Poker = friends + food!

Work, work, work! That seems to be all John and I do lately. We did get to enjoy ourselves on Sunday evening with a a big poker game. We haven't played poker in ages, it seems, so it was nice to get the gang together. We had 9 people total, which is the most we've ever played with! I lost a lot of money, though. I usually do.

Almost more fun than the actual playing of poker, for me, was the preparing. I spent all day in the kitchen, I made: a spicy snack mix, banana bread, blond brownies, killer brownies and helped John make a loaf of Sourdough Pepper Parmesan bread - a big hit! We timed that one so it would be getting out of the bread machine after everyone had been playing for a while, so we could all slab some butter on a piece of hot bread and let it melt. It was fantastic! We also had some snacks made in the dehydrator. I still don't like the banana chips, but John loves them, so there is that. The apple chips though are just wonderful. John and I have been addicted to Honeycrips this year, and they're just as good dried. (We're also addicted to clementines. We've tried drying oranges before and it was a complete bust, but the clementines never last in our house long enough to get to the point that we'd consider drying them anyway! Om nom nom!)

What's that? You want to see photos?

Yes, I'm - probably obvious from the colors in a lot of these - I'm still posting photos here from in the fall. I'm determined to get semi-caught up and get to Christmas before February is over. That's something, right? Below are some more random photos from the life and times of John and Jennifer.


This is a vine that grows on the outside of our house








I happen to think it's one of the cutest things ever when the cats don't quite get their tongue back in their mouth. This is Maia.




I love, love, love this photo of Myles

It might be hard to tell from this photo, but Myles is actually standing up on his back feet (with his front paws on our shoe rack), which is what I see just about every day when I come home. Sometimes he'll have his front paws on my leg, and often he'll jump on the card table chair nearby and stand on that so that he can get as close to my face as possible. Myles is very much a Mama's Boy.


More of that vine on our house


Celebrating my birthday with Champagne...


...Funfetti cake...


...And Carcassonne

...Small World we actually played a few days later.

More Random Photos!

It feels like John and I are always busy, busy, busy but never with anything exciting enough to write in here about. Although, John did manage to finally fix his stereo. I don't know much about stereos, but apparently this was very exciting news. It's all analog, and I guess it's pretty valuable. I will admit that it sounds incredibly good, but I sure didn't get as excited about it as he did!

This weekend we're hosting a poker game at our house, which we used to do weekly, but it's been quite some time since we've been able to do it since "the gang" moved to such far-away places like "Columbus" and "Cleveland". So exotic.

Anyway, the main reason I ever write over here (and the main reason I assume you're reading) the photos! Once again, just a misc. batch. Most of these are from when I first got my new camera (the 5DMkII *droooool*), and I was taking pictures of whatever I could find because New! Camera!


Sweet Maia!


My newest pair of Chucks, which, you can tell, were very new at the time


Leaves in the backyard. Back when there were still leaves on the trees!


Playing 7 Wonders at the local bar/restaurant


I think I've mentioned before that I make the Best Pancake Batter and John is an expert Pancake Cooker. One day he surprised me by pouring some of the blueberries in syrup that we got in Maine INTO the pancake batter. OMG SO GOOD.


Just from the backyard


Settlers still remains one of my favorite games. Perhaps my absolute favorite.


These are the hot peppers we grew in the garden last year. Very popular when grilling out with friends!


Some more of my chucks, obviously!


John and I dressed up for Halloween. We were The Crimson Bolt (John) and Boltie (me) from the movie Super


Well, since I started with a picture of Maia, seems appropriate that I should finish up with a photo of handsome little Myles - who is pretty little, now, btw, we've been working to get both cats to lose weight and Myles is slim and active now!

2011 in photos!

Here are some of my favorite photos from 2011, all in a video set to music by Cake, because 1) I love Cake 2) 2011 was the first time both John and I saw Cake in concert and 3) I love Cake.

2011 in Photos from Jennifer Jacobs on Vimeo.

As you can tell, some of the photos are good, some just describe what's going in on our life at the time, and some are just funny - like when John used an entire cube of shredding paper to start a fire in the fire pit. Good times.

LOTS of photos of Emma!

I told you I was going to try and catch up! As I mentioned in my last entry, I was able to make it out to Emma's baptism in September. I bought a new camera just a few weeks after taking these photos, and I wish I had done it before, as I think they would have come out so much better, but such is life.

Emma, of course, was cute throughout the entire ceremony and we managed to get some group shots after, too.




I like how she seems to have just noticed the camera in this shot




I think those are mom's hands


Why do you have all this hair on your face??




Emma's godmother with her daughter






Contemplating what just happened, apparently.
















Godparents


All the grandparents


All the Jacobs. I just realized we stood in order of height.

After we got back to the house, Emma had some presents to open! Or, well, she had some presents to look at while she shoved cheerios (or something) into her mouth! :)






ooooh! a CUP!


I must touch it for it!




All of the kids have gotten these cups for their baptism. Their names are engraved on them.






Her godparents gave her a beautiful snowglobe