LULIE'S FIRST FIESTA

It's no secret the Ireland's LOVE Mexican food and margaritas!! So when we had Lulie so close to Cinco de Mayo I knew it was fate to have an "Uno fiesta". I've practically been planning this day since I put the two together! I found a lot of inspiration for Lulie's first birthday from Kaila over at These Blonde Walls. She linked all the shops I used for the backdrop and props throughout.

This birthday party has been my favorite one to throw yet, and the succulent cupcakes were my most proud pinterest WIN!!

One of our "things" for the girls' birthdays are our messy homemade cakes. I absolutely love them (and the ease of boxed cake) and that these lopsided, made with love, sprinkled cakes will be in all of our birthday pictures. The sweetest little tradition that Clay actually came up with.

Another thing that we do are hand painted numbers representing the year they are turning. I've done this for Ellie Clay both years and put them in her keepsake boxes each year. I painted her #1 and #2 to match the decor of the party theme and they always turned out real cute (isn't everything mini cuter?!). However, if you notice in these pictures Lulie's #1 remains unpainted. Call it second child syndrome, laziness, or pure forgetfullness... whatever it may be, it didn't get painted. So an unpainted, pitiful, cardboard #1 will be going into Lulie's keepsake box and I can't wait to have to explain that one to a teenage girl. In my eyes.. at least it will be honest.

All in all, yesterday was a blast! I absolutely love hosting and celebrating anything (and I mean anything!) to throw a party! We're super thankful for all of our people who came to celebrate our little love! And I can't wait to share Lulie's one year old portraits!! Still can't believe I'm saying she's ONE!

HE MUST BECOME GREATER

In preparation for Lulie's birthday, I have been struggling with a battle of emotions. One part of me wants to throw a big party (just as I did for Ellie Clay) to celebrate a year on Earth. The other part of me wants to just cry at the thought of April 27th coming and going.

A weekish ago, I was talking to Clay about my conflicting spirit and his response was both kind and wise. He said, "Staci, I know that we have to live with what happened on that day for the rest of our lives. We have to mourn the loss of any future biological children, mourn the thought of what could have been, but baby we also have to praise Jesus. Lulie is ALIVE, you are ALIVE and while we do need time to mourn and grieve, we also need to celebrate the sweet, precious gifts he HAS given us."

As I processed through his words, I felt guilty for taking joy away from Lulie. I felt guilty for not wanting to celebrate her with every ounce of my being. She is the sweetest gift (although she is difficult to handle at times) our family has ever received and I don't ever want to take that for granted.

Fast forward to a few days later, Clay called me out into the backyard to come see something. When he led me to a bush, I was hesitant thinking he was going to scare me with something-- totally a Clay move.

But to my surprise he pointed to a nest with two little baby birds in it! I have never seen such little birdie's before. It was amazing and truly something I have never experienced before. They were so sweet and innocent. I found myself staring at them for a long, long time and then later staring at the picture Clay took of them.

I have no doubt in my mind this was Jesus' way of saying, "Irelands, if you just open your eyes my promises surround you. LIFE surrounds you. JOY surrounds you. I just need you to seek ME through it all." I recently heard that often times when we are in a "rut", it's because we are thinking too much about ourselves. I feel like this past year has been a whole lot of me thinking these "woe is me" thoughts. And while I know I have a reason to grieve and be sad, I'm ready to dig myself out of that trench. I want my thinking to be more geared towards serving and loving others well.

"He must become greater; I must become less." - John 3:30

I am taking huge strides in my journey through this process of healing and I've never been more excited to see what else the Lord will reveal to our family in the days, months and years to come.

I feel like my thank yous will never be quite enough, but thank you to everyone who has reached out at some capacity to our family during this past year. Your meals, hugs, love and friendship seriously mean the world to Clay and I. We seriously couldn't ask for a better tribe of people loving us through the trenches.





*Total transparency, we no longer have sweet baby birds. In Clay Ireland's words, "the raccoons got 'em" :(

EASTER SUNDAY

I grew up in the Greek Orthodox church, so I don't have a whole lot of memories of celebrating Easter. Especially no memories celebrating Easter with the meaning attached. Now, as a parent, I want my girls to grow up knowing Jesus. Knowing why we celebrate Easter and why we celebrate his resurrection. I pray my girls grow up knowing the Savior that died on the cross for them, so that they may have life & life to the FULL. Sharing a few pictures from our day together. <3 

LIVING ROOM MAKEOVER

We recently gave our living room a total over haul (?), I think that's how the saying goes! We spend the most time in this room, so it only made since we finally show it some love & attention after 3 years of moving in! The TV used to hang over the mantle and we had two couches facing each other on opposite sides of the room. It felt tight and cluttered, especially when we got on the floor to play with the girls and our horse of a puppy. We moved the TV to one of the sides of the room and went with one couch and chair on the opposite side! I absolutely love the new set up and how open it feels.

Our couch (with chaise) and chair are the from the Ektorp collection from IKEA. After a ton of research, reading review after review and visiting multiple local furniture stores this seemed like the best option for us. We LOVE them. Best bang for our buck and they are practical when having two kids. The slipcover comes right off, easy to wash and throw right back on! They also have multiple different colors in the slipcovers, so if my indecisiveness ever creeps in it's an easy change.

Throw pillows are my weakness. One reason we decided to really invest in this room was due to the clutter. There was SO much in such a TEENY space. So the "less is more" theory was really something I was shooting for, but anyone who knows me knows having ONLY these five pillows on my couch was quite a feat. I just couldn't decide and they were all so pretty. The lumbar pillow is from Anthropologie and the grey gingham pillows are from IKEA, which I snagged before they went out of stock.

Clay has bitter feelings about our coffee table. The past two (yes, I said that.. two coffee tables in 4 years of marriage, it's fine) we have had, Clay built. We cherished those and they are both in new homes now being loved on by people we know. So, when I approached him about buying this one he was hesitant. But I didn't give him much of choice, I loved it. It's smaller and completely open for storage underneath which we needed. Our inspiration was one I found from West Elm, but I ended up finding this one from Amazon a little more affordable and faster shipping. Not to mention the company had SUPERB customer service and went above and beyond to help a problem we ran into during the delivery. The cushions underneath can be pulled out and used as floor pillows if we are having a group of people over. I love hosting and our living room being filled with people and conversations, so it was important for me to make sure there was enough seating. We snagged those from the new Hearth and Hand with Magnolia line at Target.    

For rug options, I knew I wanted to layer a larger more durable rug underneath a smaller shag, cozy rug. It took me hours searching Overstook, Target and Rugs USA to finally find the jute rug that we wanted. We ended up finding this one at Rugs USA and it is the perfect size and really great quality. We found the layered rug at Rugs USA as well. While we both love the look of these two rugs paired together, we are less than pleased with the shag rug. It sheds worse than a dog. It's terrible and the fibers are now in every room of our house. We've kept it, but will definitely not be purchasing another wool rug anytime soon. 

This blanket ladder isn't anything new, but I couldn't leave it out because I love it so much. This was one of those "diamond in the rough" finds when we first moved into this house. I told Clay my vision for what I wanted in that corner and he came home, no joke two days later and said, "Is this what you were talking about, babe?" And it was exactly what I had pictured in my mind! The blankets we've collected over time from Target and TJ Maxx. 

One of the things I was most scared about moving the TV off the mantle was actually having to decorate it. Mantles intimidate me and I can never seem to get them right. I'm still not in love with this little arrangement, so any ideas or pieces of art you can see in this space-- send them my way!

Thank you for allowing me to pretend to be an interior decorator and share this room with you! We are so glad we finally took the time and resources to re-invest in this room! Next up... our backyard!!