Blessing upon blessing upon blessing. I hope I don’t sound like a broken record, but that’s all I could think about as I wrote this post. It was not hard to find good in this year, but I do believe when we pause and intentionally look for the good, we find more and more of it.
As you read along and reflect on your own year, I hope my musings might help you to pick out your own memorable moments. In the comments, please share a few of your best memories, finds, and favorites from 2021, if you’d like. As always, I can’t wait to hear!
Best adventure/travel/trip: We were lucky to go on several memorable trips this year, but I think Jekyll Island tops the list! It was our first official “spring break” trip as a family, and staying at a resort was an enchanting novelty to our children (who are used to family cottages or Airbnbs). And returning to Cumberland Island after more than a decade was such a fun bonus!
Best TV show or movie:Ted Lasso, OBVIOUSLY. It is funny, sweet, so sincere, and full of life lessons I am still unpacking. The second season had its dodgy moments, but I still believe.
Best album or song: Can I choose a playlist, instead? The kids’ worship playlist I put together for the littles has been the best way to start our day in the second half of the year – we all love it! More about this soon.
Best follow on Instagram: I added a few gals I’m loving! Kristen Morris is my soul sister – she is a beautiful writer, a lover of stories, and has a knack for seeing and sharing the goodness, magic, and tenderness in everyday family life. Kate of Naptime Kitchen is the only person I can think of who actually nails the balance of approachability on Instagram – she brings peace, grace, and fun to that platform like no other. And it’s always a delight when This is Like Magic (“endless ways to make someone’s day”) pops up in my feed.
Best new podcast listen, newsletter subscribe, or blog follow: I added Jill Atogwe’s blog to my Feedly after meeting her as the new co-host of the Coffee & Crumbs podcast, a longtime favorite of mine. My newest podcast subscription is Risen Motherhood! I’ve tried following them on Instagram and subscribing to their blog, but so far the podcast is my favorite vehicle to enjoy them.
Best kiddo milestone: June going to kindergarten. Entering into formal schooling has made for such a big year for her and for our whole family, and I am just so grateful to God that she’s had an amazing experience so far. Loved celebrating this milestone with our first back-to-school dinner, too! And June learning to read!! That has just been mind-blowing, truly.
Best faith grower:Annie’s birth was the sweetest reminder of God’s kindness, faithfulness, and His mystery.
Best trend you tried: This was a big year for me and trends! I went full-on Nap Dress in well-documented fashion (easy to do, considering it was what I wore 50% of days for awhile there) and jumped into the world of fauxm Birks for all of our pool trips. After a little style consult with my girl Lisa, though, the biggest 2021 change might be tucking in my shirts — I was known to do a half-hearted front tuck here and there, but now I’m doing full tucks on the daily. I think I like it.
Best beauty purchase: After loving Beauty Counter’s Skin Twin foundation (it was my 2020 favorite beauty purchase!), I added their Skin Twin concealer to my repertoire earlier this year. Loved it just as much! Then the tip of the wand snapped off a few weeks ago, and now I’m eagerly awaiting a redesigned restock in spring 2022. Fingers crossed!
Best family memory: I still need to write up the recap, but our Black Mountain trip this fall felt so, so sweet. It was our first family trip with just the five of us, and the whole thing went remarkably smoothly. Multiple times throughout the weekend, I felt myself looking around and being so grateful and awestruck that this is the crew I get to hang with.
Best friend memory: There were some good ones this year I’ll remember for a long time! It wasn’t without difficulty (ahem, John’s injury) or expense, but I am SO GLAD three very pregnant gals made the garden party happen. And wow, we celebrated six years of Articles Club in style! On both occasions I sat around a beautiful, candlelit table long into the dark with great friends, delicious food, and excellent conversation, and it doesn’t get much better than that.
Best new tradition: Our Valentine’s Day mailbox was such a hit, and something the kids are still talking about months later.
Best habit you created:Baking with June and morning smoothies. Also, assigning our children the “after school jobs” of putting away their backpacks, putting their lunchboxes on the counter, putting away their jackets, and for June, charging her computer and refilling her snack container for the next day. It sounds small, but has been a big help as I unload my own things and get Annie situated.
Favorite blog post written:This post still kills me. Hard to read sometimes. Otherwise, I think one place I shine is sharing a personal take on topics many of us deal with but rarely see discussed, and this year, that was this post about deciding to have a third child. What a post to look back on now that sweet Annie is here in our family!
Best life or mom hack: Did you know that you can get a glass top for the Instant Pot? I’ve loved our IP but never felt it performed particularly well as a slow cooker (plus, you couldn’t smell whatever delicious thing was inside because of the seal!), but the glass top has been a game changer.
Best mama moment:Tea and pedicures with June is what immediately came to mind, but honestly, there were so many tiny moments – reading to all three kids on the bed, taking our first car ride as a family of five – of feeling completion, wholeness, and happiness in the weeks after Annie was born that were just the sweetest hugs from God confirming five is our number.
Best home improvement: Painting our master bedroom Hiring someone to paint our master bedroom has made the biggest difference! I’m often underwhelmed by the paint colors I choose even after much consideration, but this one (Benjamin Moore Pale Smoke) has been a winner. And it is all thanks to one of you – reader Emma came in hot with the recommendation and we ran with it!
Best little luxury you’ve enjoyed: This might sound funny, but walking June to school. We don’t get to do it every day, but when we do, I just love it so much. It takes more time than driving (kind of the luxury part!), but I get to be outside, moving my body and being with my girl, and there are few things better than that.
As always, I’m ending the year so grateful for the delights, big and small, that filled our year. I’ll be sharing more in my year in review post coming up soon, but in the meantime, please do share: what are some of your “bests” from 2021? Can’t wait to hear!
P.S. A few of my dear friends shared their 2021 favorites this week, too — Lisa, Stephanie, Kerstin, and Sam!
June recently told me that stockings are her favorite part of Christmas morning. I’m not sure if it’s because stockings are the only thing Santa brings in our house (and thus they’re automatically more magical) or because reaching in and pulling out dozens of little gifts is just a thrilling experience, but I’m here to live up to it. After all, stockings are one of my favorite things to shop for, and I enjoy collecting things throughout the year — for June, Shep, Annie, John, and… myself. Yep! John doesn’t really “get” how I like to do stockings – his family’s growing up were pretty minimal – and so it doesn’t bother me to keep this tradition going with most of my own effort.
If you’re looking for some final ideas for your loved ones, here are a few I’ve rounded up!
The third time was most definitely the charm for our extended family trip to WaterColor, Florida! Originally scheduled for spring break 2020 (whomp whomp), we tentatively rescheduled for spring break 2021. When not everyone was comfortable with traveling and gathering at that point, we made a final move to the week of Labor Day 2021 and were SO HAPPY to settle our feet into the sugary sand of the Gulf Coast at long last! Here’s a little bit about our trip, if you’d like to see!
To begin, let me just say that Florida’s 30A, and WaterColor and Seaside specifically, is a straight-up magical place. WaterColor is a master-planned community and resort with gorgeous pastel homes, live oaks, and shady streets dotted with cruiser bikes and golf carts, a stone’s throw from the beach and the Seaside Center Square.
And it’s not just a pretty face – our stay felt as good as it looked. The vibe is sweet and slow, and everything seems built for connective experiences.
Because we were traveling with John’s extended family, we split the rental of a large home through a rental agency (pictured below!). We chose the house to sleep 16, but in the end we traveled with 12 when one sister and family wasn’t able to come (so sad!). I would highly recommend the home we stayed in – everything was comfortable and in great condition, the rental included a six-seater golf cart and bikes, and it was a 5-minute walk from Camp Watercolor, the main pool for kids. This made it easy to take multiple pool trips a day, which we did several times!
In fact, that’s how most of our days were spent – bopping between the pool (complete with lazy river, two waterslides, and a zero-entry pool), the beach (more about that in a sec), and the house, where we could spread out for meals and quiet hour across multiple porches and balconies. In between, we biked, golf-carted, and strolled around the idyllic streets, coastal paths, and town centers of Seaside and Watercolor. No detailed itinerary to share for this vacation :)
We stayed for five nights and barely scratched the surface of what Watercolor has to offer – we only visited one pool (of the six available with your rental!), we never did any water sports, and we didn’t visit any of the other beach communities along 30A. All the more reason to return :)
The main infinity pool at the Watercolor resort. We didn’t swim here but walked by on our way to the beach!
We did go out to eat dinner once, at the famous Bud & Alley’s, but I can’t say I recommend it… the food felt average and overpriced to me, and unless you’re on the roof deck, the atmosphere felt like a low-budget tent, ha. We did have lunch at Scratch Biscuit Kitchen, takeout pizza from Pizza Bar (also owned by Bud & Alley’s), and multiple fancy frozen chocolate bananas from Nigel’s, and all were delicious. Other than that, we mostly cooked at home – there’s a Publix right outside of the neighborhood, and the couples each took turns making dinner.
A major draw for this area, of course, is the beach, and the Gulf did not disappoint! The water was SO beautiful – clear and aqua, with truly sugary sand. For better or worse, however, it can be tricky to access for a beach day. If you’re a guest of the resort (including a rental home), you can be on the stretch in front of the Inn, but you cannot bring in your own chairs or umbrellas (they want you to rent from them, of course!). We thought the rental prices were a bit absurd, but we really needed to have shade with an infant, so we opted to set up in the tiny sliver of public beach sandwiched between private stretches.
And when I say tiny, I mean TINY – it was maybe 100 feet wide. Because of when we were visiting, this was totally fine – though the public sliver was more populated than the almost-empty resort stretches on either side, it didn’t feel crowded. And once you’re in the water, you can move about freely :) The kids loved splashing in the gentle waves and making sand castles, and we loved playing alongside them – aside from loving their company, it was SO nice to have grandparents around to hold Annie while we swam with the big kids. (The access we used was the Van Ness Butler Jr. Regional Beach Access!)
Speaking of our visit timing – we arrived on Labor Day Monday and immediately strolled through the Seaside Center Square to the beach, and it was QUITE busy. After that, however, it was not busy at all, and our weather was beautiful! Early September seemed like a great time to visit. This shot was from that first night – John with all the cousins :)
For someone like me, who counts among her main hobbies strolling through scenic neighborhoods, WaterColor is heaven – the cuteness factor is off the charts, with each house more charming than the last. We went on multiple scoots, walks, bike rides, and golf cart rides to admire the details up close (sometimes with scavenger hunts for extra fun!).
I visited WaterColor more than a decade before this trip, for my very first photo shoot for Southern Weddings, and it was as magical as I remembered. I’m so grateful I got to return with family! Because of course, though the scenery was sublime, the very best part was being together.
There are so many amazing places in the world, aren’t there? Thanks for letting me share a little bit about this one!
P.S. My friend Rhi has a much more comprehensive guide to Seaside on her blog, if you’re planning a trip!
Now that her birth story is recorded, I feel like I can share Annie’s newborn photos! To be honest, this day lives as a stressful one in my memory. (I’m sure many mamas can say that about newborn sessions, especially when siblings are in the mix!) After being perfect angels for our maternity family shoot with Ally, the big kids were a bit of a disaster for this one – totally rambunctious, not listening well, not taking direction, very minimal interest in smiling at the camera, you know the drill. In case it helps a future mama, I think there were a few reasons for the difference:
1. Our spring shoot was outdoors, so they could run around in between shots and it didn’t feel disruptive. 2. Our spring shoot was in a novel location, so they were more attuned to us and both more interested in and less at ease in their surroundings than at home. 3. There was a tiny baby at this shoot, so we were planning fewer active photos and more “cuddle together” photos – not as interesting to big sibs. 4. John and I were a bit hobbled in this shoot compared to our spring one – I was post-partum and holding a tiny baby, and his ankle was still recovering – which made corralling them more difficult (and they knew it, ha). 5. We definitely could have done a better job of prepping them with our expectations in advance. Had a few other things on our mind, though :)
I also felt like I pulled our outfits together at the last minute, I could have prepared our house a bit better… BUT ENOUGH COMPLAINING! As always, Graham worked his magic out of our chaos and returned some absolutely beautiful (and spunky) images that we’ll treasure forever. We feel so grateful to have them. I hope you enjoy this peek!
There was only one photo I specifically asked Graham for – the newest version of a photo he’s taken for us with every newborn session.
There we are :) Thank you for letting me share, friends!
