Johnny’s 4th of July

The 4th of July is a holiday so special to our family thanks to our new son!

4th of July’s in Review:

2020 Sam and I are dating, to be engaged two months later!

2021 We adopt a new woof and there’s big announcement to make… We are going to have a baby!

2022 We celebrate Sammy’s first 4th of July, and he turns six months old!

2023 We become a family of four! Johnny is born on July 2nd, one day before his due date.

….What will next year bring?

A short note on Johnny…

We liked the name John, and all the cute nicknames that accompany it. I never thought to look up the meaning of John, I knew the significance of John in the Bible, the man whom Jesus loved, and it was a strong name to go with Patrick, Grandpa Berry’s first name. About a week before Johnny’s entrance into the world, the family group chat was buzzing with our name meanings and I decided to look up the meaning of our kids names and commit them to memory. When I got to “John”, I suddenly realized this was already the perfect name for our son- without even having met him yet in the world.

John means “God is Gracious”.

Certainly God has been gracious to us in every part of our life- but this pregnancy I felt God extend his grace to me in more ways than I could count. I was given so much energy throughout my pregnancy, very little nausea, long good sleeps every night, knowledge and wisdom to prepare, and a fresh excitement for the big day when Johnny would arrive. After my experience with Sammy, this shouldn’t seem possible. A week before John’s due date the Braxton Hicks kicked in strong, and I knew God was going to be gracious to me until the very end. He would give me a birth that I could get through and then he would help me recover like never before!

Spiritually, physically and mentally, he was gracious. The Lord allowed the birth to be short and gave me strength to finish until I was holding little Johnny in my arms. I was prepared for another long 15+ hours of labor and pushing, and instead I had 7 hours total. God certainly is gracious- he gives us undeserved gifts, and my gift is our perfect little baby boy! Little Sam loves his new brother, and they are already quite the duo.

-Taylor

Moms Love a Florista!

A mama I want to showcase for Mother’s Day is my cousin Erin, who owns Florista of West Olive, her successful and beautiful flower business! Not only is Erin an amazing wife and mom to her two children, she is amazing at her garden, growing many varieties of flora and creating beautiful bouquets. You could say her business is BLOOMING! For the first time, I ordered a Mother’s Day Vase for my mom and mother-in-law! I’m so excited to support my cousin with this meaningful gift for my loved ones. I know Erin’s artistry and personal touch will be in each beautiful bouquet!

A harvest for her Mother’s Day bouquets.

A Local Mom-Business

Erin highlights The Florista Story on her website (button below), describing how her family “roots” have always been deep in horticulture! In April 2019, she started her business on a piece of land in West Olive and has continued to work hard since. Erin gives the glory to the Lord throughout the journey saying,

“I feel extremely blessed to be able to do what I do. God has truly provided in all aspects of this business and it is amazing to look back and see the Lord’s hand in my story. My husband I are so thankful for all of our customers that make this dream possible.”

Foster and Erin, with Lincoln and baby Roxanne.

Not only does Erin grow beautiful flowers, she shares her passion and knowledge with others! Erin loves to put on events for parties, wedding showers, and so much more. Women create memories and their own beautiful bouquets with Erin’s guidance and expertise. The perfect activity for any group! Here are the flowers she is growing this year and more details from Florista of West Olive!

Being an mom- entrepreneur is not always easy, but from what I’ve seen, always worth it! Erin is such an inspiration to anyone who has the opportunity to positively impact others with their gifts and passion! Click the button below to visit her website and order a bouquet from a local businesswoman and fellow mama! Your mothers and loved ones are sure to enjoy and appreciate this thoughtful gift!

Celebrating Joy & Carol

Joy Mama is my role model, caregiver and support for all my twenty-six years. My mom has been with me every step of the way in my own new journey of motherhood! Without her, I do not know what I’d do. I am so thankful for her loving guidance! I have a renewed appreciation for my mom’s excellence at working hard all day, every single day. I now realize how much work it is to have a well-maintained household in a growing family with growing ambitions! I aspire to be more like my mother every day, and she has certainly become my closest friend and ally.

Carol has been the greatest gift as a mother-in-law. It was an answer to prayer to marry into a supportive and loving family such as my husband’s. Carol is generous, welcoming and encouraging- and I really could not say enough about how well she loves others. I want to raise our sons how Mama Carol raised Sam- caring, strong, confident, humble, and truly loves the Lord.

Both Carol and my mom are the very best grandmas to Sammy and now baby Johnny!

Celebrating our mom’s, grandma’s, aunts, sisters, cousins- any woman who has endeavored on the journey of motherhood- is SO incredibly important! All are carried by their mother physically, emotionally and spiritually in some way. What an honor and rewarding privilege it is to be a mom! With motherhood there comes new purpose, new ambition, new identity, and new life! Mom’s hold such an important position unlike any other, not only in their families with husbands and children, but also in our communities. Mom’s give joy, grace, backbone, and consistency to our world with a unique love that comes with the sacrifice of giving birth and raising their children.

The biggest thank you to all of our mothers! Thanks for reading!

~Taylor

Flying to Florida

Our first family vacation, and we even took a plane! This week in Central Florida marked the end of Sam’s long work grind finishing a huge project for his business, and the beginning of our new family routine as he moves to his own office in Grand Haven. Not to mention I’m now twenty-three weeks pregnant and the timing for some sunshine and 80 degree weather was perfect! Our big boy Sam Sam did so well on his first plane ride, and he adjusted to the new environment quickly with his naps and sleeping straight through the night. Sammy was constantly asking to go outside or would hop in his stroller all by himself! Just in this one week it seems he grew 3 inches taller and matured into a mini-toddler (including some new temper tantrums)!

Mount Dora & Eustis

Northwest of Orlando, we stayed in between these two towns for our week trip! Both Mount Dora and Eustis had a nice downtown along lakes. There are actually lakes everywhere and it was very beautiful!

Central Florida Zoo

Sammy loved all the animals, he was “Baaaa" ing at everything from the lemurs to the cougar. Certainly the highlight was feeding the giraffe with daddy!

Margaritaville

Sam had a business meeting with Margaritaville Resorts in Orlando, so Sammy and Mama tagged along! This was a fun little experience, and we got a cool new bouncy ball.

New Smyrna Beach

Just south of Daytona, we found this beautiful 17 mile stretch of beach called New Smyrna! We parked our car right on the Atlantic, and enjoyed beautiful white sand beaches. Sammy’s first time to the ocean coast!

Our Lake Cottage

So where did we stay? We found a nice little cottage on Airbnb which sits right on small lake, next to Lake Eustis. We had perfect weather for sitting our on the deck and Sammy had lots of space to play!

Thank you for reading! Would love to hear about where you have taken fun vacations!!

Baby 2 Reveal! It’s a…..

The whole family gathers for the big reveal party! Time to find out if Baby 2 is going to be a boy or a girl! The wait is finally over.

Watch the video for your surprise, and then read on…

On Saturday morning we had our ultrasound appointment at a wonderful place called Baby Envision. Although we had the gender given to us in a secret envelope, we could not wait! After finally receiving fancy lattes at our favorite breakfast place, Mudpenny, we opened the envelope! You cannot imagine our surprise and joy to see that we are having a little boy! Sammy is going to LOVE having a brother, and we know they will be the best of friends. We are just beyond excited for this news. I never would have guessed I would end up being a “boy mom”. Continue reading to find out the name!

After much deliberation and brainstorming all Saturday, we decided on something classic and traditional- yet still with many cute nickname options!

John Patrick Berry 💙

Grandpa Patrick is excited to have this new family member named after him, as we carry on the Berry family tree with all these boys! We love Johnny, JP, or even the full “John Patrick” for nicknames. We have many nicknames for Sammy, so I’m sure even more will pop up for our little John Patrick Berry!

There are few things we would LOVE for baby Johnny’s nursery… Winnie the Pooh and the Hundred Acre Woods theme! The perfect nursery for our 2nd Bear. Thank you for your continued prayers for this pregnancy, and thanks for reading!

Sammy’s First Birthday

Photo by Jamie May Photography

Can you believe it’s already 2023?!?

Hard to believe a year ago I was in labor, awaiting the arrival of our little boy. Finally, at 5pm on January 21, 2022, Sammy was alive in the world as a big, healthy boy with those gigantic hands! He did not cry once, instead he made the cutest little cooing baby sounds, already telling mom and dad all sorts of stories and ideas! Samuel Bradford Berry won our hearts all over again and he continues to bring the best out of myself and Sam every day.

Please enjoy all of Sammy’s one year pictures below done by Jamie May Photography! She is our friend and official family photographer!

What Is Sammy Up To At Age 1?

Using his walker, Sammy zooms around almost at a full run, but we have yet to walk independently! He loves to read his books, play with his balls and anything with a wheel, and help Mom with whatever she is doing around the house. Sammy always asks to sit on Dad’s lap and help him write code on his computer, or sit quietly during a video call. He also will tastefully and delicately play the keyboard on Dad’s lap, using all 10 fingers and both octaves! Sam Sam loves all music and dancing, but specifically seems to enjoy mariachi music the best. Food favorites include (but not limited to): scrambled eggs, bananas, beef, pickles, breads, chili, mashed potatoes, and puffs. Anything Sammy can eat by himself, he seems to like!

We are so proud of Sammy, he has the most precious and sweet personality. Out on the town, Sammy is a friend to all as he waves and smiles at anyone and everyone. He is a mischievous fella, when mom tells him “no” that MUST mean she wants him to do that thing again, this time with a big smile on his face! It is so difficult to get upset at Sammy, he is a total jokester… but at one year old we have officially reached discipline using time outs! There’s only so many times my poor plant can take a big WHACK from Sammy. With that said, our son is a snuggler, and loves nothing more than to sit in mom or dad’s lap and watch videos of himself. From an early age Sammy gives his mama lots of big, open mouth slobbery kisses on the cheek. I certainly love all the hugs and kisses!

Sammy’s favorite stuffed animal and first Build-A-Bear!

Sammy’s Birthday Party

We had such a fun time celebrating Sammy, and he certainly enjoys being the center of attention. Our sister Kelsey turns 21 on January 23rd, so we celebrated her big day as well. Aunt KeKe is one of Sammy’s favorite babysitters! It was such a blessing to have our friends and family so supportive and loving towards our big boy.

Thanks to Bradley Jr. we had a big bowl of homemade whipped cream for Sammy to dive into when it was time to sing “Happy Birthday”. We watched a video of Sammy’s first year (made by yours truly), and opened presents! Sammy receives many, many gifts from Grammy and Grandpa!

With our family growing in the summer (baby #2), it makes this time of life even sweeter. Sammy is going to be the best big brother, and we are so excited for him to grow up with a sibling and best friend. We can hardly believe our little boy is already a year old. Please enjoy the videos and pictures of Sammy’s party below, and check out my website taylorberry.social!

The Kune Kune

We recently bought egg laying chickens from a family who also happened to have a litter of baby Kune Kunes (pronounced Koo-Nee Koo-Nee). You may be wondering what is a Kune Kune? Well, I asked the same thing to my husband because he was extremely excited about this new opportunity we found ourselves in.

The answer is… PIGS! The Kune Kune pigs are a type of breed that are used as pig-pets, similar to Pot Belly pigs. The Kune Kune's have variety of colors, upturned noses and often grow mustaches! They are a smaller breed of pig, with huge personalities!

The back story here is, when Sam decided he wanted to be a land-owning farmer someday (Lord willing) he got into pigs as his favorite animal. After researching the pig, he decided the dream animal someday would be the… of course… Kune Kune pig! The perfect pig. So here we were, faced with a decision to aquire some Kune Kune pigs.

Ladies, find yourself a man who continues to impress you with your very own Kune Kune pigs. They are such a joy, instantly bringing a smile to my face! I am amazed by my husband, who is passionate about everything he does- and these pigs are no exception! Here are their names. We have Kronk, the black and brown guy who is the softest and the sweetest. Then Peaches, the black and white spotted lady who is shy but loves belly rubs. And lastly, Michelle Lindell in honor of My Pillow celebrity, Mike. Michelle is sassy and independent- therefore deserving of a longer name.

There is much adventure in my life, thanks to my husband! We love our little farm, and we are so thankful Sammy can grow up surrounded by the variety of animals created by the Lord!

Sammy’s Point Vacation Rental

Praise the Lord that this was made possible for us! The Berry’s are starting a new adventure which doubles as a business venture- owning a short-term vacation rental on the water. We gave this beautiful condo a total transformation on a budget, and we are extremely happy how everything turned out. Check out “Vacation Rental” to see the before and after transformation pictures, and consider booking your vacation!

Sammy playing in the yard off the patio.

When we were contacted in early September by the previous owners, that they were looking to sell, it was a really exciting time. Then finding out the condo had the best view of the entire block and was a first-floor one-bedroom was even more exciting. It was the perfect project for us without jumping into something too big. We wanted to make our first vacation rental nice- so to have something this size was perfect! We soon found out we would officially close on the property in October. I got busy and spent four weeks planning and purchasing. Once October came we would be ready to take action, renovate, and then get this vacation rental posted on Vrbo and Airbnb…… ASAP!

I spent hours on Pinterest researching trends, DIY projects and popular wall paint colors for 2022. At the same time, it was important to keep an eye on Facebook Marketplace and jump on any furniture that someone was selling as new at a used price. For me, staying mentally organized was the key. Picture collages on Microsoft Word helped keep track of color schemes and prices, as well as creating an itemized budget list on Excel. I knew we could stay within 3k making sacrifices, but would end up spending between 4 and 5k to maximize our price point on Vrbo and Airbnb. Which praise the Lord we did pull that off! A challenging aspect of the design process was being physically inside the condo only two times, both for twenty minutes and with the previous owners. So we really had to visualize everything using the pictures off the old VRBO posting of this property. Thankfully, Sam is very creative and has great taste- so basically everything I found I was able to run by his second opinion and this kept me confident and on track.

Enjoying the views on our first day as new owners!

After we got the keys, it was time to work. I sold some of the old furniture on Facebook Marketplace which definitely helped not only with extra cash, but also clearing the condo out without having to bring the heavy furniture somewhere ourselves! Did I mention the entire condo was the color taupe? I started painting right away, making just a little progress at a time because (shocker) it is difficult to get a lot done with a eight month old boy who just learned how to crawl! Sam had to come to the rescue and put in hours after work and even taking work off to finish the job. Let’s see… We used something called Briwax on the 90’s honey oak kitchen cabinets, which did a miracle staining those bad boys! Adding black cabinet knobs and door knobs was an improvement- as well as taking down the old blinds and replacing with beautiful, sheer double-curtains. All the furniture except the kitchen table I purchased off Facebook Marketplace- amazing! The kitchen table we bought from Wayfair, and since it came with a chipped dent on the top surface they sent us a second one for free…….. so now we have two!

Selling old to pay for the new felt pretty good!

All in all, this was a very fun project for the Berrys, and would not have been possible without trusting God and working as a team. Looking back, it is crazy we jumped into this head first- and definitely no regrets! Especially nowadays, we are thankful we invested our money into an asset that would bring future value, instead of our money sitting in the bank! As for me, I am very excited to manage Sammy’s Point- the hospitality industry has always been of interest. But it’s more than that, we are passionate about this opportunity! We feel this vacation rental could not be a better situation to experience the beauty of West Michigan in the best town located on the Big Lake. We know because we have literally been to them all, there is no place like Spring Lake and Grand Haven! Enjoy this peaceful and quiet property, walking distance from restaurants, bike ride away from downtown Grand Haven, and just a few yards from the water.

Surprise for Sam

The summer was going fast and we had yet to take a mini trip just the two of us- no Sammy, no dogs, no goats or chickens… So for Sam’s 30th birthday, I planned a surprise weekend getaway for the two of us! We stayed in a boutique 1950’s motel, ate local tasty food, enjoyed a morning stroll in the streets of downtown Chicago and ended the weekend with a concert! I even planned horseback riding at a stable near our concert venue, because Sam is a cowboy at heart. This Saturday afternoon to Sunday actually felt like a much longer vacation for the two of us, and we were more than ready to get back home to our little boy who stayed with my parents for the night. Below you can see the itinerary I gave Sam the day we left, I knew he would appreciate the transparent background logos and the interactive links being a software guy and all.

Where Did We Go?

Summary & Reviews

Bridges Waterside Grille ~ Local joint found in Michigan City, Indiana! If you enjoy sitting on a deck overlooking the channel and old train bridge, while eating a tasty gluten free burger and crispy french fries then this is a great place to stop! Check out Bridges Waterside Grille here.

Al & Sally’s Motel ~ I looked high and low for an airbnb that was updated and clean with high reviews. Now this motel was fantastic- the owners restored the 50’s vibe, complete with pink bathroom tile, textured walls and retro upholstered headboards. I contacted the motel and asked if they could do something special for Sam’s birthday and they replied right away that they were very excited to do that for us! I asked for tonic water and limes, and not only did they provide the best tonic with balloons and a card, they sliced limes and put them in a container in the fridge. Amazing! Check out Al & Sally’s here.

Lou Mitchell’s ~ We decided to wake up early and head downtown Chicago for breakfast. What a great call! Lou Mitchell’s did not disappoint with the best omelette I’ve ever had, as well as a tasty gluten free buttercream pancake. This is a must-try diner the next time you are in Chicago! Check out Lou Mitchell’s here.

Shilo Ranch ~ On over forty acres in Hobart, Indiana this is a family owned operation that was perfect for our trip. Despite the rain, our guide helped us have a great time. We paid $50 per person for an hour of horseback riding which included learning how to mount a horse and obstacle courses using commands! Sam looked good up on a large, black horse named Fury! Check out Shilo Ranch here.

Tinley Park Amphitheater ~ We had tickets in the pit for Maverick City Music’s Kingdom Tour! What an amazing set with a crowd of all sorts of cultures, ages, and backgrounds! For that reason, going to a Christian concert in Chicago was a different experience than the Van Andel in Grand Rapids! We loved the energy and the gospel style music. An amazing venue and even better concert! Praise the Lord! Check out Maverick City Music on Youtube Music here!

Taylor’s Question: What has been a weekend trip for your family and friends?

Aldea Afternoon

You typically find us in Grand Haven, walking the streets and stopping in Aldea for a lavender latte and gluten free apple cinnamon muffin. With Coast Guard weekend in full swing, Sammy and I decided to head downtown Muskegon to the ole’ stopping grounds of the Northtown 794 building. The Aldea on the first floor has many good memories from when Sam had an office upstairs!

Sammy and I sat down at a table and of course I took a cute picture of Sammy and sent it to Sam. After a few minutes, a woman approached us and asked me if I was a mom. I replied yes I was! She said that she is part of a group on Instagram that highlights mothers out with their kids. She explained that moms don’t get pictures with their kids because there is no one to take the picture, and so would I like her to take a picture of us together? My first thought was that she wanted to take a picture of us to post on this instagram page- so instinctively, as nicely as I could, I replied no- but thank you! She asked again, “Are you sure?!” To make this situation light-hearted, I joked that I didn’t look very good today! She told me that she thought I looked beautiful and she would love to take a picture of Sammy and I for me to have. At this point, not only did I feel awkward with the compliment but I realized this was to be a picture taken with my camera, not hers. Unfortunately, I just stuck to my guns and told her I really appreciated it but I didn’t need a picture, but thanked her again for asking.

I should have replied, “Sure! I’ll send it to my husband!” Sam would have loved it. Sometimes nice people catch you off guard! What would have been a really cool experience with a cute picture ends up being just a nice, above-average conversation. I thought this was a nice offer by this woman to take a picture of us. I might do this in the future if I see a mom doing something fun with her kiddo!

Sammy was looking at my keychain. He investigates everything around him!

Taylor’s Question: Where do you go for that friendly, coffee shop culture?