New Year's Eve: Doin' it up right

doesn't Scout look thrilled?

Bunny Jr.

don't worry, it's grape juice

Christmas--Duncan

Tooth Tunes toothbrush: We Will Rock You

Red Ryder BB Gun...please don't shoot your eye out!

Christmas--Eli

Eli, before...

Eli, after.

Crashed out, cookie in hand.

Breakfast with Santa

Well, we got close to Santa's lap...

We got there and Eli said that no,

he wasn't going to sit on Santa's lap.

But I told him I'd go up with him and

hold him. So eventually he told Santa

he wanted puzzles and a soccer

ball, and he even gave Santa '5'.

And he didn't even cry.

Boys

What are the boys up to? We are getting ready for Christmas. We still need to get our Christmas tree up, though. Tomorrow we are going to go have breakfast with Santa at the Cox cafeteria. Eli says this year he will sit on Santa's lap, which would be a first! When asked what they want for Christmas, Duncan's answer usually involves Pokemon. Eli's answers have ranged from chicken nuggets, to a bed, to a racing car. We also are getting ready for Eli's birthday party on Sunday. Hopefully there won't be a big ice storm over the weekend. If so, we will have lots of food and cake to eat!! Speaking of Pokemon, Duncan has been scrounging up change from various parts of the house, into a plastic zip-loc bag, and then wanting to go to the store to buy Pokemon cards. It's always fun to watch the cashier's expression when he puts his $4.26 in change up on the counter. Also, I have been using the old line, 'You know, Santa is watching you, and he won't bring you any presents if you keep acting up'! Duncan went on to tell Eli that Santa was going to bring him rocks instead of presents. So now whenever Eli does something bad, he looks at me and asks, "Am I going to get woks?". Well, Eli wants to play now so I'd better go. He keeps pressing random buttons on the computer get my attention. It's working.

Cats

Our kitty-cats :)

December 5, 2007

Getting ready to go to Duncan's 'footsal' game.

(Footsal is indoor soccer)

Grandma Livingston's 90th birthday party

November Update

Playing in the leaves...

Tiger Cub Duncan at the Raingutter Regatta ...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our own personal jack-o-lantern for Halloween.

(2 more teeth out 10-28-07)

Hangin' out with Shadow

The Boys

Here's Eli sleeping with his shovel and his Snoopy... Here's Duncan at Deegan's birthday party on Sunday...

P.S. to Julie

Yes, I know I told you we didn't want another cat, and I didn't want to have four animals again.... But when a little gray kitten decides it's going to live with you, what can you do?

Shadow in Da House

We finally caught Shadow on Sunday. Joe blocked her in on the porch and I made the grab. She was freaking out at first, but she let us hold her. After a few minutes of petting her, a loud purring sound came from that little skinny body. She's still a little skittish around us, but I think she's getting used to us. She'll sit on our laps and cuddle; I think she's been starving for a little affection. She adores Te-Te....if she hears Te-Te come in, she'll peek out and start following her around. Te-Te likes to lick her on the face, and they'll rub noses. The only tension is Alf. There's been a little hissing going on, but mostly Alf ignores her. I'm referring to the kitten as 'she', but actually we don't know if it's a boy or a girl. We looked at its behind, but weren't able to make the determination. I'm going to call and make an appointment with the vet, so hopefully we shall know Shadow's gender soon...

Spooktacular

We went to Spooktacular at the zoo last night

with Grandma Kathy and Grandma Judy. Here

is Eli with Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends.

Here are Eli and Duncan at our house.

Duncan with Scooby-Doo

Some pictures of Scout for Julie and Charlie

We went for a walk today!

Shadow

Here are some pictures of Shadow, the kitten who has taken up residence

under our deck. She has made friends with Te-Te and Scout, but at the sight

of me, Joe, or the boys, she takes off. So we haven't actually touched her yet,

which is why I hesitate to call her "our new cat, Shadow".

She's been around for about a month, though, so she's not going anywhere.

By the way, Joe does not endorse the name "Shadow". He thinks it's dorky.

October!

Happy October! We are immersed in the activities of fall...school, soccer games, Wednesday night church, and lots more! Tonight was the world premiere of Joe's movie, Highway Pirates. If you weren't able to make it, you have one more chance tomorrow. It was quite a treat...I didn't realize it would involve so many comedic elements. If you don't get to go see it, DVDs will be available. Joe, Jessica and Nick are all awesome in it! The special effects were impressive too.

Tomorrow is Duncan's first Cub Scout meeting. We are going to go check it out and if it's something we think we'll do, we'll go get his uniform etc.

His soccer team is doing really good. They are undefeated, with one tie.

Eli got to dress up as a pirate for the movie tonight, he was really cute. We went to the store yesterday and he got some 'yummy' bears (i.e. gummy bears). Also we have lots of acorns in our yard, which Eli calls "eggrolls".

The boys had a fun weekend with Grandpa Jim, who came down to see the movie and to watch them while Joe and I went to St. Louis for a night with Chip and Shierine to see Ryan Adams at the Pageant. The concert was good, I was excited to see a couple of friends from the past, Wes and Penny (who is about 2 weeks away from having their second baby!!) It seems weird that it's been so long since we've seen them...so it was good to catch up. We went down and met them at the "Pin-Up Bowl" 9a cool bowling alley) for a while, and then headed down to the Casino Queen to lose some money. This losing streak has gone on long enough, it's time for the Livingstons to get back on a roll again!

After lunch in Soulard with Kelly and Jana, we went and picked up Grandma Livingston and brought her back to Springfield to visit and go to the movie with us. We had a good time hanging out, eating lots, and watching baseball. Red Sox? Diamondbacks? I just don't know who to root for, with no Cardinals....

First Soccer Game

Everyone played really well today! Duncan

scored the one and only goal....Go Duncan!!

Go Vipers!

P.S.

P.S. to previous entry:

If this Smurf on a mushroom piece is for sale, I want that!

(For those of you familiar with Napoleon Dynamite: "Ah wahnt that!")

Keeping up With the Hodges

Julie and Charlie are doing very well in China, happy

and excited to have begun their teaching. It looks so

interesting there! I think they are very blessed to get

this chance to explore and learn about a completely

different culture from ours. I've added the link to their

blog, for those of you interested in keeping up with the

Hodges.

New Trailer

There's a new movie trailer on the Highway Pirates site....check it out. Look for Joe's name!

More on Highway Pirates

For those of you whose interest is piqued re: Highway Pirates....

Highway Pirates

Finally! After months of waiting, and with much anticipation,

the dates for the premiere of "Highway Pirates" have been announced!

For those of you who don't know, last summer Joe was involved in the

filming of this movie. He plays a major role as "The Ice Pirate Captain".

Also, our sister and brother-in-law (Nick and Jessica Hansen) star in the film.

I've added the link to the movie's webpage to my links list if you'd

like to read more or view the movie trailer. So mark your calendars

for October 8th and 9th for this red carpet event!

School Days

School started on August 23. Duncan is in first grade

at Horace Mann School in Mrs. Lala's class. Eli moved

up to the Teddy Bear room at Cox Learning Center and

his teachers are Ms. Andrea and Ms. Joyce.

Duncan had his first soccer practice last night. We are

going to try playing at the YMCA this time. His first

game is on Saturday. He has been shooting lots of

baskets at home and at the gym so we might try

basketball after soccer.

After staying at their Papa's last weekend, Duncan

told me he had English toast and he really liked it.

"You mean an English muffin?", I asked him. "No, English

toast", he said. "Um, do you mean French toast?"

"Oh, yeah. I meant French toast."

We've had a couple of hummingbirds start hanging around

outside the kitchen window, so I put the feeder back up.

Every time he sees one, Eli says "Look! I see a honey bird!"

The last time we had a thunder storm he said he heard the

'under' and it was freaking him out.

FYI, Andy is meeting Roger Federer tonight in the quarterfinals

of the U.S. Open. Let's cross our fingers and hope for the best....

St. Louis

We went up to St. Louis last weekend to catch a Cardinal's game. Grandpa Wayne took us and we had a lot of fun. We were kind of nervous for awhile because the Braves led 3-0 throughout the first half of the game but the Cards finally came through in the 5th and ended up winning 5-4. Our seats were in left field so we were right behind Chris Duncan the whole time, which was very exciting. We tried yelling his name to get his attention but he didn't turn around. Eli checked out for awhile, napping from the 4th-8th innings but he came alive during the 9th to watch the Cards star closing pitcher Izzy finish off the game. All in all, the stadium is really nice and we all had a really fun time.

Sunday we went for breakfast with Wayne and Helen at a cool little restaurant in Soulard. Then we took off back downtown to go up in the arch. The Cardinals were playing an afternoon game at 1:00 and we toyed with the idea of going , but since Duncan had never been up in the arch we went ahead and did that. Personally, I was not planning on going up, due to fear of heights, falling, and small enclosed places with no way out. But of course, little intuitive Duncan could smell my fear and he started having second thoughts about going up. So, after a little guilt, and not a small number of threats from Joe, I decided to buck up and go.

Once we were up the boys were excited about all of the views to be seen. We could see the stadium (with the game going on), the old courthouse, big hotels with swimming pools on the roofs, the river, and Joe saw the Admiral. They kept going from one side to the other, taking it all in. At one point, Duncan said to me,"This arch isn't half bad!".

In the pod

Looking out

Cardinals beat the Braves 4-1

I remember going up in the arch when I was little, with Mom and Grandpa Sedovic (and Julie??). I remarked to Joe that from what I could recollect, the whole experience was just the same as it was some 30 years ago. I was glad that I had decided to go up, though I'm not in a big hurry to be doing it again soon.

Eli and Joe

A while ago we were looking through some old photo albums that Judy had brought and we were amazed/freaked out by the resemblance between Eli and Joe when Joe was that age. Eli looks at the pictures of his dad and thinks that he is looking at himself....