11 on 11 of December '11

Calvin - Prepared plates to take to the bishopric and clerks to eat during tithing settlement.  I told him to smile for 11 - 11 and he said, "I'm Dasher.  No Dancer.  No Prancer.  No . . .  what's the other one's name?"
Rudolph.  He's Rudolph.  

Ty - My picture is with Hu Wentao right after I spoke in the Mandarin Branch 

Abe - enjoying the first roast we have ever made together. It was a success!
And Abe even enjoyed the cheesy scalloped potatoes Grace made, too.

Michelle - appreciating our advent box 

Jane - It has been so foggy that we have stuff on the ground that looks like snow.  
 It’s kind of cool – snow without snowing.

Joe - Notice the mantle decoration tumbling over and into the re-purposed Christmas village

Ande - grading 130 high school essays really puts a damper on one's weekend.

Grace - Went to friend's (Chelsea Heaps) house while Abe went to a church meeting.
Abe and Grace love Payson, Shayne and Chelsea’s little boy.

Cali - Me bathing Levin.  At the last minute, he decided to take a break from drinking his bath water and poked his head up, so he could be in the picture.  I'm not kidding on any account.

Ray - Ray watching his first of many masterpieces.  It is a good thing I have Ray as a co-parent.  He was the one that discovered Levin can sit-up on his own, if you get him in the position.  I was preoccupied with the fact that he STILL can't roll-over, so therefore he must not be able to sit-up yet.  Silly me.  If I were a single parent, our children probably wouldn't walk until they were 5... assuming ALWAYS gets me in trouble.

Levin - He has discovered his feet, but his torso is SOOO much longer than
his legs,  so there is NO hope of those feet ever making it to his mouth...
where he REALLY wants them.  Ray gave Levin a mohawk last night.
He was very concerned with how whimpy Levin looked the night
before when I pulled out a comb and gave Levin a nice respectable
comb-over.  With his comb-over he looked like Calvin
(Calvine & Hobbes) on picture day.

11 on 11 of Oct '11

All the pictures finally came in!  And here they are in the order received . . . 

 Joe – This is Chinese Mama's, one of my favorite places to eat. 

Ande likes it too, but says it's a little too spicy. 

Ande – These are the Aladdin pants Joe brought me back from his latest trip 

overseas. He said he looked for the loudest and most colorful pair, knowing 

I would love them. The little Asian ladies said they were one size fits all. 

Not only are the super comfortable and match with everything, 

they are also very versatile. I mean, look at that stretch! 

I think I could even do yoga in these. 

Michelle – Teaching seminary this morning. 

Ty – While Michelle went to a Relief Society Activity, I set about doing the dishes and while doing them, 

I discovered mice rice.  The WAR is on!  We set two traps tonight and we'll set more if we need to.

Grace – The Young Women surprised me and brought me a nice card and cookies, 

telling me that I embody “Divine Nature.”

Abe – Rubbing my feet after a long day of training . . . 

just like dad, only without the “Ah Yeah!”

Jane – Finished a wonderfully sad book that made me cry.  

Can’t remember the last time I cried during fiction.  

Swatted flies while I did it.

Calvin – Teaching Dan to count bullets out in the shop.

Ray, Cali, and Levin – I'm afraid Levin stole our family's spotlight for 11-11.
He spent the day working really hard on rolling over.

Don't let the pictures fool you . . .

He didn't roll over ALL on his own, but he tried really hard and I only had to give him the tiniest of a nudge. I just hope helping him roll isn't analogous to helping a hatching bird break open their shell. I think I read somewhere that helping them kills them… doesn't allow them to struggle and become strong. Levin, if you never learn to move your own body, you can blame your mother. If you can skip by the time you're one, you can blame your father.                    

Family, you are the best to play this game with me each month.  Thank you.

11 on 11 of 9 - '11

Joe:  It's 9/11/11. Big Pop was buried on 9/11/01. I was on my way to his 

grave-side service when the first plane crashed into the World Trade Center. 

I watched in real-time as another plane crashed into the towers,  smoke rose over 

Manhattan across Raritan Bay, and the Twin Towers fell. I never made Pop's burial.  

Calvin:  Remembering 9-11 at our city’s memorial by the library.

Watched several programs on the TV about it.  Sang America the Beautiful at church.

Jane:  Today for Church we had a satellite broadcast from Salt Lake for our stake conference.

President Packer told a story about my Uncle Ernest that I’d never heard before.

Ande:  After almost a month, I am finally "in" to our book club book.  Now I have three days to finish it.

Abe:  Grace kissing me goodbye before I leave for duty

Grace:  Me with some of the Young Women

Trevor and Michelle:  Freezing corn

Ty and Michelle:  Us with all of our dishes that we have to do but won't do until tomorrow.

(We had friends over for dinner.)

Ty and Michelle:  Us on our love seat adorned with an Air Force blanket from Abe and Grace with the wall that Michelle decorated and that Aunt Lynn gave us (well, not the wall, but the hangings).

Ray, Levin, and I went to church over on Vashon Island today, which means we got to ride the ferry.  Lucky for us, there was a HUGE vintage motorcycle rally over there as well.  The ferry was packed full of hundreds of motorcycles and we were one of the few cars.  Ray spent the whole ferry ride walking around the ferry looking at all the vintage bikes and talking to the riders.  Levin spent the whole ride eating.  I spent the whole ferry ride feeding.  We went to church and then drove out to the island lighthouse with the Eltons.  We had both packed a picnic and shared our hodge-podged lunches with each other.  We had a great time.

Ray and Levin enjoying the afternoon sunset.  Ray's shopping for a new hunting rifle and Levin is staring at all the pictures of the hunting rifles and oohing and ahhhing (or maybe just cooing).

11 on 11 of August '11

Joe:  Here is the flower at our table. The head is in a small bowl of water
and I'm sure Ande will usurp the idea for a future dinner decoration.  

Michelle -- (and Bianca)  Also in the picture is a couch and love seat, a table and six chairs, a coffee table, an end table,
a dresser, and a few other odds and ends.  We were loaded pretty well and probably didn't look too safe
driving down the road.

Grace:  playing with my cousin Vickie's baby

Ty:  Michelle and I going to the temple.  

Abe: Grace’s cousin Vickie and her husband, Matt, and their baby, Carter.

Ray:  waking on the Lake of Moses

Calvin:  calling out "Bonsai"  and holding the front of the boat down at the Follett Fest

Cali:  Dad, Levin, and I in front of the grill filled with all kinds of hot dogs and corn

Follett Fest

Ande:  This is Joe at a comic book/game store. Joe compares every price to amazon
on his phone and reads the back of almost every game. Sometimes this makes for loooong
trips at the store, but we always get the best price and funnest games!

Jane:  "Help!"