Christmas Day 2009

When Madelyn found her dress-up shoes and tiara and earrings from Santa, she politely asked to go get dressed before she continued playing. She came back looking like a warmly dressed princess!

Our Christmas blizzard (I know you can't really see it, but it was coming down hard!)

A tradition of blueberry muffins and egg nog. We usually make the box blueberry muffins (Ben prefers them) but realized this year that all the boxed kinds that I could find at our local grocery store were "processed in facilities that may contain nuts". So we went homemade this year. We really liked them. They might be our new tradition!

Madelyn created a "memory box" for her Daddy. We bought the box and Madelyn did most of the staining and poly-ing of the box herself. We put a few pictures and keepsakes in to help start it off.

Mad received a VERY cool pop-up book from Aunt Liz this year. It is the story of Cinderella and is the most intricate pop-up book I have ever seen.

What boy doesn't love Thomas the Train?

Madelyn also loves her new craft easel and supplies. (As well as the new doll!)

Just a pic showing the snow we got over Christmas Day this year. See the kid car in the yard? It is half buried!

Greyson favorite presents this year. He has been asking for a drum for weeks. He was ecstatic to see it waiting for him on Christmas morning. But truth be told, he loves the harmonica more.

We also had a terrific Christmas dinner - a HUGE turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes, asparagus, homemade gravy, pineapple, and of course, whole cranberry sauce. It was so yummy! Lots of leftover turkey and a turkey carcass for making broth! Sounds like a job for tomorrow...

Sledding and Snowblowing

These pictures are from a sledding trip to our neighborhood hill (a very large hill!). Although, that was *before* our large snow dump of the past couple of days. The kids had a lot of fun! And we had fun watching them.

The next three pictures are from around the house when we (in reality Ben) went out to snowblow/shovel the first load of Christmas Eve snow from the driveway. As you can see, Mad and Grey have discovered our hill between our house and the next. After this, it continued to snow all night and most of Christmas. It was beautiful to watch coming down! With above freezing temps the rest of that day and sub-freezing temps today, it is now mostly one big block of heavy ice! No snowmen here for awhile!

Just Fun Pictures

Christmas gifts arrived in the box to put under the tree. Once they realized that we weren't going to let them open the gifts, they turned to the next best thing - the box they came in!

We all got a huge kick out of how Greyson found his TRex (apparel provided by Madelyn).

Merry Christmas to all!

(This is our family's economical and green solution to sending a Christmas card... We will, however, be sending several out to those friends and family that don't have internet access. Enjoy!)

And the dryer has no heat... Updated

Part on order... should be here in 7-10 DAYS!

Update: The part came and it still doesn't work... now to decide to be real engineers and troubleshoot and fix it ourselves or just call the service guy (that Ben swears will know just as much as we do). All I know is that the drying clothes decor we've got going in the basement is a little too eclectic for my taste. :)

Warning: Old Posts Coming! - Updated

For any blog readers I have left. I am about to kick start those old posts that I referred to previously. In order to get SOMETHING up, I'm just going to post the pictures I've had sitting in a folder called "blog" on my laptop - they've been accumulating for ages! I'll eventually fill in background and interesting tidbits. I hope.

State Fair 2009
Madelyn's Trip to Duluth with GaGa and Grandpa
Additional State Fair Outing 2009
Time With Family

More posts to come! (Thanks Tracy for the idea on adding the links!)

Cousin Daniel is here! Pray please!

Ben's cousin and her husband, Catherine and Jeremy, are dealing with a stressful situation that could use some prayer. Their newest adoptee (Daniel) was born unexpectedly yesterday 7 weeks early in California. They live in the Dallas area so getting to him and planning for the care of their two 2-year-olds at home has had to happen quickly. Catherine arrived at the hospital late last night and Jeremy will follow today. Daniel seems as healthy as possible at 7 weeks pre-term (a HUGE blessing!). Please pray for this whole family as they figure out how to get through the next few weeks. Daniel might stay in the hospital until his due date, meaning that Catherine and Jeremy might not return to their children at home for that long. Pray for Catherine and Jeremy's bonding with Daniel, the caregivers of the older two, patience for the older two in their waiting, peace and joy and a place to stay in CA for Catherine and Jeremy, and that finalizing the adoption process will go smoothly. Thank you!

PS - I have about 16 posts that I want to get posted on this blog dating back to September and including Greyson's birthday.... they are coming! Promise!

Need some uplifting today? (like I did)

This website is really great. I have been following it for a few weeks now and have not been disappointed. The guy that authors it, Jon, is a great example of someone that is trying to seek God and proclaim Him to others in a great and useful way. He is mostly hilarious! I love his blog because most days it makes me laugh, but from what I've seen, Wednesdays are his serious topic days. Today, this post did a great job of delivering some God Words into my day, week, year.... life. Thanks, Jon.

Making snowmen (lemonade) out of snow (lemons)

Greyson and I decided to make the most out of this snowy OCTOBER day. We went out and got the pumpkins out of the garden (too bad they aren't ready - planted too late), built a cute snowman, and put away the hoses and outside furniture. Fun and productive!

Seriously?!?!?!???

Way too soon for this....

But on a more positive note - it was cute seeing this at the bus stop this morning.

Craft-loving kids

A month or so ago, I set this table out in the dining room (it was hidden away under piles of 'stuff' in Madelyn's room). I don't remember what I brought out for to begin with... it must have been visiting children for dinner. Oh yeah! It was the Otto's! It was fun having Joseph and Birgitte over that day! Anyway.... Madelyn took to her new coloring area right away that was set up with all her new craft supplies she received for her birthday. She sits there at least once a day to "do a craft". Either coloring a picture or cutting and pasting or working on her letters/numbers.... pretty cool. It is also good to see Greyson joining in too lately!

It's a wonderful TOWN!!

I have been reflecting recently on time and it is FLYING. I literally look up and find that weeks have past since the last time I looked up.... wow. I have a friend that says her life slowed down when she had kids. Mine was the opposite - my life sped up at least three-fold!


Rockefeller Center

As for my trip to New York City - wow... what a great place! I really think that NYC could be a fun place to live for while (if we didn't have kids). It was really awesome to see my sister, Liz. I had just seen her for when she came here for the state fair (did I forget to post about that?) but this was the first time I've been on her turf in a while. She has a great apartment with a great workout plan included - it is a 5th floor walk-up! On street level around her apartment are some interesting shops and restaurants - a miniature dog store, several ethnic restaurants (German, Greek, East Indian), and I'm sure more that I just didn't see because, frankly, my senses were a little overwhelmed the whole time I was there. The first day I walked around in sensory overload! Truly! I was almost numb....

I told Liz when I got there that my trip was more about seeing her than trying to take in the touristy spots. I think we did a good job of balancing the trip. I loved spending the whole time with her and seeing her life as it is now, but we did get around to see a bunch of fun things! And, man, did we walk!! We walked everywhere! Miles and miles. But it felt wonderful. The weather was a little on the chilly side, but a jean jacket (and, of course, a new scarf) made it perfect.
The first two days of my trip were sunny and beautiful! I was amazed at the life that NYC held! The day I flew in, we had reservations to be in the audience of the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon show. I love his show. I think it is hilarious. (you can see Liz and I in this clip - Let's spin that wheel of carpet samples!) It seemed a little less finished in person but when we watched it later, it seemed somehow that all the rough edges had been sanded off.... amazing TV work! Since the show is taped in Rockefeller Center we walked around that and, to tell you the truth, I know we saw Grand Central Station and Time Square but the order in which we saw them is a blur.... I was just a bit overwhelmed. So much so that I think Liz was a little concerned for my safety around zigzagging taxis.


Here's my offering to the chocolate lovers out there!

The second day (after a wonderful experience of my body waking up naturally!) was fun-filled too! Central Park, a Broadway show, the NYC Library, a New York slice, rice pudding at the hippest little shop I've ever seen, Canal Street, Chinatown, and Top of the Rock... whew! It was a busy day! Central Park was better than I would have ever imagined. Amazing what they can do in the middle of Manhattan! We took a long walk through and I thoroughly enjoyed it.







After the park, we went a Broadway show, Hair. I'm not sure what I expected, but I was a little flabbergasted. It was pretty risque, but I also enjoyed it. I enjoyed the energy and the music. I also enjoyed the story. It was first released on Broadway in 1967 and I'm pretty sure that it was anti-war propaganda during Vietnam. It was almost like it was a snapshot of American history in that way. I found that very interesting!

I think Liz thought I was a little crazy, but I requested a visit to the NYC library. We walked through it a little and I was amazed by the grandeur of the place. I probably could have stayed a lot longer but, alas, the city was calling. And I had to take this picture! Quintessential NY, right? Chess in the park!


Chess in the park right outside of the NYC Library.

Next, we decided to head down to Canal Street and Chinatown. We hit this awesome, unique rice pudding shop on the way! Yum! And whoever does your marketing, Rice To Riches, BRAVO!!! Their pudding even came with a reusable bowl and spoon! FYI - They take online orders and if you want delicious rice pudding, this is IT!



After rice pudding, we headed to Canal Street and Chinatown for the experience and for goodies of the food and souvenir kind. And I wanted to pick up some fresh fish to pan fry once we got home but Liz said she wasn't walking any closer. I have to admit, it did stink to high-heaven. A couple more scarves, a few steamed pork rolls, and a (too expensive) pendant later, we headed back up to Midtown to go to the....



TOP OF THE ROCK! Now, this was amazing! You can go to the top of the Rockefeller building and get breathtaking views of.... everything! This was my favorite though. Liz and I got there about 10:30pm and we closed them down at midnight. It was drizzly and so we found a relaxing place to lounge inside and just talked, and laughed, and cried too.


Do you see the darker spot in the middle? That is Central Park.

On Sunday morning, Liz and I got up when the alarm went off at 8:30am. (compared to 6am, that's heavenly!) We got in our church clothes and went to the Met. What a great place! I can say that I couldn't focus on much of anything after about the third exhibit, but I really enjoyed the atmosphere and the people watching too! The Egyptian exhibit was one of my favorites for the day.


a Egyptian temple reconstruction


Egyptian model boat and figures found by accident hidden behind a wall in a pyramid - cool!

Bet you're wondering why we put church clothes on to go to the Met. We raced down from the Met to the Brooklyn Tabernacle's 3:30pm gospel service. It wasn't quite what I expected but very fun and worshipful. The Greenes performed and had an awesome testimony about the male lead's road into and through his kidney transplant (donated by his wife!). It was very touching, God-centered, worshipful, full of beautiful music and very humorous too! I'm really glad that we went. It was a great way to meet God during the weekend. After about 2 hours, church was let out and and we decided to head back to the apartment to change, run out for an Indian dinner (that was delicious!) and relax for the evening. Whew! What a great weekend!





On Monday, Liz saw me off at the subway station and I made my way back to the airport. It was a little bit of a close call catching my plane because I got held up at security (the line was LONG and not very organized!). But I got on and everything worked out. Inspired, I took MetroTransit home from the airport too and was home just in time to meet Madelyn getting off her school bus. Home Sweet Home.

Thanks, Liz, for giving up your weekend for me to come visit. It was a blast! Love you.

New York, NY

I'm headed to Manhattan early tomorrow morning to spend the weekend with my sister. It's my first time being there... a lot to do in a weekend! See you next week!

Pets I can handle... (Updated)

...but not literally. On Saturday, Ben suggested we get some fish. I said, "As long as I don't have to take care of them." So we borrowed an aquarium and aerator from a friend and went to wallie-world to get fish and fish food.

Greyson picked out a black finned goldfish and named it "Black Boots". I guess you could said that he is living out his pirate dreams right now. He has a fascination right now with pirates and has told us that he wants to be one for Halloween. I guess I'm gonna have to start thinking on that one.

I picked a calico fantail and, with Ben's help, named it "Calista". You see, I'm the WORST about naming things. You can tell from most of the kids stuffed animals' names - Pinkie, Blue Bear, and Dollie, to name a few. Madelyn tried to encourage me by saying that I picked a great name for her, but unfortunately I can't take credit for her name either, that was all Ben too!

Madelyn picked a white goldfish with a big read dot on its head and named her "Redhead". She seems to have inherited my naming dysfunction. But she does have an eye for pretty things!

And Ben? He picked a run-of-the-mill all gold goldfish and named it Bubba. Unfortunately, Bubba didn't make it 24 hours. It is a good thing that we warned the kids on the way home that one or more of the fish may die by accident....

I have a feeling that the fish could be a source for good entertainment in the days to come!

UPDATE:
On 9/22/2009, Black Boots also passed on.... but the kids didn't even notice! Yet anyway. Note to self - get our next batch of fish from a pet store instead of wallie-world.

"Baby Isaac's come out!"

Greyson has been calling Isaac out of his Aunt Christina's belly for about a week now. Well, as of 12:30am today, Isaac Aiden Ritter made his first appearance, weighing in at 8 lb 4 oz and roughly 21 inches in length. WooHoo! We love you, Aunt Christina, Uncle Brandon, and Isaac!

Your State Fair "Tord"

Greyson, isn't this a sweet picture?  You and your most beloved things - your fuzzy blanket, blue bear, and your new "tord" from the state fair.  I guess reading about a prince with a sword wasn't enough, you had to be one!