Getting ready for Christmas...

Abby had her adenoid surgery a couple weeks ago, and it went off without a hitch. Above is a picture of her just after the procedure, still asleep from anesthesia. She slept on and off for about two hours, and as you can see from the pictures below, by the time we left the hospital she was back to her old fun self!

Stiv was "stuck" in this position for 90 minutes holding the sleeping Abster.

This is one utterly cool makeshift balloon!!! Medical school really came in handy here.

Who is ready to leave the hospital?

We began Thanksgiving Day with the Atlanta Half Marathon. Later in the day, the Shores had us over for Thanksgiving dinner where we made up for all the calories burned in the run earlier. The kids had a blast running around and making a mess of the place. Abby and Ariel had fun taking a tub together at the end of the night.



Jackson and Dad spent the Sunday after Thanksgiving setting up our Christmas tree. Jackson was a big help this year, but enjoyed climbing the ladder the most. The directions claim that the process should only take 15 mins... we are not sure why Stiv and Jackson were at it for 1.5 hrs.

The kids enjoyed the Christmas Festival in downtown Tucker... Highlights were roasting (and eating) marshmallows and getting their picture taken with Santa.

Jax and Catie with a present...

Oak Grove CDC hosted a "Night in Bethlehem." There were several "village shops" open for business as well as craftsmen and food merchants. There were even tax collectors strolling through the nativity scene asking for taxes or tokens. Joseph and Mary cared for baby Jesus in a stable, surrounded by shepherds, angels and live animals. The live animals were a big hit with all.

"The Bag Lady"... another one of Catie's great outfits that she selected all on her own.

Jackson and "The Gobbler"... check out the video below.

"I should have been Jewish!" Jackson enjoyed playing the dreidel game and cleaned house!

Catie is taking her spice making very seriously...

The girls love their new shark swim caps. They wore them around the house pretending to be sharks, only they were both roaring like lions????



Abby and Catie had their Christmas Program at Oak Grove. Abby and her class "sang" Ring Those Bells. Abby seemed a bit confused, but did figure out how to shake the bells by the end of the song.

Jackson was in the middle of a big game of skeet ball. If there is another way to loose money faster, we would like to know what it is... Gotta love Chuck E. Cheese!

The kids spent most of the weekend misbehaving and doing a poor job of listening, so we sent them to bed early with no "midnight" snack. They obviously were sending us a message that they did not like the turn of events because the next morning we found a "dead" horse in our bed!

Halloween and Jackson's 8th Birthday

Jackson and Catie decided to dress up as Flash and Flash Girl for Halloween this year. They ran around the house "super fast" all day. We were disappointed when Monday morning came around and the kids went back to their "super slow" routine of getting ready for school.

Abby looked so cute in her Super Girl costume. Unfortunately, she only spent about five minutes in the outfit before tearing it off.

The Wilson's invited us over for Luke and Landon's annual pre-Trick or Treat pizza party. Maybe someday we will have people over....

Many of our neighbors put up some elaborate decorations that make the night quite memorable for the kids. It is amazing how much candy the children collect from only 26 houses.

Who is the greatest super hero... Scooby Doo!

Abby and Jackson sharing a sleeping bag before bedtime. Abby likes to run around giving everyone goodnight hugs before bed, but she loves to wake up Jackson every morning by jumping on him relentlessly.

Catie is approving of her old outfit.

All dressed up and no place to go...

Jackson invited his friends to celebrate his birthday at a local indoor pool that has a lazy river, huge water slide, and other play stuff.

Surprise! Bella and Catie hanging out and acting silly at the party.

The theme of the party was Star Wars, of course, so we had our local cake person make this Darth Vader and Stormtrooper cake for the occasion. It weighed 40 lbs and was too big for a box! We have been snacking on the left over cake for two days straight and have not even made a dent. We decided to give away a bunch of cake to a few neighbors so they would think that we were good neighbors, but actually it was just an attempt to get rid of this thing!


Stiv accidentally bought the "trick" birthday candles that keep relighting after they are blown out. We had a good laugh and the kids thought is was just hilarious... Below, Abby's vocabulary has expanded to "Boo."

The Big 40!

Coast to Coast in 48 hours. We went from our Florida trip and the beaches of the Atlantic to surfing the waves of the Pacific in just 48 hours last week. Steve surprised Ann with a trip to San Diego to fulfill her dream of learning to surf. Grandmas Moe and Schwartz were nice enough to come down to Atlanta and watch the kids the four days we were gone. Hopefully, their time with the children was more fun than our trip and they will make it a semi-annual event.... wishful thinking of course!

Our first morning in San Diego we went for an 4 AM run TOGETHER, had a nice BIG breakfast and headed over to Mission Beach for our surfing lesson.

The seas were angry the morning of our lesson, but we headed out to conquer the surf regardless. The weather was strange this morning, and it looked like the early stages of a major hurricane! We had so much fun with the surf lessons... we were laughing the entire first hour.

"The natural" riding in the tail end of her wave... not bad for an old bag.

During the lesson, they teach you to relax and work with the wave... don't fight it. Based on Stiv's face, I don't think he was listening. Intensity in ten cities!

If you enjoy the picture of Stiv's wipeout, please contact us as we have many more that are just as good.

We spent part of our second day in La Jolla, enjoying great food, shopping and scenery. Above, Ann is posing with the sea lions in the background.

We capped our first full day off with a beautiful hike through Torrey Pines State Reserve.

Kayaking through the seven caves of La Jolla was another highlight of the trip. Our guide was making fun of people who actually bring their camera out in the boat protected only by a ziplock bag. Don't worry, ours was a heavy duty freezer ziplock.....

One of the Caves in La Jolla.

We took stairs down to one of the caves... it turned into kind of a tight fit for Steve.

On our final evening, we headed over to Coronado for dinner with our friend Mary. Here is Ann, in front of the historic Hotel Del.

Stiv met a new friend at lunch!!

October and our annual Florida trip

We took a trip to Stone Mountain for the Pumpkin Festival. The kids enjoyed looking at all of the pumpkins. The favorite part was the special balloon swords that a clown made.

Both Jackson and Catie recently completed Space Units at school, so the Kennedy Space Center was a must-see.

Mr. Lego was impressed with the lunar robot made out of Legos. Of course, the comment was "I want to get that!"


The Schwartz family ready to blast off to outer space... just pretend Steve is in the photo... someone had to take the picture.

Each year, we take advantage of a 4-day holiday around Columbus Day to drive down to Florida to see Grandpa Jim and Grandma Sandye. We took a day trip to Disney World with Grandpa Schwartz and the Boston Schwartzes. Grandpa and all the kids were troopers and had a great time riding the rides and begging for candy and stuffed animals. Unfortunately, Uncle Dave and Aunt Sandy did not fare so well... they decided to bail out of the Disney World a little early...

The kids loved the carousel, dumbo and small world rides. By the time the kids are ready for roller coasters and other fun rides, we will be so old that they will be pushing us around in the rental stroller!

Abby handled the long day at the park like a champ and even posed in Mickey Mouse ears against her will without pitching a fit. Once we got back to the car, she was out the second her head hit the car seat.

The Schwartz men at the New Smyrna Beach. I wonder which one is holding in their stomach the most???

The cousins hanging out on Grandma Sandye's couch after swimming in their pool. They all got along wonderfully, and it is so much fun watching them play and bond with each other. Abby wants to be older and get more in the mix so badly.