Sledding is so much fun

On Friday, I finally went out and bought snow boots, so I could play outside with my three boys. We took turns sledding and taking pictures. Jude was a trooper. He even went on the big hill with daddy.

Eli solo

Eli manages to stay upright on his solo trip.

Cruisin' for a bruisin'

So that's why my butt hurts today. Next time. We'll wait until there's fresh powder on the ground. You might not be able to tell, but Jude is completely happy this whole time. Eli's look slowly turns to terror as we near the bottom. This is the "little hill". He won't go on the big one. Maybe that's because daddy doesn't hold on to him very tight.

Serious questions

So this morning while I am standing in the bathroom getting ready, I hear Eli ask Roger (they are eating breakfast in the kitchen), "Daddy, if Santa lives at the North Pole, how can he be at the mall?" Yowza! He's too young to be pondering the geographical challenges that Santa faces.

Roger was silent for a few moments. I couldn't tell if he was choking on his cereal or just trying to think of a logical answer. Then he says, "Well, Santa likes to come here and visit at Christmas time, so he's not always at the North Pole." Then he goes on to explain how Santa has helpers who dress like him and go to other malls. They make lists of what all the boys and girls want for Christmas and they share this information with Santa. It's all very complicated, but it makes perfect sense!

I'm glad it was Rog and not me! Way to go, daddy. Nice warm-up for the bigger questions that will come later on.

Green Arrow?

We are very proud of our little Jude and all his words. Just a couple days ago he looked up at me, his paper poised over our recycle-sack, and proclaimed , "Recycle!" However, the last 2 days he has been walking around saying "Gween a-woh. Gween a-woh!" We think he's talking about the old super hero Green Arrow, but we're really not sure. If so, he's real old-school when it comes to super heros. Does anyone speak Judlish? We need an interpreter!

Winter wonder fun

Here's our fun winter pix. This is Jude's first time to play in the snow. He wore his boots almost all weekend (a hand-me-down from Eli.) We put up the tree, too. Jude tried to climb it. We don't think he'll try that again. A seven foot tree is pretty scary when it's coming down on top of you! We only put on lights and garland to mimimize the mess Jude will make. Eli got to go sledding with Rog on Sunday. I couldn't go and take pictures as Jude was running a temp all day, so I had sick baby duty. Maybe another snow storm.


Snow-suit twins. Baby-blue and brown-duck.



Eli needs snowball lessons. No, Eli, they don't come pre-made. You have to pack them yourself. Those are ice chunks and they hurt when you throw them. He's always looking for the easy way!


Follow the leader. Yeah right. Let's see where that gets you!


Uh, Dad, I can fix my own mittens. Really.


Eli and his girlfriend, Carli. They have matching snowboots. Same size, same pattern. His gray, her's pink. It fate.


Jude kept placing the branches in the tree, then we couldn't find them when we really needed them. It was a good time.

Our connection to tragedy

Ok. That whole small world thing is so cliche, but so true. I was very surprised on Saturday when Amy called and told me that one of the 8 victims in last weeks shootings was the mother of a good friend of hers. Last week the general manager of our building sent out an e-mail announcing with great sadness that Beverly Flynn was a former Marriott employee. She was one of the 8 victims. Her daughter, Bobbi works at Marriott in group sales with Amy. Bobbi and Amy are very close. I've meant Bobbi a few times. I her in the hall from time to time. On November 30, Rog and I were supposed to go out and Samantha, Bobbi's little sister, was supposed to babysit the boys. I hadn't met Samantha yet, but talked to her on the phone a couple times about the boys. We ended up not going due to weather and Jude getting the stomach flu.

My sadness has only deepened now. Finding out that we'd lost someone we hadn't met yet, but would have eventually. Believe me, I'm always on the lookout for a good babysitter. Knowing four people who've lost a wife and mother (Bobbi and Samantha have a younger sister.) I can't fathom the pain and loss these people will endure. Samantha is only 13. I think Gretchen is just 8. We can only hope that this family is strong enough to endure and not let it alter their paths in life too much. I hope they can push away this anger I know they must feel and live life the way their mother would have hoped.

Dianne Trent, another of the 8, was a member at our church. It's just amazing how what happened to 8 people has affected the whole community. Just when I think I've had enough and want to block it all out and move on, I keep learning how connected everyone is. How it's a problem that belongs to us all and we have to help each other heal or we can't move one. Sorry to be so down, I'll try to post some more positive stuff now.

Tragedy at Westroads Mall

We are all safe in the Jaeger household this evening, but all quite shaken. If you haven't heard it on the news, a gunman walked into Von Maur at the Westroads Mall (our mall. our neighborhood mall. the mall that I take my kids to play. the mall I frequent to walk for a little extra exercise) and opened fire. 9 people are confirmed dead. Another is still in critical condition at Creighton Medical Center. The gunman is believed to be one of the 9 dead.

I apologize if there are typos. I'm still shaking. I actually didn't react at first. Now I don't even want to turn on the tv. I called into work because I can't compose myself. I'd probably start crying if someone asked me about it. I almost went and got some chinese food to carryout at JC Mandarin today. They are right across the street from Westroads. I miscopied the phone number so I couldn't call from my car to place the order on my way to pick up Jude. I decided maybe I wasn't meant to have Chinese today. Maybe there was a good reason. I thought maybe it was God's way of saying, "You've developed an allergy to Chinese food and shouldn't go because you will have a bad reaction and die." (I really need to learn to shut up that voice in my head. Maybe I'd get more sleep.) So I decided not to do it. The shooting took place 30 minutes later.

So many times I think there is an angel watching over all of us. The nearly missed car accidents. The nearly missed falls. All the times I thought Jude or Eli was going to impale themselves on a stick. Granted, I wasn't going to go into the mall, the very thought just makes me sick. The very thought of the proximity in which I would have been. It makes my skin crawl.

I was watching the news and one of the anchors kept using the term shell-shocked. I know what that means now. 2 hours ago, I was just numb. Just watching the events unfold. Now I'm cold. I cried. My head aches from it. Roger's bringing home dinner. I'm not sure if I can eat it. I might vomit.

My mom called this afternoon to make sure we were alright. Thanks mom. You never really think it's even possible something like this could happen in your city. I guess that officially makes us a statistic.

Thanks for listening. I'm a little more calm now. But I don't think I'll be going to the mall for a while.

Ice storm

Roger's new ipod pocket

When you can't find a place to put your pod.
Patent pending.

Boys on a big bed

Here's new video uploaded from my new camera. I was anxious to upload some video as it seems to have excellent quality even for a digital camera. That is if blogger doesn't dumb it down too much.

Big boy bed

Alas, both boys now have big boy beds. We said goodbye to the crib yesterday and Jude couldn't be more thrilled. He went to bed with very little hassle, although when I checked on him about a half-hour later, he was laying in bed with the light on. He's taking a nap right now. I just told him it was naptime and put him down with his blanky. I closed the door and walked away. He layed there and babbled a bit, but didn't cry. We were worried that he would just stay awake and play since he was not confined. He surprised us. We'll see what happens when the novelty wears off!

Good food, family, pony rides and stomach flu

Pics from our trip back to GI for Thanksgiving. Jude spent a good part of his time napping on Grandpa. Eli spent his time being silly and decorating gingerbread ornaments with aunt Carrie. He also played a lot of games with cousins Jesse and Lauryn. 3 out of 4 Jaegers got the stomach flu in varying degrees. That sums it up! The bottom pics were my attempt at night photography without a tripod. It was only 25 degrees. I was a little cold, but the effect is kind of cool. (Those were taken in downtown O at the lighting of the Gene Leahy Mall.)

Good news

Last week we received a letter from Eli's school stating their concern for his eye sight. Apparently he didn't do so well in the screening they do at school. They recommended we have his eyes examined by a doctor. He had his exam today and the doctor said he is just fine. No glasses needed!

The other good news is Eli now says his pukles (pew-culs) are just fine now. He had to have them dialated during the exam and had to wear sunglasses for a while today. He looked just like one of the three blind mice (just without the cane.) Man I hate when I have pukle trouble.

More pix color accents

Some greens and blues in my backyard. You can set the camera to pick up other colors similar to the one you sample or just that exact color. I set it on the "positive" side (above), so I picked up some blues.

Here I set on the "positive" side and ended up picking up some of Sadie's browns.



I'm still experimenting with adjusting shutter speed, aperture and ISO. It goes as high as 1600 on ISO, but I find if I go higher than 800, I end up with what they call "noise" in the shots (noise makes the pictures look grainy.) I like how these shots sort of blurred the bush, but focus on Jude. This model has a feature called "Face Detection" that allows me to do that. I also like how it picked up some of the gold color on the branches.

My next purchase will probably be a tripod to help eliminate some of the camera shake.

Maybe you've heard this one before...

You remind me of a butcher I know. He backed into his meat cutter and he got a little behind in his work.

-Comment by a customer of mine when I mentioned I was feeling a little behind after greeting him with "Good evening" in the morning. I said I felt like I just never left work the night before.

Mommy's new toy

Red accents.


I finally got my new toy I've been saving for over the last several months. It's my new Canon Powershot S5 IS. It has 8 megapixels with 12 times optical zoom plus a hot shoe (so I can add an external flash later.) I've already had a lot of fun with it this weekend. Roger just laughed when I said I wanted to sleep with it on Friday. Why not, Eli gets to have a bunch of teddy bears in bed with him!





It turned out it was the right time to buy it, too. They were having an event called Canon Days at Rockbrook Camera here in Omaha. I hesitated at the last minute and thought I should go with a model one step down to save a little money. I went in thinking I would spend about $470 for the camera, a memory card (it doesn't use the same type of memory my old camera uses) and an extended warranty. The salesman talked me into getting a camera bag, which I knew I would need, I just wasn't sure if I was getting it that day.


Red accent

Burning bush in our back yard. Top pic is extreme close-up.


Turns out they were having a drawing for people who spent over $200. I drew the largest prize they had: $50 off my purchase! Woo hoo! I was just hoping I'd get a free camera bag. Also turns out the extended warranty was only $40 not $50 like I was originally quoted. So I walked out of there spending about $430 (including tax). I got the camera I wanted, not the lower model. They also throw in a free class with every camera purchase. It's just for basics, but I think I'll go anyway, I might learn something else. I was so excited when I got home, I told Roger to rub me for good luck. Hopefully, he'll get some, too.

This camera has so many cool features. I took several shots using the Color Accent mode (the pics where only one color is highlighted, the rest is black and white.) I also used my Super Macro mode (extreme close ups).


Sadie's brown accents.

Blue accent.

We have fun with leaves too, Brian Boye

Not to be outdone, by one Brian Boye (click on his blog link to the left to see cute pics of RJ in the leaves), we can have fun with leaves, too. There do seem to be an abundance. Eli has waited and waited and waited for the leaves to fall from our trees so he could make and big pile and jump in it. Jude had a good time too.







I took many, many shots of Eli jumping. He was glad to demonstrate over and over and over again. Jumping into a big pile of leave is the ulimate rush for a 5-year-old. Hey Brian, bet RJ can't jump this high!