Yikes, allow me to dust off the ol’ blog here. There appears to be QUITE A LOT of dust! I apologize. But if you have been wondering what on earth we have been doing…..here is our year in review. Its been a busy busy busy year. There was a lot of coffee involved haha.
Happy New Year! xo
John worked his magic on our annual “year in review” video! Enjoy a fun, frantic, fast little video that sums up our whole year in just a couple minutes!
Its pretty wild how much little Oliver grew up in the last year!
Although Labor Day nearly signals the end of summer for us- that weekend felt the most like summer yet. We headed to Oliver’s grandma Jenkins for the weekend. It’s just a little over an hour away so its an easy escape but it always feels like a mini vacation. It was a hot weekend- the kind where you never take your swim suit off, you walk wet haired to the local burger stand, you lounge around in grandmas yard, you stay up playing card games and wake up early to walk along the ocean with the dogs and you forever feel warm, salty, sweaty and browned by the sun. We had a good one. Lets re-live it via this little short we made with our point and shoot.
HOW OR WHY I HAVE YET TO SHARE THIS IS MIND BOGGLING – but, John made another amazing video in honor of Oliver’s first year of life. If you know us or know Oliver, prepare to get your tissue box out. We are so fortunate to have Johns home movies. Even if I do help shoot our films, they would be nothing but small clips without my magic maker.
At the end of June, Oliver celebrated his first year of life. You would think that a one year old would be more or less indifferent to a birthday party in their honor but I’m convinced that Oliver actually really did have the best day ever.
I scheduled his party to be perfectly between his naps. Only thing is that he didn’t want to go down for his first nap on time. He may have slept through the start of the party but when he woke up happy and rested and saw a yard full of friends from the window above his changing table he was so excited. He immediately joined them and got straight in the kiddie pool we had put out for him. He proceeded to spend the entire day there because he is obsessed with water. I pulled him out for watermelon “cake”, dripping wet and then plopped him right back in the pool where I hand fed him Mexican food haha.
Here are a few birthday party photos as well as Johns beautiful little film.
Olivers invite said “Oliver is Uno. Join us as we sprinkle him with love” so we went with a minimal black and white polka dot theme for the part decor.
I hand painted giant white polka dots on cheap paint drop cloths for picnic style seating. I figure everyone would more or less be on the ground with young ones anyhow.
This is really the only shot I got of the “cake” but basically its a watermelon with the ends cut off – covered in homemade very low sugar whip.
I originally started researching healthy low sugar smash cake recipes and then I saw a similar watermelon cake someone created for Fourth of July on pinterest and I thought- bingo! babies love fruit- its healthy AND I dont have to bake! Another bonus is that its beautiful when cut into. Looked like a red velvet cake. I highly recommend it!
Another fun thing we did was set up this baby photobooth of sorts. It was total chaos but in the best way possible. We got more pictures on our good camera but I’m a bad blogger with little time so here is one from my phone. eek. Check out O’s tan! (turns out we are related after all haha)
At parties end he zonked out hard, still wet from the pool and happy as a clam!
Every year, John compiles and edits all of our video bits and photos into a “year in review.” All the little moments we captured on our phones and more. It’s such a fun way to get a glimpse into our year and reflect on all the little things that you might otherwise forget. The edits are always quick and just like the year, if you blink you might miss something. Its fun to try to squint as the photos fly by and laugh at all the silliness that the year held. When we did last years “year in review” I thought it was going to be pretty damn hard to beat – but obviously this year with Oliver is our best year yet. Its insane how quickly 2013 came and went. I imagine that this is a product of being a parent and the years will continue to fly by. Which makes me extra thankful that we have these memories and we can summarize each years milestones and moments. Because as much as you try to cherish each and every day the memories sure can get away from you quickly. I’m thankful for yet another beautiful year with family and friends and looking forward to the next. (Although, admittedly it’s a little bittersweet to end the year that welcomed the birth of our son!)
Wondering why it’s been so quiet around here? I’m guessing you probably figured it out, but we had our baby! On Friday after work, at 38 weeks, I went into labor!
On Saturday June 29th at 9:23 pm our son was born. Please welcome John Oliver Jenkins. 7 lbs 14 oz. 21 inches long.
Throughout the pregnancy, in addition to my daily outfit photos, we set up a camera in one spot at home and I took a photo every morning before I left the house. This allowed us to do a fun little stop motion video that shows my belly getting bigger and bigger in a short time.
After our delivery, I received a txt message from a friend in Massachusetts that included an audio clip of his toddler son welcoming Ollie into the world. I pretty much died when I heard it & John made sure it made its way into the video.
We are totally smitten and having a great time getting to know our little bug and getting into our new routine. Once I get it together enough to resume some daily outfits, we will be back. Haha
by Gaelyn on July 7, 2013
Categories: Film, Kids, LIfe, Motherhood, Pregnancy 7 14
Back in April we went on our Babymoonto to Sayulita Mexico. It was totally amazing. We made a silly films to document our trip (because we make films to document everything) and we finally got it up on the interwebs, so I thought I would share it with you!
The film also might reveal our baby name! But you’ll have to watch and find out.
PS the beginning of the song John chose totally makes me chuckle. When he was working on the film I said “what are you editing? a 70′s porn?”
by Gaelyn on June 7, 2013
Categories: Motherhood, Pregnancy, Travel, Video 2 2