Quick California Trip

From Saturday the 22nd to Wednesday the 26th, we had a little vacation to California.  Scott's parents wanted to get some family pictures done with everyone as things have changed since the last time pictures were taken.  There were some family pictures taken when we went to California after getting married, but they didn't turn out so well.  The original plan was to go the first week of April as that would have been my spring break if I was still teaching.  Since I quit, we were able to go when Brita and Lane would be there so we would be able to participate in all the activities.

We left Friday night at about 10:20pm and arrived in California around 6am.  David & Kristene so kindly hosted us at their house in Rialto, which was nice as Scott's parents home was crowded with everyone else.  I'm glad we were able to have our own bathroom to get ready in.  Kristene was so nice and watched Kylie for a few hours while Scott and I caught up on some sleep.  After we woke up, we headed out to see David & Kristene's potential new house!  It looks great and I hope everything works out for them in getting it.  We ate lunch and then headed to Riverside.  I went shopping with Nadine for some last minute clothes for the pictures which took about 2 hours.  Brita and Lane had arrived and we all ate dinner, played some games and then headed back to Rialto.

We had a little birthday cake for Brooke's upcoming birthday.

They decided to sing to me too even though my birthday isn't for a month.

Scott fed Kylie some delicious Californian oranges! She loved them. I do get a little worried with the acidity though.

Sunday, we went to church in Riverside.  Kylie was very wiggly during sacrament meeting and when I put her on the ground, she crawled right on over to the people across the aisle!  She hung out with them for the rest of the meeting. Abrie even walked over there once or twice to see what was going on.  It was pretty funny to see that Kylie was content hanging out with perfect strangers.

After church, we just hung out with Scott's family and played games the rest of the night!  We also tried to figure out what everyone was wearing for the pictures.  We picked this color scheme here:

What I didn't realize is that there is a variety of salmon colors out there! There can be salmon pink to salmon orange and we sure had a variety!  I was feeling pretty helpless because there was so much variety I wasn't sure it would all look good together.  In the end, I think it worked out great.  Monday was picture day and took up pretty much the whole day because it was down in Orange County.  It was at a studio which was a little small, so it got a little crazy trying to get a family picture with how many people were there.  I don't know which end pictures were chosen, but I hope to find out soon!

I loved our color combination for our little family.

Kylie's dress was so cute!

Once again, we ate dinner in Riverside, played a few games and left a little early to get ready for Disneyland!  Tuesday was Disneyland and I'm going to do that in a different post.  We had planned to go to the beach on Wednesday, but the weather wasn't good beach weather.  Everyone was still exhausted from a full day at Disneyland, so we decided to have a game day!  We pretty much played Bang! all day and it was awesome.  That game is fun because it is a different game each time and you really don't have to worry about being bored while playing.  We left Wednesday night at about 9:30pm for home.  The drive home was a little harder and Scott and I had to keep switching off about every two hours.

Nikki & Kylie!

Kylie playing by herself during a round of Bang!

Despite it being a quick trip, we had a great time seeing everyone! 

High Five for Monday

Yes, usually this is a high five for Friday, but I didn't want to wait until Friday to post it as everything I am posting is overdue to be talked about.

1. In the middle of March, Bryan, Natalie & Max came to Utah for their spring break.  Bryan's parents just bought a home in Orem so they came out to visit them.  They headed up to our place one day and we played on the WiiU they just bought.  There were some pretty fun games!  We tried to get Max and Kylie playing together, but there is just something about our cat where every kid wants to pet and play with her.  Natalie did get some cute pictures of Max and Kylie, so these are her pictures, not mine.  We headed down to Orem another day to see Bryan's parents as Scott knew them back in California.  Bryan graduates law school in May so it will be interesting to see where they end up!  Either way, they will have to come back to Utah occasionally to see Bryan's parents.

2. We also found out at the end of February that Scott did not get into BYU's nurse practitioner program.  It was definitely a bummer that he didn't get in.  Scott had applied to the University of Utah's program and didn't get in (he did try pretty soon after graduating though), but the school's high grade standards make it impossible to get in without re-taking some classes.  There is one other school in Utah that offers a master's program in nursing, which is Westminster College.  Scott decided last minute to apply there and the deadline was quickly approaching.  We filled out an online application, turned it in and thought all was done.  Scott got an e-mail a day after the due date saying they were missing about 5 things still!  They said he officially had until Friday to get it all in.  We rushed getting transcripts, drug & background tests and letters of recommendation in.  It was a little stressful, but worth it as Scott interviewed with them just last Friday, the 28th! We hope to hear back from them again in mid-April with a positive response.  If Scott doesn't get into Westminster, we might look at options for school outside of Utah.  It would be more expensive, but if he has the opportunity to get into school somewhere, we'll take it.

3. Last Thursday morning we returned home from California.  My dad & Roberta came into town that afternoon and stayed until Sunday morning.  They stopped by for a short visit after getting in on Thursday then came over again Friday morning.  We went shopping at the mall and they watched Kylie while I bought some new makeup with Christmas money they gave me.  I hope the girl at Sephora gave me the right stuff.  I haven't tried it out yet, but if it doesn't work I can always return it.  Saturday night we headed to Andrew & Rebecca's for a BBQ dinner and games.  It was a short visit, but great to see them!

 4. We've discovered that Kylie sure loves strawberries.  You need to be careful when you let her bite into one as she will suck that thing into her mouth quicker than you can blink!  I like that she likes them, but I need to remember to take her clothes off when she eats them as strawberries stain clothes.

5. Here are two great recipes.  One for perfect M&M cookies (and they are delicious!): http://picky-palate.com/2013/04/03/how-to-make-perfect-m-and-m-cookies/ and one for sugar cookie bars (such a time saver compared to rolling and cutting out sugar cookies): http://www.crunchyrock.com/2011/01/sugar-cookie-bars.html.  Both are really yummy and stay soft for about a week!

Tag Blanket

For a while, we've been noticing Kylie chewing on her seat belt strap every time she's in her highchair.  I also noticed Kylie chewing on her straps to her changing pad as well.  While looking through pinterest, I noticed a pin about a tag blanket.  It's a blanket with a variety of ribbons around the edges for the baby to happily chew on.

Since Kylie liked the seat belt material to her high chair, my mom thought it would be a better idea to sew that onto fabric instead of ribbon.  Also, I guess if I bought ribbon, I'd have to make sure that the color would stay on the ribbon and not rub off into her mouth.  My mom was nice and bought the materials for me.  I had to do a few things differently than the instructions as I had different "tag" material.  That seat belt material frays when you cut it, so I had to cover up the fray with a piece of fabric first before sewing.  It was also thicker to sew down as well.

This project was simple and took me about 2 hours to do.  Kylie doesn't chew on it all the time, but it's another option besides a toy to keep her busy.

7 Months!

Even though Kylie will be turning 8 months here soon, I am still okay to talk about her being 7 months!  She has grown so much these last few months.  My baby sure is learning so many new things.  Here's some new things she has learned.

• Standing!! It was all about crawling last time, but now all she wants to do is stand! She will pull herself up on anything (including you) and just be content standing there.  She is ready to stand on her own and get walking.  This girl just wants to move, move, move!

•  She is talking more now.  There are certain times of the day where she will talk more than others, usually in the morning and at night.  She also likes to spit a little with her tongue.

• Kylie is laughing more now! I just love it. I've found that when you jump up and down with her and spin her around, she'll laugh and laugh.  Also, chasing her and playing hide and seek will make her laugh as well.  This video is evidence of that:

• This video is also evidence of how much Kylie loves the cat! Well, she likes all animals actually. While in California, Kylie took to the dogs great! She would squeal every time she saw them and just let them lick her face.  Poor Maddie gets chased quite often by her too.  Hopefully one day she'll stop running from Kylie.
• The main thing now is that Kylie is so active! Brita once pointed out that no matter what Kylie is doing, there is some body part of hers that is moving.  This girl just wants to explore and learn about everything.  She sure is keeping us on our toes.

Since Kylie no longer just lays still, it is getting harder to take pictures of her!  She goes straight for the sticker when I put it on her and then just wants to roll around if I lay her on the ground.  So, here's what I got.

See ya later, mom!

Ooo, pretty camera!

Fine, I'll pose just this once.

Look, a sticker!

Laying on the ground is boring mom. I'm ready to crawl away!

Farewell Dinner at Wasatch

This is way overdue, but I do want to write about it.  Last month on February 12th, there was a small farewell for me at Wasatch Jr. High.  I quit teaching at semester change and they wanted to do the farewell where almost all of the teachers would be present.  Usually Friday meetings do the trick, but there weren't any that were happening when I was leaving.  I was fine coming in at a later date and they decided to combine the dinner that they have before parent/teacher conferences with my farewell.

Scott & Kylie came with me and it was just really nice.  Jodelle, my co-teacher, put everything together and I was touched with what she did.  She took an old apron I would wear all the time (from the pork lady who used to come and teach the kids about pork) and had everyone sign it.  Then she bought me a new apron to replace the old one.  Jodelle also bought Kylie a cute grocery cart with play food in it.  Jodelle said some nice things about me and then I said a few things as well.  I did quit pretty quickly and you always wonder how people really think of you.  It was nice to know that I was appreciated and that everyone understood I was leaving teaching for a good reason.

Old, signed apron

New apron

Jodelle, Kylie & I

Kylie checking out her present.

On my actual last day of teaching, it was the last day of the semester so there wasn't much planned anyway.  I had them fill out surveys and watching a video.  Scott, Brita and her kids came to see me at the start of my 3rd period.  They brought flowers and cake!  I fed cake to the rest of my classes and the teachers during lunch.  I also brought Kylie to school with me since Scott worked the night before.  It was a bittersweet last day of school.

Yes, Scott realized later that he made a spelling mistake. :)

Part of my teen living class.

Thank You, Wasatch Jr. High

This is also a little overdue, but I wanted to write down my experience and 5 things I learned during my 4 1/2 years of teaching.  My major, Family & Consumer Science, is an education major.  Up at BYU-Idaho, people called it the MRS. degree meaning that it was the major girls took in preparation to getting married and becoming a wife and mother.  I didn't necessarily go into that major for that reason, but I knew that what I would learn would be helpful.  I took it because I was interested in those subjects, such as cooking, sewing, money management, child care, interior design, etc.  Since it's an education major, you do have to student teach to graduate, but most people I graduated with didn't become teachers.  Some students were already married so they became moms pretty quickly and others went on to study something else.

Bulletin I made advertising our major.

My student teaching experience was actually pretty horrible.  I decided to go to Vegas as I thought it would be a fun experience, although my experience was just the opposite.  The environment in Vegas was difficult to handle, especially being just out of college.  I had an awful cooperating teacher, who did nothing to teach me anything about teaching.  She would leave me on my own quite often without any help on how to prepare lessons and then get upset at me for how poor my lessons went.  I would cry almost everyday after teaching because it was so draining.  I passed, but I went back home to Missouri thinking that maybe teaching just wasn't for me.  I was about ready to put in papers to just substitute teach when I got a call from a friend, Teresa, from college.  She had student taught at a school in Utah and the school was looking for a part-time teacher.  My friend had gotten a job somewhere else and told the school about me.  I did an interview over the phone with them and left for Utah a few days later to teach part-time at Wasatch Jr. High.

I have to say that I really wasn't prepared to teach that quickly after graduating.  I just finished a student teaching experience that really wasn't that beneficial.  Jodelle was great though at teaching me and letting me use whatever she had to prepare lesson plans; something my cooperating teacher didn't do.  I started halfway through the year and it was a rough start.  My first two years were actually pretty rough.  Teaching is something that doesn't come naturally to me.  I really have to work hard at it.  My principal was nice, but really didn't do much to help me grow as a teacher.

Of course you can make a giant cinnamon roll instead of following my rules and making smaller ones!

I would love for you to make me a cake instead of being in class because it's for me and my boyfriend! How nice!

It wasn't until we got a new principal that I really changed my teaching methods.  This principal was definitely more strict at how things were done.  Other teachers were struggling as the old principal was more relaxed, but I actually enjoyed finally having some structure.  Because she was more strict, she didn't approve of my teaching methods and put me on probation.  It was definitely an emotional time and I had to really work hard for a month to prove I could do it. 

Check out this shoebox room display!

What an awesome critical thinking poster Mrs. Fletcher. Your kids are great!

I had so much support from Jodelle, the other teachers and Scott which brings me to my first lesson learned.

     1. Teachers really do support and stick together.  I was surprised at how much support I got during my "probation".  There were certain teachers that I knew better than others and even the ones I didn't know as well showed me their support.  There were many other times that I felt love from fellow teachers.  I am truly grateful for them and they are the ones I will miss the most.

     2. In the beginning, I was a little soft and tried to be the student's friend more than teacher.  I learned that it's okay to be "tough" and "mean".  Just like a parent, being a friend is not enough and a student will learn better when they are disciplined and have consequences for their actions.  I noticed my classroom management greatly improved when I enforce discipline into my classroom.

     3. Just like anyone else, students like it when you are yourself.  You can only keep up a teacher persona for so long.  You need to incorporate some of you into teaching.  Even if you do or say "embarrassing" things to the students, they do appreciate you being real.

     4. Preparation is key!  I noticed that once I started putting more effort into being prepared that my lessons would go more smoothly and efficiently.  It was not only helpful to me, but to Jodelle whenever we shared lessons.

     5.  You have to enjoy it for it to make any sort of difference in your life.  Once I got down the type of teacher I wanted to be, teaching became enjoyable and made it easier for me to connect with the students. 

I am grateful that I had the opportunity to teach and have a career for 4 1/2 years.  I know some people graduate and either don't know what to do with their major, can't get a job or become a mom right away and don't have the opportunity to get a job with their major.  I am glad I had the opportunity to teach before having children.  I received my tenure which makes it easier for me to return to teaching whenever I would like.  I like having a job that I know I can do as a back-up in case of emergency.  I know that being a mom to Kylie is the job I want to have right now, but it is nice to know that I could teach later on if I wanted to.

There is no doubt that I learned way more than 5 things while teaching, but these are some main ones that come to mind.  Honestly, I wouldn't have lasted 4 1/2 years without Jodelle (and the rest of the staff) and Scott believing in me.  So many times I put myself down, telling myself I was not an adequate teacher.  Sometimes it was Scott or Jodelle bringing me back up, but receiving a thank you note from a student is really what made me realize that I was doing something right.

There were definitely a lot of ups and downs during those 4 1/2 years, but I wouldn't trade the experiences I had for anything.  I loved being able to share my life with students and co-workers.  They supported me dating Scott, witnessed me getting engaged, shared joy in my marriage, were ecstatic when I became pregnant, and loved Kylie as if she was their own.  Thank you Wasatch Jr. High for an unforgettable 4 1/2 years.

Kylie's First Hockey Game

On Saturday night, we wanted to get out of the house and go do something.  There was a hockey game and we headed out to go see our first one of the season.  The Grizzlies were playing Alaska and they won 4-3!  They were ahead 2-0 by the end of the 1st period, but then started not defending very well and let the Alaskan team score.  During one of the breaks, the jumbo tron pulled up the kiss cam and Scott and I were the first ones to be shown!  I wasn't paying attention at first, so I had to look up and we kissed for the camera.  Scott was holding Kylie on his lap and I'm sure we were chosen because we had a cute baby with us.  Every time we've been to a hockey game with Brita and her girls, we've always been on the jumbo tron.  People can't resist cute babies!  I was pretty excited as I've never been on the kiss cam before! 

We had to re-create the kiss afterwards.

Kylie was great the whole time.  She was up way past her bedtime, but she was not fussy at all.  She enjoyed taking in all that was going on, so she wanted to be awake to see it all.  After the game, you can put your hand out to try to high-five the players as they go to the locker room.  Scott ran down there with Kylie, but she was still too high up for any players to notice her.  I kept imagining Scott dropping her and telling him to hang onto her tight.  Haha, I'm such a mom!  It's nice that hockey games are cheap enough where you don't feel like you're breaking the bank when you go.  I bet we'll go to a few baseball games this summer as they are cheap also.

February Goals

There were some things that I did better on this month and some things that I did not complete.  I think that's how it's always going to be.  I'm not sure I'll ever get every goal accomplished and that's okay because life gets in the way.  It's better to be flexible than to cause stress trying to get things done.  I feel good about what has been accomplished so far.  

Monthly goals--

     Craft project: I did two again this month. One was the valentine's for the grandparents and the other was Scott's valentine's present.

     Kylie's baby book: it is completed up to 5 months! I most likely won't update this every month, so this will change to activities to do with Kylie for the month. I get an e-mail from baby center that gives ideas of activities to do.

     House project:  I had a goal to complete a family gallery wall again, but I didn't do it.  I am still trying to figure out how exactly I want it to look. It's hard as it's the first thing people will see when they walk in our house and I want it to look nice. There's so many ideas, I'm just not sure what I want.

     Scott soccer game:  I didn't see him play this week as he had a lot of late night games and the one that wasn't, was a night Kylie was a little fussy.

     Date night: We went out on valentine's day

We were able to go out and do an activity as a family once a week. We took a trip down to Provo, checked out the sport's store Scheel's and went to the zoo on free admission day!  I've been pretty good at exercising too!  Lately, I've been doing 3 days a week, but I need to start doing more.  I've mostly been doing Tae-Bo by looking up videos on YouTube and watching it on the tv. I don't think Tae-Bo is as popular as it used to be, but I still enjoy it!  Just Dance can be fun, but I don't think it gives me a great workout.  Some weeks I do great at sticking to my meal plan and others, not so much.  The week of the 17th, I didn't do well at all! I think we maybe ate out 3 times. Oops. 

I also had a goal to try to have a dinner with friends as often as we could. We hosted a dinner at our house on the 22nd with an Italian theme.  I made spaghetti and meatballs for the main dish. I found this recipe off Picky Palate. I couldn't find the mozzarella balls, so I had to just cut up pieces of mozzarella. I guess I didn't fill them up enough because I couldn't really taste the cheese.  I don't know about anyone else, but that was just me.  The meatball itself was quite good though!  I also had my friends bring a salad and ingredients for Italian sodas and we had garlic bread. Yum yum! It was a good dinner.  For dessert, I wanted something Italian. I looked up recipes for cannoli, but I wasn't sure how good it would taste as I don't think I've ever had one.  So,  I looked up a recipe for homemade gelato!  I found one with perfect, easy to read directions that work with any ice cream maker.  I puréed strawberries and the strawberry gelato was delicious! It is true in that if you freeze the gelato, it doesn't have quite the same texture after.  It's a little more gritty so it's best to eat fresh when it's creamy.  For activities, we could either watch the movie The Italian Job or play the game Bang, which is an Italian game.  We opted for playing Bang and everyone had a blast!  We probably could have played the movie in the background, but we had too much fun playing the game.  While looking through our movies, we were thinking of other theme night dinners and I am excited to do more!  It's nice to be reminded that we do have friends.

Bring it on, March!  I'm ready to tackle your goals.

Free Day at the Zoo

Last Wednesday was free admission day at the Hogle Zoo.  The weather has been nice here in Utah (50's) so I wanted to get out of the house and take advantage of the nice weather.  And going to the zoo for free? Even better!  We stopped at Einstein Bagel's for breakfast beforehand (I had a gift card to use) and arrived at the zoo an hour after it opened.  I was a little worried about the crowds, but we went at the perfect time.  We were there about an hour and a half and it started to get busier as we were leaving.  I love having this goal of doing a family outing once a week.  It's nice to have a little change in the normal routine.

We checked out the monkeys first and we found out that Kylie does not like monkeys.  At least ones that jump around.  She started crying when we were standing in front of some monkeys that were jumping from branch to branch.  We saw the elephants next and I think they were waiting for food because they were just standing by a gate.

Since Kylie loves Maddie, we had to check out the cat section of the zoo.  Kylie loved it! Some of the cats were very active and walking around close to the fence or glass.  The Lynx was the most active and Kylie became excited seeing the cat so up close.  It was fun to watch her be so excited.

Polar Bear

On the way out, I wanted to stop by the elephants again to see if they were more active.  We caught the trainers doing some tricks with them! I was so excited and took a video, but it's still on Scott's phone and it's a little long, so I don't know if it would even upload to the blog.  It was super fun to watch.