the funnies

chloe:

daddy, do only jewish people think menorahs are pretty?

when playing with her dollhouse, which has an african-american family of dolls, after an extended break: look mommy, it's barack obama!


amelia:

one rare morning when the whole family was piled into bed together: we're all waked up!

after a comment from me that when winter ends, it turns to spring: mommy, why doesn't the whole world end?

overheard amelia singing: don't you want to, don't you want to, don't you want to be with me? (i have no idea if this is a real song or if she made it up!)

random pics - january 2009

chloe finally lost one of her top teeth on 1/20/09! (this is after losing 3 bottoms....)..... amelia as daddy..... the sunset from our side porch.....

playing in the snow - 1/12/08

we have been getting lots of little amounts of snow... not enough yet for even a snowman or sledding! here are some pics of the girls on our swingset.... super fun!

chanukah 2008

sometimes i get so mad at myself for not taking out the camera! this is the only picture we have of the wonderful family chanukah party hosted by grandma and grandpop barth in roosevelt on 12/27. there were about 30 people in attendance, which included 8 kids -- chloe, amelia, their 1st cousins molly & emily, their 3rd cousins heather & andrea and their 5th cousins (i think!!) noah & dylan. (noah & dylan are the children of the girls' 3rd cousin josh and his wife erica -- who by the way just had baby kenzie on 1/13! congrats guys!) i also don't have any pics of us lighting our menorah or of the girls opening any of their 7 chanukah gifts..... oh well.... there's always next year.....

christmas 2008

here are some pics from christmas..... the girls loved all their gifts of which they received the same amount as they do for chanukah -- seven. the 8th chanukah gift and 8th christmas gift are donated to children who don't have many toys. (in this picture, it appears that chloe got about half of what amelia got, but, trust me, santa is very equitable!) chloe's big gift this year, which was given to her by aunt alison, uncle kurt, reid, grand-pa pizanie, and grammy&poppy (my mom & step-dad), was the felicity american girl doll. the american girl craze has begun!

"you clean up real nice!"

here is a pic of jeff and i dressed up for our annual neighborhood (grown-ups only) holiday party at the aneser's on 12/20/08. typically i am makeup-less in jeans and a sweater, so it's nice to dress up once in awhile. the quote in the title is attributed to an older fellow on our tour of italy in 1998..... when we joined the tour, i was grungy and pale with my hair in a pony tail, basically looking about 16 when i was actually 28. later that night, i was dressed up with hair and makeup done and he looked over at me and said "well, you clean up real nice"! 8-)

our chanukah party -- 12/13/08

every year we host a chanukah party for our jewish friends... everyone brings something and jeff makes the main course and latkes. the kids play chanukah bingo and dreidel and each child gets a gift and a goody bag. the kids have a GREAT time! the top pic is jeremy & josh haftel -- 2 of the 3 haftel boys. their mom jennifer is the founder of my book club and also the founder of a 4-couple gourmet club that we are apart of that meets 4 times / year. the one of amelia is with her "best friend" zoe who she met at all day learning centers... too cute!

thanksgiving 2008

a pic of the barth clan on thanksgiving day and some cute pics of the girls in front of the fire (mid-nov)...

the deer are finally coming back....

this photo was taken in mid-november.... we are just now getting some deer after being in the house for almost 5 years.... (can you believe it??).... the deer were all over this land (a former farm) until the development went up... we saw signs of them during the building of the house but once we moved, we never saw any. they're baaaaaaaaaack!!!!