Lillian's "New" toy

When my mom was pregnant with me, my grandparents bought a wooden rocking horse for the 'new grand baby'. It was 1976, the bicentennial, so the horse was painted red, white and blue. I loved it. Since then, it has been repainted, the rockers have been replaced, the seat has been replaced and it has had several pairs of ears. All of my children have enjoyed it. Lillian just figured it out the other day, however, and can't seem to get enough of it. The only problem is that it doesn't have stoppers! So we have to be right there when she is rocking. Check it out.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LILLIAN!

Sunday was Lillian's first birthday! Lillian is such a sweet and happy baby. She has the cutest little wrinkle nose smile and beautiful blue eyes. Her Judisch curls are starting to form at the back of her blonde head, although she still doesn't have enough hair for a bow! She is our first thumb sucker, only when she is tired. She wants to do everything the big kids do and she adores them as they do her. She loves to dance and waves to her fans, which happen to be everyone we encounter. We had a joint party for her with her cousin Cambria when they were here for Easter. Lillian and Cambria are 5 days apart. Click on the picture below to view the birthday Album. It is best to view as a slide show.

She is also beginning to walk more and more! Here is a video of her going across the living room! She is unable to stand up independently, but she will pull herself up on anything and then she is off walking until she loses her balance!

We love you little Lilly!

B-day Pictures, Videos and Firsts...

I finally got around to uploading all the pictures from Aidan and Evelyn's joint birthday party into picasa. So, click on the picture below to veiw them all.



The other night we took the kids bowling for the first time! We paid for an hour session, which was just perfect for us to finish an entire game. The kids had a blast and we did too. They were so fun to watch, so I've included a few videos of their bowling 'techniques'. Some of the shots are a little shaky since I was also holding Lillian, but you get the idea!

We also got out our homemade 'ball pit' for Lillian. She loves it, here is a video that Madeline took of her enjoying it.

Speaking of Lillian, she has started to take a few steps at a time and has even walked across the dining room from the kitchen! She is very excited about this new development and has been taking a few steps everyday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVELYN!!

Our Evelyn Grace turned 5 on Friday! She is our little "Goldilocks", in more ways than just the hair. She is precocious and would give those 3 bears a run for their money - or their porridge, chair and bed as the story goes...Evelyn is our ham and the life of every party. She has no enemies and has no qualms asking anybody, anything...something we often have to address! She has us laughing everyday about something she says. She is also a sweetheart and can't get enough of snuggles, hugs and kisses. Everyday is bright and sunny in Evelyn's world and we are so glad to be a part of it! We love you Ev!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AIDAN!!

Our sweet boy is 7 today! I cannot believe that 7 years have gone by with this wonderful child. Aidan is such a special boy and has taught us much about parenting, patience, and unconditional love. We are ever grateful for the lessons he has taught us. To our cuddle kid, lover of letters, giggler at spongebob, and our only son...HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal yesterday! Mom and Dad Judisch are here for the rest of the week celebrating with us. We are very thankful for that!

Here are a few snapshots of our day...

The kids all enjoyed basting the turkey every 30 minutes!

Some of the spread...
Our feast consisted of:
Oven roasted turkey
Brown sugar glazed ham
Sweet potato casserole
Green Bean casserole
Mashed potatoes
Gravy
White bread sage dressing with cranberries and pecans
Yeast rolls
Jellied cranberries
Shiraz
Merlot
Thanksgiving blend coffee
Apple crisp
Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake
(Honestly, we haven't even gotten to the dessert yet! We are planning on that tonight!)

Madeline claimed one of the turkey legs after eating some ham exclaiming "Well, I 've eaten my pig, now I need to eat my bird!"....I think we have been in Oklahoma a little too long!!!!!

We hope you all had a wonderful meal and time with friends and family as we celebrate all that we here in America have to be thankful for!

The Dalmatian Party

Last year, Madeline wanted a "Little Mermaid-under-the-sea" party...the very next day, she told me, "Mom, next year I want a Dalmatian party!" I thought this might fizzle out over the year, but OH NO, she still very definitely wanted a Dalmatian party...Of course, there is NO Dalmatian themed party paraphernalia out there, so this one stretched my creative limits to the max, and this is what I came up with...

We decorated the house with black and white balloons and red streamers. Madeline and Evelyn helped me use sharpie markers on some of the white balloons to give them "spots".

We moved some furniture around, brought in the folding tables and set up craft stations. The first was called "Dalmatian Station". Each kid got to choose a spotted t-shirt to wear - and keep. (I picked up 3 pks of boys white under-shirts, 5 for $5, and the girls helped me paint black spots on all of them.) Then, they got to choose some ears (head bands with felt ears hot-glued to them). Next, they got to have their nose painted black with face paint. Finally, they made themselves collars using ribbons, scrap booking tags and jingle bells. I encouraged them to write their 'puppy' name on the tags. We had Penny, Boxer, Lucky, Broser, Pepper, and others I can't remember. They were so creative!

Dalmatian Station

Madeline AKA "Lucky"

The next station was "Make a Doggie-Bag". I picked up a pack of white lunch bags and set out markers for the puppies to decorate the bags. Then they got to choose from a variety of treats to fill their bags with. We had baggies of puppy chow (chex cereal coated in melted peanut butter, chocolate, and powdered sugar), dog bones (rice crispy treats cut out with a bone cookie cutter), and lolli-pups (hand made chocolate lollipops in the shape of paws). Madeline and Evelyn helped me make all the treats for this one and we had a lot of fun in the kitchen.

Make a Doggie-Bag

The last station was "Paint-a-Pup". I picked up some cute wooden dog cut-outs from hobby-lobby and everyone got to paint one to take home.

Paint-a-Pup

We had a really good turn out for the party (13 total), so it was good to have several stations the kids could rotate to. It was also helpful to have them busy while I worked on lunch! I served mini-hamburgers, carrot sticks, celery sticks, apple slices, and potato chips. (No pictures of lunch, we were too busy eating!)

It was a beautiful day, so the kids ate outside and played in the backyard for a bit while the adults cleaned up and had a chance to regroup!

This is Ambrose, he is 2...he refused to wear "ears" because then he would have to take off his grandfather's hat, and that was NOT going to happen...isn't he too cute!

Apparently, puppies like to jump on trampolines...

...and climb trees.


Evelyn was "Pepper" and Christina was "Penny".

Here is the youngest little puppy at the party who just woke up from her nap...
...and then realized there was a camera pointed at her! (Again...her hair really isn't red...although it would be beautiful if it was...the light often makes it look that way!)

After a while we brought in the "litter" to play "pin the tail on the Dalmatian". The prize was a tin in the shape of a dog bone filled with white chocolate covered Oreos!

Here is Evelyn looking at her handiwork after the blind fold came off.

Aidan played too, but blind folds and spinning were not going to happen for him, so we didn't really count his attempt.

This is Robert...he was a great contender, very serious about the game. He came in second place.

Lydia ended up winning, unfortunately I did not snap a picture of her with the prize, but needless to say, she was thrilled!

We moved onto cake next. I went simple on this one, chocolate cake, white icing, chocolate disks for spots, with a red ribbon and tag wrapped around it.

Happy Birthday!

We ended the party with gift opening.

Madeline got some great loot! Lots of craft kits and books, a few toys and clothing! She had a blast! So far, she has not decided on a theme for next year, but Evelyn said she wants a dinosaur party! AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday Madeline!

Yesterday we celebrated our sweet Madeline's 8th birthday! We had a waffle breakfast, during which we let her open a few of her gifts. Then we let her choose a lunch destination after church...she chose Chili's and got their Kraft macaroni and cheese with mandarin oranges. I know I could have made that for her for much less, but it was what she wanted, so we indulged. We will be having a 'friend' party on Saturday, so there will be more pictures to come.

Madeline is our sweetheart. Always thinking of others before herself, she makes a great big sister to our crew. She loves animals, crafts, and the color pink. She made us parents and made our parents grand-parents. We are so very blessed to have this little girl who is still in that sweet naive state that we too quickly grow out of. I hope she stays there for at least one more year. We love you bunches Madeline Lea!

Happy All Saints Day! AKA Halloween!

So, every year on this day we have had a variety of activities to do. We have done dinners, parties, and festivals, but this year, we went trick-or-treating for the very first time. We all met with others at our friend Denise's house for a spaghetti dinner. Then, we separated the kids into groups - older and younger - and went off to the neighborhood to beg for candy. Of course the kids had a blast, and came home with pumpkin pails full of candy that probably won't last them through the week!
Here are a few pictures of our evening.

Our jack-o-lantern. (His eyes had pupils, but they seemed to dissapear by the end of the night!?)

The girls dressed up as kitty cats. They named themselves "jingle bell".

This is the group of "younger kids" minus one who was chasing a cat. Aidan, dressed up as "Dash" from the Incredibles. It happens to be his favorite t-shirt, so we could easily convince him to "dress-up".

Neal and I got in the spirit too! I dressed as an angel and Neal dressed as a scholar wearing his PhD regalia. He would not let me take a picture of him however, so you have to use your imagination.


And our little Lillian went as a flower - thanks to Aunt Janelle for the GORGEOUS hat she knitted!

Even more Lillian pictures!

I did a photo session with Lillian at Target the other day. Follow this link to see the pictures.

http://www.thesmilestation.com/asp/tss_showlargephoto.asp?sbfn=E1&Page=0&tcount=29

Then, enter in the following:

Guest Name: JANICE JUDISCH
Access Code: LTTT0341103471TAR

Lillian Update

Lillian is almost 5 months old now! I can't believe how quickly it has gone. As you can see, she still looks EXACTLY like Evelyn. The only difference is that she has blue eyes.

She is up to some fun things lately...

She has found her feet...

She can "tripod sit"- but when she realizes that she is sitting- she gets so excited that she falls over...
And she really enjoys her excersaucer...(FYI: Her hair isn't really that red)She is so happy and squeals with delight living up to her in utero name "Squeakles". She rolls around everywhere often getting stuck under tables and chairs and things. She cut her first tooth on Labor Day and her second tooth the next day. (That is the earliest we have had for teeth around here.) She has just started sleeping through the night. And she is our first thumb sucker; however, she only sucks her left thumb...does that indicate a lefty???

Neal was out of town a few weekends ago, so I took that opportunity to paint and set up Lillian's room. We use to have a midnight blue office, now Lillian has this...

It is a small room, so I had to take the pictures in small panoramic sections, but I think you can get the idea. The girls helped me paint the green and set up the toys. I am very happy with how it turned out. Everyone is enjoying the new room. Neal and I are glad to have our room back to ourselves and the big kids have been playing in there more than their own rooms!

Finally, we will leave you with a short video of Lillian playing!

New stuff

OK, as promised, here are some pictures of the new things in our house and yard...

This is our "new" piano that we bought off of Craig's list. It is about 80 to 100 years old. It is called a saloon style-piano because of the mirror across the top. I guess if it was once in a saloon, the piano player would want to know if someone was coming up behind them with a pistol or something...Neal had it tuned for me for my birthday and it sounds great! The tuner said it is a "sawed off piano". Apparently it was originally a player piano that was converted to a saloon-style piano. He was impressed with the good condition on the inside despite its beat up condition on the outside. We have all really enjoyed having a piano in our house!

These are our new dining room chairs. I have been saving money for several months and I used my birthday money to purchase these new off of e-bay. I have been wanting chocolate leather parson chairs for years! Now I don't have to sit on a metal folding chair at dinner time!
I purchased eight, but only six are shown.

This is a freezer that Neal's secretary at work gave us. We are so excited about it! We are spliting a cow with some friends next month, so we were needing one of these!

I picked up another bookshelf for our school room.

Here is the zinnia garden in full bloom as well as the potato ivy growing across the top of the porch.

The girls are so proud of the zinnias they helped plant.

I planted a lantana garden on either side of the driveway. Here is one up close. I still need to add a second layer of stones for the border and they have to fill in, but I think it will add a lot to our entrance once they are established.

This is the driveway showing both gardens.

I mentioned making a path from the driveway to the back gate while I was pregnant with Lillian...well, I finally finished it and put in a garden on that side of the house. I also made a place for the trash can that is out of the mud and convenient and not so ugly now that it has a garden around it. I got the purple jew and the airplane plants from my mom's house when we were there in June...they have filled in nicely with all the rain we have been getting!

Finally, I got a pair of clothesline T-posts! I also got these off of Craig's list. I put up a wanted post offering to take away some old T-posts from anyone who did not want theirs anymore. A guy called up and offered to bring them to us in his truck for $20! We have been using them regularly and have enjoyed the fresh smelling clothes and money/energy savings.

Hanging on the line in this picture are the other new things in our lives...cloth diapers! I am using cloth for Lillian and am saving money there too!