Santa Came!

The family spent Christmas Eve by our fireplace in the basement enjoying Christmas songs and the new pajamas the kids got from Heidi's mom!


Christmas morning was a hit! Kjersti loved her Butterfly Treehouse.

Go ahead and guess who's face could be behind these two Power Ranger DVDs?

Oh yes! The bedlam of Christmas morning. Eli paused for approximately .034 seconds to inspect this card before quickly moving on to the present.

Eve was overcome with shock and happiness upon receiving a stocking full of chew toys. For most of the day, all she was heard saying was, "nom, nom, yom, nom, nom, yom."

After practicing on her chew toys for awhile, Eve became enboldened to move on to bigger things. This did not go over so well with Eli who utimately had to open a soggy gift.

Kjersti loved the custom tea set Grandma Cheryl gave her. It did wonders in helping her serve a fresh Hershey Kiss.

The Blizzard of 2009

Throughout the evening of 18 DEC and through the next day, 24 inches of snow fell in our backyard in Dumfries, VA. We're use to snowfall like that in New York, but certainly not here. Of course the kids were quick to make the most of it.


A few days later, Cody took the kids sledding at the local hill. Kjersti and Eli soon became bored with racing each other down the hill so they decided to mix it up a bit with a giant snowball named Toonces (NOTE: This snowball is in no way related to a cat that could drive a car).

On the first attempt, Toonces jumped off the sled two feet into the run. On the next attempt, seen here, it (I'm not sure if it's a he or a she) did much better.

Eli is not known for his sportsmanship with giant rolling snowballs. In this video, he doesn't hold back on Toonces!

Halloween at Hershey Park

Here we have Superwoman (Heidi), the baby gnome (Eve), Cody (the pumpkin head), Snow White (Kjersti) and a Power Ranger (Eli). Cody really went to the extreme for Halloween this year. He gained 10 inches in his chest, lost all flesh and bone in his thighs and managed to get that plastic pumpkin mask on his head. Amazing!

Trick or Treating at Hershey Park was pretty nice. The chocolate is great, its in-doors and you don't have to go far from "candy-give-away-point" to "candy-give-away-point". As you can see however, while Kjersti and Heidi had a wonderful time with it, Eli wasn't sure what to think about the Hershey Park employees doling out the candy. We're just happy he didn't use any of his Power Ranger moves on them.

This ride was one of many Heidi and Cody enjoyed from the outside looking in. As you can see, the kids really enjoyed flirting with danger.

When the Baby Gnome gets ahold of the reigns, watch out! She's going to run that horse into the ground.

Snow White was on her faithful horse "Po-Po" and our Power Ranger used his super powers to make "The Black Stallion" ride to victory. In a brief "out of character" appearance, Cody ensured the beautiful princess and mighty super hero maintained proper focus so as to avoid any embarrassing mishaps.

Girl Talk

Kjersti: Welcome to Girl Talk. Where we talk about the stuff girls really want to talk about.
Eve: Are you serious?

Kjersti: Sure! Just smile and I'll help you through it.
Eve: What did you just say? I got distracted watching Eli roundhouse kick your Barbi collection.

Kjersti: That's ok. Ewe, something's smelling pretty ripe. That's not you is it?
Eve: I don't know what you're talking about.

Kjersti: Oh great Eve, it got all over my pants!
Eve: You have no idea how much better I feel now.

Kjersti: Oh well. I'm glad Mom is doing the laundry. She'll take care of that for us.

Eve: That's what I'm talking about... really, I'm serious.

Kjersti: We'll see you next time on Girl Talk!

Two Month Re-Cap

There's been a two month gap since our last post. Let me bring you up to speed. At the end of August, we moved out of our home in Watertown, NY. We're going to miss that place and all of the wonderful friends we made there!

We went on a vacation to southern Vermont and visited Jamaica State Park where we hiked to Hamilton Falls. Unfortunately, we set out on this six mile hike at about 5:30 p.m. so by the time we got back to our car, it was completely dark. It was so dark, Heidi and Kjersti thought they saw a ferocious beaver on the trail, but as we got closer, it turned out to be only a puddle. Good times.

We bought a crazy looking, but very functional hat for Eve in Straton, VT.

We were joined on our trip to Vermont by Cody's parents (Gary and Cheryl), Cody's brother, Chris and Heidi's mom, Elaine (behind the camera). We stayed at this awesome cabin. We had a great time!

We moved back into our townhouse in Dumfries, VA and blessed Eve our first week back to our old ward. What a long, strange trip it's been.

Conversations with Eve

13 SEP 09 - Eve: "The bouncer is one of the greatest things ever invented. I especially like "vibration" mode! Soooooo soothing."

16 SEP 09 - Eve: "The doctor gave me my shots today. I wasn't expecting that kind of pain and agony so early in my life. To make matters worse, he gave me blue band-aids instead of pink ones."

16 SEP 09 - Eve: "This is my brave face."

27 SEP 09 - Eve: "I just couldn't stand the binki anymore when I figured out I've got something much more tasty attached to my arm. My mom says I've nearly, 'mastered the left thumb, but still need some work on my right thumb'. I'm not quite sure what that means.

27 SEP 09 - Eve: "Sometimes I try to sneak my thumb in by masking the act with my right arm. My mom just thought I was being cute putting my hands up by my mouth, but there was a lot more going on she didn't know about... and I'm not talking about what was happening in my diaper."

27 SEP 09 - Eve: "Ok, my mom totally busted me in the act here. Dang it!"

Hot Air

Captain Chaos (Eli) and Princess Mayhem (Kjersti) discovered what they think to be the secret source of their super powers... the bicycle pump. Unfortunately, it did not yield the desired effect and has instead left them only with the funny taste of rubber in their mouths.

Tips From Big Sister to Baby Sister

When you burb and spit up, just smile like that afterwards and everyone will TOTALLY adore you!

When I was a baby, I looked just like you. Hey, is that my old onesie?

Wear as much pink as possible at all times. I see you're doing pretty well today!

Never pull dad's finger like this. You'll be forced to leave the room.

Eve Marie Strong

On 13 July 2009 at 1:40 p.m., Eve Marie Strong was born at Samaritan Medical Center in Watertown, NY. She weighed in at a healthy 9 lbs 11 oz and is 23 inches long. She has been a great baby! She cries very little and spends a lot of time just looking around as seen here. As you can see, she has a full head of dark hair complete with tipped highlights. I guess that explains why she was five days overdue; she had to get her hair done.


A cute little girl with nice long feet. I'm sure she'll come to love those over the years.

Kjersti couldn't be more excited to be a big sister!

With a little supervision, Eli loved holding his new sister. He's still getting used to the idea that there is a new baby in the house.

Eve had some whopper stories to tell Cody about life in the womb. I think he got the jist of it, but most of it was pretty tough to understand.

The perfect family picture. Heidi is tired, Kjersti is proud to be the new big sister, Eli is just happy to be there and Eve is zonked out.

Eli's Hog

People really do underestimate the possible bike stunts young boys can pull off when they're aided by training wheels. It's crazy wicked!

Kjersti's Wild Bicycle Tricks

Contrary to popular belief, "Danger" is her middle name.

Strong Roots Run Deep in Canada

Paspabiac, Quebec, located in the eastern part of the province on Chaleur Bay, is the town to which my Great, Great, Great Grandfather Lionel Strong immigrated. Originally from West Chinnock, England, he moved his family initially to St Saviour, Jersey Island (a British island located just off the northwest coast of France) sometime between 1841 and 1849 prior to finally settling in Paspabiac sometime between 1851 and 1858. Lionel worked for the Charles Robin Company. Behind me is a cod packaging plant of a rival cod fishery that was located right next to the Charles Robin Company's cod packaging plant in Paspabiac.

Although he doesn't have a headstone anymore, this is where Lionel is buried. It is St. Peter's Cemetery in Paspabiac, Quebec. We were fortunate to have figured this out. It was only because the library (in the background, upper left), which used to be the church, keeps a list of everyone buried there. After struggling through the language barrier (French), they were good enough to let us look through it and we found that this is in fact where he is buried. We are now in the process of collecting funds to pay for a headstone for him here.

This is my dad's second cousin Joan Strong, one of many Strong's still living in Canada. She lives in Cabano, Quebec and French is her native tongue. Fortunately, her English is much better than our French so we were able to communicate easily. On a whim I called her and asked if we could come visit and she agreed and fed us a wonderful dinner to boot. It was a great mini-reunion.

This is my Great, Great Grandfather Francis Strong's headstone. He is buried in Dalhousie, New Brunswick just on the south side of Chaleur Bay. He died at age 56. He was born at St. Saviour, Jersey Island and came to Paspabiac with his father Lionel and mother Mary and at least two other brothers when he was less than 10 years old.

My Great, Great Grandfather Francis' wife (Mary Jane Buckle) is buried here at this cemetery in Portage, Maine. She lived to be 94 years old and was a widow for over 33 years when she finally passed away! As it turns out, four consecutive generations of Strong men married a woman with the first name of Mary. Francis and Mary's daughter Elisabeth, also known as Bella, is also buried here. Mary lived with Bella for quite some time prior to her death. Portage is now a one horse town located about an hour's drive from the Van Buren, Maine Canadian border crossing.

Hand Puppets Gone Bad

Hand puppets are normally cute and fun. That's just not the case here.

Power Ranger - Power Up!

As many of you may know, when a Power Ranger Power's Up, that means he/she is ready to get it on! As you will see, when these Power Ranger's Power Up, they have an extensive bag of tricks which includes, punching, fire breath, karate chopping, wrestling, sticking their butt in my face, nose picking, wiping their face on the couch, nearly slipping to the ground and a very colorful overall fighting vocabulary. As the "bad guy of choice" in our house, I have lost count of how many times I have been clobbered by these noble defenders of the universe.

Memorial Day Weekend Camp Out

Put up the tent with the DVD player inside, start up a fire, throw on a few hot dogs and you've got all the necessary ingredients for a fine Memorial Day weekend camp out.

A unique aspect of this camp out was the rapid ability to nip disaster in the bud. That means we were in the back yard. The kids had a great time and even Cody is smiling easy because he could enjoy his bowl of freshly popped microwave popcorn by the camp fire.

At 7 1/2 months pregnant, Heidi loved this camping experience because when she had had enough, she could simply walk inside the house and sleep on her own bed instead of on a thin mat like the rest of us.

It's easy to smile for the camera... unless your name is Eli and you notice that your hot dog is on fire.

With the DVD players hanging from the backs of our metal lawn chairs, we were all ready to enjoy Scooby Doo and the Samurai Sword. What? You've never heard of that high-end production? That's because it's a straight to DVD-type movie that the kids over-ruled Dad on in a 2-1 vote. Cody should have never gone in to buy a DVD outnumbered like that.

Eli and Kjersti sure were glad they didn't have to sleep under the hole in the tent where all the rain was coming through like Dad did. So much fun!