Hey Jude! Welcome to the Family

Hello friends!  I would like to introduce my new grandson, Jude Declan.  Jude was born just after noon on the 27th, weighing in at eight pounds, three ounces.  He is a little sweetie.

I stayed with Avaleigh at her house while mommy and papa went to the hospital.  After her nap, Granny, Avaleigh, and I went to the hospital for Avaleigh to meet her baby brother.  We think she approved, though she did swipe Jude's teddy bear!!

Avaleigh was delighted to see her mommy too. Bethany could hear Avaleigh walking down the hallway at the hospital.... "Mommy!  Mommy!"

I love this little family and am so pleased to welcome my new grandson.

Alice Birthday Card and Birthday Party

Hello friends, today I am sharing a birthday card I made for my granddaughter, who had the most darling vintage Alice in ONE-derland birthday party.  

I used Cricut's Disney Classics cartridge to create Alice, the White Rabbit, and the birthday cake on this card.  I honestly do not remember what I used for the Happy 1st Birthday sentiment, but I do recall that it was more than just a cartridge cut (I included cut text). 

Avaleigh's first birthday party was the weekend before her actual birthday.  She had been on the antibiotic for her ear infection for a couple of days so we were hopeful that she would feel better.  As the recipient of  her virus "sharing", I am going to say that a couple of days is not long enough to feel better.  That virus was evil and hung on for over a week!  

Bethany and her friend Bailey did such a fantastic job with Avaleigh's party decorations.  I found a few fun decorations for them, the food tags and such, and they came up with all of the rest on their own!  Everything looked so sweet and so special!

For an ill one year old, Avaleigh had quite the large party.  She had family from both sides, four cousins, and some of her parents' friends.  Bethany had an amazing menu:  roasted pork tenderloin with cheese and a sauce sliders, fabulous chicken salad croissants, pbj's for the kids, potato salad, pasta salad, raw veggie cups with hummus and dip, chocolate dipped strawberries, themed rice crispy treats, sodas, punch, and the most fabulous homemade cupcake EVER!  Her sister-in-law kept asking where she purchased things and was stunned to realize that Bethany only purchased ingredients, croissants, and rolls.  Otherwise she was a busy mom and made everything.

I loved what Bethany and Bailey did with one of the birdcages leftover from Bethany's wedding.  They made a small three tiered cake and placed it inside the birdcage with  fresh roses and Alice themed food spears.  

Below is Bethany, a sick little Avaleigh, and Bailey.

Avaleigh really enjoyed pulling the tissue paper out of her gifts.  She had tissue flying left and right.

Avaleigh really liked the musical puppy her cousins gave her.  It is such a fun pull toy for her.

In fact, she liked the musical puppy so well that she did a little dance to the music!

Like everything else that she eats, Bethany made Avaleigh an organic birthday "smash" cake.

Our little princess would only poke at the frosting on her cake.  This was day two of her refusal to eat.  She kept drinking throughout her illness, but she had two or three days where she refused food.

The photo below captures Avaleigh's attitude toward her cake perfectly.  She would look at it, she even touched it once, but she refused to engage with it!

Thanks for stopping by today.  I hope you enjoyed my Alice birthday card and Avaleigh's first birthday party recap!

First Swimming Adventure

Hello everyone, welcome to this week's Bitten By the Bug 2 challenge.  My wonderful Design Team sister, Sharon, selected this week's Cricut Challenge cut theme.  Sharon asked us to create a project about swimming or water.   I had just downloaded the photos of Avaleigh's first swimming pool adventure at her Aunt Christy and Uncle Josh's house.  She was not sure about the pool at first, but she really got in the spirit of water play after a bit.  

I am not going to lie, I used cuts from a lot of different cartridges.  Seriously, I used cuts from nine different cartridges on this one layout.  I used Once Upon a Princess to create that adorable mermaid, Animal Kingdom to create the kissing fish, Splish Splash to create a fish, Create a Critter to create the Starfish, Animal Antics to create the Snorkeling Fish, Doodlecharms to create the Sea Horse, Paper Dolls for Everyday to create the ocean floor, Life is a Beach to create the Seaweed.

I finished the layout with tiny air bubbles, assorted pink, champagne, and brown gems on the ocean floor as well as a sand (champagne) colored ribbon under the seaweed.  

I am pleased to say that there were no big events in our lives this week.  No one eloped, no one lost or found a new job, and everyone had a nice week!  I am planning a Vegas themed reception/party for Aaron and Crissie, but I do not plan to go as over the top as I have been know to when party planning. 

Thanks for stopping by today.  I do hope that you take the time to go by Bitten By the Bug 2 and see the amazing projects my design team sisters made for this week! They are so talented!!  Also, we do hope that you will join us in the swimming/water challenge this week!

Baby Girl Layout

Hello friends!  This is my week to choose the theme of the Cricut Challenge at the Bitten By the Bug 2 blog.  We all know that I am totally besotted with my new granddaughter with my world revolving around all things Avaleigh!  It was very easy for me to select a theme for this week's Cricut Challenge - NEW BABY CHALLENGE (of course)!  I challenged the Design Team (and our readers) to create a card, layout, home decor project, or other NEW BABY ITEM.  I chose to create a two page layout featuring my favorite little baby girl!

I used four Cricut Cartridges to create these two pages - Baby Steps, First Few Years, Creative Memories Stork's Delivery, and Anna Griffin's Elegant Embellishments.  I confess that I have really been enjoying the Anna Griffin cartridges recently.  I love the elegant, versatile cuts.  I cut the scalloped backgrounds of both pages with Elegant Embellishments. I used Anna Griffin card stock (floral) for the top layer of the background and (blue) for the bottom layer of the background.  

One of the more difficult tasks with this layout was selecting which photos of our sweet baby to use on the pages.  After I found the image of the baby sleeping on the moon and clouds I went with these cute photos.

I used this adorable double layer rattle on the left page, along with sheer ribbon and pink pearl swirls. I also used the sweet baby girl three layer cut as a title on this page.

The right page has two Cricut cut embellishments, the sleeping baby and the baby blocks.  I added pink pearls and a pink bow to the baby cuts and used pop dots to adhere the embellishment to the page.

I hope that each of you will go by the Bitten By the Bug 2 blog and look at the other new baby projects created by the design team.  Also, consider joining us this week.  This is a fun challenge, if I do say so myself!!

Meet My New Granddaughter!!

Avaleigh Skye Ross.
Born January 22, 2015
7 lb, 13 oz., 20 in.

 

Avaleigh was delivered via c-section so above it the first time Bethany could hold her baby!

Their sweet little family.

 Meeting Gramma for the first time!

Meeting Great Granny for the first time!

So very upset with that mean nurse who gave me my first bath!!!

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Worn out after her bath, shot, weighing, poking, prodding, hair do, and getting dressed.

We are completely in love with the baby!!

Fall Baby Shower for Baby Avaleigh

Hello friends. Today I am going to share with you some of the details from the baby shower my mom and I hosted for Bethany, John, and baby Avaleigh!  The baby is due in mid-January so we decided to host a baby shower before everyone becomes entangled in their holiday madness.  With that in mind, and the advent of beautiful warm, clear fall weather, we decided on a fall themed outdoor baby shower!

As much as I hoped to by-pass the craziness of everyone's Thanksgiving till New Year's schedules, I still selected a bad weekend for the baby shower.  So many people were out of town for one reason or another.  But our friends being the AMAZING women that they are, they dropped off or mailed gifts to arrive for the shower!  How wonderful is that?

We decorated with fall colors and served a variety of fall themed foods.  In addition to ham salad and egg salad finger sandwiches, we also had corn casserole muffins, a savory pumpkin shaped cheese ball with crackers, a sweet pumpkin cheese ball (which tasted like pumpkin cheesecake) severed with gingersnaps and graham crackers, a veggie tray and dip, chips and dip, and a create our own caramel apple station.  I put put honeycrisp apple wedges on skewers and had a small pot of war caramel with several toppings in which the caramel apple wedges could be dipped.

For beverages we severed an apple cider sangria as well as sodas and assorted bottled waters.

I must tell you, baby Avaleigh is going to be one well dressed baby when she arrives. Bethany and John received so many adorable outfits, baby gadgets, tools, diapers, and nursery decor, they were thrilled and overwhelmed!

John stayed for the entire shower, assisting as needed and opening several of the gifts.  He is so looking forward to their baby girl!

We passed around most of the gifts so that everyone could get an up-close look at all of of the darling baby girl clothes and gear. and oooh & ahhhh appropriately! Below MFK, my friend Kathy, admires one of the sweet outfits Avaleigh received.

After the shower we took a few minutes to snap a few family photos. Below are Bethany and I.

Avaleigh should be feeling the love in the photo below.

And of course, John and Bethany are thrilled about becoming parents!

Thanks for stopping by today.  I still have projects to share with you this week, so check back soon!