My how life can change over the course of just a few months! Right before New Year’s this year, we were parents to an only child living in a townhome in the city. Now we live in the country as a family of four. It has been a wonderful crazy journey — one that we’re still adapting to, which is why we are just now formally announcing to the world that 6 and a half weeks ago, our daughter was born.


Serai Claire McLellan came into this world on February 23rd at 9:06am, weighing 7 pounds and 7 ounces – a fitting homage to her brother. :) I’ll spare you all the details, but her entrance was a bumpy one and after uterine rupture and an emergency c-section, we were so relieved to have her here safely. Modern medicine is a wonderful thing and we can’t say enough about the tremendous staff of Vanderbilt Hospital. Our daughter is with us because of them and we are so grateful.

It’s funny to me how a person who can’t speak or really express much of anything we understand can be in your life for only a moment and you can’t imagine life without them. Their presence stretches you in every way possible and yet you love them without end. You hold them for the first time and you already love them every bit as much as everyone else you love most in this world. Babies have amazing power like that.



If we are friends on Facebook or Instagram, you’ve already seen tons of photos of our new life with Serai. In case you’ve missed all the action though, here is our life as we currently know it – a sweet, chaotic, lovely mess in one big chaotic, and thus totally fitting, blog collage. :)


Serai my love, you complete our lives in ways that we didn’t even know needed completing. I’m so excited to have a little girl to do all the mother-daughter things in life with. Your brother loves sharing his favorite things with you and helping take care of you. But maybe my favorite thing is how every evening your daddy holds you and talks to you  about how you’ll dance together at your wedding as he soothes you to sleep. We all love you so very much. Welcome to the world little one.

Xoxo,

Your mom


I didn’t think I would do baby books for the kids. We want a big family and I just figured that I wouldn’t have the time to keep up with them so I wouldn’t start making one for Seven and end up with our last child in therapy because they didn’t have a baby book and thought I didn’t love them as much. Makes perfect sense right?

Well, then Seven’s first year was coming to a close and I was feeling nostalgic and had all of these random notes, on my phone or scrap pieces of paper, telling of the year’s accomplishments. Blame it on crazy mamma hormones or whatever you will – I wanted to hold on to them forever and suddenly found myself freaking out because I didn’t know where to put it all. I’ve always thought a parent’s job is to double as your child’s historian and the documenter of their lives and I was just feeling plain ol’ irresponsible not having Seven’s first year of documents organized well. Enter the baby book for child #1 and thus my intimidating commitment to keeping one for every child so as not to be the subject of their therapy sessions.

I have to say, I’m glad I’m doing them. I love them and I already know they’re going to mean so much to my kids when they’re older. So, as we anticipate our little Miss Serai’s due date later this week, I’ve set to work on her baby book. The first part is all about before you were born and the book asks for photos of your mom and dad before you arrived. Sean makes the argument that any photos of us up until this point fit that bill, but I prefer a more specific and literal interpretation. Mandated by the baby book, we’ve stepped into our new backyard over the past couple of weeks and documented our family as it is, right now, right before our daughter arrives.

Side note to new moms:

If you aren’t keeping some sort of record of your child’s infancy, I would like to encourage you to do so. It hasn’t been as much work as I was afraid it would be and a well thought out baby book is so much more of a treasure than I originally thought. If you’re looking for a good one, I really like The Complete Baby Journal, Organizer & Keepsake. It asks for funny stories, your thoughts throughout, and leaves places for you to write letters to your child at various milestones. It also comes in a tote which helps keep it clean and holds any loose things together with the book that you might not have attached yet. Some of the décor is a little kitschy, but what baby book’s isn’t? It’s the content that matters and this one is very thoughtful.

As you can see, she can’t possibly be too much longer – I’ve run out of room! Serai, my little chickadee, we can’t wait to meet you!

 

For the technically minded who have graciously sat through my personal post:

All images shot with a Canon 5D Mark II and 85mm 1.8 lens

Retouched and enhanced using the Motibodo board and Totally Rad Actions