Moving up!

As we closed up the school year, we realized that three of our children will be making a big change for next year.

First up, Rory!

 She is saying goodbye to Kindergarten, and will be in school for a full day next year when she starts first grade!

 Her sweet teacher, Mrs. Elliot.

 Grandma (and grandpa!) played a HUGE roll for the last several months of school as they picked up Rory everyday from school so I could take on a full time teaching position.  I know Rory is going to miss being her grandparents everyday.

And then Morgan...

 ...she graduated from 6th grade and will be entering middle school next year!

And then last, but not least, Haley...

...she'll be entering HIGH SCHOOL!

So, next year, I'll have children at all three schools: elementary, middle and high school.

So weird.

My kids are growing up too fast!

Piper's Baptism!

 In April Piper turned 8, which means she can be baptized!

She was so excited!

Just as Haley and Morgan did, Piper wore the same dress that I was baptized in when I was 8 years old.  This dress is pretty special because my mom made it all those years ago!

 Since her baptism fell on Cinco de Mayo, we couldn't help ourselves...we just had to wear our Mexican dresses.

Happy Birthday to our Piper!

We sure do love you!

Easter 2018

I know Easter is far memory being that we're in JUNE currently, but I need to play catch up a bit so bear with me as I go back in time.

The girls after they hunted and found their baskets!

As you may already know, we have adopted a more plant based diet around these parts, which means my menus (especially traditional holiday meals) have changed some.  I'm still a lover of sweet breakfasts, so I found a recipe for blueberry muffins and then I made a tofu scramble with potatoes, which has quickly become one of our favorites around here!

After we had our fill of breakfast we loaded the car and headed south to St. George for a few days.

The weather could not have been better!

We spent our days hiking and swimming in the hotel pool...perfect!

A wonderful little getaway to kick off our Spring Break!

Our new everyday life.

Our family photo of 2018.

I love that Rory wanted her big leaf in the photo!

I kicked off the new year with a new job!!  This is probably why my updates haven't been happening lately as this new job has kinda rocked our world!  As you already know, I was working part time at my kids' elementary school last semester.  I was in charge of a reading intervention program and my hours matched up to Rory's part time Kindergarten schedule perfectly!  However, one of the fifth grade teachers had a baby in November and wasn't planning on coming back after her maternity leave.  The principal offered the position to me and I just couldn't refuse!!  I took the job right after the new year. Thankfully, my parents have taken on the roll of picking up Rory from half day Kindergarten (I will be forever indebted to them!!) to allow me this great opportunity!

I've taught fifth grade before (years ago) so I have a bit of background, but coming into a school year mid year is much harder than I thought!  The technology alone has been a huge learning curve for me!  And I don't want to be THAT teacher, (cue old lady voice) "Back in the day when I taught..."  Seriously, though...when I taught before we had to be creative!  Every lesson that we did we created ourselves...and you better not ever, ever lose the master copy!!  Now everything is just a click away on the computer.  Wild, how much has changed in 14 years!

But I think the hardest part of going back to work full time is trying to keep up with just our everyday life!  The shopping has to wait until...wait for it...the WEEKEND (gasp!).  Also, keeping up with the kids schedules: getting them to appointments, concerts, ski school, parties etc. And to make things extra complicated Ryan has taken on the roll of sales manager for one of the brands he reps for.  It's a temporary position while they find somebody to fill it, but it requires him to go into the office three days a week, which is quite a bit as he needs to do his regular rep job too.  So his schedule is pretty tight these days.  

But even with all the crazy, I have been loving my new gig!  And I love being at the same school as my children!

We'll figure things out sooner or later and find our new groove.

But for now, we'll just embrace the crazy!

Christmas 2017!

Oh, how I love Christmas!!

This year, as it's done for the past two, it snowed Christmas Eve!  We were so glad to wake up to at least a little snow...a little is better than none!  Hopefully mother nature will deliver soon because we are waaaay behind in our snow pack this year!

 This year, some exciting gifts were:

A record player for Haley.

iPad for Morgan.

Bed tent for Piper.

Mountain bike for Rory.

Another successful year in the books!