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Halloween 2009

Pre Trick or Treating
Ella = SpiderNatalie = Octopus Clara = Baby Chick

Mackenzie = Jellyfish (Portuguese Woman of War)

Annaleis = A Pig in a Wig

Clara held her own...

Pumpkins...

The Nieves, Heim, and Milne families, which total 13 children collectively, descended upon a pumpkin patch out in the Westfield, NY area this year. A simple field with Pumpkins...no gimmicks for once which was refreshing...along with the chilly weather.
The field...I mean patch
This was called for...it was chilly.


For the record...I think I am going to miss the backpack. We have put all 5 girls into it in all sorts of places and I love it.

Mike, Jonah, and Jill Nieves

Mackenzie and Grace

Goings On...

September and October have been a blur with quite a bit going on. Here's a sampling:

3 girls in school now. Mackenzie - 3rd grade, Natalie - 1st grade, Ella - Kindergarten. It's hard seeing our girls getting so big so quickly...

Every 2 years or so, my good friends Peter, Chris, Kenny, and Skip (we missed you Skip) try to get away for a weekend of camping...we're getting weaker every time. This year we spent the weekend in a heated cabin with beds, a kitchen, etc...we decided we should continue to do this (stay in a cabin) everytime now.

Pete at the OK Slip Falls overlook

Our niece Apryl was married in October to Josh Wiexlmann (he's ok). Annaleis and Ella were flower girls and I was honored to be an usher/groomsman.
I'm really glad I married into a good looking family. From left: Lisa (wife and sexy momma), Apryl (niece & the Bride), Cathy (Lisa's sister and mother of the Bride and Amber...will get mad at me if I write more even though it's positive), Amber-Lee (niece...looking sweet in red), and Laurie (Lisa's sister and I can't say anything here either or my brother-in-law Joe will kill me...he has LOTS of guns).

Amber-Lee and the crew

Natalie's teeth finally fall out...

Natalie's top 2 front teeth have been sort of an amusing ordeal this summer...corn-on-the-cob, hotdogs, icecream, hamburgers, and whatever else you can think of have been consumed sideways so as to avoid bumping the extremely loose teeth. Well... this weekend, they, along with a loose bottom tooth finally fell out...the most memorable one being when I hit her in the face with a football...a well-timed throw that Natalie didn't look up in time to see...a Manning-esqu anticipation of the open receiver on my part...but this isn't about my accuracy with the football...1 weekend, 3 teeth...not bad.

Cape Cod 2009

Ian, Allison and Iris along with Mom and Dad and us of course were able to spend a great week together on the Cape. The weather was pretty much perfect (not a drop of rain) and besides Ian's tooth trouble (sorry bro) and a bug that developed after we all got home...things went great! Hard to pick which pics to post for this one, but I did my best.
Anna finds a crab on the bayside

Ella found Horseshoe crabs

We took Ella, Natalie, and Mackenzie on a whalewatch off of Provincetown

Mom's birthday dinner

Cool & the Gang

Natalie skimboarding

New Addition...

A couple of weeks ago, we attended a Pig Roast at Lisa's dad's Field and Stream Club...great time and awesome activities for the kids. One such activity was a chicken chase which Natalie performed handily...catching a chicken, of course. AFTER she catches it, we find out that "congratulations...it yours...to keep" My reaction was @%^&*.

After a few days, it's been ok. Lucky, named after a former deceased chicken we had for a weekend (if you are not familiar with that story, ask me sometime) is a very social bird. She likes to sit on your lap and fall asleep, she'll fly up onto my back and then onto my shoulder, she follows us around, and is more affectionate than our 2 cats (who could care less about her). She resides in our sunroom during the night and is outside in a kennel during the day. I put a couple of drops of liquid BBQ sauce (Chavette's) into her water from time to time ...I'm marinating her from within...just in case. Her long-term future is unknown at this point...tune in.

Movie Night