Elven Cousins

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Eli and a couple of his cousins put together a little music video for everyone.

Pictures of Piper's Zeroth Birthday

Getting Ready

This is about an hour before the c-section.

Almost time

Here we are suited up and ready to go...

Dad

My first moments holding her.

Footprints

Here is Piper getting her footprints taken by the nurse, Anna.

Thumb sucker

34 minutes after she was born, Piper already found her thumb.

Mother and daughter

Ann and Piper back in recovery. More thumbsucking. Someone must be hungry. :)

Baby sister

Eli is not sure what to think of this baby yet.

Piper Eve

She's here!!! :)

7 lbs 12.5 oz
20.5 in
10:44 AM

Everyone is doing fine. Pictures coming later!

Ready or not...

Getting ready for the c-section...

Time to beat the Steelers...

I just read that the Bengals are riding a 9-0 winning streak into tonight's game against the Steelers! boo-yah!

Uh, to clarify, that's a 9-0 mark against the spread in Week 12 games. So going back to 1999, the Cincinnati Bengals are UNDEFEATED in terms of [ losing by less | winning by more ] than expected in week 12.

Who dey?
Who dey?
Who dey think they gonna cover the spread against those Bengals in week 12?

NOBODY!

Put your money on the Bengals tonight, folks!

P.S. - Steelers fans/bettors: Don't think you can play only slightly better than us all night long and then get some miraculous Troy Polamalu defensive score to cover on the final play in regulation. That would be ridiculous.

Obama's strategy for Ohio

Obama's strategy for Ohio
Originally uploaded by parseljc

Because this being the most important election of our lifetimes is no reason to expect people to bother to register by the correct deadline, prove they are citizens, and/or show up to the polls with required identification. Why do those darn Republicans have to make it so hard for illegal aliens to vote?

Not to mention dead people, pets, cartoon characters...

Wizard of Awwws

mmmm
Originally uploaded by parseljc

Sorry for the cheesy title. We got Eli this lion costume a few weeks ago. On Tuesday we had a little Halloween party to go to (on Ann's birthday) for the Fairfield MOMS club. Ann was actually co-chairing the party planning.

We tried to think of how we could dress to complement Eli, so we threw together these Tin Man and Dorothy costumes at the last minute. Ann bought a blue gingham fitted bed sheet at Goodwill and her mom helped her turn it into a dress that day. (Maternity costumes are not readily available at many stores, as far as we have seen.) Ann warned me we would probably be the only adults dressed up.

Ann had to be there early. When I got there with Eli, I realized she was right.

Wizard of Awwws
Originally uploaded by parseljc

We were the only adults dressed up. We headed over to get our photos taken quickly before Eli decided he didn't want to wear the costume anymore. As soon as we were finished, in walked another family with parents that had taken the time to dress up! Whew, now we wouldn't feel so silly, right? What were they dressed as, you ask?

Why, the Tin Man, Dorothy, the Cowardly Lion, and the Scarecrow, of course!

1976 Yearbook Photo

Josh Ann 1976 Yearbook Photo
Originally uploaded by parseljc

Here's a quick glimpse of what we would have looked like graduating high school if we had been born about 18 years earlier.

Isn't modern technology amazing? Are there any questions left we cannot answer?

YearbookYourself.com

Thanks, Bill Clinton!

An eerily clairvoyant article by Steven A. Holmes, published in the New York Times on September 30, 1999, predicted this bailout.

...

In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980's.

"From the perspective of many people, including me, this is another thrift industry growing up around us," said Peter Wallison a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. "If they fail, the government will have to step up and bail them out the way it stepped up and bailed out the thrift industry."

...

Barack Obama's favorite line is "...the failed economic policies of the past eight years..." Problem is, the economic failure stems from a couple years before that.