Cuter Picture

Jaden was nice enough to go get my purse which had my camera in it so here is a better and way cute of Natalia. She fell asleep in her doorway. If only every night could be that easy.

My Baby Girl

Sorry it's not a very good picture, it's from the web cam on the computer. I got a new computer and it's so much fun but that's not the reason for the bad picture. I had an anxiety attack last night and they make me extremely exhausted and physically ill feeling for the next 24 hours. I am sitting on the couch letting the kids watch tv. I'm such a bad mother. Natalia had her doctors appointment on thursday and she again didn't like her shots. She is growing but not gaining much weight. They aren't really concerned about it. She looks happy and healthy.
She has started to throw some serious tantrums. I swear she heard the doctor say tantrum and brought it to a whole new level. Don't try out of sight out of mind with her, it doesn't work.

Height: 29 1/4 (57 percentile)
Weight: 17 lb. 15.5 ounces (7 percentile)
Head: 44 (44 percentile)

She takes a couple of steps without holding on but still isn't sure about it. She likes comfortable and familiar.
She has a little stuffed bunny that she carries around alot.
Loves the cat (it's not mututal though so we try to keep them seperate for boths best interest.)
Loves to sing as my students found out the other day.
Favorite person is probably daddy, but sometimes mommy
Loves being outside and eating the dirt.
Curious about the darn ants that I can't seem to get rid of in the house right now. Hopefully they don't go in her mouth.
Finally will take a sippy cup.
Hates her headbands.
Loves chocolate, thanks to Grandma Arnold :)
Loves the kitchen but we are doing better about pulling things out.
Screamed in church yesterday for fun and everyone started to laugh. Which in turn she gave a big smile and was so proud of herself. Hopefully it doesn't become a habit.
Still has hives but we are working on that. We are testing detergent right now. It might be when she get a virus she gets hives though. Everytime they get really bad she has a fever or something. I haven't really figured out the link and the doctors think it's just coincidince.

Teacher Job Cuts

As many of you know Tyson and I are both teachers in our area. Tyson is full time and I am part time. I love being part time because it's more of a hobby than anything else and I can be home with my family. As far as we know I still have my position at my school and will have it. My district has allready let those people not returning know they don't have a job next year. However, Tyson might not have a job next year. They are trying to get him a place in the district but it isn't 100% going to happen. It all depends on whether he can pass the basic math praxis exam on Saturday. We need your prayers. Right now we would like to stay here and get a little more of our debt taken care of before we move. With that said, we will move where we have to so if you hear of jobs in social studies/math we would love to hear about them. Especially if they are in Oregon or Boise area. Please pray that we will know what to do and if we have to move that opportunities will open up.
This is extremely hard for me right now and don't really want to talk much about it. I love my job and if we move I know that I probably won't find another part time music position. I have worked really hard to get the choirs to the point that I have and want to watch them as they grow into the huge program I envision. I know that is extremely selfish but right now I can't help it. I am really struggling with the situation and have alot of opinions about it, and they aren't positive. I know I should be more positive but when your the one suffering from other peoples poor decisions it's really hard to see the good. I think my biggest fear is that I won't be able to give my children the kind of life they deserve. Right now that isn't much and it's ok but I don't want it to become less. Anyway, please keep us in your prayers.

1 Year

My baby girl is one years old. We have our doctor appointment on thursday so I can't give you her stats. And, I will put a picture up then. Natalia can stand and walk (with a finger). She is not so sure about letting go of my finger when she is walking yet. She is a little twirp though. Today in church I was the jungle gym for her entertainment. I was so excited when she went to sleep. During sunday school.

Natalias Birthday Party

Jessica took the pictures of the birthday party so you will have to wait for me to get those from her. I decided to try making a cake with fondant and layered. I have to say for my first cake I was very happy. I loved the colors and everything. I got the idea from pinkcakebox.com. It's cake company based out of new jersey and i was browsing one day and came across this cake on their website. I made some changes of my own. I used a real tiarra and princess wand instead of fondant ones so Natalia can play dress up with them some day. Natalia loves her little kitchen and is currently opening the dawers and pulling everything out, putting it back in and shutting the doors, putting stuff in the sink and taking it out. She is just so cute. She was the perfect birthday girl and put a show on for everyone. Some of the things she did. Lynda, the band teacher I work with got her a little stuffed dog. It got the immediate approval by going in her mouth. Temala got her a baby cabbage patch doll. It got an immediate hug and "ahhh". So Cute!!!!!! Janie got her a pekka boo pop up book and Natalia was just in ahh with all the action on every page. I made little princess suckers, princess wands, and paper crowns for all the kids to take home. Oh, I also made butterfly sugar cookies for everyone to decorate. The kids loved it and if they are anything like Jaden he is still playing with his crown and septor. Anyway more pictures to come later. Hope you enjoy the ones I got though. By the way, we celebrated her birthday early. It's actually on Thursday of this week (the 15th).

6 Year Anniversary

Tyson and I have been married for 6 years as of the 9th of April. I really can't believe it's been six years. In those six years we have both graduated from college, had Jaden and Natalia, both teach in our dream jobs (just not our dream area), become home owners, adopted a cat and a dog, kept the turtle alive and tons more. Here our some pictures of our wedding when I was young and skinny. Now I'm not as skinny and young anymore but still having the time of my life.




Tyson got tickets to the Dodge National Circuit Rodeo that comes to pocatello. It was so much fun to go to a pro rodeo. During the summer we go to lots of rodeos becuse they have about every weedend in Rigby but it was so nice to go to a pro rodeo. Natalia loved the horses and just whent wild watching them all warm up. A couple of the highlights. One of the saddle bronc riders got thrown over the fence when his bronc hit the fencing, he stood up ok. Another saddle bronc hit the fence and fell over while his rider was still on. A bull bucked his rider off and then proceded to take out the bull fighter and stomp on him for a good 20 seconds. He stood up just fine and continued to fight all the other bulls. The little girl that won muttin bustin, when her sheep came out of the gate it took off for the heard and rammed her into another sheep, launching her off of the one she was riding. She was ok just a little shooken up. She didn't mind though because she got a trophy that was taller than her. All the sheep had pink ribbons painted on their rear and pink bows on the ears for breast cancer awareness. (It was are you tough enough to wear pink night). Another little boy riding his sheep fell underneath it almost immediatly and he held on for dear life as that thing drug him through the dirt. He eventually fell off as the sheep drug it's rear over his face. He quickly got up and spit what ever might have come in contact with his mouth.

natalia in the cupboard

nayalia loves the cupboard lately. the second i took something out she took the opportunity to climb in.

Easter Outfits

Since Easter is conference weekend Jaden and Natalia wore their Easter outfits last Sunday. Look how cute they are and I must say Natalias dress turned out perfect.

zoo

when we went and visited amber we whent to the zoo. We were supposed to go on her p-day which was friday but it was snowing so we ended up going across the street to This Is The Place and whent to the zoo without her on Saturday which was a little chilled but a whopping 50 degrees and sunny. Natalia loved the carousel. Jaden loved the train. It was cute becuase Jadens favorite animal was the meercats and Natalias was the bunny of all things. She is in love with bunnies. Every animal grabbed her attention though and she talked to every single one of them it was so adorable. Jaden had to much stimulation he was running from one spot to the other. He was really disapointed when he couldn't see the bears because they are redoing the cages and have temporarily been moved to the Portland Zoo. Jaden was a bit confused he said, "Grandma has Bears?"

20 Pounds!

I have lost a total of 20 pounds as of Sunday. I promised a picture of me after this monumental goal of mine. I am wearing my new favorite dress that I made. You can't tell taht I have lost a ton of weight in this dress but if you look at my face and my collar bone area you can tell. I am way excited and hope that when I go to Oregon in June that I have lost 30 pounds and weigh 150 pounds.

Budget Cuts

Well, I have alot to post about Natalia and Jaden but I will probably do that tomorrow. I just wanted to let everyone know that we are facing budget cuts here just like everyone else. I really feel that our music programs are safe but you never know.
Also, in the community I work in they are very sports focused and I'm just not that used to it becuase lets face it, I went to Springfield High School. The reason I am telling you this is because we just had 7 of our 9 students make it to state solo festival. Now, if this was a sport the district would find every penny to send these students to state without any costs. But, since this is music we are talking about our principal has asked each student to pay their own way. Now, they planned on this because I didn't let them sign the papers without understanding that, I also made sure each parent knew the situation. It still doesn't make it right. It really bothers me that when I had one athlete make it to State Cross Country we bent head over heals finding her a ride there and back for her to just ride home with her mom and leave me on a bus all by myself with another team. But, like I said because it's music we won't do that. Our principal hasn't even congradulated those students. He asked me to do that for him.
I love music and I know how important it is in a persons life. I have seen it every day of teaching. There is nothing more rewarding than watching a student be touched by a peice of music. I want every student and child, including my own to be able to have that experience without any limitations. That's why I fight for support every day at my school district, and I was told in college that I would have to fight but I never thought I would have to fight this much. Because I love music so much I will always fight until I see a change in how we think, but it is becoming so exhausting.
I jsut don't understand why peopel feel that music isn't important when they have done so many studies on how much music helps you in other disciplines in life and how well it helps people with anger management or autism or even physical ailments. Ahhhhh!!!!!! Sorry, I just had to vent. However, if anyone has any suggestions or feelings they would like to express I would love to hear them.
Leaving on a positive note. I had audtions again and so far my numbers are growing again for next year. They are growing consistently by about 5-10 more students every year. I would really like the program to double over a year but that's alot to ask. My beginners choir is going from 15 to 16 members (but about three more boys than this year) My girls choir is going from 9 to 21 girls. For next year I decided to cut how many people I let into the top mixed choir. I won't let more than 25 people in that choir and am allready at 22. This year I have 35 but that's just way to much I feel for a choir that should be hard to get into. I plan on having more people audtion before the end of the year and the beginning of next year, it always happens because of move ins and scheduling conflicts. But as of right now those are my numbers. The district will be really happy about that and it makes me feel good because the hardest battle besides fighting for the program is getting kids to like singing and want to do choir. We are always told if you get the cheerleaders you get the football players. If you get the football players you get the rest of the school.