BOHO BABY GIRL SHOWER

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A couple weeks ago my dear friends threw me the sweetest baby shower! Baby girl and I got mad blessed by our amazing village. Seriously, I have the bestest friends, family and church family!! 

How stunning is that cake!!!!??? Rachel Cakes made it to replica that invite and she absolutely nailed it! It also was waaaay too delicious! If you live in Victoria, I HIGHLY recommend hiring her!
I ordered the shortbread cookies for favours from Cookie For Occasions and they were SO good.
My dress is from Pink Blush. I've gotten so much use out of it and I know I will post baby too as it's set up to be a nursing dress as well! 
I also designed the invite...if you want to order, please contact me!

Huge, huge, huge thanks to Courtney and Rachel for planning such a killer shower. Thanks to my mother in law for hosting!! And all of my girl gang who loved on baby girl and I...she's going to be so blessed to be surrounded by amazing women like yourselves!

XO,
Laura

5 YEARS

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Today marks five years of being married to my best friend and love, James. Through five years we've had amazing milestones- missions trip to India, vacations, buying a house, having a baby, getting pregnant with #2 and so so so much more.

Five years of so many moments. Moments of pure joy. Moments of craziness. Moments of pain. Moments of love. So so many moments. I can't reflect on our marriage without acknowledging God's faithfulness. A few weeks back in church we were singing this song and I couldn't hold back the tears as I thought about the past five years...

I will sing of all You've done
I'll remember how far You carried me
From beginning until the end
You are faithful, faithful to the end

There wasn't a day
That You weren't by my side
There wasn't a day
That You let me fall
All of my life
Your love has been true

Through every single moment, God was there. Through the incredibly beautiful ones, through the excruciating painful ones..He was there, holding us together, carrying us through. 

I'd love to give some practical advice on marriage but the main thing that has held us together has been JESUS. It's not every story, but it's our story and all that I know to make a marriage work! Other practical things that have been good for us have been:

• being friends...actually enjoying each other's company..with the phone put away (so hard for me!),
• remembering you're on the same team when you disagree...the issue is not between you...you are together and your job is to work through the issue not let it tear you a part 
• clearly communicating...always have to remind myself, James cannot read my mind, ha.
• don't be so serious all the time
• kiss a lot...hug and hold...hug for at least 1 minute and think nice thoughts about your spouse!
• invite people into your life...we're really trying to get better at this as life has been so nutso entering parenthood but it's one we value so much when we make the time to be with others!!

I look back on the past five years with such thankfulness. I'm so thankful that God gave me you, James Peter Liira. And I look forward to our future with such hope and anticipation because I'm believing our best days are still yet to come. Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be.

all photos by AMERIS 

SUMMER FAMILY PHOTOS

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For mother's day/mum's 60th bday this year, my siblings and I got together and purchased our mama a family photoshoot. Our mum raised four children and she must have done something right because we all turned out ok...lols, JK LOVE YOU MUM.

But seriously, our mum is a champion, she was a single working mama and worked her butt off to support us kiddos. I'm blessed to have 3 amazing siblings and have gained a beautiful sister in law, wonderful brother in law, gorgeous niece and incredible nephew in the deal too!

Family is a beautiful thing, but let's get real...it's also messy and holds a lot of pain too. But where there is pain, there is opportunity for healing. I look at this photo of my family and I see so much redemption. I see God's incredible work of healing and restoration. He's not done yet but oh, if you could see how far we've come, you'd get weepy. Miracles happen.

How stunning is my family!! 

All photos by Rachael Alexendra + Co (duhh!)

XO,
laura

GENDER REVEAL BBQ PHOTOS

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I've got some more photos from our Gender Reveal BBQ to share with you today. Still can't believe we're having a little baby girl!! AND still can't get over Luca's priceless face...precious bubba. If you missed the original post, find it here!

The beautiful floral dress I'm wearing is from PinkBlush. I am seriously so happy I discovered this brand!! Their maternity clothes actually fit pregnant women well AND they're stretchy and comfy enough to wear postpartum too.

Going into it, I had a feeling we were having a little girl but obvs knew it could go the other way. Most ppl there also thought girl! I believe the votes were 13 for girl VS. 6 for boy!

I still can't believe I'm having a baby girl! Since becoming a boy mom, all I've envisioned is having more boys but my heart is soo excited to raise a fierce, world changing little girl!!

We kept the bbq pretty small with family and a few close friends. Normally, I'd go all out but we had Luca's birthday coming up (JUNE 11th AHHHH!!!) so I didn't want to feel to much pressure to put on a big bash.

Huge thank you to Rachael for taking these photos! If you live in Victoria, I HIGHLY recommend hiring her!! Serious skillz and such a lovely spirit!!

XO,
Laura