Ruth Evelyn is ONE year old!

Picture by Sarah Keith of Think {Pretty} Photography, Lubbock, TX

One. An entire year with my daughter. 

It seems only yesterday I was sitting to blog about waiting on her birth and then, even as I typed, labor began with a rush of water and ended with her being born in water, peacefully at home, surrounded by love and rejoicing, right into her Daddy's arms. What a year it has been! Seeing Jacob as a big brother, watching them get to know one another, sleepless days, sleep-filled nights, dancing that dance of mother and baby as we got to know one another. Figuring out a routine that worked for us all (so glad to finally have found our rhythm at about 10 1/2 months! No morning naps and a good afternoon nap for both kiddos - Mama smiles! Babies get rest! It's a win/win!) Learning that children really ARE each unique and different! All the "firsts" seem to have come so quickly with my second baby, even faster than with my first! Rolling, crawling, walking, signing, speaking... what a joy and blessing to have the chance to steward another life through its first year on this earth. We've had fun with bows and dresses, pinks and purples... and seeing the fierce determination to BE in this little girl. She is passionate and determined and has emotions so complex, much like her Mama! She has adored movement from the beginning, never a baby who just wanted to sit still while being held! She loves to be worn, but only if Mama is moving! She adores her Daddy and lights up as he enters a room and wants nothing more than to play with her brother. When Jacob sings silly songs or dances around as a pre-schooler is prone to do, Ruth Evelyn just laughs! As we watch them grow as brother and sister, Josh and I delight in being Mama and Daddy. We are learning as we swim this ocean of being a family and raising children - moments of "No! Dat's mine, Ruf!" and squeals of frustration when sister wants what brother has. And then there is the outside play where they run and laugh, slide and climb together, and my heart soars! Ruth Evelyn loves drums and dolls (she rarely is a snuggler, but will snuggle soft dolls and stuffed animals - so sweet), dancing and music (her Mamaw would delight to see Ruth Evelyn "dance"!), trains and cars (hey, she has a big brother after all!), and helping Mama in the kitchen. 

After learning a great deal about breastfeeding in my journey with Jacob for 12 1/2 months, Ruth Evelyn and I have had a wonderful breastfeeding relationship. I know this is something that is different for each family and mother/baby pair, so it is simply something meaningful to me. I delight in the fact Ruth is still nursing and wakes 2 to 4 times a night to do so and frequently throughout the day, that she turns to nursing if she falls or is frustrated - it is a source of solace and comfort. Just a part of our dance. Today, after her nap, she was still snuggly and drowsy and so we snuggled up in my bed while she nursed for about 25 minutes. I know she'll grow too fast, her big brother reminds me of that so often, so I am grateful for those moments where we stop and just.... are.... together.

We have been so blessed and humbled in our move to Lubbock. God has paved the way with such gentleness and provision. We miss our family, and yet have made some friends here that we are able to share days, struggles, joys and hopes with. We have a church home where we can serve and share and grow - and that gives us roots in this place. Through a group I founded on Facebook (that has blossomed to 100 members strong!), I've met many mamas walking this journey of parenthood, all from a diversity of backgrounds where we can share and encourage. Through friends in Fort Worth, I met a Mama friend here who is also a photographer. She took some gorgeous pictures of Ruth Evelyn at 8 months, so we hired her for Ruth's 1 year pictures and are SO thrilled with the outcome! We had a great Sunday afternoon at the Lubbock Arboretum taking this photos. I had planned 4 outfits and had SUCH fun dressing Ruth Evelyn up! Jacob and I stayed at the changing area I set up under some shade and Josh worked hard to elicit smiles as our photographer captured these incredible moments.

Thank you to Sarah Keith of Think {Pretty} Photography here in Lubbock for these gorgeous pictures (you can find her on Facebook here)!

Outfit 1: Butterfly Beauty

I found this gorgeous buttery ballet dress on Etsy at the shop Passion 4 Expression. As a girl I was smitten with ballet and longed to one day be a ballerina. I searched and searched for Ruth Evelyn's 1st birthday dress and when I saw this and it was a butterfly AND ballet, I was sold!

Outfit 2: Birthday Girl 

This sweet outfit is from my dear friend, graduate school roommate, and mama of 3 daughters, Lisa Barrick.

She had great fun with the chalkboard, erasing Mama's writing ;-)

As everyone always says, "those eyes!"

She looks so much like my twin sister, Virginia, in this picture!

Outfit 3: Pink & Purple Butterfly Girl

I put this outfit together with items from many special women in our life. The shirt is a gift from my best friend, Maren, who makes birthday shirts as gifts for my children, a tradition she started with her own son and I LOVE it! The purple part of her bow was made by another dear friend, Avey Jane, who also has a little girl that is about 2 1/2 months older than Ruth Evelyn. The pink bow is from her Aunt Rup (my twin sister, Virginia), the skirt was made by a dear interpreter friend (also a Mama to a son and daughter) in Fort Worth, Christa, and the butterfly wings are from her Grandmother, my own sweet Mama.

Outfit 4: My own little Matilda Jane!

This dress is from my twin sister - a Matilda Jane. We now LOVE MJ clothes!

She loves to GO!

But don't go too far too fast my precious little girl!

As we reached the milestone of Ruth Evelyn's first year, we made some family decisions and are back on an intense track, gazelle intense, with our Dave Ramsey goals or debt paydown. So we've decided to continue renting here in Lubbock indefinitely and kick some more debt to the curb! This decision has allowed me to start unpacking the other half of our things we left in boxes in our garage and get this precious little house more settled for our family. I started, of course, with our children's rooms!

Ruth Evelyn's room now has a toy shelf with fabric drawers (I LOVE these for toy organization) - and they had PINK drawers! SWOON!

Her changing area - we plan to soon actually hang the curtains and use darkening curtains rather than her Aunt Rup quilt, ha! She now has this beautiful butterfly box from her Grandmother that we're using for our new hemp inserts and charcoal bamboo inserts - these have been our overnight cloth diapering solution!

I still love our glider! And now Ruth Evelyn has her own little butterfly chair and ottoman right by Mama's. We actually set in them together one day, which tickled her (and me)!

We moved this decorative shelf from her room to ours (it's not that stable and it just didn't flow with her room once we moved toys into her room). 

We're excited to settle this house for a few years and call it home as we pay off debt. We thank God for His guidance and wisdom and extreme mercy as we learn and journey together.

~ Mama Bruffey ~