Happy 21st Birthday, Claire! xxx

Today, Claire turned 21!  I can't believe how quickly the time has passed but I have to accept that she is a grown woman with her own little family and we couldn't be prouder of her.

We know the last thing Claire expected to be on her 21st birthday was a Mother but I think we can honestly say she wouldn't change where she is now for anything :o)  Life throws little curve balls and in this case she's caught that ball and run with it and is loving life as it is now.  Happy 21st Birthday Claire, we love you xxx

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And now for a few photos taken today:

 Claire's main present today was a new camera so she can capture Alice growing up in photos and videos.

 We had beautiful weather today and it was a pleasure not to be all wrapped up in warm clothes

 Mummy tastes so good!!

 Sweet baby girl - we love the way she holds her hands like this :o)

 Blowing out the candles

 Alice sitting on Great Grandpa's lap (my Dad)

We had the family round for afternoon tea and cake followed by a Chinese Take Away before Claire and Craig went out for the evening, leaving Grandma to babysit :o)
xx

Happy Mother's Day

Me and Alice

First year as a Grandmother too :)

Wishing all the Mothers, Grandmothers and Great Grandmothers a wonderful Mother's Day

xx

Another little milestone and a layout

This morning, as Claire was going to have breakfast, we decided to try sitting Alice in her highchair and see how she got on.

 I think she liked being higher up and more on a level with the rest of us. She also got to try a little bit of Farley's rusk but,again, we weren't sure if she'd manage it. We were ready to fish it out her mouth if she started choking but when she bit a piece off she seemed to manage because it melts fairly quickly in her mouth. Before long she'll be sitting there with finger foods while we have our meals!

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I was watching Hugh with Alice this morning and it made me remember him at 8 when Emily was a baby. He's always been so good with little ones and he loves playing with Alice so I decided that would be my next layout.

I made up my template so that I could get the journalling in the right place and then printed out the journalling onto my background before sticking on the photos and patterned paper. I used a corner rounder on the paper to finish it off and I like the way it turned out. Now I have another template for future use too.  

xx

Another layout + Alice

Today I was reading Cathy's blog and the layout she had made for Aidan's 15th birthday blog post really caught my eye. The fact that she also gave a free digital template for the layout was a huge bonus and I wanted to use it straight away. My layout is a complete scraplift because I loved the way Cathy's looked.  

I had been wanting to put down my feelings about being involved during Claire's pregnancy and this layout gave me the chance to do just that. In all honesty, I think this is probably the most journalling I've put on any of my scrapbook layouts! I have so many more photos I want to scrap so I can see hybrid layouts could well be the way for me to go as they make things so much quicker.

These photos were taken last night after Craig got home from work. As I was going up stairs Alice kept smiling at me, so I got my camera for a couple of photos.

 This one was taken when she spotted her Mummy coming down the stairs :)

 Group photo - you can tell Craig loves it when I get my camera out ;o)

When Alice was first put in this bouncy chair she looked so little - not so much these days!
Her fingers tend to be in her mouth all the time at the moment and we think we can feel a little tooth cutting it's way through the top gum.

Who could resist this cute little face? :o)

xx