Just because she is the darndest cutest little thing, I am of course biased, you get another picture on her birthday morning.

This week’s learned and links…

Glow is ONE!!!

Soul adores True and Brave even though she pesters them so much!

Such a pretty lady with pretty pictures living in Puerto Rico.

The girls are loving the new hammock!

I like Everlane tees. Got one for Ben and me and they are good quality and comfy.

Carefully coveting this necklace.

If I weren’t trying to purge, this kid vintage shop would have left my wallet empty.

Love Mandi’s nursery tour. So cute!

This week has been bit tougher week for me and Ben. We have some personal things going on, which forces us to pray together and cling to Jesus more together because we are just so helpless. I think I often mentally psyched myself out to think I am strong and that I can handle things, but really I am not. I am quite controlling about my life, but life does happen and there are just some things you just can’t control. We are learning to let go and pray more.

Technically, Glow has been having breakfast in bed everyday since the day she was born (from mama), but this was her first “official” breakfast in bed. She got the works… her first glass of milk, O’s, and a banana. Her big sisters also filled her tray with a stack of homemade cards and mommy and papi got her a Rody (from here), but it seems like it’s her sisters who has taken a liking to the blown up horse. Really though, who do you expect to win when there is a banana in front of her?! A banana will always win.

I can’t believe it has already been a year! It really does feel like just yesterday that we took her home from the hospital. I remember how our families were anxiously waiting to find out if we were having a boy or girl (we already knew but didn’t tell) and the name. We were anxiously waiting for her birth because this was the first time I was going to do it sans the drugs. It’s been an amazing year and we are so thankful to God for giving her to us. She is a delightful little girl and our days have definitely been brighter with her in them.

We had a simple, but fun adventure planned and I will share that next week. We love our little Glow and we are so glad to be able to celebrate the 366 days God has given her thus far!

P.S. If you want to read her birth story, I did HypnoBirthing, you can read it here.

If you remember this post, then you know how much we love having an indoor hammock. It really is one of our favorite spots in the house. For the kids, it’s like having an indoor swing, so you can imagine all the fun they have in it. I am convinced everyone should have an indoor hammock.

We love hammocks so much we got this beautiful Nicaraguan hammock. I love our colorful one, and I love big punches of color with our white-washed floors and white walls, but the fringe on our colorful hammock drove me crazy. Every time the girls swing on it, they step on the fringe and it comes off. So once or twice a week, I would have to crochet (because I am annoyingly anal like that) all the fringe back on. This hammock has the beautiful detailing, but will save me some extra time a week.

I know some of you have commented (and emailed) me about where to purchase my colorful hammock, but I couldn’t really lead you anywhere because it was from Anthro two years ago and it just isn’t around anymore. The weave on this one is actually thicker than our colorful one and it is bigger that even Ben can get in with both the two big girls cuddling beside him with more room to spare! This new one lacks the spread bar, which I thought would make it harder for the kids to get in, but it is no problem.

Um… I wonder how many indoor hammocks are allowed in a house?!

***UPDATE*** I’ve edited the post to remove the name of the store this hammock came from because I’ve heard from a couple of you that that particular shop hasn’t been reliable of late, so I would suggest googling “Nicaraguan hammocks” if you want one similar in style to mine. Hopefully you can find another shop who has good customer service to back up their products. See comments of other readers below of the bad experience they had with that shop, so I no longer recommend ordering from Almanza Hammock. 

My sister babysat one evening, which is pretty adventurous because that means she fed, cleaned, and put all four kids to bed. That’s not an easy feat you know. Ben and I snuck out to try a local restaurant I was curious about. We really don’t make time for dates as often as we should. My parents, the free babysitters (and siblings) live 30 minutes away, so if we took them there, then went on a date, picked them up and came home, it would too late (for us) and the work that goes on to get the kids out and back in the house is more than we prefer. It is just much easier for someone to come to the house to watch all four girls , but we haven’t figured out many people who could or are brave enough to do that just yet. Or maybe we just aren’t that trusting. Thus the result is a date night once in awhile.

Now our choice of restaurant ended up being pretty good. The appetizer started out “eh”, but they redeemed themselves with the meal, service, but most especially the peppers! You see, I had a chipotle aioli sauce with mine, but when the owner/chef asked how it was, I told him I could use more kick, so he brought out the habanero sauce. That was good, but my ears weren’t on fire and knew I could do more kick. Then he brought out the ghost peppers and well, Ben and I were pretty happy customers. The spicy sauces had such good flavor along with good kick, that it sealed the deal to come back and try more. This was our first time trying the infamous super hot ghost peppers and it was good. It definitely gives a heat that continues to grow and we love a lot of heat in our food.

Now as far as winning some ray-bans… the sponsor that sent over these glasses are giving away ray-bans to the blog that has the most comments about them. If we win, they would give one to me, one to one of my blog friends, and to one of you! Not sure I need more glasses, but I wouldn’t mind trying them out, but I thought this would be a cool chance for one of you if you were itching to get a pair. Just tell me what pair of ray-bans are totally calling out to you! Can see the full list here and just let me know which one is your fave in the comments. The contest ends September 17, 2012, so make sure to get your two cents in before then.

on me: skirt, c/o ModCloth. shirt, target. necklace, shop miguez. shoes, c/o lotta. on ben: shirt, vintage. jeans, diesel. shoes, nike.

She turns one in a few days. It’s so strange. She’s my baby and sometimes I feel so bad that time has escaped so quickly and I feel like I missed out on so much. Like maybe I should have videotaped her more or taken more pictures, anything that would make this time just freeze for a bit longer.

We’re finally moving on some baby things along like the baby tub, or the infant rocking seat because those are things we just don’t need anymore. I have been in this baby stage for the past seven years, it is hard to let go, though for us it really is time. Soul was walking at 9 months and Glow is barely standing at almost 1 year. I am just fine with that. She’s a healthy little girl and I know the walking will come. I am just in no hurry.

She happily crawls about the house, holds on to edges and walks that way, I see drool spots all over the wood floors, her favorite toys are the wooden blocks and this girl is just always happy. When she isn’t, it usually means she’s sleepy, so just put her down in her bed and she rolls onto her tummy immediately and goes to sleep. I love the way her toes curl when she stands up, she gets growly when food is placed in front of her and we call her “Glanimal”, her hair is always in her face, and she has hair has a big knot at the back that I don’t have the heart to cut.

This little one makes my heart swell, well they all do, but of course the older ones have a little more sass to them now. Heck! True even yells at me sometimes. You can imagine that didn’t turn out so well for her and she was best friend’s with a wall for a bit. I know in due time this baby will have that same sass and we will both fight. I hope that time doesn’t come too soon and I will just spend now inhaling her baby-ness, trying to take as many pictures and video of her as I can, and just cuddling her as much as possible. Though no matter how much I do now, I will still be wishing I did more later. I just know this will all go by way too fast.

on glow: stripe romper, c/o little esop. the stripey and the quality make it one of my faves!

I am sure you know by now I am a big fan of all types of plants (see here and here). I have them everywhere in the house and I have a list of plants that I have been wanting to add under my care. I always thought I would have a brown thumb because my mom has a really brown thumb, but to my surprise, I am not so bad. In my search for more plants, we went to a local nursery Sunday afternoon and I came home with a new and very cool plant baby! It’s an Aralia Balfour and it is supposed to be low maintenance, so that always works well with this mama of four.

I have already put it in its special place and I keep going to that room to look at it. It’s so pretty and has so much personality. I really love the clean, simple lines of it. Plants are like sculptures to me. They really are! They add a lot of punch and personality to a space. I already put a special order for another house plant and I can’t wait to get that one in.

What’s your favorite indoor plant? Or do you have a brown thumb?

on me: shirt, madewell. skirt, c/o ModCloth. shoes, c/o ModCloth. bag, ms. tips.