Welcome Little Songbird, Baby Cecelia

It's hard to believe that one week ago today my sweet baby Cecelia was born. It seems like she's been here longer than a week because she is already so loved and fits right into our little family! I promise not to drone on and on about how cute she is, but I will post a few extra photos at the end of this blog post for those of you that enjoy baby photos.

Thank you to everyone that has sent me congratulatory messages and posted notes on facebook. Your love has made this moment in my life even more special! So many family and friends have been helping us out, especially our church family. We have been showered with lots of delicious dinners and it's been a huge blessing :) We have enjoyed everything from country pie to meatloaf to homemade chicken pot pie to lasagna to baked ziti with homemade sauce. Tonight we are expecting loaded baked potato soup - Wowza!! Our hearts and tummys are so full!! I'm slowly working on the thank you notecards. They should be in the mail soon, just trying to maximize my cuddle time with both of my girls.

When I had my first baby, I was overwhelmed by the amazing care at our local hospital - The Mount Nittany Medical Center. Everyone made sure all of our needs were met during labor and delivery and recovery. And by everyone, I mean the nurses, doctors, food service people, and housekeeping. Everyone!

I really didn't think it would be possible to top our experience the second time around, but I really think it was just as good if not better than the first time. Expecting nothing but the best from MNMC, I planned a special little cookie platter ahead of time to express my thanks. 

I decided to make pink and green songbirds, the theme of Cecelia's nursery.

I really enjoyed making these cookies, but at 9 months pregnant, it was a challenge to sit comfortably at my decorating table. My big belly kept me from getting close to the table and I had a hard time bending over the cookies when piping the detail. But the reaction from the nurses was priceless and it really was worth the effort. 

I actually baked and decorated these cookies 2 weeks before I had Cecelia. I decided to try out the freezing instructions on Sweetopia's website. This was my first time freezing decorated cookies. Here is a link to that blog post in case you're interested in trying it yourself. The cookies looked perfect after they were thawed and they tasted great too!

I found the songbird cookie cutter on the www.ecrandal.com website. There are a lot of bird-shaped cutters out there, but this one was exactly the shape I wanted.

The 'thank you' cookie was decorated to match the bedding set in Cecelia's nursery. I am planning a separate blog post on the nursery. It's simple, but cute. I found some really fun ideas and tried to replicate them in the room. I collected all my ideas on my new pinterest page. That website can be a lot of fun, but definitely addicting. I don't think I'll have too much time on there in the next few weeks, but I love being able to save my good finds in one place and come back to them at a later time. My boards are under my name, Anne Yorks (not under flour box bakery).

Since coming home from the hospital, we've been trying to get into our routine. We've had lots of visitors. My big brother and sister spent the day with us Sunday.

We are taking time to give Cecelia lots of kisses.

Of course we spend most of our time cuddling!

Grace is an amazing big sister. She loves to hold Cecelia.

She brushes her hair.

And she is a great helper at bath time. She is in charge of cleaning legs and feet!

We are still working on a good picture of the four of us, but this one of us leaving the hospital. It was taken by the nicest volunteer in the world (have I mentioned I love our local hospital)! 

That's all for today. I promise not to bore you with too many baby updates. But I can promise there will be one more post about the nursery. Then it's back to cookie business as usual. I have some great cookie photos to share, plus Grace's 4th birthday party is coming up soon. We are planning a very special ballerina themed party using adorable paper goods from Berry Town Baker - you can check out her facebook page here.  

Thanks for reading and have a sweet day!

Anne