Summary of our summer

An overview of our summer so far.

Monkey got her PhD at the end of her 3rd grade year!

Bug did a great job and looked beautiful at her Kindergarten Program. We loved her teacher!

Monkey made a fire for their indoor campout.

Sleeping in their "tent".

Selling Lemonade!

Wishing Andrea Farewell for 18 months.

Meeting up with far-away friends.

Free concerts in the park.

Celebrated our Nation's holiday with a children's parade, good food, movies and fireworks

At the zoo we found a monkey...

And a Boo!

We had a Thacker Reunion where we went to Welfare Square....

And a local splash pad. We love being with cousins.

We went camping with my family.

And we hiked to Donut Falls. My girls are still talking about the trip!

We have had a great summer! It's so nice to have a long break to spend with my family.

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!

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.

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!

A crazy month where I go gray

Ok not completely, but my sister in law did find a few gray hairs on my head. I figure I've earned them after this month. (All of these events overlap each other with the exception of my sister-in-law's wedding).
July ended with Michelangelo's sister getting married. The bride was glowing. It was so sweet.

Picture by Glen

 A couple of days later we found a cheaper place for rent and decided to move. They wanted us right away but we had to give our landlord notice that we were leaving. The new landlords were generous enough to let us slowly move in until our notice was up on the previous home. I was so grateful because I really didn't want to do all the moving right as I was starting student teaching. All of our stuff is now in one spot, but at one point we were living in three different places at once, (packing up the old house, big furniture at the new apartment, and living with my in-laws because we could shower and sleep there). Needless to say I'm still on the fence about whether or not it's easier to move across the country or slowly move across town. I'm so grateful to my in-laws for providing a place of rest and peace for my family.

Michelangelo's work hosts Summerfest for the city every year. Dancer's from all over the world come and perform. It was a big success and Michelangelo was kept very busy preparing for it. Monkey got to spend the day alone with Dad because...

Picture by Teresa Otteson

Bug came down with the stomach flu and one by one the whole family came down with it. It was awful!
My cousin got married. I had a really enjoyable day at the temple and then became overwhelmed by the stress of everything that was going on. I started crying and cried off and on all night. Sorry I didn't make it to the reception Tara, I hear it was beautiful.

Picture taken off of Lexie's blog

Monkey started school and loves it! It has been a month and she is still loving it. That alone makes me think that the move was worth it. She didn't have the greatest year last year, so I am glad to see her so happy.

Picture taken by Michelangelo

I also started student teaching that same day. I love my class, my teacher, the team of teachers and the principal. It has been a fantastic experience so far. My sweet parents drop me off on their way to work and a friend takes me home so that Michelangelo can drop off/pick up the girls from my best friends house and my grandparents.
Monkey loves hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa O after school and Bug and Boo are so excited to go to Katie's everyday. The situation couldn't have worked out better.
We have gone through a lot this month, but we have also been so blessed to be surrounded by so many wonderful, giving people.


"The harder choice is to live a happy life because it requires so much more ." Stephanie Nielsen "nieniedialogues"