16 December 2012 - Getting the Christmas Spirit

What better way to get the Christmas Spirit than to spend hours conducting tithing settlement?  Oh, I know, take your Christmas card photo and make gingerbread houses, among other things.

The girls are so crafty and creative.  They've got a whole village working here.

Joanne has been working dutifully with the girls on a variety of Yule-related projects.  Aside from the gingerbread village, they've been spending an awful lot of time in the sewing room.  I guess we'll see why on Christmas.

9 December 2012 - Finals Week/Decorating

Since we're going to Florida for Christmas this year, we decided on a minimalist approach to our tree.  We got another plantable one like last year's, but this year it's only about three feet tall.  Much less expensive and easier to manage physically.

Joanne brought it home and went to work decorating it.  It will be a nice addition to the yard come springtime.

Joanne took a shot of our four active young women this past Wednesday.

While hanging Christmas lights in the entryway, Joanne decided to clean the chandelier and change a couple light bulbs.

On Saturday we had our ward Christmas party.  The bishop had to have his photo with our special visitor.

The girls decided to have a "sleepover" in Jessica's room.  They were out cold quickly, but at least Emily and Jessica looked pretty comfortable.

Madeline on the other hand, did not look so comfortable.

'Tis the season to make and decorate cookies, and the girls have been hard at work.  Once the cookies were ready to go, we took some time and delivered them as a family to neighbors.

This week was finals week, and I've never given a final exam without bringing Krispy Kreme Doughnuts to my students.  This year Krispy Kreme had snowman doughnuts.  The students loved them.

Beginning this year I am the faculty advisor for the wrestling team at W&J.  Most of you will probably know that I was a wrestler in high school.  On Saturday (before the ward Christmas party) I went to watch our first home meet of the season.  We lost, but it still got my blood pumping.

2 December 2012 - Utah Wedding

For Young Men's and Young Women's on the Wednesday after Thanksgiving, our youth decorated one of two trees at our building.  This tree is the 'Angel Tree' which we use for an inter-faith Christmas giving event with the Salvation Army.  The youth also made bracelets to send to Mexico with a family in our ward that used to live in Patzcuaro and still goes back to visit almost every year.

Joanne left for Utah on Thursday to attend her mom's wedding.  In her luggage she carried a handmade pillow that Emily had lovingly embroidered.  It says: "Love Is Spoken Here  Phil and Dianne Schow  December 1, 2012".

The new couple exiting the Mt. Timpanogos temple after their sealing on Saturday, December 1st.

Back on the farm, the girls had another swim meet.  This was an away meet at New Castle, about an hour and a half north of Washington, PA.  All three girls had a smashing meet, improving their times markedly in almost every event they raced.  In this photo of the 13-14 Girls 100-Freestyle, Jessica is in the lane at the top of the photo.  She's in third place at this point, but with clean turns and a strong finish, she won the event by a body length and improved her best time by 6/10ths.

25 November 2012 - Thanksgiving

Joanne has been waxing crafty again of late.  This time she's been making baby bibs with ties on them, because, hey, a guy's gotta look right when he eats.  Madeline decided that one of her many, many bears needed to model one of the bibs.

The girls are back in swimming again, and they had their first meet of the year.  All three girls bested multiple top times, so they're definitely progressing.

For my birthday, the girls made Oreo infused cupcakes for me to share with my classes.

When we arrived at Karl and Jolene's house on the evening of my birthday, they had a cake ready and waiting for me.

And some balloons...

The girls had a blast all weekend playing with their cousins.

On Thanksgiving day, we had a few more join us.  Here is Eden enjoying the play area.

Eden and Trevor wanted to help make Thanksgiving dinner, so Joanne had them help make the rolls.

Calista helped by keeping Zachary company.

We had an excellent Thanksgiving feast.  There were 20 of us in all for dinner Thursday evening.

Emily enjoyed the basketball hoop in the driveway.  The weather was excellent up until Saturday, so we played outside a lot.

The adjustable hoop height helped Emily work on her shot.

Baby Dax loved all the attention he got from his cousins.

Joanne looked outside one day and thought maybe she was witnessing the council of elders or something...

On Friday night, there was a beautiful sunset.  It turned out that it was a precursor to strong winds and cold air that night and the next day.

After five days with family, it was time to come home.  We hit some snow in the mountains between Cumberland and Frostburg in Maryland, but we slowed down, avoided the numerous accidents we saw, and made it home late Saturday night.  It was an excellent Thanksgiving week and we were glad to have spent it with family.

18 November 2012 - Biker Rally

This week the girls had Meet Me in Music.  This is an excellent program.  Instead of an all-school musical program where parents have to endure two+ hours of listening to other peoples' kids yelling just to see your own kid sing for three minutes, parents get to go to music class with their own kid for 35 minutes.   Joanne got to go to Emily's and I got to go to Madeline's.

Here is Madeline's class singing the Turkey song.

I came out of work the other day and there was the most incredible sunset.  Unfortunately, photos never do justice.

This week I attended my very first biker rally.  It was a Toy-for-tots fund raiser and toy drive at the Harley dealership by our house.

This is my friend Matt from church, who likes to ride with me.  Our friend Cliff rode too.

Here's my bike before the rally.

Off we go.  We rode about 25 miles and then had a buffet lunch.  It was awesome, and I felt pretty tough ;-).

11 November 2012 - WVU Football

This week my neighbor and friend Eric invited me to go to the WVU football game in Morgantown.  It was a cold day, but they go all out when they tailgate, so we had a big tent with heaters and a flat screen TV to enjoy the pregame festivities.

Here's a view outside our tent looking toward the WVU hospital.

There was this happy WVU hippie van at the tailgate party.

Pregame festivities inside the stadium.  They were playing TCU, and it was a great game which eventually ended with WVU losing by one in double overtime.  

While I was out in the cold enjoying some football, Joanne was inside, working hard on another quilt -- this time a fall-themed one with hand painted leaves on it.

4 November 2012 - Spring House Farm

For one last fall afternoon of fun, Joanne decided we should go as a family to the Spring House Farm.

They have lots of fun stuff for kids.  Madeline, of course, wanted to ride this little calf as soon as we got there.

Tall.

Taller.

Tallest.

Madeline had a blast running the backhoe in the corn kernels.

They had a sorghum maze, which was every bit as good as a corn maze.

To get to the pumpkin patch and maze, we had to take a hay ride.

The also had giant slingshots so you could flip tennis balls (or apples, or other stuff) at a variety of fall themed targets.

Using giant hay bales and irrigation pipes, they'd constructed a big jungle gym.

Here's Madeline in the slide.

Corn kernels make for a soft landing.

Joanne made one final fall treat: deviled eggs with spiders made of olives.  Very tasty.