Pictures - by Brad

You can't pick your dad... but apparently you can pick his nose. There really is no story behind this picture - just Wes with his finger up my nose.


At this point, we only had an inch of snow, but Elliott was all bundled up to play.




Wesley's 1st Birthday

We couldn't get him to pick up the cake with his hands, so he didn't get nearly as messy as he should have.


This is going to be trouble. Hopefully they won't try the stairs!

Lights - by Brad

We watched it snow last night as we were putting up our Christmas tree lights.

Christmas tree lights are nuts.

Four years ago, we purchased approximately 1000 lights (lets say 10 strands of 100). This year, as I was pulling them out of our boxes, I found two strands that would only light up on half of the strand. These particular Christmas lights are not easy to replace. You can’t just pop them out with your fingers. It takes the combination of a knife, two pairs of pliers, and a jack-hammer. This year, I went with an unconventional method and just trashed the two dysfunctional strands. So, it appears that the useful life of a cheap Christmas light set is about 4 years. Now we have the rest of the 4-year old Christmas lights wrapped around our tree, just waiting for the other strands to go out and have to redo the lights.

Back to the snow… I am watching the snow fall out my window right now. We have about three inches here and it is slowly building. I really enjoyed shoveling my driveway this morning because Elliott was right out there with me at 7:30. He stomped through the snow as I shoveled. He only lasted about 20 minutes before he was cold, but we had fun. After three years, it is great that he is now at an age where he can play when I work.

Pictures - by Brad

Here are some recent pictures:



Can you tell we like to sleep...


Again, with the sleeping...


Darth Vader and Yoda at Halloween...

Questions - by Linz

I thought that answering the questions of a three-year-old would be easy, what with all of my life experience, formal education and the general know-how that I have acquired through my twenty-four years. I was under the assumption that I would be an ever-wise parent, able to answer any question a curious child might have...until a few weeks ago.

Elliott and I were talking about his grandpas. We were talking about how he has two and how they live in different houses etc. A little while later Elliott asked me where my grandpa lived. Since both of my grandpas have passed away, I told him that my grandpa lives in heaven. I was foolish to think that an answer so simple would suffice such an inquisitive mind. The questions that followed were increasingly more difficult to answer. He asked if my grandpa would come and visit us, when we would get to visit him. I found myself unable to explain anything about heaven. What I thought I knew could not be understood by a little kid. But he was asking such big questions. Suddenly I had nothing to say about it (which is quite rare for me!)

This is not an isolated incident. My knowledge of many things has recently been called into question. I can handle the fact that I don't have all of the answers about cars, dinosaurs, robots...kid stuff. But I have a true desire to be able to teach my boys about God. Elliott asked me a few days ago, "Mom, what means redemption?" I am still trying to think up an answer.

Space Travel - by Brad

Okay… this may make me sound crazy, but I am willing to live with that.

Over the last year, I have read many articles about space travel on CNN and MSN. You probably heard about the X-Prize last year for the first private-manned flights outside the earth's atmosphere. Since then, private industry has been undergoing extensive R&D to open up an entirely new service. Some companies have announced they will be starting commercial flights outside our atmosphere by 2008. One has even planned for a commercial tourism flight around the moon in 2010.

These trips are sure to cost millions the first couple times and will probably be quite risky. However, in 30 years, these trips will be safer and much more economical. Let’s see… in 30 years, I will be 55. I am excited that within my lifetime I plan to see the earth from 72 miles up. I have seen some breath taking scenery here on earth, but to be able to see God's creation from way up there - awesome!

I may not be able to afford a trip around the moon by then, but if I can, I will!

The Spawn - by Brad

Alright, I thought I would kick this off with an intro to the larvae.

Exhibit one is Elliott. He is the ladies man of the family. Contrary to popular belief, he obtained his skills (pictured in action) from his mother. He also has great talking skills, energetic skills, bow staff skills, etc. He enjoys dinosaurs, and Darth Vader. He is three years old.


Elliott "Ladies Man" Posenjak


Wesley is a very different specimen. He is almost one, and much more mellow than his brother. He enjoys running in his walker and watching his brother play. He is generally happy... as long as he is getting attention.


Wesley "Wes Bob" Posenjak

Pirates - by Brad

For the past couple months, we have been intruding the thoughts of our friends - and even worse - reading the comments of our friends' friends. To end the daily theft, we have decided to trade thoughts for thoughts. Inspired by our friends, we have started our very own Bjournal. No longer will we be pirates... that is, if we have enough thoughts to keep this thing going.