Buerster Family Christmas

Last Sunday, we had Buerster family Christmas at Aunt Brenda's house. It was a nice time with lots of good food as always. We tried to get a picture of all the little ones. It was a little difficult but this one didn't turn out too bad. As you can see, Ava is not happy about it. The only ones not in the picture are Bailey and Emma. There are 14 total - ranging in age from 1 to almost 13. In 2007 alone, 5 babies were born. So far we are expecting 2 in 2009. The family is growing by leaps and bounds.

Christmas Day

We spent Christmas Day with Jeff's family. Ava did very good all day considering she only took brief naps in the car. Holidays can be very trying on little ones who are used to napping. She loved all of her Christmas presents and really liked opening them (and everyone else's).

Ava got a John Deer Gator from Memal. This is what kept us up late putting together. I'm thinking when she gets the hang of this she will enjoy hauling her baby brother around.

She loved her kitchen set from Nana and Poppy. It's amazing to watch them pretend.

Ava loved seeing her Aunt Lindy (Jeff's sister). Lindy lives in Texas so we hadn't seen her since April. It was nice to spend some time with her and Isaiah.

Christmas Eve

We had an absolutely wonderful Christmas. Christmas Eve began that morning at home by opening our gifts too each other and Ava. We then went to 4:00 church at Ste. Marie. After church we went to Mom and Dad's. About 10:00 p.m. we drove to Jeff's mom's house in Valier. We stayed up quite late putting Ava's Christmas presents together.

She looked beautiful in her Christmas dress. She didn't like it at first but then got used to it.

I don't know if her dress or her coat was cuter. Both were thanks to Memal Patchett.

I thought all the girls would be too cute in matching shirts. Landon was a little left out but he coordinated with them.

Merry Christmas!

I wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! I am excited about the holidays. Of course it is always busy. Tomorrow, we will be going to 4:00 church at Ste. Marie and then to my Mom and Dad's house. I am looking forward to seeing my Aunt Rene, Clay and Nikki when we get there. After all of those festivities are over we will head to Southern Illinois to see Jeff's family. We will return Friday evening because I have the Holiday Basketball Tournament on Saturday. We also have my Mom's family Christmas Saturday for lunch and we are going to my Aunt Brenda's on Sunday for Buerster Christmas. Glad I am pregnant so I don't have to fret over all of the calories I will be consuming.

Hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable Christmas and that Santa brings you everything you ask for! I am looking forward to seeing Ava open her presents. She thinks the bows on the presents are hairbows and she pulls them off and puts them on top of her head.

New Background

Can you tell it is Christmas break? I have spent hours on the computer tonight updating my blog and looking at others. My cousin, Sara, had the cutest background so I had to check out the site. It is super easy to add one of their backgrounds. What a fun way to show off your Christmas spirit. Thanks Sara!

Christmas Goose

Today Jeff went goose hunting at a hunting club in Northern Illinois. Some of you may not know that Jeff used to be quite the goose hunter. In college, he hunted and guided hunting trips everyday over Christmas break and all other weekends. It definitely took up all of his free time back then. Well as you can see from the picture he has something else to take up any of his free time now so he doesn't hunt very often at all anymore. He had a really enjoyable time though and killed his 2 geese - which by the way we won't be eating. He says they don't even taste good - it is just fun to hunt them.

Day at Grandma's

We had nothing going on today so it was a perfect day to go to Grandma and Grandpa Buerster's. Mom was watching Bailey and Emma and Martha, Alli, and Landon went with us so all the grandkids were there. Even in mom's big house that is a house full. The kids played well together and at one time we thought lightening might strike because 4 of the 5 of them were all sleeping.

I think Ava is getting ready to be a big sister because she loves her babies lately.

The older girls thought some boxes would be fun to play in.

Time to cook!

Time to eat!

New Toy

Ava discovered a new toy this week. She found the step stool in the closet. She has been carrying it around with her everywhere. She is not necessarily using it to get into things she's not supposed to have. I think she just wants a higher perspective of the world. It is pretty cute but it is allowing her to get to the top of the cabinets which she couldn't reach before.

Christmas Shopping

Martha and I did the majority of our Christmas shopping last week in Evansville; however, I still had a few things left to get. Today, I decided spur of the moment that I wanted to go to Terre Haute and of course I invited Martha to go along. The Jeffs were scouting for geese. So we nervously loaded all 3 kids in the van and took off for Terre Haute. We don't really take our kids shopping very often. They don't usually enjoy it and it is a lot of work. Much to our surprise the day went very well. We only shopped for about 3 hours but got what we needed to do done.

This is when we were getting ready to leave the house. You can see they were very excited. Alli was thrilled. She informed us all at Thanksgiving that she didn't know how to go shopping so it is probably time she learned.

Friday night at home!

This weekend I had 2 ballgames - Friday night at Flora and tonight at Grayville. I asked my volunteer assistant, Laurin to cover 1 of them for me. Thank goodness she did and I got to stay home on a Friday night. The Kirts' came over for supper and for Martha to finish up some gifts she was making for Christmas. We had a very nice evening. Now that it is Saturday afternoon I am wishing she was covering today's game too. An hour and half one-way on a bus doesn't sound like a lot of fun.

Alli and Ava were peaking downstairs to see what Martha was doing.

The girls watching Frosty. Alli looks like she's asleep but she's not.

We had to get that silly cheeser in the pictures.

Cheerleading Christmas Party

I hosted our annual cheerleading Christmas party last Wednesday. I always enjoy all the girls coming over. We have pizza and snacks and my old assistant coach Diana is always so nice to the girls and makes them whatever dessert they want - its always gooey bars. The girls play "Dirty Santa" with the gifts they bring. Every year I make them some sort of personalized OHS gift. This year it was a picture frame. For entertainment we play how well we know each other game and watch the DVD from last years competition. Being around this many girls keeps you young!

Front Door

I had to put up this picture of my front door because I love it. Marty and Saundra got me this wreath and garland for my birthday. They both light up. I don't put up a ton of decorations but this is perfect. I just had to show off my festive entry way.

Santa Train

We went to the Santa Train today in Oblong. We had never been before but it was a little disappointing. I thought there were supposed to be several characters. All we saw was Santa and Mrs. Claus. We didn't get there until the very end so maybe the other characters were there earlier. We didn't have to wait outside any so that was good since it was freezing. It is a great idea especially for kids a little older who would enjoy getting on a train.

Well I thought she might like Santa but obviously not. She was very clingy from the time we got on the train so I knew sitting on Santa's lap wouldn't go well.

New Van

I'm a little behind on this post so most people know that we got a van. The day after Thanksgiving while I was at a basketball tournament all day Jeff went and bought a van. It was a pretty big surprise even though we had been shopping for them for a year and a half. I hate car shopping and he is much better at it than me so he did it by himself. It is a 2008 White Chrysler Town and Country. I think the radio is my favorite part (it has all these crazy options). I really like it even though all my students are making fun of me for getting a van.

If the palm trees in the background didn't give it away - this isn't it. But it looks just like this. I was too lazy to go outside and take a picture (plus its dark)

Ava likes it too. It has the DVD players. Even though she is not that into cartoons yet she does watch it when I turn it on.

Happy Holidays!

Yesterday we decorated the Christmas tree. We only broke 1 ornament and that was totally my fault not Ava's. I am surprised she didn't break more the way she was handling them. She is really enjoying the tree. She hasn't been messing with it. She just stands back and talks and dances in front of it. She decided she was going to go bye bye yesterday so she got her purses and gave mom, dad, her horse and the tree a kiss goodbye.

I think Ava could tell Dad wasn't really into this.
He said next year him and the baby boy might have to go hunting while we decorate.

It's a ....

IT'S A BOY!!! We had our sonogram after school today and the baby cooperated right away so it was easy to tell that our baby is a boy. They said he looks perfect.

Baby Boy Patchett
You think this one will look like mommy? I doubt it.

Hello everyone!

I'm a boy!

What a disappointment

I had an exciting weekend planned to go to Chicago and it all got ruined. Jeff left for Chicago Thursday morning for the Illinois School Board Convention. After school today, I was to ride the train up and meet him and spend the weekend shopping, site seeing, and eating out. I was thrilled. Yesterday, Ava had to come home sick from daycare with a stomach virus. Nana & Poppy saved the day and came up to take her back home with them for the weekend. However, I woke up this morning sick also. Unbelievable, I am quite certain I haven't called in sick for myself in 7 years and I am sick today. I am starting to feel a little better but not well enough to travel that far. So now it is a Friday night and I have no husband and no baby at home for the entire weekend. Jeff told me it is was so cold in Chicago I would be miserable anyway. Oh well - there is always next year. I am grateful though - being sick is not fun and I haven't had the opportunity to experience it in a while. I guess there is always a bright side - and think of the money I will save. Hope everyone else stays healthy.

Doctor Appointment

Today I had a doctor appointment. Everything looks good. I am almost 18 weeks. We got to schedule our sonogram. It is December 5th. We will then know if it is a boy or girl. I will definitely post as soon as we know.

Nothing new

Sorry no posts in a long time. I have had really nothing new to report because I have been doing cheerleading stuff a lot the past 2 weeks. We started having practice everyday after school 2 weeks ago. It has been going really well. I have a great bunch of girls - talent wise and work ethic. This weekend we had a choreographer come down from Chicago to teach us a competition routine that he made up. We used to do it ourselves but it wasn't ever as good. Last year was the first year we hired a choreographer and we got 11th at state so we are trying it again. I'm definitely in the wrong end of the business though because this 21 year old male cheerleader made more money in one weekend than I do coaching all year. He was well worth it though and hopefully we are on our way to state again this year.

Ava is doing good. She has been getting a lot of daddy time since I am at practice all the time. She goes to practice sometimes but is a pretty big distraction to the girls. She loves watching them though.

I've Been Tagged

I have been tagged by Angie at Our Wonderful Crazy Life.

So here are the rules...

1. Post the rules on your blog.
2. Write 6 random things about yourself.
3. Tag 6 people at the end of your blog.
4. If you are tagged, just do it, and pass the tag along!

1. I think being a teacher is the greatest job in the entire world - and not because we get our summers off. That is an added bonus though. Getting to know at least 100 students every year in my classroom is an amazing opportunity. And then seeing some of them every year to go on to major in a Biology related field is so rewarding.

2. If I couldn't be a teacher anymore I would work in a genetics lab. Since there is not a lot of those in Oblong that would require moving away and I am currently not interested in doing that.

3. When I am not working I am so lazy. I try to make excuses to myself about being busy but that really has nothing to do with it. When I am at home I want to play with Ava and just sit around after she goes to bed.

4. When I started teaching I was "ask" to coach cheerleading. I didn't want to and knew nothing about it. Now I love it and know far more than any adult should. I look at "my girls" who I have seen graduate, cheer in college, get married, have families, etc and think how I would have never got to know them so well had I not been their coach. It takes a ton of my time but 99% of the time it is worth it.

5. I don't really talk on the phone very much - except to Martha. Everyday on the way to school and sometimes on the way home we talk on the phone. And yes I do know she put that on her blog but it is definitely something about me too.

6. Jeff & I want to have a bunch of kids. The verdict on how many is yet to come. I am holding out to see how 2 goes. I think it would be so much fun to have a big family.

I am supposed to pass this on to 6 people but the only person that I know that has a blog that hasn't been tagged is Amy G.
Sara B you have been tagged several times so we expect to see a response.

Character Counts Fish Fry

Saturday night was a fundraiser fish fry at the grade school for the character counts program. It was catered by County Rhodes - Yum Yum. You got to love all you can eat events when you are pregnant. It is one of the few times in my life I don't have too much guilt about the amount of fat I am consuming. They also had a carnival for the kids. The Kirts' family and Grandma & Grandpa Buerster attended with us.

They had a version of build of bear which was a hit with the kids.

Here Alli is playing Plinko. Ava is just watching. Holding Ava is Jane Attaway - one of the unit office secretaries.

Daddy and Ava doing the cookie walk.

Ava with her game tickets.

If you looked at the Halloween post you may be noticing a trend. Somehow Ava keeps conning her cousins into pushing her in the doll strollers. She is entirely too big for this but is loving sitting in it lately.

Cheerleader in the making

The other night a commercial came on where people were dancing. Ava was loving it. Being the dedicated cheer coach, I have quite a few cheer competitions on DVR so Jeff turned one on for her. She cheered and danced for at least 5 minutes. The video doesn't even do it justice for how cute it was. You could tell she really thought she was doing some of the same things as the girls on TV. I can't decide if all this cheerleading now is going to make her love it or hate it later in life. Either way is fine but it sure is cute when she is 1.

Trick or Treat

We had a good Halloween. Dressing up as Minnie Mouse started on Wednesday at the daycare. They went to several local businesses. Friday we got out of school early for parent teacher conferences so Ava and I along with Martha's crew headed over to Mom & Dad's house. We met up with Amy and Brent's family there. Martha and I took the kids to a few places around Wendelin and then the kids thought it was time to quit. Trick or treating can be exhausting.

Here is our little Minnie Mouse.

Memal Patchett made her this beautiful costume.

She liked it once she got it on okay but she did not want to put it on.

Diana Smith had to get down her girl's Mickey & Minnie

so Ava could get her picture taken with them.

Here is the entire crew.

We have a cat, 2 princesses, a Minnie Mouse (who didn't want her picture taken) & a dog.

After we took costumes off, Ava thought she needed pushed around in the doll stroller.

Emma was upto the task.

This is quite a group around Grandma's kitchen table.

More pictures from the weekend

I had some more pictures that I didn't put in the other posts so I thought I would just add them by themselves.

Ava in her new car. Memal found it at a garage sale.

If we could make it go a little faster Ava would love it. Ava & Poppy

Pucker up horsey!