Christmas morning pictures

Kid quotes

Ginny to her big sister: "Emily, I'm gorgeous!"

Sam and Ginny were acting out the nativity story with their grandparents. Papa was the innkeeper, and of course Sam and Ginny were Joseph and Mary. The rest of us were shepherds and sheep. When "Mary and Joseph" knocked on the innkeeper's door, he answered the door in quite a gruff voice. Joseph froze for a minute, then elbowed Mary and whispered, "You ask!"

Max's surgery

Max survived his triple surgery this past weekend. All minor things, but scary for him. The worst recovery has been from the tonsillectomy. He wasn't able to eat much at Thanksgiving. He didn't talk much for several days, either. He was brave for the surgery though, he was cracking jokes for the nurses, and said it made him feel better to laugh. The worst part for him, I think was getting in the IV. He has been really quiet this week, which in a way has been very nice.
We had a fun Thanksgiving at Tutu and Papasan's house. Nice to just relax with the family and play silly games, etc.

The next couple of weeks are going to be crazy. Tons of concerts both for me and my kids. We'll have to take it one day at a time.

Also, I will mention that max's two reflections projects were both chosen to go on to the district competition. Emily will be doing her school spelling bee next week.
Max got to perform the song he wrote on the awards night with two other boys from his "band." I think he felt pretty cool performing on his guitar for the first time.

Vote Today!

I'm voting today. Even though my vote won't count in Utah, I'm still glad to exercise my American privilege to vote. Go Obama!
(My neighbors wouldn't like to hear me say that!)

Emily

I've written something about each of the other kids, so I'll take a moment to comment on Emily. I know she has just barely stepped into the teenage years, but truly, she is a lovely teenager. I've been waiting for the storm to begin, but so far so good. Don't get me wrong, we all have our moments of grumpiness (hers are mostly hair-related), but I am feeling grateful to have such a thoughtful, responsible, and generally kind-hearted daughter. (Can you hear me knocking on wood even as I am typing this?) I watched her play on the floor with Ginny and her new birthday toys last week--lovely. She will frequently tuck her little sister into bed, or read to Sam and Ginny. Her teachers all rave about how responsible she is, and her friends' parents all tell me that Emily is just the best, and most creative and fun friend. She is even starting to do her chores without complaining. So far, I think thirteen is pretty great. Of course, fourteen is coming, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Sam, the reader

Sam proudly announced after school yesterday, "Mom, we have another reader in the family!" He was feeling very proud of himself because he was able to read all of the directions on his math homework without help. And what better title is there than "reader" ? Welcome, Sam, to the world of books!

Ginny's Birthday

Our little princess is now 5 years old! It was celebrated in grand style, of course, with an impromptu birthday party on Saturday, her grandparents came over for cake and presents on Sunday, and we opened family presents on her actual birthday. Whew! She had quite a bit of attention for a whole week, but then yesterday she said, "Mommy, how come I don't get any letters or packages anymore?" Ahhh, to be queen for the day...or week... or month....year?

Max the poet

Max has written a couple of cute poems recently. One is for the school reflections contest, and that is below. The other one, I'm trying to find to post, because I really liked it. But, it has gone missing. So, here is his Reflections entry. (He also wrote a cute blues tune called, "Wow is in my mind.")

Wow! What a Pumpkin!
by Max Teuscher

We were walking down the path
On a pretty autumn day.
Wow! We saw a giant pumpkin
UP and yonder where it lay.
We took it home to carve,
And although we did it beautifully,
It was for the pumpkin seeds we starved.

When we tried to roll it home
on that pretty autumn day,
we lost our grip on the pumpkin,
and we watched it roll away.
It was rolling through the woods,
and we thought that it was gone,
so we chased it through the woods,
and found it in the pond.

We went back home and pulled out our canoe
And we were very glad we had it, wouldn't you be too?
So we rode into the pond in our little red canoe,
and we couldn't get it out, so we thought what to do.
We found a 10 foot rope and a sharpened hook,
so then we took, we took, we took the pumpkin through the water.

We reeled it home and we left ourselves a trail
of pumpkin tracks.
And then when we got home we enjoyed our pumpkin seed snacks!

Emily's 4H hat and dress

Here is the hat Emily knit for 4H this year. It was fun for her to learn how to use circular needles. She sewed this dress, also. Unfortunately, the picture was accidentally taken in sepia, which is not the cutest for a black and white dress. I'll have to take another picture sometime. The dress was challenging because it had sleeves, a lining, and a zipper--all new skills for her. She did a great job, though, and got a blue ribbon at the fair.

Emily's 4H photos

Emily took some really excellent photos for 4H this year. Three of them were chosen for the state fair, and one of them was chosen as the best of show. I'm posting a few to show her excellent work. Can you guess which one was the grand prize winner?
Dad picked it right away.

There is no good reason why I put these two photos in the same blog entry, other than I thought I would post them both, and they didn't fit with anything else. I wanted to put up this picture of Trevor in his Father's Day tie because it is definitely a sign of a true loving Dad who would wear a tie like this in public just because his kids decorated it for him.
And, I thought this was a cute picture of my Dad and Ann.

crazy pictures

pictures of Sam's birthday

I'm terrible about getting pictures posted at the same time as the event, but here are a few pictures of Sam on his 7th birthday .

Sam quote

Sam, to an employee at the Book Table:

"Could you exchange this penny for a quarter, please?"

picsof kids

more pictures of Provo trip

My cute nieces and nephews. Also, I was lucky to get to see my Aunt Judy and Aunt Kay and Uncle Harold. Kay and Harold live in Washington, so I haven't seen them in many years. It was fun to see them.

Visit to Nancy's house

I had so much fun visiting my sister and her kids last weekend. It was great to hold my brand new nephew. What a cutie! Here are a few pictures.

Bear Lake trip

I think I mentioned earlier that I met a bunch of my oldest and dearest friends at Bear Lake for the weekend earlier in August. It was totally fun to reconnect and see all of their kids, etc. (Couldn't even count how many kids!) Here is a picture of us--20 years after high school! Yikes!

my new nephew

Here is my new nephew! Alex Peter. My sister Nancy delivered him on August 27th. I get to go down and visit next weekend! Can't wait!

Sam's birthday and 1st day of school

August 20th was the first day of school, and Sam's birthday! He had an awesome day--his school class made him a whole stack of birthday cards, and he even lost his first tooth! The tooth fairy visited and brought him 4 quarters! He was totally excited. We had a little family birthday party last night. Tutu and Papasan and Grandpa Steve and Suzanne, and Grandma Gladys all came over for birthday cake and presents. We'll have a friend party on Saturday.

While our grandparents were here, Grandma Gladys was telling Ginny that she was so cute that she should come and live at her house. Ginny said no...thought for a minute, and said, "but you can borrow me!"

Emily and Max also had good first days at school. Max started at Hillcrest--my old stomping grounds. His teacher is really nice. He knew lots of the kids in his class from baseball, scouts, church etc, so I think the transition won't be too difficult. Emily was beyond thrilled to see all of her friends again. I think she's even willing to put up with homework so she can see her friends every day.

My first day went fine as well. Of course the real excitement will be when the 1st year students bring their instruments for the first time on Monday. There's nothing like hearing a beginning band play their first notes to wake you up in the morning!

4H

4H projects turned in to the fair for the year! Wooo HOOO!!! This is a major relief for me. Stay tuned for more info on the kids' projects. I'll post some pictures. They are excited to go to the fair later this week and see their ribbons. Suffice it to say for now that Emily entered 16 projects, Max entered 11, and Sam entered 4. Yikes! (note that 6 of emily's projects were photographs). I think the other families in our 4H club got their stuff in to the fair today, too. Our club was really a lot of fun this year...a lot of work, too, but fun for the kids.

fun

I entered the kitchen the other day to find Ginny carefully pouring water from a measuring cup into a plastic baggie. I asked her why she was doing that, and she looked up at me with a gleam in her eye, and said, "Because it's fun, mommy!" Lovely to find such pleasure in simple things.

Summer

We finally had some relaxing summer fun tonight at our ward swim party. It was fun to just chill out at the pool. (Trevor even came!) Dinner was provided--always a bonus when I don't have to cook dinner. Emily also spent the afternoon boating on Hyrum Dam with the young women. We had 4H this afternoon, too--working on some craft projects. WE've started Emily's sewing project. In general, we've really got to get working on the 4H stuff because the fair is less than 2 weeks away. I've been putting in lots of early morning hours flushing brass instruments at the shop--and teaching 4 classes a week.

note from Ginny's preschool teacher

We received a lovely note from one of Ginny's preschool teachers, and it was such a good description of her personality that I thought I would post its contents.

Ginny is so much fun to have in preschool! She is always smiling and her laugh is so contagious. The other day Ginny used her literacy skills and wrote some songs, then she sang and danced them for us! It was such a treat. Ginny also created a cat house out of cardboard, paper and glue. She then took on the role of the pet cat. Ginny is such a special part of our class!

Max's championship baseball game

Max's team won the championship in his age division in the final game tonight. He was really excited about it. He has a really cool trophy that goes with the honor. Max's strong points in the game of baseball are the guts to go for the steal, and a killer ability to slide into the bases. He scored lots of times by stealing his way around the bases. He normally played 3rd base in the outfield, and did a good job there as well. He scored several RBI's as well. Most of all, I think he likes spitting out sunflowers seeds in the dugout, and the comraderie of the team. It was a good experience for him.

20th high school reunion

Attended my 20th high school reunion this weekend. There was a casual family day on Friday evening, then a picnic with some of my close friends on Saturday, and a formal dinner on Saturday night. I was nervous about it, but I actually had a really great time. Friday night was really the most fun for me--it was more casual, and I had time to talk to everyone there. 20 years! Most people looked just the same. It was fun to see how much people's kids looked just like them back when we were in junior high or high school. Most people recognized me right off, which I guess is a good thing. (No regrets on my hair dye)

Poor Emily

Poor Emily had a really tough day. She stayed home from church with sore throat and stomach ache, but I guess not long after we left, she started to have really severe sharp pains in her right side. There was no way to get hold of us at church, so she walked down to her great grandparents house practically doubled over in pain. Papasan and his neighbor gave her a blessing and then came to church to get us. I came home and took her to the urgent care. They took xrays and drew blood (very traumatic for a girl with a fear of needles) and said her white blood cell count was too high. So we were sent to the hospital for a CT scan--which meant IV and other very invasive procedures that were really scary and hard for her. But she managed to be brave. Finally, the word came back that is was not her appendix (thank heavens) but she has a large cyst( 7 cm by 6 cm) on her ovary. They said the cyst would eventually rupture and take care of itself, but gave her some pain meds. Poor kid. She's still really hurting, hasn't been able to eat anything, or even get out of bed all afternoon. She even passed out from pain at one point this afternoon.
We were grateful for the blessing from Papasan this morning. I think she'll be okay, but I just feel bad for her. It's hard to watch your child suffer from fear and pain. Luckily, it wasn't anything worse.

A few leftover pics that didn't make it onto other pages

Leah's baptism

SLC spring break photos