Catching Up Part 3!

April:
- Daryn bought a truck! He was dying waking up in the middle of his "night" to take me to work and Bekah to daycare. It's worked out very nicely. (Did I forget to mention earlier that he works 4:30 - 1:30?)
This is one of the first ponytails that I have managed to get into Bekah's hair. :) It's finally long enough! Yay!

- Spring Break!
Rebekah and I went to story time at the library with our friends Carrie and Cairn, and also to the Zoo! :)

On our way into the zoo, two women were walking out with some children, and they thought we looked adorable so they told us we really needed a picture and asked if we had a camera on us. We did! :) So they were very nice and took our picture for us.


- Phoenix trip for General Conference, and visiting with Mom Pike and the kids, since she brought them down for their Spring Break

- Easter! With an awesome celebration at Kenny's house with lots of family. :)

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of this. Shame on me! I DO have a recording of Bekah's first Easter egg hunt on my video camera though. I will look into uploading it.

She has a talent for finding interesting places to fall asleep!


Where's Bekah?? (This is the futon she slept on for a few months.)


There she is! We played like this for probably an hour or more. :) She LOVED it!

Yay for Clearance at Babies R US! I just LOVED this dress and had to get it for her, especially after I saw that it was 70% off! (Headband and bow were things we already had.)


- Heidi's Wedding, and Daryn on the Upper Salt River with his Dad, Steve, Chris, and his old scouting friends, including Bagel.
Gary - Daryn's dad - is on the right. I'll have to ask Daryn to name other people...
Ryan is on the far right. He and Daryn have been friends for a VERY long time, and he was our best man at the wedding. I'm glad that even though he and Daryn get very busy, they still have a chance to visit every now and then.
Steve!
Chris!
Gary's in the foreground. The girl in this picture is Emily. She's the daughter of Daryn's old scout master (the one in charge of this trip). When Daryn and her dad were rafting down the Colorado River in 2005, Emily and I were traveling through Europe together as Arizona Music Ambassadors. It was a pretty cool trip! We didn't even know each other at the beginning, but Emily's family went to church with my friend Kat's family, so Kat introduced me to Emily, and then Emily and I discovered that she had known Daryn (my boyfriend at the time) for quite a while b/c of her dad and brother being involved with scouting like Daryn and his dad. :)

- A job fair for teachers. I got some very good ideas as to where I was going to apply, but not much more than that.

- an interview at a charter school. The owner was INTENSE and I will never work for her.

Home again in our favorite place to sit!

Catching Up Part 2!

March:
- Daryn got a job with a place that contracts with Raytheon to take care of the computers and Proximas at all 3 Raytheon sites around Tucson. We thought it would be great at first, but not only are the qualification requirements well below Daryn's level of expertise and the benefits are not worth paying for, we've recently discovered that there is very little opportunity for advancement.


She was so tired she just put her head down and fell asleep! :) Pebbles then joined her.


This is right after she woke up - I told her to smile for the camera! :)

Nana Jeanette (Daryn's mom) bought Bekah a toddler bed! Not much room for it (it's wedged between our bed and our dresser in this picture) but it's PERFECT for her, and she's been sleeping much better because of it. (Back in Nov she refused to sleep in the crib, so I would just leave her on a blanket on the floor after nursing her to sleep. We bought her a kids futon, and that worked for a while, but it collected all the dog hair and got really dirty.

Bekah is getting to a point where she likes to dress herself, can you tell?
This is one of my favorite pictures of Bekah and Pebbles - see how great a dog we have? Bekah is even holding on to Pebbles' tail!


The magnadoodle is from Heather (Daryn's sister) at Christmas. Rebekah LOVES it! :) She's a great little artist.
This is the rocking 3-wheel that Jeanette got Bekah for Chirstmas. Bekah also likes to stand on it. She's such a daredevil! :) (That red part also folds up so I could push Rebekah while she rides the bike, and then it comes off altogether when Bekah can ride it herself.)

Wearing Mommy's shirt!

- We invited a bunch of friends to the park for a barbeque. I was silly and didn't take pictures of everyone, but we did get some cute ones of Bekah and Cairn! :)



It was getting dark, but I love this last one anyway. Rebekah and Cairn always look so adorable holding hands!

Catching Up

So, obviously there is no way I'm going to remember everything I had wanted to say way back in November. I think that list sums up quite nicely how crazy busy the month was!

What makes me sad, though, is that December, and this whole last semester have gone by so quickly that I haven't even been on here to tell you what's going on!

December included -
meetings for Rodel (the ppl that gave me a scholarship this semester, and incentive to work in a high-needs school for the next 3 years),

Daryn's birthday! :) (that's when I got him a Dog!),

FINALS - including a super long paper about the history of the Map coloring problem (if you'd like to read it, let me know)

We made an awesome gingerbread house! I REALLY wanted to make a gingerbread house, so Daryn made all the dough with me, and we found a good pattern and cut and baked all the pieces, and then I took it to Marana and Kati's boys, and her friend Cherise's boys helped us decorate the house. It was VERY fun!





Time in Phoenix for the Greenway concert, Jess's graduation party, and Christmas!

I thought it fitting that the tree go on top of the kennel, since Pebbles was Daryn's brithday and Christmas present!
This is Pebbles enjoying her bone candy cane. Rebekah thought she looked cold, and put her blanket over her puppy. I thought it was pretty adorable. :)

I found out I PASSED my AEPA tests - part of certifying to be a Math teacher in AZ.
I got to talk to my awesome missionary brother on the phone - Mom and Dad held the phone to the microphone so that everyone could get on Skype and talk to him.

One the 29th, Rebekah and I finally got to meet Carter - Daryn's nephew - and his whole awesome family (they adopted him when he was a baby, but they are VERY MUCH part of the family. :) Only, they live in CO now, so we don't see them much.)
Carter, Rebekah and Daryn. :) Yay for cousins!
Asher, the Dad - Matt, and Nikiyah (Kiyah for short) - Kiyah is newly adopted into this awesome family. :)
Katie, Carter, Rebekah and Asher. We tried to get Kiyah to sit for some of these, but none of them turned out very good. :(

The 30th was our 3rd Anniversary. <3 We played Carcassone with some friends, and the next day they babysat Rebekah while we went out to see Sherlock Holmes. :)

Speaking of the next day, Garik Ethan Ramsey (son of Renee Wright - Daryn's sister - and Clinton Ramsey) was born! He was a little early, but just fine. Rebekah and I drove up to meet him that Saturday, which leads us to:

January!

Like I said, I drove BACK to Phx on the 2nd to bring Renee a few things I had told her she could borrow for her and the baby, and for Bekah to meet her cousin. :)

That Monday I started my Student Teaching at Flowing Wells High School with Demetria Murray - she was a fantastic mentor!

Daryn left for Utah that Thursday so he could go to the wedding of the only missionary that managed to be present at every one of Daryn's lessons while he was investigating. Scott has been great at keeping in contact with Daryn, and I was happy Daryn could go. I really wanted to go, but I had JUST started school and they were very strict about the number of days I could miss. :(

Just as my luck would have it, Bekah had a fever that Friday and I was late for school because I had to find a babysitter. As always, Carrie came through for me! :) She didn't mind watching Bekah since it was "just a fever" and not the flu.

January also included: a mouse in our house! a fun ward swap meet, and Rebekah with Pink Eye.

The last Saturday of the month, I had a Math Educators Appreciation Day Conference that I had to attend, and our friends Grant and Carrie and their daughter Cairn took Daryn and Rebekah up to Mt Lemmon for some fun sledding! I wish I could have gone, but Daryn and Bekah had a GREAT TIME! As evidenced by Carrie's pictures:








- AND, on the very last day of the month: Rebekah started Nursery!!! :)



FEBRUARY:
- Exciting announcements from two of my best friends: Heidi and Kat both told me they were engaged!
- A fantastic Valentine's Day. Daryn bought me a pearl necklace, earrings and bracelet. <3 He loves me! :)
- trip to Phx to celebrate father- and sister-in-law's birthdays
- Rebekah diagnosed with RSV, which pulled Daryn out of work for 2 days, and me out of school for 3 days to take care of her (there was a weekend in between those, and I had a 2 day Rodeo Break that was not used like a break)
But, she is SO much better now, and I am so grateful that I never had to take her to the hospital!

Rebekah LOVES to read. :) I am so glad!
I was too amused to make her get out. We try to discourage her going in the kennel, because it's supposed to be Pebbles' "safe place" but Pebbles and Bekah get along so well, it doesn't seem to matter too much.
Oh, and Bekah LOVES to color. She was just taking a break.

We'll break things up here, so it's not too long! :)

Pebbles

Daryn's been dying for a dog, and I finally broke down and decided we could get one. This is Pebbles! As far as we've been told, she's a Greyhound/Labrador Retriever mix. We were also told she's about 6 months old. BUT, we went to the pet store, and a vet was there doing a vaccination clinic. He told us Pebbles is about 9 months old, and probably won't get a lot bigger than she is now.

I was just looking at pictures of dogs to adopt online, and saw a picture of her and fell in love. I've learned that her coloring is called "Brindle." She is so gorgeous, and VERY good tempered. She just sits or sleeps in the car, and though she's excited when first meeting people, she calms down pretty quickly. She licks Bekah a lot, and jumps a bit. Her foster home let her on the couch, so we have a bit of training to work on, but she's good at listening to me when I say DOWN!

Rebekah is very happy with her dog. :) Pebbles is pretty gentle with her, and Rebekah will randomly walk over to where Pebbles is sleeping, and just pet her softly. It's VERY cute. I'm excited to see these two little girls grow up together!

Only one accident so far... but I'm not surprised. She's in a new environment with new people. We just need to keep a good eye on her. Daryn agreed before we got her that he would be responsible for her messes, so I'm pretty happy with the arrangement.

Pebbles is Daryn's birthday and Christmas present from me and Rebekah.

Update! We finally got the Kennel Card info from the woman setting up the adoptions, and on that is says she's a boxer mix... I confronted the woman in an e-mail about mis-representing the dog and she said "The people at the pound just guess anyway" and that rather than mis-represent the dog, she put the breed that SHE thought the dog was. *rolls eyes* Really woman? *tsk* This wouldn't be a problem except that I don't think our apartment allows boxers. Pebbles is clearly part greyhound, so we're going to just print off the info we were originally given and show that to the landlord. I'm not entirely pleased with this, but I can't afford to pay to get her kennel card changed and we don't want to get rid of her! She's in the program we adopted from because she was on a pound euthanasia list. :(

Daryn is out paying our pet deposit right now, so we will see!

November's Pictures

Rebekah can't wait to drive! :)


Just our baby being the cutie she is! (I made the bow that's on her headband - specifically for the pants she's wearing. :) )


We thought this was hilarious. She wanted to drink from a cup, like Mom and Dad!





A delicious breakfast from my wonderful husband!



Playing at the park near our house. :)

November Outline

About November, so I don't forget! My poor Daryn - he's worked so hard to help me get through this month were I've had something happening almost every single day! And that's on top of doing his own school work. I adore my hubby! <3

Nov 2-3 Teach! Dead Computer
Nov 4 Jeanette's visit
Nov 5 Levi
Nov 7 Surprise Party, Study session
Nov 8 Daryn's new calling, Dinner & Bang!
Nov 9 407 Test
Nov 10 AEPA review, Graduation check
Nov 11 Bekah's check-up, No School
Nov 12 SERP presentation
Nov 13 Rodel Orientation, Dinner with Lyn
Nov 14 missed Baby shower, birthday party, went to Ben's farewell, Andrew's capture
Nov 15-18 Management Project, Research paper
Nov 19 SERP Final
Nov 20 Family Pictures, Soccer
Nov 21 AEPA Test, Merrick and Priscilla
Nov 22 Stake Conference, Picnic
Nov 25 SERP Portfolio, 404 Exam, Pack & go to Phx
Nov 26 Dinner at Kenny's
Nov 27 Black Friday! Kenny's house, singing
Nov 28 G'ma's house, visit Jess, Kenny's house, singing
Nov 29 CG Ward, HW
Nov 30 Hurry home!
Dec 1 Unit Plan, Minor Adviser, Late! for Student Teaching meeting

The Rest of the Rest of October :P

So after attending our new ward at 9 am (ugh, that was hard, church used to be at 12:30) we got a call from Merrick and Priscilla that they were going through Tucson and wanted to stop by! :) Priscilla picked up some adorable dresses and a jacket for Rebekah - now we don't need to get her a Holiday dress this year. And the jacket - it's a furry one, white with black spots. (Don't worry, the fur is too thick to be a dalmation's!) They also brought Rebekah her very own REAL toy cell phone (as opposed to a broken/not working cell phone that mom and dad gave her, lol), and a beach ball. Merrick also picked out an adorable dress with pink poodles on it (it's an inside joke w/ Daryn) and a bunny costume as seen here:



Very cute! :) Thanks Merrick and Priscilla!

On Thursday Oct 29 - Brittany's Birthday, BTW - Daryn made me this DELICIOUS breakfast, just because I said I wanted a hot breakfast. I was expecting the eggs, that was it!

I have to point out that I ate a small piece of bacon before taking this picture, or it would have been picture perfect! It certainly was delicious!

Then on Friday the 30, I skipped soccer to go to our new ward's Halloween party! It was great fun and we had fun costumes. :) Rebekah even enjoyed playing some of the little 'carnival' games to earn tickets and win little prizes. Trunk or Treat was good, too, and Rebekah enjoyed it. It was also a good test run for us to decide if we were going to take her out the next night.





Saturday, Halloween! We went to Arjay and Maggie's house. Arjay is Daryn's friend from school. He is also Candice's brother. Candice is married to Clay, who used to be in Millenium with me years ago. Clay's sister is Tania (sp?), and her husband is Lashley. Arjay and Maggie have a daughter, Allie, who just turned 1, and Tania and Lashley have a daughter, Sadie, who is around 18 months. So, we had 3 cute little girls go out for their first time trick-or-treating together. Arjay's neighborhood is very nice, and we took the girls up and down just one street. Sadie was really shy and didn't like it much, and Allie was okay with it, but not excited. Rebekah, though, was VERY excited and LOVED going up to everyone and getting candy. She was ADORABLE and said please and thank you almost every time.

At one house, the man giving out candy let the girls reach into the bowl themselves. Rebekah took a piece out, dropped it in Sadie's bag, took another out, dropped it in Allie's bag, and THEN grabbed some for herself, and then went back for more. :P Smart girl!




We had a great time at Arjay's and really appreciated the invite! :)

And THAT, my friends and family, was our October. Phew! Now I have a little over a week of November to write about, but it'll have to wait because I have some MAJOR assignment due in the next week or two.