ONE party animal in Utah

Aug 24

Shall we unpack all the emotional crying that was Iris Hazel’s first birthday?

Learn about our ONE amazing trip to Utah to celebrate our birthday girl and Daddy finally being home with his girls! We still can’t believe he’s home.

With all the tears that came with celebrating our love turning one as a family we could not help but to reflect the life we created. This one year mark is a celebration for the obstacles and love that made us listen and seek guidance from God. He truly gave us the best gift naming us Iris’ earthly parents.

Our partying kicked off in South Carolina where we spent some time with our truly hand picked second family, the Johnson’s! After being on deployment, my husbands leave started the week of Iris’ birthday and we wasted no time getting to SC to hug all of our friends and family.

Iris can be described many ways, but her heart is true to being adventurous and her smile reflects all over the earth; wherever she goes. She is a PARTY ANIMAL. We gave her a party theme that best described her nature.

The best part of turning one, she got a trip to UTAH!

Before I can get to our Utah details I have to share the best birthday ever!

My husband assembled these using some Etsy balloons and fishing line! Here is the balloon machine we used, so worth it! I also got the ‘One Party Animal’ balloons on Amazon in a custom order!

Iris Hazel’s first ever cake experience - of course gluten, dairy, and refined sugar free! I used a recipe from @ambitouskitchen and everyone loved it! Here are the ingredients used plus a few of my own touches I added. I ordered most of my cake supplies from Thrive Market, such as the dye free sprinkles and beet powder to give my girly a pink cake! I sweetened the cake using dates and maple syrup - super yummy!

Link to cake here!

The most memorable part of our day was the joining of our family in fellowship. I felt the Holy Spirit move me for weeks leading up to her birthday to join all of our friends and family in prayer over Iris. When Iris was born, Cameron and I placed hands on her and prayed over her life and the immense love we had received. On the day of her one year celebration we prayed over her again now with the hands of our family placed on her.

Our prayer

““Dear God - Iris is a warrior for your kingdom. we pray to receive and live with open hearts as she does. we can’t even count all the miracles you’ve done in our lives. Iris brings heaven down to earth every morning through her smile. make in her a heart to receive alliances with things from you and not the enemy. we want to fill our hearts and build our lives on what the the Lord says. Iris Hazel - Hazel means “God sees” and this is exactly who you are. let us steer our lives according to what you say. we ask for the peace of God in all circumstances to guard your heart and mind.””