The Tietjen Family

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Yes Thanksgiving

Yes, I am this far behind that I am just now posting about Thanksgiving. It was SO great this year!! Cassie and Landon surprised us and came into town to spend Thanksgiving with us! They got to meet baby Elise for the first time, and Cass got to come shopping with us for Black Friday YIPEE!!!! I love my family and could not imagine spending holidays without my parents, brothers, sisters, husband and kids. I know it won't always be this way.....I know the day will come that all of us will have grown children that had children and we will want to have our own Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations with just them and us getting together as brothers and sisters wont always happen, but for now I cherish every single time we get together and hope it lasts as long as possible!!!

Christmas 2010

Its time for some catching up!! We had an amazing Christmas this year.....Devin told the kids at the beginning of the month we wanted to focus more on Christ, so every night with scripture study we either read a story about Christ, or found a little video to watch. It was so wonderful, it really helped all of us focus on the true meaning of Christmas this year.
One of the FUNNEST parts of having a lot of kids, is even if they only get afew gifts each it looks like SO much stuff when it is all under the tree! It makes for a really FUN grand entrance! We have a couple of traditions on Christmas......Santa always leaves some sort of decoration, usually lights all the way up the stairs, its really fun for the kids to wake up and find the stairs lit up! Then they all get to come downstairs and see what was in their stockings, THEN the youngest gets to come in and see the gifts around the tree before everyone else. All the other kids squeal with excitement when they hear the ooohs, ahhhhs and squeals coming from the other room. It might be silly, but it is SUPER fun.....not sure what we are going to do when all our kids are grown and its not this fun anymore??
Merry Christmas my babies!

Monday, February 14, 2011

Valentines Day to me

I think Valentines Day will always be a little different for me since last year this is what I was doing! Spending Valentines Day in the hospital with Devin after almost dying, king of gives you something to reflect on.....I guess adds to would be more correct. Adds to remembering what Love means to me. Last year was a tough year for this Tietjen family, Devins road to recovery was a long one. But here we are a year later, he is healthy and well with a few gnarly scars that remind us all the time just how scary this whole experience was. I adore my family, and even more, adore my role as a wife and a mother. On Valentines Day I love reflecting not on really the people in my life that love me, but how blessed I am to have so many people in my life that I love so much! I have an amazing little family (I do use the word little for humorous effects LOL) and especially on Sundays when they are all dressed perfect, with 8 cute heads of hair done and we LOOK like we are this perfect little family.....I look down the long row and think to myself "how did I get so lucky" I don't know if life will bring us any more kids, I don't know if I will ever get some fancy degree, or drive a fancy car....but I truly am the worlds luckiest gal and wouldn't change a thing. Every day I'm amazed at the gifts God has granted me; and this Valentines day, the 1 year anniversary of my hubby almost dying ;) makes me realize that even more.

Monday, January 31, 2011

My baby girl

I have a lot of emotions about my oldest daughter turning 8! I went through 3 boys and waited and waited to be blessed with a baby girl; and she was definitely worth the wait! I was ecstatic to have a little girl, and showed it by having a pretty bow on her head EVERY day of the 1st year of her life, precious bling earrings and adorable outfits...that I will admit I sometimes changed afew times a day, just for fun! She reminds me of me as an 8 year old....happy to pitch in and want to be involved with the little kids....I will find her changing a diaper and ask her "did Daddy ask you to do that?" "No, I just knew he needed to be changed" She loves to help in the kitchen, loves being a big sister, and is happy about life. I love her beautiful curls, pretty green eyes, and cute dimples when she smiles at me. For some reason I'm not super touchy feely with my older boys, the older they get....but I can't imagine never wanting to cuddle with my girls. Girls are drama that's for sure, but worth every bit of it!! This little girl changed not just me, but her Daddy as well; little girls have that effect on their daddies. They flash their cute smiles and get away with almost anything. I can't say I'm looking forward to Emberlyn growing up, I want to keep her a little innocent precious girl, but I can't. Shell be dating and driving and not want anything to do with me soon, BUT, I know that the relationship I am building with her today, will mean that someday, when she gets over thinking I am embarrassing or mean, she will be an adult, have a family of her own and she will cherish the relationship we have built, just like my relationship with my mother. I will teach her how to sew, cook and be a good mommy and someday she will do the same with her own daughters. For now, I just try to soak up every minute of her little girlyness and try to be a good role model for her. I LOVE my beautiful Emberlyn and feel so blessed that she was sent to our family!

(left to right)

Grandpa & Grandma Mosley, Aunt Tiffany, Uncle Lester, Aunt Cindy, Aunt Amanda, Austin, Ryker, Dad, Mason, Hunter, Aunt Tiffany, Uncle Mike, Talia, Aunt Stephanie, Uncle Jeremiah, Mom, Grandma Cronin, Great Grandma Adams, Brigham, Korryn, Emmy, Brinley, MaKenna, Liberty, Piper and Noelle

Mom, Dad and Em

Emmy and Korryn

Big broher Mason

Austin and Emmy

Liberty and Emmy

Emmy and Kenna

Emmy and Mom

Grandma Cronin and Emmy

Great Grandma Adams and Emmy

Em and Brinley

Emmy and her Daddy

Hunter and Emmy

Piper and Ems

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Nursery fun!

Sometimes I miss being in RS with my friends, listening to a great uplifting lesson and meeting new people, but there are Sundays that I LOVE my nursery calling. The little boy in the corner is gathering all the kids over by whispering "come here come here" and then when they are all hunched in the corner with him he yells "RAHHHH!" and they all run and scream....it was actually really cute. I am leaving nursery and headed for a new adventure with the 16 & 17 year old boys and girls in Sunday school and I am SUPER excited about it. I actually enjoy teaching because it gives me opportunity to study and read, something I don't usually take time for! I'm gonna miss my little munchkins though, they are so sweet and I love spending time with them. Here's to new adventures!

Baby Elise blessing day

I am the proud owner of the only picture with her smiling....she just loves me that much!!

Daddy and his pretty dolly

I LOVE this little lady!! I wish I could go visit her every day and when I do get to see her I seriously could hold her for hours!!! Her blessing day was no exception, she looked so adorable and we had a blast at Jacob and Crystals!

Emmys Rock Star Party!

I had a BLAST planning this party for Emberlyn......wish I would have had afew hundred dollars to drop on it, but it still turned out great! I let her invite all the girls in her primary class and a couple girls from the neighborhood and we ended up with 19 little girls at our house, it actually went a lot better than I thought! The girls were a little bummed out that we ran out of time and didn't have time for hair, but we got nails and makeup done and did our photo shoot along with some rock band and cupcake decorating. I LOVE girl parties!!!