Pictures of life

Craig has been riding a bike around at Jade's when he's there two days a week and loves it! we want to get him a bike for his birthday, but it's not until December. my sister-in-law offered me a girl's one. so for now he has it. he can't push it on his own, like the one at jades, so he gets frustrated, but he still likes it. here he is on it, then another day his cousins came over and wanted some old blue candy canes. well, craig had to have one too, so here it is.

Craig was just being silly when we were getting him ready for bed. he makes us laugh so much! he really is a joy. i need to focus on that more. he is still cranky, but i think he's just growing and frustrated that he can't talk more.

Then, on Friday night, we went to Sierra Vista's football game and watched Luke perform. Craig loved cheering fr part of the football game we caught. he was so funny! he was one of the loudest cheering. then, Luke came on and he started conducting along. he is so cute and so musical. i'm sure, it's nothing amazing, but to me, it is. he is just so smart to conduct along.

This is what i did with both my classes on Friday. it was Johnny Apppleseed day and we tasted apples and chose our favorites.

busy busy busy and my dear sweet boy

this week seems to have flown by! craig is being good. he is so sweet. last night, we were getting him ready for bed and after we said our prayer Trevor told him to say goodnight to me, so he puts his hand on my cheek and rubs it a little! it was precious!!! i love that little boy! then, he likes to read a book before bed and sometimes lays down with it. he totally put it under his arm, cuddling with a book. i'm so glad he loves reading already.

This morning

last week, all the teachers that were already hired but were surplus got moved around. so hopefully, this week, i will get calls and figure out relatively soon (within a couple weeks) what is going on and where i will be working. hopefully, full time, but a half day job is better than no job.

i am very busy, still substituting in both a morning and afternoon class for now, and it seems like i am always making mistakes. i had a little boy get hurt and didn't send him to the nurses and the mom got upset. i felt pretty dumb. but life goes on. i have decided that i need to be happy! i have happy times, but working and school has not been making me happy and i just need to decide that i will be happy there. i know it will still be tough, but i can enjoy it and i need to, otherwise i don't want to keep working. so my goal this week is to work on my patience, both in class and at home with craig and to be happy! when asked how's it going, i need to reply, really good, or great or wonderful. not "i'm surviving". I know that Heavenly Father wants me to be happy and it is my choice, so that is my choice.

I'm alive!

I feel like it's been forever. i have just had a very busy week. i'm not used to waking up by 6 each morning and i have been very tired each night. plus thrusday, i had open house for both my classes.

well, i started substituting all day this week, track 1 am class and track 3 pm class. the am class reminded me that i actually do enjoy teaching kindergarten and i wasn't just dreaming! they are a good group of kids and i am happy for their teacher who is on maternity leave. don't get me wrong, i like every single kid in the afternoon, it's just that together, they are quite the difficult group and each day is a challenge. but i am working on it.

Craig was able to go play over at Jade's house and loved it!! he goes over there and Jade watches him for 2 days a week. he was so mad both days when it was time to go. i'm so excited for him to be able to be playing with kids his age and learn to work on getting along and sharing and learn to talk because he's around them. i swear he is saying more things because of Rosie (Jade's daughter). i can't understand much of it, but it is an attempt and it makes me smile.

then, he is with my mom 2 days and Anita on most Fridays! he is one lucky little boy. i really wish i could be at home, but cest la vie! :)

go football!

last night, we decided to go to buffalo wild wings and what a great idea! it was Monday night football, so it was nice and loud and cheering going on. Craig fit right in! he loved it. there were tvs all over and he could see all the colors, then, clapping and shouting and no one cared how loud he was, because everyone else was that loud. we loved it. Craig kept climbing up to try and get a better view of the tvs.

Today, Craig was able to go over to our friend, Jade's house, to be watched while i worked. He loved it! he had lots of fun, especially with the tricycle and a little car. he had so much fun, he was quite upset when we had to leave. but he will be back on Thursday.

relaxing and yummy Danielle's

Craig still has his fun beach ball, that deflates. here he is. he took it outside with him and was sitting on it for a long time, and then when i grabbed the camera he changed. but he loves it! several times a day he will find someone to blow it up for him.

then, Friday night, Trevor decided we should go to Danielle's! it is a fun ice cream and chocolate shop that Trevor has been going to since he was very little! he remembers his dad sending him back to help clean the dishes when he was done eating his ice cream. the owners even sent him a check during his mission. TREVOR, help clarify these.

The little silver pitcher is full of hot fudge! they bring it out to you and you can just add a little at a time. Trevor loves it and he shared with me. we both shared with Craig and everyone loved it! we even bought some white chocolate (snow) popcorn for my mom. yummy!!

little piece of our life

the other day, Heidi (my sister who is always trying to tell Craig what to do, or having a cow about something he is doing), Heidi had a dr's appointment. when they get home, my mom tells me that she has something for Craig. at the end of her appointment, she got to pick out a lollipop. she turned to my mom and asked "what about Craig?". and so, dear Heidi does like Craig and brought him home a lollipop.

and life goes on for the rest of us. we still have no clue about jobs for either one of us, but just trusting the Lord. although i did have a dream that i got a call from a school. no clue what school, but at least in my dream something happened.

We are all still sick. Craig i think will be over it any day, and i'm not sure if Trevor has caught it or not. but he's so busy, that the poor man never gets enough sleep.

I'm still really busy with my class and am going to be starting the am track 1 class on MONDAY! i can't believe how fast time goes by! i'm hoping the am class is at least a little easier than my class right now. but it will be their very first school experience and she has 30 kids versus my 26 now! talk about AAAHH!!! :O

yay for crystal!

We got to see all of our pictures today and they turned out so GREAT!!! i am so happy!
we got to pick our five favorite and here they are! i am so happy. we should have gotten new family pictures a lot sooner.

Craig was pretty good for them. at first, he wasn't smiling much, but then, we figured out to play peekaboo (especially with the tree) and that helped. i am so very excited.

For the picture below, Crystal actually was able to superimpose his face in, because he actually didn't smile for this picture. it looks so good!

sick :(

We all are sick around here! Craig started with a runny nose on Thursday, then Saturday morning i woke up with it and now, Trevor is getting it! i was really hoping i would be feeling better for school tomorrow, but I'm not planning on it. poor Craig has been even grumpier! aww! he is definitely in his terrible twos early (and i noticed getting another tooth in). don't worry. i still love the boy! This was Craig playing outside on Thursday. i am getting so bummed that it is getting dark earlier! this was before 7:30 and it was dark!! i love letting Craig play outside, especially once it gets not quite so scorching hot outside. but it feels so late when it gets dark. the good side, that means one of these days, it might start to cool off!

so, it has been quite a while since Craig went down this slide in my parents backyard. but a month ago, he would climb all the way up it and come down all on his own, no worries (at least on his part. . . a little scary to me). this night, he refused to go down the slide on his own! i had to hold his hand the whole way down. so weird. Craig is very independent and it was funny to me that he just sat there on the top of the slide until i helped him slide down.



so, on Thursday night, i really had a meltdown. i just felt like my kinder class is out of control!! i was pretty desperate and had had a couple of pretty bad days. i felt myself getting somewhat out of control and didn't like it. i want these kids to have a good experience in kindergarten and so far, i don't know if they have. i was able to talk to some other ladies who are also kinder teachers and they reassured me that it will continue getting better. and it was. on Friday, i finally had a microphone (which really helps!!! try talking over 27 kids who will not listen!) and i was able to continue to focus on rewarding the good behavior. but it is a slow process. i hope i remember when my kids (in the future, there will be more, but no announcements just yet.) are going off to school, i hope i remember how those teachers feel and give them much gratitude in the future.

and it is partly the class. I'm trying to rearrange the seating chart, and i don't even know where to start! i want to move a talkative kid away, but there are so many of them, that I'm finding it impossible. and for most of them, this is the first very structured experience they have had and there are a lot of adjustments.

a couple different people at the school have asked me, on different occasions, to just please come back tomorrow! even on the worst of days, i know i will be back. it's not a question. i really wish i could stick with them the whole year. i know it seems really odd, and i know it would be a very difficult year, but each of those kids have different personalities and fun sides and i know i could help them all. we'll see what happens.

preview

Check out some of the pictures that Crystal did of us! i'll post them as soon as i get them, but here's a preview.

http://www.imagesbykrys.blogspot.com/

little moments

In my class, i try and keep some of the kids attention by asking them "if you can hear me, touch your ____" and fill in the blank with head, nose, etc. well, i was driving today, in our truck and so Craig is up front with no airbag on. he was getting a little bored so i put my hands on my head and asked him to do it too! i continued with this fun game for a minute, touching different parts of my head and telling him to touch the name of whatever it was. it was so much fun! he touched his lips for his nose, but other than that, he did good and it was just fun! i love little moments like those!

Here he is, listening to head phones this morning, before i went to work. recently, he has LOVED using the headphones! the other day, he had me plug them into the tv so he could listen. and he actually did listen! this morning it was the walkie talkie (which doesn't work). and he plugged it in! i was lucky to grab the camera and get a picture really quick because right after the flash went off, he took them out and moved on to something else!

sometimes, he will just put his fingers in his ears, and pretend like he's plugging his ears! he's so silly but it makes us crack up.

he (well, actually, both of us) has been having a tough time recently, being extra grumpy and throwing EVERYTHING! but it's moments like these that bring the smile back on my face and remind me to appreciate all the time with him.

Temples around the world

I just wanted to pass this along. honestly, i thought it would be kinda lame at first, but i watched it and it was wonderful! it really touched my heart to see how many temples we have around the world. at first, i thought they did north america wrong, but wait until the end! our prophets are so amazing and i love the quote at he end from bruce mckonkie! there might be hundreds or thousands of temples before the second coming!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7_CRN74Ues

now, this is not put out by the church, i don't think, but someone wonderful made it.

I love our church!

AAAH! and fun with Craig

so, i was back in my class (you know, the class I'm substituting in, at least) today after a three day weekend and OH my goodness! it was scary! i saw some great improvement in some kids, but had a difficult day, overall. i know it will keep getting better, but today was definitely difficult. i almost feel like it was worse than my first day. probably not, but close to last Tuesday! but don't worry, i still like teaching!

we went to watch airplanes take off at the airport today. it was so cute! Craig loved it so much! anything that happened, a cop car went by inside the fence, a plane landed, took off, a car drove by, the little girl in the other car walked around. he would say "WOW" and point to it! we had so much fun being there with him and seeing him enjoy everything around us!

anytime we hear an airplane, he looks for it in the sky! i don't know how he knew it, but he figured out the best way to get his daddy to absolutely LOVE him. Trevor loves airplanes and so of course, Craig loves them too.

also, Craig has been conducting to music more often. i lead the music every Sunday in our ward and so he sees me, but he has been conducting music outside of the church setting too. it's so fun.

fun with family

yesterday, we were able to spend almost the entire day over at Anita's with Curtis and his family, mom and dad, Anita, and even Lynette and mark (Trevor's cousin) and their three kids! we had so much fun and i took way too many pictures. they are all in an album, so check them out on my web album.

we got to swim before lunch, then ate some delicious food! craig loved the baked beans grandma and grandpa made. then, we went back outside and swam some more! of course, by swimming, i mean he was playing with the cleaning net, then got in the sand box with Braiden and then brought the toy with him, next to the pool!

later, he took a nap (finally!) and when he woke up, he went back out to 'clean' and play with the toy by the pool. we had a very nice day, overall. and we are very lucky that we were able to spend time with many of our family members.

Yay for google! they updated picasa and and look at the fun, easy collage i can make! yay!