A Busy 3 Days

I hope everyone is well rested from the holiday and ready to watch college football for a week straight. Christmas this year was busy as always but well worth it. We are fortunate enough to leave close enough to Ogden that the girls got to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas morning at home. Ava was as excited as we have ever seen her over those 2 days. We spent all Christmas Eve watching Santa on NORAD getting closer and closer. Christmas Day the girls got up and spent the whole morning playing with their new toys from Santa. Ava got a Leapster (with Princess game), and Ella got a Tinker Bell 4-wheeler that she loves to ride. We then spent the 25th and 26th in Ogden and Boone doing 3 Christmas's in 2 days. There was some much stuff the Tahoe almost couldn't hold it all. I will not bore you with all the details. I will have many more pictures up of every Christmas. Everybody have a safe and Happy New Year!!

Lance.


Family picture

Ella feeding her new baby.

The McConnell family.

Ella's 4-wheeler from Santa

Making cookies for Santa.

Ava and Santa.

As close as Ella would get to Santa. (I am holding Ella)

Sarah's New Webpage

In Sarah's constant improving of her photography she has a new website. She actually bought a domain name so it would be easier to remember. I think it is also easier for her to upload and post pictures. Follow the link below to see all of her photos. Most of the photos on our blog are from her. You can tell because they look professional and really good. Enjoy.

www.sarahmcconnellphotography.com

The Sugar Cookie has it!

Thank you to all who voted in the Santa cookie question. The over whelming majority said the sugar was the clear favorite. Now the only questions left is; red or green sprinkles?

Ava and Ella preparing their lists for Santa.

Me helping Ava with her list.

Ava giving Santa a huge hug.

Perfect picture.

Not so perfect picture. Santa is such a good guy.

Family tree.

Ava tree.

Ella tree. Notice the one ornament on it.

What a busy couple of days. Yesterday (Monday) I took the day off of school and Sarah and I got all of our Christmas shopping done. Every, single person on our list is now finished. And no, we didn't end up killing each other, we actually enjoyed the day.
We also decided to take the girls and see Santa. As you can see from above one loved the other, not so much. It was funny watching both girls react. Ava couldn't wait to see Santa, and Ella just kept getting more and more nervous. I wonder how many other people have pictures like the one with Ella screaming in it. I also decided to put all 3 of our Christmas trees on to look at. Grandma Sue gave each girl their own tree with lights and ornament. Ava was especially happy because Aunt Shawna had given her all of her Barbie ornaments so that is what is on her tree. Ella has one lone ornament and it is about 20 years old. But she loves it. Cy, the cat, loves the trees to. She tries to climb in them and eat the needles, crazy.

Lance

First J-Hawk Basketball Game

Ava and the cheering section at the game.

Ava and her favorite part of any sporting event, the cheerleaders.

As usual eating popcorn.

At the game.



A video of Ava dancing at the game. (Just hit the play button)

Ava went to her first Urbandale J-Hawk Basketball game. She went with Mel to watch her kids during the half time of the boys game. She loved every minute as you can see from the above photos. She even called me from the game to tell me about the cheerleaders. Of course she had the usual, popcorn, water, and a little diet coke. The video shows her dancing. I asked her what she was dancing to and she said, Eminem. I don't think she has even heard of Eminem but I guess I was wrong. From the looks of it I will have to take her to more games this winter.

Lance

Decorate that Tree

Putting the tree together.

Don't they look so sweet.

Playing in the Christmas tree box.

They actually look like they like each other.

One of Sarah' edited pictures.

With Thanksgiving over we are now looking down the barrel to Christmas. It is amazing that it is almost here. Thanksgiving was a very busy weekend but enjoyable. Sarah had to work the night before and the night of Thanksgiving. So, my parents came down on Thanksgiving day with all the food. Dinner was interesting to say the least. Ella had a really bad cold and she cried all through dinner and only ate yogurt. (You can imagine) On that Sunday we went up to Boone to Sarah's grandparents. Her uncle had come in from San Antonio so we celebrated Christmas and Thanksgiving at the same time. That means I got plenty of turkey with all the trimming to tide me over till next year.
With all the "wonderful" snow I finally got to use my new snowblower. Sarah finally crumpled with my relentless badgering and let me buy a nice big, new snowblower. This is the first year that I actually wanted it to snow, at least a little bit. Now it can get warm again.
I hope everybody has recovered from the holiday and are getting ready for the other one. Only 21 more days of shopping. Later.

Lance

Movie Night

Friday night we decided to have a family movie night at home. It was cold and rainy and it was a perfect night to stay indoors and watch a movie. Ava is big into all the Disney princesses so we got Aladdin so she could see Jasmine. Both girls loved the movie and danced to all the songs. We had popcorn with M & M's and candy corn in it. Ella spent the whole time trying to dig all of the candy corn out and eat it. It was fun having the whole family watch a movie. Ava liked the movie so much we have watched it another 3 times this weekend.



Picking out the candy from the popcorn.

Saying cheese during the movie.

Trying to throw a piece of popcorn in Ella's mouth.

Pictures of Everything

Ava at dance class. (3rd from the left)

Ava dancing



Digging in her pumpkin.

Ella doesn't know what to think about the pumpkin.

Getting ready to get candy.

At Mark and Gayle's house during Halloween.

Ava and her friend Autumn during Halloween.

Its Been Awhile

I thought that I would finally get back to this. It has been a while so bear with me. We have been super busy over the last couple of weeks with Halloween, dance class, preschool, school, photoshoots, etc. Everything is going by so fast it is hard to imagine that that it is almost Thanksgiving.
Ava and Ella did very well at their recent photo shoot for a quilting magazine. One of the girls will be in an issue in March and the other will be in an issue next fall. They were very well behaved and they even got paid 50 dollars each!!
Sarah has been busy with her photography and she is becoming very good at it. Last Thursday she had to babies come over and she took their pictures. I have a link on this website for her photos. They are very good and she might me onto something about a side business.
Halloween was a fun and exciting venture this year. Both Ava and Ella loved every minute of it. Ella was so excited that as her pumpkin got heavier and heavier she didn't want to put it down. She had a death grip on the pumpkin that was full of candy.
Ava has been busy with going to one day of preschool every week. She learns a letter and does a craft every Thursday. She loves and is always excited about going to school like Daddy does. Dance has been going well for her and she is learning new things every week.
As for me I have been busy with school and everything that goes along with that. Thanksgiving break is still a week and half away and it will be nice to have a break from the kids for awhile. I will post the pictures of all of this after this post so keep scrolling down to see them. Thanks for reading I will hopefully get better at posting more often.

New Computer/Photo shoot

Last night Sarah and I had to break down and buy a new computer. Our old one, which was over 3 years old, just gave out. We went to Best Buy and bought a new Toshiba. It is about 100 times bigger and faster then our old one. Hopefully this computer will be better for Sarah and her photography. We will have to see.
On the other hand next Tuesday the girls have a photo shoot for a magazine. Sarah is excited and is hoping that the girls will be good. Check back later to see how they did. I will get pictures of Halloween up later after the transfer of computer files. Later

Lance

Change

I know I should not rant and rave about politics, but here I am. I am happy and proud to be an American today. With me being a teacher of history this doesn't get any better. To see Barack Obama become the 44th President of the United States is beyond words. To have an African-American become our president is something that is beyond words. I know I sound like like a freak, but that is how I feel. Politics are a very polarizing thing, either you like a person or you hate them. Together as a country we should come together and back our new president. I know some of you may disagree with me, but don't take offense. Thank you for listening to me.

Lance

Sarah's Pictures

Here are some more pictures that Sarah took over the weekend. She is really getting into her photography. She even bought herself some photo editing software so she could do some interesting things with her pictures. She has also bought back drops and lights to convert the living room into a studio to take her pictures. This weekend she had a "new client," Brayden, Jennifer Schoerberl's son. Below are some pictures of him that Sarah took. She also has some edited ones of him are her photography website.
Last night Sarah tried to take pictures of the girls in their Halloween costumes. They were not being very cooperative, so she quit trying. Ella was running around in her diaper and saw her blanket so Sarah snapped her picture. The outcome is below. Sarah is really getting serious about this photography thing and from some of the pictures she has a very good eye. She is very passionate about it and loves every minute of it.
On a side note, she spends some much time editing pictures I get to watch all the football I want on Saturdays and Sundays. That is good for me.





A picture of Ella laying on her favorite blanket.


One happy little bee.

Ava being a serious kitty.

Brayden Schoeberl

What a Weekend (Except for the football scores)

What a weekend! One of my all time greatest weekends every. It all started with tickets to the Iowa State/Nebraska game. Mark had 2 extra tickets so Sarah and I went up and tailgated and then watched the Cyclones embarrass themselves for the entire game. The tailgating was fun as usual and the weather was great.
On Sunday Mark took me, Hunter, and Shawna to the Kansas City Chiefs game. He found out Wednesday that we had a few extra tickets and asked me to go along. Of course, I said yes. Now, these aren't just any ticket, these tickets are for the luxury box that his company owns. Plus we got a parking pass. This was my first professional game every and it felt like Christmas morning as we pulled into the parking lot. I am not sure who was more excited Hunter, age 7, or Lance, age 28. I think I won for being more excited. Once in the Skybox everything was provided. All the food you can eat, and drinks you can drink. I ate and drank enough for about 6 people. It was a great experience, except for the football game. Not only was this fun but in less then two weeks (Nov. 2) we are going down for another Chiefs game in the luxury box. This time Mark and Jane are taking Brad and Shawna, and Sarah and I down for the weekend. We are going down on Saturday and out to eat on the plaza, then to the game on Sunday. 2 Chiefs games in 3 weeks, can't wait.
The other two pictures are of Cy being her usual self. One is of her eating her food in the baby high chair, and the other is of her sleeping in the toy box. Another very busy weekend, soon I will have a weekend where I will do absolutely nothing. I hope everybody has a wonderful week.

Lance


This is where we parked for the game. Nice and close.


At the beginning of the game when the fans were there.

This is a picture from my seat in the Skybox.

Prior to the game down by the field.


Of course I had to get a picture with the cheerleaders!


Cy asleep in the toy box.

Cy eating her dinner in the toy high chair.