Lydia's Gingerbread House!

On Christmas Eve's eve, we sat down to create Lydia's very own Ginger Bread house...her first gingerbread house at that. Hundreds of little candies and of course the gingerbread itself. Sticky icing everywhere, and some unimaginable patterns of candy make up this superb dwelling. Can you see how proud this little girl is??

Merry Christmas!!!!

Merry Christmas To Everyone, and we hope you all
have a happy, safe and joyous Christmas!

The more times you say..."Ho! Ho! Ho!" the more
you will laugh, guaranteed!

Aren't my girls beautiful???

Tis the season....

Snowy Play Date!!

It was the first big snow of the year, and I set the afternoon aside to play outdoors with the little girl. With a fun filled afternoon, Lydia and I played with snow balls, made snow angels, created Snow Castles, rode the one Daddy Open Sleigh around the yard, and of course laughed...a lot.

We were fortunate, and only had to perform a warm-up/change of mittens just once. Not bad for two hours of cold playtime. Of our many activities, Lydia wanted to re-create the "Surface of the Moon." We did this by throwing snowballs into the air, as they slammed down in a field of open snow. Below Lydia sits on a self made "snow chair."

Be Certain to check the end of the 2008 In Review Gallery for more photos of the day (scroll all the way to the end).

Oh Christmas Tree....

We Have completed the 2008 Christmas Tree!!!! What a blast putting it up. Despite the long process, little Lydia seemed to have a great time, while showing minimal amounts of boredom and defiance!

She is the cutest thing I have ever seen. Above she places a big clump of tinsel on the tree, and below, she wraps an ornament up with tinsel.

And Ta-Da!! Our Tree is finished...what a wonderful Christmas Tree. The snowflake at the top of the tree is too heavy, but Lydie approves of its crooked existence. "you got it Daddy!"

As Always, there are more photos in the 2008 Christmas Gallery, and check out the 7 minute video below of us putting up the tree!

2008 Trip to the Christmas Tree Farm....YEAH!!!!!

It is that time of year again, when the family heads out and hunts down the perfect Christmas Tree. Above, Momma and Lydie-Bug are searching for the perfect tree. Below Daddy and Lydia are cutting down just the right tree!

Daddy and Lydia are "going real fast" on Lydia's wooden sled. What a gorgeous winter day! In between "tree events Lydia made snow angels in the snow. Now the thing we are trying to figure out is where did she learn this from? I can tell you we didn't teach it to her! Check out the other photos in the 2008 Christmas Gallery!

Lydie is real proud of the tree we found!

Yep, this ice covered wonder of a tree. It should thaw out by January sometime! Check out the full photo journal by clicking here!

2008 Mighty-Mart Christmas Party!!! YEAH!!!!

Once again, it was time for the Mighty-Mart Christmas Party. Auntie Pam and Uncle Jack donate time and a party for the children and families that work for the Mighty Marts. And of course little Lydia was invited! YEAH!!!

Good Food, Good Folks! Lydia's favorite children's DJ, Johny Only, hosted the music and activities, including dancing, hula hoops, snowman wrapping of people with bathroom tissue, and scores of other activities. Lets not forget a special appearence by Santa Claus! Each child at the event (I am guessing around 50 - 75 or so) received a present, and there were raffles for 6 children's bicycles. The grand door prize was a Wii video game system. A really awesome spread hosted by Pam and Jack and many others in the Mighty Marts!

Above, Maria is a full fledged TP snowman at the hands of her own children, and below children sit around Santa Claus as the presents are handed out!

Check out the Full Mighty-Mart Christmas party at this special Photo Gallery

Thanksgiving 2008!!!

Thanksgiving was kicked off by a Toddler playing hard accident, and poor little Lydia gave herself a fat lip. Above Aunty Pam comforts her and points out the boo-boo. But after a quick nap, the bang didn't phase Lydia much at all...a tough little girl!

Suzanne slaved in the kitchen for two days, of course commanding the troops, well me, to orchestrate a wonderful spread of turkey day delights. Dolores contributes above with the supervisor finger! What a great meal! We were visited by a last minute surprise, when Pop-Pop and Nana Kay were able to make the meal all the way from Florida.

From the looks on their faces, and from the looks of Uncle Jack below (who ate way too much), the meal was a success...nice work Wifey! What a great meal!

As always, check out the photo gallery all the way at the end for more photos of the day, and I hope everyone had as great a Thanksgiving as we were blessed with!

The First Snow of 2008....PRETTY!!!!

After wrapping up family dinner with Uncle Jack and Auntie Pam, Lydia admires the first snow accumulation of 2008. As she screams emphatically...."Look Daddy...There is SNOW!!!!! Wow...wow...wow!"


Below is just one of many photos from the night (check the gallery out!!!). Here is Auntie Pam, Momma and Lydia playing with the new Dinosaur puzzles Grammie Sue sent her!

Lydia Makes Gourmet Chile!

On a cold late fall evening, Lydia was asked, "Would you like to help make chile?" And Lydia replied "ya...ya...wow...wow!" And off to the kitchen we all went. First we played with the cans and made towers...

Then we opened all of the cans and played with the beans and tomatoes, as Lydia made her very own chile concoction.

Then Lydia learned how to make chile! When asked what her favorite part was, she said she like the "black beans best!" Who can blame a 2 year old for that?

Who has more two year old like fun? The end result was about 20 gallons of yummy chile. Many around us will be enjoying the frozen fruits of our labor, and they will say, "That Lydia sure makes a good gourmet chile!"

Lydia's 3rd Halloween - 2008!

NO! Lydia doesn't have elephantidus...this is her Halloween costume. Another successful Halloween has passed us by. Visiting with all the neighbors, Aunt Teresa/Uncle Bill, and Auntie Pam/Uncle Jack! It was a great time. Lydia scored loads of candy, and had lots of fun. The Halloween Gallery for 2008 has been updated with photos (click here for Halloween Gallery), and the video below is from some time spent at Pam and Jack's place.

Lydia's Great Pumpkin!

The second best part of Halloween...the carving of the pumpkin. This is Lydia's third pumpkin, and even though she didn't have as much fun as she did last year, it was still fun to undertake this feat. Check out the video highlight from our carving session below:



Here's Lydia playing with her pumpkin.


I hope everyone has a great Halloween!!!

Lydia is Running for President....

Check it out she is really running for president.

"The Manley Factor"

OK now someone in my family did this...pretty cool!!! And you had better vote for my daughter, she has more foreign policy experience than Sarah Palin, and she isn't so much of a mavericky soul as she is a uniter. For the Republicans in my family, you should be aware that she is full of compassion, and as everyone knows who comes to the house, she isn't afraid to crank the taxes up!

Lydia's Pumpkin Farm Discoveries

Here is a quick video with some snippets of Lydia's pumpkin farm discoveries




Enjoy...Halloween is just around the corner!!!!

To The Pumpkin Farm!!!

As annual tradition dictates, it was off to the Pumpkin Farm to frolic through the pumpkin piles and sculptures. Lydia had a blast! Well Pop-Pop, Auntie Pam, Momma and Daddy had a blast too!. Here's Lydia picking out the perfect "Baby Pumpkin."

There was lots of running around. Hop-along horses, feeding the pigs, balloon art, ribbon fries with cheese, and lots of, did I mention this, running around. Below Lydia befriends a pumpkin skunk.

Also as annual tradition dictates, following the pumpkin farm, we head over to the Cider Mill (the site of Lydia's first doughnut) for cider and doughnuts. Mmmmmm. And yes of course we watched the making of the cider and doughnuts. Below sit the girls as we all enjoyed the treasures of our day.

Check out the full Pumpkin Farm Gallery!

Columbus Day Parade!!!

Binghamton's annual Columbus Day Parade was today, and leading the pack of marching bands, clowns, and other entertainment acts was Lydia enacting her marketing campaign in support of her sandwich and cookie products. Above she poses with Mommy, Aunt Pam, The Binghamton Senators' mascot Max, and sporting her ad on the door of a 56 Thunderbird.

Below Lydia throws candy and beef jerky out to the children. Can you spot the jerky???

A proud Grammy Sue was in attendance, and took the video footage shown below. Notice the Lydia billboard in the background (just click the "play" button below).

As always, make sure you check out the updated gallery

It's fall and it's apple season!!!

Every fall, family tradition dictates that Suzanne, Grampa Bill and Lydie go pick apples. Well, truth be told, it always used to be Grampa and Suzanne, and this is Lydie's first year going to the orchard.

And as always seems to be the case, it looks like Lydia had a great time! Didn't quite make it to 10 apples high, but looks like she may have tried

So a pretty good loot for a few hours of work. With this Lydie will surely bake Grampa a Dutch Apple Pie! And of course I look forward to using the apple pealer in the process of using all of these apples :-)

Photo Gallery Update...

Lots of birthdays and lots of action...download you favorite Lydia pictures here...

The 2008 In Review Photo Gallery

Check out Lydia at Kopernik Observatory's Astro Fest by clicking here

Hope everyone enjoys the nearly 450 photos....tomorrow is the annual Columbus Day Parade, and some good photo ops should pop up!

Take care all...

Kreegan Family Blog on YouTube!

I have been wanting a place to throw videos up to share with the family for sometime now. So I set up a YouTube account, and have finally started posting videos up there. If anyone has a video they want to throw up to share with family and friends, then let me know!

Anyway, here is the location of the YouTube Video content.

Kreegan99 on YouTube

And here is an embedded video for you to check out...

Lydia's First Work of Art....

A few months back, momma asked Lydia to draw a picture of her, and this is what she came up with. Momma is sooooo proud of her little girl, and I think Picasso would be too! This is a great image for a two year old! Not that we are biased or anything :-)

Granted, there are many pictures of squiggles and scribbles. And granted that this was a one time fluke that Lydia is unable to re-create anything like it. It just goes to show what you can do when you don't think too much about it!

Getting Back to Life

After a summer of long work hours, spending the month of August recovering from the long work hours, and the month of September spent taking all of my vacation time for the year, I am starting to get back on my feet again, and will start to update the blog more often. Of course this gets really important now that much of the family is starting to flee to southern land once again.

A lot of stuff has happened the past few months, and here are some bullets highlighting things...

- Lydia visits the Butterfly Farm with Grammie Sue.
- Lydia visits a Broome County Beach :-) (ok well Greenwood Park)
- The Ottaway's visited from Los Angeles.
- The Derany's visited from NYC.
- A long overdue visit to the Baseball Hall of Fame
- The 8 niece and nephews visited from Allentown, PA.
- Suzanne and Patrick scored a long baby-free weekend in Skaneateles, NY
- We have had a lot of Birthdays... Nana Kay, Grammie Sue, Grampa Bill all flipped another year.
- And the biggest news known...we have paid off the house just in time for all economy to break loose.

I have added a ton of photos to the Blog 2008 In Review photo album...check it out here...

2008 In Review Photo Gallery

So that about sums up the past three months or so...keep your eyes posted for more information.

Take care....

July Has Been a Busy Month

As we all know, Lydia doesn't like to sleep very much, and we all know she fights sleeping whenever possible, but from time to time she has very little choice. When she hits this point of no return, it doesn't matter where she is or what she is doing, and she will crash hard! Night-Night Lydia!

From time to time, while Lydia is eating, Mom and Dad will take a break and will leave Lydia to her own means for 10-15 minutes. This time when we returned, what a surprise Lydia had for us. And how proud is she of her hard work?

Happy Birthday Momma!

Lydia, Momma and Daddy sport the hats that we made to celebrate Momma's birthday. Do we look good or what? Lydia makes a mean hat!

Lydia finally warms up to Uncle Jack, as they go for a walk in the yard. They had lots of fun playing and walking on this day!

As always there are lots more photos in the photo gallery....check out July's entries!

Lydia Goes to the Zoo!!

Annual rituals mandated a long overdue trip to the Ross Park Zoo! When asking Lydia if she wanted to go to the Zoo, a quick responce of "YEAH" came immediately out of her mouth. And so off to the zoo we went. Lydia saw all sorts of wonders in her trip. An occasional trip to the Ross Park Zoo is almost a must for any local. Above, Lydia gazes at the ducks. She repeatedly stated in attempts to communicate with them, "kack, kack, kack..."

Above is little Lydia just after gazing upon the "Big, sleeping Bear." Whoa...and a big bear indeed.

Big cats are in order in this shot. Lydia attentively watches the big cats. This time stating "Kitty" There are more Zoo pictures in the 2008 photo gallery.

After visiting the Zoo, we promptly purchased a brick for the Zoo's walk of the wild, the brick should be there by early next year, and we have received a certificate with Lydia named as the contributor :-)

Wow What a Deal...How Does Lydia Come Up With Prices Like These?

Lydia's stardom continues in the Southern Tier as she markets these great deals. How does she negotiate such great and low prices on her products? I guess if she told us, then we would all be doing this :-)

Lets hope this is the same smash hit as her cookies and sandwiches. And once again, thanks Pam, Jack and Teresa for making this all happen! It is very flattering, and people are always asking me about the billboards.

Make sure you all stop by and get one of these combo deals...they are awesome!

Happy Birthday Lydia - You are 2 Years old.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LYDIA!!!

That is right Lydia is now 2 years old. All had a great day, and Lydia held center stage for hours.

Pop-Pop Manley walks in to the event, and asks Lydia, "How old are you Lydia?"

Lydia looks him in the eyes and says, "Twooo Pop-pop."

Pop-Pop looked back at little Lydia in astonishment. He hands little Lydia a frog balloon, and he turns his back. Next thing you know, guess what Lydia did? She releases the balloon and away it started flying. Of course Grampa Bill and Pop-pop just watched as it floated away. Poor Lydia. All was fine though, as Lydia had 20 other balloons to draw from. But it was still fun to pick on Pop-pop and Grampa Bill about letting her balloon fly away.

What a great day. Lydia was blessed with many visitors who all gave her the center of attention. Everyone played with her, and Daddy grilled about 14 pounds of meat on the grill. Momma, decorated the deck up, and prepared the best salads known. Lydia trivia was a hit, and luckily no fights broke out in the competitive group. Grampa Bill tried to give the win to Pop-pop (we have to keep an eye on these two) by incorrectly grading his paper. Auntie Pam and Gramma Delores were the proud winners of the contest.

Then the rain threatened us, and we moved the party inside to eat cake and open presents. Lydia scored all sorts of great presents including the matching lady bug rain gear shown above. She also got toys, an apron, gardening tools, tele-tubby dolls, and of course lots of clothes. In addition, she scored a big swing set just for her.

It was a great time and a great event that Momma put on. And the happiest of birthdays a little girl could ask for. Happy Birthday sweet Lydia!

CHECK OUT THE BIRTHDAY PHOTO GALLERY

Lydia's First Rainbow!!!!

Lydia awes over her first rainbow!