Goodbye July

Dan is officially DONE with his internship and has started his full time job as a recruiter for the Utah Foster Care Foundation! He even has his own OFFICE!

View from the door
Desk
Looking at the door
View 2 from the door

Dan has plans to hang some pictures, his diploma, get a plant, and maybe even display a picture of me! :) He is still one of very few males in his acency and is greatly appreciated by the other men in the office. I look forward to getting to know these new coworkers!

I also survived my first week (an a half) with my new class of first graders. I never posted about this, but after being asked to move up and teach second grade, they realized the class sizes would have been too big in first grade so they moved me back down. I was thrilled not to have to create a whole new curriculum! The only down side is they had to pull kids from other classes to form my new first grade class. Therefore, I only have 17 students right now. I'm basically in heaven with a class that small. I hope it lasts- but of course I also realize having a class that small means I get all the new move-ins. Anyway- They are a sweet bunch of kids!!

Funny story- I have a student that starts every sentence with the word "even." For example, "Even I gots a dog." "Even I got stung by a bee one time." "Even my grandma broke her leg." It's good times listening to this kid. :)

Here's a SWEET teacher jacket my mom made for me! She's SO crafty!! Notice all the cute patches and buttons! (You don't need to notice the preggo belly though.)

And here's just a cute picture of me and Dan with my sister's little girls Kari and Kaitlyn. I love them and miss them now that they are back home in Alabama.
Anyway- Have a Happy August everyone!

More about Life Lately

After my school year ended and we had a wonderful reunion with my Virginia friends, it was time to celebrate Dan's 26th Birthday!! His whole family (minus the grandkids) went out for dinner at a restaurant called Epic Casual Dining. It was way yummy and I would highly recommend it. We went back to the parents house for cake and ice cream and presents. Dan got some sweet new clothes that will help him look very professional and stylish for his new job. On the actual day of Dan's b-day (30th) we went out again with his family for some delicious Cold Stone ice cream! My present to him followed. Dan has told me for a long time now that any toy I think a 9 or 10 year old boy would like, he would like too! So I got him a remote control helicopter! I love you honey and I'm so glad you were born so I could marry you!! xoxox

In other exciting news- my family was in town visiting from Alabama and California from June 20th-July 9th! It was awesome! My sister and her hubby live in AL and he is currently finishing architecture school (Auburn University) via an internship in Europe. Since my sister didn't want to be in AL by herself for 9 weeks, she decided to come out to CA to stay with my parents. Also, my brother who was living in CA, has come back out to BYU for school and so the WHOLE family got to come together here in UTAH! (Minus my brother-in-law in Europe, of course. We sure missed him!) While they were here dropping my brother off, they also threw me my first baby shower (as stated in previous post). Also while they were here, my sister decided to go visit her hubby in Europe, on a cruise!! So that left my mom and I with her two daughters (Kari-3 1/2, Kaitlyn 1) for a week (My dad went back to CA for a few days to work). It's a good thing I'm done with school right. :) While we were babysitting, here are some of the fun activities we did.

Swimming! (Reed, Emma, and Kari) Reed and Emma are a niece and nephew from Dan's side of the family.
Fun at the park with Kari Clark Planetarium at the Gateway (Kaitlyn and Kari)
The fountains at the Gateway (cute Kari)- notice my baby bump is growing. Kaitlyn wasn't too keen on the water. p.s- These pictures really don't do any sort of justice in showing how cute these two girls really are! I got pretty attached the week my mom and I babysat them and I was pretty depressed the day they left. Stupid hormones!
Everyone at the park in a nice dogpile! Kaitlyn's on top, then Kari, my bro Jonathan, Dan to the side, and the three sisters on the bottom! Mom and dad didn't want to join in. I wonder why? Thanks to my mom for taking most of these pictures.

We also celebreated the 4th of July with Dan's side of the family up in Midway. They had the traditional Bike Parade.

Fun Games! Dan's showing us his sweet hula-hoop skills.
And here are the three pregnant girls on Dan's side of the family! We're all about 2 months apart.

And here's my latest belly shot. I'm officially six months preggo! Yeah for the last trimester!


Also in other news- I've been working on getting my classroom ready for the upcoming school year. Gotta love year-round! I start next week with my new class. Wish me luck! Dan is almost done with his internship hours at Utah Foster Care Foundation and then he can become a real employee with a salary and benefits!! Woo-hoo! Go Danny Boy!

p.s.- Congrats to Dan's sister Brynn (and Brian) for giving birth to a new beautiful baby girl TODAY!! Stay tuned for more pictures of that!

Life Lately

Since the chalk art festival a LOT has happened! This post is going to be quite random- I'm sure. But here's a run down of what's been happening lately in our lives.

I have had some family visiting town. Hooray!! And because we weren't sure when this particular sister of mine would be coming out to visit again- we had my first Baby Shower! It was so much fun and people are SO generous and thoughtful! I received many adorable outfits, extremely useful supplies, and many incredibly soft blankets. So now I'll be working on my first batch of thank you notes. This is a picture of me and my niece Kari with a "cake" made out of diapers. My mom is so crafty. What a cute decoration!

Shortly after the baby shower I finished my second year of teaching!! The end of the school year had many fun field trips, a field day, and our program.

Discovery Gateway

SLC Public Library (Children's Section)

Utah Museum of Natural History

First Grade Program (Sorry they're blurry)

On the night of my last day of school, me and Dan got together with some of my old friends from Virginia! Some of the girls went for our pedicures, we had dinner at Tepanyakis (sp?), and then we just hung out and talked. We love reminiscing!

The finished product! Sorry my baby belly is kind of in the way.

I love these VA peeps!

So, this is getting longer than expected. I'll have to post more later about Dan's Birthday and about my family being in town. Hope you enjoy this update for now. Peace out!!

Chalk Art

Wow! It's amazing what some people can do with a little (actually a LOT of) sidewalk chalk. As we posted in a previous post, the organization where Dan has been interning- The Utah Foster Care Foundation, sponsored/hosted the Chalk Art Festival at the Gateway Mall during Father's Day weekend. The weather was perfect and the artists were QUITE impressive. There was also a great deal of awareness raised for foster care!
Here's Dan looking quite official on a golf cart. He worked SO hard this weekend outlining the chalk art squares, running errands, distributiung gift bags from the foundation, and making sure the artists were well taken care of.

Here's some of Dan's family enjoying the art work. (The mother-pushing Joseph, Swa, Brian hiding behind Swa, and Brynn.)

Here's me with my sweet, awesome husband (with my baby belly and all).

This was one of my favorite pieces. A beautiful mermaid-all done with CHALK!

Here's a bunch of Dan's favorite drawings. Hope you enjoy!

These last two received the People's Choice Awards for Adults and Students, respectively.

FYI- The Foster Care Foundation has offered Dan a job, and he accepted! He will be starting as a foster parent recruiter with the Ogden office as soon as his practicum hours are done. Salaried and benefited with a baby coming is such great news!!
Sorry for the flippin huge post, but we hope you enjoyed the pictures!

Another day late

Fathers are so special! That's what our ward primary sang on Sunday and it's so true! I know I'm a day late (again) and I also realize my dad and Dan's dad probably rarely (if ever) read our blog, BUT I still wanted to pay tribute to these wonderful men who raised us!

The primary song says, "Father's are so special, with a very special love. They watch us and protect us. They guide us and direct us back to our home above." Our fathers have always set an amazing example for us. They have taught us so many gospel principles by the way they live. They are so smart financially and have passed some of that knowledge on to us (at least as much as we can understand). :) Growing up I would never want to do anything to disappoint him or let him down. My respect and love for these men is incomparable.

I'm also so thankful for my husband (future father!). I know he will follow in his father's footsteps as I have already seen in many ways. HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

Me and my daddy Mike
Dan's dad Dave (with Dan's mom). He had to be a cardboard stand-in at our wedding because he was serving as mission president in Brasil at the time.

Our WONDERFUL parents!!