Decorating the tree

We're late to church right now - but here's a few photos from last night's gathering of Howards for the Christmas Tree Decorating tradition.

Getting the Christmas Tree

On the Sunday after Thanksgiving, we went out to get our Christmas Tree. We went to Home Depot (which made Adam terribly excited since he'd rather shop at a local Christmas Tree retailer) and picked up a tree. Then, we drove over to Meijer for some Christmas time necessities like candy canes and hot cocoa (or hot chocolate but that's for another blog). An hour or so later, we drove home straight into the garage. Seriously folks ... the tree was still on top of the van when we pulled into the garage. We narrowly avoided a disaster.




Adam contemplating, "How did it come to this?"


Decorating the tree with Mama.

Breakfast with Santa

Our annual Breakfast with Santa took place at St. Tim’s last Saturday. There were lots of kids, lots of food, lots of crafts and other then the people standing in the long line to see The Big Guy, everyone was having a good time.

It’s always curious to hear what your children are going to say. When we finally got up to see him, Clara wanted a baby and Christopher a “nerve blaster.” We think he meant a Nerf Blaster. We thought this visit might end without consequence but you never know with our kids. When Santa started to wrap up the conversation, he asked the kids to leave some carrots out for the reindeer. Clara emphatically replied, “We’re going to shoot the reindeer and then they’re gonna be dead! My Papa …”

We’re not sure how Santa responded because we abruptly ushered the children off of his lap to the elf waiting nearby – with a somewhat alarmed look on her face.

(Just for the record Papa didn’t get any turkeys this morning.)

Cereal early in the morning

Friday morning I (Adam) was trying to get out of the house early to
attend a meeting at the office. I have to be quiet since usually the
kids don't get up till 7 am. It was at 6:20 am when I was in the
kitchen and visited by two spirits. And that's when the fleecing began.

The boy said, "Papa, can I have some cereal?" I replied it was time
for him to go back to his bed which resulted in his inability to
control his bodily motions and threw him into convulsions. Then, his
sister appeared. And she wanted something to eat too! I was getting
close to being late so I capitulated. I said, "How about some O's?"
since that was the easiest thing to get out for them. Of course, the
boy refused and said he wanted Rice Chex. Now we're dickering over
what kind of cereal when he really isn't even supposed to be out of
his bed in the first place! Amazing. So, knowing that i would be late
and that he didn't eat much for dinner last night, I gave in and
offered him some rice chex. But only on the condition that he go back
to bed. I was hopeful if I gave them both some cereal they'd comply
and I could still depart the house on time. A deal was struck and I
gave him some chex and her some O's.

I took this photo so you'd know what they look like in case these two
shysters come to your house.

It's important to note the way Clara is holding her cup of O's. What
do you think happened immediately after the picture was taken?
Needless to say, picking up all the spilled O's made me even later
after she scratched her nose.

Story from yesterday

It all started with a schedule packed just a little too tightly on a Saturday. When the kettle of chili needed some good simmer time, but only 20 minutes remained before Saturday evening mass, mama turned the burner up to medium high with the intention of turning it off on the way out the door (you can see where I'm going with this). On the way home from church, mama remembered she forgot to turn off the burner and we made our way home wondering just exactly what we'd find. The house was still standing, but the chili was inedible. So, Culvers it is. That's when the fun began. It is important to note, our eldest child did not feel he needed a nap that particular afternoon and had not slept. Culvers was so packed we had to wait for a table. We finally got all our stuff, all our kids and all our food in a reasonably sized booth. Behind us sat another young family with a small baby. Christopher began playing peekaboo with the kiddo in the next booth. Amidst all the distractions, the kids were not eating very well. We began cajoling. The boy finally seemed to be eating his cheeseburger (which he ordered despite the fact he didn't really want cheese) when all of a sudden, his little hand, holding a piece of his burger (bun? we're not really sure) was dangling at the top of the booth. Before we knew it, he had tossed the piece of burger over the top and into the booth behind us... right on top of the woman sitting there! We were mortified. The boy's father yanked him out of the booth quicker than he could say 'no ice cream' and carried him to the van. His next destination was an early bedtime.

Next time we're ordering a pizza.

Halloween 2009

The kiddos enjoyed going out for Halloween tonight. There were several ghosts and gobblins around the neighborhood but not many on our street. Christopher and Clara went up to where most of the action was and visited 15 or so homes while Sabrina stayed behind with Granny & Grandpops for a quick nap. This was the first time in a long while when both Adam and Annette got to go trick or treating with the kids. In fact, this may have been Clara's first real experience with it. Christopher was 'Dash' from the Incredibles, Clara was Tigger and Sabrina was the bumblebee which can also be found here and in the last photo below.





(Photo below is from October 2007 featuring Clara in the Bumblebee Costume.)

Caption contest

(Photo below was taken on October 4 during a very random event in the basement.)

It's been a while since we've done this ... What captions come to mind for the photograph below?

"Dad, why do you have that stupid camera out again?"
"Wonder how I'm ever going to get up there?"
"I know this walker chair has reverse on it somewhere..."

Pump-in Carving 2009

We're calling this "pump-in" carving because up until recently, that's how Clara pronounced the word "pumpkin." We're kind of sad to see her with the correct pronunciation but we know she'll score better on her LSAT if she learns this lesson now.

Anyway, this past Sunday night we partook in the annual Pumpkin Carving ritual over at Howardland. A good time was had by all especially with LaRosa's pizza, Bengals on the TV (trouncing the BEARS!), and most importantly... no severed fingers this year. Come on people ... it's Halloween afterall.

Here are a few photos from the day.




Clara really enjoyed scooping out the seeds!

Update on picture day clothing

Clara has changed get clothes willingly. Still working on Christopher.

Sent from my iPhone

Picture Day!

We are having some friends over today to do a photo swap. We're going
to take their photo and they'll be taking ours. To prep for this,
Clara and Christopher picked out their own outfits. I don't know if
Christopher chose to wear this tie on his own or not. The bad news is
neither of the kiddos are supposed to be wearing what they have on in
the photo below. We'll post the result of the shoot on our blog
later. Look for it in November.

Clara and her books

Clara decided to go through all of her books last week. She sat in her
big red chair right in front of the book shelf and after looking thru
a book she tossed it back.

First Campout

Adam and Christopher spent the night at Lake Kincaid State Park last weekend. Among the highlights were S'mores and Hot Chocolate. Christopher had a pretty good night of sleep except, "The trains and the owls [which were actually crows] kept waking me up."

Takes One to Know One

(Annette here) Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I am so proud! While hanging out in the livestock tent at Pendleton County Woolfest this past weekend, we discovered proof that Adam's practice with his turkey call and instructional CDs is paying off... Maybe he'll bring home the big Tom this fall. Turkey season opens on Oct. 24 for those of you playing along.

Apple Festival

Went to the Apple Festival on Saturday in Batesville. No photos here
of apples but rather the kids playing at the park where the festival
took place. We ate pulled pork from a Catholic Womens organization
and apple cobbler from Boy Scout Troop 634. Seriously. Haven't had
cobbler this good since Ted Kleier was making it back in my scouting
days.

Christopher is usually the reluctant one at playgrounds. Generally
he's worried about falling but yesterday he took the bull by the horns
and charged across this chain obstacle thing. We were very proud.

Happy Birthday

I snapped this photo of Annette shortly before the two bigger kids blew
out the candle. It was cute to watch her compete with them. We just
finished the cake tonight - 2 days later.

First Day of School

I'm sure many of you have been waiting for this... here are a few photos from Christopher's first day of school. Pre-school that is. He was brave and seemed to enjoy the classroom. He's not sure why he's still going the next week, but we're gettin' into the groove.

Real Deal

One of us was more excited than the other to be in this photo ... I'll give you two guesses as to who that was (but you'll only need one ...)



On Saturday, Sept 19, the 501st made a guest appearance for a Star Wars event at our local library. Christopher, Clara and the gang grabbed their lightsabers and went for the fun. We missed the lightsaber duel at the beginning, but the storm troopers made it an awesome experience. Seriously - these guys are cool.

Night time reading

Wanted to share with you an image of a normal evening around the house. Recently Christopher has taken an interest in chapter books ... that is, books without photos. Here he and Clara are listening to one of his favorites: "The Magic Tree House Books." Clara waits patiently (most of the time) for her turn.

More from Oktoberfest

As promised, below are two photos from the weekend. Clara on her
second ride which she thoroughly enjoyed and Sabrina asleep on my
shoulder. This is the only time I can remember when she has done this
so I asked Annette to snap a picture.

St. Tim's Oktoberfest

(Adam here...) Took this quick photo on Saturday night at St. Tim's
Oktoberfest. This was the only ride where both of the older kids rode
together. I'm not sure what either of them were thinking when this
was snapped, but I'm pretty sure Clara was excited and Christopher was
only along for the ride because of his sister. There are two other
photos to share - one of Sabrina asleep on my shoulder and another of
Clara on another ride by herself. Christopher did go into some kind
of preschool-er maze thing but didn't make it all the way through and
abandoned ship.

Then and Now

Now ...



and Then.

(Some things just don't change much...)

Two photos

Annette and Sabrina were learning comminication together sometime last week. Sabrina does this silly thing with her mouth and Annette tried
to mimic it. Nothing profound, just good old plain fun.

(By the way, is mimic spelled correctly?)

Morning at the Howards

From last Saturday morning...

Sabrina doing her morning exercises...


Christopher doing what he enjoys - blowing bubbles with his straw...


And Clara reaching for the bran.

Geocaching #2

Here is kiddo #3 as promised.

Geocaching

Here is a photo of the older two kids rifling thru some geocache loot.
We went to a local park and searched for this treasure. Look for a
photo of kiddo #3 in a future post.

Pillow Fort

The kids built a pillow fort yesterday. They go aroud the entire house
and gather all the pillows they can find then pile them onto the
couch. At some point they climb underneath the pillows to enter their
fort. Good times.

Glamour

Photography is not a glamorous job, as evidenced by Annette here.

Annette and Jeff

Brother and sister in the backyard of Hoebenland from Saturday night.

Kids in Backyard

In case you haven't seen Sabrina in a while, here's what she looked like on August 12th in the backyard. She's hanging out with Mama in the hammock. Christopher and Clara are playing in the new sprinkler gizmo they just got. The summer has been too mild to play outside in the sprinkler, but it's gotten warmer recently.





In this photo, Christopher is carrying the old sprinkler while running away from the new one.

Funny photo

(Adam here...) Back in late July, Annette had the studio lights setup for a photoshoot she did with the Brown family. While everything was still setup, I decided to have a little bit of fun. This is what we came up with. I like the fact that even though everyone's doing their own thing, we're all still together. What do you like about it?

Expressions

(Adam here...) Do you know what expression from a little voice in the bathroom gets a mother moving quicker than any other?

"I have poop on mine hand, Mama."
-Clara

Summer Birthday Water Fun

Summer birthdays are so much fun. You get to combine all the things that make summer time special - ice cream, slip 'n slides, etc. - with the special celebration of a birthday. Today it was not one, but TWO birthday celebrations for nephews, Zachary & Eli. The cousins played it up big and had a ball - even the youngest ones! As uncle Adam sat on the couch holding the camera, Eli approached and said, "Cheese," Not so much as a statement, but as a request. Take my picture please! Makes for a cute photo, don't you think?