning behind that is due to a certain small human 🙂 I’m not sure I’ve ever done a ‘life lately’ styled post, but this seems as good timing as ever to give it a whirl!

Celebrating Emerson’s first Christmas season was the sweetest and luckily, her sixth-month birthday fell in the same week. I had wanted to do a ‘six-month-old’ photo shoot that we could also use for our Christmas card photo. Unfortunately, sickness delayed the shoot until the day-before Christmas Eve, but I think that actually worked out better. Our Christmas cards might not have gone out until the new year, but hey, what new parents ever do anything on time?

In early January, Emerson was baptized at our church! We hosted a small luncheon following the service. I hope to share more of this special day on here soon!

After taking a short travel break, we had two almost back-to-back trips to Richmond! The first visit was to visit with some of Jody’s extended family, giving Emerson a chance to meet her uncle and great-aunt, as well as giving us time to visit with family we haven’t seen in a few years! While we were in town, we got out of the house long enough to spend the afternoon downtown at Brambly Park – a great wine and food stop with lots of space, if you are in the area! We were even able to squeeze in visits with some friends and spent some time with our three-year-old goddaughter, who adored Emerson.

We celebrated Valentine’s Day with a little family dinner date at Limoncello, an Italian restaurant in St. Michaels. Jody and I enjoyed sharing a bottle of wine, especially since our reservation fell on half-priced bottle night! We weren’t sure how Emerson would do out considering she didn’t nap super great that day, but she was an absolute ham, waving at the guests at the tables surrounding ours. It was such a fun outing as a family of three, although snacking on our to-go cheesecake dessert in our pajamas was highly regarded.

Speaking of waving, Emerson has two “tricks” that she loves to demonstrate. First, she has mastered the wave and will wave to anyone and everyone. Her other skill is when you ask if she’s adorable, she’ll tilt her head to the side and grin (see below). We just can’t get enough.

Filed under ‘things I could live without’, we have been working through one house project after another since Christmas- and not fun and exciting projects! On Christmas night, we returned home after a day of festivities to discover our house was 40 degrees. It was discovered that there was a crack in our pipes that ran through the (surprise – uninsulated) garage walls, causing our pipes to freeze. Prior to this, we had ordered a new hot water heater, which was installed shortly after the pipe discovery, for the installer to realize the door to our water heater closet no longer fit. Recently, our garbage disposal broke and the drain for our guest bathroom stopped working. Ah – the joys of homeownership! 🙃

Unfortunately, I’m sad to share that my much-adored grandfather suddenly passed away in March. He was an iconic local barber, a spirited storyteller, a duck decoy (among other things) woodworker, an avid waterman, a proud veteran, and patriarch of our family. There is a hole in our family without him here, but I find peace in what he left behind – he instilled my love for the water and storytelling- something I plan to share with my daughter so that she knows her “Poppy” and how much he adored her.

As life often does, celebrations co-exist with difficult times. My sister is in the middle of wrapping up her medical school career and learned where she matched (Columbia for Internal Med!) the day after our grandfather’s funeral. The following weekend, Jody and I left Emerson to spend the weekend with her grandparents as we embarked on Madison and Josh’s bachelorette and bachelor parties! Jody and Josh headed to Florida for a weekend in the sun while I spent the weekend showing Madison and her friends around my favorite southern city, Charleston. It was a great celebration and makes me even more excited for their wedding in June!

I’m not sure how often I’ll be on here in the coming weeks – celebrations and events continue through June with almost every weekend booked. I’m very grateful for this very full season and even more so for you for being here despite my inconsistent posting. Know that this little corner of the internet is very special to me and I hope to continue to grow this community to be a space to celebrate all the seasons, even if sporadically.

On this Easter weekend, I’m wishing y’all the same peace, hope, and joy that was felt on that first Resurrection Sunday. If you are in a similar hard and busy season right now, know that I see you. That Saturday so many years ago was hard too, but Sunday was still coming. As Pope John Paul II said, “We are an Easter people, and Alleluia is our song.” Happy Easter!