Bedlem

Christmas morning is great. It is ranks at the top of the list in the category of "anticipated chaos." Eve was a very happy camper!

 Kjersti in the heat of the moment. Granted, she looks collected and in control, but it's just for the camera.

 Wild man Eli unwrapping his scooter! We just loved the fireplace show. We found it on Netflix. It's rated "G" in case you were wondering.

 Kjersti just loved her American Girl doll.

Eve felt the same about her's. Another successful Christmas!

Silent Night

In our humble re-creation of the birth of our Savior, Mary (Kjersti) watches over the baby, while Joseph (Eli) and the shepard (Eve) look on.

A few notable items to this picture... our shepard is sporting her sheep, the TV is playing a burning fire since we have no fire place and finally, the star signifying the Savior's birth is perched prominently above the fireplace. Christmas is all about getting the details right and man, we nailed it this year!

 The shepard had to give Mary a few pointers on basic child care.

Mary, great with child.

Big Time and Sherps Pay a Visit

 Big Time and Sherps (Gary and Cheryl Strong) paid us a visit just before Christmas. We had a great time. We visited National Harbor and ran into Mr. Peeps.

 I think Eve was the happiest Peep ever after she received her Peeps hat.

The euphoria of the Peeps hat was intensified when Grandma Cheryl bought her a Build-A-Bear. Notice that in the picture, as opposed to the last one, you can't even see her eyes because she's got such a big smile. How cute!

On our way to the United States Botanical Garden, we stopped for this picture.

Kjersti and Cheryl had a fun time piecing together a structurally unsound gingerbread house. Fortunately, no inspections of the house were done and no one moved in. Eve ate the tastiest parts of it a few days later.

Here are all of the gingerbread houses in all of their glory! It was so great having grandpa and grandma here to enjoy one of our favorite Strong Christmas traditions!

Nom, Nom, Nom

Heidi put together a fantastic dinner for Thanksgiving. It was so good, it deserved it's own blog post.

E-6 Mario Cart

 This year, Eli's birthday was all about his favorite Wii game, Mario Cart. Heidi made an amazing cake for the occasion.

 As with all party's Heidi puts on, there are no half measures. This year she really outdid herself by constructing one of the most awesome car jumps in kid birthday history. The kids loved racing them down the ramp and trying to land them in the "bonus bucket!"

 We had a full house for this festive occasion.

Heidi handed out Mario mustache's for all of the party goers. Eli ended up with a few extra and got a little carried away with them. The monobrow, mustache, Brother Brigham beard was just not a hit with the ladies.

The only thing separating our living room floor from chocolate cake and ice cream was the Mario highway. This made Cody a bit nervous, but the kids loved it!

Family Pictures

 This year we decided to take our family pictures at the Marine Corps Mueseum since we spend so much time down there walking on the walking path and at the play ground. Kelli Brewer took the pictures and they really speak for themselves.

  

The Ward Halloween Party

We'll claim the two Ferry's and the Mario. Eve, Eli and Kjersti loved Halloween this year and suited up in full regalia for the Ward Halloween party. Awesome!

 Kids dancing everywhere! It was a big hit!

Eve and Kjersti had some wicked cool moves!



Eli is our dancer extraordinaire. Something about the music just makes him move!

The Fundraiser

Kjersti, Eli and the Base 117 gang (left to right, Justin, Eve, Claire, Evan, Eli, Iya, Kjersti and Cora) decided they wanted to raise some money to help cure cancer. So with a little help from their parents, they put on quite a carnival. All totaled, they raised $138. Nice going guys!

Cody and Heidi Time

In September, Cody and Heidi enjoyed a relaxing couples trip to the New River Gorge in West Virginia. We arrived at Summersville Lake just after a major rainstorm and we ended up with the largest lake in West Virginia all to ourselves. We rented a two-man kayak and set out on the lake. It was beautiful!

We had a blast riding the zip line tour in the New River Gorge. Heidi definately made the zip line gear look better than Cody did.
 

The bridge over the New River Gorge just outside Fayettesville, WV was the largest steel arch bridge in the world when it was built in 1977. The 3,030 ft long bridge is quite a sight to behold.

 We had a great time hiking along the rim of the New River Gorge. The views were amazing!

Sandstone Falls was pretty cool. It's a 1,500 ft wide waterfall that drops approximately 10-15 feet across the entire span of the river.