If she had the proper words to say,

When Amy contacted me at the end of spring, asking for ideas for her baby's 1st birthday, all she knew was that she wanted something "hot pink and orange!" We tossed ideas back and forth for a few months, and she finally settled on a theme: "Modern Girly Circus."

Now you tell me - is this not the cutest, most original thing you've ever seen?!



Okay, maybe not THE cutest, as that award probably has to go to little Miss Ainsley herself. Look at this sweet picture her mama sent me so that I would know the special baby I was creating cookies for!


Little Miss Ainsley.

When the time came to make and decorate the cookies, Amy had modified her color choices to include "light pink" as well. I incorporated her three colors as much as possible, also including a bit of white here and there for distinction. She also wanted a few special lions and elephants, and I suggested some popcorn boxes to round out the collection.

( Click to see lots more! )

Man, I love me some babies. :-)

I got over to my neighbor's yesterday for some newborn pictures for her. Wouldn't you know, little Emma wanted no part of sleeping for the few HOURS I was there. At just ten days old, she stayed awake the entire time!

Oh, but she's just such a cutie that you have to forgive her. You really do. She's got these little heart-shaped lips, and the roundest little ears. She's just so precious!



(Note: I put copyrights on these to keep them from popping up all over FaceBook. It's the first time I've ever done that. I have to admit, it adds a certain bit of spiffiness for me!)

( Four more. )

And if you're even more curious, you can see the rest of the set by slideshow HERE. :-)

How much yeast is in a "packet," I wonder? See, I use enough yeast that I buy it in little brown-glass bottles, but I'm going to have to figure this out before tomorrow. I'm making Refrigerator Rolls, and the recipe calls for 2 packets. ETA: 2-1/4 tsp. = 1 packet. Thank you, Google.

I made the prettiest cookies today. Well, I actually made the sugar cookies yesterday, but I iced them this afternoon. My cutter was a bit larger than I realized it to be, so I didn't get as many cookies as I'd imagined (and I made two batches of dough to start with). I'm toying with the idea of making another batch early tomorrow, but we'll see. I already do have a lovely dessert planned for Wednesday anyway.

Also, my neighbor and friend asked if I'd be willing to make either a cake or cupcakes for her baby shower this weekend. I'm waiting on one gift in the mail, but I have the others ready and have the perfect wrapping papers to match. I'd already RSVP'ed and was very excited for her shower... to now be asked to craft some goodies is just, well, icing on the cake! (Forgive the intended pun, as it is rather late.)

I received a cute package in the mail yesterday from sdaisyk. She sent me a handful of Coke caps, but she included TONS of little goodies, too. Everything is so sweet and thoughtful - thank you, Sarah!

The boys were out of school this past Thursday and Friday for a break, and it has thrown me all off schedule. It just seemed like yesterday should really have been Monday, you know? As we were passing the base theatre last night, I saw the marquee and read, The Toothfairy, getting all excited. On our way back, I told the boys to try and read for the showtime, but right as we passed it, I realized that it the showing was for Saturday night... and it *was* Saturday night. (The base theatre only shows each movie once.) Gah. In my head, it had felt like Friday all day. Bummer, too, as that's one I had really wanted to see in the theatres.

Speaking of theatres, Philip took the boys last weekend to see Percy Jackson & The Olympians, and they all really enjoyed it. A.J. had received the first two books of the series for Christmas, so when he mentioned wanting to see the movie, I told him he needed to read his book first. He then read it in two days, and then he read the second book in three days. We'll have to look for the other books for him to finish, and now Jack wants to read them, too. I wanted to read the book before seeing the film, and I hadn't gotten a chance, so I told Philip to take them instead. I'll catch it on DVD later. :-)

And then Diary of a Wimpy Kid comes out this coming Friday, and both boys have been stoked about that one for a few months. They both love the book series, and I'm sure the movie will be fun. I can get behind that heartily, especially as I'm hoping it will direct their interest completely away from Alice in Wonderland. Jack wants to see it, but I think it just looks... off? I love most of J. Depp's movies, but I have no desire to see this one (though I've previewed the soundtrack, and it is lovely). In this case, Jack's just going to have to "keep wanting," and that's as close as he'll get. *wink*

The boys used their monies a few weeks ago to reserve copies of the two new Pokemon games at GameStop, and they've been reminding us for the past several days that today was the pick-up date. I thought that was odd; don't games usually come out on Tuesdays, like music and movies? At any rate, we got an automated reminder call yesterday even, and I took them to the BX GameStop today to pay for the rest and pick-up their games. One bought the silver, and one bought the gold (that's as far as this Mom goes into the "geek-speak," heh!), and they both received little boxes with commemorative figurines, too. It was hard for them to buckle up seatbelts a few minutes later, due to how over-the-moon they were feeling. Ha!

It's been hours, and I am still SO stuffed from dinner. I made Pineapple Veggie Chicken (a favorite of ours for years), but I tossed in tons of extra amounts of veggies. I only put in half as much chicken as usual, so we gorged ourselves on mushrooms, snow peas, red and green peppers, and onions. Afterward, the boys made tonight's dessert: Tutti-Frutti Smoothies, and those were full of strawberries, bananas, and orange juice. Jack drained his large glass in seconds, I swear. I feel like I'm going to float away on fruits and veggies in my dreams!

Today is Jack's actual birthday! Yes, his party was almost a month ago, but his real birthday is today! He is fully SEVEN YEARS OLD now!

*throws confetti*

And, to share this special day with him, Heather2 gave birth to her new little boy just after lunch today! Little Shane has arrived, and now Josie is a big sister!

Jack was grinning from ear-to-ear when I told him he had a new "birthday buddy," and he's been spouting off the math ever since ("I'm seven years old, and baby Shane is zero years old. When I'm eight years old, baby Shane will be one years old," etc.) He wanted to go with me to the hospital, and he patiently sat in the waiting area while I visited the new baby. When I came out to get him, I learned that children are allowed in the maternity area of that particular hospital, so then I took Jack back for a quick peek. When we go back to visit again tomorrow sometime, Jack will be able to see him for a bit longer. :-)

And yes, if you are readers of hetterrific's journal, then things have probably gotten quite confusing. Now, not only is there a 'Heather2,' but there is a 'Shane2' - yikes! At least this Shane is a wee babe, and hopefully that is enough distinction. ;-)

...

I have pics from our visit. I'm also aware that I still need to post birthday party pics. I'm so behind!

Sooooo tired.

I'd really like to shave my legs, but I don't think I'm going to make it too much longer tonight. How sad is that? It's only just after 8:30pm!

I stayed up late the past two nights, and I'm dog-tired tonight because of it. In my defense, I planned to go to bed early last night, but I had unexpected company - six people that needed a bed/pallet/floor to sleep on, and I was up really late because of it. But I'm glad I could help out.

And I wanted a nap this afternoon so badly, but Jack asked ever-so-sweetly if I would help him build his new LEGO pirate ship (The Black Pearl), and since I spent all yesterday afternoon cleaning out and decluttering his room to make a space for said ship, it made sense to actually open the box today. That took almost two hours, but now he has two gigantic pirate ships, as well as the Isla Cruces playset on his train table. And then he and A.J. played quietly for an hour or so in his room while I tossed in some laundry and tatted a bit.

Speaking of tatting (and aren't I always?), I've been busting my tail completing pieces. I finished my mom's birthday present, plus my sister's, and I just finished up my sister-in-law's piece tonight during swim lessons. I need to take pictures of all of them. I finally wrote out a "to tat for" list, as the increasing number of requested projects was beginning to spin in my little brain. I split one skein or floss two nights ago (none of you showed up to help, by the way), and that took me very close to two hours. I've got two more skeins to split, and then I'll be using those three split skeins to make six certain projects.

And I'm dying to make another pair of baby booties. Seriously, now that the booties are completed, given away, loved and worn by the baby, I just want to make oodles and oodles more of them! Some people have baby fever or baby lust. I have baby bootie fever.

I've been folding Moravian stars in my "free" time after dinner and such at night, and I even took the strips of paper with me to swim lessons last week one night. I suppose it's clear that I can't just SIT there at swim lessons, isn't it? I really can't. I must be doing *something* all the time.

Me = Spazzy.

I'm going grocery shopping in the morning tomorrow after I drop the boys off at school. I had originally planned to go today, but there wasn't quite enough time after my guests left this morning. We had everything we needed for dinner tonight anyway, so it wasn't a big deal. Besides, when I go tomorrow, I'll be well-rested.

Mmmmmmm. Sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.

Both booties are finished. However, my spray starch wouldn't work last night - the bottle absolutely refused to spray. I worked for over an hour, poking a needle through and rinsing all the pieces in warm water. No luck. I have no clue what the problem is, but the bottle is 7/8 full still, and I'm really ticked about it.

So I need to somehow get those starched today. And Ann is at the hospital now, having the baby, so I gotta hurry!

I worked today, of course, but while I was at work, Philip and Jack came in to give me the cell phone (we'd left it at home when he'd dropped me off). Just as they came in, my friend Ann and her son Ty entered the restaurant to eat lunch, so Philip and Jack had an impromptu lunch date with the two of them, and the boys were quite happy with that arrangement. As soon as I saw Ann, I came around the corner to give her big hugs - she'd announced to us last Friday that she is expecting her third baby now, and I'm too excited for her!

But to make things even BETTER, Heather stopped in for lunch as well, and she had first ultrasound pictures of 'my' little cutie! It was painful for me, as I was so busy with customers for a while that I couldn't get over to her to see the pictures and chat, and then even when I did, I couldn't really start the fountain of happy tears that I wanted to let loose with. Oh, but I'm so happy, and the little buglet was waving and kicking in the pictures - such an adorable fetus! Go over to her journal to see a few pics. ;-)

And then I had my first employee evaluation with Ryan. It went well, and ended with lots of smile and "Good job"s. I'm very pleased, and it wasn't stressful (as evaluations sometimes can be). I really do love working here at Runza, and I really love the folks I work with - what more could I ask for?

And when I got home, I was greeted with fabulous mail. A notice from USAA of a $30.28 credit to our car insurance, a special Christmas package with two presents for the boys from mostcurious and thirteen Christmas cards! The haul of greetings included ones from thatpatti, shellseeker and sdaisyk, as well as a surprise gift from cateyes25 and a neat card/ornament that's designed to look like a snowglobe! Thanks so much, all of you - you have really made my day!

There are 53 gorgeous cards on my 'Card Wall' - yay!

I had to make a new icon. :-)

When I visited with Annie and Patrick today, I swapped memory cards with them so that I could begin processing all the photos they had taken so far. They had some really cute shots, and I couldn't resist making an icon out of one picture in particular:



I love it!

Additionally, there are lots more new pictures up in this post over at Annie's journal. I didn't take any of these - they were all taken in the first few hours after Douglas was born, long before I was there to visit. He's just such a cutie!

They were still working on the gallons of sweet tea I brought in yesterday, but today I brought in grapes and oatmeal cookies for them to snack on. I also printed all the pictures I'd taken yesterday (although my printer is not really a "photo printer"), and I had made a small stack of photo stationery for them to have with some of my greeting card stuff. They seemed very happy to have hard copies of Douglas photos, even if my printer isn't the best - that made me happy as well. :-)

I visited Annie tonight in the hospital, staying for an hour. I took her and Patrick two gallons of sweet tea that I made in the wee hours of the morning, as well as some Halloween cups for drinking. She and Patrick looked good, having gotten some decent rest this afternoon (finally!), and little Douglas was ADORABLE!

I picked him up right away, and he was opening his eyes and rooting around on my shoulder. He worked his hands free from his long sleeves and the blanket, and he was just going at them. He made so many adorable faces, and he yawned a lot. He suckled my finger for a bit before I finally gave him over to Annie to nurse. He's just too cute!

And of course, I took pictures. I know folks are dying to see, so I'll stop babbling for now and get to the good stuff. ;-)


Douglas Michelangelo.

( A few more pictures. )

Heather just called with good news! The baby has turned, and now Annie is between 6-7cm dilated, fully effaced. Yay!

That's GREAT progress in just two hours - let's hope it keeps up! Heather said Annie's doing well, breathing great through her contractions and finding her zone. She's on the pitocin drip, but she's not had any epidural or anything. Hopefully things will keep moving smoothly, and little Douglas will be here tonight!