New pics

We had our pictures taken last week as a part of a fundraiser for my MOPS group. Here are a few to tide you over until the Christmas cards come out...

Ali blowing kisses...
Playing the "Let's grab Daddy's face" game...
Kisses from Mommy and Daddy!

Found!

The camera is found, so here are some new pictures of the not-so little girl.

Her new skills:

She is looking at her Jesus doll. When we ask "What do we do with Jesus?" Ali folds her hands. She also knows to pray before meals.

Her favorite toy: This box of Sesame Street books. We find them everywhere in our house. Recently, she enjoys handing them to us and saying "thae tyoo"...the closest we can get to how it sounds.

She signs "more" very well (as in the picture) , as well as "please". She says dada, mama, and nana(banana), no and up.

Just for fun, here is a picture from a year ago as well. It makes us realize how big she is!

What's new with us? Not much. Really, we just wanted to tell about our little girl.

A Snow Day, of sorts...

Yesterday was quite an interesting day of teaching...

As most of you have heard, 16 wildfires are currently burning throughout Southern California. One is, as Jed put in to his parents "still at least three miles away from our house". Now, we really are not in danger, but the air quality is quite poor, as you can imagine. Little piles of ash were outside my classroom door yesterday, and even the walk to the bathroom would send my students into coughing fits. So, yesterday at noon, we started calling parents and had them come pick up their kids, and we called off school for today...because of the "snow" (aka ash) that is still falling.

Now, as I said, we are safe, but some of my students were evacuated. The picture shows one of the fires. To the left is the city of Foothill Ranch. Several of my students live there. Please pray for them, and for the overworked firefighters. They believe arson is the cause of this and several other fires burning in the area.

We'll keep you updated!

More Pics for You!

Ali is ready for football season!

Ali Maschke is relaxing with Ali Gator.

A year ago...

Ali had just joined us. Today was spent celebrating our little girl, who is now officially no longer an infant. We still aren't sure where the year went.

Ali had a great afternoon playing at the park with her friends. Ali picked all the foods at her party, so we had fruit, crackers and cheese, goldfish, and animal crackers. All the under five set at the party were in heaven!

Her day in pictures:
Mommy and Daddy got her a piano. It makes LOTS of noise!







The cake attacked her...









...and she didn't like it

















At the end of the day with her presents.

Ali's First Joke

We've been teaching Ali some sign language lately in order to supplement her usual "mama" and "dada" that she can say, but for now the only one she can do is a sign for "more." She does this by pointing her finger to her hand: "more." So we realized that she does have a well-developed sense of humor the other day when I (Jed) was pouring some Kix onto her tray while she was sitting in her high chair. Well, more Kix came out than I intended, so her tray was completely covered. As Anna came out, she asked Ali "What happened?"

Ali's response was a big smile as she pointed to her hand..."more!"

A quick picture for you all

We had a picnic yesterday for our MOPS group and Wendy shot this picture of Ali. Just thought we would share it with everyone.

I start meetings on Monday, and Jed's last day at Holy Cross is Wednesday. That's all the news from us.

St. Louis and Wisconsin

The rest of our trip was wonderful as well. We visited great places in St. Louis like Crown Candy Kitchen, where Ali has her first taste of a shake, The Science Center (one of Anna's favorite places), and Ted Drewes. We got to visit the Peregoy family, Angie, and Erin and Brian. It was great!

After leaving St. Louis we flew to Wisconsin. The weather was beautiful. Ali was introduced to Great Grandma and Grandpa Maschke. Lots of quality time was spent with Grandma and Grandpa as well and Uncle Nate, Uncle Ben, and Aunt Jen. Ali also met the "tat", Molly, and spent copious amounts of time following her around. By the end of our time she was even brave enough to touch the cat. She was quite proud of herself.

We also had the chance to catch up with Jon and Christina Bender. It was great to see them.

More pictures for you to enjoy...

The Great Midwest Adventure

Now that Anna's done with her classes, we're enjoying our great midwest adventure. We celebrated the Fourth in style...Seward, Nebraska style. We joined an estimated 30,000 people who converged on Seward ("Nebraska's Fourth of July City") to celebrate the independence of our country. As always, the usual festivities were available: breakfast with "The Waffle Man," an earth moving exhibition at Concordia University, Water Wars (it's basically the opposite of a tug of war, played with fire hoses and a barrel on a pully hanging from a wire...I guess it's easier to just see it) and the commemorative cancellations and free postcards at the Post Office.

We partook of Food Alley (Ali likes lemons)...

...listened to the Van Kampen Trio, and watched the parade which featured every local celebrity, politician, and queen found between Lincoln and York. The day was finally finished with fireworks at the park.

While in Lincoln, Jed had his first Runza experience ("They're not too bad!"). We enjoyed staying with the Birkbiglers, who were kind enough to take Ali for an evening while we went out for a night on the town. We celebrated our 3rd year of marriage with steaks and beer at Misty's, and then washed it down with a coffee and chai at The Mill.

The next day we traveled to St. Louis, and on Saturday ate lunch at the same Steak and Shake where we had our first date almost 6 years ago! It's hard to believe Anna's been able to stand me for that long, but as our waitress commented after nodding at Ali, "I guess it worked out!" She gave us free shakes for our celebration. We give Steak and Shake a thumbs up.

We went to St. John's on Sunday, attending both services since we couldn't decide which one to attend. We've got grand plans for the rest of the time we're here, including Crown Candy Kitchen and Ted Drewes, and hanging out with friends!

Wednesday we head out to Milwaukee for the Maschke 35th wedding Anniversary celebration! We'll let you know more as we continue the Great Midwest Adventure!

A few more pictures

Hello everybody! I wanted to post a few more pictures of myself while mommy and I are in school. She's very busy with classes, but I'm having a good time staying with Mrs. Jensen and Miss Koch. They are very nice. Mrs. Jensen says she has a baby coming too! I'm sure her baby will be cute like me. Just so you don't forget, this is what I look like. Daddy took this picture of me after he did my hair for Crazy Hair Day at Abiding Savior.I also wanted to put in this other picture of Daddy and me. I was very excited to see Daddy on Sunday for Father's day. I've never had a Father's day before so when Mommy said I could come up with her for communion to see Daddy I got very excited. Daddy didn't take me then, but after church I wanted him to hold me so he did. Here's another picture of us! See how satisfied I look?

I'll talk to you all later!

School is out! Vacation begins!

Hello!

School is out! Yippee! It has been a busy year, and all three of us are thankful that it is over. We are looking forward to some needed vacation time.

I (Anna) leave, with Ali is tow to head to Seward for classes. As I am cramming my brain full of literacy information, Ali will be playing with Karen and Angie.

Jed will be joining us for a Seward, Nebraska style 4th of July. I've never been in Seward for the 4th, so I'm looking forward to the experience.

After we party it up, we are flying to St. Louis for about five days, and then we are off to Wisconsin for six days. Finally, on July 17, we are home to Cali again.

So, if you are in any of these places, we would love to see you! Give us a call, and we'll make a date!

Here are some new pictures for everyone. Ali is growing; last week she was 27 inches tall and almost 18 pounds! She enjoys long walks on the beach, opening drawers and emptying them, and pulling things off shelves. Ali is available to test your home babyproofing for a minimal fee.

Jed is still looking for a call to be pastor somewhere, hopefully in the midwest, although we are considering all options at this time. Stay tuned as some exciting developments may be coming to light in the near future!

The Big Boston Adventure

Mommy, Daddy and I went to Boston last week. I got to meet Uncle Ben and Aunt Jen. They are way cool. We did lots of stuff there. We did lots of walking. It was very tiring.

The first day we were there we went to a place called Boston Gardens. We saw some big metal ducks. I wanted to eat them. Mommy says there are there because of a story about Boston called "Make Way for Ducklings". Mommy read it to me once, but I don't really remember it. Then, we went to this place called "Cheers" Daddy told me a TV show was made about the place. I've never seen the show, so it can't be that cool. Then we walked to the Massachussetts State House. There were lots of shiny things and bright lights there, and all the rooms seemed to have fish in them.


On Wednesday we walked this thing called "The Freedom Trail." Daddy said there was a lot of history on the trail, and it was very long so I took lots of naps. We went into this old house that Paul Revere lived in a long time ago, before I was born. We also walked to the top of the Bunker Hill monument, which takes a long time. I counted 294 stairs as Daddy carried me to the top. Mommy said she was tired afterwards.

Then on Thursday it was raining, so we went to another old house on Beacon Hill with Uncle Ben! I liked spending time with him. Then we took the T to Jamaica Plains to a Brewery. Daddy let me smell some hops. I tried to use his ID to get beer since people always say we look alike, but Mommy said I shouldn't and gave it back to Daddy.

The next day we went to Harvard! Mommy said if I work hard and apply myself I can go there to school when I get older. It looked like a fun place. They got some hot chocolate there and walked around for a while. Then that evening we went to Fenway Park to watch the Angels play the Red Sox. I was so sad that the Angels lost 10-1 that I couldn't stop crying, and it made me especially sad when people were cheering for the Red Sox. Here's a picture of me during a happier moment of the game.


Saturday was our last day there, and we went down to the public garden again so that mommy could see the swans. We tried to wait for the mayor to come and take the first swan ride, but he got stuck in traffic and Mommy and Daddy got hungry so we left. I finally got my hands on the camera after that and took the picture you see at the top of my blog! Then we took a very long plane ride home, and I was so tired. I'm glad to be back in California though! There's no place like home!

Boxes of babies

Tannim, Jonas and Beckett sent Ali some toys and clothes, and they arrived in this box. Ali liked the things in the box, but she LOVED the box. It povided hours of entertainment. I think in Ali's mind heaven is a room full of boxes and paper. Those two things really make her happy.

Jed and I are both doing well. We are anxiously awaiting Easter Break and our trip to Boston, and Memorial Day and our trip to Kansas.

That's about it. Enjoy the picture!

Hair and teeth

We are having a great long weekend with Erin Winter. It has been a weekend of relaxing and TV watching (we love Gimore Girls!). The two most exciting events of recent history in our lives are this:
1. Ali has two front teeth (all the better to bite you with, my dear)
2. Anna has half her hair (the other half will be donated to Locks of Love)

Ali is also now mobile, having mastered the "rolling over" requirement. She also scoots quite well. She has also discovered that she has toes, which are fun to grab. She is sad that my hair is gone, because she really liked grabbing it. Alas.

Jed has nothing new to report, except that by the grace of God he still loves being a pastor.

Hope all is well...enjoy the pictures!

P.S. Ali says:
,h;0pjjjj
..
(She typed this all by herself!)

Yummy!

Hello everyone, it's me again!

I just wanted to tell everyone about how big I'm getting. Mommy and Daddy don't like to think about it, but I'm not their little baby anymore. I just went to my 4 month check up and Dr. Chu told Mommy and Daddy I was perfect. I already knew that! I am 24.3 inches long and I weigh 13 pounds. 5 ounces.

In other exciting news, I am finally eating real food. I've been watching Mommy, Daddy, and my friend Patrick very carefully and I finally got Mommy to let me try. I'm really good at eating. I've had applesauce and sweet potatoes. They are both great. Mommy told me I get to try bananas tomorrow. They sound good too! I like to chew on the spoon. That makes my mouth feel better. My mouth hurts because my first tooth is starting to poke through. That isn't very much fun, but Mommy and Daddy seem pretty excited about it.

Mommy and Daddy are fine. They are both busy. they keep telling me that I should sleep through the night, but I still like to be with them. I usually get lonely at about 2 or 3. Maybe I'll sleep longer in a few more weeks.

Here are some pictures of me eating sweet potatoes. I think I look silly!

Love, Ali