A New Little One To Love

Well if you've been wondering where I've been or what's up with the spotty blog posts here and there, this is one reason why.  This adorable, little, snuggle muffin was born!  Can you tell I'm just smitten?   I'm one of those people that just loves newborn babies!  I could hold them for hours.  I love their smell, their soft skin, and all the funny little facial expressions and noises they make.  I can't stop kissing those chubby cheeks!  Oh, my goodness!  Newborns are a gift from heaven!

Elisha John was born while my husband and I were vacationing in North Dakota.  That explains week one of my absence from the blog.  We were at the end of our vacation, so we finished it and came home for a few days to unpack and get some things done.  It's harvest season, so you can just imagine all the vegetables I had ready for me to be canned and processed.  Hubby of course had to go to work and take care of a few things since he was gone the week before.  Then we left on Saturday to see our newest grandson!  My husband had three days of vacation left that we were saving for Thanksgiving, but we decided to use them up now to see the baby.  Alethea, our granddaughter, was so overjoyed that we were coming to visit that she cried.  Oh, it melts my heart to be loved so much by my grandchildren.

I took these newborn pictures just using my iPhone in Elisha's nursery.  

Elisha John arrived right on his due date at 40 weeks.  He was 9lbs 12 oz and 21 and 3/4 inches long.  My daughter has big babies!  

The names Elisha John are from the Bible.  In my daughter's words:  "Elisha means "my God is salvation." We chose the middle name John out of admiration for the humility and faithfulness of John the baptist.

Our hope and prayer is that Elisha would lead a life in humility and zeal, declaring the saving power of our God!"

And here is the happy new family of five.  The other children, Atticus and Alethea are just loving their new baby brother.  And we are all very grateful Elisha is such a "good" baby (I hate using that term, because all babies are "good" but everyone knows what I mean by it) because he can sleep through all the noise and racket the other two children make.  He rarely fusses, and he sleeps pretty good at night already.

Ashley is feeling very well already, so we were able to get out and do a little something every day we were visiting.  One of the things we did was go to downtown Zionsville to take some fall pictures.  It is such a cute little town, and there were plenty of fall displays to choose from.

Isn't this little guy just the cutest?  

Alethea and I both wore purple so I was so excited to find this unique purple house to use as a photo backdrop.  And oh my goodness, you should have seen the garden of this home!  An artist must live here, because they had so many quirky, fun art in their garden and the cutest potting shed I ever did see...also the color purple.

I couldn't help but use this pretty store display for a photo shoot.  Here I am, my arms completely filled with love!  I couldn't be happier!

We still haven't figured out who he looks like, we all have different opinions and of course everyone on-line who sees the pictures has their opinion.  But as he grows, we will soon see!

Now I am the grandmother of two grandsons!  Such handsome, sweet boys they are.  My prayer is that they will grow up to love and serve God all the days of their lives.

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Ageless Style - Gem Colors

 Ageless Style is a monthly style challenge and link up for women "over a certain age".  Each month we pick a different theme and style an outfit based on that theme.

This month's Ageless Style theme was picked by Mireille and she chose "Gem Colors".  Gem colors are any color that you would find in a gemstone like "amethyst", "emerald", or "garnet".  There are so many beautiful gem colors to choose from.  I chose to represent "garnet" which is an orangey red color.

Red is always the most difficult color to photograph.  In real life, this dress looks a lot more like rust, but in the photographs it looks more burgundy.

I picked a very old rusty red dress from my closet to style.  You have seen me wear this dress so many times before on this blog (check out these posts Here and Here to see other ways I styled this same dress). That is one of the plus's of a solid color dress;  you can style it so many different ways!  

For today's challenge, this time I styled my dress with a kimono, gold jewelry, and flats.

My kimono is super old, but the color of red in the kimono perfectly matched the red color of the dress.

My shoes are new this year.  I got them on clearance for $14.99 from DSW!  Can someone say "Score!".  As I'm getting older and older, I've been switching out my heels for more comfortable footwear, so when I saw these while browsing one day I scooped them up!

I couldn't decide what color bag to go with.  Originally I was going to match my bag to my shoes and go with a taupe color, but they say not to do that because it "ages you".  I'm not so sure about that.   I finally settled on black because there is a bit of black in the kimono, but after I saw these photos, I wish I would have went with the taupe bag.  The black seems to stand out too much.

Since the dress is so plain, I could really go with statement jewelry.  I chose a long knotted rose gold necklace, a large sparkly gold bangle, and rose gold earrings.

This dress is a perfect example of something I have owned for years and get so much wear out of because there are so many different ways to style it.  It was a great investment piece!

And now be sure to check out what the rest of the ladies are wearing and link up with us below too!

Amy ~ Amy’s Creative Pursuits

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Cammi ~ My Happy Place

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Carrie ~ A Simple Lovely Life

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Daenel ~ Living Outside the Stacks

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Jamie ~ No Delusions of Grandeur

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Jodie ~ Jodie’s Touch of Style 

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Leslie ~ Once Upon a Time and Happily Ever After

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Mireille ~ Chez Mireille Fashion Travel Mom

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Have A Great Day!  Amy

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Summer Highlights - The Northern Wisconsin State Fair

Hello and welcome back to another "Summer Highlights" travel post.  I have been spending the last few weeks highlighting some fun things I did this summer in my own neck of the woods.  Week one I shared "Hiking in the Driftless Region",   week two I wrote about "Celebrating the 4th, Going to the Beach, and Playing on the Porch.", and week three was all about the birthplace of Laura Ingalls Wilder.   I took last week off because I was on vacation, and now I am back with our visit to the Northern Wisconsin State Fair.

Before I continue with the post, I wanted to announce that grand baby #3 was born!  In the picture at the fair  below, my daughter Ashley was full term with "Elisha John".  My hubby had the idea to put all three of the grand babies in the picture.  It was so funny and coincidental that her belly was at the perfect spot to fit in the cow's head.  

My grand babies are "city kids" so they have never been to a county or state fair before.  They really had a great time!  

The first thing we did when we arrived was find a picnic table to eat some lunch.  We left late in the morning, and it was an hour drive, so by the time we got there it was lunch time.  We brought our own food and we were grateful we were allowed to take it in.  I know it seems weird to go to the fair and not eat the fair food (that's part of the fun of going to the fair), but it is very expensive and not very healthy.

After lunch we headed towards all the indoor exhibits to see the handmade food items, quilts, art work, etc.  But then I saw that the little animal races were just about to begin, so we ran over to the bleachers to get a good seat....but first...a selfie!

The animal races were so fun and cute!  They raced three different types of animals:  goats, pigs, and ducks.

Before each race they picked a child from the audience to cheer an animal on.  If her animal won, she would win a prize.  Alethea was so excited to be chosen!  She did a great job cheering on her duck.

After the animal show we stopped briefly to check out a show choir that didn't sing but played instruments instead.  They were very entertaining.

Every fair has professional exhibits where they show their newest gadgets and wares, but our favorite was the oldest invention:  products made from lama hair.  It was both educational and fun because they had lamas right in their exhibit and lots of information on how their products are made.

On the table behind my husband and granddaughter is some lama hair.  We were encouraged to touch it and we found out that if we left our hand there for a few minutes, and then removed it, the spot still stayed warm for the hair held heat.

What would a fair be without rides?  The kids had never been on an amusement park ride before so they were so thrilled.

When we pushed Atticus' stroller up to the car ride, I asked him "Atticus, do you want to go on the car ride?".  He IMMEDIATELY started to crawl out of his stroller and ran to the ride, he was so excited!  He was so happy to just sit in the car, he had no idea it even moved.  But when it finally did move, he got so surprised and excited and was over joyed.

Animals are the highlight of every fair, so that is where we headed next.

The kids were certainly fascinated with all the animals and loved how close they could to them.

And finally, we reached the petting zoo where we were able to buy some food to feed the baby animals.

Boy, did the grand babies love this experience!  Just look at that face!

They sure had fun feeding these goats.

But the day didn't end at the fair.  We have been trying the last few years to show our daughter the new River Walk and Confluence Center in downtown Eau Claire since she spent so much time there as a teenager performing.  But every time we tried something hindered us like weather or a protest.  Finally, it seemed like it was going to work out, so we headed over there...but first we stopped at our favorite ice cream store:  Ramones!

We walked a long the river and pointed out all the new buildings and how things have changed.  Then we sat at a bench to rest and eat our ice cream and Alethea says "This was the best day ever!".  Awww!  Did my heart melt when she said that.  Nothing makes a grandparent happier than her grand babies happy.

I will leave you with this cute picture of Alethea looking through this art sculpture along the river walk.  It was a super cool sculpture where one person could look back at another person on the other end, or you could just look through with no one on the end to get a unique perspective of what's on the other side.

I hope you enjoyed our day at the fair, I will be back next week with one more staycation post then I will begin a new travel series.

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!