Where Does The Time Go?

Oh my!  It really was a long time since I regularly posted on my blog.  Time really does seem to slip by so fast.  It seems like just a few days ago it was the beginning of the year.  I can hardly believe how much has happened since the first of the year.  So the next few posts I'll try and do a little recap:

January:  Went to Hawaii with my husband, son, daughter-in-law and grandson #1 to visit with my daughter, son-in-law and grandson #2.  We planned the trip especially so we could be there to help celebrate Harper's 1st Birthday.  My what an event!  His party was circus themed and that meant that we all needed to come up with a costume to wear to his party.  

I made him a little red and black ringmaster jacket because of course he was the leader of the circus! 

 

Harper with his Ringmaster "Ring of Fire"!  He had just started walking a few days before his birthday but still wanted to crawl sometimes.  He would crawl and crawl through his "Ring of Fire" and then look up at us and wait for us to clap our hands and say "Yeah Harper!"

 

My daughter was the fortune teller of our circus.  She was absolutely beautiful in her costume and her hat and of course Harper is so cute!  Heather planned a fun and beautiful party for her little sweetie's 1st Birthday Party!   She planned every little detail and thought of everything to make it a wonderful party!

 

My husband was dressed up as the beautiful Bearded Lady.  I was really surprised but he really did enjoy himself in his costume!  He was wearing several items from female relatives.  His dress was our daughter in laws grandma's, the shoes were my mom's and he was wearing my earrings and brooch.   I was getting a little worried as he was getting so many compliments.

I was a cheetah.  I looked everywhere for a costume!  I looked for things that I could just put together into some kind of a costume from regular department stores.  I think I bought ever type of item I could find in cheetah print.  I just couldn't find what I wanted so I ended up buying a ready made costume online.  I was going to sew my own but found it was actually less expensive to purchase one ready made.  It was made out of some stretchy material that showed every lump and bump in my body!  I really didn't like that too much.  Unfortunately it also was waaay too hot for Hawaii to wear for too long.  I ended up having to take it off after about an hour or so.  I was way too hot to wear it all day.  I guess I should have thought of that before I decided on wearing and keeping the costume 

I don't know if you can tell or not but I had to add some bling to my costume so there is a lot of crystals on the neck collar.  I had to have my bling on even in a costume!  

 

My son was a bucket of popcorn.  We took everything to make his costume with us to Hawaii and then assembled it in our hotel room.  That is medical tape that is making up the stripes on his shirt and the label that says "Popcorn".  The popcorn was popped the morning of the party in our hotel microwave and then hand sewed onto his hat.  Every time you got close to him he smelled like fresh popped popcorn.  Yum!

My daughter-in-law was half man/half woman wearing a hot pink formal dress on one side and then a man's white button up dress shirt and dress slacks on the other side,  My son in law was a crazy silly carnival performer wearing the zebra hat, tie and suspenders.  That is his brother wearing the clown costume.  

Connor was the man that shoots out of the Rocket (Cannon).  He didn't keep his Rocket costume on that long because he was really hot also.  His costume was so cute!  I actually found it at Halloween time at Target and saved it for the party.  We knew that it was going to be a circus themed party for several months.  Actually when we gave Heather her baby shower before Harper was born it was also a circus theme.  Talk about coming full circle!  

Here are a couple of pictures of the decor for the party.  The inside of the house was decorated as well as the backyard where most of the party was held at.  There was a candy bar for the guests to help themselves make little candy goodie bags to take home with them.  

 

They had circus cookies, Goldfish crackers, Smarties, M&M's and Sweedish Fish to choose from.  Heather had made and decorated all of the cupcakes for Harper's party too.  She's so talented!

 The adult "liquid refreshments" were kept on ice in a old hand carved canoe.  It held a lot of ice and drinks for all the party goers.

Here is a picture of our little family at the party.  The scenery in the background was a beautiful addition to our family picture.  I believe that is a Banyon Tree behind us.

This photo has both Heather's side of the family and also Ryan's family.  The only people that were missing were Ryan's sister and her husband.  They were not able to make it as Erin was in college and was close to graduating so she couldn't leave to come and help us celebrate. 

Here is my husband and I with our adorable two grandsons.  We feel so lucky to have these wonderful, sweet little boys in our lives!  We didn't know what we were missing until we had grandchildren.  They truly do teach us about unconditional love.

One of Harper's favorite things to do is to go on bike rides.  So what better way to end the party then with a bike ride complete with costumes and balloons. 

We really felt right at home with all the other guests who were in costume also.  There was a lot of silly costumes and it made for a wonderful 1st Birthday for our little birthday boy Harper!

April in Hawaii

We got the opportunity to go and visit our daughter Heather, her husband Ryan and our newest little grandson Harper in Hawaii. He is the sweetest, coolest little guy in Hawaii!


Of course any opportunity I got I wanted to hold the little guy and give him some Memaw love! He is so much bigger than he was only a month and a half ago. When we first saw him he was 12 days old and weighed in around 7 lbs. Now only 2 1/2 months later he is already 15 pounds.

At only 3 months old he is already so accustomed to the water. He is going to be a little fish! Living in Hawaii he will have almost daily trips down to the beach and the ocean. His mama and daddy are advid surfers and like to be in the water as much as possible.

He is so sweet! I hope I get to make plenty of trips out to Hawaii to be with him. I only wish they lived closer and didn't have an ocean between us!

Hawaii

I also made a solo trip to Hawaii for 10 days to visit my daughter and son in law. They are expecting their first baby, and although she was visiting us in early May when she shared the news that I’d waited a lifetime to hear… Heather and her hubby Ryan were expecting a baby!!!


I wanted to be able to see my little baby in different stages of her pregnancy. So when I found out she was having a couple of doctor appointments and another ultrasound, that would probably be able to tell them the sex of their baby, I planned my trip around those appointments. I really wanted to hear the baby's heartbeat in addition to finding out whether or not it was a boy or a girl!


So luckily I was able to go to two of her doctor's appointments and the ultrasound appointment in that one trip. She is a little thing so even though she was only 4 months pregnant at the time you definitely could tell she was pregnant. She had a nice little bulge to her belly. Hearing the baby's heartbeat was wonderful! That was one of my sweetest moments I remember from when Brenda was pregnant with Connor also. I mean you know their pregnant, but when you hear that little thump thump thump of their little babies heart, it just makes it so real. I had such a warm feeling come over me when I heard that precious baby's heart beating so little but so strong! I can't wait to welcome Grandbaby #2 into this world and hold it in my arms and love on it. I've got lots and lots of Grandma kisses ready to shower it with.

Then to get to see him on the ultrasound! Yes it's going to be a little BOY. My baby is expecting a baby boy! He looked absolutely perfect, healthy and growing strong. 10 little fingers and 10 little toes! The doctor said everything looked great and there should be no problems at all. This baby is going to be so loved when he gets here! We can't wait to meet him!! He is due sometime in mid January 2011 around the 14th.


I also spent a lot of time at the beach working on my tan. I did manage a little shopping and a little sightseeing too. I also went on my first kayak adventure with Heather. We were able to spend the weekend at her in law's home and took the kayaks almost out their backyard right into the ocean. I had never been in a kayak let alone paddled one. We had a blast though and went to a little secluded beach and had our picnic lunch there. We then looked for seashells and I collected some sea glass also.



They also have recently bought a sailboat and have been working on sprucing it up and making it their own. We took it out for a few hours and sailed around Honolulu. We saw quite a few large sea turtles swimming around and I was on the look out for a dolpin but didn't see any. It was the wrong time of the year to see the whales.





We did a circle island tour again and Heather stopped at a few of her favorite beaches for me to get out and look at. We had a great lunch at a North Shore island favorite restaurant. They had huge hamburgers and some killer cake! Yum Yum!! We stopped at the famous Pipe Line on the North Shore and was able to also go to the beach for awhile where the large sea turtles hang out at. There are "Turtle People" there watching the turtles and making sure that the tourist leave them alone and for the most part let them be. There was a few on shore and the most I had ever seen swimming real close to shore.





I once again had a great trip to Hawaii!!! It's really cool that my daughter lives in paradise and is so close to the beach. I think I could get used to this.... I guess I'll be racking up the frequent flyer miles when I come to babysit!



“Grandmas are the people who take delight in hearing babies breathing into the telephone.”