Tag Archives: grandbebe

Averi-Girl: The 5th grandbebe turns 7!

2 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, Stuff I Actually Think, , , , , , , ,

averi4

I was so proud of myself when I took this picture of you at 1 1/2 years old. But I did have to chase you around the yard for an hour as you excitedly explored the garden before I got this! You make me smile! Oh, yes, you do!

Hey, my sweet birthday girl~

averi & sisters

 The day we all did our make-up. :)

Happy-hApPy-delightful-delirious-joyful-head-over-heels-laughing-dancing-rejoicing-fun-FUN-fun-gladhearted-jumping-jelly-beans-cartwheels- & -kisses Birthday, Little Miss Averi!

Oh your Nonna loves you, girl. You know that, right? You’re funny and sweet and wry and so-very-mature and insightful. You’re considerate and thoughtful and every bit the perfect firstborn, and big-sister. I just don’t know what we ever did without you! You make life sweeter and neater and so much more beautiful! Every time I think of you, I smile. When I get to see you, well, I just go a little bonkers with happiness!

averi 7th

 I thank God for you, Averi Jadyn! I think He outdid Himself in creating you! I thank Him and I add my blessing. I bless your days and all your ways. I bless those piercing, liquid-blue eyes. I bless those oh-so-kissable cheeks.

I bless you as a big sister and a good cousin. I bless you as the perfect niece and a wonderful granddaughter {we’re so lucky to have you}.

averi1

You were 4 or 5 months here and so scrumptious I could just eat you up!

I bless the things you’ll see, that you may see them with God’s eyes. I bless your hands, those beautiful, graceful little hands, that they’ll be applied to good works God prepared ahead of time for you to do – even before you were born.

averi2

I bless you as an honoring daughter – knowing that as you honor your mommy and daddy, the Bible promises it will go well for you and you’ll live long on the earth! What will go well? LIFE! The life Jesus came to give you, abundant and wondrous and free from any kind of captivity! I bless your life. May you always be in Christ. May you find your most treasured identity and home in Him!

You’re becoming more beautiful by the day because it is coming from the inside. As I see you growing up, 7 going on 17, I see a deep radiance, a caring girl. It is lighting you up from the inside out. And oh, how your Nonna loves you and is blessed by you. I know God is pleased by you, too. I sense His joy in you!

averi5

Someday, when you need reminding about what I have always thought of you and maybe you’ll need to know how much God loves you, I hope you’ll remember to come to this blog and read these words again and know that Nonna is shaking heaven’s gates for you, praying for your life, for good things for you. And I am reminding God over and over that I want Him to be with you always and make His face to shine right on you and to surround you with His favor like a shield and to give you grace to be all He created you to be and to do all He calls you to do.

And you what? He has already promised that He will do and be all these things to you in His Word! All the wonderful secrets are there – in your Bible! But I will keep on praying for you and reminding Him for you, anyway. And I will agree with His good plans for your life and shout AMEN! Yes, Lord! Let it be!

Happy Birth~week, my sweet! You are a good girl. And I’m so proud of you!

Love, {Nonna}

My Big Guy has gone Double-Digits!

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Oh, my sweet Hunter-man!

hunter bw

www.eldeenannette.com

Ten years old! Ten. years. old! HAPPY {joyous-fun-laughing-adventureous-surprising-creative-loving} Birthday to you!!! {{Didn’t you just LOVE that surprise all-guy Risk party your sweet parents planned for you???}}

I have to tell you, I absolutely cannot fathom what life would be like without you. I can’t. You are my gentle-eyed, bold-and-strong, energetic, enthusiastic, diplomatic, affectionate, handsome and loving grand {really, truly, totally GRAND} boy. I thank God for you, I do!

When you arrived, I was madly zooming through life and over-working (as those of us who feel the need to prove ourselves often do) and you just fell like a star from heaven {three weeks early} to abruptly stop the madness and capture our full and complete attention and our hearts. lickety-split – just like that: BOOM! We were in love!

hunter as a little guy

You when you were just a “little guy…” oh, I’ve loved you a long time!

Know what I love about you? I love the way your eyes crinkle when you laugh and smile. I love your sense of humor. I love your beautiful smile. I melt from your hugs – especially when you suddenly realize you have been so busy talking to lots of people when you come in to my house and then you make a big deal of zooming over to give your Nonna a “proper greeting.” Oh, my goodness – yes – that does me in! I love the way you pray for me. I love that when my heart was breaking, you got on the arm of the chair and wrapped your arms around me and whispered words of comfort. I knew God was using you to touch me. Oh how strong you were that day.

I also love that you like my ideas and that you and I have so many things we want to create and do and movies we want to produce and projects we wish to try. We will never run out of things to enjoy together, will we, Hunter-Magoo?

Now, of course, since you are such a blessing to me, I want to bless you back. And it is my pleasure and honor to do so. For all the years you have left in life (and for all the words I can pour out over you before I am gone), these spoken blessings will be here, things I am speaking over you now – heard in heaven, covenant words on your life! They are yours to keep, to live, to enjoy to fulfill and to believe. If you ever get lost and wonder what your Nonna and the God of the Universe agreed on about you as you turned ten with so much life ahead, you can return here and find more pieces of your story and pick them up and run with them (Habakkuk 2.2).

hunter and his family

Happy Birthday to my second grandbebe (now more commonly known as my big guy), Hunter Douglas Powers. I bless you like this:

Oh wow – I just love you and I pray love in your life! I pray the love of God will surround you and work in you and through you and that His very love will be established in your heart and soul and that the perfection of this love will make you fearless in the face of the challenges in the world today. May you rise up mighty as a man of God – displaying His power and glory wherever you go. Be so permeated in the love of God that nothing can stop you, Hunter Magoo! L O V E – go get ’em!

Your days – oh, may they be numerous and long, and healthy and productive. I bless your days from when they began. I do so bless the day you were born, a beautiful, sunny Saturday morning. You just couldn’t seem to wait to arrive. :) And you have been on a life of adventure ever since. You have filled your days and nights with travel and missions work and school and learning (science experiments – your constant request) and playing with cousins and friends and interacting with family of all the generations and so much more. You know how to pack a day with good stuff. So I pray over you that all your days will be filled with good and godly things and that as you keep on honoring your parents like you do, it will go soooo well for you and you will enjoy a long (really great and abundant) life on the earth (Ephesians 6.2-3).

hunter and his brother

Taken by Aunt Stormie outside the candy shop.

You are such an honoring son and grandson. You are a loving cousin and friend and you are an incredible big brother to Kai. So, may you find honor and love and good friends and brothers wherever you go in life. May you be surrounded with the people you need to do what you were created to do and be what you were created to be (Psalm 139).

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”  -Matthew 5.14-16

You are visible, Hunter. Your life is being observed. You are a city on a hill. You have an important place in the world for this day, this time, and this age. You cannot be hidden. So blaze bright, my grand-boy. Dazzle brilliantly and point the world to Jesus. This is why you were born.

8 18 2014 3

I also just want to bless you back for the way you bless me: you warm my heart with your kindness. You accept me as your ‘Nonni,’ and you affirm my place in your life, heart and soul. I bless you back with those things a thousand times over. You have my devotion, you have my respect and acceptance of you as an incredible boy created by God almighty (oh, He did such a good job creating you) and you will ever and always be in my heart. When I leave this earth, all that will change is that I will brag you up and bless you like crazy from the halls of heaven!

I agree with God for all He thinks about you and all the plans He has for you. I agree with Him and will do whatever He asks of me to make sure you are blessed, whole and holy! Oh yes!

You, my Hunter-boy, do give light to all in the house!

You and me, Christmas 2012.

hunter-and-nonna-christmas day

Happy Birthday and week and all the days. I celebrate you! {{LOVE! Nonna}}

Gavin hits the double-ones

2 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, Stuff I Actually Think, , , ,

Oh, Gavinators-

gav playing piano

Gavin turned 11. He also just got his 6th grade schedule, a different teacher for each subject – a middle-schooler. He has this big, authentic smile, a shock of the most amazing red hair, a sprinkling of freckles and an emerging sense of humor. He erupts into giggles over things I didn’t know he would get and it doubles my joy, triples my fun, quadruples my absolute love for him, this all-American boy.

He was my first grandbebe, my first oh-good-grief-I-am-undone feeling. I never thought I’d be one of “those” grandmothers – effusing and gushing, feverishly, wild-eyed in-love with some small child not even my own.

gav skateboarding in denver

I mean – I loved my little munchkins, the five children I birthed. I thought they were just unusually talented and amazing and they brought Dave and I so much joy. Then they grew up and they became the people I most admire in this world. But I wasn’t really mentally expecting grandparenting to be that big of a deal.

But then Gavin arrived and – GEEZ-LOUISE!!! He was breathtaking. He was astonishingly beautiful (well, he has beautiful parents, so…), a magnificent tiny being, so impressively smart from the start and his smiles thrilling beyond belief. He .changed. everything . with his bright eyes and full-of-wonder curiosity. He really did. He altered my identity by adding this whole new generational dimension and infused our familia with new wonder and excitement.

gav his harry potter birthday cake

The Harry Potter I made for him for his 11th birthday

Gavin-L-K // YOU are amazing!

So, of course, I MUST bless your life and thank God for you. I must tell you that I speak words of blessing over you and I speak kindness and good wishes over your life because I love you deeply and want it to go well with you. I want you blessed in the city and in the country and I want all you put your hands to and all the things you attempt to do and to be to prosper and be over-the-top successful.

I pray for you to be strong, not just physically, but in your heart and mind and to be a young man of courage and conviction – to stand up for holy things and protect people around you who can’t protect themselves. I pray you will right wrongs and be a generous giver to people in need.

So I share this scripture with you on the occasion of your 11th birthday and I like it because it was originally delivered to a regular man named Gideon who was just working hard threshing some wheat in a winepress. I am not sure what that means exactly, but I know God’s people were in trouble and they needed a leader, a Judge – some one to help them battle out of the oppression they were living in, some one to answer their cries for help. And here was Gideon just doing what was right, day in and day out. And because Gideon was faithful when no one was watching (except God), He chose Gideon to lead the armies, to save His people.

I can see you as a Gideon…And so the angel appeared with God’s message to Gideon, and I speak it to you, over you,

“The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.” Judges 6.13

Really, Gavin, you can do anything. You will be amazing in your life. The sky is the limit, my Gav – if love is the fuel that powers your plane, then between God and your parents and your Gramps and me, your plane will fly to infinity and beyond and never come down.

gav and the tomato

He loves to garden and eat tomatoes as much as me. The kid is a genius, I tell you!

I cannot remember life before you-

In all the world, no matter what happens, my heart for you will always and ever be partially, at least, pinned to your sleeve, hanging on for dear life – never letting you go. I am so pleased with the person you are, so proud of the young man you are becoming, so excited to know the blessing of God on you because you are such a parent-honoring kid! I just think you’re pretty cool.

Small Size (5)

Hoping all your wishes come true on your 11th birthday and the whole year through! I love YOU!  {nonna}

NOTE: All photos by his mom, whose beautiful work can be seen at MayDae.com

GemGem is 7!

2 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, Stuff I Actually Think, , , , ,

Oh, my Gemma-Loo, how I love you!

gemma bday

Her mommy is a fantastic photographer and I fall in love with the photos she gets of my grandbebes (her children and nieces and nephews)  :)

Our lively, darling grandbebe #4, Gemma May just turned 7 a few days back. She is silly and giggly and has this amazing cascade of red hair that just knocks you out. She dances, she acts, she smiles with her eyes, and she wears glasses now.

I can wrap my arms around her two or three times, wisp of a thing she is. But what I love most is the delightful, insightful, thoughtful conversation. The dancing light behind her eyes when we talk, behind those super-cool specs, sets a soft breeze in motion. Gemma May is more sugar than spice, she is sweetness and demure. She’s the girl next door and a little exotic, too.

I love this little girl like there is no tomorrow!

gemma and her cake

This is the cake I did for Gemma. A ballerina. In Gemma’s very proportions, give or take a centimeter!  :)

So, Gemma-Roo/Gemma-Loo, let me just tell YOU:

I bless the day you were born, the beautiful-beautiful May day you came along with that perfect round, soft-as-silk head and the sweetness of that button nose and those little pink lips from which so many laughs have escaped since. I bless the days of your life, all of them, as you grew and downy-soft red hair started curling every which direction and you could barely talk, but you could sing songs from Annie and do the dances with gusto!

I bless the days of pre-school and coloring and cheering every time you did something wonderful, which was every 8.4 seconds and pattering around in your galoshes with an umbrella in the rain and singing, oh-so-much singing.

I bless your life and I bless your heart and I bless your dreams and your wishes and your gifts and talents and I bless your place in this world. You know why? Because I love you and I can. I am your Nonna and I get to speak a blessing over you that they actually hear in the halls of heaven!

So I am agreeing with God’s plan for you, with His total delight in your life – and all the things He planned for you when He created you for us. Everything God wants for you and all the things Jesus is saying about you when He intercedes for you, I am shaking my head YES-yes-yes! And may the angels attend to you, and keep you safe!

And Gemma? Even though I never-ever-ever want your heart to be broken in any way for any reason, I do pray your heart will always be flesh and blood and that you will feel the intensity of living with all the sensitivity you now possess and that in spite of anything life throws at you, you’ll keep feeling and risking love and refuse to have a heart of stone.

For you are beautiful and your thoughts and feelings are precious beyond words. And oh, my sweet, your Nonna loves you. You are, as your name indicates, a jewel, a rare treasure.

And now, here is a promise for you, from the God of good promises:

“On that day the Lord their God will rescue his people,
just as a shepherd rescues his sheep.
They will sparkle in his land
like jewels in a crown.”  Zechariah 9.16 NLT

Of course, the grand-girls are always actually interpreting songs from Frozen these days, but I didn’t leave that music in because YouTube would poo-poo it. Imagine the Frozen soundtrack, though.

I love celebrating you and your birth~day, week, month. Happiness and love, darling Gemma!

Song for a Sunday // In Expectancy and Preparation

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We wait.

baby due 12 16 13

We wait with expectant joy.  A baby is coming.  Joy will be fulfilled and realized with the final Aaaaahhhh-she is here!  She has come!  We understand the anticipation and longing there was for the Messiah “for a people living in darkness…” this year with more vivid zeal and holy anxiousness than ever.  Like children who can barely get to sleep on Christmas Eve as they excitedly anticipate the gifts they’ll find from mommies and daddies who love to give them good things, we await Evangeline’s arrival, sometime before Christmas.

Just a year ago, we were hoping-waiting-cautiously-opening-our-hearts for Malakai.  He came early.  In January.  It was sweet and the consummation of so much prayer and eager yearning.  So sweet…

kai meeting the big santa dec 1 2013

Kai is here today, checking this Santa character out. He isn’t sure about him.  Malakai will be full-fledged walking and running by Christmas morning, I am sure of it.

Advent

And today, the first Sunday of Advent, we remember, with exceeding joy, that the long-awaited Savior of the world, once a mystery and a desiring, yet He already was waiting for us and we acknowledge the beauty of His coming and look for Him again.  He is the Promise.  The Hope and Perfection of all things!

I had an idea!

I didn’t grow up in high-church tradition, so we didn’t observe Advent and the traditional readings and candle-lightings and services that went with the four Sundays leading to Christmas, nor the daily devotionals.  But I discovered them when my children were small and have so so so always tried (or maybe more accurate: wanted to try) to implement the observation, the wreath, the candle-lightings.

Today, after all, the first Sunday of Advent is about HOPE.  It is about the story of the Old Testament Patriarchs, Jesus’s ancestors, looking, waiting, hoping, longing for His coming.  Hope is needed now more than ever…

So, as I was wondering, what song to do for Song for a Sunday, I realized how Advent could totally be a time of songs, too.  Which it probably already is, but I am going to set myself to selecting songs for this season, each one to sing and think about, each to represent our longing and worship as we enter this busy season.

I plan to set apart a few minutes each day, at least long enough for a song, to meditate on the Joy of my Desiring, a Savior!  I’ll share with you if you’d like.  I think this could help lots of busy families who want to observe and celebrate Advent, but can’t find the time.  A song!

Today,  O Come, O Come, Emmanuel by Francesca Battistelli

And my anticipation is doubled because soon, a new grandbebe. And this year, I will comprehend in deeper ways.  And look for Him in my day to day…And this is blessed.

And we watch.  And we wait.

Happy Birthday to our first-ever GRAND-girl, Guinivere!

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Guini turned 8 yesterday, eight!

guini's 8th bday

Wasn’t it just yesterday we were up in the mountains, a staff retreat for a church I worked at, and didn’t we just get the call, “Stephanie is on her way to the hospital to have the baby,” and wasn’t it, of course in {the middle of the night}??!  And didn’t we JUST throw our things together and hit the road, passing over the Continental Divide and zooming down the mountain to be there for her birth?  And wasn’t it the most beautiful early morning thing ever?  No, it wasn’t yesterday, it was 8 very fun-filled, fast-flying years ago.

taken by stephanie kelley maydae

As grandbebes go, Guin-Guin was number three, only her big brother, Gavin and her cousin, Hunter-Magoo ahead of her.  Right away, she established that she wasn’t anything like the boys.  She was, indeed, a girl, an adorable little love-muffin.  Quiet, gentle-spirited, thoughtful and determined, Guini’s feet are firmly planted, no push-over, she, but a focused, peaceful and calm disposition emmanates like sun-rays from Guinivere Eden!

guini freckles

“A girl without freckles is like a night without stars.”

Oh, how I love her!

She is my Guini-muggins, my sweet-pea, my Guin-Guin, my darling girl, my first sugar-and-spice grandbebe, my sweet-sweet girly-q!  And ~ my flower girl, for ever and always…{below, a video Guini and I made when she turned 5}:

Now…

May the God of all hope and comfort, the God who excitedly fashioned you from the His brightest, loveliest and most creative thoughts and made you so gentle and sensitive in spirit {such a depository of His love and grace}, may that God make His very own will for you known and may it be done and settled here on earth just as He decreed it from heaven. And may you be an agent of His love and grace from your middle-child vantage point and I pray He will deliver you from all evil and that the {fire of your faith} in Jesus Christ {{our Savior!}} will set nations ablaze for His glory, yes!  To the praise of His glory!

So be it!

I love you, Guinivere, my darling girl.

guinivere

Freckles are kisses from the angels.  They love to kiss-kiss Guini’s face.  Me, too!

Gavin hit the Double-Digits // Happy Birthday, my Little Man!

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Gavin just turned ten!

Gavin is the first grandchild I ever got and what a gift!  He changed my whole life forever – ten whole years ago this week.  I had no idea I’d be one of “those” grandmothers, thrilled with these darlings, my children’s-children, my very own, once-removed flesh and blood.

I looked down at Gavin in my arms, the first day of his life.  I had no idea who he was or how this would go.

But wow-o-wow.  I love my Little Man.  Red hair, freckles, bright eyes, always looking for something new, something wonderful.  He works hard (seriously loves hard work!), he protects his little sisters, he is sweet to animals, kind in general and a respectful, honoring grandson.  I am so blessed to be his Nonna!

So, my sweet, Gavin – allow me to tell you TEN THINGS I LOVE ABOUT YOU on the occasion of the continued celebration of your birth~

1.  I love that you started gardening alongside me when you were just a toddler.

2.  I love that even this year, you asked for tomato plants for your birthday (they are on your list every year) and that just yesterday at the Garden Center, you told me that even though you wanted to try growing all sorts of different things in your gardens each year of your life, you would always and forever have tomato plants, no matter what.  Are you my boy, or what?!?

And you have to know you melted my heart when you told me, after we had wandered through one garden place and then another, “I really like visiting garden centers and seeing all the plants  they have.  I like doing this every year.”  It is our annual date and joy of my June-heart!  I love you for loving it because I love it, too.

3.  You are so focused and goal-oriented.  I love that you saved up and  worked to earn money to buy your own iPod and that you will now sell it and work some more to upgrade with your eye on an iPad.  Your parents are teaching you well. You have business savvy, Little Man!

4.  You are such a good brother to your sisters.  I know they can get on your nerves at times, little girls that they are, but last week your mom shot of pic of you, school out, sitting with Gemma, teaching her to read and write.  What a wonderful big brother you are.

5.  And you’re a great example as the oldest of the cousins, too.  You love the babies, watch over the tiny ones and generally are considered the coolest guy to follow!

6.  Sandy-the-dog loves you so much.  Because no matter how busy you are, you always take time to pet her and give her the attention she needs.  I love you for loving the old family dog!

7.  I so love how you apply yourself to learning.  You are a skateboarder and gamer and a gardener and a musician and you make time to practice and perfect those things and find out more about everything. You’re such a savvy, intuitive smartie-pants, which I mean in the sweetest way!

8.  Which speaks to another thing I love about you: you have been full of wonder since you were a baby.  When you were even just a few months old, I noticed you were interested in everything around you.  And I love that you carry that trait on.  You are never bored, never expecting anyone to entertain you or cure monotony.  You look around and find fascination in everything life has to offer, in each circumstance and all situations.  What a wonderful attribute.  It will will make living amazing for you!

9.  You’re still so considerate about giving your Nonna big hugs and kisses when we meet up and when we part.  They are worth millions of dollars to me – more, really.  I’m so lucky, so blessed to be your Nonna.

10.  And I love what an honoring son you are to your parents.  Do you know why I love that?  Because the Bible promises this:

“’Honor your father and mother’ is the first commandment that has a promise attached to it, namely, ‘so you will live well and have a long life.’” Ephesians 6, The Message

And because I LOVE YOU sooooooo much and want {life} to go really well for you {really well}, and I want you to have a particularly spectacular life doing legendary, world-changing things for many, many {joyous and healthy} years ~ well, then, for this reason, I love that you honor your parents, who, by the way, are raising an extraordinary son.  Keep it up, kiddo!

You, my dear boy {the original grandbebe}, made me a “Nonna,” the greatest honor of my life.

I love you, Gav.  You know I do, right?  Please never forget. xxxooo {Nonni}

Bailey Sophia – 2 weeks today!

2 Mi Familia, Stuff I Actually Think,

Sweet little baby girl, how we love you, little bug-a-loo!

Don’t Rocky and Jovan make pretty babies?  Three girls now.  When they found out they were having another girl (and maybe just the teensiest surprised that against all odds they weren’t having a boy this time), I wrote them a letter about having three girls in a row { h e r e } and I do believe they are pretty thrilled with her!

And how fortuitous that on the day I wanted to wish bebe a happy-2-weeks-old-we-love-you wish, Stephanie (the entreprenuerial, highly-talented mommy, photographer and MayDae curator and writer – and a darling daughter to boot) released these photos of Bailey-girl, taken this week.

Lovely.

A song for grandbebe #8

Bailey Sophia, two weeks old

How do you like the world so far?

Bailey Sophia, two weeks old

What a blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed girl you are

For you have swings to be swung on ~ Trees to be climbed up

Days to be young on ~ Toys you can wind up

Grass to be lying on

Sun up above

Pillows for crying on

When you’re in love

Ponies for riding

Wind in your hair

Slides to be sliding on

Leaves in the air

Dogs to be caring for ~Love to be giving

Dreams to be daring for ~ Long as you’re living

Yes, you have dreams to be daring for

Long as you’re living

Bailey Sophia, two weeks old

What a blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed girl you are…*

We love you, Bailey-bebe! 

*Lyrics revised from the Barbra Streisand song, “Jenny Rebecca.”  Little known fact: in 1970, when my family got a TV again, Gerber, I believe, was doing these baby food commericals using that song.  There were two versions, a boy version and a girl version and they showed the life of a baby from birth to toddlerhood.  I think it was like “Jenny Rebecca, one day old, how do you like the world so far,” then, “Jenny Rebecca, 6 months old…”  You get the idea.  The names they used were in fact Jenny Rebecca and Christopher Michael and for the longest time, I had planned to use those names for my children.

Ci-gar?

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for baby girl

Yes.  There were balloons to celebrate Bailey Sophia.   Because they look cute in the hospital room and I knew her big sisters would wholly enjoy getting to play with them.

And of course there were tulips (coral-colored), because a bouquet of lovely spring flowers gladdens the mommy’s heart – after all her hard labor (so deserving).

But this time, I decided to make the new daddy a little something, too.  Cigars!  Yep, rolled ’em myself.

bailey sophia cigars candy

No, just kidding.  I saw the idea on Pinterest for Father’s Day and personalized them for Rocky to distribute to visitors at the hospital.

By the way – did I mention we just had our 8th *grandbebe* born on April 5?  Did I fail to tell you our exquisite and so-sweet little April-Angel is named **Bailey Sophia** and we are head-over-heels?  Well, in case I forgot to mention it, here she is.  This photo was when she was 10 hours old, fresh from her first bath.  Please note the sparkle of angel-dust as it gently falls all around her…

bailey sophia

Ok, I digress.

The cigars

So, where were we?  I got the idea off Pinterest {click here}.  and I personalized the free down-loadable cigar labels to fit our occasion.  Oh, but wait – the cigars are not actual cigars – did I say that already?  Ok – they are just those pretzel rods.  I cut about 1/3 of them off (my husband and dog ate the un-useable 1/3) and dipped the 2/3 length part into chocolate candy melts (melted, of course).  Cooled them, cut out the printed labels and used a tiny bit of tape on the back to hold them in place.

I was going to use an empty cigar box from Walgreens to place them in, but the smell of actual cigars would have infused the chocolate-covered pretzels.  No bueno.  So, I thought and I thought and I thought, and then by sheer accident, I happened across a little endcap display at Target with these plastic boxes for making “home made lunch-ables” and voila!  Perfect.

How fortuitous, don’t you agree, that I had already cut them the  exact-perfect length???  :)

Chocolate-covered Pretzel Cigars, enjoyed by young and old alike.