More Christmas 2008

A rarity that the whole Elmlinger family is actually all together in the same room!!! Usually there is at least another city, state or country inbetween us all! Clockwise from Left: My mom, brother-in-law Mark, sister Melissa, brother Greg, hubby Shawn, me, Grant, cousin Kyle, Blake, Evan, & my dad.
The 4 and only cousins - together again!!!

Santa's little helpers!
2 peas in a pod - Kyle and Blake watching Wall E.

My cousins (so that would be my kids' 2nd cousins I think) from the Phillipines and London: Evan, Kristen, Morgan and JP
We have always said that Blake looks just like JP - if you put a picture of when JP was 4 next to Blake, you can't tell them apart - here is partial proof, that even though there is a 10 year age gap between them, they still look alike - guess those Lafferty genes run strong!
The girls! Morgan just turned 21 and is studying at Middlesex University in London and Kristen just turned 18 and will graduate soon from Brent International in the Phillipines. She's awaiting word on several universities here in the States to attend for college.
My Uncle Jim (top left on the couch with my brother Greg) has worked for P&G forever overseas - just in case you're wondering why my cousins have lived all over the world. The newest addition to the Lafferty clan is Kenji - he is the sweetest, most adorable little boy ever. He fit right in with Blake and Kyle too, playing cars!!!

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas!!!

We've had a great few days, and more good ones coming up over the next week.

Shawn's mom, sister and brother-in-law came up on the 23rd and stayed til' the 24th. It was nice to spend some quality time with them.

I think this is the first year ever that we've spent Christmas Eve evening and Christmas day by ourselves - very different, yet very nice too! The kids had a blast as you'll see in the pics below.

We're excited to travel to Cincinnati on Sat. morning to have Christmas with my parents, my brother, and my sister and brother-in-law and little nephew. Should be a really fun weekend with all of us "kids" back together!

Then we'll cap the year off with our best friends, the Cassidy's, in Cincy - as we do every year! They don't call us the Lil'Cass crew for nothin - haha!

Once again, we failed to produce a Christmas Card this year, so hopefully you've been keeping up with the blog for updates. At any rate, we wanted to wish you and yours a very blessed Christmas and wish you much love, joy and peace in 2009!

Love,
Beth, Shawn, Evan, Grant and Blake Liller

Can't even believe I got a picture of this - this would NEVER happen on a normal day!!!

Grant putting out the cookies, milk and a little thank-you note to Santa.

Twas' the night before Christmas...

If you have boys, then I don't even need to tell you why they all got some "coal" in their stockings!

The "most wanted" on Evan and Grant's Christmas lists - Club Penguin games for their DS's.

Evan loves his Bakugan - so he got the official Battle Arena along with about 10 Bakugan figures.

Grant has been wanting an official Peyton Manning jersey for a long time - he's still wearing it now, but at least he finally put on some jeans with it (the pic below shows how he wore it all morning)! He really wanted it autographed, but I certainly don't have those kind of connections. He's convinced he's going to meet Peyton "in a few weeks" and "I'll just get it signed then" - ahhhhh, I love the optimism kids have!!!

Blake still loves Hot Wheels and race cars - so he got this great play rug and finally convinced Grant to play with him.

Yep, more race cars - he sat mesmerized watching them go up the track and spin down the track over and over and over and over and over - well you get the point!

Another hit was the Animal Crossing City Folk game for our Wii - I might even learn how to play this one, looks pretty cute!

FINALLY!!!

Well, after 2+ years of trying to "update" my blog, I finally found this site from this friend's blog and decided to give it a try once again.

AND GUESS WHAT???

IT WORKED!!!

So, I hope you enjoy the look of our new blog - this might become a common occurance now that it's been made easier (meaning, I don't lose a lot of my page elements whenever I try to change colors or whatever!!!)

Happy blogging!!!

Indiana Ice

So the first thing Grant says this morning after getting ready for school is "Come on Blake - let's go outside and we can play 'Don't Break The Ice' before my bus comes". Ahhhh, the imaginations of our kids! Actually, I thought that was pretty brilliant (they have the game and play it often). So they go outside and start chipping away at the ice on our front stoop and walkway. After a few minutes, Grant rings the doorbell and has a big chunk of ice in his hands. I'm thinking what the heck is he doing with that, and he tells me "look at this piece of ice mom" and I'm like "yeah, cool honey" and he says "but don't you know what it is?" and I obviously have no clue - so he goes on to say "look harder mom, it's kinda shaped like the state of Indiana!!!"

Yep, kids - I wish I could still see things through their eyes, with a little more innocence, imagination and belief. Kinda like the Polar Express where the kids can hear the bell ringing but the adults can't.

May you all have a very blessed Christmas and New Year - and may we all be able to believe, not necessarily in the things we can see, but in the things we can't see!

Bongo Boys Community Drum Circle

Last night we went to this awesome, FREE drum exhibition! Every Thursday night from 7:15 to 8:30 pm, the Bongo Boys Music School puts on a free community drum circle. Basically that means you get to go, take your kids if you want, hang out and bang out some frustration on a bunch of drums! We went after spinning last night with some friends (thanks for finding this Sandra!!!) and took the kids - they had a BLAST!!! I'm sure we'll probably go every Thursday now - the kids can't wait to go back! They're located in Castleton off Bash Rd. If you want more information, you can copy and paste this link:
http://www.bongoboymusic.com/news_events.asp



The instructor had a great time with the kids - and the kids really responded to his spunk and love for the drums. This video is truly a drum "circle"!!!

Blake, Max (Evan's friend), Evan and Sierra banging away.

Evan and Max - having a great time!

Daddy, joining in with Trasan, Grant, Evan and Max

The kids' drum circle: L to R: Laura, Grant, Blake, Max, Evan and Trasan

Blake doing a little solo action.

Grant was loving the set of 3 drums.

Daddy was just tryin' to keep up.

I was shocked at how much rhythm the younger kids had! Maybe this will be the instrument of choice for Blake - he was so serious and "into" it!

Max, Evan and Trasan had some game of their own!

Merry Christmas Cookies

Every year, the boys LOVE to make - well, maybe not make, but they love to EAT the homemade Christmas cookies I make (my great-grandma's recipe I believe, I just know them as my mom's cutout cookies).

They always start out doing a great job helping me, but by the time the first batch is done baking, they're MUCH happier eating them!!! Here are a few shots...

My "baby"

Well, I just had to put this one on here b/c it clearly shows how my "baby" really isn't a baby anymore. He fell asleep on the couch when we got home from working out (which is why I look so hideous), so I picked him up and he fell back asleep on me - how could I resist the chance to snuggle with him while he slept! I just wish they wouldn't grow up so fast!!!

First snowfall of 2008!

Nothing like some good packing snow for the kidlins! They had a blast during our first real snowfall of 2008. Creative little munchkins they are!!!

Rollin', rollin', rollin'

"Look what we're making"!!!

All 3 boys and one of their friends jump in to make more stuff in the front yard.

The finished products: According to Grant, they are as follows from L to R: A very large bird, a frog, a jack-o-lantern and a snow ghost. Ahhh, straight from the imagination of babes!