Merry Christmas, Darlings!

Lorelai left Santa a sweet note last night. It says "I love you Santa Cloz" on the front

In the middle it shows a picture of her with a Kirby doll she wanted. 

 And she signed her name on the back. So sweet. She didn't ask for much. 

 Jane and Lorelai, the "believers" in our family, set out some milk & chocolate covered pistachios for Santa and also 9 carrots for the reindeer.

 Up before the sun, everyone posed in front of the tree this morning prior to opening gifts. 

 As the sun began to rise, the last gifts were opened by Mom - 6 gourmet chocolate bars from Vosges in Chicago. One kind had bacon in it. Yum! ;)

 And for much of the day, we saw THIS as they tried out their new Wii games.

 Jane played on her own most of the day with her new Minnie Mouse doll and also with a new doll house

Best part? We all stayed in PJs most of the day. Sweet! :)

Merry Christmas Darlings! It was a great day.

Monster Snow Fort

After 18 inchdes of snow, Mystery Man helped our kids built an awesome snow fort. It's about 8 feet tall. The kids had a complete blast playing in it with friends Lydia & Claire.

Merry Christmas, 2012

Merry Christmas from the Ridays!

Mystery Man turned 40 this year! He still enjoys his work as a plant breeder for the USDA. He is becoming reacquainted with the sport of racquetball and plays in a local league. He enjoys relaxing in front of the TV after the kids are in bed, watching Burn Notice, Merlin, and Dr. Who.

Jen plays the banjo, loves yoga, and is trying to redo her business website – all in her copious amounts of free time – NOT!  Jen does in-home childcare for four 3-year-olds and Jane, which she enjoys. She also teaches our kids piano, which she does not enjoy J. Jen learned to downhill ski last year and is excited to see some snow.

Azael is in 6^th grade. He is a percussionist in band and is enjoying Improv, One-Act Plays, and the All-School Musical. He enjoys having lots of friends and having greater freedom as a Middle Schooler. Azael loves Dr. Who!

Ephraim is a 4^th grader and brand new to the Charter School where Silas and Azael attended last year. He has a new best friend named Logan. He is a great swimmer and looks forward to taking a dance class next year.

Silas, a 2^nd grader, had a blast playing soccer this year and has just started basketball. He is quite athletic and does well in school; he just began reading the Harry Potter books. Silas will be getting baptized in February 2013.

Lorelai is in kindergarten and has made many friends. Her best friend is Leslie, who rides her bus. Lorelai brings home lots of rewards for good behavior at school (a big change from preschool!). She is in 1^st-grade reading.

Jane is 3 and enjoys playing with her childcare friends every day. Jane loves to ride bikes down our driveway with her friends, enjoys using scissors, has fun playing with dolls, and re-decorates  our Christmas tree every day.

We hope your Christmas is wonderful and 2013 is your best year yet! May we all feel the love of Christ in our lives and share that love with those around us.

With love,

The Ridays 

A Mystery Man Moment

A Mystery Man Moment: "Hey everyone, we're having Spider Potatoes tonight!" Our curiosity piqued, we all look in the bowl and see cooked potatoes with long sprouts growing out of the eyes, which he apparently didn't want to cut off. 10 points for interesting, right?

Holiday Fun

Time to update. We enjoyed a nice Thanksgiving with our good friends, the Rothstein family.

This past weekend Jen's parents, brothers, sisters-in-law and nephews all came to visit. Prior to their visit, Jen had the not-so-brilliant idea to paint the entry chandelier. This photo doesn't do the reality justice. Jen climbed up 3 stories to paint the top of the chandelier. Note, the ladder is resting against air, except just for the top 2 feet. Nice. 

Everyone arrived on Friday. Jane had been anticipating the visit of her cousin Mason for days prior. Here they are. 

Here is a photo of the entire family. The adults had a nice dinner out on Friday, then on Saturday we celebrated our Christmas with presents, and lots of food. All day. Did I say lots of food? LOL! We all had a gift exchange, which was fun. And Grandma kindly bought all kinds of other fun stuff and all the grandkids took turns picking out gifts. 

I took almost no pictures, but this one is funny. Lorelai's favorite gift was an umbrella. And she modeled it while wearing her new winter hat. 

Just hours after Jen's family left on Sunday, Santa came to visit! The kids had a blast. 

It was a great weekend! 

Kitchen Renovation

We recently renovated out kitchen (ourselves!). I'm not sure how much our renovation really improved anything, but I figure it would be a good idea to document it. So here are the (messy) before pictures which I happened to remember to snap after I'd gotten all the paint supplies out and ready.

And here are the after photos (the main changes are 

* new cabinet handles 

*new wall color 

*new tiled floor & wood trim in a few spots 

*new curtain

*new stove hood (stainless steel)

*new pictures by the table 

*colorful tile stickers above the stove 

What do you think? I think the "After" photos are biased because it's a whole lot cleaner. Ha!

November Photos

Lorelai has enjoyed kindergarten very much. She has a list of 7 girls who are her so-called "BEST FRIENDS!!"  Here is a photo of Lorelai with her "Best-Best-Friend" Leslie, who rides the same bus and lives just across the street. 

 Sunday was the children's program at church. Here are Lorelai and Jane already to go.

 Joined by Ephraim & Silas. Sadly, Azael was ill in bed and had to miss it.

 A photo of Lorelai wearing the "princess dress" Grandma bought for her. :)

 Jane and friends at the library for storytime. They are listening with their full attention, huh? Great kids who are very well behaved and great listeners. Jane is learning a lot. ;)

Jane Turns THREE

Jane turned three this week. We love that little turkey/cutiepie. :)

Some words that describe Jane: happy, angry (depends which moment you are making the assessment), loving, opinionated, funny, cute. What we love most about Jane: she loves to give hugs, she dances frequently and expressively, she dresses up each day. I think she adds a tutu to her outfit at least 4/5 of the time. It's cute.  Jane loves sweets. She loves milk. She is an excellent hiker. She loves her friends Will, Liam, Claire, & Ethan. Jane loves Mommy & Daddy and frequently checks in for cuddles/hugs. She is developing empathy (phew!). This morning she nearly cried because she was so concerned I was coughing too long after I swallowed my lunch wrong. LOL! I'm confident Jane will accomplish a lot in her life because she knows what she wants and gets it at any cost! :) We're so glad to have Jane in our family. She makes us all laugh. We love you Jane!

All Hallows Eve

We had a fun time at the Pumpkin Patch this year:

Two princesses & Darth Vader, just before our church's "Trunk-or-Treat." 

add in the Grim Wreaper and another "Bad Guy."

Our Pumpkins

This year Azael went trick-or-treating with his friends Bergen, Zack, & Kevin. Azael is wearing a "Steve" mask (Steve is a Minecraft character). Here they are:

 I took all our other kids around our neighborhood, and then into town. We have a princess, another princess, a ninja, & Spiderman. 

The evening went well, except for the 2 hours Azael and friends got separated from Mystery Man. Oops. Luckily none of the other boys' parents seemed upset about it. They eventually walked to Bergen's home and all ended well. :)