7 April - Let's Catch Up on Two Months!

Last time I posted it was almost Valentine's Day. Katie had a really great party at school.

But as you know, my son is a high school wrestler and that takes up most of our time until after the 1st weekend of March - which if you follow wrestling, you know that's the High School States in Atlantic City. And this year we went all the way until then, because he "Made it to Ayee Cee!"

He was 2nd in Districts which the top three got to Regions. He was 3rd in Regions and the top three from each weight class go to Atlantic City. Never did a 3rd Place win feel so good!



Being interviewed by the Star Ledger.



He had the headline



Win #83 - Pinning the #1 seed -



Win #85 & His Ticket To States - he was tired after wrestling 4 matches that day because he had lost in the first round and had to wrestle back



Made my daughter and the cousins shirts to wear in AC






A Dream Come True



Hug for Luck



Match Time






He ended up losing on Friday night, so he was done. With 5 seconds left he had his opponent in a headlock but time ran out. That wrestler placed 8th in the state. So when you lose and are done - this is what you do after 3 months of cutting weight for wrestling

Eat & Watch More Wrestling

Can you believe it's almost the middle of February?

I can't! Let's hope the time keeps moving quickly and we get to Spring here in NJ. Between the 9 snowstorms and cold weather - I am sure ready for some springtime weather.

February means Valentine's Day - and Valentine's Day means making cards for my daughter to give out in class. This year we are way behind - and she finally cornered me last night to get some photos. I don't know if I like any of them or not, but she will decide since they are her Valentine's.

Here is one of my favorite outtakes.

1 February 2011 - Polka Dots

Don't you love these? My favorite accessory of the year so far with all the snow we've been having here in NJ.

12 January/2011 - This Made Me Laugh Today

I pulled out my phone at the stop light today to take a photo. Looks like they used blue painter's tape.

Photo of the Day

For 2011 I am attempting to keep another photo a day file on Flickr. Somehow I missed January 2nd - but have gotten one for the other days so far.

This was the photo I picked for yesterday - my son going into the 3rd period of the 3rd match yesterday. The score at this point was 13-0, so he made pretty quick ending it at 18-0 so he could get to breathe again.

Happy 2011!

Last time I posted it was 2 months from the time before - now it's only a month and a half so I guess I'm getting better!

Football ended with our the banquet the Tuesday of Thanksgiving week. And the day after Thanksgiving wrestling started. For any of you that know wrestling, this explains my absence. And let's not forget the girlie is having winter workouts of traveling softball which entails Saturdays from 1:30 to 3:00 and Sundays from 10am to noon.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we met family in Philly for some sightseeing and cheesesteaks. We found Macy's and got to see Santa and the awesome light display they have in their store.

Sunday was the parade in Denville. We haven't gone in years, but Katie was on a float and the weather wasn't too bad either.



Then came our trip to NYC to see the Christmas Spectacular. It was awesome!



The wrestling season officially started on December 18th with our Morris Knolls wrestling tournament. For this I made 4 pounds of baked ziti, 101 cupcakes and 36 wrestling singlet cookies. Worked in the kitchen from 6:00 am to 8:00 am and then took pictures all day - getting out of there somewhere around 7:00 pm.



Christmas Eve followed a week later with an impromptu trip to NYC to see "The Tree" - I think a new family tradition was born. Maybe next year we can get more of the family to come along. Kaitlyn still isn't too keen with NYC (she couldn't wait to get out of there when we went to see the Rockettes) but learned that pushing your way through the crowds is how you need to roll sometimes.



Katie woke everybody up at 6:00 am - we told her we weren't getting up until at least 6:45 - she was relentless until we got up. The whirlwind of opening took all of 10 minutes (all that time spent shopping and it's over in minutes). The hub always makes omelettes for breakfast every Christmas morning. The engaged ones came over to open presents and eat breakfast. After this round of opening the house was somewhat cleaned to prepare for company. A wonderful day was had by all.



The year came to a close with the annual Parsippany wrestling tournament on the 29th. Steven came in second this year and the team placed first overall - woohoo!



No photos from New Year's Eve - we stayed home. Watched the ball drop and were in bed by 12:01.

23 November - Time Flies

Has it really been two months since I last updated this blog?! Time has just flown!

So what have I been up to? Football - which is now over - well after tonight's banquet it will be - and it turned out to be a disappointing season 2-8. But we won our last game, so at least it ended on a win. I was busy taking photos at the varsity games along with two other photographers (who are dads) and making cupcakes almost every Friday night for their dinners. The favorite turned out to be Devils Food Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough cupcakes with Cookie Dough frosting - mmm, mmm!

The soccer team hired me to get action photos for their senior gifts. Not an easy task when I have never taken soccer photos before and their were three games left (two having overcast skies and one being a night game). It was a little late in the season to try and get photos at a 4 pm game with fading fall light. Next year I suggested they hire their photographer at the beginning of the season. I was lucky that they got an extra State game that started at 2 pm and they were ahead so the coach put in the subs and managed to get shots of all 11 seniors in the last game - whew! The 16x20 posters looked awesome!

And not to just blah, blah, blah - here are some recent photos.

My nephew's oldest daughter - Miss P

My nephew's middle daughter - Miss R



And we can't forget the baby - Baby KG



And my best friend's grandson