Jenna's Last Day of Student Teaching

Friday, April 23, was Jenna's last day of student teaching. Her teacher, Mrs. Russell, invited us to come and visit at the end of the day. While we were there, Jenna was able to open some gifts from the class and from her teacher. It was a teary day for all the adults--and even some of the children. Jenna has had an incredible experience teaching First Grade this year and I know she'll be an amazing teacher!!

Opening a "picture" of all the children in class and a quote from them



Group hug!!



Jenna with Mrs. Davis (the Teaching Assistant)



Jenna with Mrs. Russell

(If you're wondering about Jenna's attire--it was Friday so the kids
and teachers were having a "pajama" day. When I took the
picture of Mrs. Russell and Jenna, Mrs. Russell had already
changed--but earlier she had on red satin pajamas!)

Happy Easter

For Easter this year, we celebrated at Devin and Sarah's home. We had a great Easter dinner, watched General Conference, and then had the annual Easter Egg hunt. Donald and Darin hid 90 eggs and we found them all!! As usual, the big kids and the little kid combined for one big hunt--but mostly we just loved watching the "little kid" do her stuff...

Donald's favorite egg hiding place (the wheel of the car)


Jenna and Darin in the back yard


finding a well-hidden egg...

filling the Easter basket....

Darin's Mission Call

Darin will be serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He received his call in the mail today. The family all met at Devin and Sarah's for him to open the letter.




In case you didn't hear everything, Darin will be serving in El Salvador and will leave July 28, 2010. We're all SO excited!!

Saint Patrick's Day!!

Last night we went to Jenna and Erik's for dinner. Erik (and Jenna) made us a dish from Uruguay that they enjoy. (Erik's paternal grandparents are from Uruguay.) While we were there, Jenna showed us her "costume" that she'll be wearing on Wednesday for St. Patrick's Day. She is doing her student teaching right now and she has a class of 1st graders. Her mentor teacher is big on dressing up and so Jenna is along for the ride!! She really is a cute leprechaun!!!

the "I'm-so-embarrassed" debut

the cool shoes


the "too big" hat--it's sparkly like the shoes!!

serving us--while dressed up!!

Thanks Jenna and Erik for a delicious dinner and a fun preview of Wednesday!!

Pants on the Ground...

Delainey was over on Saturday and Darin put on some music for her to dance to. Here's a little clip of some of her dancing. (She does have a hard time keeping her pants up--sorry about the full diaper view--this was towards the end and she had been dancing up a storm!!)

SNOW!

Winters in Oregon when I was growing up were great! I'm sure we had rain and cold, but pretty much I just remember the snow. Whenever it snowed, we were out of school--and what is better than a snow day!! :-) My children have grown up in North Carolina--an entire continent away--and yet they have had the same experience! We love snow because we get to stay home and play in it as everything is closed down for the duration. We also never know if we will actually get snow so we have the excitement of wondering whether it will really come....This time it came. The forecasters were calling for snow starting around 7pm on Friday night. At 6:50 (by my car clock), it began snowing. It was beautiful! It snowed most of Friday night and then it began sleeting so we can snow with a coating of ice--just right for some great sledding!Jenna getting ready to go outGetting the saucers out...

Darin came home from college and Jenna and Erik came over so all the kids headed to the hill to sled. Darin, Sarah and Delainey stayed at their home--but one year, when Delainey is a little older, we'll get them over here for the BIG hill!! ;-)

Delainey is 18 months!!

Little Delainey is 18 months old. She is such a joy to all of us and is still the topic of conversation--have you seen Delainey this week? Did you hear that Delainey....? Delainey can do....

This week I went to Devin and Sarah's to watch Delainey on Thursday night while they went to church. The door opened and she saw me. I smiled, she smiled, the smile got bigger and then she ran to me saying "yaya, yaya!!" It still melts my heart, three days later. While I was watching her, Jenna and Erik came over to see her. Before the night was over, she was saying "nenna" (Jenna) and "air-kuh" (Erik). (She puts a very definitive 'k-sound" on words that end with K: milk, book, and now Erik.) It is SO much fun to see her learning so quickly. Everytime I'm with her, I am amazed by how smart she is and how much she can do. What a perfectly delightful 18 months these have been--and I am SO excited to watch her continue to grow throughout the years! (Pictures courtesy of Sarah....) :-)