San Fran - Day One

Day one in San Francisco was good - we're pooped. We headed out to the Muir Woods to see the Great Redwoods - the tallest living things on the planet. It was fun to hang out with Jen and Ben. Baby Daniel is .... sigh ... PRECIOUS! I got to spend some time with him this evening and it was delightful. He's such a chunk of love... no, not John - Baby Daniel.

Hanging out with Uncle John causes great emotion!

How fun to hold a baby and give him up to his mom when he starts screaming.

John and Ben hanging out with Ben's new wheels - the stroller - in the Muir Woods.

Amazed at God's Majesty in His creation!

A New Obsession...

Yep, I'm knitting. I held off on doing it as long as possible for me, but I picked it up last week and I'm obsessed. Here are two of my latest projects. Stitch and Bitch anyone?

A project for Daniel. Doesn't every child need an adapted apple hat?

Just like every southern woman needs her very own knitted beer koozie.

A New Way to Handle Detention

When faced with the realization that our students were not minding Detention - because they were able to get their work done - something had to be changed. In comes Clint Cvacho .... and his very own version on hell on earth for these inner city urban kids who listen only to JAMZ and have never once considered Hank Williams to be a legend.

Starting the New Year Right ... and Wrong

The New Year was started with more of a cushioned day with friends rather than a bang. John took the last two weeks of the year off (which lapped over into the first five days) and I was off from school. The girls enjoyed having us around and there was little planned.

The first day of the year, we had several friends over for a New Years "Orphan's" lunch. Boston Butt, Mac n Cheese, mustard greens, black-eyed peas and ambrosia was on the menu. It was fantastic to start the year off with friends.

On a side note, I was flabbergasted to find out that some people make ambrosia with marshmallows and mayonaisse. They even sometimes congeal it! GROSS! I'm happy to report that ours is all natural and my grandfather's recipe. YUM.

Life is always fun when Doodal comes around.

Baby Lochran loved the ambrosia.

The rest of the weekend was spent hanging out around the house. From making a tent in the playroom and "fishing" on the sofa the girls enjoyed spending time together and having fun in the house.

Can't make it to the Bay? Head over to the sofa and with a baton, ribbon and a play food fish, you have your own fishing expedition.

Dreaming of Disney

We were all shocked that her mouth could get that big.

A tent to beat all tents. A great place for a picnic... which we had.

Outside of the house, we tried out the new bike Santa brought for Ellabee which meant her trike was open for Anne Bailey - Ellabee very graciously gave her tricycle to Anne Bailey. There was even a hand over ceremony.

Anne Bailey took a spin on her new wheels.

And then the wrong part of the New Years... a broken toe.

And I broke my toe - please excuse the condition of my toes... in desperate need of a pedi.

John's Christmas Gift... No really.

John got a set of Bike rollers for Christmas. I had to have the camera rolling when he tried them out for the first time. And of course make a movie of it for all the world to enjoy.

New Years Day Lunch

For New Year's we had a group of friends over for our traditional New Years Orphan's Lunch. Boston Butt, Macaroni and Cheese, Collards and Black-Eyed peas were on the menu not to mention my grandfather's Ambrosia. I was shocked to find out that most people fix ambrosia with marshmallows and mayonaisse and some horribly congeal it. OH GOODNESS. Don't fear, our ambrosia is all natural and fantastic.

Several orphans joined us... a good time was had by all.

Baby Lochran enjoyed the ambrosia... about 4 hours after it was eaten by his mama.

We always look for a good excuse to pull out the good china.

Fun times are had when Doodal comes around.

New Years Celebrations

We rung out 2008 last night with a 4:45 dinner at Chick-fil-a and a trip to Wal-mart. Man do we feel OLD! We had several options for partying and wanted to make all of them, but alas. We were in bed at 9:30 and asleep by 9:45... neither one of us woke up to ring in the New Year. Sounds like a great night to me.

We did decide to fire up the new fire pit in our front yard and cook s'mores with the girls. Of course, Daddy didn't want one... the girls "I don't like this" and Mommy ended up eating them all. Anne Bailey and Ellabee did fill up on about 20 marshmellows, graham crackers and chocolate sticks... I'm not sure why the combination warrants a "I don't like this" but anyway - a good time was had by all.

Daddy had to help Anne Bailey roast her marshmallows.

A funny thing that did happen is that Matt, our former across the street neighbor who now lives up the hill thought John was a homeless man rummaging in the yard looking for sticks... I think it was the 80s era hat - my hat from my youth.

warming up by the fire - for some reason we choose to do these outdoor things on the coldest nights of the season... it was about 35 degrees.

We finally got the fire going... and it went and went and went - long after we'd gone in.