News layout

No, I don't have any big news, other than "tomorrow is 2010!"

This week's Digidare challenge is to make a page about where we get our news. I don't go for traditional sources....I get most of my news from Josh, Drudge Report and Twitter! :)
(linked to my gallery)

Christmas 2009 in pictures

This is going to be very photo-heavy. Sorry in advance!

Last week we went to Niagara Falls to see the lights on the Canadian side. These trees are coated in ice from the mist from the falls. I don't know how they survive that all winter, every year, but somehow they do!

The girls, with the help of Josh and his dad, tried their hands at ice skating for the first time.
Jasmine said she didn't have fun, but they've been pretending in the kitchen since then, so I guess they really did!

Christmas Eve at my family's house:

Meeting his cousin Elena for the first time :) My kids finally have a cousin! (just one, but at least they finally have one!)

Jasmine "flying," courtesy of Uncle Jacob Airlines

Yeah, this is how we spell "Love Joy Peace" every year. And no, it never gets old.

Elena knew Christmas Eve service would be special!

So did Jasmine :)


My family!

Bekah with her Raggedy Andy from my mom!

We spent too much money on Hudson's Christmas presents!


Jasmine loves her new "floofy" skirt!

Fisher-Price: All products are available!!

I'm so excited!! All four products are on the website now! Of course that means we have to start looking at the stores....

For anyone who missed (or forgets) the back story, Fisher-Price's offices are nearby, so we sent pictures of each of the kids to them. Hudson was chosen 4 times (actually 5 but the 5th was a day that we were already doing things), and all four products are now available on FP's website. I'm not sure how much longer before they're available in stores, but at least I can show these off!

First there's the mobile. It's really hard to tell (even for me!) if that baby on the website is me, but that's the color onesie he's wearing. I'm thinking it will be at Target since they currently carry Precious Planet mobile and they (and Wal-Mart) tend to stay consistent in what "lines" they carry. But the one at the stores now (the Projection mobile) isn't him. Nor is the one with leaves on it.

Secondly, there's the open-top swing. That's definitely not him. He was wearing a green onesie, I think. I don't remember much about that shoot, other than how hard it was to keep the swing still when he kicked!! He was happy for it, but that's about all I remember.

Then there's the bouncy chair. This was the first shoot, and they wanted a sleeping baby. He didn't sleep very soundly, and they only got one shot of him asleep, so I'm not sure if they could use it. He's wearing a blue onesie in this one.

And the final picture: the Space-Saver high chair. The picture of the woman in green feeding him a bottle (ptooy) is him!!! I was pretty sure he'd be on this one, since they commented that he gave them the best pictures they got of that shot!

So if you happen to go to Target, WalMart, KMart, Babys R Us or anywhere else that carries Fisher-Price baby things, I'd love it if you wanted to see if he's on the packaging there! I can't wait to see him in the store

New Layout

We went to the park a few weeks ago to try to get some cool silhouette shots. Unfortunately, I had my ISO set to auto and the camera thought I wanted to get some color in her instead of getting a silhouette, so most of the pictures were too noisy to use. But using some noise-reduction software I saved this one!



(linked to my TDC gallery). This adorable kit comes out tomorrow :)

Christmas I

(Fisher-Price update: Mom found him at her Target, and she says the baby on the website is him, it's just not a very good picture so it's not very clear. The box at Target is much more obviously him. I don't know if he is pictured on all the boxes in all the Targets, so I'd love it if you wanted to check your local Target whenever you're there next :) )

Saturday we celebrated Christmas with Josh's family because Charity (his sister) and her husband decided it was fun to go on cruises over Christmas. It's nice to have a break between the celebrations, so we're okay with that.

"Welcome to the Virkler Family Restaurant. Can I take your order?"

Hudson wasn't sure what all the fuss was about; just give him a piece of wrapping paper to bang and eat, and he's set! He did think the toys were cool later on, though.
Jasmine and Bekah painted these ornaments with Charity and Leo a few weeks ago, but I think they'd basically forgotten about them. So it was exciting to see them fired and beautiful!



The girls now have real ballet slippers (Capezio, even!) and leotards, tights and skirts. I'm hoping to get them into classes next fall!

Fisher-Price update

The first product is now on the market!!

I'm not sure if he'll be on any of the packaging, since he didn't really smile much. When the high chair comes out I'd be pretty surprised if he's not on it, but this one I'm much less confident about.

But if you'd like to look for it in your nearest store..that would be wonderful! Target and WalMart have a different one on their site (a "projection" one instead of the new one). The photographer told me they each have their own line of FP products, so it will likely be at ONLY Target or WalMart or everywhere else, if I understood her correctly! If you know of anywhere local that sells Fisher-Price toys, I'd be thrilled if you wanted to check for Hudson while you're doing your Christmas shopping!

And, if I could be so bold, can you take a picture if you do see him??

Oh, right. A link. ;)
Precious Planet 2-in-1 Musical Mobile

He's wearing an orange onesie and lying in the crib, like the first picture on FP's site. But he's blonder than that baby! That's not my son ;)

I Heart Faces: Another first for me!

I'm stretching myself even further today...I'm going to contribute a picture to a challenge that blows me away every week! :D
This week's challenge at I *heart* Faces is "sweet dreams." I knew right away that I needed to play with this picture of Bekah, fallen asleep in her Pooh costume. I call it "honey dreams" :D

New Layout and Project

I made a project with the kids this week. Josh printed them out at the office, and I put contact paper on the sheets and cut (loosely) around them. Then the girls and I dunked them in water and rubbed the paper off so only the colors of the animals and people stayed on the plastic. It's still sticky afterwards to stick to the window, making awesome window clings!

Once I put Jesus, Mary and Joseph in the barn, I let Jasmine do the rest with very little direction, thus the animals flying overhead.

And I had this story from Bekah for a couple months now, but I finally thought to turn it into a page. Her narration may not be exactly true to scripture but it was highly amusing:
(both are linked to my TDC gallery)

Christmas Tree

We have a lot more decorations to get up still, but we got the tree up and decorated. It looks wonderful (new tree this year!) and Bekah keeps telling me it looks beautiful, so I think they approve too.


They had their first taste of eggnog (at least their first this year; I don't remember if they had any last year). Jamine liked it, but Bekah wasn't convinced.
Putting on ornaments

Or trying. They had a hard time since I won't let them use hooks unless absolutely necessary (don't want any ER trips, thankyouverymuch), so it ended up being me doing 90% of them!
Same is true with the angel. It didn't fit on the tree top as well as we would have hoped, so it ended up being a 20-minute job for Josh. She looks beautiful up there now, though!
Hudson agrees!

Christmas Pictures

I decided it was time to start getting Christmas pictures today. The kids had two photo shoots, one in the morning and one in the afternoon after Hudson's nap. They had a blast...I did too!

Here are three of my favorite pictures from the day, turned into a layout:


(linked to my gallery at the digichick)

Knox Farm III, part 2

I made a layout with some of my favorite pictures, using the coolest kit! This was one of those "have to have this" kits that I knew would make awesome layouts. And it did!!


I know I'm days behind on my thankfulness pictures. I'm working on them and will get some posted in a few minutes, children-willing!

Knox Farm III

We went to Knox Farm on Sunday. We've been there twice before, but both times were in the summer. Going in the fall was very different. Very, very beautiful! And still had muddy patches, even though we went after a pretty dry week.





It was cold, but it was really beautiful!

Thankfulness

I'm just thankful it's Friday. I love having Josh home so I count down the minutes after he goes back to work after lunch!

Day 11: I'm thankful for my Princess Punk Rocker, aka Jasmine.



Day 12: I'm thankful that I'm not a vegetarian, and that I don't eat kosher. This is one of my favorite fall/winter meals: Cider-Sweet ham. Crockpot, simple, warm and comforting.



And today, day 13: I'm thankful that I can recreate some of my favorite Turkish meals, even without a nearby Turkish grocery store to run to. This isn't perfect, but since I haven't had true manti in 6 1/2 years, it works!


It's meat ravioli with plain yogurt, melted yogurt with garlic powder, and dried mint on top. Those who like it spicy can add crushed red pepper, but that's not my thing.

Running Behind

(what else is new??)

I forgot to upload Day 8:
I'm so thankful for my Hudson. He's such a little sweetie, and it's so much fun watching him grow up. We needed him in our family!

Day 11. Yes, I know I'm missing two days.
I adore my Jasmine. It's hard sometimes, because I'm realizing she's a mini-me, and some of my characteristics that I consider to be weaknesses are in her personality too. So it's making me look at myself differently, in a good way, I think...realizing that it's the way God made us, so He must have some reason for why we are the way we are.
Anyways, she's 4 1/2 now (her half birthday was yesterday). She says she's been 4 enough now, and can't she be 5 now? but I had to break the news that it didn't work quite that way. She's starting to learn to sound out words in her world, and it's slow but it's coming. And that's very exciting. She loves to dance, imitating various dances from my DVD of the American Ballet Theatre production of The Nutcracker. I'm hoping we can get both girls into ballet classes next fall, if we can find a place I like (I'm looking for the same place where I had my lessons, but unfortunately that's impossible since the owner passed away, the studio is 1 1/2 hours away and it's merging with another studio so Ballet Theatre is no longer!)

And I am officially babbling. I had Coke on the drive home from my family's so I stayed awake while I drove, and I'm exhausted but a little nervous that my brain isn't ready to shut down just yet.

Thankful: Day 7

These are obviously not in order of importance, but more in order of what happens to be going on that day :D Because I think it's pretty clear that this one is higher up in my list of priorities than little tutus!


Be still my heart :D
I'm so thankful for Josh. Thankful for his gentle nature. For his having rescued me from a life of spinsterhood. For his ability to answer any question I throw at him, without making me feel stupid for not knowing the answer. For his unconditional love. :) And sooo thankful that he's mine for life :D

Thankful: Day 6

I love that my girls are getting into dancing! I loved ballet growing up, so it's very exciting to see them want to learn! And they look so cute in the skirts!

Thankful: days 4 and 5

Yesterday was the last day of the baseball season, as the Yankees had a beautiful victory to take their 27th championship victory. What's more, my favorite two pitchers played beautifully, and Hideki Matsui won the World Series MVP. Mom and I have decided Matsui is a lot like Josh in temperament, which means he's replaced Jeter as my favorite player :)

And because the game was so late last night and I had to watch the speeches afterwards, today I am most thankful for

Oh! And a side note. I've been weaning myself off of sweeteners in my coffee. I decided I didn't need the sugar, so I've gone almost 2 weeks with just cream in my coffee now! I haven't decided yet if I'll try to go to black coffee or if I'll stick with it this way. But I'm proud of myself :D