GENEALOGY, We are doing it!

We are on a quest.

We have been for some time.

It started out looking for Scott's dad. He left when Scott was just little. He stopped calling, and Scott just didn't know where he was.

He was an alcoholic who was raised by alcoholics. Turns out, alcohol doesn't really help create happy families. {Scott's mom, it must be said, is a super strong woman, who managed to raise the most amazing guy ever. She turned out one incredible man, and I, for one, am thankful.}

Scott really wanted to talk to his dad; to tell him about our four amazing kids.

Two years ago, this April, we found him.

We found out he passed away in 2005.

We also found out that in a later marriage (there were a few), he had another daughter.

So now, we have Aunt Ashley, Uncle Zack, and two adorable cousins for our kids!

We met Ashely and the boys at Disneyland last Spring Break.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, I googled Scott's dad's name: Theodore Jackson Yeager. Through the years, I have googled Ted's name THOUSANDS of times. We have just been at a dead end forever. This time, however, I found an entry on a Yeager family history forum dated 2002 from a guy in Ohio who had some of Ted's mementos. Turns out, Ted rented a room in this guy's grandmother's house a long time ago. She passed on and left it with her daughter. She passed on and left it to this guy. He has been holding on to it since 2002!! I was sure he would have gotten rid of it by now, but he was sure there was family out there that would appreciate it. And we do!!

The box came today.

Inside, were pictures of Grandpa Ted's Navy days, Navy documents and certificates, his Navy "yearbook" of sorts, his stencils to label his stuff in the Navy, Navy stationary, a love letter from a Conie "brown eyes", his high school letter, football and basketball pins, and a letter from Mrs. Conley in Stow, OH (no idea??).

It was amazing.

Last week, I again googled Ted's name and came across Rootsweb, a family history website. I think it is part of Ancestry.com. Anyway, Scott's grandfather's name came up. Theodore Jackson Yeager born in 1923 with four children, one named Theodore Jackson Yeager. I say, "That's your Grandpa!"

We clicked on it. His parents popped up. We clicked on that and HIS parents popped up. We kept clicking and clicking until we were in Germany in 1665!! Turns out his Ancestor Hans Martin Yeager helped colonize Germantown in PA . He was married in PA in 1720.

Unbelievable.

We thought it would be nearly impossible to find any family history information for his dad's side of the family. Boy were we wrong.

But, his Grandmother (father's mother) is another dead end. We don't know her parents and we aren't really even sure about her maiden name. We think she took off on the family (I mentioned the alcohol, right?) and headed for AZ and got remarried. So, the line stops with her for sure.

So, we are looking for living relatives. Ted had two brothers- Jimmie and Ronald or Roland, and one sister- Roxanne. But rumor has it that after their mom left the state took them away and adopted them out. So you see the difficulty level of our quest.

You just can't have too much family.
It is the most important thing.

{These are pictures that Ashley gave us!}

This is Theodore Jackson Yeager III

This COULD be one of our missing uncles.

Have you seen this man?

(The one on the left)

This is Scott's Grandpa Yeager!

Here is Grandma Yeager.

Could be Wanda McCellen or Wanda McClellen...

These are Ted's grandparents- Scott's Great-Grandparents-

But we don't know which side!!

Maybe Ashley can help us.

A young Ted.

{the one with his arms folded, of course}

An even younger Ted with his Daddy.

{our kids' grandpa and great-grandpa!}

Cute little boy Ted.


Who dressed this kid up?
He looks so handsome.

We went to the LDS Family History library here and did some more research. It turns out that we have some LDS Yeager relations- most of the temple work has already been completed!

We were shocked.
Happy shocked.


There is always work to do.
No rest for the wicked. :)

This Picture has a Story

I was tagged with,

"This Picture has a Story".

Rules:

*Open your first photo folder*

Scroll down to the 10th picture in that folder

(If you don't have 10 pictures in that folder go to the next folder)

*Post the photo and then tell your story behind the photo

This is adorable Rebekah almost 3 years old. I don't remember anything about this, but my guess would be this:

Who could say to no to a kid that cute??

If you were a pink ball and she wanted to take you home, wouldn't you want to?

I think everyone should do this tag.

If you're reading this, make this your next post!

SURPRISE!!!

My mom's Birthday is today.

It's a big one, so on Saturday, while we still had family in town, we threw her a surprise birthday party. It was so much fun.

We had the patio room at Johnny Carino's. We decorated it like a Birthday Princess should have it decorated. There were goodie bags for all the kids at the party. We were playing Spirograph and play dough while we waited for our food.

{My Mom}

{Blowing out the candles~with help from grand kids, of course!}



{Yummy Food and Fun People}

{The Cake}

{Here she is getting her surprise- although she had it pretty much figured out by the time she got to the parking lot- and seeing our car just proved it to her}

{After all the eating, cake, and presents we sang a little bit of "Let's Go to the Movies"- from Annie for her. She LOVES musicals. Here is my sister with her "jazz hands"}


{We saw Planet 51 and had a blast just being together. Here's some of the crew}

{Here is my mom loving on one of her grand babies.}

I am so blessed to have my mom because:

• She loves her family deeply and unconditionally
• She has a powerful testimony of our Savior and always shared it with me
• She really never seemed to mind being up at night with me when I was sick or scared or couldn't sleep. (I still need to work on this one)
• She taught me a deep love of music
• Her creativity is fun- she tells stories and makes up songs so amazingly well.
• She is so talented, artistically. She sings, paints, plays the piano, plays the guitar....
• She taught me to appreciate beauty all around me
• She loves everyone. Differences in people always fascinate her-never bother her
• She loves to spoil people; she finds out what it is you love and then is always giving it
• She lives service. Growing up, she was always bringing in meals to people, having us sing at old folks homes, taking treats to neighbors...
• She is a fun Grandma. My kids moan when I come to pick them up from a visit with Grandma.
• She teaches my kids piano lessons- they love it and are learning so much.
• She loves me- really, her most important job, after all. :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!

I LOVE YOU!

So Long 2009!

Our 11th Anniversary was New Year's Eve!

So, we decided to celebrate with 16 of our favorite family members!

Really, we just had family in town for New Year's and had to party like there was no tomorrow.

Here is the group- minus Scott, who was taking the picture, Olivia who had already gone to bed, and Grandma and Grandpa, who weren't up for a sleep over.

She was so tired, she decided she needed sleep more than partying- so this picture is of Olivia the next day. She demanded that she have her party then, with pictures! Things got so crazy at our party, my niece ended up BEDAZZLED!

Cute, though, huh?
Katie had SO much fun.

Such a party animal.

Jack loved that he had one of his very few boy cousins in town.

Picture of the table. Streamers, Confetti, Noise Makers. Oooh La la!

Rebekah livin' it up

This was the table BEFORE midnight- my sister had everything so organized and distributed it evenly to all.

Aunt Chalene was the hero of the day. She ordered an ENORMOUS box from Oriental Trading with fun things for the kids to do at the party. They decorated aprpons, piggy banks, and inflatable bats. We also had some fun hats, decorations, party supplies, etc.

Here are some decorated aprons.

And here are some decorated piggy banks. She had sticky foam letters to put on them.

Jack wrote "Mission Savings" on his.

Cool kid.

I even got to make a bank.

The craft area we set up in our basement.

Katie.

Her apron looks more like a bib, doesn't it?

She is growing up so fast!

Look at her funky hair. She is so much fun.

The Happy Couple

11 Years of Pure Bliss.

Little Olivia

Anyway, we had tons of fun.

People were sleeping everywhere. Kids were so noisy. We are all exhausted.

It is a memory we'll cherish forever.

I think we could do it again next year!

2009 was as busy, hard, and wonderful as the next year. I'm sure 2010 won't be any different! I'd love to have 2010 be our year we get to adopt a sweet baby!

On a completely unrelated topic:

Both Jack and Olivia got robots for Christmas.

Jack's was a kit for a build your own robot.

Livvie asked Santa for a robot that could clean her room. So far, he can hardly walk, but she doesn't seem to care.

The other day, they decided to have

ROBOT RACES

Jack's kept turning and attacking Olivia's.

Not sure who won.

But they had fun!

The most wonderful time of the year...

Christmas.

Craziness.

This year was a little too much like last year.

Last year: Scott had back surgery December 11th

This year: Scott separated a rib December 9th

Both years: A completely useless, hurting and needy husband.

Last year: Katie came down with a stomach bug on Christmas Eve and was quite sick for Christmas.

This year: Scott came down with the flu Christmas Eve and is still not feeling well!

So, once again, I am shoveling snow (thankfully, not too much this year), shopping alone, parenting alone, taking care of hurting hubby, and not really loving the new tradition.

If next year looks like this again, I really don't think I can call it "The most wonderful time of the year"

Before the season began, the kids made me promise we wouldn't schedule any back surgeries or treatments for Daddy so that we could be sure to have a better Christmas. Last year we were just unable to get some of our favorite traditions completed. So, I promised. And he didn't hurt his back.

Anyway, enough complaining. I know how selfish I sound. Poor Scotty is what I should be typing right now. And I do feel sorry for him. He absolutely wishes he wasn't injured. Or sick.

We are actually very grateful for the MANY blessings that are ours.

We baked the month right through. We were constantly making something for someone and the kids loved helping in the kitchen. We love all the goody plates from our amazing neighbors and friends. We love living where we do when we do and are sure this is where we are supposed to be. Our kids' last day of school was December 11th and have been loving being out of school for Christmas break. We are grateful to know what the season is really about and have had great talks about the Savior's birthday party and what He really wants from us for His birthday.

And we have been blessed with a wonderful family on both sides that all love to spoil us rotten.

Here are some of our shots of our Christmas this year.

Christmas Eve, every year we go to my parents' house for a big Christmas Eve dinner/party. This year, we were in charge of the ham. 1/2 hour after being put in the oven, the power went out. Luckily, Grandma and Grandpa still had power, so we packed up everything for the party and left a litle early so that the ham could continue. The kids all get to open 1 present on Christmas Eve. You'll see some pictures of the adorable pajamas they got this year. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa! They also had a piano recital (Grandma is their piano teacher). Katie, Jack and Rebekah are taking and they all did fantastic.

Christmas morning was fun. (They were told they couldn't get up before 7:00 a.m.- in years past we have had issues with this). They came in to get us at 6:59 and no interruptions during the night! We'll take it. It was a great Christmas all in all!

Olivia

Rebekah in her Christmas Jammies

Rebekah and her Santa loot

Katie enjoying a Hershey Santa from her stocking

Olivia loved that she got an orange in her stocking again!

Katie introduing her piano piece: "Jolly Old St. Nicholas"

Jack loving his Marshmallow Santa Christmas morning

Jack in his new PJ's making his crazy happy face

Katie in her new Froggie PJs

Jack playing his piano piece : "Little Drummer Boy"

Rebekah introducing her piano piece "Go Tell it on the Mountian"

Rebekah playing her song

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Happy Holidays Everyone!

Basketball and Ballerinas

Finally, I managed to get a battery in the camera!

We didn't want to miss these precious shots.

Jack had his last basketball game of this season Saturday morning. It was an early game: 8:10 a.m. He and I braved the early morning fog alone. Scott has a separated rib, (this year's Christmas time injury) and the girls were just not moving fast enough.

It was all okay though. Grandma and Grandpa were already at the game when we arrived.

Turned out it was his best game yet. Great note to end the season on.

He was a superstar.

Rebekah and Olivia have been taking dance this year. The big recital was also on Saturday.

Look at the beautiful (expensive) tutu's they got to wear!

They were most excited for:

the costumes

the side buns

the make-up.

They were darling.

We especially loved the giggling Olivia let loose with her thrill of spinning in circles.

Adorable.



Rebekah really was happier than she seems.




Such cute ballerina princess sisters.

And here we are before church this morning.

You can see how great our morning was by the look on Jack's face. :)

They look adorable.

Thanks for the beautiful Christmas clothes, Grandma and Grandpa!

We are getting so excited for the big day!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Finally, the Halloween Post!

Halloween was not so recent anymore, but we did celebrate.

We LOVE holidays and the traditions that make them so fun.

Here is our Halloween 2009.

Rebekah was a witch~ with black hair and green face. No warty nose, though. She drew the line there. She told me that she didn't want to be an ugly witch. :) I guess she is cute enought to pull off the green face and black straggly hair.

Poor Jack.

He was Darth Vader AGAIN. He makes a great one. We had a great costume planned, but due to unforseen complications (Scott), we were unable to deliver. So, Jack was a great sport and happliy wore the Darth Vader costume again.

Olivia was THRILLED to be the unicorn this year. She couldn't wait for Halloween to arrive and gloried in the glitter she got to wear.

She is so much fun.

Katie was terrifying as a "Goth Vampire Girl".
She was so happy to finally have her dream of black hair for Halloween come true.
She was a little scary to some kids.




Here is the spooky crew.

We had a ton of fun. We went to a carnival, but didn't dress up. We went to a fabulous Halloween Dinner Party at Grandma and Granpa's house complete with spooky food galore. We hit our Trunk-or-Treat, and even did some Trick-or-Treating old school style~Door to Door.

Then came the true horror.

Washing out the black hair.

It is a good thing the girls had so much fun with that, because it was probably the last time.

Ever.

That stuff is horrible, the bathroom was covered in inky blackness!