Papa's Birthday

We enjoyed dinner with both Adam's Mom & Babo tonight for his birthday. The kids had a hand in making it a special evening too. What a great day to celebrate our best Papa!



Who will be the first to blow out the candle?

You've Come A Long Way, Berry.

When our little girl was born with a head of strawberry blonde hair, it was too much for me to resist photographing our redhead with a little 'berry' inspiration. Now, a year later and she's still our beautiful little berry... you've come a long way, Berry!

Birthday Portraits

Here are a couple of studio shots of our little berry as she turns the big number one!





And not to be out done... one good cupcake deserves another for the berry's big sister!

Happy Birthday Sabrina!

Sabrina turned 1 year old earlier this month. It appears in the image below that she's trying to blow out the candle, but I think eventually her big brother had to help her out.

Louisville Science Center

Went to the Louisville Science Center today with Todd and Heather.
Clara would've stayed at this exhibit all day if we would have let her.

Good times.

Flower children

I don't know exactly how this happened, but I believe Clara helped her sister put the head band on. - Adam

Sabrina and Babo

Couldn't pass this one up. This photo was taken earlier in February when we had an impromptu visit over to Babo's for dessert one evening.

Time Lapse of Snowman and Fort

Yesterday Adam and the kids went out to play in the snow. Here is a time-lapsed video of their attempt at building a snowman and a snowfort. Be sure to watch for Sabrina and Annette in the window watching everyone play in the snow. Also, you can see the shadow of the tripod/camera move along the bottom of the window. The shutter speed was one image every 2 seconds. At the end, Adam gets a phone call from his brother that causes him to sit down.

Happy Birthday to Clara!

Clara turned 3 last week at a birthday of games and balloons. Here she is just moments before blowing out her candles.

Human Genome Project

Two young scientists working on an organic model of the human genome project. Marshmallows should never be used as construction equipment for something this serious. One slip of the 'mallow and you have the genome of a fruit fly instead.

NWTF Calling Contest

Today, Christopher and I (Adam) went to the Hunting and Boat Show
downtown for the turkey calling contest. We had a great time - it was
fun to hear him gobble back to some of the first competitors. Here
he is pictured next to his favorite part - the turkey. We also got to
see a hunting dog demo.

Hair Tut

Clara has taken it upon herself to cut her own hair. It was inevitable. Her hair was admittedly long and she did receive a pair of scissors for Christmas so you could easily see where this was going. But - it wasn't until push came to snip and then...

As Annette tells the story, she said Clara came out after an extended period of working on her crafts at the table and said, "Mama - We need to trim my hair..."

That's when the gig was up.

Today she had her hair trimmed so that it wouldn't be too noticeable. If you know what to look for, though, you'll see a shorter layer on her right side. Why her right side you might ask? Because that's the side you cut when you're holding the scissors with your left hand. Duh.

Visit to the North

So Adam and the kids weren't the only ones to get out and do something memorable this weekend. Sabrina and I headed to Minnesota for a visit with Nonna and, as luck would have it, a whole bunch of aunts, uncles, cousins and second cousins too! Nonna was busy in the kitchen (as usual). This time she was frying up her famous 'rice balls'. We had a great time at the graduation party... Congratulations Tina. Nonna was even kind enough to sit for me to capture a portrait or two. I think, "I've never had so many pictures taken in my life!" were her words. I was so excited to be able to capture some images of my dad and his mom -- and have so many of his siblings willing to have their pictures snapped as well. Thanks everyone for a great weekend!

Sledding in Louisville

This is the video I was looking for. Yesterday Christopher, Clara and I went sledding at Cherokee Park in Louisville with Todd, Heather and Dave. Todd and I rode one of the sleds. At the top of the hill, Todd says, "The safety word is banana." Then at the bottom of the hill, you can almost hear Todd screaming "Banana!"

Good times...

Sledding in Louisville

Christopher, Clara and I (Adam) went sledding at Cherokee Park in Louisville. We got down there around 4 o'clock and didn't pull off until close to 6 p.m. I'm looking forward to hearing the kids' stories after they wake up in the morning. Clara was so tired she went straight to sleep without her nuk and blanket. How 'bout dem apples?

Christmas in Union

We had a nice time hanging at Hoebenland on Christmas Day. Annette was particularly pleased with her new Mix-n-Chop (Is that the correct name?). Gina won the "Christmas surprise" award for the year by convincing me (Adam) that I was getting a new shirt ... instead, she got me a Nat'l Wild Turkey Federation Calendar! Sweet.

Christmas in Flo-town

We gathered at Howardland on Christmas Eve after 5 p.m. mass for dinner and the gift exchange. Of the hundreds of images captured, here are a few to share with you.

Caroling Party

On the Sunday before Christmas, the Howards of CV sponsor the annual Christmas Caroling party. This year we enjoyed cups of good cheer and decent weather as we went caroling around the neighborhood. A good time was had by all.

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.