Two little monkeys....

A few weeks ago I dragged my family to the park for round 2 of family photos for Christmas cards. I had to bribe Jacob and Jenna to take MORE photos and told them they could play on the playground when we were done. This park has an "old school" playground with swings, monkey bars, and even a merry-go-round. By the way...the bribe worked! I managed to get some Christmas card worthy photos...but you'll just have to wait a few weeks until yours comes in the mail!

Chuck Pie

Who knew Chuck Pie would get so many comments? Chuck Pie is really called "Frost on the Pumpkin" Pie. I searched and found a recipe that sounds similar here. Grandma Lehman made it and it was like pumpkin pie except it had a creamy pumpkin pie-ish layer in the middle (thus...the frost on the pumpkin). Apparently she used to make it, but hasn't made it for a while. When we asked what kind of pie it was, Becky was explaining all this to us and then told us a story about how her high school boyfriend - Chuck - liked the pie and once Grandma made a whole pie for him. Fast forward several years...Chuck is now a little burned out from drugs, but when Becky saw him at her HS reunion (I think that's where it was) he still remembered the pie. Anyhow...on Thanksgiving everyone kept asking what kind of pie it was and so we started calling it Chuck Pie because it was so much easier to say than "Frost on the Pumpkin Pie". There you go...the story of Chuck Pie. AND...just for the record...it was delicious! For some reason, it just doesn't sound as funny when I type the whole story out. I guess it was just one of those "you had to be there" moments. :)

It's back!!!

It looks like "Elf Yourself" is making the rounds again. We had so much fun playing with this last year...so we had to do it again! This time, you get all four of us!!

Click here to see the Dancing Covey Family Elves.

A Very Happy Lehman Thanksgiving

This year we spent Thanksgiving with the Lehman side of the family (my mom's family). We all went to Nancy/John's for tons of yummy food and desserts. I think my favorite was definitely the "Chuck Pie"!!! Later we played a marathon game of Apples 2 Apples. At one point there were 12 of us playing - from ages 10 to 86! We always have so much fun when we get together!!

Here are just a few photos from the day...

Mom, Aunt Becky, and Aunt Connie...deep in conversation...

Austin enjoying the last piece of "Chuck Pie" - straight out of the pie pan....

Abbie and Jenna....

Jacob...deep in thought during Apples 2 Apples...

Jenna....feeling a little left out during the game...Chris....during his traditional Thanksgiving-after-dinner-during -football-nap....

Alaina, Jenna, and Kelly....
A post-dinner Monopoly game (Allison, Allison's friend, Jacob, Austin, Abbie, and Amanda)...

Abbie and Allison....

Happy Thanksgiving!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
Enjoy spending time with friends and family today.

One little indian...

This afternoon Jenna's class had a Thanksgiving performance. The kids were all dressed like Pilgrims and Indians - of course. Because their performance was just held in their classroom, each child could only invite one guest. That was a hard decision for Jenna. She really wanted to invite our neighbor, Craig, but he's not coming home from college until tomorrow...so she decided to invite Dad instead. It killed me to be right down the hall and not be able to go into her classroom to take photos. I had to hand off the camera to Chris (but not my good one!!) and have him take photos instead.

Playin' in the leaves...

A couple weeks ago, I had the bright idea for all 4 of us to go to the park and use my tripod and self timer to take some family photos. My intention was to get a great photo for Christmas cards, but I just didn't get one I loved (don't worry - I made them try it again the next wekeend in a different location and different outfits for Jenna and I...and got a Christmas card worthy photo. You'll just have to wait a few weeks to see it when you get your Christmas card!). When I was done torturing my family with the mandatory family photo, I asked Jacob and Jenna to play with the leaves, and just started snapping. I love how these turned out!

First...the non-Christmas-card-worthy family photo (it's okay....just not what I had in mind...I don't like our mix of outfits...I don't like the shelter house in the background...plus I look squinty!)
Lots of fun in the leaves....




Jacob...throwing leaves at me! I think he was a little tired of the photo taking at this point!
Jenna...another spinning photo! There's just something about spinning photos that I like. I know I have taken a lot of her spinning! I could probably publish a whole book of photos of Jenna spinning!
One of my favorites from the day....I know there will be a day very soon when I won't be able to PAY them to lay this close together in the leaves for a photo! :)

Soccer

I'm done with sharing photos of strangers...now back to my kids! I just realized that between sharing Halloween photos and stranger photos, I never shared any soccer photos of Jacob from this season. This is his 2nd year of playing soccer. He really enjoys it, but was a little frustrated this year. Typically there are several different age brackets for the teams, but this year they combined them all due to small numbers of kids signing up. Jacob's team had only 2 or 3 boys and lots of younger kids (8-9 year olds). They did a good job, but just couldn't compete with some of the other teams that had a lot of older (10-12 year olds) kids. He still had a lot of fun and continued to improve this year. And now, we're on to basketball season.....

{Meah}

I was lucky enough to be asked by Meah's Mommy to take her photos again. I had taken Meah's photos when she was a newborn and again last fall, so I was excited to take more photos of her! Meah is now 18 months old...and on the go!!! We headed to the park and I got a work out following Miss Meah around. She is a busy, busy girl!

{Buckeye kids}

My friend Rachelle asked me to take photos of her kids plus her neices and nephews as a gift for the grandparents for Christmas. The kids were all dressed in their Ohio State gear and we headed to the golf course to take some photos. The weather was perfect and they all looked great in their scarlet and gray...so this should be easy, right??? WHEW! After taking two senior boys' photos, getting a good photo of a group of 6 little kids was a little harder than I thought it would be!

A few of the not so good photos (but I love the "story" they tell!)....

I love how the youngest is a "blur" in this one!

We're getting closer....I think we finally got it!!

Afterwards, Mom had me take a few photos of the youngest by himself. He was such a cutie and pretty cooperative considering that he had just sat for several other photos (of course, bribing him with Smarties helped a little, too!).