The Big Snow!

Scott and kids in the front yard.



Flag from our front porch.



Isaac in his sled.



Dylan in the backyard.



Scott with his sled.



After eating snow.



Another view of the front yard.



Dylan. About to cause trouble.



Front yard again.



Just plain fun!



The trees bordering the backyard.



Dylan making snow angels.



The finished product.



Katherine at the trampoline. She couldn't resist jumping on it!



The side of our front yard.



The opposite of "the hot seat".

The Things They Say

I just walked in from picking up Isaac from preschool. I've been gone all morning, so I sat down to check the headlines. (I know, it's sad that Yahoo is my primary source of news.)

Isaac, sitting in my lap and looking at the keyboard, asked, "What's this big button?'

"That's the space bar."

"If I push it, will it shoot me out into space?"



I'm really gonna miss these preschool years!

Roll Tide!!!

Alabama 32 Florida 13

Was that some game or what? We watched it at Brian and Stacye's house. It's funny how we moved to New Jersey and met some great friends who love the Crimson Tide as much as we do!

I felt kind of sorry to see Tebow crying. Of course, he made me cry last year, so I guess we're even.

Roll Tide!!!

You Better Watch Out

It's that time of year again. Santa spotting with Isaac. He can spot a man a mile away that has any one characteristic of good ole St. Nick, and he's yelling (which is Isaac's normal speaking voice), "There's Santa Claus!

Man with white hair? There's Santa Claus!
Man with big belly? There's Santa Claus!
Man with beard? There's Santa Claus!
Man wearing red? There's Santa Claus!

Unfortunately, it's not generally considered flattering to be compared to Santa, so the men are usually glaring at us or hiding in embarrassment.

Our worst "Santa Spotting" moment happened last year in the produce section of the grocery store. We encountered an Orthodox Jewish man who, unfortunately for all involved, had several of the above characteristics - white hair (with ringlets by his face), big belly, plus he had a beard. All but the red suit and reindeer.

When Isaac started yelling, "There's Santa!", I couldn't get away fast enough. The man was not amused, and, to make matters worse, Isaac started screaming and crying and causing a huge scene. He was convinced more than ever that he had found Santa, right there by the apples and bananas in Shop Rite, and I was denying him the chance of a lifetime. This is even more ironic, considering when we saw the actual Santa at Macy's in New York City, Isaac couldn't get away fast enough. Go figure.

A Nerve Wracking Iron Bowl 2009

"Roll Tide" (from most of us)!!!



And... "War Eagle" from Dylan and her sidekick, Gracie.
Okay, there, I did it. (Dylan insisted that she be represented.)

Some Fall Pictures

In late October, we went walking on a sunny, crisp Sunday afternoon. It was a perfect fall day.




This field is about 100 yards from our house. It's a great place for the kids to just run free.

She Did It!

She's trying to smile, but she's too nervous.



Trying to be brave.



Trying even harder not to cry. (She didn't!)



It's over...such relief.



She chose her birthstone, yellow topaz.

Happy Birthday Katherine!

We began celebrating Kat's birthday on Friday. Yeah, Friday the 13th. I tried not to worry too much. I'm not all that superstitious anyway. I mean, with all the salt I threw over my shoulder throughout the day, I figured we were pretty well covered.

I guess the salt thing worked. That small fire was contained in a matter of seconds, and it only took a few minutes for the smoke to clear. No injures and no firetrucks lining our street. Just Dylan stuck holding the charred remains of her paper plate. Yes, that's our Dylan.

Katherine has been looking forward to her "double digits" birthday for months. She's been planning (think Franck Eggelhoffer from Father of the Bride) all the details of exactly how she wanted everything, walking around making lists. And everything turned out great! She had a lot of fun with her two best friends, Chloe and Sydney, who slept over and then joined her for mani-pedi's the next morning.

Later today, if she's brave enough to go through with it, she's going to get her ears pierced. I'll post details of this later. Sure to be dramatic and exciting!

Happy Birthday, Sweet Girl!!!

Fall Break in New York City

We decided to spend a few days in the city for the kids' Fall Break. Here, the kids are on the Red Steps at Times Square just a few steps away from our hotel.



We ate at Hard Rock Cafe under Jimmy Hendrix's purple velvet suit. (The kids had no idea who he was.)



But Katherine, our new saxophone player, was impressed with Bill Clinton's sax on the wall next to us.



We also went to Ripley's Believe It Or Not. From the time we entered, Isaac was convinced it was a haunted house, as you can tell by the look of terror on his face. This is how he looked the entire time we were there.




At least Scott enjoyed his time there.




I've no clue what this is. But it's kinda funny.



On our last day, we ventured out of Manhattan and went to the Bronx Zoo. Isaac loved the Bug Carousel. Of course, he had to find a green bug - his favorite color.



Here, Dylan is returning from feeding the peacock. She was determined to touch the thing and after a few minutes had it eating out of her hand (literally).



As I recall, this was after leaving the Bird House. Go figure.



This picture is so funny. Isaac was wiggling around on the train ride home and the conductor came by and played along with us pretending that he was in trouble. As you can tell, he bought it...hook, line, and sinker.



His pitiful look made the guy feel so bad that he even let Isaac wear his hat. I've never seen a little boy look so relieved as Isaac did when he found out he wasn't really in trouble!

Happy Halloween Part 2

We spent the earlier part of Halloween at the church's trunk-or-treat. As a family of aliens, we landed our spacecraft on a very windy day and it almost blew away without us!



Later on, for more trick-or-treating, we had Supergirl...



Batman...



and...Alien Tween Queen.



Ready for candy...



and we got plenty.



But Batman was more interested in the Burger King cheeseburger offered by Alien Mom.



Supergirl and her sidekick, Wonderdog, aka Amy, outlasted the rest of us. (Scott practically crawled back home.)



It was a long, fun day. Now, what to do with all that chocolate? I think we can figure something out.