Family Pictures

So I REALLY love how our family pictures turned out.  They were so easy too! 

School Pictures (2nd attempt)

So blogger is not cooperating with me and I'm not even sure if you can see these pictures??  I can't see them on my computer but, I wanted to let everyone we are still here.  Life is crazier than it's ever been.  I am finally feeling a little bit sane and am enjoying my adorable second graders.  They are so fun!  For the first time in my life though I truly understand what TGIF really means! 

 Abby's fake smile is cracking me up.  We even tried retakes and she smiled the exact same way!  O well everyone's got to have that awkward school picture, right?

Mrs. Orton

Guess what?  I am officially one of these...

I am thrilled to announce I will be teaching 2nd Grade!  This is a dream come true and I am so excited to start my career as a teacher.  We feel so blessed and know that our prayers were heard and answered! 

HOORAY!!

Let the craziness begin!

Oh and I GRADUATED college!

A Hard Goodbye

Friday was my last day of student teaching.  It was very emotional and so hard to say goodbye to my awesome class.  The past 11 weeks have been so amazing.  Amazingly busy, amazingly stressful, amazingly fun, amazingly rewarding, and amazingly eyeopening.  I have finally, officially figured out what I want to be when I grow up...A TEACHER!  I wasn't sure if I would enjoy my student teaching or how I'd feel about this career path I chose.  But can honestly say, I LOVE IT!  It feels so natural and it is so rewarding. 

Each of my students presented me with a homemade card on my last day.  They each had a turn to come up and read their card to me and give me one last hug.  I cried.  A lot. 

My favorite card of course came from my man Trent.  It was so fun (and a little challenging at times) to teach Trent.  We made some great memories and I'm so grateful things turned out the way they did.   I'm gonna miss spending my days with Trent at school.  Homeschooling isn't sounding so bad :)

I asked Trent to explain his drawing.  He said everything in the left box is all the stuff I taught him.  The right box is everything I didn't teach him, which is zero.  Glad to know I taught him everything he needs to know :)

Here are a few other cards that melted my heart. 



Apparently I am so cool, I'm the beast!  LOL!

I also make dreams come true.

This girls really learned her adjectives, verds, and noons.

Can you see why I love teaching so much?  Best first graders EVER!

My mentor teacher was the nicest man.  On my last day he brought Lucky Charms and made me eat two bowls.  He told the class it was so I would get very "lucky" and find a job. 

Next post....GRADUATION!!

A WICKED good time!

Last week Abby was surprised with an early birthday present.  We took a girls trip to AZ to see WICKED.  It was a BLAST and the show was AMAZING!  It was so fun spending some one-on-one time with my dear daughter.  We went with our great friends Karri & Brinley. 

Here are some highlights of our trip:

•  Seeing Seth and Melyssa (and staying in their cute home).
•  All the yummy food Seth and Melyssa fed us.
•  Slumber parties in the living room and watching movies until we fell asleep.
•  Nightly back tickling
•  Playing SORRY sliders with Uncle Seth
•  SHOPPING!  We did a lot of shopping, it was AWESOME!
•  Dinner at a fancy restaurant.  'Chelsea's Kitchen' I am still dreaming of your shrimp tacos!
•  Visiting the Mesa Temple.  Always brings back great memories!
•  Being in my HOME state!  WE LOVE ARIZONA!!!
•  And of course...WICKED!!!
 

Ringing in a New Year

We traveled to Elko Nevada to ring in the New Year with the Watanabe family.  We loved every minute spent in their home.  Here is everyone's "I'm so excited for the New Year" faces.  As you can see.. some of us were more excited for the new year than others. 

Looks like I forgot Jonny boy...he was more excited about his dessert. 

GOOD TIMES!

We sure enjoyed loving on this little bundle of squishy joy!  Isn't she the CUTEST!  I have to say, I've been having Nancy withdrawls since we left.  Lori, I don't know if I can wait until May to see you guys again!!

Sweetest Boy

Trent is the sweetest little boy.  He really made my Christmas this year.  He noticed that I didn't have any presents under the tree so he decided to make me some.  He even gave me two of his precious dollars.  I love this kid!

Santa did end up providing me with a very nice Christmas.  He took me on a personal shopping spree after Christmas :)