Happy Thanksgiving!

First I have to apologize because we have several cute pictures from our Thanksgiving festivities, but I'm experiencing technical difficulties getting them to the web.

We've had a great couple of weeks. Over Thanksgiving we were lucky enough to get Spencer and Melissa Ashton and their two beautiful children, Ben (2 yrs) and McKenzie (3 mo), for a couple days at our place. They were the lucky benefactors of our first Thanksgiving cookout - bless their souls for eating it! Just kidding, it wasn't that bad.

Ellie absolutely loved having a little playmate in the house and got along great with Ben, and loved to fuss over McKenzie. It was a little tense that first hour when they arrived and she realized she had to share everything, but she relaxed and found that sharing the blocks to throw all around the kitchen was rather fun and exciting and she and Ben fast became friends. Matt and Spence just had to throw each other around the house to ease the initial tension so they could relax and have fun...(kidding). I had a great time getting to know all of them and wish they lived closer!

We had a pretty lazy turkey day and pretty much just hung out around the house and slowly got fatter. We tried to go to the park, so we bundled up and headed out, but after about five minutes the adults were pretty much turned off by the shivering wind, and started to wimp out on the fun. The kids didn't seem to mind it much, so we stretched the park time to maybe 10 minutes, took a few pictures, and went back home to the great indoors. Aren't we loads of fun! That night after dinner we ventured out to a local bowling alley neighboring the "hood." We had a great time, especially Ellie! She couldn't get enough, it was great! She actually ended up bowling a 21! The cutest thing was when she would totally gutter it and come running back, "Mommy, I'm so excited, I was so close!" Such a happy spirit! Ben bowled a few and McKenzie was just chillin on the table. Matt and I took the first round, but after that Spence and Melissa pretty much destroyed us, so we're looking forward to a rematch! Friday we went to COSI, a children's science museum, and spent a few hours there, and that was fun for everyone. Then the trip was over and everyone is now back home. It was wonderful to have such a nice break!

The week before we were so lucky to have Grandma Annie out for a few days to play with us, spoil us, and just love us! It was a great treat for everyone. It was pretty well a spur of the moment plan, and I didn't tell Ellie she was coming until we were almost to the airport to pick up Mom. She was so excited! Ellie had been missing Grandma Annie a couple weeks earlier which resulted in Mom coming out, lucky us, and needless to say Ellie was thrilled! (as was I). I put Ellie's hair is sponge curlers the night before to get her all dolled up for her "surprise" to go pick up Mom, and I have to say she was queen of the curls! Everyone wants to just eat her up she's so cute!...and she knows it.

Sorry again about the lack of pictures, I have some really cute ones, hopefully I can get it worked out. And Matt says thank you so much mamma clegg for the coat, he wears it everyday. We love you all and hope you had a great holiday, and we will be seeing you soon!

Preschool field trip to Circle S farms. Luke, the boy that tried to glue Ellie to her chair, is on the top row, dark hair, second one in from the right. Most of Ellie's class is on the top row. 

The Pink Ladies! Marlena, Ellie, and Abby on a bumpy hayride out to the pumpkin patch. 

Ellie and Abby...cute little pumpkins! 

Ellie's cute little friend Garrett. I'm kind of biased towards him...not to often you meet cute little boys named Garrett! 

One of the many waterfalls we saw while in the Green Mountain State. Incredible area (nevermind the wire fence behind us). 

The mountains here are beautiful, especially from the top. And to think it only took us less than an hour to summit! 

We were lucky enough to find a quiet local lake where somebody happened to abandon their canoe...at least for the moment. So we were smart enough to take advantage of the opportunity! :) 

One of the famous covered bridges in Vermont in one of the prettiest little towns in the country, Woodstock.  

A Brief Flashback!

We don't have any new pictures available as of yet to post on the web so I thought I'd take us back a bit. Pre-halloween, Ellie's preschool took a field trip out to Circle S farms, a great place for everyone...pumpkin patches, hayrides, corn mazes, strawberry fields, yummy doughnuts, and an awesome barn loaded with haystacks for the kids to play around in. I went with them out into the countryside and had a wonderful morning, despite the Ohio drizzle. I drove Ellie and Abby and their teacher Mrs. Fryman, and had a good time answering all her questions on the ride home about the Mormon church. She is a very devoted Lutheran and didn't know much of anything about the LDS church, so it was thoroughly enjoyable telling her about it. She's a wonderful lady and Ellie is enthralled by her, so we're all happy!

In September, Matt and I were fortunate enough to take off on a little exursion through Vermont and enjoy being outdoors and in the mountains again. (Elevation changes are sorely missed in Ohio). We visited the ski resorts Killington and Stowe, found picturesque towns (which wasn't hard to do), went canoeing, paddled around in kayaks, saw a lot of roadside waterfalls, and hiked around over a lot of mossy tree roots. The mountains are much different from the rockies. They lack the grandeur, but make up for it in color. Mom came out and stayed with Ellie, and we all had a brilliant time!

We love and miss all of you and look forward to seeing everyone at Christmas time! Keep the comments coming...we love to hear from you!

The ever studious man! 

Playing at the Park

One great thing about Ohio are all the beautiful parks! We are fortunate to have fun little playgrounds all over the place, and many of them have community events and programs going on all the time. Just yesterday Ellie and I were playing at the park you'll see in the pictures and come to find out, everyday at 5:00 p.m. it's doggy hour. People around the neighborhood can bring their dogs to the park between 5 and 6 and let them roam around the field without their leashes. We had a great time meeting all the beautiful big dogs - nobody brought any small ones - and look forward to seeing them again! The metro parks are really cool too. These are blocks of land preserved for park and recreation activities, and they're nice places to go to feel like you're taking a step away from the city.

Matt certainly studies a great deal of the time, bless his heart, but he makes time for the family too, and we love it when he does. Saturday we went to the dollar theater to see Shrek 2, and Matt and I were totally entertained, but after about 20 minutes Ellie wouldn't put up with the loud noise of the big screen anymore, so we have yet to finish that flick. Next time we'll get a babysitter.

I need to start keeping our video camera on hand to catch some the precious moments of family fun. Monday night we were cleaning up the dishes after dinner and getting ready for family night when Ellie got out big serving spoons and directed us in a little show of musical theater in our cute little kitchen. We were singing to our hearts content, and most likely to our neighbors dismay. We reveled in the musical selections of Annie, Twinkle Little Star, Lion King, The Little Mermaid, Star Spangled Banner, and several others. Matt is an excellent soloist!

Well, you can bless Ohio for coming through on November 2nd, or cry out as the German father in my Musikgarten class at OSU, "How can 46 million people be so stupid?" But no worries, our zoo levy passed!

Smelling the leaves 

Say cheese! 

Love the scooter 

Tough girl! 

Who can resist a face like that? 

Happy Halloween

"Trick-or-Treat!" fast became Ellie's new favorite phrase as we took to the streets in Columbus, Ohio. We went with Abby, one her favorite friends from preschool, otherwise known as Princess Fiona from Shrek. Ellie was a white kitty cat, sometimes Hello Kitty, sometimes Barbie Kitty, and sometimes just a white cat...so take your pick.

Matt just finished his psychiatry rotation which he's quite happy about... The top quotes from the Last week of Psych are (included in no specific order) "my brain feels like a sweaty stinking locker room." no argument there. "Skeezoofriendeeeyaa (Schizophrenia) does that mean I have a lot of friends" (well I guess, sort of, it would help if some of them were real. and after chatting with a patient about some of the events of the last two weeks he replied "I am crazy huh?" self diagnosis the kind we like best, the greatest part is that after a two to three day stay at our acute care facility they have to be discharged back to some neighborhood, well that is all I have for now, Later, Matt.

As for myself, I just finished reading "Little Women" for the first time ever. Some where along the line I seemed to have missed that novel, but as the result of the choice of a fellow book club member I finally took the time to enjoy such a great classic! Enlightening little life adventures. I loved it!

Happy Halloween to all of you...next stop, Thanksgiving!

"Curving" the pumpkin 

Meow! 

Hello Kitty! 

Trick-or-Treat? 

Family outing at COSI