Happy Birthday Ben!

Happy
Fourth
Birthday
Benjamin!!!!

It's hard to believe that four years have passed already.

Parents' Visit

The week after Christmas, my parents came for a visit. They had spent Christmas with my sister and her family in Texas, then came to spend New Year's with us. They flew in just hours before it was supposed to start snowing good.

We had a great time. The kids really enjoyed getting to spend time with their grandparents. We had a second Christmas, which the kids of course loved. There was of course, the obligatory eating out :-). There were the snacks and junk food. There was a father-son (meaning my dad and I) electronics shopping trip to Circuit City and Best Buy. We didn't end up buying anything but it was fun to look.

The first Sunday of 2009, we took the opportunity to have a family picture taken, since we were all in our Sunday best.

The picture above has been cropped to remove extra background. Also cropped out was an honorary member of the our clan - Micah. He and our boys are great friends. Can you see the mischievousness on his face?

More December 2008 Snow Pictures

Ben (left) and Will (right) helping me clear the walk.


Will and me.


Ben


Will


Ellie


So much snow (for us).


Ellie inspecting my work.

Sugar Cookies

As the just passed Christmas approached, I decided it would be fun thing to make sugar cookies with the kids. I planned to do it before Christmas but just never got myself together in time. It ended up being started on the day after Christmas. I say started because I did not plan ahead and had not read the recipe prior to beginning after supper. As a result I did not realize that the dough needed to chill for 2-3 hours, putting ready right about bed time for the kids. So we made the dough on Friday and actually made the cookies Saturday afternoon.

The kids' Uncle Stephen and Aunt Jenn had sent them some baking sets and a set of cookie cutters for Christmas, so it worked out well that we did the cookies after Christmas. The kids were very excited to wear their aprons, use their little rolling pins and put cookies on their little baking sheets. Thanks Uncle Stephen and Aunt Jenn!

We used food coloring to dye sugar for the toppings. We had three colors, one for each child. The cookies came out fairly good, given who was in charge. Stephanie had told me that it was all me. But she was kind enough to provide some advice and assistance whenever my desperate cries for help emanated from the kitchen. Thanks honey!

Ben's "gingerbread" man took up the whole sheet

Unfortunately, the pictures of the completed cookies are on the film camera and have not been developed yet. I'll post those when they become available.

World's Cutest Superheros

Merry Christmas, 2008

Merry Christmas!!

May your celebrations be joyful, full of blessings, and honoring to Christ the King, for He is the reason we celebrate.

Isaiah 9:6-7 (NIV)
6 For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

7 Of the increase of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David's throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the LORD Almighty
will accomplish this.

One of the Universe's Little Mysteries Solved

Have you ever stopped to wonder how having a foot of snow impacts the smaller creatures of this world? Have you spent countless hours puzzling over the mystery of how squirrels traverse snow ladened trees, their branches covered in three to four inches of white, icy snow?

No? Well, the later question (nor the former for that matter) had not troubled my mind until this morning. As I was partaking in some sustenance with which to break my fast, out through the kitchen window I observed a squirrel moving along a large branch covered in three to four inches of snow. As I did so, I realized that this question, how a squirrel traverses snow ladened trees, was such an obvious question, it's a wonder that it had not been bothering me for years now. Would they plow through it, like a water buffalo in a rice paddi? Would they climb backward, swinging their tails to brush off the snow? Would they race along the top of the snow, like an elf?

While I did not have the question before hand, I now had the answer to this little mystery of the Universe. Now I can rest easy, burden lifted. That I may help ease the burdens from your minds regarding this mystery, I will share the answer with you.

(Drum roll please)

Instead of trying to deal with the snow, the squirrel simply traveled along the underside of the branch, speeding upside down, unhindered by the snow, to wherever it was going. Little mystery of the Universe solved.

Is your burden eased?

Blog Glob, 12/22/08

• It looks like we will have a white Christmas this year. Over the weekend, we probably got around a foot of snow. On Christmas Eve we are supposed to get some rain/snow mix, but I doubt there will be enough rain to melt all of that snow by Christmas Day. Christmas is supposed to be fairly warm, around 50, with no snow fall predicted. However, I think having the ground covered with it counts as having a white Christmas.
• I'm now sore and tired as a result of the first bullet point. There was a lot of shoveling to be done. I also started construction on our own sledding slope in the backyard, backed up to the climber, but that is still a work in progress as it is taking a lot more snow than I thought it would.
  
• I'm going for my annual eye exam tomorrow. Yippee (said in a monotone, with no enthusiasm).
• I'm on vacation all this week and am only work the first three days of next week. Yeah (said with a lot of enthusiasm and pitch fluctuation)!!
• I bought myself a new computer game to play with the boys, specifically Will. It's called Crazy Machines 2 and does not involve any violence to living creatures, just to some inanimate objects. I decided to do this because Will really likes computer games, but seems to get obsessed with the ones that have fighting in them, like Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle Earth II and Age of Empires III. He seems to like this one (so do I) and has not been talking about shooting guns or arrows as a result. Ben likes it too, which I knew he would, since it's about solving a problem (or puzzle) with various parts to make something do a specific task(s).
• My parents are coming next week for a visit. It will be nice to see them.
• I am in the process of reading "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens to the family (which means Will and Stephanie, with Ben and Ellie occasionally listening in). After that, we are planning on watching a cinematic version of it, the one by the Muppets :-).
• I watched Superman, The Movie, a couple of nights ago. It's still a great movie in my opinion. The next night, I let the kids watch a "making of Superman" with me. That resulted in Ben "flying" off the couches and beds.
• Can you believe that Christmas is only 3 days away? I've still got presents to wrap!
  

The First Snow, 2008

About 6:30 this morning Ben came into our room to inform us that it was snowing. I mumbled a less than sincere thanks. To be fair, we had looked at the forecast yesterday which had forecast snow, so Ben was on the look out for it. Both boys were hoping that there was a parking ban in Providence, which would mean that there was no church, which would mean that they could go out and play. In fact, they wanted to get suited up and go out prior to breakfast, that's how excited they were.

I checked a couple of web sites and even called and left a message for our pastor to check to see if there was a parking ban. So the snow would have to wait until we got home from church. As soon as we got home, the kids headed out to the backyard to play. About the time I decided to go out with the camera, Ellie had decided to come in because her clothes were wet from having jumped in a puddle that had formed in front of the bulk head. Enjoy the pictures below. Some are a little fuzzy or off center because they were taken while I was the target of snowballs from both boys. At one point I was forced to put away the camera and defend myself :-).

Will was not happy to have snow down his coat.










Ben was not happy to have fallen face first in the snow.

I mentioned that Ellie had come in as I went out, right? Well, Stephanie was in our bedroom feeding Sam, so Ellie was unsupervised. Below is the result.

She's sucking on the lid of the toothpaste tube.

Blog Glob, 11/30/2008

• A couple of weeks ago, it was raining when I left work, walking out to get in my truck. Naturally, I had the umbrella up to keep me as dry as possible. Well, I as I climbed into the driver's seat, holding the umbrella in my left hand, I must have been distracted because I reached over with my right hand a closed the door. As it was closing, the thought crossed my mind that this was not a smart thing to do, as I was still holding the umbrella. Before I could react to the thought, the door closed on the shaft of the umbrella. Imagine my surprise and slight shock, when, instead of the door just stopping, I saw the top of the umbrella fall to the parking lot outside the door. The door had sheared the shaft clean in two, it was not even mashed.

• On the 21st was my wife's birthday. Happy Birthday honey! We had two families over to help celebrate with us. Mike and Dawn we've known for almost 11 years. They are native Rhode Islanders who went to the church we decided to attend. They initiated the relationship, for which we are very grateful, as we did not know a soul up here. About a year after we arrived in Rhode Island, Andy and Amy arrived and came to our church. We decided to pass on the same favor that Mike and Dawn had done for us, and immediately invited them for lunch. So we've been friends with them for over 10 years. Now each of those couples has one or more children. It was good to get together with friends.
  
• I went with my friend Andy on the 22nd to see Quantum of Solace. It was a good movie but not great. A lot of action, as to be expected.
• There has been quite a bit of leaf raking around here. Except for the carting off of the leaves, I finally finished the backyard yesterday. Most of it had been done a few weeks ago, with a big pile made in the middle of the yard by the climber so that the kids could jump in it. Finishing up meant moving the big pile over to the corner of the yard where it will be loaded into the back of the pick up and raking up the leaves that had fallen since the first round of raking.
• Ellie was sick for a few days. Thankfully it was short lived and the only major symptoms were being warm (low grade fever) and being cranky. As she even told me today, several days after fully recovering, "I feel beher".
• On Saturday we set up the Christmas tree. The kids, but Ben especially, were excited about this. He's so fun when he's excited - it makes me want to give him whatever he wants.
• Recently, since I was nearly out of wood glue, I purchased some Gorilla Glue (the all purpose, not the wood glue), as I've heard a number of good things about it. So far, so good. I've repaired a children's chair which had suffered from over enthusiastic users - the back had fallen off and a leg dangling. It's held up for a few days now.
• I'm back at work full time now. I had gotten use to the half days from home. I'm missing the additional time with my family.
• I'm reading through two books right now. I'll post reviews when I'm done.