Happy Frickin' New Year!

Fer New Year's we dun had ourselves a redneck-themed party, co-hosted with our neighbors, the Kulms. Not only did we have pork rinds, cheeze whiz, and beer, we also had ourselves some right nice fireworks made out of diet soda and mentos! Can't furget to mention that we had some fried Spam for everyone to try, too.

x

Simpsonized!

I guess we were slow to learn about this, but you can 'Simpsonize' photos of yourself at http://www.simpsonizeme.com/.

Wyoming Trip

We went to visit Grandma and Grandpa Gomm in Star Valley, Wyoming last week. They live in the mountains just south of Smoot, WY.

Ivy made a point of having us stop on the Idaho/Wyoming border so she could stand with one foot in each state for a minute (then she did a dance between the states). :)

We haven't been up there since summer of 2002, so it was great to see all of their modifications to their place. In addition to seeing their grandparents, the girls were excited to play in some serious snow! We spent two days sledding and spent a lot of time pulling the girls behind the 4-wheeler in 8-degree weather. It was cold enough that we ended up buying the girls skii masks to stay warm. Ivy decided that she was a Mexican Wrestler with hers.



Here is Ivy with the blanket we gave Grandpa for Christmas (she picked it out because it is a 'manly' blanket):

Grandma with the family photos that we gave her:

While we were there, Angie wanted to make a quilt for her bed with Grandma. Anna prepared the quilt with the batting before we went, so while there, the three of them spent HOURS tying the quilt. (Grandma LOVES to quilt and tie quilts - she very literally has made THOUSANDS of quilts!)

The finished blanket:

My brother-in-law (Mike Vinson) also lives in Afton, Wyoming. He buys/sells rare books/documents/and antiquities (and has made a really good living for himself doing it, too). I took Violet and Ivy to his office. He showed them several cool things, including a handwritten letter from General Sherman during the Civil War. Here they are wearing military hats from the Mexican Border War:

Here Violet is holding a Roman oil lamp from A.D. 300 and Ivy is holding an American Indian mocassin (note Ivy's red and green Holiday Hair - yes, it's permanent):

And... the roads home were pretty good, considering it is winter in Wyoming!

Lights and the 21st Ammendment

Yesterday was the 75th anniversary of the ratification of the 21st amendment, so we celebrated by having dinner with the Parrishes and then having a few drinks at the Kulms. I spent a few minutes yesterday educating myself about Prohibition - Wikipedia has a pretty good summary here.

Then we spent some MORE time today putting up X-mas lights. Again, we're pulling more than 40 Amps with all of our lights so it's a trick to get all of the lights on the right breaker. :)

Here are a few pictures I just took:

Rainy, Goo-ey Day

It's a cold, wet day, so Anna and I are doing laundry and playing a new game, "World of Goo" on the Wii. Excellent, with a Goo-d underlying message, not to mention that it helps with your intuitive engineering skills.

If you have a Wii, you can download it on the Wii Shop Channel, otherwise, you can get it for the PC.

The girls are playing with their Littlest Pets and rolling on the floor bored.

Halloween and Pre-Halloween?

So here are some pictures from our Halloween - Angie was a Goth Girl, Violet was a Crazy Cat Lady, and Ivy was a Chicken. We'll leave it to you to decide who was the Big Chicken and who was the Squirrel. :)

I mentioned in the last post that we went to our friend Chris Richards' 40th birthday bash the weekend before Halloween. The theme was 70's Disco, so we had yet another excuse to dress up. I even grew out my chest hair for this one! :)

After seeing these pictures, we've realized that we're in for some serious trouble with these beautiful girls. Anna has decided that Violet is no longer allowed to wear her boots!

Halloween Preparations and Violet's Birthday

Last week we celebrated Violet's 12th birthday! She's in sixth grade and still enjoying soccer.



Every year it seems that the plan is the same - "DON'T SPEND ANYMORE MONEY OR MORE TIME ON HALLOWEEN!" We always fail. :)

It's pretty bad when putting up the decorations is a two-weekend chore. Seriously, we rent a storage unit JUST for Halloween and Christmas decorations!

Here are a couple of picures - I re-built the big monster this year and made a few new pertinent gravestones. I also got a new animated 'Food Baby' and built a cage for him with chicken wire. :)

Last night we got into the spirit of Halloween by taking the girls and several of Violet's friends to a local Halloween Haunt - "Haunted World". It is done in a huge cornfield with ~12-foot corn. Lots of scary monsters waiting to get you, including clowns with lawnmowers and chainsaws. One of the girls was crying so hysterically she started to hyperventillate and we couldn't talk her down, so Anna had to be escorted out with her! (She even cried her contacts out and lost one!) So I had to try to keep Ivy calm - she went through the whole thing clinging on to me crying and sobbing, "Daddy - I'm scared!". Angie LOVES those things and Violet was having fun with the two other boys that were with us. We're great parents. :)

Tonight we're going to our friend Chris Richard's 40th birthday party - it's a 70's disco theme, so we all have our costumes ready and we've been studying "The Hustle" today. Here's a picture of the Hostess birthday cake that Anna made (Yes, made out of Ding Dongs, Zingers, Twinkies, Ho-Ho's, doughnuts, and a Snowball!):