Vincelli Family - Party of 6!

Sometimes you pray and wait for 1460+ days for the miracle of one baby. But after many treatments, procedures, and one round of IVF, you hold not one but two babies in your arms. 💙💙

Sometimes you pray for another baby.
But after one unsuccessful round of FET (frozen embryo transfer), followed by a successful round of FET, your baby's heart stops beating and you lose a piece of your heart you'll never get back.

Sometimes when you feel like you are stuck among the darkest place of your life, God shows you He can do anything and you conceive a baby with no medical assistance. 💙

Sometimes your family still doesn't feel complete but you are terrified because infertility never truly leaves you. But you still trust and conceive a baby that very first month you decided to try. 💛

Lots of pain. Lots of joy. Sad tears. Happy tears. But through it all, one thing has never ever changed. God has been there, never leaving us....orchestrating all of the happenings of our lives to work together. Through all the ups and downs, we just keep trusting.

I know many people think I'm an over-sharer. Think what you will. But God's miracles aren't meant to be hidden. His grace and faithfulness in my life are something I will never hide. And I pray you see His hand in your life as well. Our story definitely wasn't our plan but it was God's plan. And that's more than enough for me.

Faith. Hope. Trust.

Nick, the boys, and I are beyond overjoyed and absolutely thrilled to share our latest miracle with you....due Valentine's Day 2018

HAPPY 6TH BIRTHDAY, ELIJAH & WILL

And then they turned 6 years old on September 13th!

{But I'm posting this in November. It always seems to take me awhile to get these birthday blog posts up!}

Here are my big boys on their special day after Kindergarten...with surprise balloons. You have no idea how much these kiddos like balloons. They mostly use them as weapons, but it was their day. ;)

The boys love "Wild Kratts" (an educational children's animated show on PBS) and wanted that to be their theme. But time is limited and that theme seemed to specific for me and wanting to find easy, fast, and inexpensive decorations, etc.. Plus when I started looking up things to do with that theme, my brain went crazy with seeing so many great ideas. I wanted to do them all and had to tell myself...NO...STOP!!

So....after some begging, I convinced them to just have a WILD ANIMAL theme. (And it was so much easier to find cheap and fun items to go along with this!)

Whew!

Here are the invitations I created on my print shop program on my computer:

It worked out again this year to have their family birthday party on my parent's farm in August before school started. The weather was beautiful and we had a special time celebrating. 

I found these adorable animal masks for super cheap online. 

Thank you, Amazon Prime, I don't know what I would do without you!!

Cousin fun:

The table:

* The black banner was purchased at Walmart for only $3. 

It's chalkboard paper so the letters written with chalk can be erased and the banner can be used over and over!

I hit the jackpot at the Dollar Tree because they had so many "National Geographic" items there that were perfect for wild animals. What a coincidence. I was so excited!

Goodie bags were filled with these goodies I purchased there:

- activity place mats (16 sheets for $2)

- tear off sheet animal activities (40 sheets for $1)

- animal print pads of paper (4 for $1)

- 8 packs of Crayola crayons (3 for $1)

- sheets of animal stickers (4 for $1) (I cut them up.)

- colored pencils (12 for $1)

And the zebra print loot bags were for $1 (20 bags) at Walmart.

So I split them all up and goodies bags were filled very inexpensively:

I used little animal figurines we had at home for decorations on the table:

The cake!

My friend, Shaylah, created their cake this year. Not only was it beautiful, but it was delicious as well.  The photo isn't the best but on the tiger print it says, "Eli" and on the zebra print it says, "Will."

Everyone loved it!

She even made the inside cake to be animal print!

I still can't believe they are SIX!

Eli's turn:

Will's turn:

Like I said before, I hit the jackpot when looking at the Dollar Tree and found a bunch of "National Geographic" items including these alphabet animal cards. I purchased 2 packages so they could do a matching game. $2 total. Win - win!

Wild animal placemat worksheets the kids could color and work on during the party:

We had a joint party with their cousin, Ryder as her birthday 

is the week before Eli and Will's. She is one year younger. 

We tried to get a nice photo of them all together. You can see how well that went...

Ha! Love kids! :)

Happy 5th Birthday, Ryder!

Happy 6th Birthday Will & Eli!

The birthday party guests enjoying lunch:

(I forgot to take a photo of the food spread! 

But trust me, it was good!)

Spoiled with gifts:

And......the

FRIEND BIRTHDAY PARTY:

In early September, at our home we had a friend birthday party for the twins. I used all the same decorations, etc. 

Although I made cupcakes instead of doing another cake. I found smaller plastic animals at a party store in my town for $2, so we put those on the cupcakes and then each child took one home.

The table:

The punch:

We already had an animal game where you match the mommy with the baby. So, we did timed team races to see who could do it the fastest!

And the animal alphabet card matching game again:

Another game: a different version of "I Spy" with little animals.

And there you have it. The "Wild Animals" theme! 

I just love planning themed parties. I wish I had time to do more but this keeps me happy for now. :) You can do so much with a little creativity and finding inexpensive items. 

I think all the kids had a blast. I sure did too.

Mission accomplished! :)

Caleb's 2nd and Golden Birthday

And just like that, my little baby turned 2 years old.

Caleb Pasquale. (Pronounced "pass-kwa-lay") 

Two years old. (What?!?!?!) 

Happy giggly boy. (Most of the time.) 

My big little miracle: Big lips. Big smile. Big laughs. 

But little boy. (25 pounds 6 ounces. 16th percentile for weight. 
34 inches tall. 37th percentile for height.) 
Loves milk. (Like really really loves milk.) 

Doesn't love food so much. 
(Obviously he does not take after me.) 

Great napper and sleeper. (Obviously he takes after me.) 

Is obsessed with his beloved paci and blankie. 
(Would have them all day long if we let him.) 

Adores animals. (Especially kitties and bugs.) 

Loves to read books. (Often says, "Read! Read!") 

Loves music. 
(He catches on to tunes quickly and hums/sings often.) 

Loves being outside. 
(But throws the ugliest fit when it's time to come back inside.) 

Has now entered the stage 
of wanting to do everything on his own. 

(He screams "I try! I try!" over and over while pushing us away.) 

Reaches his hands out to hold his brother's hands together at mealtimes. (To remind us to pray.) 

Hits and wrestles. 
(How else is he going to survive with 2 older brothers?) 

Gives the most amazing hugs and snuggles. 

(While saying "I wuv wou" with the most adorable little voice.) 

Always screams, "I baby!" when asked to say, "I'm a big boy." 

(And toddlers are always right, you know. So no arguing there.) 

Whenever I ask him to say, "I'm two!", he replies, "I tree!!!" 

(He's saying, "I three." Poor kid doesn't know if he's three or a baby. He'll figure it out eventually.)

Happy 2nd Birthday AND Golden Birthday my sweet boy. 

You are loved. So very very loved. 

And I praise God everyday for the gift of you.

All of us at Caleb's Birthday Party - Mother's Day!

Caleb turned 2 years old on May 2nd. His Golden Birthday! We had a triple birthday party this year (and probably will continue to for years to come!) because two of his cousins here in our town also have early May birthdays. And with family members being about 3 hours away, it's so much easier to have all their parties together so everyone can attend. So, we celebrated his birthday with family on May 8th, which also was Mother's Day.
A big day of celebrations!

BIRTHDAY PARTY THEME: 
LITTLE BLUE TRUCK

Caleb loves the board book, "Little Blue Truck" (and all kinds of animals) so I thought this was a great theme for him this year. If you don't know the board book, it's super cute.

Here's basically what the book is about:

"Beep! Beep! Beep! Meet Blue. A muddy country road is no match for this little pick up--that is, until he gets stuck while pushing a dump truck out of the muck. Luckily, Blue has made a pack of farm animal friends along his route. And they're willing to do whatever it takes to get their pal back on the road.
With a text full of truck sounds and animal noises to read aloud, here is a rollicking homage to the power of friendship and the rewards of helping others."

Here is the invitation I made on my computer. Although my printer is broke so I just had to take a photo of it off  my computer screen (hence the bad quality) and text it to people. Seriously, I need a new printer sooo badly! 

My friend, Jodi, made the amazing cake. Not only did it look fabulous but it tasted delicious! She did such an amazing job and we are so very grateful for her talent! Everyone loved it. 
Especially Caleb!

Caleb's Cake Table

Happy 12th Birthday to Ava, 9th Birthday to Cora, 
and 2nd Birthday to Caleb!

The girls helping Caleb open gifts.

Caleb loved his cake!

Blowing out candles! He blew so gently and not nearly enough to blow it out. It was so cute.

But then he actually waved his arms in excitement and that is how one blew out!

The weather was gorgeous. So glad we could be outside!

 I won a free bounce house rental last month. How cool is that?

And perfect timing for this party with so many kids there. 

They all had a blast jumping. So much fun!

But poor Eli got a knee right to his eye among all 

the jumping in the bounce house.

And here was his pretty swollen shiner the next day:

All the kiddos at the party. Cousins and "honorary" cousins!

Here are me and my boys!

{If you look, you can see a little "orb" above my head. 

I like to think it's our angel baby in heaven popping in to say, "Hello Mommy!"}

It was an awesome Mother's Day. 

Beautiful weather and amazing company!

So grateful for these moments!