My Baby is Five

Yesterday was E's birthday. He is now five and such a big boy.

He had a fun day with lots of attention and his favorite things to play with.

He is such a great kid to hang out with all day long!!

He was very specific in the cake that he wanted. An orange dinosaur with blue spots.

This is what we came up with. J decorated the cake, I baked it.

And this picture clearly shows what he did ALL day! He got a new train set from Grandma & Grandpa M and he played with it all day.

Five things I love about E
1. He always tells me, "You're my best buddy"
2. He rarely makes messes
3. He lets me win at Mario Kart every once in a while
4. He still likes to snuggle
5. He falls asleep right when I put him to bed.

FINALLY!!!!

School has finally started, and it is GREAT!! Madison started first grade and loves it. I love it because she is totally worn out by the time she gets home!! Ashton is in 3rd grade now and she loves seeing all her friends. Ethan is stuck here with me for another year which I am enjoying, but I don't know if he is (he missed his sisters). I did take a picture of their first day but I can't find my camera cord, so it will have to wait.

I am back in school too and it has been a very welcome change from my summer boredom. I actually get to see my school friends almost everyday which is so nice. I go to school with some of the most amazing women I have ever met. We are referred to as a "non-traditional" class, which means that I am of an average age in the program. My classes this semester will be a lot less stressful than last, for which I am grateful. I am taking my methods classes (science, math and social studies) I have no huge papers due and life couldn't be better!! All of my classes are in the evening which saves me money on daycare, but makes it hard that I don't get to see the girls or Jeramie as much. Ethan has turned into my little shadow following me around wherever I go, we are "best buddies" now! I am really enjoying being able to spend all day with him, since I know that soon I will be working. I will be doing my student teaching next fall and then on to the real world!!

Summer Blessings

A couple weekends ago, we went to Boise to Roaring Springs. We went with our good friends the Lays who left us all alone in Twin and moved to Kuna. We had a great time at the water park. The girls were even more brave than Jeramie and I. Afterwards, we drove to Ontario to see my family. My mom had broke her arm the week before and I decided to stay for a few extra days and help her out. Jeramie had to go back home to work. My parents live along a river and the kids had been begging to go fishing. So we put a few lines in, but weren't able to catch anything.

Madison is patiently watching the fishing poles looking for any sign of movement.
My uncle let us borrow his blow up water slide and the kids had a blast.

The only problem was that with the river nearby comes millions of mosquitoes. We went through two cans of spray while we were there, it was awful!! I hadn't been bit that many times since I was a kid.

Here are my cute kids all ready for church.

This summer has been difficult for me. I have really missed my friend Heather and her family. I guess being busy with school and stuff, I didn't realize how much I missed them until now. I have been trying really hard to count my blessings instead of thinking about the negative things. I have been blessed to have three wonderful kids that are healthy and happy. The kids have been great this summer, I have given them all chores and they have really done wonderfully with their responsibilities. They play together well and I just love being able to spend time with them. I am constantly amazed at how fortunate I am to have married Jeramie. He is so great!! He works so hard for us. He loves spending time with us and is always so supportive and encouraging with everything I do even though I know it is hard for him. I just hope he still loves after this fall semester when he gets to cook four days a week!!

Summer Vacation

We had our big summer vacation last week. We went to Eagle Point Oregon to visit Jeramie's family. There were nine new members of his family that we hadn't met yet, and we hadn't been there for a long time. We got there Saturday around 1:00 (we went to Ontario Friday night and then left at 5:00 a.m. Saturday morning). Sunday morning we left for the Redwoods and the coast. Tuesday we went to a lake (I can't remember the name of it) and played and got sunburned. Wednesday we went to Crater Lake. All of the pictures are backwards of how we did them, but I really don't want to redo them all. We had a great time visiting and exploring the beauty of southern Oregon.

Crater Lake. If you haven't been there, it is spectacular. The lake is actually about a mile from the rim. There is a road that goes all the way around the lake. There was still a good amount of snow up there and I've decided that when I need a good tan, I'll just go there; the altitude is so high (7100 feet) that I got a sandal tan in about 10 minutes. By sister in law got burned in about 30. The weather up there was really nice. It was a great day trip, but watch out for mosquitoes!!

This is the lake that we went to. Becki and Brett have a boat that they took us for rides in. Everyone loved it!! We had a nice picnic there and then just played. It was fun but we are all now paying for our fun with peeling sunburns.

Ahh, the Oregon Coast. I LOVE the coast!! I love the sounds of the waves and the peacefulness of the ocean. We went to Brooking, Oregon. This is the southern most coast town in Oregon. It was absolutely beautiful there, the sand was actually hot and the kids had a blast playing in the water. We camped overnight there and we finally blessed by eating Jerry's famous dutch oven recipes that we hear about all the time.

This is a part of the Redwood forest (this is where they filmed some of Jurassic Park, can you say veliocoraptor?) Jeramie had never been to the Redwoods before (or even to California) so this was fun for him and the kids.

We had fun walking through the forest looking at the trees and other strange things growing around the Redwoods. It was a great trip and we were sad to leave. It is hard to live so far from family, but we love it here in Twin and are glad to be home!

Hibernating

I have been hibernating for the last week or two since school got out, this means that I have just wanted to stay home and relax, which I have done. School is finally over and I am happy to say that I passed everything!! It was a rough semester, but I made it and did really well. Enough bragging about myself... Ashton turned eight and was baptized, it was a great day and we were blessed with lots of family and friends. Ashton was excited and so cute! I am so proud of her, she is such a great example to her younger siblings.

For Memorial Day, the kids were dying to do something so Jeramie and I decided to walk the Rock Creek Canyon trail. This is something that the kids have been wanting to do for a while. So we packed some snacks and lots of water, dropped the truck off at Rock Creek Park and then started by the Parks and Rec building. It is a really nice easy walk, there is a creek that follows the trail the whole way so that is nice.

This is near the end of the rail, I do not know why this picture is blue.

Here is a lizard we saw at the beginning of the trail, the kids wanted me to take pictures of everything that moved. But I did think the lizard was cool.

We took our dog along with us, she was funny always trying to chase the birds. We were trying to gert her to drink out of the creek, it took her a while but she finally figured it out. It was a really nice walk, it took us about an hour and a half to walk the whole way. You do have get back out of the canyon, cross Addison and then resume the trail by the hospital. I think we will do this again in the fall when the leaves are changing colors. What a great weekend!!

Overwhelmed

First of all, I would like to apologize in advance. This is totally going to be a vent session. So I am nearing the end of my most crazy semester yet. I am doing a pre-internship right now. Which means that I spend most afternoons at Lincoln Elementary in a third grade classroom. I love this part of it, which is good since that is the end goal right? With my pre-internship is a 40 to 80 page paper. Fine, I'm at page 37 and still have three more sections to put in. I had to teach at least six lessons for my internship and then be observed by my professor for about half of my grade. That went really well, but not without a little anxiety.

Then I have two literacy classes one is about comprehension and I already wrote a 20 page paper for that I just finished a 15 page project and Monday I have a test (ICLA) that I have to pass or I can't get my certification.

My other literacy class is about phonics. My ICLA test is today for that and again I must pass or else!! I also have two more projects due in there in less than three weeks.

Then I am taking a technology class which is generally pretty easy. But it still causes a small amount of stress and anxiety. I thought I was pretty good about handling stress and I have been in the past, but lately not so much. I find myself totally exhausted at 7 pm. I have been having end of the semester nightmares. And I think my mouth is full of canker sores. Lovely!! Thanks for listening I feel much better. I better go work on something!!

Birthday

Today I turned 30. I don't want to talk about it.