Hannah Morrison

A Father’s Day Surprise

Today I have partnered with Artifact Uprising for a special Father’s Day post. All The Cake by Hannah readers can use CAKE15, now through June 12th, for 15% off your order from their site! 

I knew Paul was going to be my husband just a few weeks after meeting him. I remember coming home from church and telling my roommate I could see myself falling in love with him and marrying him. She looked at me like I was crazy, because without getting into the messy details of this girl’s crazy heart, that was bonkers for me to EVER say about anybody. Love at first sight isn’t everybody’s story, but it was for ours.

I was 19, and quickly fell in love with how Paul held himself, how respectful he was, how handsome he was (because, hellooooo look at that face!), and how much he loved Jesus. I could see a life with him. I could picture myself as his wife. I could imagine us taking trips together, taking him home to my family, and creating our own home full of traditions. One thing that was almost impossible for me to picture, though, was being a mom. It’s something I always had struggled with, and I didn’t even know for sure if I ever wanted to be one. I had some crazy fears about motherhood and pregnancy. But Paul, Paul could be a dad. Of that I was certain. I knew very early on in our relationship that he would make an incredible father. He is a leader, he is a teacher, and he is so goofy. I loved watching him play with his little cousins, because it was a tiny glimpse into what it could be like if we did have kids one day. Though it was hard to picture myself as a mom, I always could picture Paul as an incredible daddy, just like my own. I had such an amazing example growing up of a father and husband, because my dad was such an amazing one. Paul fit the bill.

Clearly, Paul and I got married from our love at first sight story, and obviously -with a baby sleeping in his crib 10 feet from me as I write- my heart changed over the years toward the idea of becoming a mom. I can’t help but think so much of my heart change had to do with the father’s heart Paul always had and I could see from so early on. It’s a piece of him I fell in love with. In a way, knowing Paul was going to be such an amazing dad helped settle my own fears of becoming a mom. Watching Paul be a dad to Knox feels like a natural extension of who he is. Seeing my husband step into the role of “daddy” has made me fall in love with him all over again. Not only do I now have a second love at first sight story with my sweet son Knox, but I have a love story that is continuing to unfold and grow deeper with my husband.

Celebrating Paul is so easy, and for his first Father’s Day I wanted to do something special for him. We celebrated a little early around here, because he will actually be in Africa on Father’s Day. It is so like Paul to be serving and leading a group in the most off the map village in Africa on such a special day for him. I teamed up with Artifact Uprising to celebrate Paul, framing 6 photos of our growing family from the last 4 years. It was so fun to pick from such an archive of amazing photos (shout out to Cottonwood Road Photography for all the beautiful pictures we have of our family around the house!) that I feel display our sweet family so well. From our 2 year anniversary photos, to our puppy Presley who we got just months after getting married, to our maternity photos, to newborns. Our family wouldn’t be what it is without Paul. He is the cornerstone of our home. He is our provider and leader. He pushes me to Christ. He is the most self-assured and unshakable human I know. He is wise, and he is as steady as the tide.

Paul, happy first Father’s Day! Knox and I love you so much.

xoxo, Hannah (and Knoxy!)

Photos by Stratton Creative for The Cake by Hannah’s Partnership with Artifact Uprising

The Photos

I chose the Modern Metal Frames in the black finish. They are sleek, simple, and very “Paul.” I knew he would love these most when I was looking for the perfect frame. I did 6 photos in the 12×12 size for our entry hall to create the gallery wall we’ve been talking about doing for months. I measured out 6 inches apart horizontally and 2 inches vertically. It filled the space perfectly and truly transformed our hallway!

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Blush Macrame Wall Hanging, here 

Faux Fur Throw Blanket, here

 

Five Current Faves

Woowee, y’all. It’s like .2 degrees outside here and rainy in Texas while I am writing this but in two days it’s supposed to be near 70 again… I just am R E A D Y for some spring. Womp womp. In the mean time, it’s that time of the month to share my FIVE CURRENT FAVES.

  1. IT Hello Lashes Mascara: Y’all, this is the best mascara I have bought to date. I tend to buy different mascaras from Sephora or Ulta regularly to test new ones out, and then share my findings. This one is seriously the best one, and it’s the same price point as the rest I have bought. ($24) I might be done testing mascaras out…
  2. Blonde Flat White: Ever since having Knox I feel like I have made up in excess for my cut in caffeine during 9 months of pregnancy… I go get me a Blonde Flat White from Starbucks way more than I would like to admit. The best way to have it is as is with the whole milk, which is surprisingly only 170 calories. I have also done it with almond milk a few times. It has a different, less smooth taste to it. But, it’s good still. There is just something really satisfying about walking around my grocery store or making my errands happen with a coffee in one hand and pushing a stroller with the other. Just call me super mom?
  3. Layered Coffee Shop: You guys, if you follow my stories you have definitely seen me post about this place. It’s a new coffee shop on the square, and their latte art is AMAZING. They printed my face out once on my cappuccino. They were originally just a cake shop in Dallas who brought their sugar to a new level with top notch coffee and food. If you’re ever on the square in downtown Mckinney, this place is a must stop.
  4. Dr. Brown Bottles: So, I talked a little bit about this on my stories this week, but we have exclusively breast fed my entire pregnancy. I do however pump and bottle feed usually 4/5 feedings almost every single day because I like to know exactly how much Knox is getting. Now, we are also having to supplement a bottle a day with formula to help Knox gain some extra pounds, so more than ever before, the bottles we use are very important. We originally were using MAM the most, but a friend got us a Doctor Brown bottle, and we don’t like to use anything else now. It seems to be the closest thing to the real deal for Knox, if ya know what I am saying, which helps less spillage out the sides of the bottle. I feel like a bit of my soul is lost when a ton of breast milk spills out the sides of his mouth while feeding. That stuff is liquid gold! You can’t go throwing that stuff around like that! We also experience a lot less gassy bubbles after a feeding with these bottles because of their special design.
    See Here
  5. Tula Kefir Mask: OOO y’all. This mask is like unicorn magic. It’s pretty, first of all. It really does come out iridescent and unicorny. But, even more important, it made my skin glowing and noticeably different after the first use. You can use a code Tula made for me because I loved this stuff so much “cakebyhannah” for 20% off at checkout for all of you to try!

All photos by Cottonwood Road Photography for The Cake by Hannah

Ways to Make Your World Sweeter

Happy (almost) Valentines Day!

Y’all, next to Christmas this is my favorite few days of the year. Today being Galentines Day- holler to all my favorite ladies!- tomorrow being Valentines Day, and then my wedding anniversary on the 15th. I love L O V E. I love celebrating people, making people feel special, telling people why they’re important… ugh. It’s the best. I love holidays, but I especially love holidays that require wearing pink and eating chocolate. It’s a win-win.

I am all about making life a little sweeter. In light of the love, here are a few thoughts on how to make your world a little sweeter tomorrow for Valentines Day (or… like, every day). Let’s all vow to do one of these tomorrow for somebody!

  1. Buy a stranger’s coffee
  2. Leave a $10 bill taped on the gas pump with a note for the next person
  3. Let people over in that 5 o’clock traffic with a smile and a wave (dude, I know it’s hard)
  4. Text 5 people in your life that should know how important they are to you and why
  5. Send flowers to mom
  6. Leave surprise Valentines on friend’s doors
  7. Buy a couple who could use it dinner out for Valentines Day
  8. Make eye contact and smile at the people you pass in the grocery store
  9. Leave a big tip at your meal with a note
  10. Cupcakes on your co-workers desks with old school Valentines

This is just a short list, but there could be PLENTY more. Make someone’s day sweeter over the next 24 hours. Spread kindness like buttercream frosting. Be intentional, it’s what the world needs right now.

xoxo, Han

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Jeans | Shoes | Earrings | Top | Similar Top | Similar Jean Jacket

All photos by Cottonwood Road Photography for The Cake by Hannah

A Very Pregnant Woman’s Guide to Staying Sane

Come those final 3 weeks of pregnancy, I would say it’s safe to say you are borderline losing your mind.

It is partially preggo brain, partially just over it. And then for me, because I had been glutened twice in one week at 37 weeks (one by choice…stupid… and one by accident), and then at 39 weeks I found out I had a pregnancy tumor growing on my finger I had to have removed in a minor surgery… it was a blast.

But really, at 37 weeks your baby is considered “early term”, which means they could in theory come at any point and be completely safe. So… every day you wake up thinking “Maybe today is the day!”

With the angst of waiting, I found a few things that kept me slightly sane those last days. And really these are things that were my go-to all pregnancy, but the closer to my due date I got, they became absolute necessities.

Freshly Waxed and Tinted Brows and Tinted Lashes: I have been going to Southern Chic Wax for almost a year now, and it’s seriously amazing what it does for my confidence just to know my brows look good. You know what I mean? I go makeup-less most days anyways, but with tinted and well-shaped brows I really do feel 100 no matter what. Feeling confident your third trimester can be a bit of a struggle to be honest, because you just feel massive and uncomfortable at all hours of the day. But, knowing I have at least this going for me really does the trick. I go out knowing I look semi-put together. It’s all about the little things, y’all!

Girl Time: I valued girl time more in my weeks leading up to birth. Whether I was at lunch out with my Mommy and Me Group at church or a Friday night in with a few close friends, banana bread, face masks, and way too many belly laughs for this preggo to handle… I soaked in every minute of it. With all things in life, I am really careful with what I say “yes” to, I can be the master of over-scheduling if I am not careful, but I really have been desperate for time with my closest girls and made it a priority. Most of them are moms, so I asked lots of questions as they came up and they just make me feel at ease. Plus, getting out of the house while Paul was gone during the day got my mind off of labor and guessing when he is coming.

Massage: Listen, go get a massage. My hubby was great to help with massages, and became a pro at rubbing my ankles, but there’s just something necessary about a professional pre-natal massage that you both deserve and for real need. Get those hips aligned and ready, and get the stress out. Especially as an unmedicated birth, it’s proven that the less stress you feel consciously and subconsciously upon going into labor will directly effect the ease and length of your labor. #giveme20massages

Nails: Go get your nails done, ya hear me? Go do it. Get a good one, don’t skimp. By 37 weeks you really could go into labor at any point. And, I don’t know about you… but like having my eye brows done… when my nails are done I just feel confident, pretty, and put together. Going into labor confident about everything going on really can help you. So, why not? Just go there, milk it. Go get an amazing mani and ask for them to rub those ankles in your pedi… eherm. Not because you want to go into labor or anything… cough.

Pure Barre: Y’all, between us having only one car (but not anymore WOOT WOOT!) to swollen ankles and achey hips, since about 33 weeks I had a really hard time getting to Pure Barre toward the end. But, even still, I did whatever I could around the house to get my PB fix. Planks, pretzel, ab routines from class, push ups, and squats… whatever I could do to feel active without overdoing it. I cannot WAIT to get back to the barre post-baby and rock it out again with my girls. But, until then, I have been applying everything I learned over the last two years in class to keep my pregnant self feeling confident and ready for labor. I committed to 200 squats a day- a variety of them to keep it interesting.

Pregnancy Pillow: I was given one of these back way early in my pregnancy, and didn’t touch it for months. I am a super simple person, so the idea of crawling into a pillow every night just didn’t really sound appealing to me. But then, 34 weeks came along and I was miserable. So I decided to give the pillow a shot… and I regret not trying it sooner. It really is that great. The ONLY downfall to a pregnancy pillow is trying to maneuver out of it 5 or 6 times a night to pee again. The bigger I got, the harder it became to throw my legs over the side of the pillow and find the ground. But… you do what you gotta do.

Cozy Pieces: But no really- all I bought in the last month was pajamas, cozy pants, and slippers. I bought pajamas I knew would make me feel presentable in the hospital for the close family allowed into our hospital room after delivery, and then items I was okay with people coming over to see us in after we were back home that don’t compromise comfort for me. I, of course, shopped with nursing in mind as well. Everything I could do to feel cute, presentable, and practical is currently hanging on my clothing rack. Just don’t ask Paul how he feels about how many pajamas I have bought… 😉 I have linked for you below some of my favorites.

Those last few weeks are your final days before your life changes forever. And, although it’s incredibly exciting, don’t forget to rest and take full advantage of you time before baby gets here. Soak in every single second you possibly can with your husband. Go on dates, go to the grocery store together, be present. This is IT for life as you know it. With Knox here now, I can say the best is yet to come for you if you’re waiting for your baby to come right now. Paul and I have become a team in a whole new way, and it’s really fun (we are exhausted… but laughing and having fun still ha). Every bit of discomfort, pain, tinkled pants from laughing too hard, weird pregnancy tumors, and everything in between… I can say from the other side, it’s worth it. It’s worth every bit of it.

xoxo- Han

Sweater: here

Pajama Set: here

All photos by Cottonwood Road Photography

Every Good and Perfect Gift

One year ago, as I was writing my Christmas cards and thinking on 2016, I was beyond grateful for a year of starting new things and slowing down drastically in other areas. A year ago, I was also coming out of/still enduring the hardest year of my life personally. But, I had finally launched my dream of The Cake Shop just weeks before as The Cake by Hannah continued to grow, and I was truly overwhelmed with excitement for 2017. I didn’t know what was coming, but I did know I had all the ingredients to have the best year of my life.

Let me tell you what… that seriously is exactly what I had. The absolute best year of my life.

Things have always been “good”,  I have victory in all things because of Christ’s death and resurrection (1 John 5:4). I have just failed to recognize and be as grateful for what I have or what’s been done for me in other seasons as much as I have in this one. 2017 came after a year of personal storms, intense anxiety, and a lot of late nights filled with prayer asking God to show me what it is he really wants from me.

But friends, It’s always darkest before dawn. A daily surrender to my flesh, begging God to remove fear and anxieties is what 2016 felt like. It was exhausting, but what a beautiful dance it was.

In the surrender came life. 2017 brought blogging full-time for me and becoming a small business owner that has been both successful AND a fun outlet for my creativity. Paul and I chased after a crazy extensive plan of fixing up an old farmhouse that I left a letter on the gate of the year before to end up leaving that dream behind in order to buy our first home that was less of a doozy… because we found out we are expecting our first baby. We moved into our first home, bought our first family car, and have had the most life-giving year of marriage to date. We were laughing a couple nights ago as we drove to a date thinking about how if this is the difference 3.5 years can make in our marriage/life/finances… what on earth will 3.5 more years look like? By God’s grace, I pray it’s just as fruitful, just as life-giving, and just as stable. I find myself saying “thank you Jesus for your favor” daily, multiple times. We feel so beyond blessed by God. And, we know that we literally get to take Z E R O credit for absolutely everything that has panned out for us over the last year.

I mean that with everything in me- I truly recognize that without God’s favor and grace in our lives, we would not have had the year we just had. I spent an entire year worrying over things, and he could have very well been a God of no mercy who said, “Why in the world would I bless you and bring you the desires of your heart when you failed so badly at trusting me for so long?”

But that’s not the God I love, worship, and serve daily. I am constantly being wrung out and reshaped. The process never ends. I am an imperfect being in need of a perfect God.

“Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6

So here I sit one year later, looking at Christmas card photos and addressing envelopes, and I cannot believe all that has unfolded over the last year and that we are days away from the arrival of our son. A year ago, having a baby was not even close to being on my radar. A year ago, I still didn’t want kids until I was 30. A year ago, I just wanted a home desperately and to finally do full-time what I felt called to do with my life- both of which I felt stuck in and trapped behind a wall that seemed impossible to get by. Debt that we needed to pay off, credit scores we needed to raise, money we needed to save, and so much more. (All of which we successfully, by the grace of God, accomplished- and with dance parties every time our credit jumped and debt was chipped away at!). I wanted to figure out a schedule with my husband that didn’t run me down ragged between multiple jobs. Funny how God works in the hearts of his children, and how he unifies husband and wife. Paul’s and my heart truly are knit together, and it’s so incredible how we get to watch our hopes, dreams, and desires align over time in perfect time. Not only did God bring to life the desires of my heart that I knew I wanted, but he brought immeasurably more than I could have ever hoped or imagined.

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.” Ephesians 3:20

God is faithful. He cares about every detail.

There is so much to be thankful for, so much to see the Lord in. And, there always is. The whole earth is a reflection of his glory, and there is always much to worship the Lord in. I wish I could feel as much gratitude as I do now in all seasons. In seasons of overwhelming joy, and just as much in seasons of darkness, loneliness, angst, anxiety, or frustration.

I have kept the following scripture close to my heart as we prepare for Baby K to make his entrance into the world, and as I reflect on all of the amazing things that happened this past year for us:

“So, my very dear friends, don’t get thrown off course. Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle. He brought us to life using the true Word, showing us off as the crown of all his creatures.” James 1: 16-18

Every good and perfect gift, every single thing we delight in on this earth, is from God. These gifts are extensions of his love and overwhelming glory. Every single bit of goodness, it’s his reflection, it’s his light. Nothing is given to us to hurt us, nothing is given to us to tease us. God is true to his word, he is good in all things and through all things, and gives freely because it’s just who he is. His grace is good, his love is limitless. Just like this child that Paul and I are about to have is an extension of the love we have for one another, so is every single good gift and day of life that we get from God.

God has been so good to us. 2017, it’s going to be really hard to beat you, but I can’t wait to see how 2018 somehow does. As for you, The Cake Community, who have truly become part of my life… thank you. Thank you for everything. Thank you for celebrating the highs with me and encouraging me in the lows. Thank you for loving this growing little family of mine, and I wish I could hug each and every one of you.

Merry Christmas, sweet friends.

xoxo- Hannah, Paul, Baby K, and Presley

Scroll for More Family Photos by Cottonwood Road Photography

Venue: The Nest at Ruth Farms 

Paul’s Outfit:

Shirt | Chelsea Boots

Scroll to Bottom For Similar Dresses to Hannah’s 

 

Similar Dresses to Hannah’s (The one pictured is out of stock):

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