7*11 Game

This was a family game night at our good friends the Dalby's.  The game is 7-11.  You basically start with a pile of candy goodness.  Each person rolls two dice and every time you roll a 7 OR 11 they pick out a piece of candy.  Once all the candy is gone the thieving round begins.  Each person gets one chance to steal a piece of candy from someone else.  It was so much fun and everyone came home with lots of sugar.  We had a good time.  The large Hershey bar made its rounds during the thieving stage.  This would be a great idea during Family Reunions or other activities with a large group of people, though with more than 7 people you may want to use more than one set of dice to keep the game moving especially with younger children.

Zane @ Pump It Up Party

This was Zane's school friend's birthday.  Huge slides, a jump house, air hockey with pizza and cake.  Dad and Zane had a blast. We had done something similar with MOMS Club in GA.

Christmas Afternoon

Here's a Smilebox of just the food!

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More details can be found on our food blog here.

Christmas Morning

I'm finally getting caught up on these!  It's actually been really nice to relive these memories as I've been making the Smilebox.  (I'm trying not to beat myself up about how often/when I post updates.  To remember to keep this fun!)  Hope you enjoy.  Comment please, so we know you stopped by.

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Christmas Class Parties

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Zane's Reindeer Hat

Zane came home from school so excited yesterday.

Look what he & his 6th grade buddy made!

It has definitely taken some getting used to,

having the kids in school so late/close to Christmas.

Today is their last day/class parties!

*UPDATE*

Zane's Teacher, Mr. S., posted some pictures

of this day in his online gallery here.

Record December Snow Hits Philly

this is a short video of Jon & the big kids playing out in the snowbelieve me when I say that this vid doesn't do it justice(plus, I took it from the warmth of our bedroom window!)they went out twice on Saturday, December 19thhere's a link to a local news story about the snow(we called a personal family snow day yesterday for Church)we got a very early phone call saying that school will have a delayed start todayaccording to this link in said news story,our official snow total isABINGTON 13.2 1100 PM 12/19

Gingerbread House Fun

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This was the *perfect* activity to do yesterday while it was

snowing & snowing & snowing outside.

If you want more details, see post on food blog here.

Short Report of Friday, December 18th

in which this sweet sweet sweet little face

got Rudolph'd when he tripped coming down the back sidewalk

and this was about the closest I could get to see

the Z-kids' Christmas Concert . . .

sorry about the lame picture.

& no, I totally didn't take any video.

There are *A LOT* of music programs

@ our new school, which I love!

Sure missed Jon, who had been around Tue-Thu of last week,

but had to go back to school to give a final

on the very last day of finals too, of course!

But it sure makes for a very very very long day when

I had to wake poor little wounded E from his nap to go,

E was wrangled from the backpack carrier for ~1 hour,

& Z-kids performed almost @ the very end!

Z-kids did great though!

I'm so proud of them!

Zoe has new artwork

posted in her Artsonia Gallery.

Feel free to leave her any comments here.

Bernice & Jaxon Visit

my way cute & way pregnant sister Bernice & my nephew Jaxon came to visit!

they drove all the way from Cleveland OH to see us while Jack was doing finals

it had been about 2-1/2 years since we had seen each other--so sad!

the last time we made the trek out to UT (from TX) to visit was in 07

& she was pregnant with Jaxon & in the hospital (on a totally different medical issue)!

so glad we finally got to meet Jaxon & hope Bernice enjoyed meeting Eli

here's a quick rundown of what we did

Tue, Dec 1st--arrive PA

Wed, Dec 2nd--IKEA & Kohl's

Thu, Dec 3rd--dim sum in Chinatown (it was my first time driving downtown myself!)

Fri, Dec 4th--Assi & Target

Sat, Dec 5th--Michaels--it started snowing like crazy today!

Sun, Dec 6th--depart PA

here's a quick slideshow of some random pics
how sad that Bernice & I didn't manage to get in a single pic together!  :(

here are some links to food-related posts of the visit that I did over on my *new* food blog

menu

daa bin lou

Bernice is a great Mom & Jaxon is a very active boy,

check out this post on Bernice's blog for proof!  ;)

Jon took the vid

it sure was wonderful to have some family around

we really appreciate the effort/sacrifice that Bernice made to come visit

we should be returning the favor pretty soon for the arrival of baby girl Madsen!

Zane has new artwork

posted in his Artsonia Gallery.

Feel free to leave him any comments here.

Eli's Tongue Trick

So Eli has been doing this for a while now,

I just haven't had much luck catching it on video . . . 

still not sure if this does it justice, but you get the idea.

Thanksgiving Celebration

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Eli's Adventures @ Genuardi's

Really???  Seriously???

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This seems a little . . . I don't know . . . too much???
Have any of you seen/tried this?

Zane Learning Karate

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Zoe Learning Karate

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Our "Award-Winning" Golden Ladle Chili

The Elders Quorum had their annual Chili Cook Off on Saturday.

The basis of our recipe can be found here, but we did tweak it a bit.

Since Jon's allergic to chili powder, he made his own.
In case you can't tell, Jon named ours Black-Eyed Surprise.
I made mini cheesy corn meal muffins to go with it.

In a pleasantly surprising turn of events, we won Best Chili Overall.
The recipe was pretty easy & tuned out so good.

Plus, it's Jon allergy-approved!
All in all, it was a fun night with our Ward Family.

Paws to Read

The elementary school that Zoe & Zane currently attend has a wonderful librarian & a beautiful space for their library.  They have this program called "Paws to Read" where the kids get to read to pets.  Here are the pics that the librarian sent home recently.  The kids totally love this program!

Artsonia Art Museum :: Artwork by Zoe1148

Artsonia Art Museum :: Artwork by Zoe1148

Sorry this is a little late.
Zoe just had her first piece uploaded by the school.
We think it's pretty awesome.

Zane Singing School Song

So, our school does a Book Fair @ the local B&N, instead of on campus.
Zane, with his fellow 1st graders, got to perform during a bit of it.
This is their school song. That's his teacher playing guitar.
In case you can't tell, Zane's the one in the solid red shirt with logo on the front, middle of the frame, kinda.

Sorry about the poor quality. Taken on my phone.
I was wearing Eli in the backpack, so had to stand near the back.
You get the idea, though.
Jon couldn't be there because he had class.

This second song was "cute".
Zane didn't realize that it was a "commercial".
That was an interesting conversation . . .

09 Late Fall Y Session

We are so blessed to have been awarded "scholarships" @ our local Y.
The kids are able to get 50% off their lessons. What a great deal!
The current session started the beginning of November & will continue to Christmas.

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Swim pictures taken by me. Karate pictures taken by Jon.
Eli absolutely LOVES being in the water! He was the only one that didn't get lessons while we were living in Lubbock. The trick is to make sure he doesn't "drink the pool"!

All better!

Taken this morning.  Amazing how fast they heal!

You can hardly see where the scrapes were in his eyebrow.

Ouch

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09 Leaves

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Seriously not fair!

Do you see how stinking long those eyelashes are???

Proof is in the Pout

Poor guy!  It always seems like sickness hits the little guys the hardest.

Before the Plague, there was a Sparkly Witch, a Mutant Turtle, & a Cute Frog

So, this is the one lone pathetic picture that I was able to capture on my phone from our Ward's Halloween party/Trunk-or-Treat on Oct 27th.  (Jon couldn't come because he had class that night.)  Not sure if you can tell, but Zoe's hanging on to Eli as he tries to make a run for it!  He's not leaning into her like that by choice.  Zoe had just barely gotten over her fever.  Unbeknownst, to me, I was just starting the fever bit--Happy Birthday to me!  After this night, we went into complete quarantine/lock down mode--even on actual Halloween night.  This was just the start.  Zane, then Jon, & finally Eli all got the fever.  Between Zoe & Zane, they missed a whole week of school.  Zane even missed his class Halloween party--so sad.  It's been 2-3 weeks, & we're finally starting to get back to whatever normal is for us.  Here's to our continued health!

Outing to get . . .

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It's been *forever* since I've created/posted a Smilebox, so enjoy!
I love how you can see Eli's little shoes poking out in one of the pics. He looks so little in the big salon chair. His haircut makes him look much more boy that baby.

In case anyone's wondering, I stayed home with Zoe, who woke up this morning with a fever & had to miss her fun Church/Stake Activity Day! :(

Artsonia Art Museum :: Artwork by Zane405

Artsonia Art Museum :: Artwork by Zane405

This is something new that the Art Teacher @ our school's done.
I'll try to update whenever they post new stuff.
Let me know if you would like to be added to his Fan Club.

Time for a Hair Cut . . . ?

This is how Jon "styled" Eli's hair after bathtime tonight.
How do you like it?

Who needs toys when you have an empty box?

Eli Mastering the Stairs

So, in case you can't tell, this video was taken early October.
Sorry it's taken me so long to get it posted.
I was trying to figure out if there was a way to upload a video directly from my eMac to Blogger.
Apparently there isn't--unless I want the extra step of uploading first to YouTube--which I don't.
So the only way for me to upload is from my iPhone--
--which only lets me do 60 seconds worth of video to post by email.
As opposed to the whole video, if it's longer.  IRK
In theory, it really shouldn't be this complicated!  :)
OK . . . rant over.  Enjoy the video.

Poor Guy

Can. not. be. lieve. Eli's still getting bitten by bugs!
I guess that's one reason to look forward to winter??!!?
At least this time it was on his little hand & not on his face!

Our Sleeping Prince

Eli's 1st-ish Steps

been meaning to post this for a while now
vid was taken by Zoe on Wed, Sep 16th, 2009

09-10 School Open House

Zoe & Zane had School Open House last night, Sep 24th, 09.

It was so nice to *finally* meet their teachers.
Having met them--they're *wonderful*
--I have no idea why I was so anxious. :)

Zane's teacher created the following video presentation.

Hope you enjoy.

09 Back To School

Have no idea how this happened!
Just realized that I didn't post anything for this year's BTS.
So, here it is!

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Normally, the kids get picked up right in front of our house, which is nice. But in the pics, you'll notice that we jumped the gun & loaded them when the bus was still on the other side of the street. What can I say, 1st time jitters!

Eli chillaxing while I'm doing laundry

Showing off the Carvel Birthday Cake 3/3. Our Baby Girl's Growing Up

Happy 9th Birthday, Zoe!

Showing off the Carvel Birthday Cake 2/3

Pardon Zane's fingers . . . he didn't want to miss out on the action!