Picture Says it all

Happenings at Grafton Cheese

Happy Holidays! From Adam
I cannot believe that this year is already coming to a
close. Time flies when you’re having fun making
hand-crafted cheddar and winning awards. We have
won 9 awards this year with our two year old
“Classic” and “Duet” leading the way. The recognition
of “Duet” over the past 12 months has already
made it a staple seasonal offering in cheese shops
around the nation. We also had a wonderful time
teaching customers and guests how to make cheddar
through our Vat Sale and Team Building Programs.
My oldest son even had the opportunity to flip cheddar
this year.
Now that my family and I have been in Vermont
for nearly two years, we feel like Vermonters– I even
got my first deer! The children also had many firsts
this year; Alec (12) won a 5K race, is now taller than
his mom, and learned how cold Vermont can be
when you forget to pack your jacket on a skiing trip.
Ethan (8) learned how to build and maintain our
wood burner, and that the pile of wood in the yard is
also his responsibility to stack! Orrin (6) has grown
into a fine young man this year, and now eats some
foods without asking for ketchup...there is hope for
him yet. Cleo (4) is the first to tell us when someone
else is doing something wrong, and even tells the
other children to call her MOM. Xander (3) pouts so
often he will get his bottom lip stuck to his chin and
we remind him to put his lip back, or else it stays
there throughout dinner. Jessica (mom) has finished
her English degree after 12 years of part time schooling
while raising the children.
Grafton Village Cheese, as a Windham Foundation
Company, continues to be visible promoting Vermont’s
rural communities with programs like our
own GVC Milk Premiums, Annual Ice Fishing Tournament,
Food Bank contributions, support of the
Strolling of the Heifers, the Farm Bureau, school
lunch programs, and many other projects. We also
look forward to our first year of the GVC/4 H Dairy
Awareness Program which kicks off this spring in
Windham County.
Special recognition goes out to our packaging team
in Grafton who were able to meet the unprecedented
number of orders this year without delaying a single
shipment. Quite an achievement especially as the
company’s volume has outgrown the limited space in
Grafton. We look forward to moving that team into
our new packaging space in Brattleboro later this
winter. I should also mention the Consumer Mail
Order staff who gracefully handled the 45% increase
in volume this year.
I would also like to thank all of the longtime Grafton
fans, big and small, for eating our fabulous
cheese which in turn helps to support the mission of
the Windham Foundation. Without all of you, none
of this would be possible! Adam Mueller

The Height Chart Goes Online! Double Click it!

My first Post ! For being considered the "techy" of the family, isn't it strange I have never entered a post ? I guess it is like the facebook, where I have yet to take the plunge as well. So you see above this post the Mueller/Banner Height Chart. Double Click the picture to see it in full screen!! I will update it twice a year so everyone can see how the kids are growing. Next time around I will try a slideshow! Till then.

The start of Disney...

What a silly face, yes??

Whoops!!! There's two of the same again. I'm not sure who keeps doing that....

This was our first photo at Magic Kingdom.

On the first bus ride to Disney. He was awake for the entire plane trip, though.

We had a fantastic trip to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. We spent an entire week down there. It was completely fun in the sun time!!! It was either very close to or more than 100 degrees every single day. As much as I loved it, I was also just dying from heat. But, A was hooked from the first moment. He thought that the sunshine and heat were the best things ever!! We stayed on the Disney properties the whole time, and it was so worth it. We has such a good time.

Just as a warning, we took close to 200 photos during our time in Disney. So, there will be lots of photos posted to this blog in the next few days. There is no way possible to do them all or do the ones that I want to do in the next few minutes.

Also, for those that do not know we spent our time at Disney with Adam's family. His dad, wife, sister and her family. There was a total of 14 of us!! Wow. It was a blast!!! A really good friend of mine stopped by to see us while we were there, and X's birthmom got to spend some time with us as well. It was so nice to see them. And it was a lot of fun vacationing with extending family, too.

More Easter

Easter 2009

We had a great Easter this year! We colored over 5 dozen eggs! It was so much fun. The "Easter bunny" came sometime during the night and hid all of the eggs outside all around the house. It took us almost 30 full minutes to find all the eggs. Well, we couldn't find about 4 of the eggs. It took us the rest of the day to find those last 4 eggs. The "bunny" did a really really great job of hiding the eggs.

It has been some time...

These photos are mostly random photos that I think are cute. Some are the kids playing, some are the area, the kids in their rain gear, and just some others.

It cracks me up how much extra gear we need to survive in Vermont. We wear so many different types of clothes during the winter and the we need rain coats and boots for most of the rest of the year. It is absolutely beautiful during the spring and summer months - not to mention the fall. O loves to wear his rain boots everywhere he can and wherever he can. It doesn't matter if it's raining or if it's sunny out - that boy loves those boots!!

This photo was taken at our au pair family meeting. Sadly, us and only one other family was able to make it to the farm that day. We hope to have another meeting this summer. With us is our LCC (local coordinator) and another au pair from Colombia with her charge. It was a fun day.

Below is a photo of E after he lost his first upper tooth. This tooth was almost our too at the time; it was barely hanging in there. Every time he talked the tooth would wiggle. So funny!!

Well, I must first apologize to anyone who reads this blog about our crazy family because I have not had the time to update since March (?) or so. So, I'm saying it now: I'm sorry it has taken so long. ;-) But, really, that is just the way that my life goes these days.....

There has been quite a bit of activities and events since I last wrote. E has officially lost 3 teeth!! He is very proud of that. We had our Easter here in Vermont. Thankfully, it was not quite as cold or covered with snow as it was last year. We had our spring break - both mine and the kids. We spent some time in Ohio during my break. Not quite a week. I did the drive by myself and all 5 kids. Olga had a weekend class to fulfill her education requirements and Adam could not leave at the time we did. He did fly in to meet us there for 2 days and drove home with us. It was a nice visit. The drive with the kids and me could have been worse. (That's what I kept telling myself anyway.) We have another trip planned this summer as well.

Something really Special to share

Hello, everyone. I am not one to add links to other websites or information to this blog because this blog is mostly about my wild little monkeys and their photos. But, I recently came across something through one of my adoption forum groups that was extremely moving and emotional; I wanted to share it with you. It is a 4 minute clip, please check it out. (If the link does not work, copy and paste into the URL box above.) You will need sound as well.

http://www.billingsgazette.net/multimedia/interactive/?id=2330

This narrated photo montage is about the amazingly selfless love of a birthmother for her newborn son. She talks about her decision and all the emotions and events that she felt during her pregnancy and making her adoption plan. There is one thing she says when she is asked why she chose adoption that just moved me to tears. She says, "I chose adoption for him; it's what he deserves. He deserves more than I can provide." You can hear her love for him in her voice, the tears she holds back as she tells her story, but more importantly, you can hear her pride in the decision she made that was right for her and her son. It was amazing.

Our family has been made through adoption and the amazingly courageous and selfless love of C's birthmother D and X's birthparents J and A. These three people have changed our lives for the better while making one of the hardest decisions of their lives.

I just want to say both Thank you and we Honor you.

Can someone get me the phone number for Marilyn?

Hello again out there is cyber world. I just tried calling Marilyn R. down in Florida and I was unable to reach her. I got the "this number has been disconnected" message. I know that she has given this blog address to friends and family to do check ups for her. I am hoping that someone checks in soon and can give me her (new??) contact info.

I hope that everything is okay. I talked to her right before Christmas and all was well. Please update me if you could.

Thanks so much!!!!

Adoption quote

Adoption Quote...

"Not flesh of my flesh, Nor bone of my bone, But still miraculously my own. Never forget for a single minute, You didn't grow under my heart - but in it"--- Fleur Conkling Heylinger

C's 4th birthday!!

I can't believe I almost forgot to put these on here! So, for those of you who missed the big day, here is some photos to show you the fun we had on birthday day!! Jan. 19th!!!

So proud of herself, isn't she?

New boots. We love love love love love love shoes.

The booty.............

She wanted to help make her cake. She did not want one from the store and she wanted purple icing. So, I bought a chocolate cake mix (I don't bake for real) and then I bought white icing and some food coloring. I read the box and SHAZAM - purple icing. Too cool.

Well, we had to taste it. It is a very important ritual of cake baking.

Some more slipping on the ice time....

Thought it would be nice to show everyone some views of our yard, driveway, and wood shed. The top of the fence in this last photo reaches to my chest. I am 5'2"! Just to give you a little better idea of how deep the snow is here right now.

Trying to upload videos....

This was sliding in the snow day. Slipping across the ice. Scaring Mommy to death days.....

Today, March 1st!!!!

Well, we were heading for family photos yesterday at the local Sears. I did not think ahead to make an appointment - I mean, really, how busy could they be? Thankfully, Ad talked me into called before we loaded up to make the trek across town. They were BOOKED. How rude! So, we did our own candid photos at home today instead. We will try the professional route another day.

Notice my hands on E's leg. He was refusing to smile, so I tried to get a happy bit of giggling out of him.

Some of the run off from the snowpiles refroze over night. We had a decent size flat block of ice to play on today. The kids were running and sliding along on their knees.

We thought a doggie pile by Daddy would be worth some time on the ice.

This was a pouty E after he fell on the ice. He nailed his cheek pretty good. It does have a bright pink spot.

Daddy playing slip and slide with the kids. I was too much of a chicken to try sliding across the ice.

X sure was not!! He ran across the driveway and slide like a rock star across the ice. What a smile on that boy's face!

Ice sliding: Caught in the Act!!

How cute is this picture??? He refuses to keep his tongue in his mouth when he is outside. He is so funny!!

He was telling on big brother E the other day. I do not let them throw or kick balls in the house. Only rolling. Anyway, E was not following the rules and apparently he kicked the ball really high. I did not see this, but X sure did. He came running into to the living room with the ball and said," E kicked ball, like this" (then he kicked his leg really really high) "and da ball went like dis(this)" (then he threw the ball into the air as high as he could). He repeated this entire series of events at least 15 times!! He was mad at E for kicking that ball!!!

So cute!