This is a picture of Taylor on her birthday back in 2012- throwback to our days in Virginia when we jumped over to a vineyard with some friends for a birthday.
This week was busy: Family birthday dinner with her family last weekend (Also to celebrate sister-in-law Mallory’s birthday too), birthday with friends at a local brewery on Thursday, then Logan family birthday dinner last night.
Unfortunately there were no family pictures with Taylor’s family last weekend to share. But the cousins sure are a lot of fun when they play together:
Similarly, there were no great group-shots of Taylor’s birthday dinner with Friends on Thursday.
But I did get this shot of Mercy and John (Houston’s middle child) playing on the free video games; both of them like the motorcycle game.
This moment seemed special, so for full context, I took a video as well. This stuff is gonna be worth while when these kiddos get bigger:
Then, what was really special was to do a family dinner at mom’s house last night. The summer was busy, and there has been a lot of transition, but this kind of thing is worth fighting for; the family got together for dinner, and it was great. These cousins are so special together. Lila is getting so big. Amelia and Mercy are really clicking as friends these days.
Mercy even smiled.
Everywhere I go I am surrounded by girls. As we were out back catching up on summer trips and whatnot, my mom noticed it was quiet. She went inside to find this: all the girls doing each others hair. Everywhere I go I am surrounded by girls, but this is really special. In 4 short years, Lila will go to college. With that in mind, each of these moments is really special.
The real birthday gem this year
There are two things to point out here:
- Our first year of marriage, Taylor kept a blog on blogspot. It was a great blog: witty, funny, charming. It was like a “public journal” (Taylor’s words describing it) just looking at some of the funny things about being married. In many ways, her boldness in keeping a blog is what inspired me to do this blog. Anyways, if you care to take a look, here is the link: http://cellardwellin.blogspot.com
- It is hard to get an excellent, thoughtful gift for Taylor. She has set the bar so high. She is thoughtful at buying gifts for anyone. She will see something four months ahead of someone’s birthday while she is out of town somewhere, buy it, take it home, and remember to wrap it on her friend’s special day. Again, it is one of the things I love about Taylor.
When I have to get a gift though, it doesn’t have the same level of “thoughtfulness”. This year though, I feel like I nailed it.
That blog I listed above? I got it printed and turned into a book.
Over a 2 year period, the blog had so much content that printing it resulted in a. 3 volume set. However, we are excited to have this beauty to look on as a coffee table book for years to come.