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Tag Archives: Jessica

Curious George Birthday – Party Outfit

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This year, I decided I would sew Jessica’s birthday outfit myself. I did a bunch of web browsing for ideas and decided I wanted to make pants out of a Curious George fabric and a solid top with a Curious George applique. I spent quite a bit of time searching for Curious George fabric that was cotton. It seemed that all the options I found were flannel, which is more suited for pajamas, but I finally found some. The applique didn’t require quite as much searching. I ended up purchasing it from The Sew Princess. Technically, she doesn’t list just the appliques in her store, but she had the best George applique on her custom outfits and I asked if she would sell just the applique and she worked with me.

Since I had never sewn a garment before, I decided to test out my skills using a green floral fabric. It went much smoother than I anticipated, even with adding sleeves to the sleeveless pattern I decided to use. Thanks to my MIL Olivia for explaining how to read/follow a pattern and to Jillan for sleeve help. I had intended to have Jessica wear the green outfit so I could ensure I had proper sizing, but Jessica can be quite adamant when it comes to clothing and I could never get her to wear it. I went ahead with the party outfit and it did end up being too large, but better too big than too small. I ended up running out of time on the shirt, so Jessica just wore the pants with her party favor shirt at the party. The shirt gave me a lot of frustration. I don’t know if it was the fabric or what, but I ended up having to rip out the stitches for gathering the sleeves like three times on each sleeve. It was quite annoying. I did end up finishing it in time for Jessica’s two year portraits taken the Monday after her party. Overall, I was quite happy with how it turned out and I’ve already started my next sewing project.

Jessica in Her Birthday Outfit

Party Outfit with Alternative Favor Shirt

Go here for the post regarding the invitations and here for the post about the party favors. Stay tuned for more posts. I still need to share photos from the actual party.

Janette Amber

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… It’s a Girl …

Janette Amber

October 31st, 1:08 PM

6 pounds 9 ounces

19-3/4 inches long

 

Janette with Her Proud Daddy

Janette's First Bath

Jessica met her baby sister for the first time that evening after Papa and Nanny picked her up from Jason and Julia’s house. It was late, so they didn’t stay long, but she didn’t seem to take much interest in Janette.

Janette and Jessica with Papa

 The next day Janette got to meet her other grandparents.

Janette with her Nana

Janette and Grandpa

After school and a nap, Jessica came back to the hospital for more time with her sister and she showed more interest. She gave Janette the monkey baby toy she had picked out at Target on Sunday and Janette gave her the Tiny dinosaur “she” had picked out for Jessica.

Jessica and Janette with Nanny

Then I had to get a few photos of my Halloween baby in Halloween garb. So even though these next two pictures were technically taken on November 1st, we’re going to say they were on Halloween.

Peapod Janette

My First Halloween

Wednesday morning, my OB came by to give the discharge okay and we had her take a picture with Janette. I forgot to do that with Jessica.

Dr. Landwermeyer and Janette

Janette on the Ride Home from the Hospital

Birth Story: JAM4 decided to surprise us and arrive 13 days before her due date of November 13th. At 4:30 AM Halloween morning, I woke up to use the bathroom. After climbing back into bed, I couldn’t go back to sleep. After about half an hour and 2 contractions, I decided some extra sleep wasn’t happening and went to the study to get on the computer and continued with contractions spaced about 15 minutes apart. About 5:30-5:40, my water broke. At that point, I decided I should wake James up, who got dressed really fast, which is weird considering I was still in my pajamas and was clearly calm about the whole situation. I called my OB’s office and the doctor on call called me back and said I should head to the hospital and she would let them know to expect me. About 10 til 6, I called my friend Lori, my sister-in-law Julia, and my parents. I told Lori she had time to take a shower and then sent James to take a shower too. I got ready to go also. I started washing and slicing strawberries and grapes, so Jessica would have food ready to eat for the day. Lori arrived about 7 to stay with Jessica at our house until Julia could pick Jessica up. Julia called me back and said she would head over and hoped she could avoid traffic. Jessica decided to wake up a little early, about 7:30, and we left shortly after that to go to the hospital. By this point, the contractions were probably about 5 minutes apart. They were definitely noticeable, but more than bearable. Once we arrived at Seton Southwest, the ER admitting person had me answer a few questions and climb into a wheelchair made for someone without hips (or at least it seemed that way). We went up to the labor and delivery unit triage room where my leaking fluid was checked for some component, which was there, and then I was taken to L&D Room 12. The charge nurse had me change into the lovely hospital gown before my delivery nurse arrived. Initially, I was not fond of my delivery nurse. She seemed disorganized and took her sweet time asking her questions, taking my blood and setting up the IV port. She checked and I was dilated to 3 cm (only 1 cm at my last OB appointment the previous Thursday). That was the other thing that bugged me about my delivery nurse. It was painful when she checked my dilation, almost like she was trying to push my cervix up to my belly button, which I had not experienced when in labor with Jessica. Finally, after getting the first part of the Group B Strep antibiotic, monitoring JAM4 and my contractions for a little while, I was able to get off the monitor and walk some laps around the L&D unit. By this point, it was probably about 10 AM and the contractions were about 2 minutes apart and were definitely intense. They seemed much more intense than the contractions I had with Jessica’s induced labor (read my Pitocin-induced turned cesarean delivery birth story of Jessica here). I decided the drug free approach was not going to work, so we went back to the room and my delivery nurse pumped me full of fluids via the IV and started prepping for the epidural. The anesthesiologist arrived and the epidural block was installed about 11:30 AM at which point I was 7 cm dilated. Afterward, I did not feel pain, only pressure, during the contractions. I also became extremely cold and shivered uncontrollably, which is common from the IV fluids. I started feeling pressure more and more. My delivery nurse checked and I was dilated to 9 cm. Soon after, I told her I was having feelings to push. My OB arrived about 12:45 PM (I had actually started to wonder if I was even going to see her). Everyone started getting ready. I asked my delivery nurse what I should be doing during pushing since apparently our childbirth class and book reading information had flown out the window of my brain. My delivery nurse said okay, we could do a practice push and then she was like nope, she could see Janette’s head of hair. When everyone was ready, I started pushing. It took 4-5 contractions and probably less than 10 minutes and Janette entered the world at 1:08 PM. My OB told James she could tell me what sex the baby was (we had opted not to find out in advance) and James was so flabbergasted by the experience that he couldn’t talk for a minute and I had to tell him “Don’t keep me in suspense” before he could say “it’s a girl.” JAM4 was placed on my belly and rubbed dry before being taken to the bassinet. I delivered the placenta and then my OB sewed up my tear. Meanwhile, I had James take photos of JAM4 getting weighed and cleaned up. Since JAM4 turned out to be a girl, we didn’t end up naming her until the end of the day. We had settled on a list of 5 first names and about 8 middle names about 2 months before delivery, but just couldn’t make up our minds. We ended up discussing her name most of the afternoon before deciding on Janette Amber.

Family

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Here is a layout I completed for two challenges. The first challenge was the Scrapbookbytes.com October Quote Challenge to use a quote about relationships. I really liked this quote by Desmond Tutu: “You don’t choose your family.  They are God’s gift to you, as you are to them.” The second challenge was the Scraps-N-Pieces October recipe challenge that required me to use journaling, a fastener (staple, brad, etc), a frame, at least 6 papers, and stitching. The hardest part of this challenge was the use of 6 papers. The pictures are from the Dzubinski family trip this past summer, both are thanks to my sister.

Family Layout


Digikit: Connie Prince – Backyard BBQ, Chugga Choo Choo (staple); Meryl Bartho – Walk on the Wild Side (stitching)
Fonts Used: WillyWonka (title), Undercurrent BTN (quote and date)

Thanks for stopping by and have a fabulous day.

Amy’s Kitchen

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Today is release day for a new scrapping digi-kit by Amy’s Designs. It is called Amy’s Kitchen. Doesn’t it look fun?

Preview of Amy's Kitchen

First up, I made a layout of a recent baking session with Jessica. It uses the Scrapbookbytes.com October Sketch 1. Journaling reads: “August 11, 2011 Jessica enjoyed helping bake cookies, Mint Chocolate Delights, a recipe on the bag of dark chocolate and mint baking morsels. It is definitely messier baking with a toddler, but the experience is so worth it.”

Cookie Baking Layout

Digikit: Amy’s Designs – Amy’s Kitchen
Fonts Used: Milk & Cereal

This next project is a 4×6 recipe card. It is a recipe from my Nanny’s recipe box and a great way to use up leftover egg yolks.

Golden Sugar Cookies Recipe Card

Digikit: Amy’s Designs – Amy’s Kitchen
Fonts Used: Annie BTN

Check out what the rest of the creative team came up with here.

Thanks for stopping by and have a fabulous day.

Curious George Birthday – Invitations

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This year for Jessica’s 2nd birthday party, I decided to go with a Curious George theme. Curious George was the first show I let her watch on TV and she would point to the TV and say George. I’ve since added in a few other shows that I will let her watch, but she is still a big fan of George.

I started working on the birthday invitations at the end of July, thinking that would allow me enough time. I started with a free coloring sheet of George decorating a birthday cake. I turned it in to a png image with a transparent background, which required quite a bit of work and way more time than I thought since I was erasing white pixel by pixel around George.

Curious George Decorating a Cake

Then I colored the image, which took even more time.

Curious George Decorated a Cake - Colored

I am definitely not a graphic designer by any means. I feel that all my work shouldn’t be limited to just Jessica’s birthday, so feel free to right click on the images and save for your personal use.

Once I had George colored to my satisfaction, I used my digital scrapbooking software to create the two-part invitations. The first part, I had printed as 4×6 photos at Costco. The second part I printed on white cardstock on my laser printer at home and cut to 4×6. This allowed me to send the first part to some family members, like James’ grandparents who don’t travel anymore and wouldn’t need the full invitation.

Jessica's 2nd Birthday Invitation Part 1

Jessica's 2nd Birthday Invitation Part 2

 Digikit: Summer Driggs – Flipflop-sicles
Fonts Used: Kids

Stay tuned for more posts regarding Jessica’s party. I can’t wait to share the birthday outfit I made her as well as the cute party favors I made for all the kiddos and of course photos from the actual party.