Author: John

Posted on by John

This is what watching the Super Bowl with a 14 month old looks like:

We’d planning on attending Carlo’s Super Sunday Super Bowl Party, but alas, Jack was full of crud, and wasn’t feeling too well… not to mention, I’d worked all day in the yard pulling weeds, and disemboweling our flower beds of all the bermuda grass I could find before putting down 11 bags of mulch.

It was fun to pull Jack in front of the TV, set him up with a TV tray and watch the game…

Honestly though, we didn’t pay attention until the 4th quarter, and the ads that we did see were weak.

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Posted on by John

Jack’s getting bigger, and older, and smarter every day.

One of the toys Jack got for his 1st birthday is a collection of 5 or 6 animals, all on a neat little playscape, and these animals all sit on little buttons that make the noise of that animal when pushed down.

There’s a little birdy (sings a chirpy little bird song), and a lion (Rarrr!) and a monkey (hoo hoo hoo hoo), and a seal (hmmm, can’t remember that sound, I think it’s water splashing) and a polar bear (Roar!!!), and an elephant (brbrbbrrbr!).

In the course of playing with that toy, Christine taugh Jack that elephants trumpet by holding their trunk up and away from their body. Jack also has a few Baby Einstein DVDs that have elephants in them, and he loves watching the elephants…

One day, while I was at work, Christine asked Jack a question:

“What sound does an elephant make?”

To which, Jack responded by raising his arm in the air (like he’d seen Christine do) and trumpeting, in his best imitation of an elephant.

We were tickled pink.

Since that day, we’ve been trying to capture it on video, and we finally did the other night.

Here’s the answer to the question “what sound does an elephant make?”

movie: what sound does an elephant make

Just in case you were wondering 😉

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Some parents hang their kid’s first drawings on their fridge.

I’ve decided I’m going to hang Jack’s first picture here on my vitrual fridge:


Click for larger version

Yesterday, Jack and Christine brought me this first picture. Totally cool… and when we point to the elephant and ask him what sound an elephant makes he puts his arm in the air and goes “brrrrrrr” just like an elephant lifting his trunk and trumpeting.

Kids do the darndest things, don’t they?

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As I read Josh’s recent post about feeling his baby’s kicking for the first time it made me smile and think back to that same feeling I had back then. Congrats Josh.

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Today was an exciting day for Jack. I got up early with him, because Christine was up last night late due to a bad headache.

We got up and played, and read a bunch of books, after breakfast.

After Christine got up, I took a break on the couch, while she watched Jack and cooked him lunch. At some point, I heard a large crash … like a bottle breaking, and then Jack started wailing!

I ran into the kitchen, and Christine was picking up Jack. He was kicking violently and doing one of those silent screams that you know would just be louder than hell if any sound could come out of his mouth…

Turns out, he dropped a soy sauce bottle from the fridge on his big toe. The bottle didn’t break, but it hit him hard enough to break the skin on the tip of his toe and make him bleed a little.

So now, Jack got his first booboo that needed a band-aid.

Jack got to wear a super-manly Curious George band-aid all day:

So while he became a man with his busted lip in October, he’s now graduated into a new class of man-hood.

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Christine and I have really enjoyed the last two weekends at home. It’s been a big change from all of the traveling I did last year for work, and the last two months worth of traveling we did as a family during the holidays.

On the 7th, we took Jack and Wesley to Patterson Park, around the corner. It was a gorgeous clear but crisp cool day, and I was on a mission to take some photos. We did pretty good with the photos, and Jack and Wesley had a blast.

We let Wesley run loose without a leash, and he had a blast playing with the kids from the surrounding neighborhoods that were there with their parents:

We took this photo of Jack while he was climbing up one of the playscapes:

We think that photo is easily the best photo of Jack we’ve had since Marc took the black and white of him in the air almost a year ago.

We also got this photo of Jack swinging. I love the action in this shot:

See more photos of our day at Patterson Park here.

Then, just this past weekend, after playing with Jack and Patton inside (you have to admit Patton is a pretty kitty), I decided to rake the leaves off the front lawn finally. About half-way through putting the leaves into paper bags, Christine and Jack joined me, and Christine took over raking and bagging. So I took Jack, and ran inside to get the camera.

Jack and I had fun walking around the front yard, and in the little red wagon.

And we even got to see the day lillies that are coming up in our neighbors yard:

When the day was all said and done, I’d fertilized the front lawn, watered half of it, and Christine had finished raking 8 bags of leaves and putting them on the curb for pickup later this week:

See all the photos from Saturday the 14th, here.

If you can’t tell, I’m really enjoying this photography thing.

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Jack started walking in December, right after we went to Houston to hang out at the annual Teaff Christmas Party at Debbie and Raymond’s. Christine and I are convinced that he saw all of the other kids walking around, and he decided: “Screw this crawling business, if they’re walking, I’m gonna walk to!” Because on Monday after returning to Austin, he started walking:

Sorry that it’s 8 minutes long, I just couldn’t edit it down any more… enjoy!

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Got this as an email tonight, figured I’d post it here, so you all know where I’m from:

39. I’ll take Shakespeare for 1000, Alex.
38. Duct tape won’t fix that.
37. Lisa Marie was lucky to catch Michael.
36. Come to think of it, I’ll have a Heineken.
35. We don’t keep firearms in this house.
34. Has anybody seen the sideburns trimmer?
33. You can’t feed that to the dog.
32. I thought Graceland was tacky.
31. No kids in the back of the pickup, it’s just not safe.
30. Wrasslin’s fake.
29. Honey, did you mail that donation to Greenpeace ?
28. We’re vegetarians.
27. Do you think my gut is too big?
26. I’ll have grapefruit and grapes instead of biscuits and gravy.
25. Honey, we don’t need another dog.
24. Who’s Richard Petty?
23. Give me the small bag of pork rinds.
22. Too many deer heads detract from the decor.
21. Spittin is such a nasty habit.
20. I just couldn’t find a thing at Walmart today.
19. Trim the fat off that steak.
18. Cappuccino tastes better than espresso.
17. The tires on that truck are too big.
16. I’ll have the arugula and radicchio salad.
15. I’ve got it all on the C drive.
14. Unsweetened tea tastes better.
13. Would you like your salmon poached or broiled?
12. My fiance, Bobbie Jo, is registered at Tiffany’s.
11. I’ve got two cases of Zima for the Super Bowl.
10. Little Debbie snack cakes have too many fat grams.
09. Checkmate.
08. She’s too young to be wearing a bikini.
07. Does the salad bar have bean sprouts?
06. Hey, here’s an episode of “Hee Haw” that we haven’t seen.
05. I don’t have a favorite college team.
04. Be sure to bring my salad dressing on the side.
03. I believe you cooked those green beans too long.
02. Those shorts ought to be a little longer, Darla.
01. Nope, no more for me. I’m drivin tonight.

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Christine came and grabbed me out of the office at 5:00 today, and we headed to Central Park here in Austin (it was 79°) and we had a blast. Here are three choice photos from the day:

A Window on Jack:

Don’t mess with me:

Running down the hill (about to face plant):

See more from the evening here.

Now that Jack is really walking on his own (there’s a movie coming soon, I just haven’t had time to edit it) we figured the park would be lots of fun. And boy, was it!

After playing at the park for an hour and a half or so, we ate dinner at the Central Market Cafe. I had Rustic wood-fired pizza. Christine and Jack had fish, veggies and mashed potatoes. I got to watch the 3rd quarter of the Notre Dame vs. Ohio State game while sitting on the patio with my family.

What a great afternoon!

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Watch this video from Google Video:

redneck urfing

Totally reminds me of something my buddy Josh and I would have done back in highschool. And probably isn’t that different from some of the stuff Brad Patak did in highschool in Ennis to hear his buddies talk.

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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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I sent a photo of Jack in to the Austin American-Statesman, as a submission for their “Holiday Photos” extravaganza, and they accepted it:


Click for larger image

Cute eh?

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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:


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And this is where it gets cool folks.

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


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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)


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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.

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