Loss

When I was pregnant, I joined a message board with other women who were pregnant and due in October 2009. We all grew pretty close, and now that our babies are here we continue to talk. We share our lives with each other - some of the women on that board are the closest friends I have. One of the ladies on my board had a 2 year old daughter fighting leukemia. I read the blog that she kept, staying up to date on her daughter's progress. Sometimes it seemed like she was winning, other times it seemed like leukemia was winning. I found out that her daughter passed away Saturday evening and is now in heaven. My heart is so heavy and aches for them. To lose a baby at 2 years old, I can't even fathom the pain they are going through and the emptiness they are feeling in their family. Life is short, two years seems so unfair, but I find peace in knowing that the sweet little girl is no longer in pain, and is up in heaven with her Father up above.

Girly Burp Rags

My friend Ashley is due in a couple of weeks, expecting a baby girl - Anna Elizabeth. She picked up some super cute fabric on clearance and asked me to make her some burp rags for baby Anna.

I decided to do a cute zig-zag stitch around the edge to finish them off:





They are all set for Anna to start using :)

All I want for Christmas...

or I should say, all Dax wants for Christmas are his 2 front teeth! The bottom 2 are taking their sweet time coming in, with no sign of any others at this point. You can barely see the second tooth coming in, it's the one on the left when you look at the picture - it started coming through Saturday morning.



Yes, that is pumpkin on his face, I've been mixing it in with his oatmeal in the mornings for breakfast and he loves it! He loves his new teeth, he's constantly moving his tongue over them to feel them out, and his new favorite thing to do is feel our teeth. This sends both him and us into peals of laughter.

Dax's First Birthday Party

We went with a Halloween themed party this year, and it was a success! I was pretty stressed out about getting everything done, and I wish I had made and/or bought a few more decorations, but this was truly the first birthday party I have ever thrown, and it was a pretty big learning experience for me :) I am also proud to announce that I did not have a breakdown until after Dax went to bed last night, I'm still trying to come to terms with the fact that my baby will be 1 on Monday.

The cake is not what I had originally attempted to do, but it was the next best option when we didn't have a cake the day of the party :)



I also made up some cupcakes that were inspired by my friend Joanne, who made some Candy Corn Cupcakes (for what it's worth, I used a cream cheese frosting, which I probably wouldn't do again if I wanted to pipe frosting on, it doesn't hold it's shape very well once the frosting gets room temperature):



We also had some homemade pumpkin cheesecake bars with oreo crusts, and little ghosts on top (these are so delicious, i had one for breakfast!):



The table setup:



The decorations:



And the birthday boy himself with his first piece of cake!



It was everywhere :)



And here he is with his present from mama and daddy:

Delux Tag Blankets - Baby Crafting Part 2

I believe I have caught the crafting bug from my friend Joanne, over at Ready, Set, Craft! Today, I tackled some tag blankets. I just did mini ones, the first one was a 10"x10", and the other one was 8"x8". The fabric I picked up is so fun - it's textured, but really really soft as well, perfect to attach to a carseat, stroller, or use for a lovie :)

Here's the 8" one:


Here's the 10" one:

Baby Presents - Getting Crafty Again!

I am on a homemade gift kick! One of my good friends had a baby on Sunday (the coolest birthday ever - 10.10.10), she and her husband kept the gender a surprise until their baby was born. I personally don't think I could do that, it would drive me nuts!! They had a boy, and they didn't have much boy stuff since their first was a girl. I've been making a few different "boy" things to send them instead of the traditional gift of clothes. This might end up being a series of 3 post, because I have 3 different things I am making her.

Today, I attempted some burps cloths. The key - having really really cute fabric :) I didn't have a pattern, but I did hold up one of our burp rags to the fabric for a rough idea of how long and wide the cloth should be. My favorite fabric is the one with the dinosaurs....I just might need to make Dax a blanket or pillow case out of it!!

Pumpkin Lane

We took Dax to Gull Meadow Farms where they have Pumpkin Lane. It's a little area set up with different cut outs to pose with, pumpkins, activities, and great picture taking opportunities. The weather has been wonderful here, so last night we packed up and went over to check it out!











Stay tuned for pictures from Dax's halloween themed first birthday party this weekend!!

A Tooth!

Dax finally has a tooth, and just 2 weeks shy of being 1 year old as well :) We were beginning to think that his almost 5 month old cousin was going to beat him in getting some pearly whites.

Bilingual Baby

Dax has started saying his first word in french "chat", which is cat. Everytime he sees a cat he starts saying "cha cha cha"...we love it!

Birthday Planning

Dax's first birthday is almost here and I have been working like crazy trying to get everything pulled together for this special day. We have decided to do a halloween-themed party, mainly because there is an abundance of halloween decorations available right now :) The first thing I took care of were the invitations. I enlisted the help of my friend, Joanne, who is also a Stampin' Up demonstrator, to make some invites. You can see them on her blog here.

I have since moved on to figuring out our menu. We are having a mid-afternoon party, so we'll be doing desserts and finger foods. This week, I tested out some carrot cream-cheese bars.



I'll be changing the colors used so the "spiders" are a little more noticable :) Up on the menu to try next week, pumpkin cheesecake bars with an oreo crust.