Max

max is always coming up with some way to make money. He frequently tries to sell his old toys to neighbors. He'd probably sell a lot more if he wasn't charging $10 each. His most recent idea is to create a bike and skate park in our backyard. He made a lot of little ramps, slides, etc. He said he would only charge fifty cents at first, but would raise his prices as he added more things. Always out to make a buck. Apparently, he's decided to give his friends a freebee because they've been out playing, and no money has exchanged hands. I hope.

Ginny

The other day, Trevor and I were up late reading and fell asleep in the basement. At about 4:00 a.m. we wakened enough to decide to go upstairs to be where it was warmer and more comfortable. I guess the movement awakened Ginny, because when I arrived upstairs I found a smiling Ginny sitting upright in our bed. I asked her what she was doing, but she must have thought I asked who she was, because she announced with a grin, "Virginia Sharon Teuscher!" It was so funny that I had to laugh even at 4:00 a.m. Then, I got in bed, with Ginny still sleeping next to me. Now Ginny takes up a lot of room in a bed--she sprawls her legs and arms all over the place. So, when Trevor got into bed a minute later, it must have cramped her style. She complained, "Daddy, you're squishing me!" When informed that actually SHE was squishing US, she wisely kept quiet, and soon we were all asleep.

weather

We had another ice storm this weekend, though it wasn't as bad as the last one. Still, 100,000 people were without power, including many people in our ward. The church didn't have power, so meetings were cancelled on Sunday. Our friends the Andrews were without power for 3 days. We had them over one day which was fun for everyone. The Smiths that I visit teach were without water, so we made a few water deliveries. At our house, though, we were lucky. We've still felt the cold snap. I don't like the heat pump system we have for our house. It never heats past 68 degrees, and the basement is at least 10 degrees colder than that. We don't spend a lot of time downstairs when it is this cold. Yesterday I baked bread to heat the place up a bit. Both the warmth and yummy bread were appreciated by all. Trevor raved about my bread, which made me feel good. He commented that store bought bread and homemade bread are not really even the same thing, which is definitely true. Anyway, the family devoured the whole batch in short order.

Barbies

Ginny is in a real Barbie phase right now. A few days or so ago I made the mistake of sitting down to play Barbies with her for about an hour, and now she wants me to play dolls with her every waking hour. I don't mind for a little while, but my adult brain gets tired after a bit and I need to get on with other things. Stories, songs, a puzzle, game, playdough, anything.....but she just wants Barbie, barbie, barbie. It is kind of cute that she is in a great imaginative stage, and even Sam will come join the fun, but I'm feeling a little worn out. Maybe I should set a Barbie timer.....30 minutes and that's it!
Actually, this phase has been reminding me of Emily at a similar age, who also liked me to play Barbies with her. But Emily was very demanding... if you didn't hold the doll a certain way, she would stop and correct you. She would tell me what I was supposed to have the Barbies say and do. We didn't get any creative input at all--it had to be Emily in charge at all times. At least Ginny lets me come up with my own dialog.

Pics of Portland

Visit to Portland

I had a wonderful visit with Sandi and Scott last week with their cute baby Mannix. I was able to overlap my visit with Nancy and have a nice visit with her, too. And let me tell you, Nancy and I wrestled the baby carseat and won! We got that thing in there so tight, that I wouldn't like to be the one to try to remove it. Mannix is a darling boy--very good natured. Attached to his mother. He likes to hear Sandi's voice singing. She's a very calm mother--doesn't seem panicky like I did with my first baby. Scott is very helpful and supportive. She's lucky to have such a sweet husband. We were able to make a large clothing exchange--Nancy bringing me clothes for Ginny, me bringing Nancy clothes for Adam, and both of us bringing baby clothes for Sandi. We had a really great visit with Granddad. He's so fun to visit. He sang several songs for us--including one about a natural base that was quite clever. My favorite was a cute story he told us about when Grandma and he had taken the kids camping. I guess there were several families around a large campfire, and he and grandma got out their recorders to play duets. I loved this, because Trevor and I like to play recorder duets, too. Anyway, he said everyone appreciated their music except for a young Sam and Katie who were terribly embarrassed that their parents would play music in public. This I could also relate to, because Emily and Max are embarrassed when I sing in public, also. We looked at some pictures of grandma, and updated the family bible with Nancy's and Sandi's new babies.
After Nancy left on Friday morning, I got busy and tried to do a few things to help Sandi--some cleaning she wanted done and also I wanted to stock up their fridge and freezer with easy dinners and lunches. I felt helpful, and I think she was glad to have some jobs done. This kept me busy since I wasn't able to hold Mannix very much since I had a cold.
Sandi showed me some guitar chords and I have been really practicing. Guitar is really fun--maybe I should get a better guitar and take some lessons. I'm getting pretty good at "Today" and "Down the Way".
I had a great visit, but was also glad to return home to my own cute family. Trevor and kids really missed me and had prepared a very nice welcome home with signs on the doors that Max had made and a yummy vanilla cake with strawberry sauce that Emily had made. For 30 minutes when I walked in the door there was a barrage of children hugging me, sitting on my lap, and telling me all the stories of things that had happened when I was gone. Whew! My head was spinning as I tried to give everyone enough attention! Anyway, it's good to be home. It's taken me all week to catch up. Plus, our dishwasher broke, so it's hard to keep up on dishes without it. And, I've been trying to catch up on laundry plus take down all of our Christmas decorations. I'm finally starting to feel caught up, though. Also, now that I'm home, I'm commencing a new diet in earnest. Back to counting calories and daily exercise.
Here are some pictures of my visit!

Super Sam

Sam is in a superman phase right now that is really funny. We rented the old Christopher Reeves version of Superman a couple of weeks ago, and ever since then he's become a fanatic. When he watches the movie, he changes his clothes to match the character throughout the whole movie. Clark Kent outfit to Superman outfit. (Clark Kent outfit is his white shirt and jacket from church with Harry Potter glasses. Superman outfit is his fantastic 4 outfit with an S pinned on the front and a red cape. And boots. Boy, when I made that little red riding hood cape for Emily years ago I had no idea so much mileage it would get. ) He must change his clothes 30 times during the course of the movie. It's exhausting just to watch him. When Ginny and I play Barbies , Sam gets his superman doll to come and save the day. He puts on a little black chinese cap so he can have black hair like superman. But today was really the limit when he came to me and asked me to make him some blue eyes. I told him I thought it was okay for superman to have brown eyes, too, but he didn't agree, so soon he was busily engaged at the table coloring some blue eyes. Not sure how he is planning on wearing them.

13th anniversary

Last night we celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary. No grand fanfare, but we went out to dinner at Fortel's Pizza Den and enjoyed a happy hour just re-connecting and remembering what real pizza tastes like. (Domino's does not qualify.) And....drum roll please...the best part was using our now built-in babysitter. Emily has babysat for us twice now in the evening and done a fabulous job. A new phase of life! She enjoys earning some money, and I enjoy the cheaper family rate. Maybe we can go out more often! 13 years! It goes by so quickly.
Afterward we came home and enjoyed a piece of pie and some sparkling grape juice in the good goblets (much fancier that plastic everyday ware) and then settled in to watch a movie together. Of course, I fell asleep after about 10 minutes, and Trevor sleepily asked me if we should save the movie for another night.
That didn't happen on our first anniversary, but 4 kids later...

Christmas Day

Christmas morning! The kids were so excited! They woke up at 6:00 but we made them go back to bed. but then a half hour later they woke up too excited to wait any longer. so we heard them go downstairs where Emily entertained them until 7:30--the appointed time to open stockings with mom and dad. Christmas is fun with kids.

Sandi's baby!

Here he is! My new little nephew!

family nativity picture

This picture was taken at the creche and carol activity at church. Trevor, Emily and Max are in it under protest, but Sam and Ginny were so excited to dress up like Mary and one of the wise men. Anyway, I thought it turned out pretty cute.

I'm an aunt, again!

My baby sister had her baby this morning at 3:30 a.m. A bouncing baby boy 8 lbs. 4 oz. What a brave girl she was...she and Scott worked together and accomplished their goal of a natural childbirth. It was quite a long labor, too. Nancy and I were both having sympathy pains for her and couldn't sleep all night fretting about it. It's so hard to be so far away! Now she's a mommy! She and Scott are so excited. I'll post a picture as soon as they send one. I'm so excited to go out there for a visit in a couple of weeks. They named him Mannix Scott. They are going to call him Manni--not sure how the spelling is, though. I got a little teary this morning thinking about how proud and happy I was. I love my little sister! And now we have a new nephew to love, too!

Music

It's really late and I still have a few things I need to do before I can go to bed, but I wanted to write about something special that happened today. In sacrament meeting, I sang a really beautiful arrangement of What Child Is This with four other ladies from our ward. All of us are good singers, but not professional, if you know what I mean. But when we started to sing, I felt like the Holy Ghost surrounded us in this warm, magical glow, and my voice blended with theirs....and that moment was perfect. I was thinking about the words we were singing, about Mary looking down into the eyes of her little baby, and mothers everywhere seeing their babies with those same feelings. I thought about how that baby grew and taught, healed and ministered to the people, and how as the song says, "Nails, spears, shall pierce him through, the cross be borne for me, for you." And then the last verse calls to all men everywhere to come and embrace Jesus Christ in their lives..."Joy, Joy for Christ is born, the babe the Son of Mary." And as we sang, my voice wasn't my own--it was part of this chorus of voices of not only the women in the room with me, but women through the ages who have loved the Savior. It's hard to really put words to the spiritual feelings I had at that moment. I am grateful to Heavenly Father for helping to feel Christmas in this special way. I'm grateful for music and the many sweet moments I have experienced that have helped my testimony to grow.

Sam and Ginny

Thanksgiving