Happy birthday's to Ashton and Logan!!

Last Weekend John and I went up to visit the grandkids and their mommy and daddy. Ashton and Logan have birthdays a week apart and they decided to share them together. We came up to celebrate with them. I worked my am kinder day and then left after the kids went home to catch our plane. When we got there, Ashton likes to play coy with me, just ignoring me, whatever Ashton.

So..... Taylor serenaded us with her guitar. Not too bad. However, turns out she doesn't really want to practice so it is harder to play without the practicing~Keep practicing Tay!!!

He's getting closer!! Peek-a-BOO!!! I got you! He is such a flirt!

Logan is.......can you guess????

Yep, 3

And Ashton.............?

you guessed it, 5!

Grampa and Taylor

Ashton and his new little friend. It meows, but sounds like "gramma" Kinda weird!

This is their outdoor mall, kinda like Victoria Gardens. This is a fun fountain, it squirts to music. The best was to the Beach Boys! Fun!!!!

Taylor and Marc, in background.

Another great shot of the fun fountain!

Taylor being a monkey

Kids playing in the kid fountain. They loved it. Ethan was kinda a maniac, maniac, maniac, but then......that's Ethan. Anyone out there have an Ethan?????? And you know what I mean....

And here we are, too cute, sharing the Batman cake and candles, what more could ya ask for????? Let's see..........no spit on the cake would be one thing!!

Not to worry, we bought us a fabulous ice cream cake! AND it was good!!!!

Awwwwwwwww, everyone trying to help. Not too sure what Ethan is trying to do here.

But all things must come to an end.........

The End!

Too Freakin' cute!!!!!

We went to Isaac and Luke's Ball game a few Saturdays ago and they were so cute!

They looked so little playin out there on the field.

Isaac ready to slam that ball!

(Who's on first?)

Isaac's on 2nd

And made a run into home!!
(2nd player)

Batter up ~ Luke

GO, Luke, GO!!!

Look at those little legs fly!!

Sooo dang cute!

Isaac is given the once over~

Don't even think about runnin!

Got the ball and..................

Well, somehow I lost the picture, but he was OUT!!

Our beautiful daughter and grandkids!!!

I just had to share these. Sarah had her friend take these maternity pictures and they turned out so gorgeous!

She is just beautiful!

just messin with the camera

Just some pics I took and slapped on here. Was playin with the camera. Kinda liked how the bird of paradise fanned behind the gerainium

Easter & Jada's 2nd b~day!

We had a fun Easter. We had Sarah's family, Aaron Escher's family, some Friends from our ward, the Draneys, my mom and later, Amy's family joined us for an Easter egg hunt and dessert, Jada's birthday.

Easter egg hunts are the best! We are off and running to find the perfect eggs! Mom's helping the little girls to find their eggs......Go Juliana and Chloe! Isaac was the only boy. Luke was sick and stayed home with his daddy.

(Sarah took him to the Dr.s today, had 2 ragging ear infections, poor baby!)

This didn't stop Isaac from scoring the most eggs found!! Just look at the intentness on his face.

Chloe & Juliana looking for eggs or worms?? not sure.

Oh the joy! The girls are in heaven.

Haylee and her new little friend, Aaron & Tasha's daughter, Sadie.

So intense..Just what are they discussing anyway?

Our little ducks all in a row.

Still looking????? Haven't they found those eggs yet?

Great Gramma checkin in on Haylee's treasures...What is she up to??

Hope she doesn't try to reach into her basket! Just look at g-gramma's hand,

looks a little suspicious to me....

I think we may be done????

Yeah...You got the most Isaac!!! Good job.

wink, wink to you too.

Then we decided to serenade.

Can't you tell they are Sarah and Amy's girls??

Happy birthday Jada!

She looks like she just swallowed the canary now doesn't she????

Is Spring Break over already???????

Well....Spring break is about to come to an end for me....

So....

Just what did I do for these glorious 5 days??????

Here it is in pictures!!!

Had Sarah's family here to start it off, Sunday night.

Beautiful Juliana

Juliana & Jada

Of course, shopping @ Victoria Gardens, always a must do!!


Especially here!!!!
My favorite place!


Then On The Border with friends, love Mexican food!!!
The very best!

Wednesday morning, 6am, yes, I said AM,
John and I took the missionaries to Redlands Temple.

Went to my school to clean and organize to get ready for the rest of the year,

only 11 weeks, not that I am counting or anything.

Cleaned up around the koi pond.

Took a huge lantana plant out that was choking everything else out.

Looks so much better, ahhhhhhhhh.

Then last night I decided my bedroom needed a little face lift.

So I went with black and white.

I love it!!!

I even had 3 black and white pictures I took,

from one of our trips to Mammoth, to put above our bed.

So there ya have it. No trips to anywhere fancy, just relaxed and did whatever the mood struck me. Of course, it's never long enough, especially when one is used to being on year round, or single track, with a month at a time off. This is the first year of traditional, kinda hard to get used to, but what are ya gonna do???? Like I said...only 11 weeks, then, 2 months off!!!!

P.S. so Sarah & Misty, what do you think of the colors??

Our only March Birthday!! Happy B-day Jeff

Happy Birthday Jeff !! Sarah and Jeff took the family down to Anaheim to Embassy Suites. It's down by Disneyland and Marc and Misty stay there when they go there. It has an indoor pool and full breakfast. They had a great time, and are here for his birthday dinner. Jeff is a wonderful asset to our family and we are so glad he is part of us! He is a great dad and husband to his sweet family.

It's Spring!!

So, it is finally Spring!! AND spring break! How much better can it get?? We had both kinder classes all week last week and it wasn't too bad. We had things pretty much under control, too much for them to do to get into to much trouble, except of course the few that will always find a way! Just wanted to check in and bore some of ya ta death! John and I were going to go somewhere, but...hmmm, he has theapy, Drs. appt. temple, meetings, etc, you get the point. I was going to go visit Marc, Mist & the kids. They aren't off though, and the air prices were not that great. and I kinda just want to chill. Maybe, if the weather gets really nice, we can go to the beach for a day. maybe....Well, I love reading all your blogs out there, you keep me entertained, that's for sure! Have a great Spring!!!!

Lesson

I taught my RS lesson today. It was on Missionary work. I looked at my lesson last month and when I saw that it was on missionary work, my head was filled with tons of ideas as to ways to teach it. I had special speakers come in to give parts of the lesson. I had our missionaries come in and tell us what characteristics missionaries should have to be effective missionaries, and what should a missionary teach and how they should teach it. Then I had our ward mission leader tell what ways can we actively seek opportunities to share the gospel with others and how we can involve our families in missionary work. I also asked one of our Sister Missionaries to speak on what ways has the Holy Ghost guilded your efforts to share the Gospel. She told a great personal story. My final speaker was Sister Barajas, (Coral Ward-Barajas), a return missionary to talk to us . The speakers were fabulous and they absolutly fulfilled my vision for my lesson. For my handouts, I made missionary tag magnets, that turned our rater fabulous I might say! And passed out life savers and told them to save a soul. I was very pleased with today and just wanted to share it.

Life as a Teacher......

Life as a teacher....I've decided I could pretty much write a book about my class and it would be on the best sellers list! Most likely as a comedy!! Today as my precious darlings were working so diligently on a phonics page, which is cutting and gluing letters to make CVC words, pig, fig, dig, using the short vowel helper i. At the end of this page is a sentence strip that they have to cut and glue words in order. ***Note here...I have the example up in front of them....One of my cuties comes up and brings her finished product. Not only were none of the CVC words placed in the proper order, her sentence was hilarious. There was a picture of a dog, and these words; a pit, dig, can. I can't even remember the sentence, but in the 3 squares she was suppose to place pig, or fit, or fig, was this......the picture of the dog, the p and the i. So I interpreted it as dog pee. It was funny at the time, and maybe you had to be there, or maybe you need to be a kinder teacher to get it, I don't know, maybe I am so tired anything is funny in my class. (So if you think it was a little funny let me know) Also, I will ask my kids to put their hands on their head if they hear me, or something like that, so today, I say, put your finger on your nose if you hear me. And of course, one has to put his finger IN his nose! AND of course without missing a beat, I say, NOT IN YOUR NOSE, on your nose. (That would be my spitter) Oh and on Friday, he hit someone, why I ask him? Oh, I don't want him to sit by me. Well, that will do it! OH I NEED and am ready for spring vacation!!! Let's see....13 school days left! I can do this, can't I????

Hmmm, update on one of my previous little fellas

OK, I just had the Longest SST ever! 2 and a half hours!! (for you non -teachers~ student study team, meeting with principal, teachers, parent, etc...) Anyway, this was on the little guy that his mom reamed me in Dec. And then her son was quickly moved into another class, thank you very much, cuz I was so done with her! She was OK throughout the meeting, until the last few minutes when of course she had to bring up the 'incident' of that day. OK, let me tell you how she saw this; "she came into my room and found her 'precious' crying while the rest of the class was eating lunch and I wouldn't let him eat lunch" WOW, that sure sounds like something I would do, huh???? After she gave her account of the 'incident' I was asked what really happened. Well, she was never IN my room and she didn't see her little guy until HE decided he wanted to go get lunch. AT which time he saw mommy and jetted to her instead of going to the end of the line with his class for lunch, which they had just left for! I told them he was never in trouble and was sitting in the back at his own free will. She apologized and admitted that she 'jumped' to conclusions and just saw her little boy crying while the rest of the class was going to lunch. My VP said it was too bad she felt so bad for so long on a miscommunication. Whatever, I am over it, and I think she may be too. She still got really angry at the 'new teacher' cuz she doesn't want him on a behavior contract. Sorry lady! We have 20 kids to control, yours cannot just do as he pleases like he does at home! How lame is that? You know~ kids are great, it's the parents of some of these little guys that makes ya wonder! OH, and the 'cutie' I have now~~he is spitting in my students faces, so nice!! And I have yet another one that is on a behavior contract because he cannot shut his mouth or sit still. He came in yesterday looking like he had about 1 hour sleep. He looked terrible, big ol' bags and circles around his eyes. I asked him what time he went to bed, and he said 8. I said those aren't 8:00 eyes. More like midnight eyes! Boy, I tell ya, what do these parents think??? I just don't get it. I just want to take them home with me and take care of them. (Not so much spitting boy though). Thanks for letting me share!!! Teachers rule!!!!!!!!

Our New Bishop

Well, I have been waiting for three weeks now to post this! John was sustained as the Bishop of the Terra Vista Ward today. Wow, I still can't believe it! He will be so great! It was a fabulous Sunday and weekend. We had our family, Marc and Misty, Sarah and Jeff, and Amy, (Clark was home so very ill!! We missed you Clark!) and John's brother and sister in law, Jim & Debbie, Debbie's parents, John's mom and step father, Amy's inlaws, the Beesleys, 11 out of 15 grandkids, (one of which just now took a blue marker to ALL my walls and doors and pictures, so I am NOT HAPPY right now) I am ignoring it and letting the mom's deal with it!!!! So as I was saying.....We are all excited and know that he will do the best job as our new Bishop. So now since he is retired, he now has a full time job. Working for the Lord! What better job could you ask for?? I know all the members will be very supportive of him. I am proud of him and will look forward to sitting with my best friends, Jim and Marie for the next 6 years!! Love you honey!

PS~ The marker came off!!! and I didn't take a picture of him today. It was too crazy, so next week I will try to take a nice 'Bishop' pic and post it!