Fröhlicher geburtstag, Gratulerer med dagen, Feliz cumpleaños, Manuia lou aso fanau, Tanjobi omedeto

....Any way you say it, it means HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you!
Happy birthday, Nara Jane. She turned one year old today. What a happy birthday she has had too. We have had a few parties so that everyone could make it and be involved.
Her first one was a week ago with Nenna and Uncle Heffe along with Mel, Jack and Grandma Great. It was a nice little party with a few gifts, laughs, and a very red ladybug cake. Needless to say, the red and chocolate of the cake looked like Nara was participating in some act of bloody carnage.

Another party we had took place on Friday, the day before her actual birthday. It was full of pizza, cake, friends, and laughing. Jon and Tamina were so kind to  let us do it at their house. Our house is just too tight for more than a few people at a time, let alone several very active kids. Nara loved playing with her friends Noah, Adam, Ari, Sarah, Sam, Maylee, and Liam (So glad our friends Tyler and Anne could come). Nara had so much fun riding zebras, climbing up and down and up and down and up and down the stairs, playing chase, playing with toys, and especially sneaking bread sticks from the pizza boxes as well as others plates.
While she was playing, I took a seat by Ari and Tamina. Ari was playing with my arm, something I didn't really think about. Soon she was stroking my arm, or so I thought. Tamina soon said "Well hello, Jen!" I look down and see that it was Tamina who was stroking my arm, not to her knowledge of course. Ari had a hold of  my arm and Tamina's hand and she was puppeteering the act of Tamina petting my arm. Come to find out, Tamina thought that it was Ari's arm while I thought it was Ari's hand. So funny!
Here is the birthday cake from Friday. It kinda turned out like a hat, but it was really good, a scratch Hershey's cake that looked similar to red velvet. Nara sure liked it. She is a huge fan of chocolate chips so, naturally, we had to add some to her own cake. She wasn't as messy as with her ladybug cake, but she still got it all over herself.

Saturday night we went to Tucanos, with Uncle Anthouny and Aunt Elisha, where Nara got a free birthday dinner postcard in the mail. She loved the olives, rice and beans, cheese, and pao de queijo (that's my favorite too) along with different meats and abacaxi (brown sugar and pineapple grilled). Yummy.

The last birthday celebration is on Sunday when she gets to have ice cream with Grandma and Grandpa Morgan. Lucky girl. Happy birthday, sweetheart. She is such a joy and delight and the best thing that could happen to Chris and me. Chris is such a proud daddy and I'm such a proud mommy of our baby girl. Love you baby, happy birthday.

A Season of Crafts

This fall, I have had an explosion of creativity. From it has come two (soon to be three) advent calendars, neigh unto two quilts, a tutu, and new recipies that fit into the South Beach diet plan. I'll let the photos do the talking and explain as I feel inspired to. Special thanks to the sisters and husband for all of the ideas and feedback on the projects.

Boo! Just for kicks I thought it would be cool to make a quilt for all the major holidays to go on my couch. This was the first one I have completed. I designed it myself and had a lot of fun making it. I admit, it took a little while, but that is mostly because I had another project going on at the same time. Which, I have pictures of my Halloween advent calendar on my hard drive, so as soon as I get those off I will post them as well.

It is made of a combination of cotten fabrics, two different satins, fleece, and glow in the dark. The back is polk-a-dot in black white and grey. I should have taken a picture of that too...Oh well, who wants to see the back anyway. I like the front better.

I tried a new technique of sewing the seams out instead of down. Then I snipped them to create a frayed look. I thought it was really cool, especially on the "haunted house"

Different fabric patterns I used.

The black stitching was Chris' idea. I like how it turned out.

Almost done with Mr. Turkey advent calendar. Every day, the kids can pull off a feather until Thanksgiving when he will be "bald". I designed him so that the kids can feed him felt food everyday as well. His tummy sticks out so there is plenty of space for lots of yummies. (More pictures of that to come as I make them.)

Egg cups. Love them. Talk about breakfast on the go. Just pop a couple of these spinach, ham, cheese filled lovlies in the microwave and you have breakfast on the go. Easy to make too. 15 eggs and whatever else you want in a bowl then divide into cupcake liners, bake for ...30 min? They get gilden on the top and are really good. South Beach friendly too.

Another fun S.B. diet food that Chris made. It's a pumpkin pie with Splenda in it instead of sugar and a pecan crust. It was pretty good. It's even better when you have after not having any sugar for two weeks in phase one of the diet. After that, anything tastes good :) But this is tasty. A little heavy on the Splenda, but next time we are going to cut back on that.

While I have been doing all this fun stuff, Nara has been a doll. She plays and helps and gets into everything just so she can be involved. So cute! This picture was taken on Halloween night- hence the pumpkin on her pants.

I had to include this photo. She loves rice and beans and this is what she looks like afterward--covered in beans on every piece of exposed flesh she has. I'm not going to mention what her diapers looked like. :P Love this girl!

If I would blog more, I wouldn't have to do compilations blogs like this one...Oh well

 Halloween Party 2010
We had so much fun yesterday at Kim's house for the now annual Halloween Party for the Morgan grand-kids and friends. We had so much fun playing games, making spider cookies, cutting out bats, and playing with the kids. Nara was so cute in her Green Lantern costume. Chris picked it out could you tell. I wanted something girly so we added a tutu and hair bow so that she didn't look like a boy. Oh she was so cute!

Sam is so cute as super baby

My best shot of all the kids. You are able to see all of their heads and no one is hiding behind any sets of wings. :)

Jack was so cute and had a good time eating the cookies rather than making the spiders. Next year we might be able to get some legs on before the first munch.Nara was tired afterward and fell asleep within five minutes of getting in the car.

 Gardner VillageNara loves playing with her shoes and loves to take them off and eat them. I'm just glad that we haven't  lost some.

Kazoo Playing
Nara is doing so many new things everyday. One of her recent developments has been the fantastic talent of playing the kazoo. How fun is that! She is so fantastic. She has also been taking a few steps. Already! Can you believe it?! She is so little still. They all have to grow up so fast.

I know this is slightly random, but I hope you enjoy the pictures. That is what it is really about anyway right?:) Till next time...

Two Wet Hens, A Little Rice, and a New Tutu

On Monday, cousin Aimee, the kids, and I went on a walk by the river. It was a beautiful overcast day with rumor of rain,. Little did we know we were in for a downpour. We should have known something was going to happen when we saw a snake cross our path. Yuck. We got a little over half a mile when the sprinkles started to fall. The kids were awesome. Ricky liked the rain and had a blast running in front of us. However, with one thunderbolt, the rain poured down on us. Poor Nara was getting soaked and did not like it one bit. We picked up the pace and ran all the way back to the car. What a good day for a walk. Who knew that it would be that bad. When we got back home I noticed water pouring off of out roof as well as flowing over our gutters. We had so much rain come down. Crazy!  The the joys of the outdoors.

 The other day my sister and her family and my little family all went out for sushi and Sushi Ya (very good place I might add). Nara loved the rice so much. She couldn't get enough. So cute. She also learned how to blow out of a straw at the restaurant. I tried to give her a drink from my straw, which worked for a little while, until she decided to blow it out all over the table...and Melissa. So funny!

I made Nara a Tutu last night. I'm not going to say much about it because I have a blog coming that will have more about it. I just had to include her fitting photos because they are so cute. She is such a cutie.

A Tree Fallen

You can live for years next door to a big pine tree, honored to have so venerable a neighbor, even when it sheds needles all over your flowers or wakes you, dropping big cones onto your deck at still of night.  ~Denise Levert

Today we gave rest to the issue of what to do with the tree at Grandma's house. For many a year we have been wondering, "if a microburst were to fall Grandma's tree, which way would it fall? The street or the house." Well, today I watched as Grandma had her very tall pine tree cut down. 

I watched when the house was built in home movies and I saw what the yard looked like back then. After 50 years, things on the house have changed very little.The only way to see time pass was to look at the cars in the carport ant the plants in the yard and it was fun to see the height of trees and shrubs change through the years in various photos and videos.

No more will we see the pine tree grow though. It was a hazard and stress for Gram and I'm glad that it has been relieved. No more worries of fires or falling. Now the sun pours into the family room window where it was once shadowed. And although it is weird to see the house with an empty corner on the north where the tree once stood, it is for the better and for good. :)  

So here is to the tree that we played under for years and we have watched grow. I could get poetic and say that it has seen us grow through the years, has seen a number of things happen at Grandma's house, and has many stories to tell (If trees could talk that is). But I am not a poet and will leave all the poetry to Jeff.. I will however include a few versus that I found on the subject and leave the photos to speak for themselves. 

Is this sappy enough? I am talking about a pine tree after all. Har Har!

I think that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest

Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day

And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in Summer wear

A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;

Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,

But only God can make a tree.

~Joyce Kilmer, "Trees," 1914

 

Time is Flying

Every week I look down at my beautiful baby and think of how old she is getting and how many things she is learning to do. It doesn't seem like so long ago that I was taking her one month photos and having her share our room in her cradle. She turns eight months old this week! Ah, how quickly time passes.

I know it has been over a month since I last posted and I'm sorry for that my faithful readers...if you are still reading my blog. We have had a busy summer with Mom and Dad leaving to the Philippines, babies being born, vacations, service, exercising, cleaning house, organizing house, cleaning house again because we messed it up... Sometimes I feel like I don't have enough hours in the day. I do feel like my house is getting clean though. Hooray!

She loves the grass.

In short, Nara is crawling everywhere. She looks like a little Mowgli sometimes because she crawls by half elephant walk and half on her knees. By half I mean that one leg does one thing and the other does...the other. She is getting so big and so cute. She jabbers all the time and loves to be around other kids.
 We are off to play, exercise, and do some chores. Yay!  I am hoping that now the summer is over I can get back in my routine of blogging on Mondays. Here's hoping.