2009 in review

This year's biggest headlines were the addition of Curtis to our family in April and the beginning of this blog in May. Well, those were the biggest headlines aside from Amanda learning to read and do math, Jared learning to talk, Curtis learning to sit up and scooch, Dad getting published, Mom & Dad celebrating their 6th anniversary, etc., etc., etc. We even went on a family trip or two, heading out to see family in Virginia not once, but twice! (or more, in Amanda's case) Now we are enjoying winter (especially Amanda) and looking forward to a happy new year.

Boxing day at COSI

Boxing day came and we found ourselves wondering what to do with no company in town. So, we thought about what we would have done if they had been there and decided to go to COSI anyway. (COSI stands for Center of Science and Industry) Above, Jared is playing with one of the exhibits in the space section. Below, Jared looks on as Amanda pilots a satellite overhead. Mom especially likes this photo because it captures Curtis in his typical routine of smiling whenever he sees a camera, no matter what everyone else is doing.


The ocean area was probably the kids' favorite. Here is Amanda squirting Poseidon.


And here's Dad helping Jared try to balance a ball on a column of water.


We also made a stop in the kids area, which features a little area for eating packed lunches (or dinner, in our case). After our meal, we found a kid who built a really tall tower . . .


And Curtis got some water time at the baby splash table. I think he liked it . . .

Christmas 2009

The plan for Christmas 2009: simplicity in the gift department and a visit from Grandma and Grandpa. What actually happened:

We spent Christmas Eve with friends, sharing their yummy Christmas dinner. Then we came home and sent the kids to bed. After that, Mom & Dad worked hard setting up the tree and setting out the loot, which was quite a bit more than expected thanks to a world full of Santas. Behold the finished product . . .


And, the Muffins appreciated it. Here are Curtis and Amanda posing for a picture; Jared was busy investigating a present elsewhere.


Here's Amanda . . . or rather one of her favorite presents . . .


Jared hard at work unwrapping . . .


And Curtis trying his hand . . . or rather mouth . . . at unwrapping things, too.


Sometime before we finished unwrapping everything, Grandma and Grandpa called with bad news: they'd been snowed out of their intended visit. We were disappointed, but determined to make the best of it. So, we called up our friends and asked if they'd like to come to our place for another Christmas dinner. They came and we all finished the day happy.

Gingerbread houses 2009

This year's gingerbread extravaganza was rather less extravagant than last year. We did make our own icing, but we settled for graham crackers instead of baking our own gingerbread (unlike in 2008). On the left is a cute little pink house by Jared (with help from Dad), followed by the house Mom made at our church Christmas party, followed by Mom's made-at-home model, and finishing with Amanda's house featuring a Twizzler flag pole (with help from Dad).

Brotherly love

Jared actively looks out for his siblings' welfare. Curtis really appreciated the help, but Amanda found the whole thing rather silly, or at least she did when Jared offered her some of the baby food.

Thanksgiving 2009

As many of you know, Thanksgiving season for us is especially busy because it is also the season for Dad and Jared's shared birthday. So, brace yourself for a bit of a marathon entry . . .

It all started out with our grand little feast . . .

We decided to be a bit daring this year and have duck, along with a turkey breast, just to maintain some semblance of tradition. Dad is carving the duck in the picture above, and Jared is munching on duck wing in the picture below.

And don't think we forgot about Curtis; here he is enjoying the first course of his first Thanksgiving dinner, peas.

Curtis did munch some mashed potatoes and stuffing as well (he is seven months old after all), but we decided to forgo the messier photos. About the duck, it provided LOTS of drippings for some incredibly rich gravy, and Amanda loved it. Great bird if you like dark meat. Mom was glad there was some turkey available, too, though, as she is more of a white meat person.

And then it was birthday time . . .

Yes, it was Jared's 2nd birthday, not his first, but Jared decided that if Dad gets to stop aging then he can, too. Either that or we forgot to buy birthday candles in the midst of the holiday . . . At any rate, he loved the chocolate creme pie. We had some friends over for a pie party to celebrate the joint birthday.

Here's Jared with some presents. He absolutely loved unwrapping them (lucky for him that Christmas is coming soon), and he even enjoyed the actual presents, too. The turtle is from Grandma and Grandpa and Buzz (a soft, silent version) is from Mom & Dad. Jared's favorite game to play with Buzz is to hold him upside down, say "Buzz!" and then buzz Buzz's feet. His play with the turtle is a little more conventional.

You may have noticed Jared's abundant hair in the previous pictures. The last noteworthy event of the weekend was a haircut by Dad. As you can see, Jared was not too happy about it, even with the chocolate pie to pacify him. The hair cut turned out well, though, as will hopefully be seen in later posts.

Meanwhile, Curtis was in quite the opposite mood, happy as can be. That and he loves getting his picture taken. (Seriously, he does; wonder how long that will last . . .)


We had a great Thanksgiving weekend and were glad for the friends we got to visit and for the birthday wishes received. Thanks again!

Hayden Falls

Yesterday, November 15, 2009, we finally made it to the elusive Hayden Falls. We have no pictures to prove it, and so I am writing about it instead. So, you ask, what is so special about the falls? And why are they "elusive? The answers to those questions are pretty much the same: it's a beautiful waterfall tucked away in the middle of an otherwise urban area. The access to it is from a tiny, informal parking lot alongside a busy road. After getting out of the car (assuming you actually make it into the parking lot), there's a big set of wooden stairs. The stairs continue on to a wooden walk way that eventually leads to the falls (it's not that far, just seems that way the first time). I think we were the only people there without a camera of some sort. Oh well. Now that we know where it is, maybe we'll go there for a photo shoot sometime. In the meantime, the outing was an accomplishment because we made it there all together, Mom, Dad, and all three muffins.

(Here's a link to my friend Diane's blog about her falls trip; she gave us the idea: link)

The 11 Days of Halloween

Prologue
Halloween is traditionally celebrated on October 31. But there are exceptions . . .

The first day of Halloween, October 23
Night of our church's Halloween party and chili cook-off. Special features of this year's party included the talent/freak show, and an actual trunk-or-treat in the actual outdoors with actual trunks; there's always been one advertised as long as we've been here, but it's always been moved indoors. Amanda designed her own princess costume with her favorite pieces of dress-up clothes, Jared wore a dragon suit, and Curtis wore a Batman costume (which meant that all Mom had to do was carry him, no costume required, since we all know who Batman's sidekick is). Dad didn't dress up, but he did make some chili for the cook-off.

The second through fifth days of Halloween
A time for rationing the candy collected at the trunk-or-treat in order to manage the sugar levels of our candy-loving kids.

The sixth day of Halloween, October 28
Amanda's Halloween party at preschool. Again, she dressed as a princess, but in a different dress. She had fun, of course.

The seventh day of Halloween, October 29
Mom took the youngin's to the post office with her and found that the post office was giving out goodie bags, which included crayons, coloring books, and other fun stuff. It happened to be our first trip to the post office here, so Mom wondered whether the kids would assume that's what always happened at the post office.

That evening was the big night, trick or treat time. (Pause here while readers check date; yes, I do mean that this happened on the 29th, NOT the 31st.) Amanda (princess, of course) and Dad made the rounds towards the end of the city-appointed trick-or-treat time, securing large amounts of candy in the process. Meanwhile, Mom and the boys monitored the candy distribution at home.

The eighth day of Halloween, October 30
A local shopping center hosted a trick-or-treat for a nearby elementary school (and anyone else who showed up, like us). Amanda finally wore her Official princess costume, and Jared and Curtis resumed their rolls as dragon and Batman, accompanied by Mr. B as Buzz Lightyear. Again, quite a haul; ended up with more candy than we bought to give out in the first place, or so it seemed.

The ninth and tenth days of Halloween
Which days included October 31. Mom and the kids went on a random adventure, and Amanda got a lollipop from the bank, but that's as close as we got to trick-or-treating. The local football gods have a decree that Halloween shall not interfere with football, hence the displaced Official trick-or-treating recounted earlier. Oh well. At least we had plenty of candy to eat that weekend.

The eleventh day of Halloween, November 2
Dad and the kids carved a pumpkin for our Family Home Evening activity, and afterward Dad roasted the seeds. I'd say we definitely had the freshest post-Halloween jack-o-lantern on the block. So, there you have it, the eleven days of Halloween 2009.

Our trip through New Hampshire . . .

. . . New Hampshire, Ohio, that is. That being said, I shall continue with our tale.

Once upon a time, there was a little family, just starting out. Like most families, this family used a bank to process their money. The new little family loved their Bank very much and were very happy that when they moved, there was still a branch of their Bank close by. And then one day something strange happened. The little family (which was a little bigger then) moved far, far away to a place without a branch of their beloved Bank. The little family was heartbroken, until they realized they could set up direct deposit for many things and thereby still stay with their beloved Bank.

This continued for the next few years, until one day the Mom of the family (which family was a little bigger still) decided that she really, Really, REALLY wanted to go to their Bank. Dad was busy that fateful Saturday, but Mom loaded up the kids anyway and off they went in search of the Bank. Thanks to a little help from the internet, Mom knew where to find the Bank, and so after a couple of hours Mom and the kids arrived at the Bank. Mom did her banking, and then they got some gas and headed back home. And they stopped at a traffic light in New Hampshire on their way. And the nice person at the bank gave Amanda a lollipop, which was especially good because it was Halloween in the rest of the world but not in the little family's town. And the kids were really good on the trip. And they all lived happily ever after and returned to online banking.

Potomac Mills Mall (Lego Store) and West Virginia

After our trip into DC on 10 Oct 2009, we stopped by the Potomac Mills Mall. We'd heard tales of the Lego Store there and decided to investigate. The Muffins approved of the place, to say the least.





The other place we looked around (besides the Disney Store, where we didn't take any pictures) was Claire's, where Amanda experimented with a new look:


The next day after church we headed straight for home, which enabled us to take a slightly different route. For the most part, it was nice, since there was plenty of pretty countryside. However, West Virginia did get a little old as we passed through a tiny town holding its annual apple butter festival; took about half an hour (or more) to get through a little town with one traffic light, crawling along at a speed that barely registered on the speedometer. It did allow Mom to finally try taking some less-blurry fall color pictures, though.



Suffice it to say, though, we were happy when we got back to the interstate. For my Western friends, here's what mountains look like on this side of the country.



Also for my Western friends, we do have sunsets out here, too; it's just a little harder to see them with all the trees in the way.


The funnest part of the trip home was listening to Jared chime in when Amanda started singing John Denver's West Virginia song.

D.C. Adventure October 2009

Ah, the perils of perfectionism; here we have a post being published about a year after the fact, despite the blog having been alive and kicking at the time the events occurred. The plan was to create a perfect post about our trip to the Natural History Museum . . . all I can say is that I'm glad I got a few photos uploaded before the rest of them got lost with the old laptop. We went to the museum with family, and most of the pictures are fairly self-explanatory. The top, one though, deserves a caption. As one of the Muffins put it, "Look, there's a dinosaur deer!"