Christmas Sunday...

 

CHEESE, is what Mallory is screaming - it's cute the first one thousand times, but when it starts to get in the way of professional photography, it's a little well you know what I mean...

 

Happy day, Christmas is almost here!

Christmas Cookie Time!

 

Mallory wants to help make everything!

 

She doesn't like eating flour though.

 

Our little helper!

 

 

Megan frosted over a dozen cookies.

 

Connor liked eating the dough more than making cookies.

 

Grandparent time! The kids loving hanging out with Papa and Grammy!

Connor and his names for kids...

The topic came up while we were eating at "El Pollo Loco" if Connor wanted to have a brother or a sister (don't worry, we aren't having any more kids... just the topic comes up whenever we reminisce about Jeff and Wayne). So we asked Connor if he had a brother and he could choose the name what would it be. He replies, "I'd probably name him something dumb, like Snarvel".

Jenny and I nearly spit out the food in our mouths laughing.

Later we made a promise that if we ever have triplet boys we would name them Manny, Moe and Jack.

Connor turns 5

So a week before Connor's birthday party he comes to us and tell us how is party was going to go. Apparently he had it all planned out and was just informing us on the particulars...

He says to me, "Dad!?, at my party we are going to have a 'Curious George' bounce house, hundreds of my friends will be there", dramatic pause, which gave me time to think, does this kid know people I'm not aware of?, then he finishes with "Annnndddahhhh (which is and just drawn out loudly) it's going to be a surprise!"

So, now Jenny and I needed to figure out how to make this thing a surprise... Turns out he had that one planed out too. On the day of the said mayhem, I asked him if he wanted to go to the park, he said no, cause he was having a surprise party... We are now just along for the ride... His friends show up, (not by the hundreds, but it seemed like it), and they were all in the bounce house. I called them all to come inside and told Connor it was time to eat Pizza, and he said, "is it time for the surprise?!?" So I finally ask him how this was going to work, and he tells me how it's going to go down... "First you have all of my friends go into the front room, then I come in and everyone yells SURPRISE!"

The part that hurt, was the contempt in his voice, like I had no clue what a surprise party was all about... I wish I was able to catch his face on camera, but to no avail, we missed his huge smile and his little dance he did as everyone screamed SURPRISE!

I guess it went just as he planned it to go.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Malibu loves her boots!

 

I don't know why, but kids love to go to sleep with the funniest things. I know somewhere my mom has a photo of me with boots on and some funky mask on my face.

Osaka Bike Museum - near Shimano Head Quaters in Japan.

I got to visit the Osaka Bike Museum during my last trip to the Shimano Head Quaters. It has a ton of bikes - many not on display, just hanging around in the basement, but the bikes on display are from the dawns of time to new current Dura Ace and XTR bikes. Included is one of my favorites, an original Brezzer (one of the first 10 made!) it has the original Campy parts on it from that era. Surprisingly the other bike component makers are absent from the displays...

There was a Batavus 5 seated tandem from the early 1900's it had one of the largest track gears I've ever seen.

Any who - enjoy the photos - and sorry that some of these are out of focus. Click on the photos for a larger view.

Dr. Two Brains

Apparently Connor has been asking everyone to call him Dr. Two Brains lately.

When someone calls him Connor, he says, "I'm Dr. Two Brains".

Apparently he is a character on a PBS show.

Yesterday would have been my Big Brother's 38th Birthday

Yesterday was my brothers birthday. We decided that we would spread his ashes that day. It was a beautiful day! I posted some photos you can view so click on the link above, or cut and past this one... http://ffejgrubmil.blogspot.com/2007/11/jeffs-birthday-we-scater-his-ashes.html

Happy Day of the Dead!

Funny thing about Halloween is my mother never let me dress up as the devil.

 

Maybe this is why, just like Megan... I'd be good at it!

 

Here are the three little monkeys. Megan, Mallory the kitty, and Connor the dinosaur.


We had visited about 8 homes we couldn't have been out for more than 15 minuets, when one home gave us a bottle of bubbles. All Connor wanted to do was play with the bubbles. So, basically I had an uneventful evening - Connor had a blast and soaked the counter with a nice bubbly mess.

 

Connor, Megan, Mallory and Naomi; are you ready for some candy?

 

Connor calls Nikki, Mickey - she's the one in the white.

 

Naomi the Wizard, casts a spell to make sure she gets the most candy!

 

Connor and Dylan - I love it how kids think that even though you watch them put the mask on, you still can't guess that it's them.

Who Likes Bacon?

Jim Gaffigan is one of my favorite comedians.

This bit should tell you why...

Pumpkin Kids!

Well it's that time of year again. And if you can't tell that it's snuck up on us then I'd like to know who takes a picture of the kids with marker on their faces, and the little one with her onesie unbuttoned and her diaper hanging out - oh maybe that's everyone at some point.

Any who - the point is the kids love this time of year as you can tell by their out of focus and happy looks.

 

If you didn't know

Hello all.

You can see that I just posted almost 3 months worth of stuff. Well, July 30th my oldest and last brother Jeff was admitted into the hospital with a slew of problems - due to his alcoholism he developed Pancreatitis - he fought a good fight, but due to the difficulties caused by the pancreatitis he eventually died on September 15th. That was the same day my Dad died 7 years ago.
I started a memorial site for him, and I've posted some photos from the wake, and his dear friend Christine has also posted some old photos of Ffej as all his close friends called him. You can click on the title of this post to go to Jeff's page, or in the upper right hand corner, or you can copy the link below.

http://ffejgrubmil.blogspot.com/

If you have any comments - please make them. If you have any photos you would like to share - please send them to me.

Connor rides his bike without training wheels!

Actual date is October 6th!

 

We tried taking off the training wheels about 6 months ago. It resulted in a crying screaming fit. But I decided to do something I've heard about from other parents who taught there kids to ride bikes at a young age. You take off the training wheels and the pedals and you just let the kid scoot along. They soon learn how to balance the bike - it took Connor about 8 mins of me pushing him and him dragging his feet. He finally trusted me enough to hold his feet up off the ground and I pushed him real fast and let go. He balanced and steered the bike with no problems, and asked to put on the pedals... Well the photo above and the video beneath are proof that it worked!

Soccer and more soccer!

I've missed a number of games this year, but I was glad to go to the games today. Both kids did very well, and Connor actually ran after the ball rather than wait for it to come to him...
The best play of the day was Megan's goal, assisted by Taylor her team mate. I wish I caught it on film. It was our corner kick and Taylor kicked out into the middle of the field but one of the apposing players cleared it out, creating another corner kick for our team. I told coach Jeff same play and he told Taylor to kick it in again just like before. Well she did, and kicked it right to Megan, who in turn kicked it right into the goal! It was as if we practiced it.

 

 

Check out Connor's determination - he wants a snow cone!

 

 

Boy am I thirsty!

 

Disneyland or bust!

Jen's parents got some free tickets to Disneyland and invited us to use some of my sisters free passes... We also decided to drive their new Motor Home there. It worked out perfectly too, we got excellent parking, and when we got hungry for dinner we went back and crashed for a few moments. The drive home was fantastic as I slept on the queen bed all the way home! Thanks Jon and Jan!

 

Before the mayhem.

 

Mallory tries to make her escape!

 

Everyone who knows me knows that I don't like the spin around and puke rides - everyone else loves 'em!

 

 

Just too cute for words...

 

Mini goats - Mallory kept calling them kitties.

 

So much fun, so many things to do - and all she does is sleep!

 

Even Connor thinks these bumper cars in Bugs Land move too slow.