Moran Family Fun

 Our awesome Abigail is eleven!  We love Abby with her beautiful smile and joyful personality.  She's just an amazing girl and we are so happy to have her as part of our family. This year for her birthday we just did the usual things - dinner, presents, and cake.  Here's eleven things you might not know about Abigail: 1.  She has a beautiful face.  I mentioned it above, but her smile is amazing and her eyebrows are the most perfect I've ever seen.  She's got the cutest freckles and is very expressive, making tons of different faces. 2.  She loves to read.  Abigail is always reading one book or another and was honored at school this year for reading over two million words! 3.  She has an amazing voice.  She sings beautifully and happily, in the car, in the shower, at dinner, and (my favorite) to herself when she thinks no one can hear her. 4.  She loves to play the piano.  Abigail is the best at practicing and...

I think that, just in general, dads are great and really important in the lives of their families and I have been so blessed to have not only a wonderful father who raised me but an amazing husband who is more than I deserve.  I was able to speak in church on Sunday for Father's Day and even though I really don't like public speaking I was pretty excited for the opportunity just because of the topic. As I was thinking about what focus my talk should I came to the realization that moms get all the love and dads are sometimes left out in the cold.  I can't say this with 100% certainty, but it's a pretty safe bet that every October and April during the Priesthood Session of General Conference the men are all told to be better husbands and fathers and to honor and respect women.  Maybe I've not been paying attention, but I have never heard a similar message in the General Relief Society meeting reminding the women how amazing the men in our lives are.  In the end, I d...

Our kids just keep growing up no matter what we might try to do to stop them.  It happens almost without our noticing and in fits and starts, but them I look over at one of these beautiful girls and am astonished at how much they've changed or just what they can do without help from me.  It's a bittersweet realization. There's more freedom in my days now that our children are getting older and need me less, but I still sometimes miss the little girls they used to be. Lately Natalie has been growing in so many ways.  Most noticeably, she's getting so much taller!  In fact, she's almost caught up to Samantha's height and Sam is two years older than her.  They can share clothes (but not shoes) and I think they are both okay with having double wardrobe options.   Most American kids her age have just finished up kindergarten, but Natalie won't go to real school until this fall.  Still, I feel as if she should know how to read at this point so I've ...

Jared is worried I have a problem, he thinks I spend too much time sewing and may, in fact, have a sewing/crafting addiction.  I can see how he might feel that way, given the amount of stuff I've sewn in the last month.  Want to see?  I'll start with the most recent project and work my way backward. Today I sewed new covers for our couch cushions.  There wasn't anything wrong with the old ones, I was just ready for something new after four years of seeing the same thing every day.  I went with the most simple method here, and did an envelope closure in the back.  I considered doing hidden zippers instead, but I didn't have zippers on hand and really wanted to finish these up today.  I love them and it makes me want to get some pillow forms and make more because you can never have too many pillows on your couch, right? I also (almost) finished up this top today.  It's the Esme Top from Sew Liberated and I am pretty pleased with it. ...

Just outside of our little town on a tiny farm road sits a Jewish Cemetery.  It's bordered all around by tall pine trees and is surrounded by fields of crops.  Unlike the other cemetery just up the road, this one is always locked up tight and overgrown with weeds.  It's always made we wonder what happened to the families of all the people who are buried in the cemetery.  I mean, everyone knows what happened to Jews in Germany during the Second World War, but the cemetery makes we want to learn the stories of the families who lived in Herschberg. Jared sometimes runs past the Jewish Cemetery and has always wanted to get a group together to clean it up.  So this Memorial Day our ward held our annual Memorial Day Picnic here in Herschberg.  We started at the cemetery - cleaning ivy and weeds off of headstones, trimming the grass, and cleaning the path through the graves.  We are so grateful to our mayor, who agreed to let us do the work and who even cam...

In case you didn't know, May is Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month.  But it's also the month of about sixty or so other things, including Sweet Vidalia Onions, Osteoporosis Prevention, Artisian Gelato (yum!), and Borderline Personality Disorder Month.  Apparently there are a lot of causes and products out there that need to be remembered.  Still, it seems as if Asian-Pacific Heritage is the main one, right? In April Madison told us that she'd signed up to be a part of the community Asian-Pacific Heritage celebration.  She's signed up to be a dancer for some of the traditional dances that were to be performed at the celebration.  Let me just be totally honest here; I was more than a little worried about how the whole thing would turn out. First, Madison is not of Asian or Pacific descent.  Her heritage is from another island in a different ocean.  Second, Madison is not the most coordinated person in the world.  Playing percussion helps her wi...

It took a while, and it's still not willing to stay for more than a few days in a row, but I think spring might finally have come to Germany and springtime in Germany is a truly beautiful thing.  The trees are covered in bright green leaves and beautiful blossoms.  The crops are starting to grow and the fields are now shades of brown, green, and yellow.  Last week we took advantage of a particularly beautiful day and took a walk into the fields around our little village.  There were plenty of dandelions, my favorite sign of spring's coming, to be picked for bouquets or just for making dandelion wishes. Samantha was our photographer for the day and she kept stopping to point out the pretty views.  Our village is up on top of a hill so in almost any direction as you look out from town (especially on a clear sunny day like this one) you can see other little towns sitting on top of their hills. I keep thinking that we have just one sprin...