Random Photos

Work continues to be busy and challenging, in a good way.
The boys are learning a tremendous amount, impressing us constantly.
We live by routines during the week and look forward to the weekends, where there are very few routines.

Here are some photos from the week...

Ummmm...Colson's jammies.  These are ones Cannon wore, too, so we can't totally blame Colson! They are his football jammies so we aren't ready to get rid of them yet!  lol!

Colson loves to play games.  Candyland and Trouble have been the ones we've been playing lately. He beat me two out of three times.  He's still learning to lose graciously!

Most weekend mornings the boys snuggle on the couch and play their tablets.  (We usually don't allow them to have tablets too much during the week.)  DC likes to snuggle up on Colson's lap!

Cannon has been working with Chris on fixing up an old go cart.  I think this is a chain from it, but I'm not really sure.  Cannon came in with it, showing me his big "smile!"

Greg smoked a couple of chickens for us.  (Thank you!)  We ate off of one for dinner that night and then Chris pulled the meat off of both of them.  We used the meat for dinners the rest of the week. Chicken sandwiches, chicken salad, chicken wraps, etc.  Easy dinners!

Colson and Cannon have been working with the Lincoln Logs lately.  Colson made this creation a few days ago.  After I took a picture, he had just as much fun wrecking it as he had building it!

Cannon started Judo this week at the YMCA.  He's only had one class so far, but really enjoyed it. He told us all about how to fall correctly and why.  He's looking forward to learning more and practicing at home!

Here's a picture of the go-cart.  Both Cannon and Chris has driven it around the neighborhood.  Chris also took it up to the new property to let Cannon drive around there.

It's amazing how much fun can be had with a jar of play dough!  Colson got a new nose!

These pictures are a good reminder that even though we sometimes often get wrapped up in work, school, eating and bedtime routines, there are so many wonderful times that occur daily, too.  It's important to stop and take the time to make more of these memories.  This is what it's all about.

Enjoying every moment!

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!  We enjoyed a long Valentine weekend with both Friday and Monday off! We were really looking forward to having some time together at home, just relaxing and focusing on family time!

The boys enjoyed receiving cards from Auntie Karin, Auntie Kanga and G & G Anderson.

Colson helped me dip pretzels in melted white chocolate and roll them in Valentine sprinkles!  These were so good!  (I ate more than my fair share!)

The start of a very yummy and very filling dessert.  Oh my this was good!

A selfie I found on my camera from the boys. They are showing off their stickers that they got from Auntie Kanga!

Valentine's Day morning heart shaped pancakes.

Valentine's Day dinner.

Enjoying every moment.

Valentine's Day at School

Valentine's Day is a fun day at school.  There is also preparation beforehand....
Making Valentines for classmates.
Making Valentines for my students.
Creating Valentine holders.
All of that brings a lot of excitement!

Here are Colson's Valentine's for his preschool friends.  Cute!

Cannon wanted to hand out highlighters.  These are a big deal in their 2nd grade classes as they work on reading 'closely' and highlighting the important information in the text.  

Here is the Valentine I created as my "homework" for Cannon.  This was an activity we did when I taught first grade and it is still one of my favorite. (First and Second grade classes do this.)  All of the parents create a heart for their child and are posted in the hallway.  It's great to see all of the hearts together, all different, but all sharing wonderful and kind things about their child.  

Cannon's Valentine bag, stuffed full of Valentine's!

 My class made monster bags as their Valentine holders.  The kids LOVED making them and they turned out so cute!  I am already saving bags for next year!

Valentine Day stations in my room.  Some kids made friendship bracelets.  Some painted.  Some created a heart art project.  Some graphed Valentine conversation hearts.  It was a fun afternoon in our room!

I received a good amount of wonderful Valentine's from my current and former students!

It was a great week and a great end to a week leading up to four days off!  Hooray!
Happy Valentine's Day!
Enjoying every moment.

Birthday and Family

Last weekend we enjoyed some nice family time with Chris' side.  We started off by celebrating Vincent's birthday.  (LaNora and Paul's oldest son.)  The kids had fun eating pizza, playing with all of the pirate toys and climbing around of the huge big toy.  Cannon and Colson really had a good time and were sweaty after so much playing.
After the party, we all met out at LaRetta and Chris' house, ate the leftover pizza and spent some more time catching up.  The kids all played outside on the trampoline and then enjoyed playing with some of Vincent's new birthday toys.  It was a nice afternoon for all!

LaRetta, LaNora, LaRae and Chris.  (LaRae is holding Nori's baby, Audrey.)

Cannon loved holding Audrey.

All of Joy's grandchildren.
Evalyn, Colson, Vincent, Maddi, Andee, Cannon, Cooper, Austin, Audrey.

Enjoying every moment.

Life Right Now

Routine.  Brushing teeth before bed....I still brush Colson's teeth, even though he is getting much better at doing it on his own.  We like to count and have been working on counting by 5's when we brush!  

These were in the staff room last week.  They didn't last long.  And I definitely had my share!   

Music was cancelled one day last week because there wasn't any sub.  But I still took my kids to the music room where they practiced their recorders.  Then some of the students got up in front of us and performed their song.  

Chris and Cannon have been working on a go cart.  It was old and had been sitting out side for years. They have stripped it, sanded and painted it and are now putting parts back on.  Cannon doesn't usually work in his underwear, but this was right before bed.  He'll kill me if he knew this was going on the blog!  

Google Expeditions came to Mountain Meadow and our second through fifth graders got to take virtual field trips using these crazy, but awesome 'glasses.'  A phone is in the box and we were able to go to Yellowstone and Mount Rushmore.  It was truly amazing. When you turn your head up, you see the sky.  When you look to the right or left, you see what is going on to the right or left.  It was like being there in person.  

Cannon's class saw the Great Barrier Reef and got to swim with the sea animals and scuba divers.  

I visited Colson's classroom last week and he was working on the ipad.  I didn't get  a chance to talk with him much because he was busy learning!  

Enjoying every moment.