I am sure that February 2008 was full of great moments. I am positive that we had 29 great days and many memories were created. When I look back at the photos from February, however, they are all of Hannah and Noah rolling out dough. The first group is shots of them making cookies. The second collection is pictures of Hannah and Noah making cookie-like things from Play-Doh. Both of rolling parties were fun, but Noah can verify that the cookie dough was much tastier than the Play-Doh. D’oh! indeed.

Noah celebrated his second birthday in January, but he graciously shared the birthday spotlight with his cousins Aleigha and Brandon. The three seemed to enjoy the group party.

All of the kids played well together and only beat the piñata, not each other. There was lots of good food, great company, and day full of memories for everyone. Many thanks to all who helped us celebrate.

Most of the photos that we take during the year are cataloged into monthly groupings, but there are the occasional exceptions to the rule. This collection of photographs is an example of just such a diverse collection with shots ranging from the height of summer to middle of winter. Almost all were taken with Rebecca’s purse-friendly digital camera as we went to various places without the larger digital SLR in tow.

Some of the moments captured in this collection include:

• Hannah and Noah raking leaves,
  
• Pony rides at the Big Run Wolf Ranch,
  
• A visit to the DuPage Children’s Museum,
  
• Building a scarecrow, and
  
• Halloween fun at the Orland Park Sportsplex
  

The Holidays are always a busy time of the year and it seems to be getting busier as Hannah and Noah grow more and more aware of the season. This past December was packed with everything from great parties to a pre-school recital. Some of the moments captured include:

• Decorating the Christmas tree
  
• Decorating tasty cookies
  
• Decorating Noah
  
• Visiting Santa with Babcia and Dziadzia
  
• A trip to the Zoo
  
• Building a snowperson
  
• A performance of “The Very Hungry Caterpillar & Other Eric Carle Favorites” by the Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia, and
  
• Lots of great times with family and friends.

There has been a long battle waging for the definitive high-definition DVD format. Both Sony’s Blu-ray and Toshiba’s HD DVD offer vastly superior video and audio compared to traditional DVDs. Both formats have enjoyed some strong and exclusive support from various retailers and movie studios over the past couple of years. Both formats have attracted vocal support from early adopters. But only one can win.

And the winner is Blu-ray.

I bet on the wrong horse. I picked up a first-generation HD DVD player in mid 2006. The local Best Buy had a display model on clearance to make room for a Blue-ray display and I snatched it up at a reasonable price. It has been a great player. The video and sound are unbelievable. Not only is it a great player of HD DVDs, it is also the best player of standard DVDs I’ve ever owned. There have been almost 400 movies released on the format, including some of my absolute favorites (Blade Runner Final Cut, Matrix Trilogy). I was heartily recommending HD DVD’s outstanding features and lower price to everyone as recently as December 2007.

What a difference a few weeks make. Warner Bros. announced it was switching to Blu-ray exclusively on January 4. New Line Cinema followed suit quickly. Since then, WalMart, Neflix, and Blockbuster have announced that they will phase out HD DVD support for Blu-ray. Best Buy is going to begin recommending Blu-ray as the “customer’s digital format choice” in March 2008. Now there are rumors that Toshiba will be pulling the plug on HD DVD within a matter of weeks. It will not be long until HD DVD is related to a technology footnote next to LaserDisc. It is a pity, too, because I still think HD DVD is a better product.

I love our new windows and doors. This is a strong emotion for inanimate objects, I know, but they are such a welcome improvement to the house that I think that such a bold statement is appropriate. Details about doors and windows are probably painfully boring for most folks, so please read on only if you think that this is a project that you see yourself doing in the future.

Finding the right replacement window was tricky. The original windows were all wood and had been stained to match the oak trim throughout the house. The look of the windows was great, but I was very concerned about replacing windows with a similar material that would need to be maintained and would not last much longer than the windows they were replacing. There have been improvements with wood windows over the years and a premium window would have undoubtedly done better than the builder-grade windows they would replace, but this would not turn wood into some other indestructible material.

We looked briefly at vinyl placement windows. Vinyl seemed to be a cost-effective way of replacing the wood windows with something that would not need as much maintenance. We decided against vinyl because it would have meant less light in the house (vinyl needs a wider frame for strength) and the simulated wood looked to…well, simulated.

We finally settled on Infinity replacement windows from Marvin. These windows are made from fiberglass, so they are strong, durable (lasting +40 years) , energy efficient, and actually allow for a narrower frame then the wood windows they replace. There are a few places that produce fiberglass replacement windows. We went with Marvin because of their reputation and because of EverWood finish option. EverWood is a pultruded fiberglass that can finished so that it is almost indistinguishable from wood. It looks and feels like wood. It can be stained to match trim work very convincingly. I’ve included a few close shots of the finished, stained windows so that you can judge this yourself.

Selecting replacement doors for the front of the house was actually easier than the windows. We knew that we wanted fiberglass doors that would last longer, allow a ton of natural light into our dark foyer, and would be energy efficient. After researching a number of brands and models, we finally selected the Fiber-Classic from Therma-Tru. Like the windows, these doors are made with a surface of pultruded fiberglass that can be stained to look like wood. You don’t see much of the “wood” with the full-length Sedona glass, but the material that remains does match the trim nicely.

July may have been a slow month for us, but we made up for this with a ton of activities and trips in August. There were so many pictures to go through from August that I actually skipped ahead to post September and October first. Some of the highlights from this month include:

• Hannah and Noah making pizzas together, with a little help from Mommy.
  
• Fun at the annual neighborhood Block Party by Babcia and Dziadzia, complete with a tour of a firetruck and a visit by a police dog.
  
• A mid-summer trip to the Brookfield Zoo, complete with photos of the baby Polar Bear.
  
• Rockin’ out with a free Ralph’s World concert at the Zoo. Ralph’s World songs make up a big percentage of the musical playlist for the kids, so the concert was a huge hit.
  
• A visit to a local County fair, complete with dozens of spinning, nausea-inducing rides.
  
• Bouncing fun in Moonjumps and other inflatables.
  
• And a close encounter with a family of Ducks by one of the lakes in our neighborhood.

The kids are old enough now that they are getting into the different holidays, so our celebration of Halloween was for virtually the entire month of October. We went to pumpkin patches, enjoyed hayrides, sipped cider, dressed in costumes more than half a dozen times, and loved it all.

Hannah dressed up as Jessie, the Yodeling Cowgirl from Toy Story 2. Both of the kids were really into Toy Story this fall, so Jessie was Hannah’s first choice for her costume. Noah embraced his inner-animal and dressed as a lion for Halloween. He practiced roaring for several weeks and will still growl on cue now a few months later.

As much as we love our home, we do not love the 30-year-old windows and doors that came with the house. The wood windows were undoubtedly beautiful when first installed. A few decades of Chicago winters, however, and the windows were warped, moldy, and drafty. The front doors on the house were not in as bad shape as the windows, but they were dated and let in only a small amount of light into the foyer. It was time for a change.

We had all of the windows, the front doors, and a side door replaced at the end of October. The team did a great job and had the whole project completed within two days. I’ve posted a few of the before photos as well as a couple of the replacement process. I’ll post some of the completed project soon.

Hannah started Pre-School in September of 2007. She met this important milestone with great excitement. She was so proud of her new dress, new shoes and pink backpack that she seemed ready to burst. Rebecca and I were able to join her in her classroom for orientation the first day and it was just as thrilling for us as it was for Hannah.

One of the other highlights from September was a fun-filled day at The Children’s Farm at The Center in nearby Palos Park. The visit to the farm gave Hannah and Noah a chance to pet bunnies, hold baby chicks, groom goats, and take lazy hay ride through the pumpkin patch. Hannah loved painting her own pumpkin and seeing all the horses. She was a little hesitant to try and ride a horse this year, but Noah jumped at the chance. You can tell by the photos of him on horseback just how much he loved it.