misc pictures

These are pictures of my yard this morning and of the preparedness fair that was at Home Depot today. Neil was able to be apart because he's on St. Mark's Hazmat team.

Andy's band performance

another year...more kids

Today was the last day (most likely) of small reading groups at Woodrow. I have totally loved working with these kids this year. Even though I had my challenges, if only one of these kids reads better then it was all worth it. So let me introduce you to my most AWESOME kiddos of the 2010-2011 school year...

Mrs. Whipples class..Maurice, Mohammed, Sarh, Maria, and Danika

Mrs.Wilson's class..Kaleb, Freddy, Andre, and Valasi

Miss Mumford's class..Jose, Ian, Cesar, Edwin, Mari, and Adriana
The class that is missing is Ms. Chappell's class..Trinity, Frank, Gage, Jessica, Kobe, and Tania.

Andy turns 12!!!

Andy turned 12 last week. I can't believe that he's out of primary and in Young Mens now. He was so excited on Sunday to be going to his first Young Mens meeting. I loved how the older boys in our ward really took Andy under their wing and showed him around and really took care of him.
Andy was also ordained a Decon yesterday. That was one of the most beautiful things I think I've ever seen. My Dad was able to ordain him and it was just wonderful. I can't even begin to explain how strong the spirit was. I, being mom of course, was an emotional wreck. I was crying through the whole thing.
So, in tribute to him turning 12 please enjoy these photos of my Andy through the years.
about 2 weeks old
1 year old
2 years old
3 years old
4 years old
5 years old
6 years old
7 years old
8 years old
9 years old
10 years old
11 years old

Me...the clutz

I just had to put my most brilliant move on here today. I've been cleaning my house for Andy's birthday party tomorrow and I decided that my kitchen floor needed a good scrubbing. Don't ask me how I did it, but as I'm scrubbing my floor I somehow break my finger. Am I the worlds biggest clutz or what?

Only Nicholas

Nick won a contest for making the best rabbit in his class a few days ago. He came home from school and showed me his prize, but he was very sad. He said that the 2nd grade teachers who judged the rabbits laughed at his because it had "bumps". I asked him "What do you mean bumps?" He pointed right at my chest and said "You know, like your bumps."

what a day

Normally I don't post stuff like this, but I just had to share my crazy day today. I blame all this on Felicia since she's the one it started with. Felicia decided to start the day off by leaving her US history book at home. So, I have to run it up to her before I go to work which is no big deal. And, while I'm at the Jr. High I am able to get the registration packet for Andy. Everything is going ok until, on the way to work, my truck breaks down. It starts making really bad noises and I can smell something burning which is never a good thing. So I pull over and call Neil. Thank goodness I'm not to far away from home, so he tells me to just turn around and go home. He calls his brother who is nice enough to come pick up me and the boys and bring us to school. I get to work and it wasn't bad, but I was worrying about how Neil was going to make it to his class in Farr West because it decided to start snowing like crazy (and according to the weather we had a 20% chance of "light" snow showers..HA!). So, I was just not in the best of moods at work. Neil calls around 2:00 pm and tells me that the truck is fixed. It wasn't the part that he thought it was, so it was much easier to fix. Everything is going ok until Neil gets up to Farr West. As he pulls into the driveway of where his class is at the truck breaks down again! The new part we just bought was totally shredded and messed up! Neil's brother to the rescue again. He went and bought another part and drove up there to fix our truck.
What's funny is usually on a day like this I keep thinking what else can go wrong, but not today. Today all I could see was the Lord's hand in everything. In Roy, Neil's brother, being home sick instead of at work which meant he could run me and the boys to school. The truck breaking down exactly at the best places (down the road from my house and right at Neil's class). And, Roy being able to drive up to Farr West to fix our truck again since it isn't that hard of a part to fix on your own. I'm so very grateful for all the little tender mercies Heavenly Father gave us today. Even though it was a challenging day, I could totally see how he was blessing us all the way through it.