OTHERS December 2011

Motschiedler Madness

We are getting ready for Christmas at our house and are excited for Deshy's first Holiday Season! The stockings were hung by the chimney with care...and Deshy hasn't figured out how to reach them quite yet.

Desh now has a third tooth in his top front. He has mastered waiving "bye, bye" and pushing around his toy walker. He has good days and bad days when it comes to eating solids and taking baths so his momma tries not to stress too much. He loves bubbles, chasing after balls and playing with anything that makes noise. We go to the Little Gym on Fridays and he loves all the other babies and the fun activities. He had his first visit to the zoo last weekend and loved seeing all of the sights! He especially loved the elephants and giraffes and about broke his neck trying to get a good look at them. 

Allyson is loving being a stay at home mom. She is still visiting the school once a month to help with a few things, but other than that, she stays busy chasing after, feeding, cleaning, rocking and playing with Desh. Ken and I closed escrow on some apartments in November so she is also busy with them. She has decorated the house for Christmas (sans tree) and has just about finished her Christmas shopping. Now for the wrapping! Her excitement this month is that she is getting braces (again!). Yay! 

Ken is also busy with the new apartment complex and being a landlord. We are preparing to tent the 4 buildings to get rid of termites and then will do work on the exteriors and finish up with new paint and some landscaping. We hope to create a beautiful environment for our tenants. Anyone know of someone that needs an apartment? Check out our website: www.bengstonvillage.com. Ken is also still enjoying his work with Quiring General. We will be attending their Christmas party this evening and Ken is looking forward to winning the trivia game they have planned. 

Merry Christmas, everyone! See you at the BCB.

Lots of Love,

The Motschiedler Trio 

WARD WIDE WEB

The Wards have been preparing for and enjoying the Christmas Season since mid November. We decided that Christmastime last year was much too stressful and the only way to enjoy the season is to get ready early! Thanksgiving break we put up all of our decorations, outdoor lights, and 2 Christmas trees (one real, one 12 foot artificial). So far this year we've done many of our favorite seasonal traditions:

- Black Friday Shopping

- Made 50 gingerbread ornaments for our Christmas Tree

- Letters to Santa 
- watched the latest family Christmas movie at the theater: Arthur Christmas

- Picked out a Christmas Tree

- opened the first gift of Christmas (new ornaments for each kid) 

- Started our 25 days of Christmas Advent Calendar 

- Relief Society Community Christmas Concert

- Took our annual Christmas Card photo

- Community Band Concert at the Tower Theater - how fun!

- Made Gingerbread Houses

- Clovis Electric Christmas Parade

- Hot Chocolate, Christmas Movies, Cranking up the Christmas music

It has been a busy season so far, but very calm and enjoyable :) We look forward to celebrating our Savior's birth all month. Merry Christmas from our home to yours.

OTHERS November 2011

MARSHALL NOOSE: By Suzanne

Happy November everyone! John and I are doing well. He is working in Spokane now and is appreciating being able to do his commute on the west coast for a change. I am still working at Roubicek & Thacker Counseling. We have been very busy there and I finally have an assistant to boss around - I mean - to help. Along with the regular family counseling, our office has started a couple of addiction related programs that has increased our clientele tremendously.

At church John is serving as a counselor in the High Priest Quorum, and I am the MiaMaid counselor. I love serving anywhere in the church and am enjoying being with the teenagers again.

This year John and I will be traveling to Oregon for Thanksgiving. We are looking forward to visiting our Oregonion children and their families. Because of that, there will be NO TURKEY BOWL THIS YEAR. We will continue the tradition next year. Gooooooooo Marshalls!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Daily Duran

Clare is doing such a great job getting up on her feet. Sometimes she will take a step or two and we expect her to be walking any day now, following Bella into all sorts of mischievousness. Clare was a cute Tinkerbelle for Halloween. She loved going trick or treating, pulling out the candy every time one was dropped into her bucket only to have to taken away and put in Dad’s pocket.

Bella is a wonderful ball of energy or maybe a ball of enthalpy would be a better way to put it. That is to say that Mom spends a lot of time picking up after Bella. She loves to sing her ABC’s and will randomly point out letters like the “A” in Target™. For Halloween she was Wendy Darling from Peter Pan. She could not believe how easy it was to get candy. You just walk up to a house, ring the doorbell and hold out your pumpkin.

Amy has been busy with her calling at church and the primary program. This year the day of the program happened to fall on her birthday. She held a practice the Friday evening before the program, celebrated her birthday on Saturday evening going out to eat and watching the BYU Dance program, had the program Sunday morning, then was finally able to relax and eat some cake Sunday evening, and got to sleep in on Monday.

Thomas started working at Valley Health Team last month as a clinic manager out in San Joaquin . They serve mostly the people in the community of migrant farm workers which he finds to be very rewarding. He also started working on his last assignment for the MPH program and is ever closer to finishing his project for the MBA program.

OTHERS October 2011

Motschiedler Madness

Ahhh, Autumn is here! And we have been busy enjoying it!

Desh is on the move! He's crawling and climbing and kicking and grabbing and in.to.ever.y.thing! He finds a new place to explore everyday, which keeps his momma on her toes! His two front bottom teeth popped up last week resulting in an even cuter smile than before. No'ne possibile!

Allyson has decided that October will be her last month working at the Preschool so that she can spend her days playing with 'D' rather than coming up with distractions for him while she works. She and Deshy will miss our friends and the kids at Bluff View, but she's excited to be a stay at home mommy. She's thinking about taking a couple online classes, doing some projects around the house and maybe even another little mad mott to join the family...hmmmmm....

Ken has been enjoying his work at Quiring General. He loves working for a company that appreciates its employees and is family oriented.

Last year, he and his bestie decided to start a business and we are now in escrow for an apartment complex in NW Fresno. If everything goes well we will close at the beginning of November and we will become slumlords. Check out our website: theschussing.com (created by his wonderful wife).

For pictures and more on our happy life, check out our family blog: madmott.blogspot.com.

Lots of love,

The Motschiedler Trio

Wadds

We are in school, in church or running around town all week. That pretty much sums our month up.

WARD WIDE WEB
Jeremy was released as Ward Mission Leader and called as the Scout Master over Trevor's age group. He is excited to work with the scouts again - especially since his son will be participating. He is busy planning camp outs and fun activities to get these boys on track to earn their merit badges. He also installed a new radiator in our van - which was much needed and much appreciated :) What a mutli-talented guy!

Jennifer is busy with being a mama. She has learned to appreciate the bus (that we no longer have at our convenience). Driving to and from school several times a day is more time consuming than you'd think! She attends many sporting events, cooks delicious crock pot meals, teaches a few piano lessons, and folds a mean load of laundry in her spare time :)

Trevor is enjoying junior high. He is on the 7th grade water polo team and is doing really good! He gets lots of play time and plays hard when he's out there. He has scored 2 goals for his team so far this season. Trevor turned 12 last month and received the priesthood. This Sunday will be his first time passing the sacrament.

Logan is our football star. This is his first year playing football and he made the varsity team. He looks good in his pads and helmet. Logan is also our soccer star. He is a busy busy boy. Logan plays forward for his team. He got a great head bump the first game, "It didn't feel very good," he said. But it looked really cool!

Lizzie is our bubbly 7 year old girl. She is playing soccer this season and is a star player on her team! She also participates in a weekly dance club after school. Lizzie practices her dance moves any chance she gets - especially in the evening - she likes to crank up the music in the kitchen and get us all groovin'. She loves any social experience. Meeting new girls and having fun are Lizzie's specialty.

Jackson is our kindergarten boy. He is in afternoon kindergarten and is finally getting used to his new schedule. It was a rough start for our Jackson. After the 2nd week of school his teacher tells us, "He did really good today... he was only in time out a few times." She was so proud of him for making progress, but how many times was the kid in time out the first week of school?! Jackson is enjoying his first season of soccer and having his daddy for a coach. Go Jackson!



Jordan and Stephanie

The only thing that has happened to us is that Jordan joined the Air Force National Guard! We are so proud of him to have made this decision. He will go to basic training sometime next year which will be hard but we can do it. He loved having his family there to see him get enlisted.

OTHERS September 2011

Congrats to the Westbroek Happy Couple!! Married Saturday, September 3, 2011.

Congrats to the Snow family! Baby #4: Keegan Michael Snow, born 01 Sep 2011. 8lbs 13oz, 20in long.

Jordan and Stephanie
We have had a fun filled Jam packed year so far. Back in February we bought our annual passes to DisneyLand and have been using them every chance we get! We go about once a month. We also went to Las Vegas with Stephs family for her 21st bday and it was amazing! we cant wait to go back. Also a few months ago Ashley moved in with us and it has been wonderful having her!

Jordan: Jordan has been working a lot and helping take care of the house every chance he gets. He just recently got a calling as a Primary Teacher and he is really excited because Trevor will be in his class! He had a pretty good birthday, he had a small family party at the in-laws house the day before, then went to Japanese Kitchen the day of his birthday (which he loved!) and the finale was when we went to DisneyLand the day after and there was pretty much no wait for any ride! Since then he is just enjoying life working and can’t wait til we go to DisneyLand again!

Stephanie: Well I have been working a lot (like usual). At one point in the year I had 3 jobs then 2 and now after 6 months of that i have only one and am still going to school. Over the summer I took a cake decorating class and cant wait til i can take another one. I have also been getting more into reading, mostly Disney books like secrets of DisneyLand and stuff like that. Other than that I am doing perfectly fine loving life and loving being married. Plus getting to hang out with Ashley makes my life so much more fun! And I am anxiously waiting for the next time we can make a get away to DisneyLand.

OTHERS August 2011

Pismo 2011
There were many OTHERS who came to Pismo this year that are not pictured here.

Daily Duran

We have had a very busy summer and lots of fun from being with all of our family. We got to be with all of our Berry family for a reunion and spent the 4^th of July watching fireworks with them up on top of the mountain looking out over Utah Valley. We also had a great time going to the water park with all of our family and friends in town. We loved getting away to Pismo to have fun with all of the Boggs family and escape the heat.

Clare is 6 months now and can scoot around on her tummy. She yells a lot and sounds like she is roaring. She loves to watch her older sister and follows her around everywhere.

Bella is turning into a fish. She can go under water in the pool to get her dive sticks. She will jump in from the edge and float over to you (if there is still enough momentum from her jump). She is a great big sister and makes Clare laugh when she is sad. Bella still says, “bye Ella,” to Ella McCreary when nobody is even around. She had such a good time with all her cousins.

Amy had fun (she says I don’t know about fun) organizing everything. She planned it all, packed us all up, and did a great job at it. She has been forever busy with primary, but has some good counselors she can rely on.

Thomas has been busy with work, and thought he was going to have the summer off from school, but he got a call from school asking him to do a project for his MBA over the summer. So he has meetings and research to do now. He is excited for his last semester to start in a few weeks.



WARD WIDE WEB
It has been a busy busy summer! Let's see everything we've been up to with a quick photo narrative...

Jackson went to Family Camp for a week, loves to swim in the pool (he is swimming all the way across the pool now - taking breaths and everything!), and has enjoyed going to Wild Water Adventures. We got to spend a day there with the Durans.

Lizzie is in Montana right now on her first ever trip away from home without mom and dad. She took her first airplane ride to get there! Lizzie had fun boogie boarding at Pismo and never wanted to get out of the water. She also got to do a music camp this summer - they performed selections from Mary Poppins and she loved every minute of it!


Logan kicked off the summer by attending his last year of Cub Scout Day Camp. He got to fold the American flag in front of the entire camp! He has also been into air soft guns and drawing comics.

Trevor did water polo camp this summer. He is looking forward to his first season of Jr. High water polo this upcoming school year. Trevor got his fill of fishing this summer. He went fishing with grandpa Louie, at family camp, and at Pismo.

Trevor & Logan got to go to the midnight premier of Harry Potter 7.2, went with Jeremy to Santa Cruz island to kayak, and won a pie eating contest at the Ward Family Reunion.

Jeremy sold his motorcycle and purchased a new mountain bike (we like to call it "daddy's 5th baby"). He has been going mountain biking as often as possible. He even took a 'guys weekend' to Mammoth Mountain just to go mountain biking!

Jeremy & Jennifer got to spend some time together without the children this summer. We did some white water rafting and took a trip to LA to see Les Miserables and the Getty Museum.

Yes! It has been a fun-filled jam-packed summer!

OTHERS May 2011

Congratulations to the newest Boggs Family! We are so happy for Peter and Jordan to begin their new life together.

WARD WIDE WEB

Jeremy was determined to have a nice relaxing Spring Break. He kicked it off with a family date night at Red Robin, [took Jackson to the Urgent Care for stitches], took Jennifer to a Community Band Concert @ the Paul Shagoian Theater, took the family camping to Millerton Lake for 3 days, went mountain biking 3 times, did a bunch of pool maintenance in the backyard, fixed the car door handle, planted a garden with Trevor, and played a mean Nerf gun battle with the kids. Relaxing, eh?


Jennifer was BUSY cooking 1600 servings of rice pilaf for Jeremy's school fundraiser. 3 days and countless hours later... somehow it all got done! Just in case you were wondering, here is the recipe for 100 servings of pilaf:

Rice Pilaf
100 servings

40 oz. cut fideo pasta
1 cube butter
8 c. Uncle Ben's Converted Rice
2 c. white rice
36 c. water

Brown pasta in butter. Bring water to a rolling boil. Mix all ingredients in an 18 qt. roaster oven. Cook at 250 degrees for 90 minutes. (Do not lift lid while cooking.)


Trevor (& Logan) spent much of their precious dollars on plants, soil, and gardening supplies. Trevor took the lead role in mixing the soil and planting the plants. Cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, watermelon, peas, and carrots. He took grandma's advice on the proper watering techniques. He got more advice from Grandma Elizabeth on how to keep the snails out of the garden. He's been busy and dedicated to making those plants grow! He's out there every evening making sure they are weeded, watered, and snail free.

Logan had a great time camping at Millerton Lake during Spring Break. He got to hang out with his best buddies (Joel, Carter, and Sammy) building sand castles, hiking, burning stuff, and riding bikes.

Lizzie is growing up so fast. We have the "you-are-not-allowed-to-grow-up-any-more-you-must-stay-7-years-old-forever" talk at least once a week. We came across this sweet little video a couple of weeks ago. We were dying Easter eggs when she was about 3 years old. What a cute little girl! And look at how much she's grown since then. Can you not see the adolescent already starting to come out? We sure can!

Jackson turned 5 years old [photo #1]! And then 2 weeks later he busted his forehead open on the trampoline and had to get stitches [photo #2]! The scar will heal, but will always be in that prominent location. It's looking better already [photo #3].

Daily Duran

Clare was blessed in April and looked so pretty in her outfit. She is lots of fun smiling all the time at everyone. Clare loves to coo and watch everything that is going on especially when Bella is making a big mess.

Bella has fun playing a helping Amy all day long. She is started sleeping in her big bed and has realized she can get up and play instead of taking a nap. Bella is learning to sing her alphabet and will hit a few unorganized letters when you sing with her.

Amy reorganized her primary presidency and has been busy getting them all on the right track. She did a great job putting on the luncheon after Clare’s Blessing. Amy has been a great mom balancing between an infant and a 2 year-old.

Thomas is working and finishing up the semester. He spends most evenings at school in the library or at home doing homework. Can’t wait for summer to get here.

Motschiedler Madness
Well, life in the Motschiedler home is sure exciting these days. Desh is 3 months old and babbling and smiling and holding his head up during tummy time. Its all very exciting. We love having him in our family.

Last weekend he and I flew to Oregon with my mom for Macy Marshall's blessing. Desh got to meet the Oregonites for the first time. We had a lot of fun. Check out pictures at madmott.blogspot.com.

I've gone back to work parttime at the preschool and Desh gets to come with me. He's very popular! The kids love to visit him and the teachers love to hold him. We're busy getting ready for Mother's Day and Graduation and summer school. FIve weeks left of this school year!!

Ken got to stay home this weekend and get lots of sleep for the first time in 3 months. He missed us but was able to keep busy by visiting Costco and making our yard beautiful.

That about sums up this month. See ya next month!

OTHRES March 2011

MARSHALL NOOSE

We have a new grandson! Desh Edward Motschiedler. Born Feb 9, 2011. 7lbs 8oz. 21 inches.

John and Suzanne

DAILY DURAN

Clare has been a nice little trooper. She has been eating very well and is gaining good weight. She sleeps quite a bit though never at the most desirable times. She still has her beautiful dark hair that is so thick. Sometimes she will smile in her sleep or after much coaxing from mom and dad.

In February Bella had her birthday and turned 2 years old. We went to a park and had a party for her and some of her little friends. They played on the equipment, ate little goodies, got to smack a Spiderman piñata around (thanks for the Spiderman, Mica). Bella got a little tricycle for her birthday for 2 yr olds, but her legs are still too short for the pedals or to touch the ground so she needs someone to push her around.

Amy has been continuing to run the primary for the ward from home. She takes care of her girls all day and tries to get what sleep Clare lets her have at night. She got cleared to start working out again from her doctor so she is recovering from her first time out for a run still.

Thomas is busy with school and work. He has been catching up on all the school work neglected from when Clare was born at the beginning of the semester. This will be his last semester in the MPH program so he is getting ready for his comprehensive exams in March and can not wait for the exams to be over so he can get back to his regular schoolwork again.


WARD WIDE WEB
Jeremy had a great victory last month as he enjoyed a first place win coaching Logan's Destination Imagination team! They will move on to compete at State Finals in April.


Jennifer got creative and made the most awesome cake of all time to show at Logan's Blue and Gold Cub Scout Fundraiser. It was a Mexican Fiesta theme. And since we'd just watched Nacho Libre the week before for our family movie night, it seemed only appropriate to make a Nacho Libre cake. The boys loved it!


Trevor & Logan have begun a new hobby. Making movies of their outdoor adventures! Check out their first episode:



Lizzie learned to ski! Check out her first experience here:



Jackson has a funny story... He likes to cook his own chicken nuggets. Even when an adult offers help, he refuses. Jackson likes to be independent and press those microwave buttons on his own. Here's how he does it:
1. place 10 chicken dinosaurs on a plate.
2. climb up on the counter
3. place plate inside microwave
4. SLAM the micro door
5. press "1, 2, 3, 0, start" (That's 12 minutes and 30 seconds on the microwave)
6. get tired of waiting after only about a minute for them to cook (thank heavens for a short attention span!)
7. then scarf the nuggets!

OTHERS February 2011

Waddells

We are back! We're in Clovis again to stay for a long-long time now... Hopefully. Caralee is enrolled in community college currently and is hoping to be at Fresno State next year sometime to work on her Business/Accounting degree. Lucas and Violet are blessed to be at home in their own beds and are loving being watched by their cousin Chelsy twice a week. Lucas is talking and learning more and more everyday as he prepares for preschool in the fall. Violet is taking just a few steps at a time this week and will hopefully be walking unassisted before we all know it. NO MORE DIRTY HANDS from crawling around on the church carpet! Yuck!

See you all around town. :)

Daily Duran

Our big January news is the birth of Clare Elizabeth Duran on January 20. She came in to the world nice and early in the morning weighing 8 lbs. It was quite a day and night of labor for Amy. She ended up not dropping so we chose to do cesarean after all that labor. This would allow Amy to be awake rather than under full sedation which might have happened in the event it went to an emergency cesarean. Bella is loving her new sister and tries to hold her, kiss her, and love her all the time. Amy’s parents have been at our house for the last two weeks helping us with everything. It has been a lot of fun and very tiresome at the same time. Clare is eating well and we can’t wait for her to start sleeping through the night.


WARD WIDE WEB
Jackson has had a great January. He kicked off the year right by participating in our annual Polar Bear Plunge! New Year's Day is the day to find several crazy kids jumping in the pool in our backyard. Jackson decided to join them, but only up to his shins. He's not that crazy. :)

Jackson also got to spend some good quality time with his cousin Bella in January. Bella got a new baby sister this month! Welcome baby Clare to Thomas and Amy's family!! Bella stayed with us for a few days while the new parents were busy at the hospital. Jackson got a taste of what life might be like with a younger sibling.


Lizzie turned the ripe old age of 7! She celebrated with a spa party with some of her girl cousins.
It was all about the Squinkies this year. These teeny tiny toys are all the rage right now. Lizzie scored a bunch of Squinkies to start her collection. She is definitely 7 going on 13! Check out her sassy pose after opening gifts!


Logan is a busy busy boy these days. He is a champion wrestler, participates in Destination Imagination, skis, and goes to cub scouts once a week. This week they got to visit the only Flat Track Racing Museum in the world (it's right here in our city!). Logan had a great time checking out over 100 racing bikes.

Trevor is also a busy boy. He played basketball last season, is on the Destination Imagination team again this year, sings in choir (in the picture below, he's singing at the groundbreaking for a new elementary school - 2nd row from the top, far right), goes to 11 year old scouts, and balances his schoolwork beautifully. He got straight A's for the first time ever! He was so proud of himself - and so was his teacher. Trevor was also honored with the Student of the Quarter Award because of his outstanding performance and progress in his class.


Jennifer had a blast planning Lizzie's spa party. The girls were pampered with chocolate masks, foot massages, and made their own bath salts. Our bathroom was transformed into a relaxing spa with music and candles and stacks and stacks of white towels! Jennifer also just finished pulling off her first Relief Society Meeting (formerly known as "Enrichment"). The ladies were treated to a Mexican Cruise complete with hand massages and a fun salsa bar for refreshments.


Jeremy got to play the butler for Lizzie's spa party. He hammed it up real good - "Leland" was his butler name. The girls loved having their own personal servant who delivered goodies, facial supplies, and warm towels.
Jeremy's big project at work this month was planning and carrying out the annual awards ceremony at his school. His school is full of over-achieving students. And to award all the kids that made the honor roll was to essentially throw a party for the ENTIRE school. 600 kids + parents and grandparents = 1500 chairs, a slide show, several big-whig speakers, decorations, and refreshments. It was a set-up and take-down process that spanned several days to complete. The ceremony was a success and Jeremy slept very well when it was all over.

OTHERS January 2011

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