Santa Clause is Coming to Town

Actually Santa Clause lives in Roanoke and I am making him a new upper denture. It's true. Mrs. Claus is also a patient but she just needed some fillings. No dentures for her.

Anyways, the reason for me bringing this up is because I was talking to ultra organized super planner Laurie today and whe brought up the subject of the good ol' gift swap. It just so happend that Alex and I had been discussing this very matter earlier in the day. So... what shall we do this year. The options as I see it are as follows:

1) continue with tradition and throw all siblings and siblings childrens names in a hat and divy up names so that each individual gets and gives a gift.

2) slightly modifiy tradition (evolve) and place each families name including little Grant in a hat and swap such that each family and little Grant gives and receives a gift.

3) do not place names of any one in any hat and forego the gift swap altogether.

I think that Alex and I would lean more towards idea #2; however, we are open to all suggestions and input. If any of you creative siblings have an idea to add to the list we are all cochleas.

as ivy says,
love you nuts

the frog suit returns

Two Lovely Ladies

Ada was spoiled last week. It was so much fun having Grandma here to play with! We are all missing her sorely.

another blog....

new blog alert! we figured it was time to have a blog now that our little friend will be here soon. follow the R6 link on the side.

Labor Day Weekend

I know these pictures are a little late in coming, but boy were they worth they wait. We had such a fun time in Roanoke for Labor Day weekend! Here are pics of the cutest chuks in ol' virginie.Ivy created a pretty cool Mrs/Mr Potato Head

Jackson chilling during a kickball game. Peter's office-team dominated.

Cute little May. It was fun to hear Ivy and Rex try to get her to smile. They would both say "Hi May!" in the highest voice they could manage.

The impressive dance stylings of Ivy, Katie, and Rex, post taco dinner. You can still see some of the taco remnants on Rex's face. He loved himself some tacos. All throughout dinner he kept telling each person at the table that "I 'ever had tacos before!"

Thanks to the Roanoke folk for a great weekend!

Music Night!

Cousin Time!

Chrissy went and saw Jon at the office yesterday while I was on kid duty. We did all kinds of fun stuff: had snacks, jumped on the bean bag, ate popsicles, colored hand picked pictures from the internet, colored our names from stencils, read books, built a fort, played with trains and so on. Okay, so I didn't do quite all of that, but most of it. Here are some fun pictures for you to enjoy. A close up of the kids inside their fort.
A better picture of the fort. Ivy was very creative in getting it to work.
The babes.
The damage. (See our blog)

Montréal est MERVEILLEUSE!

Simple Summer Stew

Last night we had a "Simple Summer Stew" for dinner from "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone." It was quite delicious-and filling. I had my doubts as to whether a meal consistly only of vegetables would be enough and it was (served with bread). What was in it? Squash, green beans, tomato, bell pepper, and corn. And the reason for posting? I quote Jon, "This is a meal my mom would go bananas over. And actually, Katie would love it too." And I bet that you would like it too Laurie. And Peter and Chrissy, you have all the ingredients in your backyard! Except for the corn. I don't know if anyone besides Mom owns the cookbook (and we only have it checked out from the library) so let me know if you want me to type it up for you. We have leftovers, anyone want some? Come and get it!

And the bar is upon us! Glen and his beard have been working hard to prepare for the big test this week. We're taking votes for how he should shave his beard off. Checkerboard pattern? Mutton Chops? Moustachio only?









I've had a few friends to keep me company while glen is so busy:

Both are a little green and round, but very very cute.

Offered...and Accepted (finally)!

This is our beaut of a house. There is lots of room for visitors. Come soon! Well, at least after we buy the place and move in, hopefully in the next month or so.

Check Me Out Sassy G

Am I the only one who thinks that Grant makes faces like this? Especially for pictures?

Hello everyone

First of all, I don't remember who the moderator for this blog is. Was it Katie? Whoever it is, Laurie has a new gmail account that she can use to post as herself rather than both of us sharing an account. This way you'll know right away who posted what. Her gmail screen name is just her first name middle initial and last name all as one word (I don't want to post it to prevent spam bots from harvesting it off this blog). Please invite her. Thanks!

The latest word is that our buyers got approval from the VA and now we're just waiting for the HUD forms to be finished. We should have a date here really soon...

Just in case you didn't notice . . .

David set up a link to our new family blog in his last post here. You can see a picture of our new house there. We move out this Saturday and move in sometime next week, probably. Our house looks like a war zone but Carol is happy as a clam. So many kind people have offered their help. We just ask them to play with Carol and keep her happy while we work. It is difficult to have people help you pack. How do you let them know what sorts of things ought to go together so you can find them again- but without getting on their nerves? Anyway, we're almost finished and Carol has had more playdates this week than in the last couple of months put together! Love you guys!

Laurie

Philly Pics

We sure do enjoy our traditional Memorial Day trips to Philadelphia. The dual wedding attempt on Saturday was crazy. We were at both ceremonies but no meals that we RSVP'ed for (I'm hoping that we didn't create bitter feelings with one of the brides) or wedding cake. The highlight of the weekend, even above running on Forbidden Drive and eating Rita's, was spending time with Katie and Glen.

Jonathan and Jackson on the recently re-Astroturfed patio

YUM! Shish kabobs for dinner on the patio. So good. Katie and Glen sure know how to treat guests, as do Laurie and Dave. They pull out all the good stuff.

The Big Sitter (aka Jackson) with his aunt and uncle, just waiting for a cousin to play with.

Next time.

We're moving

See details...

Swedish meatballs

There are some things that just don't seem to go together very well, and yet some people like the combination, anyway. Take Swedish meatballs, for example. This is the classic dish to be made fun of in our household. Laurie likes it, but I just can't get over the thought of mixing ketchup, orange juice, and molasses in a meal. That's just wrong. So there you have it--things that shouldn't go together that someone put together, anyway, and someone else agrees that it isn't so bad together. But this mixing conundrum isn't confined to just food. Oh, no--you can mix all kinds of things that don't belong together. Like, say for example... oh, a cello quartet, and a heavy metal concert. Enter the Finnish bad, "Apocalyptica." This time Laurie thinks that the combination is absurd and that I shouldn't even let Mom know about it because she'd probably puke. I'm the one who likes it. Well, sorta'--I like the original songs and I think it's fun to hear them in cello, but watching the visuals is a bit too much to handle; it just reminds me of ketchup and orange juice. Still, I'd like to share, if for no other reason, I find the juxtaposition amusing. I think I'll make 2 posts, though: one for Mom and one for everyone else. The first one is for Mom. It illustrates the odd combination, but it's not anything as dramatic as post number two...




OK, did you like that one? Now try this one. If you're pressed for time, start 1/2 way through...



Laurie's theory (and I think she might be on to something here) is that these poor chaps were constantly picked on as kids because they played the cello. They continued playing because they were good at it and they enjoyed it, but one can only take so much abuse. They decided to try and prove that they could be as cool with a cello as all the guitar-playing bullies. And what better way to do this than to play their own music and beat them at their own game? ... the rest is history.

Rodrigo y Gabriela

We love those pictures below. Especially the first one of Ivy and May. Ivy looks so happy with her new treasure.

Recently Katie and I have been enjoying a guitar group that I think a few of you might appreciate. Rodrigo y Gabriela were originally members of a thrash metal band in Mexico City. They switched to acoustic guitar and moved to Ireland where their albums have gone #1. They are slowly gaining steam in the states. Hope you like them.

Here She Is!

Ivy holding May for the first time
All the ladies (man, does Chrissy know how to have babies or what? I think that she looks fantastic for having a baby less than 12 hours before this picture was taken)
Peter trying to entertain Rex in a small hospital room.
Ivy's last hold before we left.
Beautiful Baby May.

(Sorry if I pre-empted you on posting Peter and Chrissy)

Pajama Party

The Roanoke cousins had a pajama party last week while Peter and Chrissy went to the hospital early in the morning to have the baby flipped out of a double breech position. The baby had already flipped herself into position and so they didn't stay long. But I sure enjoyed getting morning cuddles from this trio. Jon treated us to pancakes before he left for work.

So I realize that with three (soon to be four) kids in a picture, someone is always going to look bad. This is Jackson's turn for not looking his cutest. Next time, one of Peter and Chrissy's offspring! Speaking of Peter and Chrissy's offspring, I got this cute picture when they came over this afternoon.

Oh, and the ice cream recipe that we used was from the ATK Family Cookbook. I can email the recipe to you Laurie (or Dave) if you don't have that book yet.

A tribute to Nestor

In order to really appreciate my post, you'll need to enlarge my picture by clicking on it.


If you don't get it, let me explain. If you do get it, there's no need to read on...
Shortly after we moved in, we used to park a mere 30 feet (give or take) from our door. It was very convenient. Then our beloved traffic engineer, Nestor Gallo, thought it would be a good idea to put no parking signs up so that we couldn't do it any more. There are so many reasons why this shouldn't have happened and don't get me started--I could go on for pages. Suffice it to say, that I wasn't happy. I called. I emailed. I got a petition and went to the city board to get rid of the signs, or at least to change it to something like "2 hr parking only" or something like that. I've been totally ignored ("for the people, of the people and by the people"? Bah!) and so naturally I'm all the more annoyed, esp. when I get home late and all the good parking spots are gone and I find myself parking a few buildings away.

Vanilla Beans

So the vanilla beans that Mom and Dad sent us have also been sitting dormant for many moons. Jon used the first one last week and made some super delicious homemade ice cream. Definitely worth repeating with the remaining vanilla beans but I think that there is another recipe that I wanted to try with a vanilla bean. We will keep you posted on our delicious conquest of using whole vanilla beans.

And I have to attach this picture of Grant and Jackson because it's just awesome.

Vanilla Pear

Laurie and I managed to procure some ultra-high quality vanilla beans from Mom and Dad a while back. We have been trying to decide what the perfect application of said beans would be. Today we finally used one of them for a scrumptious vanilla pear dish inspired by Alton Brown. I say "inspired by" because his recipe calls for 750 ml of white wine and I guess we were just fresh out of it . His recipe can be found at the link below. I thought perhaps white grape juice would do and then I noticed that there was a similar recipe that called for almost exactly that (see the other link, below) so we used 4 1/4 cups of grape juice instead of the wine/water combination Alton uses. It was fabulous! Mint leaves or something like that for garnish would have been nice to make the presentation a little prettier, but the flavor didn't need any enhancements. At first you just tasted the sweetness from the grape juice/sugar syrup, but as it warmed up in your mouth (it is a refrigerated dessert) the other flavors jumped to the foreground: pear, grape, and a very subtle, yet delicious vanilla. The amount of vanilla was perfect--you knew it was there, but it didn't overwhelm the other flavors. Yum. If you can get a hold of some vanilla pods, I'd suggest this as a use for them. I think I would suggest not stopping at 4 pears, though, as the recipe calls for. You could easily double or triple that number with the same amount of syrup and feed a bunch of guests and let me tell you there will be some wow factor there! Next time I might try adding a 1/2 a peach (an idea from the similar recipe) and/or some vanilla ice cream along with some mint (I think that's what Alton used in his final shot) or other green to try and enhance the presentation--a lone pear doesn't look all that great by itself. Speaking of presentation, please admire my Photoshop enhancements of this picture. I've been reading a book about Photoshop and honing my skills. This was a fun little project that I was able to do with my new skills. I ought to show you the original, but then I'd have to point out everything I did, and that'd be a lot of typing and I don't think most of you readers would want to go through it all. Let's just say, other than the obvious black and white back ground vs. color foreground, I also enhanced the colors in the foreground and digitally polished a smear off the glass from when the pear first went in. OK, thanks for taking a second look :)

Alton's recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_32758,00.html
Similar recipe
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_18275,00.html

Genghis Honkytonk Rottweiler Fewkes

15 weeks. I guess it looks like every other ultrasound pic of a baby this age ... but much cuter.

We find out the sex on May 9.

new pictures

www.carolandsuch.shutterfly.com