Teacher Appreciation Week

Teacher Appreciation week is scheduled at a perfect time in the year!  We are past the high of starting school, we are done with state testing and everyone is looking forward to summer vacation!  It is this time of year that I start a count down to the last day of school.  I think it is put at this time to give the teachers that last boost of energy to finish off the year!

Since I don't have my own classroom, I wasn't necessarily looking forward to this week.  I would be surrounded by teachers getting gifts and cards from their class.  I didn't expect anything!  I was wrong!  This has been one of my favorite years yet!

On Monday, our AWESOME PTO president brought me a bucket of goodies!  It seriously made me feel so special!  I almost cried.  It was so thoughtful of her to include me!

On Tuesday I got some sweet cards from the fourth graders!

Wednesday we had lunch catered in to us.  Yum!  Thursday I found this adorable caterpillar in the hall!  It had nice things written about me!  Seriously, it was so cute!

Today we had an ice cream bar at lunch!

I have felt special all week with nice cards, treats and extra hugs!  I may not have a classroom full of students, but I definitely have students and they are some good ones!  I love all my kids and the opportunity to work with so many of them! 

Best Friends

Beware, I am feeling a little bit mushy right now.  I haven't had a good cry in a while and I feel like one may be coming soon.  I don't think I say it enough, but I have THE best friends in the WORLD!!  They are willing to do anything for anybody! (I wish I had pictures of everyone but I don't!)

Moving here to Ohio was really hard for me.  I was a newlywed (which brings its own changes), I didn't know where anything was, I didn't know anyone and I didn't have a job.  I felt pretty worthless.  It was probably one of the harder times in my life.

I went to church and was surrounded by tons of great people, but still felt like I didn't quite fit in.  Everyone else had kids and their own busy lives.  I remember going to church on the first Sunday and feeling a bit intimidated.  As we were leaving, I was invited to book club.  (I hate reading but ended up going anyways to get to know people.)  Someone else trapped us at the door and wanted to know about us even though she had her own kids.

These were the people I began hanging out with.  At first I felt a little awkward, not feeling like we had much in common.  I would occasionally go to play group...without a child.  I finally figured out that these people cared about me and not what stage of life I was in.  We all got to know each other better and became great friends.

This group of ladies became my sanity that first year here in Ohio!  I figured out who I was...married, jobless and kidless.  Many of them knew each other from being in the military.  Others were like me and just moved in.  These ladies are some of the nicest I know!

Just this past year Kresta moved away.  This summer several more are moving away.  Then next year several more.  I get attached to people and cry anytime someone moves.  This group will be especially hard on me.  They are the ones that were there through my hard times and hard times of their own. 

I am not as outgoing as I used to be so I am grateful to them for pulling me in under their wing.  People are constantly moving in and out so I hope that I can be that friend like they were for me.  You guys are really the best!  Thanks for loving me!

Grandma Visits

A couple weeks ago, my parents and youngest brother went to New York to visit my sister's family.  To make things fair, my mom wanted to come visit my family.  Really she just came to see Adelyn though. 

The last time she saw Adelyn was at Christmas.  Boy has she changed since then!  Mom loved every bit of her time with Adelyn just as much as Adelyn loved having her here!  Mom was wrapped around her little finger before she walked in the door!

It was fun to see Adelyn interact with my mom.  It was also amazing for me to see how quickly she learned that Grandma will let her have her way!  Adelyn came to me to pick her up.  I was in the middle of something and couldn't so she went immediately to my mom!  After that, if she wanted something, she would go to my mom.  I was shocked! 

It was fun to have my mom here to hang out!  Thanks for coming!  We will see you in a couple months!

Easter Egg Hunt

Each year a lady at church puts together an Easter Egg hunt for the kids.  We all bring some eggs and the kids have a blast!  Last year Adelyn was about a week old.  This year she was able to at least participate!

We practiced with her all week so that she would at least have a chance against all the other kids.  She still didn't really grasp the concept.  She liked finding and picking up the eggs, but she didn't like putting them in the basket.  I guess she thought were were taking them away.  She just wanted to hold as many as possible!

Finding the eggs. Notice that she is trying to hold 2 in one hand!

 She took lots of breaks to play with the eggs she found.  She loved this finding Nemo one!

 She is such a girl!  She loves carrying things around like this!  She drapes purses, necklaces, blankets, etc over her arm and walks around. 

 Travis carrying her back from hunting!  It was a lot of work to walk that much!

 She discovered the eggs had treats inside.  I have never seen her sit this still before!

 Just for fun, here is a picture from Easter Sunday last year vs. this year! Babies sure do change a lot in one year!

 

Happy Easter

For some reason, this Easter has felt different to me.  Now that I have a child I think more about what traditions I want to start and how I want to celebrate different holidays.  Do I want Adelyn to focus on getting gifts from the Easter bunny or on Christ?

That being said, we did do a small Easter basket but I was overall more focused on Christ.  Church was amazing today!  The talks in Sacrament meeting were so perfect and I felt the Spirit so strongly!  One lady shared such a raw, personal experience in how the atonement was in effect in her life.  It was perfect. Then the choir sang my favorite song, "I Know that My Redeemer Lives."  It was followed up by a talk that spoke about what we need to do to accept the atonement.  I literally felt like my heart was going to burst because I felt the spirit so strong!

In Sunday school today, I taught about the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  It wasn't my best lesson, but I learned more in preparation for this lesson than I feel like I have known before.  I studied each part of the Atonement and what it means to me.  I learned about the terms that we have to live by to accept His sacrifice.  I learned that every good thing in my life is thanks to our Savior.  I learned that Christ walked alone so that we never have to.  It has been the spiritual kick start that I have been needing.  

After church we did take some family pictures.  Adelyn and I both got new dresses and we had my mom here to take a picture of all three of us!  It has really been the perfect day!

These are repeat pictures from facebook.  
Me and my sweet baby.

 More fun with Easter eggs.  She figured out there are yummy treats inside!

 It is impossible to get everyone to look at the camera.  At least this one none of us are looking so it looks planned.

 My two favorite people!

Nothing New

Travis has started working in Columbus 3 days a week.  I was kind of dreading it to be honest.  He gets home late when he is working in Dayton so I figured I should plan on him getting home an hour later than normal.  To my surprise, he gets home around the same time and sometimes earlier than normal!  On the days he works in Columbus, when he gets home he is done with work.  When he works in Dayton, he always has lots of notes to catch up on the rest of the night.  I kind of love this new setup!  Travis loves it too!

School is still going well!  I love my hours and love all my kids!  I love that I get a long summer break!  Only 37 more school days!  I guess I can do one "kids say the darnest things" story.  Yesterday a 2nd grade  boy was trying to get my attention and started tapping my arm.  After I answered his question he started tapping my arm again and said, "I like it when your arm jiggles."  I guess I need to stat working out my arms again!

As usual, I have lots of updates about Adelyn.  She changes so much every week!!  Her personality is really starting to come out!  She is just such a happy baby and loves to make us laugh!  She loves to figure things out!  I love watching her do different things to see what happens.  She is so curious about everything and loves to be included!  I feel like she learns something new every day.  This week she has gotten really good at following directions.  I can tell her "come here," "follow me," "sit down," "give it to me,"  "let's go," "spit it out," "turn around," and "be careful."  She is starting to predict routines and knows what to do.  Life is starting to get easier as she becomes more independent.

I may have written this already, but she loves to climb!  She climbs in or on everything she can!  She also loves to dance!  Turn on anything with a beat and she will start dancing and shaking!  She has also started giving tons of hugs and kisses.  She will be playing in the other room, come and hug me and then go back to playing.  I LOVE it!  She does it to Travis and her babysitter now too!

Here are some pictures I took yesterday because it was so beautiful outside! 

It is so hard to get her to smile on cue now.  I tried doing crazy things and making noises, but she is so used to it that she just ignores me.  I will have to take Travis with me sometime so he can make her look and smile and I can take some pictures.  It is hard to do both!

 Striking a pose! (she was actually just trying to take off her headband)

 

 She found this part of a plant on the ground.  She is just so curious about everything.  She wanted to feel and taste it!

 And my favorite!!  "Do we really have to take more pictures mom?!" She cracks me up!!

Also, I just remembered that I do have house updates.  I will write about them tomorrow!

Loves of Spring Break

I am being reminded that I haven't posted in a while.  Since it is spring break, I thought I would share some things I love about it!  It would have been nice to go on a trip, but I am feeling very productive with all the projects we are getting done!

I love that I get to sleep in!  This morning Adelyn let me sleep until 9!!

I love that I get to stay home all day with my sweet baby!

I love that I get to participate in play dates!

I love that we get to play outside!

I love that I can run errands instead of worry about getting Adelyn home to take a nap and making dinner!

I love that I can go on morning runs!

I love that the days feel longer and I have more time to spend with this handsome man!

I love that I can open all the windows in my house!

I love that the weather has been so beautiful!

I love that I can spring clean while Adelyn is napping!

I LOVE the sun!

Pretty much this is the best week ever!  The sun and a break from work is just what I needed to rejuvenate me!  It is making my decision of working full-time or not next year more difficult though!