Cake Eating Video

Here's a short clip of AJ enjoying some cake! Hope you enjoy!

A Celebration of AJ...

We got AJ all decked out for his 1st birthday party complete with a suit and tie... The boy was stylin'...











Here's AJ's dog cake. The only animal the boy knows right now is dog. And, the only animal sound that he makes is a grunt-like bark... So, it only made sense to give him a dog-themed party...








AJ quickly shed his suit and tie so that he could enjoy his cake and ice cream. He did really well to keep most of it in his mouth. I'll post a video of him eating some cake for your enjoyment...












AJ - complete with "It's Fun to 1" hat and "1st Birthday" cup...


















One more shot of our little man in his suit...

We had a great party and the boy made off like a bandit with lots of fun gifts. Thanks to everybody that came to celebrate!

AJ's Birthday!

AJ turned one today. We will upload some new pictures of him at one in the coming days. AJ's party is on Sunday and we should get some good cakey-face shots.

He's the reason this blog was even started over a year ago and we are so glad for the fun that he's added to our life.

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's a wonderful day in Missouri. I'm listening to an audio track of my late Grandpa and Grandma Geiser from 1985 - thanks to my Uncle Charlie. It is good to hear the voices of my grandparents again. It's been a few years, but your ears still immediately recognize the tone, the cadence, and the sound of those you love. May your day be filled with those sounds today.

I am thankful for my family, past, present and future. God has been good and it's good to know that He'll always be good. His blessings to you today. Happy Thanksgiving!

Delay in Posting

Sorry for the delay, but life hasn't given us any really good photo opportunities lately...

Lots of running to and fro with no really time to stop to take a pic of the kids or really do too much that's a lot of fun. But, Thanksgiving's coming and we'll try to get some updates here soon.

Thanks for thinking of us!

Do you ever need a laugh?

One Saturday Night Live parody commercial has always made me laugh. This is where Taco Bell is heading...

POST #100 - Family Pics Courtesy of Robin!

It's great to have wonderful friends who will let you crash with a baby in their apartment for a week. It's even better when those same friends will bring their wonderful photography skills with them to Missouri to take some photos of your family! Thanks to Robin Blair for taking the time to take some shots of our little family during an already busy weekend in Missouri! Robin, you're the best and we love you so much!

Oh, and celebrate with us a bit. This is post #100 for us. In that time, we've gone from a family of 4 to a family of 5! We've had all sorts of adventures and you've been there with us! Thanks for checking up on us!

The Return of the Turtle and Butterfly Fairy

Followers of this blog know that we cheated this year for Halloween... Yes, we used Tatum's turtle costume from the Lion, the Witch and Wardrobe days... AND, yes, we used Greta's dance outfit retrofitted with butterfly wings to make her costume. But, hey! I bet both of these outfits each cost the Geiser clan more than average Halloween costume in the USA. (Sorry, that's the accountant/cheapskate coming out in me).

We all headed around the neighborhood collecting the candy everywhere we went. Then, we headed to Christ's Church of Oronogo to hang out with the cousins. The girls had a great time and filled their bags to overflowing. We had a great Halloween. Come on over for candy, we have bunches!

The Lion Sleeps Tonight

These pictures are all from Halloween. Our little lion really is sleeping as I write this blog, but the title of the post is due to the first picture. After a hard day of acting out his part as a lion, AJ was worn out on the way home from trick or treating... I had removed his costume because it was so stinkin' warm here that night, but the kid needed something to sleep with and his costume was just cuddly enough to foot the bill.

The remaining pics show AJ at his best... stuffing various objects in his mouth, looking cute and also his ability to look ever-so-stylin' with mama's huge sunglasses. We call it his "Elton John" look or his "pimp" look. Can I even say that? My apologies to all offended parties for various reasons there. Don't worry, this won't become a trend with my boy. We quickly got him back to playing with a football and eating a lot of red meat! ;)

More pics of our turtle and butterfly princess coming shortly....

What the girls did...

So, you've seen Christy, AJ and me in California for the past month of blog posts or so... You got to be asking what did the girls do this whole time. Well, as I probably mentioned, my parents took the girls to Ohio with them for the week. The house that my father grew up in has been converted into an organic farm (www.pioneerfarm.net) and the farm was having a festival the weekend that Christy and I headed to California. So, most of my dad's family was headed back to the homeplace for the festival and so my parents went as well.

The first picture is of the Pioneer Farm sign. My grandpa's farm was always called Pioneer Farm and so it's neat to see that the tradition continues even though it's no longer in the family. The area where my dad grew up has a lot of Amish and Mennonite. The second pic shows the girl in a little buggy. The third pic is at Warther's (www.warthers.com). Mr. Warther was a world class wood carver and this third picture is in the button house. Mrs. Warther apparently loved to collect and display buttons. This pic is just one of many displays in the button house. The 4th pic is of a train that Mr. Warther did from ebony and ivory. The story of his wood carving is pretty amazing and I encourage you to check out their site.

So, the girls hung out with Grandpa and Grandma Geiser for the week. They swam a lot and had a blast. It's a memory that they'll have for the rest of their lives. Thanks to my Mom and Dad for helping me out as I surprised Christy with her birthday trip!

A Taste of Bosnia

Thanks to our friend Chris Casey for exposing us to this video from Bosnia. I think you'll enjoy the multimedia experience...

More Pics from Cali

Our final night consisted of a lovely dinner at Santa Monca with Ben and Robin and then a nice walk around the area. Santa Monica is beautiful and you just feel good to be there. It gave us a little chance to talk with our friends and just hang out a bit.

After this fantastic night, we knew that the next day would consist of finding the rental car location, finding our way through security at the airport, finding our gate at the airport, and then finding a way to keep AJ happy on a 3 hour plane ride home. The stress of life found its way back to us and we were wishing to spend a bit more time on vacation with our friends.

Thanks again to Ben and Robin for their hospitality and their continued friendship!

Back in the Saddle Again

Just a few more pics from our trip out west. Here's a few more from Yosemite. We loved our time with Ben and Robin and it's hard to believe that's it's been a month since we were there.

I've struggled to get things updated on the blog lately. I hope to be more regular in my posting in the weeks to come. Life's just been interesting lately and extremely busy leading to few pictures and even fewer good stories. Or, maybe my life's been too busy to realize how good the stories have been.

We're ready to return to California for another stay. This time we'll take the girls and spend a week at Yosemite and another week on the coast visiting Disneyland and the San Diego Zoo. That is...when we save up both the cash and the vacation time to afford such a trip. Thanks for checking on us! We'll try to post things a bit more regularly.

Yosemite

9/20/08 China Town / LA County Fair

Saturday of our trip unfortunately was split up a bit as our friend Robin had a workshop that she had to attend as part of our graduate work in psychology at Fuller. So, Ben showed us around Chinatown in LA. We rode the Metro into the city and walked around Chinatown. We were immediately back in Beijing and missed it so bad! Those 8 weeks in Beijing back in 2004 has put a love for China in our hearts. We ate at a great Chinese restaurant that Ben recommended and went shopping in the Chinese markets. We had a great time! Thanks Ben for showing us around little Chinatown!

After Chinatown, we came back to Pasadena to meet up with Robin and decided to head to the LA County Fair. This Fair was amazing with rides that we've never seen before. And, food like we've never seen before. One of Robin's friends (holding the delectable dessert) grew up in a family that has always worked the LA County Fair. This family is always trying to top the other vendors at the Fair for the craziest types of food offered. What you see pictured is a "Mexican Funnel Cake". This cake is so large that if it was a suitcase, you'd have to check it! No carry-ons this size allowed! So, we gathered around the funnel cake like a bunch of lions around a downed zebra and dug in. I'd say about 15 people all partook of the funnel cake and ate their fill. It was nearly a miracle - or it was just a massive funnel cake. This family also offers delicacies such as chocalate-covered bacon and apple fries! The remaining pics are of us, the Blairs and AJ at the fair. Hope you enjoy!

The Getty 9/19/08

All I can say about the Getty is "WOW". Christy and I have been to museums in the past, but this one was AWESOME. Amazing garden pathways complete with flowers never seen by us simple Missourians before. Ben & Robin both took Friday off so that we could celebrate Robin's birthday and see some of the most beautiful creations ever made by God and man. Below you will see a huge "vase" made from rebar with these beautifully thick flowering vines. The circle maze is filled with water which disappointed us a bit as we hoped to get lost for a time in it.

This is just some of the beautiful architecture of the Getty. Amazing sights around every corner of this place!

Artists' paintings included Renoir (Christy's Favorite), Picasso, Rembrandt and many others. Here are some of our pics of two of our favorite paintings.

We'll be posting more from our trip next week! Look for a few posts from the girls trip to Ohio with Grandpa and Grandma Geiser as well!