Houston influencer Archives

Our little miracle turns FOUR

May 27, 2023May 27, 2023ALLLeave a Comment

A birthday party in the park

Trigger warning: mention of loss. Five years ago, we were struggling with grief after our daughter was stillborn at 18 weeks. We were also desperately praying and hoping that we would have a healthy, earthside baby. In September of 2018, we found out we were pregnant with Jimmie. More about waiting for Jimmie here

And, in May of 2019, Jimmie was born! Read Jimmie’s birth story here.

These four years with Jimmie have been miraculous. The more we’ve learned about fertility and secondary infertility, Jimmie’s life becomes even more of a gift. The statistics that are widely shared related to fertility and women over 40 are quite discouraging. In spite of that, we delivered our baby Jimmie when I was 41 years and 10 months old.

Today, we celebrated this precious gift of life with a party at a park in our neighborhood.

We reserved a bounce house from Extreme Climbing and worked with the city to get a permit to have the bounce house in the park.

Jimmie had family and friends join from his preschool class and his BLL teeball team.

Jimmie with some of his cousins and siblings

Jimmie loves iced donuts with sprinkles. He has called them “Happy Birthday Donuts” for a couple of years. We have this great specialty donut shop in Houston, River Oaks Donuts . I asked friends where to get donut letters so we could have donuts instead of cake. Everyone suggested River Oaks Donuts. I ordered HAPPY (small letters) 4 (large) JIMMIE (medium) and the decor was Astros, baseball and Spider-Man! They did a great job and Jimmie loved it!

We are so thankful for all of our children and especially thankful that God has given us these five earth-side. I hope they always know how loved and honored they are. Life is a gift. And, today we celebrate four years of JIMMIE! Cheers to many more!

Bakri 18, Maddux 16, Jimmie 4, Leeland 12, and Trinity 14

Dad and Momma with our four year old, Jimmie!

Casual February Style ♥️

February 4, 2022Influencer, StyleLeave a Comment

It’s February, which means it’s the month of love, at least around here. We love to celebrate Valentine’s Day. This year, we took it a step further and transformed our Christmas tree into a Valentine’s Tree.

When the Els were little, we would host parties and decorate cookies and eat pizza or some other yummy dish. As they’ve gotten older, we often have conflicting activities on Valentine’s Day. So, I like to make the whole month about love with a focus on our love for family and each other.

While working on our Valentine’s Day gift guide, I wanted to get into the spirit early with these adorable Valentine’s Day themed tops. You can shop these looks at this commissionable link.

Be still and Hold on, friends

September 11, 2021family, Fertility & Infertility, GriefLeave a Comment

🌟 When the world feels too heavy and impossible, there is One who knows our burdens and wants to bear them.

🌟 When our daughter died at 18 weeks gestation, so much changed about our family. We were now a family with a daughter and sibling in heaven. We were faced with many awkward questions about how many kids we have and how it feels to only have one girl. (We are blessed with one living daughter and 4 living sons) Jokes about being outnumbered and feeling sorry for our living daughter for being the only girl. It goes on and on.

🌟But, the one constant was and is Jesus. Were we angry with the Lord? Yes. Did we question Him? Yes. Where was He when He was supposed to be “knitting Mary-Linda together” in her mother’s womb? We serve a Big God and He can not only handle our anger, questions and pain, but He wants to bear it for us.

🌟Remember that today and always. When things seem dark, know that the light is near. Hold tight. You are loved.