Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful, quiet Christmas. The Lueken and Runyan grandparents traveled from Indiana to spend the holiday with us. Here are some fun shots from our holiday weekend:

Here is Chris making cookies on Christmas Eve. He was pretty insistent that Santa needed fresh cookies to be left out that night... He made two different types of cookies, and they were both delicious.

Rachael woke up Christmas morning with a slight cold. She was pretty tired that afternoon after all of the excitement of presents and what not. She fell asleep sitting-up on the couch with Chief on her lap.

The Master Chef! My mom (Sandy) is quite a whiz in the kitchen. She made a feast for our Christmas dinner. We had prime rib with horseradish whipped cream, green beans with red peppers, Yukon gold mashed potatoes, roasted carrots, a spinach salad, and pumpkin and raspberry pie for dessert. It was amazing.

This was our beautiful dinning room table for the feast. (Thanks to the Moms for the linens and the napkin rings.)

American Girl Doll Christmas! The grandmothers got together for this one...Morgan and Rachael decided that they wanted American Girl Dolls this year. Rachael asked for 'Felicity', while Morgan requested 'Elizabeth'. That is all they really wanted, so it was fun to see how excited they were when they opened them up. Chris's mom (Pam) made the girls nightgowns, with matching gowns for their dolls. They girls were in heaven. Don't they look like little ladies all ready for bed?...
Okay, spunky little ladies. Lately, for every cute picture that we take, Rachael insists that we take a silly one as well. She must get that from the Runyan side...

Yes, the dog sleeps with people. Spoiled, yes. However, I do not know who enjoys it more, the dog or the girls. They take turns with him each night, and it was Rachael's turn Christmas night. Usually, he sleeps down under the covers. This evening he chose to share her pillow...

Pittsburgh

Chris had an interview this weekend in Pittsburgh for a spot in their Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery program. Since we have friends there, and it is only a 5 hour drive, the girls and I decided to accompany him. It was great to see the Robisons again. Aliess took great care of us and showed us all around Pittsburgh. We had a wonderful time.

Here we are in front of a Stegosaurus at the Carnegie Museum. We only scratched the surface of the museum that day, but were really impressed with what we saw.

The kids in front of some T-Rexes. From left to right: Kurt, Elizabeth, Rachael, Morgan, Lexi and Reid. (They're all getting so big!)

While we were in Pittsburgh, we attended the Robison's ward Christmas party. For the service portion of the party, we assembled hygiene kits. The girls had a nice time. (Rachael especially got into the project.) Morgan and Rachael are pictured here with Elizabeth and Lexi. During the party, the kids also had a visit from Santa.

For Christmas, I would like...an American Girl Doll!

Hmmmmm, what do I want?

This was just a fun pic of Morgan and Lexi. The girls had a great time together.

Thanksgiving Weekend

We spent Thanksgiving in Indianapolis with the extended Runyan family. My parents, Gary and Sandy Lueken, came to enjoy the festivities, as well some friends of Emily and Jaron. The girls were thrilled to spend time with their cousins, aunts and uncles, and BOTH sets of grandparents. Highlights of the weekend included paintball, eating, early morning shopping, eating, jumping on the trampoline, eating, watching movies, and eating. We had a wonderful time!

Alyssa and Vincent brought their super fancy camera and took family pictures of all of us. Here is a big group shot, Chief included.

PAINTBALL! This was the first time in 8 Thanksgivings that Chris did not participate in the Turkey Bowl in Cincinnati. To make up for it, we had a paintball party. This is a before shot. Pictured are those of us man enough to brave the cold and shoot at each other: Cameron, Gary, Dee, Chris, Jaron, Alyssa and Vincent. Mike is taking the picture. He was man enough too.

I included this action shot of me and my dad that Chris is particularly fond of. I would like to send out props to my dad who was awesome at paintball, even though this was his FIRST time ever. At one point, he even captured the flag and ran it back to the base for us. Yeah Dad!

With the leftover paintballs, the Dads supervised paintball for kids. They LOVED it. Here are Spencer and Morgan with their masks on.

Here are Rachael (mask) and Mikey.

Chris and Dee in the kitchen after they cleaned up from paintball, but before the feast.

Vincent and Alyssa making Cranberry Chutney. It was soooo yummy.

It finally happened. Morgan out-grew the Runyans kiddie picnic table. She is pictured here at the 'grown-ups' table.

The wee-ones at the kiddie picnic table. Pictured are Mikey, Joshua (?), Spencer and Rachael.

Just chillaxin'...

Dee and Rachael and Chief. He is such a lap dog.

Morgan is getting quite good at her violin. Her teacher gives her more and more to learn, and she can't seem to get enough. In fact, she tends to master what her teacher gives her in a day or two, and then sounds things out on her own...Perhaps she has a little of Nana's ear for music. She brought her violin this weekend so that she could play with Spencer. He has been learning how to play the piano, and is doing quite well.

VIO-lin, lin, lin, VIO-lin, lin, lin, VIO-lin, lin, lin, ahhhhhhhhh. (That comes from a They Might Be Giants song that Morgan and Chris find especially funny.)

A.O.A

Alpha Omega Alpha. A really fancy way of saying 'Medical School Honor Society'. As many of you know, Chris is a very busy man. This is because he works VERY hard, and may or may not be a bit of an over-achiever. Anyway, he was honored along with several other students this week, as they were inducted into A.O.A. (It is difficult to receive this honor, as it requires good grades your first two years, along with good grades and great evaluations your third and fourth years. In addition to this, you need hours of community service...Thank heavens for callings!) There was a special dinner, and all the inductees received a certificate. At the dinner, we ran into Dr. Froehlich, who was also there to receive an award. He was the doctor who delivered Rachael, and about 80% of the babies born in our ward over the last 7 years. It was fun to run into him after all this time.

Halloween

Trick-or-Treat! Chris was post call on Halloween this year, which meant that he was able to go trick-or-treating with us. Hooray! (He missed out on last year's festivities.) The weather was beautiful that day, and we had a great time. Our neighbor, Campbell, joined us for the candy gathering. Rachael wanted to be a cheetah again, while both Morgan and Campbell wanted to be something evil. (Great.) Campbell was an evil fairy, and Morgan was an evil snow queen'. When asked why she wanted to be an evil snow queen instead of a good snow queen, Morgan replied, "Because I want to carry a wand, and only an evil snow queen would carry a wand." Okay. Notice the wand in her hands. It lights up and makes a pretty cool swishing noise. When seen in that light, who wouldn't want to carry a wand and be an evil snow queen?

Rachael with her spoils of the evening. She even counted it! (She counted 168 pieces. Now that's a lot of candy!)

Ouch! At one point during the evening, Morgan tripped over her long dress. (It was pretty sad.) This happened in an unknown neighbor's walk-way. The owners of the home were kind enough to clean her up, apply Neosporin, and give her a band aid. Morgan was pretty sad for about three houses after that, and then perked right up for more trick-or-treating. Nothing like candy to cheer up an owie...

Pumpkin Carving

A family tradition in our home is for Chris and the girls to carve a pumpkin together. Here are some fun pictures of this year's carving.

Squishy, squashy pumpkin innards. Yummmmm!!!!

Eeeeeewwwwww! Gross! (They loved it. Really.)

Tah-dah! The finished product. (Shhhhh! This is actually a picture of the pumpkin we carved in 2006. We forgot to take a picture of this year's jack-o-lantern before our sanitation friends took it away. This pumpkin turned out so well, I thought that we needed to see it again...)

Harvest Moon!

Each year our school puts on a great fall festival. It is a lot of fun and the kids really look forward to it. This was the first time in three years that Chris was able to attend, as he was either out of town or working at the hospital. We had a great time playing games, winning prizes, and eating delicious festival delicacies like caramel apples and cotton candy. -Oh, and taking advantage of choice photo opportunities such as this one.
















































Here are Morgan and Rachael at the 'Pumpkin Toss'. Great job girls!


A highlight of the evening was the obstacle course put on by our gym teacher, the famous 'Mr. B'. All of the children at school love him, our girls included. The theme for the course was 'Pirates of the Caribbean'. Mr. B and his family set it up based on the movie, and even included a zip line and a plank to walk. Chris and the girls LOVED it. We ran into some of our friends, Joe Jungkunz and Liz Baker. (Liz is Mr. B's daughter.) They helped run the obstacle course, and posed as characters from the movie.




I am a room parent this year. One of my responsibilities is to help run a booth at the festival. Our booth was the 'Guessing Jars', as is evident from the poster. My co-room parent Liz Fox was great. We had fun setting up the booth, gathering jars, and what not. (Her son Ray, in Morgan's class.) We got our kids together one evening, and they all helped make the posters while Liz, her husband Tim and I filled jars and counted the contents. Props to Tim for counting the beads that went into one jar. Who knew that you could fit over 1,600 beads in a quart sized canning jar...?
What fun!

Cousin Time!

Chris had time off Conference weekend, so we decided to spend it in Indianapolis with the Runyans. Emily and Jaron had the same idea, so we all got together. The girls were so happy to spend time with Spencer and Mikey. Here they are on the swing with Mikey. We had a wonderful time together and really enjoyed the sessions of conference.

The Devil Whale

Cameron and his band, The Devil Whale, came to Cincinnati on tour! Matt Hopper, a friend of the band's was also touring with them. Mom and Dad Runyan came into Cincinnati for the show. We got a sitter for the girls as they were playing late at night. A friend of ours, Adnan Mir, joined us for the show. We all got ice cream from Graeter's before the show, and had a nice time spending time with Cameron. After the show, Cameron and Matt Hopper stayed with us. The next morning, the band joined us for a huge breakfast. Thanks for stopping in Cincinnati boys!

No Power!

A huge windstorm blew through Cincinnati, compliments of Hurricane Ike. Due to the storm, 90% of Cincinnati lost power on Sunday. We were in that 90%. In fact, we ended up being without power for 7 days! Yikes. Chris was in North Carolina doing an away acting internship. Double yikes! The girls and I enjoyed ourselves by setting up a tent in the living room, listening to our shortwave radio, using flashlights and candles, and eating food from our food storage. Here we are having a picnic dinner inside. As the schools were without power, the girls did not have school for three days. (So fun!) We stayed at home for a few nights, and then moved into the Simpson's spare bedroom for the remainder of our blackout. It was really nice to be with close friends with power while Chris was gone and we had none. The Lord was truly looking out for us in Chris's absence. From the experience we learned that we are actually pretty well prepared. We need to be better about rotating flashlight batteries, and keeping more gas in the car, but that is about it.
Here is a picture of one of our light sources, matches, batteries, and our shortwave radio. We were amazed at how quiet things were around the house at night without appliances plugged in. Even with the lights and the T.V. off, your appliances like your fridge and computer make a low hum. Also, with no street lights on in the street and no night lights on in the house, the was really dark. Just a little too dark and too quiet for us. Thanks again Simpsons for allowing us to camp out for a few days!

First Day of Kindergarten!

My baby is in Kindergarten! When did she get to be so grown up? For some reason, it makes a little more sense when the older child grows up and does new things in life. Now my little Rachael is in Kindergarten and I have a bit more time on my hands. (That's a little bit nice...) I have been looking forward to this day with mixed feelings for a while. I am so going to miss having a little one at home, but I also know that growing up is so fun and exciting. After her first day of school, Rachael declared that it was "The best day EVER!". That eased my sad and lonely mama heart. She had gym on her second day of school. When asked how that day was, she declared that it was "The best day of my life!" Since she has said that, I have decided that I cannot be sad about her growing up. She is having too much fun.

First Day of 2nd Grade!

Morgan's first day of school was August 19th. She is now officially a 2nd Grader. Wow! When did she get to be so grown up? Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for supplying the cool new school clothes and shoes!

Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day! Chris was off, and some of his Sunday meetings were canceled, so he actually got to sleep in. (That was a rare and unusual gift indeed!) The girls and I made him breakfast in bed (French Toast), and gave him some beautiful art work and some small gifts. (Two ties. Boring yes, but also essential at both church and the clinic.) We had a nice Father's Day together, and finished it out with FHE and Raspberry Pie. (Thank you Nana for the amazing recipe!)

Goodbye Diaz Family, We'll Miss You!

Our good friends Beth and Jon Diaz moved this week. Jon came here for Law School, and just graduated last month. (Hooray for them!) They had three sweet boys, who my girls loved. We went to play one last time and I was able to help Beth do some of the pre-move cleaning. From the left we have Tommy (3), Rachael, Jake (5), Baby Ben, and Morgan. We will miss the Diaz Fam, but are happy for them in their new move/adventure.

Doe, A Deer...

Okay, so I don't know if this is a female deer, but I just couldn't resist. A deer gave birth to two babies right in our backyard! One of the babies walked away as soon as it was able. This one was smaller, and took a little time to rest before joining its mother. This is a quiet, secluded spot in our backyard where we never play. Our neighbors happened to see the mother giving birth, and let us know about it so that we could see a brand new baby deer. We couldn't resist taking a picture. Rachael was sick this day, and was therefore not up for the photo opp. She did make it outside to see 'Bambi' though.