A Zoo Crew + One Christmas

Christmas 2009 found the Zoo Crew enjoying the company of our Aunt Barb (great aunt for the younger Zoo Crewers). Barb is usually quite busy during Christmastide, serving as a pastor to her parish in Iowa, but this year she's on her way to another call beginning in January, so she had a nice holiday break. How lovely that she was finally able to come meet the Crew!Bill's gift to me this year was a long coveted Kitchen Aid stand mixer. I was lucky that he gave it to me early enough to help with the holiday baking. Ben & Abbey helped make macaroons--check out the look on Ben's face, watching the quick work my new toy made of the meringue!

Abbey, Katie, Aunt Barb & I enjoyed some girl time doing our fingernails in festive Christmas colors. Abbey even had the honor of painting Aunt Barb's pinkie! Katie painted super cute snowflakes on everyone's nails.

After Christmas Eve services, we fed the reindeer and put out the cookies for Santa.

Of course, no Christmas Eve is complete without the evening Chalet on the Rug (err, table this year). It was fun to include Aunt Barb in traditions that have come down from her side of family, especially since she didn't know we've kept many of them! ;-) Ben was especially ravenous and kept threatening to devour the platters of chow all on his own.

Christmas morning dawned cold & clear, despite the weatherman's dire predictions for ice. The crew gathered upstairs--and it was a good thing Abbey had reminded me to bring my camera UPstairs so I could nab this shot before the chaos ensued!Santa was generous, as were our family & friends. (THANK YOU--notes will follow soon!!) After enjoying a leisurely morning of gift opening, we moved on to other adventures. The boys tested out their new Nerf guns on each other & loaded up Dad's new tackle box with bobbers, sinkers & leaders. We ladies turned our hands to more crafty pursuits and did a little beading; we even helped Aunt Barb make a Christmas present for one of her friends back home.

Aunt Barb was needed back home, so she left us the day after Christmas....but not before she tried her hand at New Super Mario Brothers on wii!

Patrick "interviewed" our illustrious guest with his new video camera, even turning the camera on himself to ask the questions. HILARIOUS!!

If you haven't seen enough...feel free to check out the rest of the photos here: Zoo Crew Christmas 2009.

We hope your Christmas was as fun-filled and festive as ours was...and that you are as thankful as we for the True Gift of Christmas.

December to Remember

December has been quite the magical month for the Zoo Crew. For the first time in practically EONS, we had SNOW almost as soon as the calendar page flipped. December 5th found us making snowmen, flinging snowballs and making Zoo Crew Snow Angel facsimiles.

Ben decided that it would be GREAT to fling his snowman's head at Matthew, who retaliated with a whole lotta little snowballs. Patrick joined the fray and "helped" make snowmen.

We baked cookies. We ate cookie dough (when we thought Mommy wasn't looking!) We baked more cookies. (Mommy ate cookie dough.) We decorated them liberally with sprinkles...and more sprinkles...

Matthew played saxophone in his very first school concert. That evening was an adventure, as Mommy was a little mixed up on her calendar. (Ever have that happen? You get a day of the week stuck in your head rather than the date?)



Yup--I was in the middle of Target buying a dressy shirt for him to wear to the concert the next night when I received a frantic phone call. "Mom, Matthew's concert is TONIGHT, not tomorrow!!" YIKES and GULP. Abandoned the shopping cart. Beat feet home as fast as the little hamster powered mobile could make it and away we went. The first year students did a GREAT job with the various holiday songs--especially since most of them have only been playing since September!! No pics, sadly, since Zoo Mama was frantic & frazzled. *sigh*

Now....given how much fun they had with the measly 5 inches we got on the 5th, imagine what Zoo Crew joy greeted the 22 inches of snow that arrived on December 19th!! The flakes were BIG and floaty, but boy did they start to add up. Good think we sent Daddy out for the tree before the snow hit! It was sooooo much fun to decorate the tree cozily indoors while the snow fell and transformed our yard into something from a Currier & Ives painting!



The depth of the snow removed a lot of the land features, so all was beautiful & white. AMAZING!! Well, OF COURSE the kids wanted to go out and play. No one realized, though, that the snow drifts were taller than Abbey. Until she quite capably demonstrated that for us, that is.

To see more pictures from our fun-filled December (and to see what Patrick was doing while the others played in the snow!), check out the rest of the album here: December 2009.

Christmas post soon to follow!!

7 out of 9 Cousins Agree

......that Jefferson is the place to be for Thanksgiving!!! (and only 7 because 2 were celebrating in California!)
David and his family made the 10 hour drive from Indiana to join the Zoo Crew for Turkey Day. We had a lovely long weekend, feasting, playing and visiting. Counting our blessings, too, of course.

Jacob and the boys bonded over Legos and video games.

Abbey & Laurel bonded over just about everything 5 year old and female.

On Friday, we hit the Black Friday sales for a wee bit of shopping. Later, pretty much the whole batch of us headed off the Udvar-Hazy Air & Space Center at Dulles; Forrest was able to join us for that fun little road trip, too, rounding out our large number. We were quite surprised to find it so VERY crowded, but not surprised to find that it was VERY cool! Saw all kinds of crazy cool stuff, including the Space Shuttle and the Blackbird aircraft used in the most recent Transformers movie.

Check out more pictures here: Thanksgiving 2009

Great times...and the Zoo Crew is tickled pink that Dave's family is so much closer now and able to come visit more easily!!

If you are reading this, know that we are VERY thankful for you! Blessings as we enter this crazy busy Christmas season!

Happy Birthday, Patrick!!

Twelve years old today!! Can't believe it, really. We've been through some amazing times with this guy...incredible highs and heartbreaking lows. No matter where we've been, though, he continues to bless us with his perseverance, sense of humor and willingness to give just about ANYthing a try!

We celebrated his 12th year in a simple Zoo Crew way....birthday treats and presents. This year, we went with a giant birthday cookie...Patrick LOVED it!

Gramma & Gramps sent him blank DVDs and DVD case inserts on which to immortalize his movie-making efforts. (I'm thinking he's got a future in Independent Films!!)

His loopie birthday pal (Brittany from Reno, NV) sent a big box FULL of Lego kits--Bioncles, vehicles, space aliens. Patrick is in Lego heaven!

As I type this, he is working his way through building a Lego kit of about 8 vehicles, playing nicely with his brothers. I can't help but sit and stare a little, pausing to reflect that a couple of years ago, I would never have thought he'd be able to interact so peacefully for so long. Watching him read the directions and follow them so closely, I am in awe of the wonderful works God has done for this kiddo...and sending a special thanks to the many who have helped pray our family through these first 12 years of my boy's life.

Happy birthday, my first son!

Check out more pics here: Patrick's 12th Birthday (We had a couple of special guests for his big day, too!)

Boo from the Crew

After diligently completing our chores for the day, the Zoo Crew was ready to play!
With Miss Ashley's help, we had a little cookie decorating fun. Loved these kits from Target! Abbey, Ben & Miss Ashley opted for the traditional approach and frosted theirs in orange. Ben fashioned his jack-o-lantern face from black bats! Abbey figured that the sprinkle-o-rama approach was best. Patrick selected a black frosting base; the results? ummmm, TASTY (?)

A traditional Halloween dinner of corn dogs followed the cookie appetizer. (No, seriously, we actually had this conversation! "Hey, Mom! What's our family tradition for Halloween dinner?" My response? "whatever is quick & in the freezer!" Ahhh...the memories!)

TIME FOR COSTUMES!
Miss Abbey sported a festive purple pirate look, complete with ruffled hat.

Ben had a rough time of it this year. He said he didn't really want a costume, rather he just wanted to be Halloween-y. After rejecting my suggestion about going AS Halloween (I'm thinking black sweat suit covered in all sorts of Halloween icons, Halloween decorations glued on--cool, huh?), he told me he'd wear black sweat pants and an orange shirt. We found one that says "I don't do tricks, just give me the candy!" which made his little 7 year old heart swell.

Matthew's exhaustive search for the perfect knight helmet was unsuccessful, so he he wore the headpiece that came with his costume, despite the scratchiness.

Patrick, who is besotted with all things Verizon, dressed as his alter ego, the Verizon Man. One of our neighbors made his day by recognizing him and asking "Can you hear me now?" Patrick happy danced all the way back down the driveway!

Check out the pics here to see more--including fun with The Spider Lady!

Happy, tired and ready to devour their loot, the beasties made their way back home for a bit of a movie night with Daddy, complete with caramel apples. Sugar highs bring sugar lows, you know....so our weary crew collapsed happily in bed. We hope your Halloween was wonderful and fun, too!

PS: Our missing beastie was off visiting her friend for a scary movie fest. *sigh*