The Birth of Adabelle Rose.

I got the message that Katie and Josh were ready for me to come and document the birth of their sweet girl on the evening of February 9th. I arrived to their farm in the country just before 9:00 p.m. and got straight to work. Of course Katie had already been hard at work... for 15 hours. I watched Katie labor in water and on land for hours. It was expected that her daughter would arrive at anytime. So myself along with her attentive husband and wonderful birth team (doula, student midwife and midwife) stayed close by while we waited. 

Katie's birthday is February 9th and we thought there was a good chance that her daughter would arrive before midnight. But, as we all know birth is unpredictable. Midnight came and went. On February 10th we joked that this little girl must have wanted a birth date all her own... sharing was just not an option. Katie was incredible to watch. Strong and positive as her body did the hardest job it would ever do. She labored throughout the night and early morning...

When the sun came up the morning of the 10th I teased Katie that her daughter must understand how important these photos would be and decided she would wait for better lighting to make her appearance. We watched the sunrise over Josh and Katie's property and we each spent some time encouraging this little girl to make her arrival. "Come on baby! It's your birthday! We can't wait to meet you!" Katie had been laboring for 26 hours by the time the sun rose that day. 

By the afternoon of the 10th baby girl had still not made her appearance. Katie made the decision to go to the hospital hoping that an epidural would allow her body to relax enough for her little one to finish her journey. She had been laboring for just about 36 hours by the time she had her epidural. She is a warrior. 

After 10 more hours of pushing at the hospital - Katie and Josh decided that they had tried everything they could to get their little one out and it was now time to proceed with a Cesarean. 

We later found out that when Katie's water had broken her baby had gotten stuck in a funky position - and there was no way she would have been able to come out vaginally. 

Adabelle Rose Miller finally made her much anticipated appearance at 4:44 a.m. on February 11th. Almost 50 hours after Katie's first contraction. 

Watching Katie labor was an honor. She is undoubtedly one of the strongest women I know. She worked so hard and made all of the right choices for her and her daughter and at the end of two VERY long days she finally got the prize she had been waiting for. 

Welcome to the world, Adabelle. 

You are so loved. 

A Star Wars Tea Party fit for a Princess! {Kaia is 4 years old!}

My children always come up with the most creative birthday party ideas. When my son turned 3 he wanted a Hot Air balloon party, when he turned 6 he wanted a Disney Junior birthday party (including Doc McStuffins, Sofia the First, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Octonauts and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.) So when my daughter, Kaia, started planning her Star Wars Tea Party a full 10 months before her fourth birthday I wasn't surprised at all. In fact I was excited to start finding ways to make her party special for her. 

Kaia specifically wanted a "Star Wars Party dress" which it turns out doesn't exist... so I found a super cute pattern from The Cottage Mama (here) and decided to make her a dress with some super cute fabric that she chose.

Kaia wanted everything at her party to be pink and purple so we went to Trader Joes the week of her party and found beautiful pink and purple flowers for the center pieces. 

I went to a thrift store and found some small fishbowls for .50 each and painted them to be death star vases.

I knew I wanted to send each little princess home with her own custom tea cup. For some unknown reason I forgot to photograph the cups the day of the party... ugh. Luckily we still have a couple of these adorable tea cups so I grabbed a couple snap shots of them today. We started collecting plain white tea cups about 5 months before the party. The first six were purchased at a vintage shop in Virginia while my family was still on our road trip. Those cups, by some miracle, travelled 20+ states with us and all made it home in one piece. I hired my friend Nicole, from P&N Creations (here) to make vinyl decals to personalize each cup and they turned out PERFECTLY! 

For the birthday decorations I found this great shop on Etsy (here) that just happened to make personalized pink and purple Star Wars decorations! Perfect for my girl. 

Another thing I failed to photograph well was all of the food! I completely forgot to take pictures of our Wookie Cookies, Blaster Brownies, Galax-tea, Java the Hut, Luke Skywater and a few others. 

Seriously. Where was my mind that day?!

Special party guest (and best hubby ever!) 

As guests arrived they were seated by a few of our favorite villains. These same villains also served the tea and graciously got napkins, refills and extra food for all of our little princesses.

They were the only boys allowed at the party. Kaia's orders. 

Happy Birthday, beautiful Kaia. I love you more than words.