Fatherhood.

I count my husband and my three girls as some of the greatest blessings in my life. I know that my husband feels the same way. I am so grateful for my wonderful father and my husband who is a wonderful father to my daughters. When I saw this video I immediately wanted to share.
I love the quote to describe this video.
"Men on Earth have the opportunity to become fathers and experience some of the same joys that our Heavenly Father feels for us. Fatherhood is a divine responsibility to be cherished." -The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Happy Anniversary!

11 years today!

3 kids 3 states 

8 moves  6 cars 3 degrees 

met lots of great people and seen some wonderful places on this earth.

Life has been an adventure!

I love him more now than I ever could have imagined back then. 

Blessings

I have been so lucky to have had so many wonderful people in my life. Friends truly bring joy into our lives.
I was able to get together for with these beautiful women for a baby blessing. The baby was beautiful! The blessing was so sweet. It filled my heart with joy to be with these girls.

We never seem to grow up when we are together. Thanks for blessing my life these past 16 to 21 years! I'm so glad we are friends.

The Lost Year

This year will forever be known as my lost year. I was so focused with teaching and Michelangelo kept the camera at his studio so I wasn't able to take as many pictures as I would have liked during the year. So some pictures are borrowed and some events are not recorded with pictures. I think I got most of the important ones though. Here is my attempt at a quick catch up.

In the spring Monkey turns 8 and Bug turns 5!

 For my Dad's Birthday we went on a Penguin Excursion at The Living Planet Aquarium

. This penguin laid beneath Bug's feet for most of the visit and kept all the other penguins at bay. It was pretty funny.

 I took the girls to our Friend's campout this summer all by myself. Michelangelo had to work and I was pretty proud of myself for pulling it off. It was also nice to know there were plenty of friends around to help if I needed it. We had a lot of fun.

 For my side of the family's extend family reunion we went to Cove Fort and Bryce Canyon. It was beautiful! I love being with my family.

 All the girls started school. I started teaching for my first full year. Monkey started 3rd grade in the Spectrum program. Bug started Kindergarten. Boo started Daycare at the High School. They take great care of her and she gets to be with her sister for part of the day.

I began the school year with my own class of 2nd graders. They are the cutest people in the world. I love being their teacher!

 Monkey and Michelangelo entered the State Fair. This was Monkey's first time.

 Michelangelo won the Grand Prize award and First place in the Professional Sculpture category! In other art related news; Michelangelo made a strippling warrior sculpture to go along with the 2000 young men that marched in the Bountiful Handcart Days Parade. It was so popular Deseret Book has started selling them in their store. He also continues to receive orders from all over the country for his Native American Lacrosse pieces. Things are going really well for him.

 We spent alot of time on the Soccer Fields this year with both Monkey and Bug playing Soccer. Monkey is getting pretty good! Bug is starting to get the hang of it and loves making new friends each game. Boo loves to play games on the sidelines.

Boo and I had our Birthdays. Boo turned 3. I am 10 times that plus a year. Boo loved blowing out the candles but got a little confused when everyone sang Happy Birthday to Mommy as well.

Thanks giving was wonderful. Monkey was in the school musical, "Annie", and she and Bug were also in a singing group called the Gingerbread Kids. Monkey had 5 or 6 solos depending on which night it was and Bug kept us laughing withe her antics. She finally figured out that if she wants a solo next year she has to sing all the time this year. Needles to say the last two performances were much improved. Lets just hope she gets a solo next year.

Christmas was wonderful! The girls were so cute together and we had a grand time with family. I may post more about this later.

I got a camera for Christmas so hopefully I will be better at posting. My goal is once a month.

Photo taken by Amy Carlston at http://serve-sunshine.blogspot.com

 Despite being a lost year 2012 was a great year. I am so excited for 2013!

Monkey turns 8!

 Monkey turned 8 in April!

 For her birthday party we went to the Lion House. She and her friends got to dress up like pioneers, make taffy and play pioneer games. It was a lot of fun to be able to hang out with her and get to know her friends a little better.

 She chose to be baptized into the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! She was baptized on her uncle's birthday April 14th 2012. She was so excited. Here she is before with Daddy.

 Here she is after with Michelangelo and I. All clean and glowing!

It was a beautiful day and we are so proud of her.

Mike's birthday

January included Michelangelo's birthday. My brother and our brother-in-law have birthdays really close to his, so I decided to have our own celebration at our house the day of his birthday. Monkey decorated with crepe paper and we invited some family to come over. It was small and simple but I think Michelangelo really enjoyed it. We had a great time.

I was working at my first long-term substitute job at the time, so poor Michelangelo had to go grab his birthday cake. He ran into one of our high school kids from our Sunday School class working at the bakery and decided to not tell her that the cake was for him. He picked up some icing instead. I loved it because I could put whatever I wanted. Captain Awesome is a character on a TV show we used to enjoy watching. ;) Michelangelo is my Captain Awesome.

Boo tried to blow out the candles. This is when we lighted them again and told her to let Daddy do it. She's having a bit of a hard time with that. Needless to say Michelangelo let her help blow out the candles with him.

 Our favorite things to do with Daddy:

• Monkey: Practice soccer with him. He is the best soccer player in the world!
• Bug: Go to Daddy's studio to draw and eat
• Boo: "Daddy my best friend."
  
• Vee: Dancing, teaching the 16 and 17 year olds with you at church, watching Downton Abby and Psych together, going to the theater and going to the park with you and the girls.

In other news. Bug lost her first tooth that day. Sorry you can't see it the tooth behind it was practically already grown in. I was also growing out her bangs before a miscommunication happened and they got chopped. So we will try again.

First 6 weeks of teaching.

So I have just finished teaching 2nd grade for 6 weeks now.
It has been a lot tougher than I expected.
I've had to deal with kids running away, talking to the police, full blown temper-tantrums in my classroom where property was damaged, bullying, students and some parents who could care less about school and awful language.
I have also met some children who are shining while having to deal with a lot in their world right now, who haven't given up hope. It helps me to remember not to give up either. I have received a lot of support from some parents. I have an administration and faculty that keep cheering me on. For that I am grateful.
I care about these small people.
It is frustrating to me that I can't already be the kind of teacher that I want to be. I have so much to learn about being patient with myself.
We made good progress on March 7th. Things have started to look up. I am finally able to teach curriculum for most of the day instead of having to focus so much on behavior issues. My students have started to unlearn their previous learned behaviors and are now realizing that I mean business. There is hope.

Leap Day Predictions

Happy Leap Day! I got this idea from Kelley, friend of mine and thought it was really cute. It'll be fun to look back in 4 years and see if any of my predictions came true.

4 years ago: We were living in Connecticut. Michelangelo had graduated a year earlier and had started his own art business. He was working with the Young Men in our ward and I was in the Primary presidency. Bug was almost 1 and loved to dress up. Monkey was 3, loving preschool and coloring. I was going to school online and not doing fantastic at it. It was a very stressful time in our lives but we had great friends to help us through it.

Today: We are living in Utah. Michelangelo's business is starting to take off. He has a sculpture accepted into the LDS church's worldwide art show and some loyal collectors of his work. I graduated from Weber State and I have been teaching 2nd grade for a month now. It has been very difficult and I am not doing as well at it as I had hoped. Michelangelo and I are team teaching the 16&17 year old Sunday school group. It's been a lot of fun working together. I love him so much.  Monkey is 7 and looking forward to getting baptized. She is loving school and tested for the state's accelerated program. Bug is 4 and loves to learn about bugs, superheros, and play dress up. Boo is 2 and cracks me up daily. She loves computer games and her dolls. I especially love how excited she gets to see me everyday. We love having family and good friends close by. Life is good and looking up for us.

4 years from now: I predict that four years from now we will be in a slightly larger house, not sure where, that will depend on jobs, etc. In 4 years I will be a much better teacher. Michelangelo's business will be doing so well I can start thinking about teaching part time. We will still be so in love. Monkey will still be excelling in school and loving art, Bug will have found her niche, and Boo will be loving Kindergarten.

Christmas and New Years

I know another graduation picture. But I somehow missed this one and wanted it on my blog.

 After graduation, the Christmas festivities came quickly. It was so fun to watch my girls do gingerbread kids. This was Bug's first time and she seemed to love being up there singing with her sister.

It was Monkey's second year and she had a beautiful solo. I love listening to my girls sing.

Putting up the tree is always fun. I love having all the lights turned off except for the Christmas tree lights and being able to ponder about the purpose of the season.

My mom took everyone that could come to see the Zoo Lights. It was pretty neat. Most of the animals were sleeping and my favorite was the big tiger asleep on it's back, pressing his paws against the window. It was incredible to be so close to such a massive beast.

It was a cold night. This is Boo inside a snack bar under the heater waiting for hot chocolate and churros.

 

We were troopers and had a lot of fun.

Two monkeys.

I love this shot of Bug with her hat over her face to keep herself warm. :)

 

Christmas was wonderful. Monkey wanted books and a watch. Bug wanted bugs, a microscope, and make-up. Boo wanted a pillow pet. She also lovvvves her talking Elmo.

New years brought around the traditional Eggs Benedict cooked by my one and only Grandpa "O".  I love it when he cooks.

I know 2012 will bring exciting new adventures to us this year.

Some catch up

Boo with aunt Grace on her 2nd birthday

I've been so busy trying to graduate and then with my new job, it's been a while since I've been able to do much of anything else. So here I am trying to catch up.
In October Boo turned two. She has been so much fun. Her words and comprehension have increased dramatically. The terrible two's didn't hit until a few weeks ago. Generally she is a pleasant little girl.
I got to take pictures of my sister as she got ready for the dance, and I had a big birthday.

Lou is so grown up, it makes me feel ancient.

Halloween was so fun this year. The girls chose simple costumes with Bug wanting to be a cowgirl, Monkey a cat and Boo a flower. Boo started to really catch on to the trick or treating this year and it was so fun to watch her try to keep up with her sisters as they went door to door.

November brought around my cousin's baptism and my friend's daughter's baptism. They are really close in age to Monkey and it was fun to see Monkey get so excited about her own baptism coming around the corner.

Holidays brought Christmas parties and my graduation. I made my girls costumes for our family nativity and thought they turned out ok for the amount of time I had to do them in. Boo was a sheep, Bug a cow and Monkey was a shepherd. It was so fun to be with family.

Boo and my sweet sister Max

Right before graduation, a windstorm with 100 mile winds hit our area. It turned the power off and there was a lot of damage done to property. It took out our fence and ripped our big pine tree out of the ground. Luckily the tree fell perfectly without damaging the house or our car. Now we have a big hole in the ground until our landlords decide to fill it up.

I graduated December 9th. I decided to walk and I was so glad I did. It felt so good to celebrate the hardest thing I have done up to this point. Monkey and Michelangelo came along with my parents, mother-in-law, grandparents, and sweet sister-in-law.

We celebrated later with everyone else. I hope my girls remember that their momma worked hard for her dreams and accomplished her goal, and that they will do the same with their own dreams and goals. I sure love my family and I couldn't have done it without them, especially my wonderful Michelangelo. Thanks sweetheart. I love you!