Eye of the Tiger

You never know what’s going to happen when you pull your camera out. Back in November, Aaron and I made our usual trip down to DC to celebrate Thanksgiving with Aaron’s family. And keeping with tradition, we sat down to make centerpieces for the big table out of pizza dough. The girls and I were making cornucopias and Aaron and Andrew decided to do penguins this year. So, I took my camera out to take some photos and it turned into a serious photo shoot. My favorite shot is above – but make sure to check out the album which includes some other fun images from Thanksgiving, as well as pictures of the finished centerpieces.

Juliet song and dance

Justin loves baths. He likes the whole family to come in and hang out, dance, and play while he bathes. This is a series of photos I took during one such bath.
I swear, I could eat this kid with a spoon.

I’ve been dying to post these photos since last fall, but I had to wait, as it was a surprise for James and Chrissy. So, this past weekend, my brother James and his girlfriend Chrissy got married (yeah! – you’ll see those photos at some point). As a part of the celebration, Peter wanted to put together something entertaining for their rehearsal dinner. He came up with the idea of re-writing one of James’ favorite songs with personalized lyrics. Peter and Maria worked on that together and re-wrote Don’t Stop Believing by Journey as a song about James and Chrissy. Then Peter came up with the brilliant idea of getting as many of James’ groomsmen as possible together to make a video of the song. Peter with the help of James’ good friend Justin, recorded his version of the song and then had each of the groomsmen dress in costume and perform portions of the video. I am hoping the full video ends up on Youtube – if it does, I will certainly post the link. In the meantime, please enjoy this album of photos of Aaron, Joe and Peter in costume from the filming their portions of the video. You will laugh.

At the end of February, Amy and Joe and Justin moved back into their house after bunking with our parents for a few months while they were doing some construction. While unpacking they accumulated a large number of empty boxes, which Justin thought were great to use as giant building blocks. He and Joe used some of them to create a big box tower bridge. Later Justin and Aaron created a wall with a window. Eventually Amy and Joe actually wanted to use the room and fill it with furniture, so they recycled the boxes – but it was fun while it lasted. Click on the photo above to see the album of photos.

A friend of Aaron’s sent him some sweet gold grills for Christmas. Apparently they tasted pretty bad (they were plastic), but I got Aaron to wear them long enough for me to take some pictures of his blinged out teeth. What do you think – should he incorporate them into his everyday look?

It’s not Big Foot or the Loch Ness Monster, but almost as surprising – here’s a small folder of photos of Aaron out cutting our front lawn with our new electric lawn mower. Those of you who have known Aaron a while, will remember in his teenage days that mowing the lawn was potentially his least favorite chore. The good news is our yard is relatively small, and I think it would be fair to say that he doesn’t hate it the way he used to….he’s actually talking about fertilizing and seeding in the fall. :) My bet is that Rita (his mom) is chuckling right about now…

So while we were on vacation last month Aaron decided to do something he hasn’t done in 11 years – shave off his beard. He figured what the hell and initially went for a ‘used car salesman’ style mustache and then later in the week went for a complete clean shave. It was quite a surprise at first – especially for Chrissy and Maria who had never seen Aaron without his facial hair. By the end of the vacation Aaron remembered one of the reasons he grew the beard in the first place – less maintenance. So he’s back to the full beard and mustache now – but I thought you all would get a kick out of the pictures. I have tons of additional vacation photos I will post soon. Click on the picture of James and Aaron above to enjoy these few for now.

When Amy first told us she was pregnant, this onesie is the first gift Aaron bought for her. Justin is finally big enough to wear it. Aaron still gets a laugh over it. And to think, people say he has a twisted sense of humor…