Our Happy Third

Ridge's birthday has been surrounded by a chunk of processing and overthinking on my part. (I know that his birthday was 2 1/2 weeks ago, but it's still worthy of noting. What was it like having a third? How did we do? How did I feel? How has this year been? 

The answer is that this year has been wonderful. Adding Ridge has been a delight. I often remember the prayer our OB prayed an hour after Ridge was born. He asked that the Lord would give our family more love. That prayer has been answered in so many ways. The way Burl and Fern love Ridge, the way we love another child, and the love that Ridge has for everything has been such a gift! I almost cry when I remember that prayer because MORE LOVE is the perfect theme for these past twelve months. 





Ridge is a delightful baby. While all my babies have been laid back, Ridge is by far the happiest. His resting face is smiling. That's our boy! Always happy, always smiling. 

Ridge's Twinkie

Fern picked out a treat at the store, and we decided to let Ridge have a go at one. It was a true culinary experience for him:

A Fox Named Ridge

My second favorite thing of being a mom is raising siblings. I especially love when they do sweet gestures for each other. This is a post about something that Burl made for Ridge's birthday.

During the course of Ridge's party preparations, Burl slipped away and enthusiastically started working on a project. He wanted to write a play for everyone. It was about an owl that saved a fox from being eaten by a bear. 

He wrote the narrator's script, created a setting, made a fox out of balloons and construction paper, gathered costumes, and labeled everything. His cousins willingly fulfilled the roles that he assigned them. 

This was such a huge deal to me! I give all the credit to kindergarten for this level of courage, creativity, and execution. It was beautiful. The crowd demanded an encore, which was pretty easy, considering it lasted only a minute. 

Ridge's First Birthday Party

On Saturday we celebrated our sweet Ridge's birthday. 

We invited grandparents, cousins, aunts, and uncles and had a small brunch with cake and presents. 

Ridge's birthday has been a long time coming in many ways. Since Christmas, Burl and Fern have asked me to pray that Ridge can have a fox birthday, because his beloved love-y is a fox. Well to their surprise but not mine, the Lord answered their prayers. 

I was looking for easy fox cakes online, when I saw instructions for this beauty. I showed it to John and he said, "oh I can make that-no problem!" I baked it, iced it with the white, and breathed down his neck while he did the details. 

For the first portion of his party, Ridge was napping. The poor birthday boy had a fever and wasn't feeling himself (as seen in the picture above). 

Eventually he warmed up to everything and he returned to his natural resting face: smiles.

He wasn't interested in actually eating the cake, but he sure enjoyed smashing it. He got it in his hair, his clothes, and all over his face. It was a good show.

Then, he has a quick bath and wardrobe change in time to open presents. It's a challenge to find appropriate gifts for everyone to gift him. However, this year I came up with great ideas and he was well loved!

He was an absolute doll and his party was a sweet time! It was probably my favorite first birthday celebration! We are excited for Ridge to be one!