One of My Favorite Pictures of Eli

This picture was taken in 2011 at the Borders bookstore in Bangor, Maine. I forget what book I was looking for, when Eli, sitting in his stroller, picked a book off the shelf and opened it, pretending to read and just flipping pages. I asked him what it was he was "reading" and after I saw the title of the book, how could I not take a picture?

My Lazy Little Puppies

My lazy little puppies lying out in the sun. Anabelle is the black one, Lily is the gold one and Molly is the small, white one. They're basically good dogs, but Molly whines and cries at times and that gets really annoying.

Christmas Cookies part 4

Here is Kenzie's contribution. There's some pretty nice cookies there. I think she did a nice job.

Christmas Cookies part 3

Here is Eli's contribution to the cookies the kids decorated for Santa. Note the angry face at the bottom. Eli says that one is a zombie. I made the face for him, but did not intend for the eyes to look angy.

Christmas Cookies part 2

Here is Kenzie's gingerbread man. This one is not a zombie.

Christmas Cookies part 1

Eli's gingerbread man. And yes, it is a zombie, just in case you were wondering. See the red eyes?

Kenzie's First Christmas Concert Pictures

Here are some pics of Kenzie singing and playing flute at her Christmas concert.

Some of the pics are pretty bad but she was really far away while singing and I didn't want to zoom in too much or else the pics would be worse than they already are.

The kids did a great job. Wait till you see the videos!

Kenzie at Vacation Bible School

This picture is of the dress that Kenzie wore to church today. Doesn't she look pretty?

Christmas 2009 Pictures!!!

We went to Picture People in the Deptford Mall today (big frickin' mistake that was, but that's another story for another time) and had our Christmas pictures taken! While we were waiting for the pictures to "develop", we went and got the kids' picture taken with Santa (he looks sleepy, but I guess it was near the end of his shift). Here are the pics. Enjoy!!!

First Boy in...How Many Years? part 1

Eli is the first boy to be born to Tiff's side of the family in 46 years. He's the first boy to be born to my side of the (immediate) family in a long time, too (not sure of the exact count, but it's gotta be a while. I guess I should try to figure it out).

Here's the proud Grandma and Grandpa with Eli while he was still in the hospital:





And here is his Auntie Ashlie holding him after we got to take him home:

First Boy in...How Many Years? part 2

Here is Eli's cousin, Mya:



and great-grandmother, Lois, holding him while he was still in the hospital:

The Crayola Factory Rules!!!

We went to the Crayola Factory in Pa this past February. It was a really cool place. The website says that the tour takes about three hours, but we were there for almost six. It was awesome because you get to make a bunch of free crafts for the price of admission. Here is a little sculpture that Tiff made for Kenzie:



I'd show you the pizza that I made but it's embarrassing.

Will the Real Jemaine Please Stand Up?

This is the extent of my artistic ability. We got to make puppets out of paper lunch bags. I originally wanted to make a zombie, but didn't want to take the time to do it properly, so instead I decided to make a Jemaine Clement puppet. In case you don't know, Jemaine is from a band (who also have their own tv show on HBO) called Flight of the Conchords. It's one of my favorite shows.

Anyway, here is the real Jemaine:



And here is my puppet:



What do you think?

Kenzie's Graduation

Here is Kenzie on the day she graduated from Pre-School:



Here's Kenzie and her teachers, Ms. Elaine (left) and Ms. Ruthann (right):



And here's Kenzie with her proud parents:



Man, it's amazing how the time has flown. I remember when she started at this school. I was excited and nervous for her about going into kindergarten, but she's handled it like a champ. Now she's getting ready to start the First grade in September!!!

Introducing Mya

We took a trip out to Missouri last 4th of July (the next bunch of pics are from our trip out there). We hadn't been there in a couple years so it was a good time to go.

This is Mya Faith, my niece; Kenzie's cousin; the daughter of Tiff's sister, Amanda. She's a good kid and this is my favorite pic of her.

Raising the Bar...

...or flipping over it?

Mya started a trend of flipping over the handrail that weekend.



Kenzie thought it looked cool and soon joined in on the fun.



Even I started to do it and I haven't done that in years. But you've got to be careful, as Kenzie so thouroughly demonstrated...



I'm sure you don't need me to tell you what happened next...

The Sisters

Here are Tiff and her two sisters, Amanda (left) and Samantha (right).

Fourth of July in America's Heartland

We went out to visit Tiff's mom in Missouri last July. Fireworks are not illegal to purchase out there as they are in New Jersey, but you have to be careful where you set them off, because you're not allowed to set them off within some communities.

Here are a couple of pics of Tiff and Kenzie holding little sparklers (I thought Kenzie would be afraid of them, but she did very well), but I wish I had some pics of the looks on everyone's faces when a couple of the fireworks landed on the roof of her mom's place that night, though. that would have been priceless.

This Is What Happens

This is what happens when you let them dress themselves...

Dorothy, in Oz

Before...


...and after an all-night bender on the strip; but hey, what happens in Vegas...

Some Cool Pumpkins...

...and some low quality pictures...

These pics are from our most recent pumpkin picking trip in September 2008. The top picture is of Tiff and Kenzie on the hay ride (minus the hay) out to the pumpkin field. Tiff was turning her head because she didn't want her picture taken. Whoops. And now I've gone and posted the picture on the internet. Man, I'm asking for it.



And here are some pumpkins we didn't actually buy but that Kenzie really liked (come to think of it, we may have purchased the pumpkin in the top picture. I don't remember).

"You didn't tell me you were gonna kill it!" - Linus van Pelt

Here are some pics of Kenzie scooping out the pumpkin's guts in preparation of our carving the faces. You can see the outline of the stencil we printed out from the internet (I guess we're not creative enough to come up with our own designs. Lame, I know).

The Headless Horseman Would Be Proud

And these are the finished pumpkins (I carved the one on the left).

The Street Sign Says It All...

How'd you like to live on this street?

Too Much...

This is Eli after about four cups of black coffee. Just kidding. He wasn't really drinking coffee; this was after he drank a 2-litre (<---note the sophisticated European spelling) bottle of Mountain Dew.