Ben and Laura: 2011

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Overheard from my children

I have to post this if only as a means of embarassing my beautiful children one day in the future when they are surrounded by their peers:

Laura: Ben, I don't have a penis.

Ben: I know...you have vaginas.

Laura: Yeah, I have vanigases.

Well...at least they're kinda clear on that. Oh my...*giggle*.

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Merry Christmas!

Christmas 2011 was a great one, the entire weekend was a lot of fun. We had a lot of great family time, Rob's band put on an awesome show raising support for a local family with an ill child, we had a lovely dinner with a family from our church, and Santa spoiled the kids like mad. What more could we have asked for (except maybe a little snow which we did not get). Here are some photos from Christmas morning:

Santa was here!

Rawr...T-Rex has invaded your tree!

She was sooo tickled to get lip glosses...what a girlie girl!

Super excited about a telescope/microscope combo

Daddy's cool BBQ turner from Ben

A swing for her dollies was the only thing she asked Santa for

Mommy showing off the very festive toe socks from Laura

Recorded books from Grammie

Christmas threw up all over our living room ;)

Informing Daddy she needs a guitar pick in order to be a rock star

Using the new Nerf gun to try and shoot Santa off the roof

Modeling the new apron from Aunt Jess and Uncle Pete

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Check out the videos...

Click on the link to the right, under Other Stafford Family Websites, to check out some of our family videos. There are three new ones, one of Laura singing and playing a song she made up, and two of Ben performing Christmas carols. Merry Christmas, everyone!

Friday, December 16, 2011

With a click and a flash

I have met a wonderful variety of amazing people through roller derby...I am thrilled that I have had the opportunity to come into contact with so many members of the community around me. One of the people I have had the pleasure to meet is Mr. Scott Butner. He is a research scientist by day and a photographer by night. He so generously photographs my teams events for us free of charge. He does so because he loves photography. He also spends much of his weekends photographing local musicians' performances. And did I mention he has a mini studio in his home and does portraits too? Yeah...and his photos rock. Having him in my Facebook feed is a dangerous thing as it makes me want to run out and buy *this DSLR camera* pronto.

Here are a few from our session tonight followed by a few Rob's last show:

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Christmas Concert

Ben's school held their annual Christmas concert today at the end of the school day. Ahh...the sound of young, novice instrumentalists ~~murdering~~ playing carols for their ~~bleeding-eared~~ proud parents. I jest, of course, as their parents are of course proud...as well they should be. The kids did great, even the 4th and 5th grade dance squads performed for us.

Ben's class sung 2 carols, "All I Want for Christmas is My 2 Front Teeth" and "White Christmas".

Santa and a couple of his elves even stopped by. After all the classes had performed they headed back to their classrooms to get a special treat from the elves while parents were treated to hot coco until the kids were dismissed for the day.

"Hey...take my picture too!"

"No more paparazzi..!"

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Christmas Boat Parade

Tonight we went out and enjoyed the annual Christmas Boat Parade held on the Columbia River. Each December local boaters brave the frigid cold and parade down the river near Richland with Christmas lights rigged to their boats...everything from manger scenes to animated trains created from strings of lights.

We parked near the lighthouse on Clover Island and all bundled into a pile of blankets in the back of the Jeep with some hot coco and cookies to enjoy the display.