{One year since I started blogging}

I started this post exactly one year ago and have a total of 136 posts!

I'm having a good time in Miri with Simon and Jonathan. We lead a simple life and I am thankful for many things (not in any particular order):
1) A roof over our heads
2) 15th month-old Jonathan, who despite loving to scream nowadays, is a joy to have and hold. I love his babbling and wet kisses!
3) Being able to scrapbook. Although there isn't a SB store or a community in Miri, there're online stores and communities!
4) Lovely rain that's falling every night to cool us down
5) Postal service that has delivered so many nice stuff to me. especially when it has some SB stuff
6) Our own animal farm at home: 5 dogs (including a stray that guards our house in return for food and lodging, and another stray that has settled in permanently) and 2 cats
7) Fruit trees in our backyard: mango, dragonfruit, longan, and pomelo trees that produced such sweet fruits, al natural without any pesticides
8) Calling home to hear my parents' voice, especially Dad who spoke a little despite his loss of vocab after his stroke
9) Simon being able to fish every now and then. Just need his fishing kakis
10) That I will be back in Singapore to see loved ones and friends over Christmas and New Year

So much to be thankful for....

Made With Love Nov 08 Challenge

Challenge by Emeline:

- Scrap an event/milestone that is important to you/loved ones

- De-hoard: use precious items that we've been hoarding

Such a fun challenge and I did two layouts quite quickly.

1) Allow me to introduce you to my Little Friend
Thanks to Grandma, Jonathan discovered his little friend when he turned one. Then the next time I bathed Jon, I got Simon to take a photo of Jonathan pointing out his answer when I asked him where his friend was, LOL!

De-hoarded my precious Love Elsie patterned papers (I've hoarded them for about 2 years!) and a soft charm. Too bad that Elsie Flannigan is no longer with the major manufacturer and will be starting her own big online store and little art boutique in her hometown (opening in Feb 09).

2) Step by Step

Stairs, how Jonathan loves to climb them. From 8months young, he has been climbing them, even all the way to the second floor. We had to put a barrier at the stairs. But there's still the steps in our split-level living room...LOL! I finally used one of the Bisous patterned papers that I bought since Mar 2008. The other time I used this pp was when I did Li Yen and Jack's wedding ann. Was stuck as to what embellishments to use. Then it came in a flash and I did the right hand side of the LO first...with my fave plastic vintage flowers and chipboard alphas, and de-hoard item: bug brads. The left side was looking a little plain till I de-hoarded my Hambly and Basic Grey rub-ons (before they become stuck).

Christmas wish list

One whole month till Christmas......and all I want for Christmas are....

Quikutz Big Shot - Sizzix's biggest shape-cutting and embossing machine. The black-and-pink Big Shot works with the entire Sizzix library, including their biggest and smallest dies and the most exciting techniques. What's more, this ultimate roller machine cuts everything from cardstock to fabric and many things in between.
Alessi - Statuette Presepe by Massimo Giacon

New addition to the family

Here're the latest photos of Mabel Tong, Simon's niece. Isn't she a cutie? She's two weeks old now.We went to Catherine's place today to see mommy and baby. Mommy is feeling hot from the confinement but is bearing with it. She even wears a beanie to prevent her head from getting chills. Good on you, Cat!

Megan is showing signs of jealousy and wants Bryan to carry her. I told her she'll always be the oldest so she doesn't have to be jealous of her mei mei. But I don't think she understands. Well, we let the confinement nanny take care of the little one and gave Megan some love and attention.

Diaper time

When it comes to changing Jonathan's diapers, we have to distract him with something in order for him to lay down still. From giving him a drink to the good old pacifier, from letting him hold a toy to my markers, I thought we've tried them all. That is until MIL saw a book that Simon left nearby - a lao fu zhi comic and passed it to Jon. It worked! Jon even stared at the opened pages for a while. I quickly snapped a photo (which explains why MIL is blurred). This reminds me of the time when the assistant at the hair salon also quickly grabbed something to distract Jon when he had his hair cut, and it was a lao fu zhi comic too! Hilarious!

Jon looks like me!

I used to hear people saying that Jonathan looks like me. I thought somewhat, but in some ways he looks like Simon too. Then a friend at church emailed me a couple of photos that he took of Jon. In these photos (about 13months old), I realised that Jonathan really looks like me...right down to the pursed lips!
I've been scrapping, but they're presents so I can't post any photos yet until the person gets the pressie. There were so many good friends whose birthdays are in November. I wish I could make a card for all....Here's a birthday tag for a friend and she's received it, so here're photos. I took Sassafras Lass tags and pasted patterned paper at the back of the tags so they would be double-sided. The monkeys are paper dolls from Elsie Flanningan's stationery set sold at her Etsy store. I love them so!

Fruits galore in our garden

The mangoes and longans in the garden have ripened. Simon's parents collected a huge box of longans yesterday, which were then divided into plastic bags. There must have been at least 3,000 longans altogether! Jonathan pointed at the box excitedly and grandma gave him one. He bit into it without peeling the skin off, and the juice squirted right out and dribbled onto his chin and shirt. I couldn't take photos coz my fingers were all sticky trying to get the longan away from Jon in case he swallowed it whole!I can smell the longans the whole day when I walk into the kitchen. I am so going to eat some later.

And the mangoes....my goodness, they're huge, although smaller than the ones we had in May this year. I've taken a photo of an average sized mango in between two larger ones. The smaller one is about 5 inches long and you can see that the larger ones are double the length and triple the size! I am so looking froward for them to ripen.....yellow, sweet and very delicious.

Here's an photo taken by Darien in May this year when we wrapped the mangoes up to prevent birds from eating them. They were more than a foot long!