Just a few pics...

1. Playin with Mom

2. "Hey Buddy, these are cool shoes. Mind if I borrow them?"

3. Walking in my squeaky shoes.

4. A day at the Como Zoo with Mom.

5. Jacob + food = happy boy.

Is this how you crawl?

We've been thinking that Jacob might learn to walk before he learns to crawl, but he's recently been practicing his crawling more so who knows. We're not sure if you can call this crawling, but it does involve hands and knees. It just happens to also include the creative use of a prominent forehead. All we know is that it resembles crawling more than his typical log rolls around the room, so we're happy with it. More importantly, it gets Jacob from point A to point B and that's all that he cares about. It will probably get easier as his smallish arms grow into better proportion with his giant head. Hehe. Crawl on Jacob, crawl on!

Gobble Gait 2008

In an effort to work off our turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie BEFORE we ate it, Mike and I decided at the last minute to run in the 11th annual Gobble Gait 8K in Hastings. It was a hasty last minute decision the night before the race, and one which we both expected the strongly regret, but it was for charity and Mike was a sponsor so we decided to give it a go. So at 8:30am on a beautiful Thanksgiving Day, and with little or no training, we joined about 3000 people for a 5 mile run.

It was a fun race and we were both pleasantly surprised to finish in less than an hour (quite honestly, I was surprised that I finished at all). Mike bested me by about 10 seconds (he's local so I didn't want to embarass him by flying past him at the end) and we finished in just over 46 minutes. The way I figure it, that's 46 minutes of work to justify an extra helping of stuffing and one more slice of pie, and in my book that's smart math. All in all, it was a great way to start a Thanksgiving Day and I hope to make this an annual tradition for many years to come.

Jakey Likes It

Jacob has become VERY passionate about eating food.

God shed His grace on thee

A very special tribute to our Veterans past and present. We have a list of family members that hold a special place in our hearts for their service.

Scott Sinclair - Air Force, Civil Engineer Officer, 2001-2007

Mark Jacobson - Army, Speck 4, Vietnam, 1968-1969

Paul Jacobson - Army, Sargent, Vietnam, 1970-1971

Bobby Jacobson - Air Force

Mike Landon - Navy, USS Thomaston LSD-28, 1970-1974

Greg Nordstrom - Navy, Petty Officer 3rd Class, USS Constellation aircraft carrier, 1968-1970

Larry Ahrens - Army, Captain, South Korea, 1970-1973

Ed Spiegeler - Navy, Storekeeper, DD693 Morale, 1951-1954

Adam Stauffer - Army Reserve, Drill Sargent, E7 / Marksman, 1992-current

Rusty Litterer - Air Force, Airman, 2001-2004, Army National Guard - Current

Les Landon - Marines, Sargent, Guadalcanal, 1942-1946

Army 1948-1950

Suzanne Landon - Navy, Wave, Yeoman E3, 1944-1946

EK Jacobson - Navy, Cook

Harry Spiegeler - Navy, WW1

To all of the service men and women across the nation - thank you for your sacrifice, dedication, and service to our country. We do not take our freedom for granted. God bless America!

Apples to Apples

Saturday, November 1st was a fun day for the 3 Sinclairs. Scott was reunited with his extended family, Jacob got to meet some cousins for the first time, and Nikki got to take part in the restart of what was once a Stauffer biennial tradition. Grandmas & grandpas, great aunts & uncles, and cousins galore all gathered together at Scott's Aunt Lois's farm in Allison for an old fashioned cider pressing.

For the few of you reading this who have not yet experienced the fun of pressing apple cider, we'll break it down for you...a wide variety of apples are collected (the more variety the better the cider tastes) and stored. The apples are then mixed up and washed and then sent to the cutting table. They're then quartered and all the soft spots and bad parts are cut out. Then it's off to the press to be squeezed down into two open sided cylinders. As the apples are compressed, the juice runs out the sides and down to the spout where it runs into a container. From there the juice is handed over to the strainers (Nikki's favorite part of cider pressing it turned out) who pour the juice through dish towels to strain out the solids. And lastly, the filtered juice is then bottled and ready to enjoy.

If it sounds like a lot of work, it's probably because it IS a lot of work. This year it took about 25 people almost 5 hours to get 75 or so gallons of cider. Of course, with a crew of Stauffers there's always plenty of gabbing going on throughout the day, so time really flew by. And there's nothing quite like a tall glass of freshly pressed cider to reward a day of hard work.

Photo recap of the day is above...

funny foto shoot

1. "ehhhh guys....do you see that squirrel tap dancing over there?"

2. "alright. here's your framer. ready, set, cheese!"

3. "hey uncle tom, wanna smell my cheerios breath?"

4. "quick aunt sarah, give me a kiss...uncle tom's not looking."

5. "umm...mom...do you realize that i am laying in a pile of scratchy leaves?"

6. "duude. like....the leaves are crunchy, man...."