Recently in Family Category

Taylor had a parade at her school where they got to dress up as adjectives, she was glittery.

After much anticipation, here is the fam in costume.

well, girl and boy. Here is some video from Taylor and Austin's first Piano Recital, we were very proud. I think I was probably more nervous than either of them.

Austin turned 4 last Monday.

Trying to catch everyone up on the past few months.

Yeah...First the kid is off to Kindergarten and now she turned 6. Amazing how the time flies.

We had quite the birthday weekend. Last Thursday Taylor and her class got to go on a field trip to American Royal to watch them some rodeo. That night we checked into the Great Wolf Lodge and were off to dinner at Ted's Montana Grill. Dinner was not good - great service and good soup but the food in general was awful. I got the New Mexico Chicken and Jenn the Bison Meatloaf. Mine was pretty bland and wouldn't recommend it but Jenn's was worse...Terrible. Then to the lodge for some fun, if you remember, we went to the lodge last winter for Austin's birthday and it is freaking awesome. We played in the pool for a while before Jenn and I had to play a double header for our coed volleyball league.

After our memory walk we decided to check out Crown Center and Union Station to see what the kids might enjoy down there.

First we stopped by my work, I recently moved buildings to 2020 Baltimore in the Crossroads district. It is nice, kind of an older building with newer additions. I like it because, unlike at the downtown airport, I actually have a cube with a real desk. Believe me it is an upgrade.

After that quick stop we were off to Crown Center where we stopped to eat. My choice was the New York style pizza place D'Bronx but the kids had other ideas. D'Bronx is pretty good, probably as good a NY style pizza as you will find in KC. We ended up at the Crayola Cafe which is quite kid friendly (as you might imagine). The kids each got a balloon and a souvenir Crayon cup. The food was surprisingly pretty good.

Lunch wrapped up and we headed over to Union Station. Jenn bought our memberships while the kids and I check out the toy train track set up that will be displayed over the holidays. It is going to be pretty cool when it is all set up, they have all sorts of little towns that the trains go through.

From there we caught the Mars show in the planetarium. We made it about 15 minutes before I started falling asleep and also realized that the show was 45 minutes long. So we hit Science City which we all thought was very cool. We took a tour through the human body, played some music, played some mini golf and I rode the high rope bike(pretty freaky when you are pushing the weight limit and really question whether you won't tip over. Anyway, we tried to catch the Dinosaur movie but the projector was broken...oh well. Overall, we were pretty pleased with the trip but a little disappointed that we didn't get to see the movie.

A while ago Jenn and I decided that we would participate in some type of charity fundraiser at least one time a year. We had a number of different ideas of charities that we wanted to support based on various friends and family members experiences with various diseases. A few walks that we looked up conflicted with other things we were doing so we settled on the Memory Walk. As many of you know Jenn's stepmother, Jeanne, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease back in 1998. Though I didn't know her very well before this diagnoses, I did get to watch some of the things that a disease like this can do to a person and their family. Jeanne passed away two years ago and we felt it was a good charity to support in her honor.

We plan on giving it another go next year in hopes of raising more money for the cause. With that said, we enjoyed taking the kids on the walk with us and listening to different people talk about their Alzheimer's experiences.

Check out the pics

About a week and a half ago, Jenn and I took the kids to the Yankees-Royals game. We got to see the Yanks pull off the sweep and A-Rod's 52nd homer.

The deal was pretty awesome. The family fun at the park tickets were $10 each, including the ticket(left field bleachers), a hot dog, a drink and a tub of popcorn. Not bad for $40 total. After the game we all got to run the bases down on the field which was way more fun than I anticipated. With our ticket stubs, we got four sundaes from our favorite ice cream(frozen custard) spot Sheridan's.

We had a blast! Of course, it helped that the Yankees won!!

The first day of Kindergarten is here!! I can't freaking believe it...And yes, I was the dorky parent with the camera the whole way.

To start, Austin woke up first and decided he wanted to join Taylor for a few extra minutes of shut eye:

Packing up:

The first stop was Austin's preschool, he and Taylor are now both going to school in town but different schools. He actually started yesterday, oh well. The class was outside on the little playground because it is supposed to get up to over 100 degrees later today, pre 8 am playground time sounds good to me!!

Now on to Taylor's school:

I think she looks ready to go!! No tears from this child.

Within 5 minutes, she was at her desk coloring:

And that was it!! I will post the poem that they gave us later on (it came with kleenex!):

To me...And to my beautiful wife!! Time sure has flown by and I feel blessed to still have her by my side. It seems like yesterday, or at least last week, that we were married at St Elizabeth Seton in Naperville and looking forward to the honeymoon in the Bahamas! With the weather in KC at 47 degrees and raining, I sure wish we were on our way back. We celebrated on Friday with a nice dinner at Johnny Carino's, a movie - Shooter with Mark Wahlberg (3 out of 5 if you want a review, maybe 2.5 but we enjoyed it) and a little bed n breakfast overnight stay w/o the chillins for an evening. A great, relaxing evening for us - much needed (Thanks Mimi!).

Jenn - I love you more today than I did yesterday but less than I will tomorrow!

Born was a little man by the name of Austin Michael Dauernheim. My have the times changed since that day. Austin is now THREE!! Taylor is FIVE, and heading to Kindergarten next year!! AND We all now live in Kansas!! Who'd a thunk??

So quick-ish recap of the birthday boy's weekend:

Friday:

• Party at school with all the other chillens. (Cupcakes outside were a nightmare with the 50 mph winds blowing the bowls all over the playground and with the black icing leaving its mark)


• Dinner at Cheeseburger in Paradise - Austin had the mini Cheeseburgers


• Fun begins at the Great Wolf Lodge


• Ice Cream/Frozen Custard from Sheridan's


• Movie Night in the hotel (Lodge) room. The movie was How to Eat Fried Worms(Dumb)


• Bed Time


• Breakfast at McD's


• Gymnastics/Tumbling class(Taylor tried to crack open her head during Austin's class so she skipped out on her class)


• Trip to Toys R Us for toys and clothes


• Lunch at home


• Nap time


• Dinner at home


• More fun at Great Wolf Lodge


• Fun at the Great Wolf Lodge Arcade


• More Ice Cream/Frozen Custard


• Bed Time


• Birthday Breakfast - Eggs, Bacon and Toast YUM!


• Went to the 'Playplace' (So mom and dad could workout!!)


• Lunch at home


• Movie DAY - no nap! Movie was Ant Bully (ehhh)


• Birthday Dinner - Philly Cheesesteaks and Tator Tots


• Cake(Spiderman) and presents(yay!)

Last week Austin was named the Computer Tots' "Student of the week". He is the youngest student enrolled in Computer Tots at the La Petite in Shawnee. He got his picture posted on the wall with a flattering description of why he was chosen as the student of the week. For a kid yet to turn 3, he navigates through games using the mouse pretty well.

So for Austin "Way to go bud!".

Also, Austin and Taylor have been making great strides(or strokes) in their swim classes. Taylor was able to retrieve a diving ring for the first time yesterday during her class. If you had been there for her first class a year and a half ago you would realize what a milestone that is. She has a pretty strong backstroke and always improving front stroke(working on the breathing).
Austin is still a psycho in the water and loves splashing around all class long. He is fearless, which can be scary for us at times, but he is becoming a pretty good little swimmer.

They gotta wear shades:

We were having some fun with sunglasses the other day and the kids went diva-macho man on us...Pretty funny. It was obviously a very bright and sunny day BUT COOOOLD!! What is the deal?? We basically skipped fall this year and went straight to winter. Since then we have had basically regular winter alternating with damn cold winter. Sup wit dat?--Update-- check out the Olathe, KS webcam at the 127th street overpass, it is freezing today!

Taylor recently participated in a dance clinic that was put on by the Blazerettes, members of the Gardner-Edgerton High School Dance Team. The team is coached by our friends Alli(Shane's wife) and Ashley Arnold. Taylor had a blast at the clinic but got a pretty severe case of stage fright when it came time to do the dance in front of the parents and again at halftime of the GEHS Girls Basketball game.

Luckily a local photographer was there to snap photos of the practice session. He put one in the "Hometown Journal" for all of Gardner to see. Thanks to Mimi for pointing it out otherwise I may have never seen it!!

Rather than wait until Christmas to post pictures of Christmas I thought I would post a picture right away.

I set the self timer on this one and was swooping in at the last second...Pretty swift I know.

Here is a link to our friends' Jeff and Brenna's Blog...Check out the photo show. We met up with them at our friends Jason and Brooke's house. Jeff and Brenna have a little girl Sydney(the star of the photoshow) and Jason and Brooke have a little boy Tanner(the lion).

Thanks to Uncle Brian and Aunt Lisa, Taylor is becoming a professional photographer.

They bought her the Fisher Price Kid Tough Digital Camera...Thanks guys, she has loved it!!

Here is a small(very small) sample from our trip to Chuck E. Cheese's:

I figured I would take the time to explain what is going on in the area of work for me. I completed my schooling in .NET programming in late June, though I still have certification exams to take. After that it was on to the job search. I had a few interviews, in person and on the phone, and I got the dreaded saying "We are looking for someone with more experience". Boy does that get under my skin...How do I get that if you won't give it to me??? So I have been exploring freelance projects to build up my portfolio, resume and EXPERIENCE. There are a few potential projects looming in the distance and I will update that progress later on. In the meantime I accepted a position as a contractor for Modis IT working for Sprint(almost everyone in KC has worked for or is working for Sprint it seems like). What am I doing?? Good question...I am a 'QA Tester' for Sprint's handsets. I get to test different vendor phones that will be going on the market over the next few months. My testing responsibilities include testing SMS(text messaging), Connection manager on the EVDO devices, TTY (the functionality for those with difficulty hearing) and some other general testing with downloading ringers, screensavers and other functionality. Everybody jump with me...Jump! I know exciting, get of your seat exciting. But hey, I am working and making a little money. Ask Taylor and Austin what that means - "We are going to Disney World!!". When we do that is still up in the air but we are planning that trip within the next 9 months.

I think I have waited long enough to make my next post to this blog...Ya think?

Here is a recap of the summer so far...
May: The biggest event of May was Austin's Dental adventure. He received what they (in the business) call a Baby Root Canal. It didn't sound too bad when they explained it to me so I had no worries that Austin would do great. What a freakin parental nightmare that thing was. Luckily for Jenn I was the one that went with him to help/hold/pin. Austin did great for the first part which was actually a filling on the other side of his mouth. Everything was perfect until the dentist used the water rinse...OOOHHH, not good...From that point on he cried, wiggled and asked for his daddy, ROUGH!! That was the most exciting news of May. We also went to Las Vegas to celebrate my upcoming 30th birthday. We went with our friends Dave/Kristen Gervase and Kevin/Jen Thill. It was an absolute blast!! Jenn and I gambled mostly on sports and came away winners on most of our bets. Even Jenn's spiteful bet against Kobe Bryant(she isn't fond of him) was a big winner. Our last night there we had a great meal with my Uncle John, Aunt Vicki and cousin Erin. A few weeks later Jenn and I participated in USAV(olleyball) nationals as we have in most recent years. This time was New Orleans and I was unimpressed(not to sound insensitive but I heard this is as clean as it has been). The results? My team finished 5th in the Open division and Jenn's team finished 4th in the A division. All in all a pretty disappointing trip and darn hard on the body.

On to
June: I started my summer's adventures with beach volleyball. This summer would be an interesting one on that front, a new partner(the first of a few) and lots of travel. The first weekend brought me and Keith to Oklahoma City for a little warmup tournament to see how we would gel as a team together. It couldn't have been any better, we didn't drop a game as we went through the finals and won the tournament. Great start. Next stop was going to be the AVP qualifier in Hermosa Beach which I was not allowed to play in due to a little conflict with the AVP and EVP. So Keith and I played in the Santa Barbara EVP event and played really well. We went through the winner's side of the tournament until the crossover semifinals where we met Mike Diehl and his partner for this event Josh Cannon. They just outplayed us by a few points in the end beating us and eventually taking the tournament. The next stop was going to be the AVPNext tournament in Milwaukee, winning that tournament would provide an automatic bid into the Chicago AVP. Once again I was denied from playing...Jenn and I decided to take the kids and spend the week in Chicago. The rest of the family(Jenn's side) were they as well and it was great for the kids to play with their cousins. The first weekend we attended cousin Sophia's birthday party/dedication which was an absolute blast...I thought the kids were going to explode from running and running and running. That leads us to the last weekend of the month and another volleyball tournament. This one was Jenn's beach volleyball debut with her sometimes partner for this summer, Lorelee. they played great and ended up finishing in fifth place, the highest for her so far in EVP tournaments. Keith and I played once again and after struggling early(lost our first match) we made it back to the finals. Once again we faced Mike Diehl, this time he was paired with usual partner Mark Paaluhi. I lost to them plenty of times last year but this one was ours as we were able to take the finals in two games and win the tournament. Taylor and Austin were still taking their swim classes and doing awesome with it, we will have to get some video footage on here of them in the pool.

July: More volleyball. Off to Michigan City where I played with a new partner because Keith was in Las Vegas. A real windy day, which I loved and felt like it was an advantage for sure. Ryan and I rolled through most of the tournament playing pretty well. The finals were a little strange in that Ryan was cramping but so was one of the guys(Tom Mendoza) we played against(Dan Friend was his partner) . It was some bad volleyball but Ryan and I pulled out the victory. Jenn and her partner (Sonya for this event) had a little struggle early but rallied back to finish 9th. July 4th was a great time back here in town with the kids. They had a great time watching the fireworks from the back of the van. It is amazing how different it is in an area that allows personal fireworks, the show went on all around us for most of the night. We decided that this was the week we would start our fence also. With Jenn able to be home on the 4th we got to work...Wow what a pain in the a$$ this project was. The post hole digging was the most taxing part, I think I am just getting over the effects now!! We were able to get all the posts and rails up before the weekend. Jenn took the weekend off as I went to Santa Cruz for an event with Keith(it was on TV if you get Comcast Sports Net, Altitude Sports Network and several other stations). The whole tournament was a struggle, we got in real late Friday night and were up early for the tournament. Our first match was real close, a three gamer and not the way you want to start but we won...That kind of led to some more average volleyball and close games, but still winning. The sand got hot throughout the day and by the semis we were pretty toast...Obviously we bowed out there. Back to the midwest to Racine Wisconsin for a great event there. The set up was awesome and the city did a great job marketing and supporting the event. Jenn played with yet another partner and unfortunately didn't improve upon her previous finishes taking another 9th. Keith and I kept up our sluggish play from the previous week struggling through a majority of our matches. We got back to the semis and hit a wall of another sort. Unable to blame our loss on anything but ourselves and our opponents we took another 3rd. A welcome week off followed that tournament and it was nice just to kick back and relax for a couple days. The last weekend we made a road trip to Grand Haven Michigan. Jenn again playing with a different partner, Karla. They played really well and just missed finishing 5th again falling in the end to take 7th. Keith and I played much better volleyball and got back to the finals. We won the first game pretty easily and thought we were cruising to the finish. Unfortunately I played poorly and forced into a game three where we squeaked out the victory 19-17.

August: Next stop St. Louis where this time I played with a new partner, Dan Schultz who I have known since high school. We played well all day and won in a two game final. Jenn once again played with Lorelee and repeated the same finish she had in their Chicago appearance taking 5th. The next weekend brought us back to Chicago for the EVP National Championships, another televised event which will air August 27th(I will look up and post the details later). Jenn played again with Karla and stumbled a bit. After battling closely with two good teams, they took 13th place. I played with Dan again with continued success. We struggled in our late matches but were able to pull out close wins. We met Diehl and Paaluhi for their chance at redemption. Fortunately after a rough start we stepped it up, mostly behind Dan's great play. We finally finished off the match, playing one game due to time constraints and winning 25-23. This month marked the kids return to school and my return to work, ugh. The dream is over. Taylor has had a great time at school and she is showing off her smarts and artistic abilities. Austin on the other hand is just now becoming more comfortable with the idea. Nothing more heart-breaking than seeing the little man's pouty face as you walk out the door. But he has gotten better and is 'playing with friends' and 'coloring'. In this short time he has gotten much better with his colors, numbers and letters. Dear old dad just couldn't get him to focus for learning time so it has been a blessing.

An hour of typing later...I am done.

Austin, so little so cute!

Austin, not so little, so cute!

Taylor, a nice Walmart advertisement.

Life for the Ds Chicago will be very different soon...But how different, we do not know yet. Two possibilities could come through over the next few days.

Option #1: A move to Southeast Florida, by Papi and Mimi. Jenn has a potential job offer from Bacardi coming tomorrow. But we still don't know for sure.

Option #2: This option has been gaining momentum lately...It all started from a phone conversation with a good friend from College(of mine), Josh Ivans. His company is looking for a Lotus Notes Developer, which Jenn is. So an email exchange with another college friend, Shane Adams, got the ball rolling with that possibility. Two phone interviews later, she might be heading to Shawnee Kansas for a third interview.

So Sunny Florida with family or good ole midwest with friends. Aurora now seems like it is out of the options list but the options 1 and 2 could very well fall through.

It has been very stressful over the last couple weeks...Playing the waiting game, having no control over the situation.

Whatever you wish for us, keep your fingers crossed.

Thanks all.

Austin is such a little rascal. I will have some pics up from the recent trip to Florida soon, but for now you will have to appreciate his devilish looks.

this was taken before he launched himself over the little blue couch. Luckily I had a cushion on the other side waiting for him...It pays to be prepared.

Here was the post-landing, it was a little after so you can't get the full effect.

It's been a while for the pics, enjoy.

Watch Video

Your first glimpse of Austin walking, he will be running in about two days!! haha. Sorry for the dark picture I grabbed the digital camera real quick to get it on tape and didn't have time to set the lighting.

Three and so much fun!!

The new ballerina outfit she got for her birthday.

The new princess outfit and some halloween headlights(the headlights from cousin Laura)

Posing with her new doll from Great Aunt Carol(apparently a homemade doll from a friend, pretty cool)

New(much needed) pretty clothes from Mimi!!

New game from Papi, Dora is one of her favorites.

Finally blowing out the big 3 on mommy's cake.

Thanks to everyone that sent cards and gifts, she was so giddy, wish you all could have been here!!

What happens when mommy leaves daddy in charge of the two munchkins!!

Both Dad and Daughter look pretty worn out, and the day was just beginning!!

Taylor was more interested in eating all of her candy than searching for eggs.

Austin about to stick his tongue out at me, little rascal.

Click on the links below to get to the videos.

Taylor's train set from Uncle Brian, Aunt Lisa and Baby Ellie,

A little chocolate on Christmas morning.

Taylor and her early favorite gift, Hokey Pokey Elmo!! Thanks Nana and Pa. This is a long one, so you may have to be patient...I think it is 30 seconds long which means you could be sitting a while.

Taylor's new Christmas outfit from Mimi.

Taylor loves her daddy, but she loves mommy a little more.

Let me know how the videos come out for you all...Especially those in the stone-age with dial-up service.

I will have pictures up soon...Which likely means a couple weeks, hahaha.

Thanks to all that sent gifts to our family, we are so appreciative of all of you and all that you have given to us. THANK YOU!!

We got our family portraits done this morning...Here is what the pictures will look like once we get them in.

Since it is almost Thanksgiving time, I figure it is about time to post some Halloween pics.

Most definitely not the front row...BUT...still a kick a$$ time seeing the Yanks win in the World Series.

The Ds...Chillin in Florida!!

Mimi loving her latest grandchild as only a Mimi can.

Not sure on the spelling of Poppy...Oh well, call him gramps if you want.

added section
***Maybe it should be Papi, so we don't confuse popi and poopi...hahaha.

Well today was the 5 month checkup and ultrasound for Jenn and baby#2. We have some great news that came from this trip!!! See below:

That's right, it's a boy!! I know we spoil everything by finding out what we are having, but hey, it's our kid. haha. We are both very happy to be having our one of each and be done. No double digit kids over here.

A profile shot for good measure.

Go to http://www.m-and-j.com/Taylor.htm for more photos of Taylor, I will be updating both soon so there will be pictures of little Dauernheims everywhere.

First, Tay's just laughing and having fun.

Then, having some fun with bubbles.

I figure since most of the family is going to check this site for pictures of Ellie, so I am posting some picks of her cousin Taylor. Turning 2 October 18!!

Taylor munching an apple at the Beach. Picture courtesy of the EVP Volleyball Tour and Rick Trankle.

Taylor at the Beach with Daddy. Just trying to get some shade.

Yes we are proud parents...Here is the latest picture of the little munchkin: