Happy 5th Birthday Chapel Easton Barker

Chapel was born on a Sunday morning with her daddy and Aunt Mimi by my side. She weighed 6lbs 9oz and immediately became the focus of our lives. Brett and I were typical first time parents - we worried she slept too much, wondered if she was eating too little, spent countless hours just holding her and staring her. I like to joke with Chapel when I brought her home I didn't know what to do with her so I would just hold her and rock her for hours. She likes that story......it's actually pretty accurate.

Five years later Chapel has blossomed into a little girl who loves princesses, plays independently or with others with equal ease, lives in a world of butterflies & unicorns, and much to her dad's approval - loves a good dance party. It is cliche but so true, time just flies by. And as cool as it is to watch your kids grow, I always think it is bittersweet for them to get older. I just hope the next 5 years with her are as full of love and surprises as the last 5 have been.

We were kinda on the fence about her birthday party this year - we usually have a large party at our home but this year we opted to do something smaller. We celebrated today, all day, in Myrtle Beach with both sets of her grandparents, her Aunt Crystal and cousins Cross, Caroline, and Bren and her Aunt Meredith and cousin Reese. We started out at Build - A - Bear where Chapel chose a horse in wedding gown as her new friend, we ate at Johnny Rockets and then returned to the beach house in Garden City for cake, present opening and a pig piñata. It was an easy day,without the craziness that usually accompanies throwing a large party. In many ways it was like the day she was born; a special time we could simply enjoy our little girl surrounded by the people that love her most.