Christmas, Student Teaching, and Stuff

We had a great Christmas! Richie got a new leapster explorer with 1 game and he plays it all the time. We, also, got board games for Richie and I to play, church clothes, work clothes, waffle iron, electric skillet, toy helicopter, books, movies, etc. We've been having a lot of fun with our new toys. We were able to go see the Christmas lights at the Mesa Temple, which was a lot of fun but a long drive. The kids were troopers and loved the lights and seeing the manger scene. Below are pictures of the kids. Kamry is looking so old and I'm sad that she is growing up. Richie is starting to recite books to me, it is quite exciting to see the begining reader in him. I kept looking forward to 4 years old and all I've found is that I miss the Trying Three's because my Four year old is a whiner probably because he won't talk but just whines at us. I started Student Teaching at the begining of January and all is going well. We are working on the transition of Mom not being home all day, but the kids are adjusting to it. It will probably be another month before I post again.


Kamry in her Christmas Dress and new Shoes, she looks so grown up.

My Kids actually being nice to eachother



Richie in his Christmas Jammies with Kamry's giraffe he commandeered.

Kamry in her Christmas Jammies holding her new Baby Doll



Lights at the Mesa Temple

Richie and Kamry at the Mesa Temple Lights

It's Christmastime YEAH!!! I know it's been awhile since I last blogged, but with school and kids it's been difficult to find a lot of time. I still have my online class that I have to finish, but luckily my night classes are over!!!

November came with Kamry turning 9 months old and deciding she was done crawling and it was time to walk like everyone else. Kamry would rather walk than crawl and will only crawl if she is throwing a fit or if she has fallen down and need support to get back up.

The video shows Kamry walking (which I took last night, so she's been walking for a month now).


I finished my practicum, and it is really nice to be home with the kids again. I took 2 more tests for my teaching license and pretty sure I failed 1 of the 2, I get my test results Dec. 20th, so I'm crossing my fingers I passed at least 1 of them. For Thanksgiving we invited the Elder's in our area for dinner (which ended up being lunch), but is was nice to have company and not just our small family for Thanksgiving. I even cooked my first Turkey this year and look forward to future Thanksgivings with family.

In December our community had an Electric Light Parade, which was a lot of fun. There were almost 100 floats with several bands and cheerleaders from the local high schools and middle schools. We arrived at the parade 1 hour before it started and had trouble finding places to sit. Apparently people wait for hours prior to the parade and there are all kinds of street vendors to help you spend your money.

Kamry and Richie waiting on the sidewalk for the parade to start.



One of the floats at the begining of the parade.

There were a lot of really cool floats decorated with lights, but I was holding Kamry and Richie so I couldn't take very many photos.

I finished up my 2 night classes, with some help from Richie on my final projects. I've taught my son well that we only write on paper, the problem is that he feels whatever I'm writing on he should write on. As I was compiling a project Richie came to show me his writing on one of my papers for the project. Of course horrified that the "my son colored on my homework" excuse was going to come into play, I told me son (nt so calmly) that we do not write on Mom's papers.

Last night we finally got our tree up, we had to move one of our couches into a different area to put our tree up. Richie was really excited for us to get the Christmas stuff out and can't wait for Santa to come. He is excited about Christmas this year, which makes it more exciting for me.

Richie putting ornaments on the tree.

Update

This is going to be a picture-less post because there is so much going on and I just don't have time to take pictures. Kamry turned 9-months at the begining of the month and that has brought 3 teeth and wanting to walk. Lately she has been walking with the push/rider that my mom got Richie for his 1st birthday. Richie has been thrilled to ride along or push as Kamry rides it is really fun and cute to watch them play together. Kamry is eating table food at last, when I think to make something she can eat. We have tons of baby food, so she gets a good deal of that as well. We can definately say she is not starving and is growing into her 6-9 month clothes. She is lost a little weight from her 6 month check-up, so she is still around 17lbs. I am working on finishing my classes and gearing up for student teaching. Life will hopefully be manageable during student teaching, I'm sure it will be a lot of Saturday preparation to make it through each week. I took 12 credits this semester and with having an infant it has been really tough. At least next sememster I will not have any night classes, that has been the most difficult on keeping the kids to a bedtime routine.

Halloween and More

Well, we've been a busy family these last 2 weeks. It started when another class I am taking this semester started. It is very hard to go from 1 class to 2 classes at mid-semester, it is much easier to go from 2 clases down to 1 class. It is an 8 week class, with lots of assignments and I'm just hoping to make it to Christmas alive. On Oct. 22nd we had a ward campout. I found a tent at Wal-mart on clearance since summer is over, and we went and had a relatively good time. On Saturday we helped a young man in our ward work on his Eagle Project, with 2 kids in tow we only stayed an hour and a half (Bobby was working). Since no one slept well on the rocky ground, we spent most of the rest of the day napping.

Richie and Kamry on Saturday after we got the tent packed up.


Sunday, October 24; Bobby and I received callings: Bobby - Activities Committee; Selina - RS Teacher and Ward Choir Director. We are very excited for our new callings and the skills we will learn. Monday Bobby left for Idaho for 4 days, which made life a little more hectic for me. On Thursday I received my student teaching letter and am excited to be at Legacy Traditional School in Casa Grande with Jennifer Little. I am currently doing my practicum hours in Ms. Little's classroom and look forward to January and my time student teaching. Thursday, I made slippers for Kamry's halloween costume, but they were sized too small. Friday, I re-did the slippers and they look soo cute. After going to Legacy for practicum hours, I went home got the kids ready to head to our Ward Halloween Party. Bobby got called in to work and wasn't able to help set-up, so I dragged my kids to the church to represent my husband. When I got there at 4:15 (thinking the set-up started at 4), only the activity chair was there. Shortly after 2 men came to help and around 5:00 many people were helping. Somehow, I got 17 bug bites; the party was outside (which I did not expect) and after set-up started getting itchy feet. I was wearing flipflops, but had pants on. Even with pants I had bug bites on my legs. I must have stood where a colony of ants were stationed or something. My left foot is VERY swollen and I don't know how I'm going to wear dress shoes tomorrow.

Richie was a Cowboy and he had fun at the Trunk-or-Treat.


Kamry looked so cute as Tinkerbell, kind of sad to see Halloween over already.


Richie loved his cowboy costume and slept in it Friday night and wore it all day Saturday. On Saturday, Richie had a Primary Activity and at night we went to the Fall Festival put on by the City of Casa Grande. When we got there the lines for the dozen games were really long, so we went played on the playground and went home.

Richie was enjoying pushing Kamry in her stroller, but she wanted held.


Our life is busy and we're hoping it will slow down soon.

Vertuccio Farms Family Night

For Family Home Evening we decided to go to a fun farm that had a corn maze. Since we were going and there would be hay I had everyone wear long pants in 80 degree weather. The farm had a "train", cars painted like cows and pulled by a tractor, carnival games, a bounce house, hay maze, corn maze, farm animals, etc. It was a lot of fun, worth the hour of travel time each way. The only down-side was the corn maze did not have any lights; since it was night we didn't get to go very far. All the corn mazes in Idaho are lighted, so we didn't realize we would need flashlights. Other than that we had a lot of fun. Since I didn't have my camera, I used my cellphone which means the pictures aren't great. Mom is sending my camera and I will be grateful to have it in time for Halloween.


Richie and Kamry in the Hay Maze

They had a wooden cow that you could "milk", when you squeezed the teats water would squirt out into a bucket. I had fun showing Richie how to do this and he really had fun.


Richie posing at a photo op

Arizona Educator Test and No Sleep

Yesterday, Saturday I had signed up to take 1 of the 3 tests I'm taking to get licensed in Elementary Education in Arizona. I got a babysitter, cleaned the house with Bobby's help, made lunch, and finally got to bed around 9:30p.m. and couldn't sleep. The test was at 8:00a.m. and I had to drive an hour to get there. I figured I needed to be up at 5:30a.m. at the latest. Everyone was asleep, so I go to bed. Kamry kept waking up, I tried my best to keep her sleeping by feeding her when she'd wake up. I realized that her diaper felt really full at one of the feedings, so I decided to change her diaper (it was 2:55a.m. at this point). Of course, she woke up and decided she wasn't going to bed. Bobby got up because he had to get ready for work. After trying to get Kamry to lay down for 30 min. I resigned myself to getting up and hoped that I could nap while she played on the floor; no such luck. I did make myself eggs for breakfast, since I was up early. Kamry started fussing as we went to get the babysitter, fell asleep in the car and stayed asleep after getting home. I am worrying about how I'm suppose to stay awake during a 4 hour test when I didn't get any sleep; not a recipe for success. Somehow I made it through the test in 3.5 hours and I think I did well. I just hope that I didn't spend all that money and fail because I didn't get enough sleep.

I've been having problems getting my practicum started, I am the only one without a placement and I found out yesterday that I may not be able to student teach in Casa Grande school district. Needless to say I'm just frustrated and wondering if I should quit and figure something else out for work; not that I have any ideas where I'll be able to find work. I did apply for a part-time teaching position and hope that somehow I will be given the job; eventhough I'm not licensed as an Elementary Teacher.

Picture-less Post

The begining of August, the kids and I went to visit my family for 2 weeks. The great thing about having your family live only a half hour from your in-laws is that you only have to take 1 trip to see everybody. We were excited to find that my brother-in-law, Beau, is in the process of turning in his mission papers.:) We are really excited and can't wait to hear where he is going. Well, I lost my camera somewhere when I went to visit my Mom. I let Richie look at the pictures on it and apparently never got it back. I really wouldn't even care, except it had pictures of my kids riding horses at my in-laws and I hadn't downloaded them yet. Richie and Kamy were able to go horse riding and they both did really well. Richie can't wait to go back and ride again. Kamry turned six months, which came with crawling, sitting by herself, and eating baby food. She is 26" tall and 16.5 lbs, Richie loves making his sister laugh and has had to learn to share which we are still working on. We moved to Casa Grande in July and are starting to feel like we are moved in. I start back to school on Wednesday and it is a busy semester for me. Along with taking 4 classes I have to take the state exams to get licensed, so lots of studying and I'm not so good at that. Good news is that there is enough hay that needs hauled that Bobby is not going to Idaho for six weeks like we thought he would need to.