First Contact

I just thought I'd let you all know I got into Temple University yesterday. This means I will most definately attend college next year and I'm not a total failure. This the first I've heard from any of the schools I've applied to so hopefully more letters with similar content will arrive shortly.

The Day of All Days

Christmas morning dawned bright and early for the Muldowney children and, thus, for the parents as well. Shana made sure we all got up at 7:00 a.m. Dad took the usual picture on the stairs in which we all look so chipper and wide awake each year. There was an object veiled in a quilt below that looked suspiciously like a harp, but Mom, considering this an impossibility, made the shape into a painting in her mind despite the lack of convincing evidence. The human mind is a remarkable thing. Wouldn't you know it was a harp. Monique Ames had brought her harp as a gift back in October when they visited and it had remained unseen and hidden in Dad's Art Room until Christmas. Every one was very happy with their gifts, but the great hit was a family gift lovingly assembled the previous evening by Dad and Doug- a Foosball table. Everyone had lots of fun all day down in the Rec Room and we are looking forward to a dyn-o-mite tourney on New Year's Eve. We had a great time skyping with Shane and Leah and Miah and Missy both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Washington was the place for snow this year! Doug and Mimi, Shana and Mike Rucker (her boyfriend), and Mom-mom came to dinner. Mimi cooked the ham and Shana made the gravy for the turkey. Mom-mom brought delicious cookies and cupcakes and Liz made the outstanding mashed potatoes. Our celebration was capped by hearing from Jacob via telephone. We all got a chance to talk to him and he sounded great. We have been reading Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol' over the holiday and finished just last night. It's a great story- no movie really fully captures the written word. "God bless us, everyone!"

mother wrote this... thus the amazingness

John with the Book he got for Abe and Abe got for him:

Opening the Gifts!!


Shana and Mike after opening their gifts
Christmas Breakfast w/ Eggo Waffles *gasp*

The Traditional Stair Shot

Playing Checkers
Mommom sharing her blanket with the dogs

The Eve of Christmas

Christmas Eve was rather laid back. The Monroes came with their traditional lasagna meal which we enjoyed immensely. After dinner Doug and a sick Mimi came over to ah... help the Clauses.

The kids literally didn't sleep all night. I can vouch for that because they woke me up every 10 minutes whining about how they couldn't fall asleep. Ah the excitement of Christmas Eve!!

The Monroes

After Santa visited

Annual Caroling Shindig

The Monday before Christmas we had our usual Christmas get together. Our guest were the traditional Erekson and Clark-Child families plus the Schwans. After a good deal of lively chatter we settled down to the business portion of the evening. We sounded especially amazing this year. Laura, of course, sang a couple of solos with the amazing accompaniment of Linda Child and then we coerced Shana into singing a duet with Laura. It was quite lovely. Linda Child said they rocked, and she would know! It was especially fun to be with the Ereksons knowing that it may be the last year they are able to come.

The Muldowney household started their Christmas Break early in order to make the trek to Washington D.C. for Amanda's wedding. It was a wonderful experience for the fam. After the wedding itself was over, we headed to the bookstore for a little Christmas shopping. From there we went to the neighborhood Mommy grew up in. We got to see her old house and elementary school as well as the old beautiful church building she attended. The Chevey Chase Ward building was actually where the reception was, so Mom gave some of the kids a tour of it's two stories. The reception was sweet and of course the bride was lovely. Unfortunately we don't really have any non-fuzzy pictures of her. The camera wasn't really cooperating.

Mom with Uncle Mark and Uncle D holding his Granddaughter

Uncle John, Mom, and Uncle Mark

The fam (minus Abe because he had a swim meet) in front of the Temple

A Christmas Carroll

"The time has come," the children said.

"To talk of many things

Of Horowitz and Santa Claus

Of Angels without wings.

And whether the tree is live or not

And ornaments on strings."

After much debate (and time), we finally set up our tree! This was a while ago...but oh well! We got the tallest tree we've ever had. It's about 6-7 ft tall! We enjoyed setting it up and Mom enjoyed listening to us interact.







Dad's classic face without a mustache

Lizzy with a Walnut Santa

The Black Santa by Anonymous

Abe with Rubinstein

Clay-Head Collection

by Jacob Muldowney

Final Product

Abby (standing) and Bekah (hiding)

forewarning

Hello All!

So..... as I am sure you are aware I've got a lot of posting to do. But I won't really be able to do any of it just yet because I'm giving a talk at a bi-stake activity tomorrow and I need to prepare.
Sorry there will be a delay, but I will get everthing up on Monday at the very latest!

Lizzy

Twelve Tribes of Muldowney

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

A Man Suffering From a Cold Upper Lip

Daddy broke down and shaved off is mustache for an up and coming CES class presentation. We, his children, were shocked to find him mustache-less when we woke up sunday morning. He does look a lot like he did in his youth though.

With no further delays, I present to you a naked liped papa.

Thanksgiving

For the first time in a long time, the Muldowney family Thanksgiving feast was eaten on one table. Although our numbers were few (only 9!!) we enjoyed the day immensely.
Abby, Bekah, and I started the day off at 7:15. We were responsible for Thanksgiving breakfast. The girlies watched the waffles why I made incredible sticky buns. They were simply amazing. Sadly I do not have a picture for you to drool over. When I was making the bacon though I stupidly poured the hot fat into a room temperature jar. A moment later when I moved the jar, only the top went anywhere. The boiling oil had made a clean cut around the bottle. Miraculously it didn't explode. Abby and Bekah were wonderful kitchen aids and were key factors in setting the meal out in time. Shana, Mike, and Doug all came over to partake in breakfast and watch the parade for a while. Sadly the couple and Doug departed before noon
With no guests to entertain our afternoon was very relaxed (except for mommy's, she was cooking). Abe got restless and so when Mimi and Doug returned most of the family took a walk. The rest stayed home and put together dinner.
The feast was wonderful, as always. Doug and Abe had a bet on who could eat more. They weighed in before and after the meal and Abe won by a long shot. Doug ate a measly 4.4 lbs while the champion ate 5.2 lbs. Our evening ended with our traditional movies White Christmas and Miracle on 34th Street.
It's been a wonderful year and we have lots to be thankful for! like you people. We hope every one's Thanksgiving was marvelous!


the clean cut bottle:

The half frozen pond:

Ready to sword fight:

Throwing rocks into the duck pond:

Thanksgiving dinner:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!

Daddy is now 54.

For his birthday we had a nice traditional dinner at home after which we chatted and watched an episode of "All Creatures Great and Small". Most of Dad's presents were food.... actually I think they all were. It was quite testament to Dad's love of food and we all laughed about it.

We're so very fortunate to have him as a dad. He's the best ever, I've decided.

The first Thanksgiving meal:

A Thousand Apologies

edit
I added the picture for your sake Leah, I hope you appreciate it. ☺

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

ok so I won't waste anymore space, but I'm sorry about not keeping up the blog! I've been sick and trying to apply to colleges and stufffffff. But none of those a good enough excuses. I'll post things more frequently. I promise.


Yours humbly and apologetically,
Lizzie

Abe the BEAST

Abe had his first swim meet on the 8th. He did really well! They had him swim 4 races, which is a lot for 1 meet. Most people only do 2-3. He swam 100 meter butterfly and also did the same stroke in the relay. This was really impressive because he only learned how to do it the week previous to the races. He placed pretty much every time... I believe. Abe's second meet was this past Saturday and he was pretty much awesome. He got first in his freestyle heat, YAY!! He's doing great with his swimming and has just started practicing with Radnor High School. Apparently it's really intense (which basically means swimming laps for almost 2 hours straight).

We're so proud of the little bugger, although he isn't really little any more, he's taller then me!! ☺

The Twins are 9!!!

November 8th was Abigail and Rebekah's 9th birthday!! To celebrate their big day we had made a morning trip to the Peter Wentz Farm's Apple Scrapple event. It was sort of rainy outside so there weren't many other people. We took a tour of the farm house, saw the inside of the smoke house (they were smoking almonds!), looked at the museum and animals, learned how to make Apple Butter, plumb pudding and scrapple, and of course sampled and bought a variety of fruit butters. The girls then went to the Relief Society Craft Day and made little hair clips and other crafts. When we finally got home the girls cleaned the house in 11 minutes! and on their birthday too!! Their dinner was chicken wings and french fries and the day was finished off with the movie "Anne of Green Gables". Abby and Bekah both seemed extremely happy about being 9.

Looking inside the smoke house

A random bull

The lady in the summer kitchen teaching us how to make plum pudding

Abby and Bekah (from front to back) about to blow out the candles!!

Pumpkin Eating Squirrels

Our poor beautiful pumpkins were mutilated by the squirrels. In the end they were so messed up that Abe just dragged them out back and shot them up with arrows. Darn those vermin!

In the early stages....

Pumpkins Roasting On Candle Fire

Halloween has come and gone. For the week of this most celebrated pagan holiday we took off school to clean the house and decorate. A lot of progress was made and loads of trash was put out on the side walk. There were plenty of festivities celebrating Halloween. On Wednesday the kids enjoyed the Trunk or Treat that our ward hold every year. On Thursday everyone cut their pumpkins. This years collection of Jack O'Lanterns were especially good (my personal opinion is that Abe takes the prize for coolest though☺). We lit all of the pumpkins and in no time at all the walk up to our door was filled with the scent of burning pumpkin flesh. It was very seasonal. The annual Muldowney household party was very small but we all had a good time. Abby wasn't feeling well so Dad and Doug took Bekah, John, and Abe out to go Trick or Treating while Lizzy and Mom stayed behind with the sick girl. Doug and the boys then went into Wayne to get more goodies and Dad took Bekah home for our meal of meatball sandwiches. Although they were completely un-traditional, the sandwiches were quite delicious. We watched Frankenstein and then ended the party early because I had SATs the next morning.

Happy really really really be-lated Halloween!

Pumpkins

Abe's Crazy Pumpkin

Abbty with Bekah the wizardESS (it was very important to remember)

Me sporting a blonde wig and mama

Autumn in PA

It's truly fall back east, which means the leaves are turning brilliant shades just before they fall and carpet the Pennsylvania landscape. To celebrate the seasonal change the Muldowneys went to Penny Packer Mills for a Harvest Festival. Everyone, that is, except for the invalid, John, and his babysitter, me! According to the fam it was a fun activity and they all had a grand old time. The girls had a particularly enjoyable afternoon because they were young enough to pick out pumpkins from the patch. Abe is long past those youthful times. Other activities they all enjoyed were the hay ride, eating cookies and candy sticks, throwing bean bags, seeing a cider press, and watching the old fashion tool used to de-kernalize corn do its thing.

Johnny boy survived missing out on the trip by watching "All Creatures Great and Small" (tv series based off of the James Harriot books - they're hilarious) and eating Sloppy Jose, French Fries, and Oatmeal Cookies. Overall, the 25th was quite a lovely day.

(above pictures taken at the Duck Pond)

Happy Autumn to everyone!!

Abraham raising an eye brow at the camera:

Lovely Mommy:


Abby and Beckah with their choice of pumpkins:


Abby's awesome mutant pumpkin, can you believe it actually came like that?