Mine

I cleaned out my diaper bag so I could repack for the 12 hour flight. Out of a large pile of random items from the depths, she found 3 lollipops and decided they were hers. The fact my bag contained 3 tootsie pops and then Hadley grabbing all of them in her chubby hands and gnawing through the paper to get to the sugary goodness - I am pretty sure she is all mine.

British Museum

Last week we headed to the British Museum, I had visions of us strolling through the exhibits while holding Hadley's hand and being wonderfully entertained. This was one of those parenting moments were you guess and you guess wrong! First, I failed to take into account that I get motion sickness while I am pregnant, we got on the train to Paddington - one of the fast, direct and swaying ones, and I basically had to tell Jamie I would be staring intently out the window and useless for the next thirty minutes. Hadley wasnt in the best mood, it has been a rainy week and I am pretty sure she just wasnt thrilled being stuck in her stroller. We finally made it to the museum and it was packed! I couldn't locate a map and Hadley just wanted out of her seat. We let her out and even though in Oxford she was content to always hold our hands, she decided she wanted to do it herself this trip and let us know ever time we tried to guide her. People dont look down in museums so we had to do a combination of holding, stroller and coaxing through the crowded exhibit - I should clarify that Jamie had to, it took awhile for my nausea to wear off. So it wasnt quite the dream we had hoped, but we did get to see quite a few cool exhibits! I think we saw all the major ones so if we dont make it back we are ok, but if there is time we would like a redo! Hadley has been a dream traveler so we cant fault her at all for a slightly cranky day (not quite sure I have the same excuse:))

Egyptian sculptures.

Basically it sounds like the English just went and took all sorts of artifacts from various countries, not always with permission! It was nice for use to see them all in one spot though. They had part of the sphinx nose, old writings, a few sarcophogus and statues, so beautiful and so old!

Our only picture of the Rosetta stone! Poor Hadley!

Easter Island Statue

These were fascinating, I cant remember exactly where these were from (they were in the Greek Hall) but they were supposed to represent the sea and it really looked like bodies with wet fabric sticking to them - so realistic!! One of those things that pictures in books just cant do justice.

One of the pillars (also Greek hall, possibly Lycian, dont really remember) of a building, they took parts from a mostly crumbled temple and laid out the pillars and the carvings of the different walls.

Statues from the Partheon, they were amazing. They had a special room for all of the items they had taken from the Partheon, I guess Athens has the rest of it. They had plaques everywhere describing how England had taken them without permission but that it was a good thing because now they were preserved! It was amazing to see so much history of Athens, outside of Athens!

One of the items I found surprising was seeing the Greek red clay pots up close (somehow didnt get a picture) It is one of the only things that I actually preferred in the art history book, somehow in 3d the drawings on the pot took on a child like quality, more of a sketch instead of a stark black figure on red clay. This is one of those things I never thought I would have the opportunity to see up close and it was fascinating.

We were able to make a quick stop over in the less crowded Asia section, the Jade, porcelain and statues were just beautiful.

One of my favorite items, they use metal wires to make designs and then melt glass in the spaces and it takes multiple time to get the effect, they are then sanded so the vessel is smooth. So gorgeous. They did an amazing job at grouping the styles into dynasties in China.

Finally found some space and even let Dad hold her hand!

After resisting the needed nap for hours, she finally crashed 10 minutes before our train arrived at home. Poor thing!

Lately...

Here is a glimpse of how we have been spending our time the last few weeks -

Helping out with some spring cleaning

Making sure to water our garden and eat the ripe, and not so ripe strawberries

Eating our daily fruits

Sometimes stealing our fruit from the table

Playing outside in our raingear after it rained for 3 weeks and we got stir crazy

Having fun with our visiting cousins

Snuggling with our visiting Auntie

My cousins Jess, Tori, Tiff and my Aunt Carroll came to visit this week, somehow Hadley has a 6th sense who is family even though she hasnt seen them since she was 6 months old. She would get so excited and wiggle when she saw they were home to play with her! They came for a few days this weekend and it was so great to have them, we were spoiled living so close in CA for the last few years. They were the poor souls stuck on United planes when the computers went down so they had plans to come the previous week and then head over to Paris, their flight got delayed by 2 days so they were able to stay a few days on the back end instead. We loved having them and miss them already!

You may have also noticed that there is a binkie in basically every shot, after months of just 2 tiny teeth we added 5 in a matter of weeks! The binkies seemed to work well along with some Tylenol (she didn't love the teethers) but now we seem to have an addict on our hands. Although it isn't anything I am willing to change before a 12 hour international flight!!

As for me? Well, it appears that I have been spending all my extra energy growing a tiny Teuscher

GIRL!!

It is a little early but the tech seemed pretty positive. We are absolutely thrilled to be adding another one and also very shocked! In the last three generations the Teuscher ratio has been 3 boys :1 girl - Hadley has 14 boy cousins and 3 girl cousins. Since I really have no intention of having 8 children, it appears that we are the first to break the tradition and also have them back to back. Not to get too sappy - but I have felt strongly that this child needed to come to our family right now, and I am excited that it is a sister for Hadley. Also it means that I will get need to get this out again!

Oxford

Last Saturday we took the train out to Oxford. I am feeling like we are running out of weekends to explore England and it was at the top of my list. I looked at a calendar and we are in Texas for all of July, August we will be here, Sept/Early Oct we have visitors and hopefully a trip to Spain and then by the time we get to November it will be cold and I will not want to haul my large self around! So I am trying to get a master list of sights we have to see when we can fit them in. We have a friend who went to school in Oxford so she sent a great guide to see Oxford for a first timer. Summer is here and that means tourist season is here! It was absolutely packed but we were able to see some of the highlights.

We started at the Bodleian Library, all of the tours were sold out but we were able to go to the exhibit for the King James Bible translation. It was fascinating to hear about the history, politics and how much work and revisions it took to get what we have today. They had a few different reprints, one of which they called the "wicked bible" since they forgot the "not" in "thou shalt not commit adultery". Unfortunately they did not allow pictures but this is right outside the entrance.

Many of the colleges offer tours, this was the Christ Church tour and this is the eating hall. It is actually the hall used for the Harry Potter film! We forgot our good camera but it isnt the camera's fault it looks so small - it really is!! They can only fit 3 tables across, it really is cinema magic that they could make it look huge and fit all four houses.

It is still in use and we were there an hour before they opened for dinner. This is way classier than the Cannon Center I had at BYU.

Close to where Dumbledore sat, Hadley spent the whole day fascinated by the kids around her and rarely would look at me and the camera!

Lewis Carroll attended this college and there are little Alice in Wonderland symbols all over the hall. In this window at the eating hall you can see some of the characters in the stained glass - Alice is in the upper left pane at the bottom left corner and the Dodo bird is opposite in the upper right pane, bottom right corner. Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum are hard to see but they flank the shield in the middle of the bottom left pane. The queen and mad hatter are at the bottom, and next over is the white rabbit, there is a turtle and I cant quite remember the ones in the right hand lower pane! I really wish we hadn't forgotten the good camera! The guide they handed out talked about some of the inspiration for the book, like Dinah the cat that a little girl Alice played with just outside his office, he was a professor of Mathematics.

Main Square

Our little walker was not thrilled to be in the stroller all day and spent a good chunk walking around holding onto her daddy's hand. I loved watching them but it made me really happy we were able to go to Paris and all the museums when she hadn't figured out how to move.

The next stop on the tour was the cathedral, it had beautiful stained glass everywhere and gorgeous ceilings. It was really interesting to be at a University with such rich history and tradition. We saw all of these students dressed up in black robes, but not graduate robes. I asked our friends the next day what they meant, I guess when you sit for your final exams you must wear the traditional clothes and dress up for the week - this was really different that the sweats and ponytail I wore my entire week of finals!

Our final stop was a tiny museum with beautiful artwork, unfortunately about halfway through Hadley figured out there was an echo. We had to take a quick lap to glance at everything and then take our excited jabberer outside! We finished the day at an actual burger place, it is hard to find great burgers here but these were excellent and it made this food obsessed lady very happy! There was so much more to see so if there is time we hope to make it back!

Auntie Amber and Uncle Spencer come to Visit!!

Really, this post should be titled "Ode to my Awesome Sister and Brother in Law". They were dream guests and we just loved having them! Spencer had a paper he was presenting in London and my sister was able to tag along. She hung out with us for a few days and then he joined us and they stayed another week. I had been warning my sister that Hadley was a little wary of strangers lately and I didnt know how she would react, I shouldn't have even worried bc Hadley made herself at home in Ambers lap the first thing and went and laid her head on Spencer. She pretty much wouldn't leave them alone the whole time they were here! She just adored them and her "auntie hugs" where Amber would squeeze the beegeebies out of her. I don't know if Amber looks enough like me or sounds like me? but that doesn't explain Spencer! All I know is she loved her Aunt and Uncle!

Amber couldn't even eat breakfast in peace

One of the best gifts in a long time was Amber insisted she watch Hadley while we went and saw Les Mis in London. I had really wanted to go but we havent found a babysitter we trust for that long. Amber had been the night before since her husband scored free tickets and she wouldn't take no for an answer. It was amazing! I also found a cinnabon nearby (featured in photo) I had been craving one, it was the perfect night.

Amber and Spencer were great about taking off in the morning and sight seeing and then meeting us that night for dinner. They spent a few days around Henley and Jamie took them to Stone Henge on Sunday (I stayed home, one fun side effect of pregnancy is I get carsick, although I dont normally, the winding country roads where we live are more than I can handle). The other days they went to Oxford and spent a few days in London. Hadley and I drove them just outside of London to go to Kew Gardens, it was so beautiful!! It was huge and had so many different areas to go visit and we even somehow arranged to have perfect weather.

We found this little rose paradise, we assumed we had found the rose gardens but were told later they were on the other side so we are not quite sure what this was called. It smelled divine.

Amber took so many beautiful pictures of the flowers

Hadley didn't want to miss out on the fun by sitting in the stroller and Spencer was so patient to walk her around. I love this picture.

Helping push the stroller

We really liked the conservatories, they were divided into sections like the desert, rain forest and had a cool section on carnivorous plants.

There was an exhibit where you went into the treetops, we couldnt take the stroller so I stayed at the bottom - I am the tiny person in black.

We took them to a pub, fed them scones and stayed up way too late. We were so sad to say goodbye!! We hope we can see them again soon!!

Basically since I started feeling gross we have either had guests or been traveling. We had my parents and then traveled to Germany and then had Amber and Spencer right after. I was feeling pretty sorry for myself that instead of joining in all of the fun or being the hostess I hoped to be, I was just trying to hold it together. I then realized how much of a blessing it was for Hadley - instead of being stuck home with a sick mom, she was able to be surrounded by people who love her and wanted to play with her. My parents loved just reading and entertaining her, while in Germany she loved spending every moment when her dad (and he should get a gold star for hauling a nauseous narcoleptic through Europe) and she just adored being around Amber and Spencer. I am so glad she was taken care of and my family was so understanding and encouraging. I am happy to be feeling much better, just in time for my cousins to arrive next week!

Question...

What is the difference between a British Baby....

...and an American Baby??

We are not entirely sure, but we will be finding out!

Tiny Teuscher #2 is scheduled (literally, it's a c-section) to arrive on English soil December 2nd!! And we couldn't be happier!!

Fun Facts:

*The babe will have dual citizenship (Jamie is in charge of the paperwork)

*Due date is actually the 8th, but they do c-sections a little early

* Now Jamie and I will both have birthday month buddies!

*December is a popular month on my side and on Jamie's side both his maternal great-grandmother and grandmother were born on the 2nd

*I keep trying to say that Healthcare is just "different" here, but honestly, the Healthcare is horrible here (think no dr care just midwife, sharing a room with 6-8 people in recovery (um, no) and one of the highest stillborn rates of any developed nation) so I am seeing a private dr in London and will deliver in a private hospital there as well. It is an hour drive each way but worth it to know I am getting the care I want.

*I have already reserved Mom for the beginning of December!

*We tell Hadley she will be a big sister and there is a baby in Mommy's tummy, she just wants to find my belly button - an actual baby arriving might be a bit of a shock to her.

* We are very, very excited. We had our 12 week ultrasound yesterday and I love seeing them squirm around and hear everything looks good! We are so thrilled to be expecting another little one.

OK - this is the part where you tell me sweet lies that going to 2 kids is easy, not a big deal and I will be fine - if you could, also throw a lie or two in there about how your body bounces back after two just as easily....

Strawberries!!

I have been wanting to go strawberry picking with Jamie since we got married, and after almost 8 years we finally made it! There is a little farm about an hour away and we met up with some friends to go berry picking yesterday. The farm was amazing, it had rows of all sorts of berries and vegetables (only strawberries were in season, we will need to go back later this summer), and then they had a little store with all of their produce and a bakery, a park and a petting zoo. All of us had a great time! It has been raining all weekend and when I called my friend to see if we were still on she told me if I waited until it wasn't raining in England I would never leave the house! So we bundled up, packed the raincoats and managed to stay relatively dry.

The berries were in this tarped tunnel, I am used to fruit picking in the sun so hearing the rain outside was a little strange. Jamie was an awesome berry picker, the variety was small but super sweet so we had to pick quite a few. I hauled home 11 lbs!

Hadley even helped find a few

She mostly just enjoyed playing in the dirt and squishing the berries between her fingers

Yum! We picked up a few scones in the store on the way out and had Strawberry Shortcake for dessert that night.

Next stop was the playground, she loves the swings.

Checking out the goats, apparently they bite so no feeding or touching!

She did get to pet the sheep, so soft! We have been working on animal sounds at home, so when we got up to the sheep we said "sheep go baa", and she instead growled at the mama sheep. In her defense, the sound this mama sheep made was more of a loud bellow than a demure "baa". We also saw a cow, ducks and baby ducks and a hideously ugly long-haired pig.

I froze some for smoothies and made a batch of strawberry jam tonight. It was my first attempt at home, I have made jam for food companies but the pectin, times and heating temps are different so we will have to see how this turns out! They dont really sell canning jars except online and they are kind of expensive, luckily a lady told me last fall to save all of the jars I used during the year. I know you are jealous of my food photo skillz...

The jam is still setting but we ate the extra on homemade cresent rolls tonight (super easy recipe I found while blog hopping), so delicious! I may need to defrost more berries and make a extra batches so it lasts us more than a few weeks!