Sedona's Blessing

Due to our big move to Texas, I have not had the time or the sufficient internet service to do a blogpost about Sedona's first big day. However, my wonderful husband got us hooked up with internet and TV today so I wanted to make sure to do a post about Sedona's Blessing Day.

This was my beautiful Princess on her first "big day." Her Grannie Teichert made her beautiful dress and it fit her perfectly! Thanks, Mom! (and thanks to my great friend Jennelle for taking the pics!) Also, I want to mention that the blanket Sedona is wrapped in was made for me, when I was a baby, by her Great-Grandma Teichert.

A picture of the whole dress:

All 7 of my parent's grandkids. This is the best one we got with ALL eyes facing forward...except Sedona's. Aren't they so stinkin' cute?! I just HAD to put this one in because it kinda catches all their sweet little personalities. They are the funniest group of kids...I just love them and I miss them a lot. (better pic of the beautiful blanket my Grandma made.)

This is my family, minus Sulli who is on his mission. Aren't they a beautiful group of people? I think so! I'm so glad they could all make it to spend this special day with us.

And another group of beautiful people who I love dearly...Austin's family also made the long drive to be with us on this special day. We were so blessed to have such a big group of people there for this special occasion. Thanks to all of you for being there. We love you!!

Tillie Anne

Okay, this might get a little "heavy" and I appologize for that. I'm just giving you a fair warning so you don't have to keep reading it if you don't want to read "heavy" today...

I was blessed with the most beautiful baby girl six weeks ago, yesterday. Every day she does something new that instantly becomes the "cutest thing EVER!" and I take about ten pics of it on my phone and immediately download to Facebook. Every day I wake up and thank the Lord for the gift of being a Mommy and for this beautiful little girl I call mine. I sing to her at night to put her to sleep and I sing songs that teach her about Jesus and about where she came from and who she is. I want her to grow up knowing those things from the get-go. I tell her hundreds of times a day how much I love her and I honestly FEEL it every time I say it. When she falls asleep in my arms, I don't ever want to put her down. I just want to soak it ALL in. I don't want to miss ONE. SINGLE. MOMENT. Sometimes, I find myself looking at her and getting emotional because I know where she came from and my BIGGEST FEAR is that she'll be going back too soon...

Tillie Anne came to the Teichert house 22 years ago, today. I was four years old. She was absolutely beautiful. Lots and lots of dark hair and chubby cheeks. She had such a beautiful smile, and I REMEMBER that smile. I don't remember a lot about her, but I do remember how happy our house felt to have this new little life with us. I do, however, remember EVERYTHING about the day she was called back Home. I will spare the details, because that's not the point of this post.

I always knew losing Tillie was painful for my parents but I never knew just HOW painful something like that could feel...until I became a parent myself. I do not know how my Mom and Dad managed to get through life the day after and the day after that or every day beyond. Everywhere I turn in my house, there's a binki or a spitty rag or a stuffed sheep, an empty bottle, her bathtub, blankets galore, even the HAND SANITIZER on the counter makes me think of Sedona. In other words, she's my world.

I can't imagine having to pick yourself up the next day and take care of your other four children (that's how many my parents had before Tillie) and simply...go on. I am amazed by the strength that must have required and how well they did it. There are so many emotions and moments you just don't "get" as a small child, and I totally didn't get any of these at four years old. Now that I'm older, I look back and can see HOW my parents dealt with their loss and helped us to be prepared for these same emotions. (Heaven forbid, any of us have to go through it.)

The Atonement. That's how my parents got through it. They KNEW and UNDERSTOOD the Plan our Heavenly Father has set out for each one of His children. They dealt with their pain by teaching their other children that we WILL see Tillie again. They taught us that she is in a far better place and it's up to the rest of us to live our lives in such a way that we can all be with her again. They taught us about Jesus and His life and His death and resurrection. They taught us about love and how powerful it is. They SHOWED us love and they healed in return.

I realize that death is something you can never "get over" but I do belive in healing. How thankful I am that Tillie's passing is no longer a painful memory for us. Tillie's birthday is celebrated every year in my parent's house. We sing Happy Birthday and blow out candles and eat Angel Food Cake, cuz she's OUR Angel. She brings joy into our lives even though she is not physically here. And I am certain that my children will have had the chance to meet her before coming to my home.

I realize that my fear of losing my own baby girl to something so sudden may seem a little "debilitating" to some. I deal with that fear every night when I finally make myself put her down. I struggle with that fear in the night when she hasn't woken up yet (she sleeps throught the night already). I check on her several times during a regular nap...so yes, some people could say I'm crazy. But do you blame me? I do, however, have Faith in our Heavenly Father's Plan and I am so thankful for it! Thank you, Dad and Mom, for teaching it to me and for being living examples of the faith it requires to be truly happy!

Sedona Rose

Sedona Rose joined our family on Thursday,February 10, 2011. She weighed in at 6 lbs. 10 oz. and was 18 and 1/2 inches long. I will spare you the "birthing" story since I really lack the ability to make it sound funny or be entertaining...I will tell you that everything went very smooth and I am soooo very grateful for the wonderful medicine that comes in the form of an EPIDURAL!

You know, some people just LOVE pregnancy. They even miss certain things about pregnancy when the baby comes. Not me. No way. I can't really think of anything I liked about it except knowing that the end result was going to be MY BABY. I am so in love with this little girl and having her here makes pregnancy worth every minute! So, I guess what I'm saying is...YES, I would do it all again!

Sedona Rose and her Daddy not long after she was born.

Sedona just minutes old.

My family came and visited when we got home from the hospital on Saturday. In spite of all the efforts made to wake her up, Sedona slept through their ENTIRE visit. Sedona is grandchild #7 for my parents. She's the third niece and TESSA's "same-same" for any of you who know that Mylie is Olivia's "same-same."

Baby

So, I know I'm not so good at updating my blog. Who wouldn't be if it took 2 1/2 hours just to do one post with pictures because of crummy internet? But, I did promise that I would at least do a post about what we're having! YEAH!!! We found out today that we are having a baby GIRL! We are really excited...especially for Tessa. Now SHE, too, will have a "same-same." February 9th is the due-date and everything looked great on the ultra sound today. She's a little small, they said she'd be in the low 7 pounds when she's born, but heck...I'm okay with that!

Arizona

Austin and I have been planning to go back to Arizona to visit people from our missions for over a year! Well, it finally happened and we had a BLAST!! We started off by spending time with my family in Surpirse: Napoleon and Angie Jones and their kids Shana and Shaun, Devon, Katie, and Sam. We got to see Sydnie and Spencer for a few minutes too, so it was great for me to get to see them all. They had never spent time with Austin and I and so it was great for me to see them hit it off. We arrived in AZ Saturday afternoon and then went out for pizza and bowling. It was great fun! I probably shouldn't say this, but since it is MY blog, I am going to say it anyway....I beat my husband. I had been talkin' "trash" for a couple weeks about being able to beat him, so I was pretty happy that I actually backed it up :)

Angie took me to get my very first, EVER, pedicure! It felt so nice and I loved the results: cute toes and soft feet.
Mine are the ones on the left.

We made chocolate oreo truffles. They were a big hit at home and at Shana and Napoleon's work!

Austin, Samantha, Shana

Napoleon, Angie, Devon

Katie, Vi, Austin, Devon

Angie and Napoleon also took us out to dinner for my Graduation. It is so nice to have such wonderful family to spend time with. We laughed a lot and spent a lot of great time together. It went by way too fast.

Wednesday, we left Surprise to go to Buckeye and spend time with Austin's family, the King's. It was great to see them and spend time getting to know them better. Rick and Kim took us to Scottsdale to one of our most favorite Restraunts: Maggiano's Little Italy! It is so so so delicious.

The King's were pretty busy with some other responsibilities, so they let us borrow their car for an afternoon. We went and visited more of Austin's friends in the Surprise area, and since we were close again, we met up with Angie and Napoleon one more time for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.

Shana, Napoleon, Angie, Vi, Austin, and Shaun

We had so much fun on our vacation! We feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to serve missions and to make such great friends while we were there. I am thankful to my family and friends who supported me on my mission and who made it possible for me to be there!

Graduation

April has been busy, but so wonderful! I graduated with my Bachelor's Degree in University Studies. It's been a long time coming, but it was worth it! My pictures are not photographer quality, but I'm not a photographer, so I guess it's okay.

It was really fun to have so much family come for my graduation! I received lots of phone calls, too. Thanks for the support, everyone!

Yes, my husband is THE cook!

Austin and I celebrated one year of blissful marriage on the 13th of December, 2009. I seriously can't believe it's already been a year! And maybe I exaggerated a little with the "blissful" part because there have been some moments that weren't so blissful. However, it has been a WONDERFUL year and we have been blessed tremendously. I am so thankful for my wonderful husband and I love him so much!
Speaking of how wonderful my husband is.... We were at a Christmas Eve party at my Grandma Teichert's house and we took Austin's chocolate truffles for our contribution to the goodie table. When word got out that he makes them from scratch, it was also discovered that he does 75% of the cooking in our house. Which leaves me with a meager 25%! I told my astonished family that it is true...he really does do the majority of the cooking in our house. They seemed floored by the fact that there is a Teichert woman that doesn't just rule the kitchen! Don't get me wrong, I CAN and DO cook, but Austin just LOVES it and he is really really good at it. Ladies, I doubt any of you would argue if your husband took over in the kitchen and came up with amazing meals! I certainly don't complain. So...here's the proof....

This is one of my most favorite meals EVER! It's a salmon steak with a salmon "paste" that makes the hasbrowns stick to the steak. Then it is smothered in a lemon tumeric sauce and garnished with chopped green onion stalks. The bread is garlic bread brushed with a balsamic-olive oil mixture, topped with slice tomatoes and parmesean cheese and toasted in the oven. And the corn came from my mom's garden. Our plates are enormous so the presentation looks a little scanty...

Austin is an amazing cook and he loves to make things up. Here are a few of the things he has made for us:

Chicken breasts stuffed with feta, artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes, and spinach; Chicken Pesto Linguine (he got the idea from an amazing Italian restraunt called Maggiano's); Salsbury steaks and rice, Russian Chicken, Fish Tacos, Crepes, Aebleskeever (ebil-skeevers); Tomato Chicken, and several others.

And here's the proof that I do the cleaning! I whip up clean dishes almost as fast as my mom does these days! Oh wait, I have a dishwasher....CHEATER! I could NEVER beat my mom in a dish-doing race. The apron was a gift from my mom's homemade Christmas and I love it! Thanks, Mom!!

I guess you could say that we're not the "typical" family; however, I'm sure that will change when we have children and I'm not in school and working as much. I am also so grateful for a husband who loves me and who loves to share his talents with me!