SweetlifeOhio

2011 (so far) in a nut-shell...in reverse chronological order!

2011-11-06T12:00:00.000-08:00

This is our year so far in a nut-shell. We added only a few pictures from trips, omitted any birthday photos...I'll try to be better in updating, but with facebook (and I'm not a big "facebooker" either) I feel this is almost redundant. However, it looks much better on a blog than on facebook.

Jamison receiving his "star" from Boy Scouts Nov 2011

Halloween 2011

A fall-favorite...biking.

Melissa is in first grade Aug 2011 (here the German traditional way with her "Schultüte")

We crashed the Michaelsen reunion for an afternoon and evening. It was a record-breaking 113 F in Warrensburg. We went swimming and had a delicious dinner with them. Photo here with Grandma Madsen.

Independence, Missouri

Another family-favorite while in Utah- visiting BYU's campus (the Y really small in the background).

A Family-favorite when we are in Utah- visiting Temple Square.

Grandpa Lofthouse' 70th birthday bash

Kids riding Aunt Paige's horses at the reunion.

Whitewater rafting, Flaming Gorge. Oh boy...we almost went overboard!

Pulling handcarts at the family reunion in Wyoming.

Martin's Cove, Wyoming. We visited this place before we headed to our family reunion.Timothy pulling a miniature handcart.

Lake Sylvan, South Dakota

Visiting Mount Rushmore, South Dakota....loved this state.

Winter Quarters. We hooked up with Andrew's brother Darren and his daughter Kasia and niece Yuki from Alaska (it was so much fun traveling with these guys).

Ahh! Vacations without the kids are so relaxing!

Andrew and Miriam went to Southern Mexico for a week in June. It was just awesome. Especially touring the Mayan ruins/temples like Chichen Itza, Coba and Tulum. We would go back in a heartbeat

Timothy's baptism in June.

Easter 2011

We love to see the temple. We took the kids to see our "little temple" in Columbus.

Audrey is a great playwright. Her script (and 12 others) was selected from over 800 entries. It was fun watching the Columbus Children's Theater performed the plays. They also toured the state of Ohio.

Jamison was the male lead in his Middle School Musical in March. Andrew and I were pretty floored how confident he was singing and acting on stage. He certainly didn't get this talent from us.

Washington DC Thanksgiving

2010-12-09T11:48:00.001-08:00

I was not sure if I wanted to do this entry because I already posted photos on my facebook page. So I felt this would be a little redundant.
Our trip to DC Thanksgiving week was fabulous. We saw a lot, our feet ached quite a bit from all the walking, but luckily our hotel was only a block from the National Mall. So we could go there and rest a little bit and then continue going to museums and sites.
I can highly recommend doing this with your kids. They love actually seeing what they have learned from textbooks.
Washington DC Temple

Washington Memorial

Boy Scout Memorial

White House

World War II Memorial

Lincoln Memorial

Vietnam memorial

Jefferson memorial/ picture taken from the Washington Monument (this was the kids' favorite)

First Ladies Inaugural Gown Gallery American Museum (girls absolutely loved this)

Toured the capitol- really awesome, too.

Supreme Court

Art Gallery (absolutely loved this place)

Wright Flyer Air and Space Museum

Jefferson Memorial

Arlington Cemetery

George and Martha Washington's grave site

Mount Vernon Washington's Home
Touring his home was not so interesting because of all the Church history things we have seen. It was just amazing learning how much he has done for this country.

Air and Space Museum in Cantilly, VA with shuttle Enterprise

Concord supersonic jet that could fly London New York in 4 hours

Jamison is 12 !!!

2010-09-20T08:19:00.000-07:00

Sept 19, 2010...can't believe our little baby boy is 12 and a deacon. Before we know it he is off on his mission.

Our 2010 vacation

2010-08-13T06:32:00.001-07:00

Our trip to Europe.
We spent 3 1/2 weeks in Europe. We started out in Heidelberg for a couple of days staying with my sister and her family. Then we headed down to Freiburg, my hometown. I had to bear my testimony in my homeward in German (which I haven't done in a long time, but everyone said that my German was still very good without any accent. That made me happy). After that we went to down to Switzerland to visit my brother and his family. Then went to Interlaken and hiked in the mountains. After Switzerland, we spent some days in the Black Forest which was great as well. Couple of more days in my hometown visiting friends and two other siblings.
Then we went back up to Heidelberg to drop of Melissa and Timothy and pick up my niece to fly to London. Spent 5 full days in London seeing many different sites. Windsor Castle and Sunday in the Hyde park ward and Park were our favorite days.
Flew back to Germany, spent a day in the Frankfurt Temple and then packed up to head back to the States. It was a great time, but a little stressful to do with 5 kids. But we are happy we were able to spent this time together as a family.

View from Heidelberg Castle.

This is one of our most favorite days on this trip. The weather was great. We took the train to Interlaken. Another train to Lauterbrunnen. The funicular to Gruetschalp and then another train to Muerren. So we pretty much were high in the Alps. Then we hiked even further up and got this beautiful view of the 3 mountains of Eiger, Moench and Jungfrau. Jungfrau is called "Top of Europe" because there is a special train that one can take and go up as high as 15,000 feet.

We spent 3 days at Titisee with just our family. It is a lake in the Black Forest. A great area for hiking and mountain biking.

I thought this was cute. The "parking lot" of a German pre-school. The little kids ride their bikes , scooters to school.

Melissa's 5th birthday...celebrating with her German grandparents and extended family in Freiburg

Kristen celebrated her 1st birthday at my sister's in Heidelberg Germany

photo taking from the London-Eye...

London-Eye (took this photos while taking a river cruise of the Thames)

Big Ben and House of Parliament

Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace

Tower Bridge with Audrey and my niece Thalea (we left Timothy and Melissa with my sister in Germany which made it so much easier to get around London)

Tower of London. We saw the famous crown jewels of Queen Elizabeth and other kings and queens there.

St. George Chapel next Windsor Castle. Prince Charles and his current wife got married there.

Speaker's Corner Hyde Park Sunday afternoon...a very busy place

Buckingham Palace

My childhood friend Daniela...our families went to the zoo together. It is always nice hooking up together. We have almost parallel lives...she served her mission same time, went to college same, married about the same time, had our kids about the same time, served in similar callings about the same time...

At the end of our trip, we went to the Frankfurt Temple with my sister and her ward (and my Dad). It has been 18 years since the last time I have been there. I was endowed there and have many great memories from this place.

So much for updating on a regular basis!

2010-03-28T12:18:00.000-07:00

Sorry that we haven't updated this blog in a while. Life seems so busy especially with our church responsibilities and the kids' responsibilities and doing the all the essentials. Blogging just doesn't seems to make even near the top of the list. So...this seemed to be a good Sunday afternoon activity to do with Audrey and Jamison. Life is good. We are excited for General Conference weekend and Easter. The weather has been good (especially after an unusual long winter) and the kids love playing outside. Kristen is 8 months old and crawling around quite well (time to baby-proof everything!!!). We have Spring break next week and the kids love having time off. Andrew, however, started teaching a new semester and can't take time off. We'll try to head to museums and go to Columbus and Cincinnati with other moms and their kids who have school off as well.

A more recent photo of Kristen (in red) with her best baby pal.

Girls' afternoon out (except for Kristen). We saw a Ballet "Alice in Wonderland" and the girls loved it (especially the "tea party" they had beforehand).

Timothy and his Lego temple. He loves Lego.

Snow in February. This is close to our backyard (stairs leading down down to creek which were of course covered in snow and made nice slope for sledding).

Kristen all bundled up. We had quite a bit of snow in January and February (at least for Ohio, but still not nearly as much as Utah).

Melissa and Audrey were one of the angels in the in the Hispanic Christmas party of the Dayton combined Stakes which took place in December. Andrew (who is our only Spanish speaking family member) helped out with this special event.

Kristen was the baby Jesus and Mary and Joseph are a real couple from South America. Mary had the ability to keep Kristen calm and interested.

Family photos Dec 09

2010-01-11T07:02:00.000-08:00

Just a couple of updated family photos...when I get around to it, I'll post some actual Christmas photos.

Fall, Halloween and updated pictures of Kristen

2009-11-16T06:19:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it has been a while since the last entry. Kristen is 10 days shy of turning 4 months. She is growing up fast and she is a real delight. It seems like she has been a part of the family for a long time. The other day however, I don't know what it was, the kids lined up to get something from me. I was just shaking my head and turned to Andrew and asked: "Who are all those kids?". We are definitely "an odd family" out here in Ohio. Most people have 1-2 kids, sometimes 3.

Halloween 2009. The girls are dressed up as medieval princesses and the boys are their "knights in shining armor". Kristen of course just in her "baby pumpkin outfit".

Hayride in October. Every year, many families of our ward get together and do this hayride, getting pumpkins. It was really nice this year because the weather is still really great.

This is not staged. Kristen was keeping her hands folded the entire time of the hayride. We all said that she didn't like the ride and "was praying" for it to be over.

Palmyra, New York

2009-09-12T07:19:00.000-07:00

Our family (including Miriam's parents) drove to Palmyra, NY for 3 days over Labor Day Weekend. It was a 1000-mile round trip with many sites, but definitely worth it. It has been 11 1/2 years since the last time we were up there and the Church has added new sites which was really interesting. It was nice to see how Audrey and Jamison start making connections now from what they read in the scriptures and the Church sites that they have visited.

Hill Cumorah in Palmyra, NY

Hill Cumorah Visitor Center (with Miriam's parents)

The Palmyra Temple

Quiet moments in the Sacred Grove

The Smith Family Log Home.

The upstairs of the Smith log home where the Angel Moroni visited Joseph Smith several times. We were surprised to see how small the room was and that Joseph Smith shared it with his 5 brothers.

The Smith Frame House (the Smith Family moved from the log house to this house. After they missed their last mortgage payment, they rented the place for a while, but eventually had to move back to the small log home).

Grandin Printing Press in Palmyra where the first 5000 Books of Mormon were printed (Andrew really enjoyed this site).

Peter Whitmer Farm in Fayette, NY.

Jamison in the living room/kitchen of the Peter Whitmer Farm where the Church was restored in 1830.

On our way back, we made a detour up north to see the Niagara Falls

Kristen's Baby Blessing

2009-09-03T13:57:00.001-07:00

Kristen was blessed last Sunday, August 30th. Andrew wanted to wait until Fast Sunday in September, but we are heading up to Palmyra, NY with Miriam's parents for that weekend. They came in for 3 weeks to meet little Kristen and be there for the blessing.
She was actually quite good...for being awake. She didn't make a sound which was always a concern for Andrew, but I think none of our kids ever cried during their baby blessing. It was a good day.
Anyway, sorry about this short entry. I'll try to be more thorough next time.

Birth of Kristen Elise

2009-08-05T16:46:00.000-07:00

Meet our new baby daughter Kristen Elise. She was born July 27, 2009 at 11:30 am. She weighed 8 lbs and 2 oz and was 20 inches long. She was 8 days overdue. My OB kept saying the week prior to her delivery that everything look like I'm going to have this baby any minute now, but I ended up needed a little bit of pitosin to have her head move down a little more. As soon as my water broke, she was delivered within the next hour. Her delivery was quite smooth and she is absolutely healthy for which we are very grateful for.

Going home after a day and a half in the hospital (being home is so much nicer!).

Kristen is actually quite mobile. I have seen her turn from the back to her side and from her side to her stomach. At this pace, she is going to crawl in no time!!!! Hopefully not!

Kristen with Audrey. She's about 6 days old.

Melissa's 4th birthday was July 26th. So, Kristen's and Melissa's birthdays are only a day apart (at least they are not sharing the same day!!!)

One of Melissa's gifts was a dress-up bridal dress. She loves dressing up.

New addition

2009-07-20T06:18:00.001-07:00

Sorry, guys, I had to play a little joke on everyone who reads our blog and knows that I'm due with #5 soon. The baby is not here yet. She was due yesterday 7/19, but no signs of her coming yet. Melissa was 5 days early, so this is definitely a surprise for us that she is late. Hopefully, she will make an appearance soon.

This is the new addition...a brandnew Honda Accord EX with a V6 engine. It's a smooth ride and the best part is that is almost all paid. It is primarily Andrew's car, but he rides the bike most of the time to work (at least from March through November).

Out with the old. Our 1995 Chevy Lumina that work well for us for about 12 years (we got it when we were still at BYU). It had 167,000 miles on it. The guy at Honda told us that a Honda would have lasted much much longer. So I guess we are done with GM.

Andrew took pretty much the whole engine apart. We think he definitely fixed what was wrong (leaking gaskets),but we think the pistons didn't take the "engine taking apart" very well. They make a clicking noise now when you start the engine. So we decided...that was it for us with this car...

We even went on a 7-mile bike ride on Saturday, but it didn't produce any labor just some soreness. But it was fun anyways.

Trip to Utah

2009-07-03T06:30:00.000-07:00

We flew out to Utah mid-June for 9 days. Time there was short (we wanted to see many more people...), but unfortunately, this was Andrew's only time off between semesters of teaching. We had a great time visiting family and some friends, swimming, visiting Church sites, BYU campus, doing a session at the SLC temple and visiting the Oquirrh Mountain Open house. The kids were sad to leave...we made back home okay (and no baby delivery on the plane even though I had less than 4 weeks left when we got home).

It was interesting visiting Welfare Square and see how much the Church is doing to assist the needy. The kids especially enjoyed the chocolate milk and cheese from the Dairy at the end of the tour.

We always go to Temple Square while in Utah. Timothy especially enjoys the Tabernacle and Conference Center.

It was fun to spend a day on BYU campus (where Andrew and Miriam met in 1995, so many great memories of college life).

We attended the Oquirrh Mountain Open House. Our kids' first temple open house.

It is always great to visit Grandma Madsen (Andrew's grandma).

Andrew, Timothy and Yanni and such

2009-06-03T06:13:00.000-07:00

We saw Yanni in concert last night. It is definitively Andrew who likes Yanni (but I liked the concert, too). He has changed his music style and definitively his looks (and we think it is a good change). Yanni uses 4 singers now for his music which takes some getting used to. Nathan Pacheco, who is one of the singers, has a great voice and we think he is going to have a great career ahead of him.

Timothy's 6th birthday was Monday. We can't believe he is 6. He will enter Kindergarten in the fall. We held him back for a year which turned out to be good choice. He is definitively ready now even though he is still getting support for speech. It is not that he can't talk, it is more to help him understand formal school instruction.

Our second car is a 1995 Chevy Lumina. The car has been rather good to us over the last 12 years we owned it (even though it is a GM vehicle!) and the 162,000 miles it has on it. But Andrew noticed that it was leaking coolant lately. So he decided to give it a try and replace the gasket. It was actually a scary site to me because the engine was pretty much all taken apart, but he managed to put it back together.

Audrey is 9!

2009-05-13T05:36:00.000-07:00

Audrey celebrated her 9th birthday May 12th (even though she looks more like a 5th grader because of her size). She requested cheese fondue for dinner (all our kids are fondue junkies especially cheese and chocolate...) We usually buy a Swiss cheese fondue package, but tried a new recipe this time after watching the waiter at "The Melting Pot" restaurant prepared our cheese fondue last month. And we think it turned out quite well. She also wanted a strawberry cake for her birthday cake.
Andrew and I are proud of her in the way she is developing. She is a good student and works most of the time very independently (she still sometimes expresses her dislike for homework and school, but isn't this quite normal?).

Andrew's birthday

2009-04-21T10:03:00.000-07:00

Andrew's 36th birthday was on the 13th of April, the day after Easter. Even though celebrating at this age is not a big deal anymore, the kids really enjoy any celebration. I made Andrew's favorite cake, carrot cake with orange-cream cheese frosting (this time I added marzipan balls on top, a German specialty even though I like it more than he). I found a good recipe on the foodnetwork website. It seems more complicated when you read it, but is actually quite simply. I also made some changes to it...like less sugar, 2/3 wheat flour and 1/3 regular flour, walnuts instead of pecans, I also used a different frosting. The cake was quite moist which we really liked. I posted the recipe in case you are like me who always likes to gather new recipes...

John Barricelli's Carrot Cake

Makes one 8-inch layer cake

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, melted plus more for pans
1 cups all-purpose flour, 2 cups whole wheat flour plus more for pans
1 cup (3 ounces) pecan halves or chopped walnuts (I use walnuts)
1 pound large carrots, peeled
3 large eggs, room temperature
1/3 cup nonfat buttermilk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 tablespoons freshly grated ginger
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter two 8-by-2-inch round cake pans. Dust with flour, and tap out any excess. Set aside. Spread pecans in a single layer on an ungreased baking pan, and toast in oven until lightly golden, about 7 minutes. Remove from oven and let stand until completely cool. Reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees. Finely chop pecans and set aside.
Using the smallest holes (less than 1/4-inch in diameter) of a box grater, grate carrots, yielding 2 1/2 cups. Place carrots, eggs, buttermilk, vanilla, sugar, and ginger in a large bowl; mix until well combined.
Into a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Using a rubber spatula, fold the flour mixture into the carrot mixture until combined. Fold in the butter and toasted pecans.
Divide batter between the two cake pans, and bake until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, about 1 hour. Remove pans from oven, and transfer to a wire rack to cool, about 15 minutes. Turn cakes out onto rack; let stand until completely cool.

Cream Cheese Frosting:
1/2 stick of unsalted butter
8 oz cream cheese, soft
1-1/2 cups of powdered sugar
grind of 1 orange
a little bit of orange juice

Mix and frost cake (1/3 of frosting for layer in between cakes, 2/3 for the whole cake). Chill for 3-4 hours.

Finally an entry again...Easter!

2009-04-13T07:17:00.000-07:00

It has been quite a while since our last entry. Not much has happened...Yesterday was Easter. So I thought I might post a couple of photos. We had a little egg hunt in our front yard before we went to Church at 1 pm. After church, we had an Easter meal with ham, asparagus, sauce hollandaise and red potatoes. We watched also " To this end was I born" which is the original length of "Lamb of God". I got familiar with this movie when I taught in the MTC in 94/95 and loved it ever since. It was a good day. The kids of course loved the German chocolate easter bunny and eggs they got and ate.
As a side note: Some of you already know...some probably don't, but I'm almost 6 months pregnant due mid-July. This might come as a surprise to some of you because we were quite sure 4 kids would be it for us. But we are (especially the girls) excited to add another one in 3 months.

In honor of Inauguration day

2009-01-20T12:35:00.000-08:00

In honor of the inauguration today, I donated money to the Susan B. Anthony Foundation. An organization of pro-life women (http://www.sba-list.org, http://www.suzyb.org). The money is used to stop the "bailout of the abortion industry".
I hope this entry is not perceived as bragging. The anti-abortion issue and "marriage between a man and a woman" are two things I feel very passionate about and that also the Church encouraged us to stand up for.

Christmas Photos

2009-01-13T10:36:00.000-08:00

I had to add this photo of Melissa...this seems to be her signature smile when she is told to smile. She pretty much just lifts one corner of her month!!

Christmas Morning

Christmas Eve: Acting out the nativity story...Melissa as Mary and Timothy as Joseph. Audrey was the Angel and Jamison I think a shepherd.

Christmas Eve Dinner. The kids and Andrew wanted a turkey dinner with all the fixings. We missed out on a good homemade Thanksgiving meal because we were in Florida. I found a meal plan in the magazine "Real Simple" that helped me prepare everything even including dessert and homemade cranberry sauce in 3.5 hours.

Service with immediate benefits

2008-12-24T07:50:00.000-08:00

As our "family Christmas service project", Andrew and I brought lunch, cooked it and served it to 130 people at a local homeless shelter in downtown Dayton yesterday. While we were there, the shelter got a huge baked goods donation from "Dorothy Lane Market" (a local gourmet market and grocery store specializing in hard-to-find items). Some of their baked goods were typical German. I had no clue that they had German baked goods. When the head of the shelter saw my surprise, she gave me all the "bretzels", saying also that the homeless wouldn't like it or eat it. "Bretzel" has obviously a similar taste to the "American pretzels" except they are not a snack food. They are much thicker. You cut them open and put some butter in it and eat it for breakfast or lunch.
This made me realize again how much I still miss German foods.

Thanksgiving in Florida

2008-12-01T07:29:00.000-08:00

We drove to Orlando, FL for Thanksgiving. It was a over 2000-mile round-trip in 5 1/2 days, but definitely worth it. Andrew's brother Darren lives there. His oldest brother Scott from Alaska and his family were there visiting as well as his sister Megan from Utah and her family. We had a great time together!

Of course you can't go without swimming when you are in Florida (even in November! It was in the mid 70's for most of the week. One day even high 70's)

Gatorland in Orlando...everything "alligator"

We spent 2 days at the Kennedy Space Center (Cape Canaveral). The kids loved it (and all want to go to the Moon now). Jamison even rode the G-force machine and a flight simulator.

Rocket Garden, Kennedy Space Center

Timothy in front of the Launch Pad, Cape Canaveral

Richard Paul Evans

2008-11-15T13:33:00.000-08:00

This afternoon I went with my friend Cindy (Cindy, I probably beat you to this entry!!!) to Books&Co to hear Richard Paul Evans introduce his new book "Grace". It was really nice to speak to him in person. We decided to make his book-signing in Dayton a yearly event to go to (especially considering we didn't have the kids with us!).

as a side note: On Sunday, he also attended sacrament meeting at our ward with his wife.

Halloween 2008 picture

2008-11-07T17:37:00.000-08:00

We bought these "flamenco" outfits on the streets of Sevilla. We thought these would be better than the standard Target or Walmart-bought Halloween outfits. The girls love the multiple-layered dresses.

Biking- a family favorite!

2008-10-27T12:28:00.000-07:00

We enjoy biking as a family. There is a bike trail going from Cincinnati to Columbus (110 miles) which we often ride (obviously not the entire way). The Ohioan countryside is especially beautiful in the fall.
Timothy got a co-pilot bike now that hooks up to an adult bike. He enjoys being able to go much faster now than he did when he rode his own bike (and it is also much more fun than sitting in the trailer with Melissa).

Looks familiar?

2008-10-17T11:59:00.000-07:00

This was in the news a week ago. Wild weather: Fedra was ripped apart by vicious seas.

Sept 17, 2008. Our family and the same lighthouse (seen below) in Gibraltar. The weather obviously was much nicer.

Oct 11, 2008

The crew of a cargo ship were plucked to safety as their 35,000 tonne vessel snapped in half after smashing against rocks in the Strait of Gilbraltar.

The Liberian-registered Fedra had been dragging her anchor in a force 8 gale on Friday afternoon.

Despite earlier efforts of two tug boats to hold the ship clear of land its anchor broke and the stern of the vessel smashed against rocks at Europa Point in Gibraltar.

Viva España!

2008-10-12T16:40:00.000-07:00

Spanish market place

left: Timothy, Audrey and Melissa in Gibraltar. The mountains in the back is North Africa.

left: Jamison in front of the cathedral of Sevilla.

It has been a while since our last blog entry.
We went to Spain in September. Andrew did not have the summer off. He had to teach a class. We opted to do a little vacation in September. We stayed in Spain for 8 days. Even though it was short, we enjoyed it.
We stayed in the Andalucia region which is the southwestern Spain.

June 2008 Saying our final good-byes to Michigan

2008-07-14T12:38:00.000-07:00

Gallup Park in Ann Arbor MI
One of our most favorite parks to go to.
We usually rode our bikes there.

Moving the rest of our stuff in June (this time it was the girls turn to ride in the truck. The end of December, the boys rode in the large truck...we think next time we need 2 large trucks if we move ourselves!!!)

Our house in MI that took a while to sell. With Michigan being #4 in the nation for real estate appreciation drop, short sales and foreclosure, we count ourselves lucky that we were able to sell without any major repercussions.

May 2008 continued

2008-07-12T12:02:00.001-07:00

"Our backyard"- our house in Ohio backs into a Nature Preserve with lots of trees and a creek. The kids love exploring nature (especially during the summer break)!

The whole family was visiting Kirtland Memorial Weekend. It was the first time visiting Kirtland for Miriam's Dad.

May 2008

2008-07-12T11:52:00.000-07:00

Audrey with Andrew on her baptism day May 17th.

same day with Miriam's parents

Catching up continued

2008-07-12T11:39:00.000-07:00

In front of the Aerospace Engineering building where Andrew had his classes and his office

Catching up

2008-07-12T11:25:00.000-07:00

I'd like to catch up a little bit on the last few months of our life. It is not that too much or earth-moving things have happened, but a few...
like Andrew's graduation from the University of Michigan April 2008
(even though he finished in December 2007, he had to wait to participate in graduation until April)

1st real day of summer break I guess

2008-07-10T16:45:00.000-07:00

Summer break here started June 4th I believe. But with all things going on like Cub Scout camp, going to MI and packing up the house and unpacking here, we haven't had a normal summer week yet...until today.
I put the kids to work in the yard (weeding, etc.) and I mowed the long-overdue lawn.
Andrew LOVES his job and still keeps fit by riding his bike to work everyday (especially now with the gallon of gasoline being over $4 here in OH).

2008-07-09T13:06:00.000-07:00

This is the most recent family photo I was able to find which is from May 17 "Audrey's baptism".

Not sure if I really want to do that

2008-07-09T12:52:00.000-07:00

Hi,
with people blogging everywhere, I thought I might give it a shot! Andrew is usually weary of posting too much info on the net...
But with family and friends so far away, it might be something we want to do to keep you posted on our...
...sweet life in Ohio.