My Little Ones Are Growing Up

This is my 3rd year teaching and this week has been the start of a new semester. I get all new classes and new students (which I hate starting all over again) but this semester I have been so surprised at the students that have been walking through my door. Some I haven't seen since they were freshman 2 years ago and OH MY GOSH, they are all grown up! I feel bad when I embarrass them by saying "Look how grown up you are!!". They must want to kill me!

Also.... I have this advisory class. It's a class that you have 1 time a week to help them work on high school portfolios that every student need to graduate (dumb). The kids don't get graded, and its really a nonsense waste of time. Anyway. You have the same kids from 9th grade to when they graduate in 12th. So when I started, I got THE MOST OBNOXIOUS 9th graders ever! I spent most of the time sending them to the office and babysitting them so they wouldn't destroy something in my classroom! I could not stand Wednesdays when I would have to see them! I would tell them that maybe I would like them by the time they were seniors...and you know what??? They are growing on me! I actually enjoy them now. They are juniors and they are witte and funny and still often annoying, but they are no longer animals running wild in my room! The don't look to destruct things and run loose in the hallways. They are happy just chatting and doing homework. They even complete the work I give them to do on their portfolios.

I might even go as far as saying I will miss them once they graduate! Maybe. :)

In-Law In Love

With Valentine's Day around the corner, I thought Jake and I would do this activity for Family Home Evening where we write what we love about our in-laws. We are so grateful to have such wonderful families and so many positive things to share:

Jake wrote about his In Laws:

Suzanne- caring, involved in our lives, forgiving, loves the temple, good grandma

Bill- Intellectual, Creative, Hardworking, Loves gospel and priesthood, good grandpa

Jess- Funny, Carefree, Buys me cool clothes, Non judgemental

Bryant- Great Pianist, Loves Will, Laughs Funny, Good at Guitar Hero

Kristie- Exemplary Mother, Talented, Supportive of Bryant, Makes Cool Cars Cake!

Stacey wrote about her In Laws:

Linda- Creative Genius, Supportive of me, Always Willing to help, Loves her Zoey

Lloyd- Loves his kids, Serves our Country, Good at so many things, Good sense of humor, Loves Zoey

Jess- ambitious, fearless, loves music, not boy crazy

Josh- Has special relationship with zoey, caring and loving

Justin- awesome sense of style, smart, always cares about how we are

Jordan- Not afraid to be his own person!!!!

Jared & Abby- Love Zoey, makes others feel happy when you are around them, easy to love

New Pics of Zoey (3 ish months)

I have become that person that only posts about their baby!! LOL.

Katy did these pictures for me this week! She is just awesome and I love soo many of them! It also helps that Zoey is adorable!

Happy Zoey

Letting her cry it out?!?!

I am sitting here wondering whether i should go in and rescue my baby or not who is crying in her crib. Its 10:20pm, and I put her down at 8:45pm. At 8pm she was falling asleep in my arms and I thought, I better get her in her bath so she can get to sleep cause she is tired! Is the bath to blame??

She keeps waking every 5-15 min. Every time I go in and put her binkie in her mouth and rub her cute little head and she falls back to sleep. (until she wakes back up!) This has been going on for a few weeks now and honestly...I can't keep doing this. I work full time. The second I get home, Jake is ready to unload her to me cause he needs a break himself before work. But, then I don't get a break and I live for 9pm when my baby is supposed to go to bed and I am supposed to get a few hours to accomplish SOMETHING!! Some nights I just want to cry. Some nights I do cry. Some nights I just get flat out angry and then I have to let her cry because I don't want to be angry around her.

I wish we had family close by. I wish I could have Jake home at nights.

By the way...I went and soothed her back to sleep. It's not the easiest to just let her cry. Plus I have been reading these books that tell me I am creating a sleep fear in my child when I don't go in when she crys. I also read books that say babies need to cry it out a bit. I just don't know what I believe yet?!

Oh she is waking up I think? or is she laughing in her sleep?? Oh my gooey! I just love her to pieces. Yep waking up! Gotta go!

Zoey laughing. Got it on video.

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Apparently she likes big dogs. Maybe I can get a Husky, now.

Zoey 3 Months

I can't believe she is already 3 months!! We love our little Zoey (Gooey)

Things we know about Zoey:

~Her Binkie is MANDATORY to go to sleep!

~ When she burps, you have less than 10 seconds before it all comes up!

~ She thinks she needs her hands in her mouth to talk

~ She doesn't care if she has a dirty diaper

~ She hates being on her tummy

~ She likes to just sit and observe and is super alert

~ She is really photogenic

~ She gets grumpy if she is held too long.

Could She Be Any Cuter??

Here is the pic Jake sent me of Zoey hanging out in Utah! She is 11 1/2 weeks here!

My New Blog : Journey To Cupcakes

So... I have been getting really serious about my cupcake shop. I have been working on a business plan, scoping out other cupcake shops, working on recipes and flavors, logos, packaging etc...

So to further motivate me, I started journeytocupcakes.blogspot.com. I think it will be fun to see the step by step to achieving this in the next year or so.

So check it out.

Zoey's Baby Blessing

Zoey's baby blessing was so special. We had her blessing on Tues December 29th in Jake's hometown. We held the blessing at the church around the corner from the Nelson's house. We had a short program including some words for Lloyd (Jake's dad), the blessing, and a special gift giving tradition from Sharon (Linda's close friend). Jake gave such a sweet blessing, and Zoey stopped crying the second he started with the prayer. She really wanted to listen!! It was so wonderful to be able to have Zoey blessed with a name in the church. She is such a precious gift and we loved being able to share this with people we love. Linda worked so hard to put it all together for us and to have a great dinner afterward where we could all mingle and enjoy being around family and friends.
Zoey (10 1/2 weeks) looked beautiful in her blessing dress made by Linda.

Zoey and I wore matching bracelets. She also wore one made by Linda which is in this pic

Me and my Gooey

Zoey with grandma and grandpa

Our little fam!

Flyin To Utah

I have had anxiety for months knowing we would be flying with Zoey to Utah when she was 10 weeks! Well, the day finally came, and it actually all went ok!! We flew from Albany to Chicago and then to Salt Lake. All our flights were on time, and everyone was super nice to us, and Zoey was such a good girl! On our flight from Chicago to Salt Lake they let us bring on the car seat and she just fell asleep.

I am not going to become a frequent flier or anything, but I am glad to know that we did this. I might even think of doing it again one day, but ya know...I heard it only gets worse the older they get!

Christmas 2009 Zoey's First Christmas

This year was a very special Christmas for us because it was Zoey's first Christmas! We kept all the same traditions as always such as Christmas Eve at our house with the Hettingers, opening our Christmas pj's christmas eve, opening presents christmas morning in the CORRECT order, going to White Plains to see mom's side. then finishing the day at the Hettinger's.

It was so fun to see Charly so excited for Christmas. If you asked her what she wanted for Christmas, all she would say is "a purple present". So Santa made sure to wrap all her presents in purple princess wrapping paper. I can't wait to see Zoey ripping into presents in a few years! For now, Zoey was content to wear her new pink bow and be cuddled in her pink Christmas pjs.

Jess finds a way to make the most of her gifts!

Charly posing with her princess dresses!

Charly feeding baby Zoey, waiting to open presents!

Zoey and mommy!