Daniela Elizabeth Silva Korte

This picture is for those people who don't want to flip from blog to blog to see this cutie pie. I know, not everyone is baby crazy like me and will go to the ends of the earth for a picture. Enjoy!

She arrived 11/24 by C-section due to presenting face first. She is a bit battered and bruised, but doing just great. So is her Mommy. I fly out on Wed. for a two week visit with them in Mexico. Her Grandpa is staying home with the dog.

More Babies Arriving!

*** UPDATE *** Ashley did post pictures of Daniela on her blog. Please read the last paragraph of my post below and click on her blog link. She's a cutie, despite her battered appearance. Birth can be a rough process... poor little sweetie, she needs some "Gramie Lovin>".


Did I scare you on that one, thinking someone else in the family is expecting? Sorry, but I'm easily excited about anyone getting a baby....even those people in Blog Land.

Courtney from Storing Up Treasures in Heaven is adopting another child and she has gone to be near the birth mom, her due date was the same as my daughter's. They are expecting a baby boy they have named Malachi. You can read all about it here. I look forward to seeing pictures of little Kai soon, I love Courtney's style of photography. She's promised that the next post would be about Kai's birth.

And El is in the hospital, because her water broke. She is having her baby girl early as she is in the habit of doing. Please pray that they both do well during the birth. This poor Mama has been through the wringer; she has three other young children and has experienced the lost of a baby on the day of his birth. To make matters worse, her hubby left her at the beginning of the pregnancy. She's one tough cookie is all I can say and I wish her well. El created her blog to document her son's Seth life; he was deaf, but now has cochlear implants and is starting to talk. I really enjoy following her blog.

No pictures of my new little grand daughter yet. I'm patiently waiting and so THANKFUL that I can take a trip to go see her in less than a week. You can read more about baby Silva Korte here. She won't be officially named until they go to the civil registry sometime in the next two weeks and file papers, then she will officially be Daniela Elizabeth Silva Korte. She has already had her name shortened to fit her petite size, Dani. I can't wait to meet her. You can read more about life in There's No Place that Far, just follow the link.

Happy Birth Day Daniela! 11/24/09

This evening I received the call I'd been waiting for. Ashley & Miguel are proud parents of a 6 lbs 9.5 oz. baby girl. I forgot to ask how long she is, but Ashley says she's tiny and she looks like her Daddy. Daniela has some dark hair, and she's dark complected. She was presenting to be born wrong - not just face up, but face forward and nose first and so after dilating to eight, they decided it was best to do a C-Section. The baby was born at 3:08 pm our time.

Fathers are not allowed in the hospital room or delivery, but Miguel's Mom was able to be present for both labor and delivery, because she is a nurse and was given permission. Ashley and baby are both doing fine. Miguel was visiting while I talked with Ashley and his Mom and Dad had just left to get something to eat. Someone was going to spend the night at the hospital with her, it hadn't been determined who it would be quite yet.



Sorry no pictures of the baby for awhile. Ashley may be able to come home on Thursday, if they continue to do well. Baby Daniela has a bruised face and is a bit swollen, but Ashley says she's still beautiful. I'm sure she'll send us pictures as soon as she is able to, she knows the whole extended family is anxiously awaiting.

We have much to be thankful for. FIVE grandchildren! are at the top of my list. Have a Very Happy Thanksgiving Day where ever you are celebrating.

A Double Blessing. Twice!

Our second blessing is due to arrive any day now. Griffin Sawyer was born last month and this month (we hope, she doesn't decide to wait until December) a baby girl will be born into our family. One of each, it's just perfect. Thank you, GOD!

Now it's my sister, Dawn's turn to receive a double blessing. Her son, Chad will become a father in May and her daughter, Melissa is expecting in July. Looks like Dawn's grand babies will be born close together like my last two. I wonder if she'll be lucky enough to have one of each? It's way to early to tell. Congrats! to all of you.

And God while you're at it, please bless those that are anxiously waiting their turn to be touched by the miracle of pregnancy and birth.

Working on North Carolina Pics

It's been awhile

Due to all of my gallivanting around the U.S. it's been awhile since I've taken care of G.T. I missed him and look forward to spending this Saturday together.



If the weather is decent we'll go to one of the school playgrounds for a few spins around various poles.



Perhaps we'll pick a few flower/weeds or twirl a twig or two.



And wood chips are always fun to play with and to gaze at as they sift through the air and fall to the ground.

If it's still misty and cool, we'll stay indoors and bounce on his big ball together, read some books and dance to a video or just be goofy together. When lunch rolls around you can usually find us at McDonald's.

A Beautiful Suprise!

When I came home from North Carolina, I watered my neediest plants and saved the rest of my watering for my day off. So today when I made the full rounds I was surprised to see my Christmas Cactus blooming. This is only the second time it's bloomed, and this time it's so much bigger and prettier. Besides the open bloom I photographed there's also two more buds, one getting ready to open and another smaller one that is rosebud size.







A view from the bottom.






Flowers in November, I'm totally loving it.
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Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig!

Do you recognize that Nursery Rhyme line? The home again, home again, fits perfectly. First there was the trip to Maine in Oct. and home again. Then the recent trip to North Carolina in November and home again. I'm not sure what the Jiggity Jig is suppose to mean, but I'm only home for two weeks and then I'm off to Mexico. We are still awaiting the arrival of our granddaughter, which could be any day now. Ashley's due date is November 25, and if she doesn't arrive by then the count down will begin, because they will only let her go seven days beyond that before they will take her by C-Section.

Home again, Home again, Jiggity Jig. A jig could be a dance, also referred to when bobbing to and fro. Rest assured I do not dance my way home. I usually manage to keep it together to say good-bye, but a few hours into the car ride home silent tears run down my cheeks as I rarely know when I will be able to see those loved ones in person again. This time when saying good-bye to Sydney we were throwing kisses to each other and catching them. As I ended the game and headed toward the car, she started to cry...so I went back and threw and caught a few more pretend kisses and then jumped in the car as fast as I could. I am not a strong person, had she started crying in earnest I would have started the journey home blubbering inconsolably.

I'll be traveling to Mexico alone and Corky will be home with the dog. My ticket was $640 and since this will not be a site seeing adventure, he opted to stay home. I do believe his last plane ride in October had something to do with that decision as well.

I Wanna Skype

Now that I've tried skyping a couple times, I have decided to get a computer attached video camera for Christmas.



They look something like this or like that.



All my girls have the set up and three out of the four have used them to talk to one another. Audra used hers to talk to Rick when he was on his tour of duty in Iraq.



It's cool, to be able to see the person you're talking to. Even the grandchildren like to get in on the act and talk to one another.

What kind of experiences have you had skyping? Would you recommend it?

Cute Thanksgiving Idea

When my girls were little, I subscribed to Family Fun magazine. They had the coolest ideas and believe me I tried quite a few of them over the years. Today I was looking for directions on how to make those turkey cookies that stand up and have a big round cookie for their tail feathers. Well I found quite a few different ones, but not exactly what I wanted and I was bummed that I couldn't find the exact ones I'd made in the past....but I did find this on Family Fun's website.

Here's the Fruit Gobbler.....go here for directions. He's called the fruit gobbler, but there's vegetables on him and cheese. Yum! And his body is a melon, which can be a light breakfast the day after Thanksgiving. LOL

My First Diaper Cake for Twins

I've made three girl diaper cakes, each was for one of my daughter's, daughters. A yellow one for Ava, a pink one for Sydney, a multiple pastel colred one for Daniela. I also made a blue, boy cake for the neighbor's grandson, Hunter.

This is my very first twins diaper cake. The cake is pink & blue, because the twins are one of each. Here's a preview of the cake, the shower is Sunday.



Natalie, a co-worker and I went together on the gift and she put colorful homemade cards in the card holders around the bears neck that said "Welcome Baby Girl" & "Welcome Baby Boy". It looks adorable. They do not have names picked out yet, but we've been told they won't start with the same letters, or be rhyming or anything cutesy. They want them to be treated as individuals first and twins secondly.



Natalie shopped for the diapers and the many items tucked into the cake. She also ironed on Howell Nature Center logos on six onsies for the twins. Can you spot them on the cake? I shopped for the topper & ribbon etc. and put the cake together. Let's see if I can name all the items on this cake.

10 onsies, 6 wash clothes, 8 pair of bootie/socks, 2 pair of mittens, comb & brush sets for each, night light, 2 cloth toys, 2 rattles, 2 books, 4 spoon & fork sets, 2 bibs, outlet safety plugs, 2 teethers, medicine spoon, bottle and nipple brushes,and mosquito netting for their strollers hidden inside the tube that runs down the center of the cake. Plus all those diapers, and those adorable little teddies on top. I may have forgotten a thing or two placed around the back side of the cake. We also bought them a huge box of diapers from Costco and an outfit for each.




Ta - Da! the complete cake. It was fun to make and we hope Becky enjoys taking it apart and discovering all the items she can use for the twins.

Becky waited a long time to venture into the world of Momhood, (she's in her mid 30's) and Natalie & I are both so happy that she's finally becoming a Mommy. We know she'll be great at it.

Scooby Dooby Doo!

Scooby-Dooby-Doo, Where are you? We got some work to do now.
Scooby-Dooby-Doo, Where are you? We need some help from you now.



Come on Scooby-Doo, I see you... pretending you got a sliver.
But you're not fooling me, 'cause I can see, the way you shake and shiver.



You know we've got a mystery to solve, so Scooby Doo be ready for your act. Don't hold back!



And Scooby Doo if you come through you're going to have yourself a Scooby snack!
That's a fact!



Scooby-Dooby-Doo, here are you, You're ready and you're willing.
If we can count on you Scooby-Doo, I know we'll catch the villain!



Song performed by Ava 4 years old and Michael 6 years old.
And yes, they are Scooby fans!



This photo shoot went on forever.....we were having so much fun.
Here's a couple of my personal favorites.

An Alpaca Sweater for me

I made a comment on my blog a month or so ago regarding how I'd love to knit myself an alpaca sweater. Perhaps you remember this post, or if you missed it just click on the link I provided.

When I went to take care of my grand children in Maine, they presented me with a couple presents. A tin of my favorite chamomile tea, um it's sooooooo good and a box of alpaca yarn/fiber. I was so surprised and so pleased. My daughter went to all the trouble of talking to someone who knits to find out how much yarn she should get to make a sweater and then ordered it for me.



The color is perfect and if you could just feel how soft it is......unbelievable. I know it will be warm beyond anything I've ever owned.




I had been looking for a picture of some sweater styles I liked and had clipped and saved this one. I want something simple and basic. No open weaves, no fancy stitches, no changing colors. Just plain & cozy and this one fits the bill. Now I just have to find a pattern for such a sweater. I will go to the local yarn shop and have the owner help me to figure out if I have enough yarn for the pattern etc. I don't want to take any chances with this sweater. It's been decades since I made myself a sweater and this one has the makings of being something I'll treasure for the rest of my life. I want to do it right.



Thank you Samoluk family... that was super sweet of you. And if anyone reading has a sweater pattern they'd like to share, please let me know in the comments section.

We are really gonna miss her

This was Danan's first trip to Michael & Ava's house and possibly her last.



They loved playing Frisbee with her. Ava was great at picking up the commands and using them correctly, like: "GIVE!" and "DROP IT!" and Danan would mind her. It was so cute. She also freely praised her with "Good Girl" and "That's a good dog". She did a lot of jumping up and down and saying "Awh". And this comment was spoken a quite few times too. "I'm gonna miss you, Danan".



Michael liked to feed Danan treats. And I taught him the correct way to do it with the treat laid on the open hand, but with Michael's sensory issues he didn't like the feel of Danan's wet tongue picking up the treat. Danan is very gentle when she takes the treats, so Michael was comfortable feeding her finger-style. Ava on the other hand preferred to throw her treats on the floor and let Danan pick them up.



Danan provided entertainment, exercise, cuddling and photo-ops.



And we found out that Danan like Doritos. Our very fussy eater - go figure.



Shall we take her again for the grand children's sake? They really did enjoy having her at their house. Or should be leave her home for Gramie's sake? Who really would have preferred to hear.....we are really gonna miss you, Gramie.