On Saturday, July 1st, Christine, Jack and I got up and drove to Round Rock to paint a room for Marc and Cyndi. Cyndi’s baby girl is due in two weeks, and Marc was out in Johnson City building Cyndi’s mom a deck, so we decided to go help them get the nursery painted. I hate painting, and am no good at it…

So we talked Josh and Elise to driving out, so Josh could help me.

Josh and I painted, pretty much all day (my fault that we had to repaint a few parts) and it was fun… Actually, the painting wasn’t fun… hanging out with Josh all day was fun. We closed the door to the room, and enjoyed the paint fumes, kept the girls out and bonded for a good 4 or 5 hours.

After getting high painting all day, Marc got home, and the girls cooked us dinner… it was a fun day, even though I hate painting.

At the same time, we had a lot of family was in Austin for the Fourth of July weekend.

Lisa and Gerry from Arkansas, plus their kids Taylor, Chase and Aubrey, drove down to spend the long weekend with Debbie and Raymond, and Cheri, Greg, Paige, Patrick, and Matthew drove up from Houston.

We drove out to Lakeway to see them on Sunday. I got on a boat with Lisa, Gerry and their boys pretty much as soon as we arrived, and we took the boys out tubing. Then Greg joined us with the little kids, and Lisa and Greg headed back to the house. We had a lot of fun taking the kids out on the boat and throwing them in the water repeatedly from the tube. I even built up my courage enough (thanks to the beer) to try a round at tubing. Greg threw me off pretty quickly. Taylor and Chase were really good at helping the little kids, and teaching them how to ride the tube the right way. I was impressed.

Dinner was left-over barbque and shrimp. Mmmmm, good.

After diner, the boys played poker, and Christine and I got on the road with Jack… he was exhausted from all the swimming he did in the pool that day.

It was great to finally meet Aubrey and see Taylor now that he’s turning into a young man.

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My mom hosted the family Easter get together this year in Bellville. We decorated the yard and the house with decorations to get into the spirit of the holiday (and so the kids would have something fun to play with).

It was a fun weekend for us for sure. The weather was perfect, it was probably 80 degrees, sunny, and the breeze never died.

Frank, Mary, and Michael drove down from Dallas. Christine, Jack and I drove in from Austin. And lots and lots of other family members and friends were there… must have been 40 or 50 people in the house and yard throughout the day on Saturday.

I took a few photos throughout the day: Roland and Cheri having a conversation. Roland telling a story. Rodney posing for me. Helen on the swing. Two ladies on the deck. Mother and Son. Roland and the girls. Laura and Clay. Jacob hunting eggs. Christine on the deck. Where did it go? Jessie Otis Boyte. Nicky and her pearly whites. Nicky’s Jack. Clay, Laura, Drew and Cannon and the second shot. Jack after his nap. A rusty rooster. Doughboy. And a great laugh.

The kids did what kids do when they’re outside… the played and played and played and got dirty and then played some more:

The adults chatted inside and outside and outside and inside.

Everyone ate around 2:00 (and some of us kept eating… there was a lot of food, and some yummy deserts – thanks to everyone that brought something).

After food and drink aplenty, we all took turns taking photos in the bunny cutouts my mom had made:

Then we had an egg hunt. Jack and Ella were both taking naps, so all the other kids hunted eggs, and around 6 p.m. after everyone had left, Jack and Ella got up and hunted for their eggs… Frank forgot to bring his shotgun with him, so we had to let the big one get away.

Then on Saturday night, Michael, Evan and I headed out to Rose and Rodney’s house to play poker with them… I lost a little, Evan lost a little, and Michael won a little… but we all had fun getting caught up on what our cousins have been up to for the past few years. Good times!

Happy Easter everyone.

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Here’s a few links to some photo galleries I finally uploaded:

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I don’t think I’ve written about this yet, so here goes:

I think Frank really loves being a Grandfather (we call him Granddad). I think he loves it because he’s constantly making Jack toys (and stuff).

Back before we went on our cruise, Frank made Jack a little doggy pull toy in his spare time. It was lovingly hand crafted out of wood, with little rolling wheels and a string, and leather ears even. It was cute as hell.

I brought it home for Jack after a business trip and Jack proceeded to break it within about 15 minutes of playing with it… so we didn’t get any good photos of him playing with it before it died:

When Frank and Mary came down to watch Jack while we were on our cruise, he took it home, to fix it up for another day.

Then, this week, I got some photos of another toy Frank made for Jack:


The wooden airplane.

Jack will have these wooden toys that his Granddad made for him when he’s 60, and he’ll look back and think “Man, that was one pretty cool dude.”

Thanks Frank!

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The weekend of March 11th and 12th was a weekend of Birthdays.

I turned 30 on Friday, March 10th, and Ella turned 2 on Monday March 13th… to celebrate, we had a couple of parties!

Christine threw me a relaxed happy hour birthday party at Brentwood Tavern in Austin on Friday afternoon. We started things around 5:00 and ended around 10:00. Christine brought an Ice Cream cake from ___ and it was gooooood!

John’s 30th Birthday Party photos are here.

On Saturday, we got up and headed to Bellville for Ella’s party.

We got there in time for Jack to take a nap, so we headed over to Grandma’s house, and tried to put Jack down after a quick bite to eat. He wouldn’t sleep. He’s spotted a bucket of toy cars on his way from Chrsitine’s arms into the crib. He went nuts! He just wanted to play with his cars… so we played until it was time to hit the party.

Ella’s party was too much fun. There were kids galore, and lots of friends and family. Some kids fell off the new playscape Evan and Shadel bought, but no one broke them, but no one got seriously hurt. Ella got lots of presents. And all the kids got to eat cake and ice cream (as did the adults).

I took lots of photos, and got lucky (I think) capturing this photo of Conner:

Conner is Lori Lockett’s 3 month old son… isn’t he just adorable?

The photos from the party here.

On Sunday morning, we all got up, and headed to Newman’s bakery for Breakfast. Bussy met us for breakfast, and we had a nice conversation over omelets and pancakes, donut holes and kolaches. Then we went to Grandma’s house to play and show off the deck. She’s building a big deck off the back of the house that should be done in time for Easter.

She’s also got some great places for kids to play in the backyard… including this “funny car” built out of wood with horns and mirrors on it. Got a really great photo of Jack and Ella on that thing:

More photos from Grandma’s house are here.

On Sunday evening, Evan, Chad and Jake Payton (Jake was the ring bearer in our wedding almost 8 years ago (has it been that long?) and is now 15/16 or so), and I played poker. Chad took us all.

On Monday morning we got up, drove home, and returned to the grind.

Had a great weekend though!

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We spent this weekend around the house… relaxing, playing and enjoying ourselves.

On Friday afternoon, Christine Jack and I went out into the front yard to play with our new bubble machine. It blows really big bubbles, and Jack loves trying to chase them down. While we were playing, and airplane flew over head… so Jack started imitating it. I don’t think he realizes the wings go straight out from the plane’s sides yet, but he’ll get it soon enough.

Before dinner, Jack and I watched the sun disappear over the house across the street.

After dinner, Jack gave me this look:

Sort of a “shit-eatin’ grin” don’t you think?

There are more photos from Friday here.

Then on Saturday morning, Jack and I got up early to play while Christine slept in a little (Jack only let her sleep until 8 though).

Around 10:00, we all headed to Sandy’s Shoes… a local kid’s shoe store for Jack’s first shoe fitting. It’s a fun store, but I think at least 20 other parents had the same idea, because the store was crazy when we got there. We played with toys, while we waited for Jack’s name to be called. While we were waiting, Jack tripped on the carpet and banged his noggin’ on the front door of the store. It left a mark (ouch!).

Jack got a pair of brown Mobility shoes, after the fitting lady checked his foot size. We bought a size 5 shoe, which should last him all summer… Jack is in this weird foot stage where neither the little baby shoes nor the big boy shoes we’ve been loaned/given don’t really fit that well, so we figured a good solid pair of sandals was in order for him. And, we know that someone else will wear those shoes someday… so they’ll get plenty of use. (We hit the mother lode when we had a boy, because my cousin Cheri has two older boys, and she gave us about a bazillion shoes for Jack!) You can see the new shoes here and here.

Right after buying the shoes, Jack got to eat lunch at Schlotsky’s… we all enjoyed it.

After getting shoes, playing in the front and back yard (got a cool photo of some bees drinking back there) and taking a nap, we waited for Christine to get home. Christine went to a get together with her friends around 1:00. They were meeting to discuss a book Cyndi bought that is supposed to help with their career decisions. Christine came home invigorated about the future.

We all loaded up in the car, and headed to Lakeway when she got home. Debbie and Raymond brought us a rocking chair for Elise, so we needed to get that, and we hadn’t seen Debbie since Christmas (we saw Raymond a few weeks ago here in Austin at a photographer’s convention that I totally forgot to write about).

After chatting for a little while, we loaded up the cars and headed to Mulligan’s to eat. Great food for a pool hall… glad they took us there. We’re definitely going to have to eat there again sometime.

We got home sort of late, so we quickly bathed Jack and put him to bed, before turning in around 9:00 ourselves.

More photos from Saturday here.

On Sunday, I got to sleep in, and Christine and Jack got up to play… then we got dressed and headed to church. At church we saw Erin and her new beau, Chris. Jack spent church in the nursery, so after church the four of us headed over to pick him up. Turns out Jack was a little clingy throughout church (and today was communion – so it was a long one) so they held him the entire hour and a half. Heh. Oh, and by the way (this one’s for Frank) we got taken at the second offering Frank… I thought only Catholics had second offerings before today, but nope… it’s infected the Methodists too.

We headed home after church, had some Macoroni and cheese, and Jack and Christine took a nap. I washed both the rice-burner and the safety-mobile and then I took the Honda for a lube job. When I got home, Jack had just woken up, so we loaded up the car and headed to Josh and Elise’s for a little play time and dinner.

Jack and Josh posed for an 80’s rock band album cover in between looking at the moon and a lady bug lawn ornament Josh has in the back yard while Christine and Elise chatted it up inside (talking pregnancy tips I’m sure). Jack also had a blast climbing up and down the steps on Josh’s deck. Gonna have to get me one of those soon.

Josh cooked steaks out on the barbie, and Elise made mashed potatos inside. We enjoyed dinner immensely… especially the ice-cream pie we had for dessert, and then we tootled on home to put Jack to bed and catch the end of the Oscars.

Photos from Sunday here.

Thank God Crash won best picture. Great movie and I don’t know that I could hear much more about Brokeback Moutain before I started puking… know what happens to gay cowboys in Bellvile folks? Neither do I… there aren’t any gay cowboys in Bellville.

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This past weekend, Mary, Frank, and Uncle Mike came to Austin to hang out. Actually Frank and Mary are babysitting Jack for a week while Christine and I head to Mexico via Carnival Cruise Lines… we’ll post about that when we get home.

In the meantime, here are some fun photos from this weekend:

Here are the photo galleries:

Riding the Duck

Hanging with Uncle Mike

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Jack got a present in the mail from his Uncle Mike and Uncle Steve yesterday: Bathtime Fingerpaints!

When Christine opened the mail, Jack was going crazy wanting to play with the fingerpaint, but she held firm and told him “we have to wait until Bath time”…

And he loved them. He painted the walls of the bath, then he painted his belly… too much fun.

More photos here.

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On Christmas morning, we all woke up in Bellville, at Evan and Shadel’s house.

After breakfast we noticed that Santa had brought gifts to Bellville too, so… we started unwrapping them.

First up was a Tonka Truck:

What little boy doesn’t need a Tonka Truck?

Ella danced in her new shoes and shook her maracas:

After opening lots more presents inside, Jack and Ella headed out onto the back porch to play.

Nothing like a cheesy looking Jack to brighten your day.

They rode around in the little red wagon, and Ella helped Jack walk around the back yard, which turned into both of them rolling around in the leaves.

Then we went over to Grandma’s house to see the Christmas decorations and pick up Debbie, Josette and Peggy who’d all come with Raymond to visit.

We finished off the day with T-bones the size of Montana, which Ella helped Jack eat, and a few more photos.

Evan and Shadel headed to Katy to see her family, and Christine and I stayed in Bellville and watched a movie before driving home Monday morning.

I got the flu somewhere along the way, and my gout started acting up Monday morning, so I couldn’t walk, and had a hell of a sore throat.

But it was a very Merry Christmas this year!

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Last weekend, we drove down to Houston for the annual Teaff family Christmas Eve, at Debbie and Raymond’s house.

It was a blast. We got to see lots of family, though there were a few family members that didn’t make it this year because they were sick (we missed them). Greg stood in for Uncle Roland and said the prayer before dinner.

The party was supposed to start at 4:00, so around 3:00 people started showing up. Peggy and Payton and I played basketball with Greg and Patrick, and Jack got to try and dunk the ball

I took some really cute photos of the babies at this year’s Christmas party out on the swing in the backyard:

We ate dinner starting around 4:15, and man was it good. We had turkey, and stuffing, and dressing, and mashed sweet potatos, and gravy, and squash, and green beans, and rice casserole, and … and … and lots of other stuff. My plate was full when I started, and I ate most of what I put on it… but man was I stuffed when dinner was done! Great food again!

Santa showed up shortly after dinner, and some of the kids were a little freaked out about him showing up, some weren’t.

We all took our turns on Santa’s lap:

Jordan, Matthew, Todd, Paige, Peggy, Payton, Raymond, Jack went from screaming to ok when Santa gave him a gift, Patrick, Christine, Jack and Ella, John, Ella, Josette and Matthew, Shelley, The Kay family, Matted Dog the Reindeer, John, Jack and Christine.

And I snapped this cute photo of Ella looking up in awe at Santa (little did she know).

After Santa left, we all opened presents!

Christmas in Houston is always fun… lots of fun to see family that we just don’t get to see often enough.

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A long time ago, my mom gave Chrsitine and I a bunch of old photos from my family. Old Teaff and Engler photos.

As a follow up to the Daron photos I scanned in a couple of weeks ago, I figured I should scan these old photos in, so we have them in the future, and, so you all can see them. I also cleaned up most of these photos… some of them had tears in the prints, or stains on them.

There are two photos of my Dad, John Fischer Engler, Jr. from when he was a kid: here and here.

There’s an old photo of Jessica Ann Teaff as a baby.

Mary Jane Cato Teaff was mom’s mother, and here’s a photo of her as a child.

James Joseph Teaff was my mom’s father, and here’s a photo of him as a child.

Here’s a photo of my mom, my aunt Josette Cato Teaff and two uncles, James Joseph (Jimmy) and Roland Louis Teaff:


Click for larger image

And this is where it gets cool folks.

This old photo is: (I’m not sure who is who)


Click for larger image

My Great Uncle Morgan Teaff, Great Uncle David Ulerick Teaff, my Great Great Grandfather David Solmon Teaff, my Great Uncle Kirby George Teaff, my Great Uncle Sphonie Elmore Teaff, my Great Great Grandmother Clair Robertson Teaff, my Great Uncle Roland Paul Teaff, and my Great Grandfather Joe Teaff.

And lastly, we’re gonna take you way back here folks. These are some of those folks above, but a lot younger: (again, not sure what order these folks are in)


Click for larger image

Jim Teaff, Great Great Grandmother Claire Teaff, David Teaff, Daisy Teaff, Roland Teaff, Kirby Teaff, Great Grandfather Joe Teaff, and Great Uncle Sphonie Teaff. Notice none of them except Great Grandfather Joe are wearing shoes, but their clothes are nice. Tough days back then.

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Christine, Jack and I went to Dallas on Saturday last weekend. Since then, we’ve taken lots of fun photos:

Steven’s Graduation Ceremony from ITT (he graduated with Top Honors, which means he had a GPA above 3.8 out of 4… and he totally downplayed it. We’re all very proud of him, and are really glad we made the trip up for his ceremony). [Proud parents and student]

Then, last night, before heading back home to Austin, we had a nice big family dinner at Granddad and Grandmother’s house. Jenny, Steven and Michael were all there, and dinner was fun. After dinner, we took a family photo that turned out really good I think.

Of course we also took multiple photos of Jack playing, and laughing, and helping Granddad cook, and playing with the Christmas tree in Dallas.

Then tonight, Jack was helping in the kitchen. At first, all he did was help unload the dishwasher (never mind that the dishes were actually still dirty). He also helped the dog eat (though all I could get was a photo of him holding the dog food… the dog ran off before I got the camera out). He also ate one piece of dog food… yuck! He didn’t like it too much.

And we finished up the evening with some photos of the bath. He just loves it when we blow bubbles for him in the bath tub.

Average Rating: 4.9 out of 5 based on 213 user reviews.

On Sunday night, Christine and I visited Santa’s Village with Jack and his Grandmother.

Santa’s Village is remarkably close to their home in Richardson, not at the north pole, in case you’re wondering. That, or maybe the north pole is in Richardson, Texas, not in the Arctic like we’ve all though prior to finding it in Richardson…

Either way, it happens to be on the grounds of the Richardson City Hall, and it’s remarkably warm this time of year (compared to the Arctic that is).

Santa’s Village was really cute. It had lots of little shops and stores, just like you’d expect to find in Santa’s Village. There was a Pet Shop, a TV Station: KELF-TV, and a police station.. There was a house for Clifford the dog, a fire department, and lots of other little buildings. All of the buildings had “little people” sized doors, which were the perfect height for elves, or kids. The city fountain was very pretty, and so were all of the lights in the trees, which Jack loved pointing at. Jack also really enjoyed playing with the lighted reindeer that were in the yard.

We all had lots of smiles and lots of walking around.

Towards the end of the evening, we had lots of fun running up and down a hill that was right by the fire department in the village.

Around 6:30 pm, it was time to go home.

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Christine’s cousin, David, or as I call him “Sergeant Major David” sent home this email from Iraq:

From: “Redmon, David CSM, 1BSTB 10MTN DIV, BN CSM”
To: The Family
Date: December 7, 2005 2:57:57 AM CST
Subject: A Couple of Pictures

All,

Martha sent me a small digital camera last month. I took a couple of
pictures before a mission yesterday to let everyone know that we have
plenty of gear. If I left someone off the list above, please forward to
them.

The one photo is off the sign in front of the Battalion Headquarters on
Camp Liberty (Baghdad). The other two reflect what we wear for every
mission outside of the Forward Operating Base. It does not matter
whether it is 45 degrees or 135 degrees. Without adding the ruck sack,
the gear shown adds only about 50 pounds.

I’ll send a few pictures from time to time.

David


Some Heavy Shit! – click to see a larger version

If you’d like to email David your support, thoughts and well wishes, let me know, and I’ll send you his email address.

Also, Bob Beurlein is over there this Christmas too. I have his email address and real address, if you’d like to send him a care package.

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Christine’s Grandaddy and Grandmother were married on June 27th, 1943 at the Church of the Bretheren on the McPherson College campus in McPherson, Kansas.

I scanned them into the computer today for posterity’s sake. I’ve put some web-quality photos online, in case you want to look at the photos we have, but if you want to print a copy, let me know, and I’ll burn a copy of the photos on CD, so you can get the best quality print you can. I also cleaned up the images a bit, as the 60+ year old photos had weathered and worn just a little bit. I hope you enjoy seeing some photos from the past:

These are some photos from the Miss Gulah Velma Hoover to Dr. Garman Harlow Daron Ph.D. wedding. Miss Hoover was 31, Dr. Daron was 39 when they married.

The Best Man was Foster Hoover, uncle of the bride.
The Matron of Honor was Maxine Doyle, sister of the bride.
[photos of the groom, bride, and best man and matron of honor]

The mother and father of the bride were Charles “Doc” Hoover and Ida Hoover. [pictured to the left]
The mother of groom Mabel Daron. [pictured at right]

See them all here.

Bonus photo:

Garman Daron by himself in a professional portrait:

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