Russ Family Blog

Cousins...

noreply@blogger.com (Em Russ) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 04:13:00 +0000

One of the reasons I HAD to go to Utah was to meet Miss Molly… When I got there she was only two weeks old and oh so TINY. Especially when we set her up next to Alex. At the time he was 3 1/2 months old…

Flyin’ with Four…

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny) — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 03:05:00 +0000

Johnny needed to finish his thesis, I needed to meet the tiny little Molly, no one had met Alex, and my baby brother Danny got home from his mission. FOUR good reasons to justify flying home BY MYSELF with ALL FOUR munchkins.

And, it was awesome. (mostly, awesome…)

The kids were SOOO good.

This is Zack, just after he said “BARF” into his barf bag.

On the way to Utah our flight got in at what felt like midnight to me and the kids. Zack had a little (ok a ginormous) meltdown about 20 minutes before we landed and about 10 minutes before we landed the three big kids finally fell asleep. My sister Tami took this picture of me as we walked to see everyone. When Zack and Abby were freaking out at the end, a sweet lady from Kentucky volunteered to hold the baby. She saw my family waiting for me at the baggage and kindly told my dad that I needed help. He went and got a pass from the airline and came to my rescue.

After a reasonably great flight in (really… it was mostly great!!), I was really nervous about the flight back. I mean, how lucky could I be to get two great flights? But lady luck was on my side. There was absolutely NO crying. NONE!! (And if you know my history with flying and crying… 4 hours of straight crying… you know that this is a miracle.)

Abby & Zack even scored some new suitcases to try and make things easier…

We had a four and a half hour layover in Denver. I was really worried about it, but the kids had a great time.

We rode the train…

Dreamed of becoming astronauts…

And made ourselves at home on the third floor of concourse C by playing some cards, Barbies, and “Inja” Turtles,

Some of us even had a little nap…

The trip would have been perfect if Abby hadn’t gotten airsick and puked while we were landing. Too bad I didn’t teach her to use the barf bag!!

Kids Say The Darndest Things 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny) — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 04:35:00 +0000

Here is this year’s poster. For you new readers check out our previous installments of "Kids Say The Darndest Things" (2007, 2008) for an explanation. With three little ones speaking their mind this year we have had a banger year. The column down the left side is dedicated to Lila's "Big Sisters" that we weren't aware of until this year. Lila was kind enough to enlighten us on their fascinating attributes and abilities throughout a good portion of the year. We don't see or hear much from them anymore, except for the token Christmas gift of new underwear that Lila's sister, Miss Swamp, brings every year.

To read the quotes you can zoom in and out on the image below. Just click the image (not the little box in the corner) with your mouse or roll your scroll wheel, or you can use the buttons at the bottom. To see different parts, you can just drag around with the little hand, or you can drag the blue box around in the upper left corner.

So what are your favorites? Let us know in the comments.

On The Twelfth Day Of Christmas…

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny) — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 05:00:00 +0000

The Russes gave to me…

A new job.

I have been trying to find a job since this summer. I have applied and interviewed for a lot of engineering jobs and consulting jobs. By the end of November, I had gone through the final rounds and been turned away from every engineering and consulting job I had tried for.

I had one final round interview left with McKinsey & Co, for a management consulting job. It was the job I was least suited for in terms of my educational background. It was the one I was least likely to get, but it was also the one I wanted the most. Two days before my final round interview I tore my disc in my back again, and I was completely debilitated. I couldn’t stand or sit at all. I could barely move even when I was laying down. I had to cancel my interview.

The next week was Thanksgiving, so I had that much time to recover. My interview was rescheduled for December 1st. I convinced my spine doctor to squeeze me in for a steroid injection the day before Thanksgiving. The injections reduce the inflammation and take away a lot of the pain. I also got a new prescription for OxyContin. So the day of my interview came and I was still in pain but functional. I took all of my narcotics and hopped on the three hour train ride to the interview. At that point I was feeling a lot like George on Seinfeld when he interviewed with “MacKenzie”, the part where he was panicked, not when he was feeling cool, calm, and collected.

The interview consisted of three one hour slots, where I had to work through a consulting case on the spot, doing the calculations in my head and coming up with ideas on the fly. I practiced some with Emily beforehand, and she said that it gave her nightmares. The interviews went pretty well but not stellar. I got stuck in one part and had to ask the interviewer for help. After the interview I was sitting at the train station trying to figure out what my game plan would be at this point. It looked like I wasn’t going to be able to get any of the jobs I had tried for.

I was incredibly relieved and overjoyed (but not as much as Emily was) when they called me at the train station to let me know that they were going to give me an offer. In hind site Emily and I feel like me re-injuring my back may have been a little divine intervention. Maybe that was what needed to happen to get me lined up with the right people, to make this happen. Or maybe I needed to be on OxyContin to perform my best ;-). Either way we are very happy and feel very blessed.

This job will be in Stamford, Connecticut, and won’t start until this summer. I am writing up my thesis at MIT over the next month or so, and plan on taking a little time off to relax and to let my back recover before I start with McKinsey. We will be sad to leave all of the wonderful friends we have made here in Boston, but we are excited about the what lies in store for us ahead.

On The Eleventh Day Of Christmas…

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 05:00:00 +0000

The Russes gave to me…

A few more days of summer.

On The Tenth Day Of Christmas…

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 05:00:00 +0000

The Russes gave to me…

Two brothers and two sisters.

Having four kids that were four and under all at home, was often more than we could handle. Luckily they do a great job of taking care of each other.

They welcomed Alex (Chubby at the time) in to the fold well before he was even born.

Alex was 6 or 7 weeks old before Zack finally let us take off his “Baby Alex’s Big Brother” bracelet the nurse gave him at the hospital.

The first time Lila got to hold Alex she said, “He is way better than a doll.” Lila’s birthday was last month. At the time all of the kids had a really bad cough while they were recovering from the H1N1 flu. Today out of the blue she told us, “I love Alex so much that on my birthday, when I made my wish, I wanted to wish that I could fly. But I wished that Alex’s cough would get better instead, because I didn’t want him to die. I can just make my wish to fly next year.”

On The Ninth Day Of Christmas…

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 05:00:00 +0000

The Russes gave to me…

A bag of weed.

A few weeks ago Emily and I had a chance to stay in a Hilton for the night (more on that in another post). That night Emily asked me to get her scriptures for her. Being lazy, rather than get her scriptures for her out of the suitcase, I leaned over and opened up the bedside table to pull out the Gideons Bible. I was just about to toss it to her when Emily asked, “What is that inside of it?”

I opened it up to find the previous tenant's stash of weed.

Emily claims it was the first time she had ever seen pot before, but I am not sure I believe her. When I suggested we just leave it there and tell the front desk when we check out, Emily quickly suggested another idea. I wonder where she learned the best place to get rid of drugs is down the toilet.

On the Eighth Day Of Christmas...

noreply@blogger.com (Em Russ) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 05:02:00 +0000

The Russes gave to me...

A boy, just like his daddy!

On The Seventh Day Of Christmas…

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny) — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 05:00:00 +0000

The Russes gave to me…

A mean set of Halloween jack-o-lanterns.

This was the first year where the kids actually did a lot of the work themselves. Here are the girls in there pumpkin carving outfits.

Abby with her game face on.

We would like to pass along the best Halloween tip of the year. Try carving a candle-friendly hatch on the back of your pumpkin. It makes putting the candles in and lighting them much easier, and the big thing for us was that it made them way easier to clean out.

I followed tradition and used an official Homestarrunner.com template. This year I chose to go with the venerable Senor Cardgage, who made his debut in sbemail #92 “Kind of Cool”.

Here is the whole family from left to right: Abby, Emily, Zack, Johnny, Lila. Notice Lila got creative/overzealous and added on some ears, and a few random holes in the back for good measure.

On The Sixth Day Of Christmas…

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny) — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 05:00:00 +0000

The Russes gave to me…

Rain on a wedding day.

We all got to fly to Utah for Emily’s brother’s wedding. With the torrential downpour, things looked disastrous for Andy and McKenzie.

They got married at the Salt Lake City temple just like Emily and I did.

Lila was in awe when she finally got to see the “princess”.

In the end we all had a lot of fun, including the bride.

The next 3 pictures were taken by their photographer, Nicole Blukley.

Abby even got a chance to dance with her daddy to practice for her big day.

On The Fifth Day Of Christmas…

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 05:00:00 +0000

The Russes gave to me…

A truly random search.

On our way to visit my family in Florida this summer the friendly TSA worker told us that Emily, Lila, Abby, and Zack had been randomly flagged by the computer for a more thorough screening. My ticket was purchased separately because I used a voucher, so it didn’t get flagged with theirs. We can now confirm that these searches truly are random. I hadn’t shaved in a month in preparation for the annual Russtache party. They searched a 7 month old pregnant woman, her 4 year old daughter, and 2 year old twins, whilst her 230 lbs bearded husband walked through untouched.

Our cameras were caught up in the search and they had my cell phone in the x-ray machine for the good parts. Yes, they sent them all through puffer machine, ran the metal detector wand over everybody, and they patted down everyone (I just missed Zack standing there with his legs spread and arms out as he was patted down), including a check to make sure Emily’s stomach was real. I should note their tickets were flagged for the return trip as well, so they did it all again.

On The Fourth Day Of Christmas…

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny) — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 05:00:00 +0000

The Russes gave to me…

Back stage passes to the movie premiere.

My brother Brandon just finished up film school this year (Congrats Brandon). Instead of a resume, film students usually make a “demo reel” consisting of a bunch of short clips demonstrating various skills for a given job. To get some of the shots he needed, Brandon made a sequel to a movie he made when he was younger, “The Last Oreo”. In that movie he and his roommate get into an epic battle over the last Oreo in their apartment. When the sequel, “The Last Oreo: Requiem”, was finished, everybody wanted to see it, so we set up a movie premiere. The kids were stoked to be allowed “back stage”.

Zack was pretty happy when he scored an autograph from one of the stars, his Uncle Brandon.

Brandon did all of the editing and special effects, but he also created all of the music and sound work as well. Without further adieu here is “The Last Oreo: Requiem” for your viewing pleasure. Make sure to click the full screen option (the four arrows pointing out) to get the full effect.

The Last Oreo: Requiem from Brandon Russ on Vimeo.

On The Third Day of Christmas...

noreply@blogger.com (Em Russ) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 05:00:00 +0000

The Russes gave to me…

A New England Fall

One of my favorite things about living in New England is the incredible Fall colors. Abby would tell me regularly that it’s called Fall because all the leaves FALL off the trees.

These pictures were taken at the Gore Place. (It was FREEZING outside.)

RussSchool has been a little scarce since Alex joined the clan. I decided to do an impromptu lesson on the real reason for Fall. After painting leaves on our trees we decided to go for a walk and get some leaves for their “collections”.

Zack was excited about the whole thing…

And the kids learned that there is lots of fun to be had in a big pile of leaves… Even if it is just a little patch of leaves next to the road…Can’t beat a day in the Fall sunshine! Even 6 week old Alex had a great time!!

On The Second Day Of Christmas…

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 05:00:00 +0000

The Russes gave to me…

A cold root beard.

Yep those invitations to the Pirates & Pixies party weren’t in authentic pirate bottles. They were in root beer bottles (or root beard as Zack calls it). Somebody had to empty a dozen of those and lucky for us, as Zack frequently reminds us, “I love root beard just like Daddy!”

On The First Day Of Christmas…

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:00:00 +0000

The Russes gave to me…

A new set of eyes.

We never made a formal announcement because Lila insisted on keeping it a secret all year, so she could surprise her grandmas when we visited them last summer, but as many of you know, Lila got glasses. As part of the deal, she had to wear a patch for an hour every day for a few months. One of her eyes had a much stronger prescription, and if it didn’t have to work on its own, then her brain wouldn’t develop the machinery to process the sharper images produced by the glasses. I found a pattern off of the internet and Emily hand sewed a couple of patches for Lila. Then we let her decorate them however she wanted with stuff from the crafts box. My personal favorite was her googly eyed patch.

As you see from the title of this post we are going to try and pull off the wildly popular 12 days of Christmas posts like we did last year. See the December 2008 posts if you are new (http://blog.russes.org/2008_12_01_archive.html). So over the next few days we will be catching you all up on the posts we planned but never did for 2009.

All I want for Christmas...

noreply@blogger.com (Em Russ) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 03:31:00 +0000

Is my two front teeth…

Pirates & Pixies

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 03:24:00 +0000

Abby and Zack turned 3 on December 4th. A few weeks ago we asked each of them separately what they wanted to do for their party. Zack quickly replied, “I want to do pirates” and Abby said, “I want to be Tinker Bell!” And that is exactly how their party went down.

Kind of EAR-y

noreply@blogger.com (Em Russ) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 02:37:00 +0000

I took Zack to the doctor today. Turns out he has a double ear infection. On the way there he was REALLY upset about having to go to the doctor. I told him that we had to go so that she could look in his ear to see if it was infected. He begged me for over 30 minutes to take him home. Then,the whole time we were in the room waiting he kept trying to talk me into making a break for it.

As we were driving home we had the following conversation:

Z: "Mom, why did they just not cut my ear off?"
E: "What, Zacky?" .
Z: "Why did the doctor not cut my ear off to look inside to fix it?"
E: "Oh, baby, they don't cut people's ears off to look inside!"
Z: "The doctor just must have not had a knife."

Cue the parental guilt for not explaining things a little more clearly!

Guess I'd be upset too if I thought I was about to lose my ears!

For Grandma..

noreply@blogger.com (Em Russ) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:19:00 +0000

Alex at one month (a month ago)

Be Careful What You’re Grateful For…

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:00:00 +0000

because you might not get it anymore.

For family night this week we made a “gratitude garland” in preparation for the Thanksgiving holidays. We wrote down the things that we were grateful for on these leaves. My personal favorites came from Zack, each with their own illustration: “ear, triangle, this leaf, the letter ‘v’, and my friends going super fast.”

It had been about 10 months since I tore the disc in my lower back. I was feeling healthier and better than I had in the last 2 years so I put in a leaf expressing my gratitude for a healthy spine.

The next morning I picked up Abby, and injured my disc again. Over the next few days Zack, Abby, and Lila have all come down with a nasty flu virus. This is how we spent most of the day today. Me in a narcotic haze and the kids in fever induced, TV watching comas.

After every cartoon or movie Zack would give a couple of hearty coughs and say, “I am still sick, can we watch another show?” Despite all of the trouble and stress my back injury is heaping on our family, I am grateful that I could spend the day cuddled up with my kids.

p.s. so many people have copied this idea that I (Emily) thought I better add a post script and give credit where it's due. I wish I had been the thinker upper of this idea but it was all Family Fun, folks! I did however learn that it wasn't worth the effort to wrinkle the paper (who has time for that) and that staples were much more efficient than tape!

A Blessing

noreply@blogger.com (Em Russ) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 02:40:00 +0000

We decided to bless Alex while my mom was here. He was a day shy of 3 weeks old in these pictures. Johnny gave a great blessing.

Alex has been such a sweet little guy. He is my easiest baby so far and I'm just madly in love with him (and his soft kissable cheeks). Though I can't remember a lot of Abby & Zack's first year and the craziness of those days, this time around having one more little person hasn't been as much of a challenge as I thought it might be. (Which may not be saying much because I was REALLY nervous about adding a 4th child to our clan).

I was rocking him a few days ago staring at him and he just stared back at me. I thought, this is what I always wanted to do when I grew up. This was my "little girl dream".

Things are still crazy around here with 4 kids 4 and under (for a few more weeks at least). Johnny is finishing his masters thesis and looking for a job so things are even crazier than normal. There are lots of moments where I just sit amidst screaming children and think, WHAT HAVE I DONE?? But for the most part I'm so glad that someone else is in charge of my life and decided to send us this sweet little miracle. He really is a blessing in our lives.

Plus, now he's learned how to smile. Stay tuned for that!!

Black & White

noreply@blogger.com (Em Russ) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 04:45:00 +0000

Alexander James Russ, 6 days old

and yes… we took the pictures ourselves

Where everybody knows your name?

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 03:16:00 +0000

Things at the Russ House are going well. We’ve had lots of requests for pictures but as every stranger I see will tell you my “hands are really full!”

Grandma “Jannie” was here for 3 awesome weeks. The kids had a great time with her and I really loved having someone to take care of all of us. There’s just nothing like having your mom around!

The kids have adjusted well to having a new little guy around the house. I’m still not always sure they know his name yet. Zack was talking to Grandpa Otis on the phone a few days after Alex was born and he said “We gave our Chubby a name but… I just can’t remember it!”

They still call him Chubby a lot and he’s living up to his nickname (he weighed in at 12 pounds, 11 ounces today... 5 1/2 weeks old!) When they do use his name they either call him “Alex the Lion” (from Madagascar) or “Alex-the-Zander”.

Alex, sleeping during his entire first bath

They’re all quite fond of him. Lila loves to hold and kiss him and is looking forward to the day when she can hold him standing up. Abby is quite the little mother and wants to take care of him CONSTANTLY.

Zack likes being the big brother but can’t wait for the baby to get big enough to wrestle. (Though at the rate Alex’s thighs are growing it might have to be sumo wrestling!)

For the most part though, it’s just business as usual around here… (note those awesome pink cowboy boots Abby’s sportin’!!)

Alexander James Russ

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 04:36:00 +0000

Alexander James Russ

born September 21, 2009 9:15pm

8 lbs 6 oz

20.75 inches long

37 cm head

Alex was slow off the start (4 days late) but quick once he got going. Emily checked in at about 7:30pm and he was born 1 hour and 45 minutes later. He shares his birthday with his great great grandfather James Widdison. Upon hearing about his middle name, Emily’s grandmother said, “You couldn’t have named him after a better man.”

When I told Lila that we had chosen the name Alexander she fell on the ground in despair and told me that she didn’t want that name. It wasn’t the one she had picked. I asked her what name she had chosen, and she told me she wanted us to name him Danny. Sorry, Danny, if we had only known that Lila was pulling for you. I told her how upset I was when my younger brother was named Blake, but now once I got used to it, it is now one of my favorite names. In the car on the way to meet her brother, Lila told me, “Dad, guess what? Now I love Alexander. I just had to say it a few times and now I love it.”

Meanwhile, Abby still calls him Alex-the-zander, and laughs at herself for not being able to say it correctly. Zack on the other hand can’t say it at all and so he can’t even remember it. On the phone to grandpa, he said, “We got a new name for our Chubby, but um, I just can’t remember it. What was that name that we got for our Chubby?” For those of you who don’t know, Chubby was his prenatal nickname that Lila bestowed upon him.

Little RussSchool

noreply@blogger.com (Em Russ) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 02:01:00 +0000

After agonizing about it for a LONG time I finally decided not to send Lila to preschool this year. For lots of reasons, I decided to do a little preschool called "Russ School" at home for my 3 little rascals. Because of the baby coming it's been a little hit and miss, but the kids seem to really like it and I think once things settle down around here I'll really enjoy spending time with them, doing projects, and watching them learn.

We took the classic first day of school pictures (and I have to confess that one of the best parts of doing this preschool at home is that I don't have to fight anyone to get dressed or care about what they wear!)
Our first project was to make little people for us to use when we sing our "Hello" song.

The next day (which was actually like a week later, but who's keeping track) we had an introduction to "Shapes". We had different shaped pancakes for breakfast and they thought that was really impressive.

Then we practice drawing shapes on our awesome whiteboards (thanks Aunt Tami).

I didn't get good pictures, but we also played the Hokey Pokey with some shapes on popscicle sticks. The highlight of the day was our "Shapes Spotlight" where we went into the bedroom and used flashlights to find different paper cut out shapes around the room. Something about a dark room and a flashlight is really thrilling!! :)

Tomorrow we're going to learn about circles. Oh, the excitement!!

And yes, for those of you religiously checking our blog for an update... tomorrow (the 17th) IS my due date but I'm still plenty pregnant. We'll keep you posted!

p.p.s. Happy Birthday GG