Cherry Blossoms & Zara

The Munch took the metro today to visit her first Cherry Blossom festival here in DC! Besides smiling at every cute boy she saw, she was extremely well-behaved and enjoyed herself throughly! It was very sunny but not above 58 degrees so a bit chilly! She was a trooper and posed for her paparazzi!

zara on safari

on safari at vanessa and franks place for dinner!
It's 3 more days til her 8th month birthday!

Zara at Turtle park today! It was over 65 degrees and sunny!

Zara visiting friends!!!

Tonight we went to see my friend Jill; who used to be my roommate BM (before Matt). Jill and her husband live so nearby and they have a lovely home and its so nicely designed too! Greg and Jill gave Zara some books and one of them specially for Matt! in fact amtt says it is his favourite called "Daddy's Girl" by the Prairie home companion host: Garrison Keillor! its a great book and the illustrations are so cute.

We also learned today that Megan (my roommate from Atlanta from the Olympic Games) has bought her tickets to come see us in May for Mother's day weekend! She arrives just when Zara and I return from our trip to Arizona!!!

i believe my final day at the Palm is april 15th; if not earlier.. then we go on TOUR! yipee!

I just HAVE to introduce another family website!!!

http://www.huft.net/ozbod/html/index.html

this is victoria's new venture!!!!

Just like Beth and her homemade business; Victoria makes all these pieces herself!!!!

so talented!

i would just love to be her American retailer/wholesaler and make "OZBOD" a super hip and mod brand in the US too!

7 1/2 months old and 14lbs and 5 ounces!!!

Zara grew 9 ounces in the last month! and boy does she have her own personality. Today she seemed to have learned how to wave "bye bye"

more shots

here's Eileen (Matt's younger sister) and the little manTOMMY!!! Eileen just started a great blog you gotta see! http://eifalk.blogspot.com/
Finally a shot of Caleb with Maddie! Caleb and Maddie are the kiddies of Beth (Matt sister too!!) Caleb is just a few months ahead of Zara. In fact, Zara has three cousins within a few of months of her, There is Caleb, Jack (Eileen's youngest boy) and also William in London! http://huft.typepad.com/runcible_spoon/
Beth is amazing with 7 kiddies and she even has her own business while working full time http://www.bethgallic.com/ She makes beautiful cards for special events; you can see her website here if you like!
more to come later..... xxxooo love jocelyn

March 2008

we are still on our high of having all our friends and family down to DC for Zara's day! Thank you all..the pics just keep on coming!


she was happy with the police car .. but soon Jack came and they had a pow wow for it! too funny!

the cousins and aunts and godmother all accounted for!

just missing jimmy and tommy rock and littliest gallic- Caleb- but we got him later... so no worries!!!!!!

just a smattering of shots of Zara's big day

what a thrill for us to have so many family and friends who all made BIG efforts to be here in DC for Zara! More family pics to come....

Getting all dressed up!

We have so many wonderful family pictures I am dying to post; so bear with me, I am trying to find the creme de la creme!!! wink wink!

Feb 27th Chrissie and Te visit Zara!

Chrissie arrived from Kansas with Te on Tuesday! On Wednesday, although i was expecting them over early, they came about 5pm. Zara was just waking up from a nap, so Chrissie (birthmother) and Te and Reece ( THE CONNECTOR!) and her son all ran up the stairs to see her in her crib! She was smiles right away and everyone cuddled her. We went to the Palm for a very early dinner and then came home again for dessert. The next day Zara and i only saw them for about 2 hours and although i was expecting to meet them for dinner that night too, Chrissie seemed liek she had other plans so i didn't push it.

Then the following Tuesday, we had planned to hook up one last time before she flew out that afternoon. Unfortunately, she called and said she couldn't make it because she had to drive Reese home to Pennsylvania before catching her flight in Baltimore. I told chrissie not to worry, i would send loads of pics and mail some to Cuba as well. In fact On Mar 6th she depart for Cuba for 12 months. Poor Devonte will be able to chat with her on internet videophone, but i feel sorry for them both.

Chrissie was amazingly upbeat and thrilled to be able to see Zara. She thanked us very nicely and said she was so glad Zara was with us. These were beautiful words to hear and we are thankful she knows we are doing our very best! The last shot is of Chrissie holding up a shirt for Zara that says Dereon - i think, that is Beyonce's baby line of clothing, but i had to ask who or what that was...aaaghhh ...I have never felt so OLD, we were laughing so hard. She also got Zara some of JZ's line of clothing gear; which is called ROCO WEAR; althoug i actually liked that since it had "R"s all over it- you know... for ROCK!

February 22 08

13lbs and 14 ounces, 61/2 months Zara!

Here is the MUNCH at her dress fitting!

Granny & Grandpa Zarr's 40th anniversary tribute!

here we all are sadly minus Anthony & Becs; but it was a wonderful and relaxed celebration. Here is a shot of the poster board we created to suprise the anniversarians! is that a word?

Zara was in terrific spirits and definitely "wanted" to be a center of attention. She spent her night laying on her back and banging her heels on the carpet in the middle of the U-shapes table set up!

We just returned from the Doctor; she is now 13lbs 12 ounces and a whopping 27 inches long!

The NY Giants won just for Matt's birthday!

.. and during the game Zara played piano with Megan!

Well, not quite, but it has become apparent that Zara is a real aficionado of the piano and loves to play even hitting both black and white keys!

Soon, I'll be driving her to Hagerstown on a weekly basis for her very expensive (after all, Megan is going to be quite the business woman, wink wink!) piano lessons from Megan!

Zara's new English cousin; William Heath Worrall

Zara welcomes Willy on his photo shoot!! Here he is with his Dad, Justin in London!

Granny Zarr snapshot from pre- jocelyn!

Granny Zarr was a rock climber before she met Zara's Grandpa!

here is a pic of us in Pakistan in 1975 or so... not sure exactly, but it was a family Christmas card one year back then.. back in the day.. when the earth was still cooling... before DNA and Ipods.

Princess Zara of Alton Place

Here is Zara at 5 and a half months

12lbs 4 ounces.

She is training her tummy in this shot and smiling as she does it! What a trooper; usually she cries in this pose.

Anthony & Becs visit Zara again! Off to Annapolis!

She kept giving Anthony flirty looks!

she loves being a leopard!


We went on a great day trip to Annapolis to see where Zara's Grandpa and Granny Zarr will host their 40th anniversary celebration. It was a very sunny but chilly day; but Zara didnt mind- she was all smiles!
Greg and Renee have chosen their wedding date. It will be November 14th, we are sooo looking forward to the big event! Zara is especially excited because she hopes to show off her new dance steps- that is; if she figures out how to walk by then!

a quick pic from 1981

There is Zara's mommy on the far left with Mrs Bushon a state visit to West Africa. She is in her school uniform from Ghana International School! We all had the same uniform fabric (green& white striped) provided by the school but everyone had to make their own dresses. Granny Zarr made Zara's mommy's dress. Either way- it's just too funny and had to share!

Greg & Renee are now ENGAGED!

Congrats to Matt's brother Officer Greg & Renee!!! What a great night; they came into the Palm for their engagement dinner and we all sang, "Going to the Chapel" to them as a suprise; it was so great to see them so happy. Zara thought they were very funny too; she came to the Palm and was smiling all night long! She was definitely pleased to hear the good news!

Here she is in the Christmas outfit that Chrissy sent us. Zara said she'd wear it only if she could accessorize the look with her purse given to us by Susan (next door!)

Christmas Visitors are here! Yippeee!!!

Amanda was in town for less than 24 hours and stayed the night with us! The Munch was in rare form!
Today, Saturday, Anthony and Becs arrived from London and baby Zara donned her Christmas outfit... she such a show off!!! LOL
And the Rock brothers down from Hagerstown had private time with her & she loved their attention. Tommy read her favorite book and Jimmy was the photographer extraordinaire!

December 2nd, another big NEWS DAY!

Just recieved in today's mail our katie Zara's Birth Certificate from Kansas. It is surreal seeing our names on it with hers. Now we are racing off to the passport office to get her all hooked up! She seemed indifferent when i told her she'd be getting her passport very soon- as you can see here... super stretchy yawn.

Zara's big news. Happy 4th month bday!

Here is the little munch Zara in her fancy chair that Evey sent her and wearing the handmade beautifully knitted hat from the Ogrens!
She is all kitted out with her fancy new things! We are so lucky; she is doing so well.
Yesterday was her 4th month bday; to celebrate we went to the Doc. poor thing.
She weighs 11 lbs 3 ounces; that is barely over 7 lbs growth since birth! She is 24 inches, so she grew 4.5 inches since her birth. The Doctor gave her more shots and said she is doing perfectly well even though she is in the bottom 6th %tile for weight.

On another note; Chrissie, her birth mom called us and said she is going to be deployed to Cuba for 18 months in Mar 07. Other than that; she sounded pretty upbeat and very positive about her re-enlistment. So this gives us great peace to hear her sounding so good.