Harper B turns THREE!

Our little Harper Blythe (affectionately known as Harper B) recently celebrated her third birthday.  It is hard to believe that three years have passed since she was born.  She is such a blessing to our lives, and we are so thankful for her.  She adds a lot of joy and laughter to our home.  We wanted to spend the day making her feel special, you know, since it is a celebration of her life.  We've been talking about the subject of traditions lately and have been wanting to implement some for our own family.  We  thought Harper's birthday would be a great way to implement some birthday traditions around here.  Last year, we began the tradition of covering her bedroom floor with balloons while she slept.  This is a fun way for her to wake up.  We enjoyed this last year, therefore, we will continue this tradition until our children outgrow it.  We have also heard of other families bringing the birthday person breakfast in bed.  We like this idea, but we thought Harper was a little too young for that this year, but we may start with Matt in March. :)  We decided to theme the day around princesses, her favorite these days.  It is funny how girls are naturally drawn to princesses.  She has only seen a couple of princess movies but is totally obsessed with them.  She is even drawn to princesses that she's never seen in a movie.  Anyway, I digress.  We had brunch with princess pancakes and lots of other yummy goodness.  For dinner we had princess pizza and for the cake we had a box of Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate Brownies.  I dressed up the brownies Rocky Road style and of course we had ice cream too.  Harper loves anything chocolate and anything with ice cream.  A girl after my own heart!  We want to allow the birthday person to pick the menu for the day and pick their favorite treat for the celebration each year.  This is a way to make that person feel special.  Another tradition is going around the table and each person telling why they are thankful for the birthday person and what they love about that person.  We did this with Harper and it was such a great reminder of the blessing that she is to our family and the joy that she adds.

Things we love about Harper and are thankful for:

*Her laugh (my absolute favorite)
*Her imagination
*She travels well
*She adapts well to different places
*She tries to speak the national language and make friends
*She has adjusted so well to having a brother
*She is a great helper
*She is fun to be around
*She is flexible
*She knows that home is with Mom and Dad

And so much more....these are just what I thought of off the top of my head.  Somedays I mourn some of the things that she will "miss out on" (whatever that means) in America, but then I am reminded of what a rich experience she is getting.  She will grow up in a different culture and will see the world with a different perspective.  She will be learning two languages, and most importantly, she will see our Father doing amazing things all around her, and prayerfully, through her.  Right now, as I am sitting here typing this, I hear her playing with her princess dolls speaking mostly in a made up language with a few words from the national language thrown in there.  This is our life friends and I love it! ;)

So what are some of your birthday traditions?  I love the tradition of a birthday week.  The week leading up to a birthday you do something small for the birthday person.  You can write a special note, buy flowers, make up a song, watch a movie, cook something special, go to a coffee shop, make coupons from the family to redeem, etc.  You can get so creative with this.  Matt and Harper did this for my birthday this year.  It was really fun.  What are some other traditions that your family does on holidays that travel well?

Sneaking into Harper's room and filling it with balloons

Harper swimming in her balloons (that is what she called it!)

Princess Pancake Brunch

Blowing out the candles

A visit from a special friend

Tony Boombozz (our favorite pizza place in Louisville, KY) ain't got nothing on this pizza

The crowning of the princess

Rocky Road Brownies 

Twenty-Nine

The number right before the big 30 and the age I turned this past Sunday.   

My hope for this next year of my life: to display Christ and His righteousness.  Here is a verse from the song "All I have is Christ" by Sovereign Grace that I want to exemplify this next year of my life:

Now, Lord, I would be Yours alone
And live so all might see
The strength to follow Your commands
Could never come from me.
Oh Father, use my ransomed life
In any way You choose.
And let my song forever be
My only boast is You.

I sort of like aging (all except the physical part of it).  Strange as it may be, it allows me to see how I have changed, and hopefully matured.  Although, I still see areas where I need to "grow up." haha.  It is weird to think that I am now 29.  How did I get here?!  It seems just like yesterday that I was entering college and learning to live on my own.  Now, as I sit here, I am a wife and a mom.  I can only imagine how fast the time will pass between now and when my kiddos will be going off to college.  

My prayer is that God would use my ransomed life in any way He chooses, and that I would be thankful for all the blessings along the way, all the opportunities to share life with those around me and to share Christ and his love with my family, friends and neighbors.  

We have been in our new country's capital awaiting the arrival of baby brother (whose name will be announced soon) for about a month now.  This city is HUGE!!! But, I knew that I wanted to get out and do something fun for my birthday, even at 39 weeks pregnant.  My family loved me well.  Hubs surprised me with some beautiful flowers to start out the morning.

We then had a time of worship together singing, reading and praying.  For lunch we traveled to a cafe we had spotted about 3 weeks ago that looked interesting.  It turned out to be the best food we have had since we arrived here.  The food was fresh and the flavor was amazing and very different from anything you would expect to find in this country.  The cafe even gave me a free piece of cake for being pregnant.  They didn't even know it was my birthday.  How generous!  

This is the Burger Girl.  It was a crab cake and fish burger with all the greens, pesto and yummy goodness.  It was amazing.  FYI:  The cafe is called "Cup & Cake"

We had already planned to go to Pinkberry after lunch.  We couldn't disappoint Harper, so we still decided to go even after the free slice of cake.  I got the salty caramel with lots of yummy toppings.  Two desserts and good food while being surrounded by the people I love most=a great birthday.