Update...

Let me start off by venting just a little bit! I for one am feel bad for the Thanksgiving holiday, everyine focuses on what happens AFTER Thanksgiving and just brush off the holiday. It's all about black friday and weekend sales, putting up your Christmas tree and decorations, sometimes even before Thanksgiving comes! Don't get me started about Christmas music right after Halloween. I just have pitty for Tahnksgiving, it's like the red-headed step-child of holidays. Right in the middle of Halloween-getting all excited to trick-or-treat with your kids and the bonus of eating some of their candy, and Christmas-the family time, presents, and life long traditions. Thanksgiving has turned into people complaining about who's coming or not, all the food you have to make/bring and the hassel of getting seating arrangements. Poor Thanksgiving! So I have decided that I will give all my attention to each Holiday every year! Which for you that really know me, and know that I HATE Halloween, and hate is somewhat underrated. Once I have kids I know I will totally get into the holiday--the fun part not the gross and gory part. So to give Thanksgiving it's attention that is needed, I started listening to Christmas music, and we put up the tree and all the decorations come out on December 1st. Thank you for hearing me out.

Also this year I have become a little crafty. Julliana helped me make a stocking holder that I saw on another friends blog, check it out: http://auntielolocrafts.blogspot.com/

So this past week Tyler and I found out our assignments for student teaching! Finally! Tyler will ba at sand Ridge Junior High in Roy. He will be teaching History and English. He will do US History and Utah History, for English he will do 9th grade English. He is pretty excited!  I will be a couple blocks away at North Park Elementary. i will be teaching 5th grade for 6 weeks and ESL pull out for 6 weeks. I am really excited becasue the teacher I am working with in our ward!

Sand Ridge Junior High

North Park Elementary

Last Saturday, we got to hang out witht the buddy again! Ben came over while Troy and Julliana went to go see James. Ben is getting to be more talkative now. He counts everything. So for about 20 minutes Ben and Tyler sat on the kitchen floor eating pretzels and counting each one they ate. It was preety funny. However, once Ben counts to nineteen, everything is nineteen from then on.

Tyler doesn't really know all the words Ben actually can say, so during their pretzel time Ben turned to Tyler and said, "more!" Tyler starts yelling to me, "Lucci, Ben said more!" I replied, "Then give him more!" I've heard Ben more all the time at my sisters house so I knew it wasn't anything new. However, Be did said Tyler for the first time, actually it came out Tywer, but Tyler was very excited. Another funny thing that happened, which shows how much of a turkey Ben really is...Ben found our candy stash and so he picked out a sucker, I was unwraping it for him and I told Ben he had to say please to get the sucker. He kept repeating, "sucker, sucker, sucker" I know Ben can say please, he says it all the time. But as a kept asking him to say please he would just say sucker. Finally I gave in a nd gave him the sucker. Once he had it in his hand and licked it a little, then he said please. That little turkey!

Ben's favorite way to sit on the banana chair

Ben put the two banana chairs together,

when I went to go sit next to him in the other one he pushed me off.

I guess he just wanted to build "mega chair"

Tyler and Ben's Pretzel Time

Later that night, Tyler and I went to see the Forgotten Carols at the Dee Events center. We love the music and have the play on DVD, but tickets were cheap and the seats were great so we went and had a blast! It got us into the Christmas Spirit! Plus,Michael McLean is actually pretty funny.

Little James Update:

Little is doing great! He is out of his "condo" and out in room temperture. He is off oxygen! Which is a huge sigh of relief for my sister. He is getting milk every 3 hours, they are trying bottle feeding once a day. Little James gets tired sucking on the bottle so he hasn't finished a full feeding yet. Last I heard James was up to 3lbs 9oz. So he's growing! As my sister says, he's starting to look like a real baby instead of a old man.

 



The Week at a Glance

With the whole blizzard warning on Tuesday, Tyler and I both got off work early and we have had a break from school and work since. You would think we would take the time to relax and catch up on some things around the house, we actually did the opposite. We stayed pretty busy, having long days, and getting home late. However, we did so much and had so much fun that I would take it back. We figured we are done with the semester in a week so we can catch up on things then.

Tuesday, was my last day at my field work, with the first graders. I loved working the first graders, however, I have learned that I have an even greater desire to work with the upper grades. They were super cute and fun, but I'm not sure I could handle that many 6 and 7 year olds for 9 months out of the year. When we were saying our goodbyes, all the kids were yelling our, "I'm going to miss you Mrs. Hoch!" then from the back of the room you hear little Nathaniel, "I hope you have a good Thanksgiving Dinner!" They always made me laugh.

On Wednesday, Tyler and I finished up some homework that we wanted to get done so we didn't have to worry about it over the weekend. That night I went out and met up with my friends. The four of us have been friends since the 8th grade, now that we are going our seperate ways we try to find time to still hang out and have fun like the good old days. Now 3 missions, 2 weddings, and 1 pregnancy later we had a night to ourselves. It was so much fun to catch up and reminisce.

Me, Bri, Naomi, Tawny (and baby Streeter)

Thursday of course was turkey day. Now that Tatti and Chris are married and live in a mansion, we had thanksgiving at their place. It was our family, minus the Lund Clan, and Chris' Family. I ate so much, that I just sat in my seat for a while after. That night like we always do we went and watch a movie, this year...Megamind. Super cute and funny movie! I loved it! We took our camera but got so caught up in the moment that no pictures were taken.

On Friday Tyler, my dad, Moroni, and I all went to Salt Lake and took a Church History tour for ourselves. Our sunday school teacher gave us a map of the Salt Lake City cemetery and where prominent members of the church are buried. We visited the graves of Porter Rockwell, John Taylor, David O. McKay, Wilford Woodruff, Spencer W. Kimball, and President Hinckley to name a few. Then we went to the Church History Museum, Brigham Young's House, and walked around temple square to see the lights. It was a fun filled day!

 There was a monument in memory of Hyrum Smith.

President and Sister Hickley's Grave

The Kimball's Grave

 Camilla Eyring Kimball, who my middle name is named after.

A replica of the conference center pulpit, it's huge!

Tyler giving his future conference talk.

The light were wonderful!

Saturday was probably my favorite day of all of them! We got to go to the temple and see the lady that was my first baptism on my mission go through and get her endownments. It felt like I was going through for the first time too, I was so excited! Tyler and I were asked to be the witness couple, so I got to sit by her too! It was at the Mount Timpanogus Temple which was the temple I went through for my endownments and were Tyler and I were sealed, I thought that was so cool!

April 12, 2008 Andrea's Baptism

November 27, 2010

A date with Ben

Tyler and I were excited to watch Ben while my sister and Troy went to see James at the hospital and out to eat with some friends. Ben is just a funny little guy and has a fun personality that we couldn't wait to play with him. We took him to the tree house, we knew Ben went there a lot, and that it was one of his favorite places...one time he went with his grandparents to the treehouse and pulled down his pants when he walked in because he was so excited and felt like he was at home...I guess he does that a lot at his own house. However, we didn't know that he knew that place like the back of his hand. Every time I thought he was running away, he was just going to see another exhibit he liked. One time he started running towards a part where there was a hallway with an exit sign. I was worried he was going out a back door or something, but no! ben knew exactly where the stairs were and wanted to go upstairs to play in the music exhibit. It was a fun nigt. We got to milk a cow, play some africian instruments, go in the oval office, play life-size chess, and of course play with legos and building blocks...Ben's absolute favorite!!!

Then we came home and taught Ben how to rock and sit on a banana chair...too bad we didn't get a picture it was pretty hilarious.

 Ben, I and Betsy

Ben has the most infectious giggle. So of course we have to have "tickle time" when we are with him.

                          

P.S. Here is one of my new fvorite pictures of James. He is doing really well, and is a strong little fighter!!!

Birthday Week

This last week was my birthday week! I was so excited and was counting down the days for my birthday. I remember reading on Teri's blog about how they do a whole birthday week event, after reading it I passed on the idea for Tyler, trying to hint that I wanted that for my birthday this year. So I had my first week long birthday celebration!! It was fabulous!!!

 One night we had a "Psych" night, Tyler gave me the 2nd season of Psych early, so we started watching it, trying to catch up before Nov. 10th when it comes back.

 Another night we had a "Friends" night and I schooled Tyler in Friends trivia.

Yet another night we watched "Did you hear about the Morgans?" super cute and funny movie. 

 On my actual birthday, Tyler gave me a jewerly box that he actually made. It is super cute and I was way excited!

 The carving tyler put on the bottom  of the jewerly box.

 Tyler decorated my car while I was teaching my 1st grade class.

At work, Ann and Megan put together a fun little birthday lunch for me. A couple weeks ago I played a prank on them by telling them I was expecting and due in June. They weren't to happy to find out it was a prank, so for my birthday lunch they made it a baby shower theme. It was pretty funny and none of us could stop laughing.

 I'm not a big cake fan so Ann made me my favorite dessert, Banana Creme Pie!!!

 The table decorations.

Megan made me that hat. I had to wear it all through lunch. As you can see Ann couldn't stop laughing. 

 That night Tyler and I had sundaes!

Friday and Saturday we stayed at a resort in Midway called Zermatt, it was all had a swedish theme. Actually all of downtown Midway does.

 Zermatt Resort

In front of a little Swedish house.

In front of the biggest crossroads sign we have ever seen.

p.s. Midaway has some of the biggest houses we have ever seen. This one by far wins! That is the closest we could get to the house, a little bit down the road there is a private entrance/road to the house.

On Saturday we went over to Park City. We checked out the Olympic Park and Museum, which was cool, and then hit the outlets...my fav!!

In front of the olympic torch

Carrying the Olympic Torch.

Tyler wanting to be part of the bobsled team.

(Wanna kiss my lucky egg?!)

In front of the bobsled track, Tyler was so happy to be able to touch the ice on the track. 



One eventful week!

These last few days have been the busiest we have has in a long time. Since last Wednesday we have had one or more things planned a day and have been running all over the place. To start off we are not true halloween fans, we are slowly but surely trying to get into the Halloween Spirit...more the fun and friendly spirit, not the gross and gory spirit. (more for the sake of future children) So Wednesday we decided to paint pumkins, that way it can stay in the house and be a decorative thing. It ended up being really fun.

 Tyler put much thought into his pumpkin.

 The final product

I told Tyler just in case people don't think my pumpkin in very

Halloweeny, I made a ghost on the back of my pumpkin.

Thursday my sister had her baby! It was a huge surprise since she was 28 weeks and 2 days along in her pregnency. She was admitted into the hospital on Monday for Preeclampsia. They gave her some medication to help with that and steroid shots to help James grow a little faster. He was born Thursday morning weighing in at 2 lbs 3 oz, and 14 inches long. He is doing a lot better than doctors thought. He is breathing on his own and today he is starting to digest some milk. He just needs to get bigger and stronger. For right now he will be staying in the NICU until his orignal due date which was mid January. Friday we got to go see my sister and Saturday I went to see her again and got to see, touch, and talk with James. All we can do now is hold James' hand, which my sister calls a James hug. He is super precious.

James Prescott Lund sporting his sunglasses.

 The picture is kind of blue because of the lights they had on him for the jaudice. But you can see how small he is with my hand in the picture. From one shoulder to other is a little bit bigger than the width of my hand.

James' diaper is the size of my palm, it's the smallest one the hospital

has and in the picture above you can see how it is still big on him.

Also on Friday, Tyler had a Conference for a class at BYU. Since I don't have school on Fridays now, I took the day off work and went with him so I can see some friends and hang out in Provo while he was at his day long conference. I got to see the fabulous girl that I trained on my mission, Sarah Ray! I haven't seen her since I've been home, which is a year and a half. Then I met up with my best friend Naomi and we shopped our bodies and legs right out. It was super fun to be able to hang out for a good amount of time since all we do now-a-days is just talk on the phone and text since we live an hour and a half away.

 Sarah and I

 Sarah and I...2 years ago!

Later that night after we saw my sister we went out to eat at Tepanyaki for my birthday since Tyler and I will be out of town this next weekend for my birthday. I love the food there! Once I become filthy rich I will have my own Japanese chef to entertain me each meal.



Our new baby

Now before you all go and start freaking out we are talking about a car...NOT a child!
With our schedules slowly but surely started to get further and further unrelated to each other, Tyler and I decided that we needed to buy a new car. We wanted something that we can use to move things around -- basically so that we didn't have to keep calling up my sister and borrowing her van. We shopped around and took our time, we wanted something that wouldn't need to be fixed up, and that could last us for a while at least, and something on the cheaper side so we could pay cash with it. Last Saturday we  went and got the jeep looked at by a friend of Tyler that is a mechanic. He passed off the car with flying colors, we went to the bank and withdrew the money. It was the most that any of us had ever held!! We were freaking out, I felt like we needed a security guard with us to make sure it made it into the right hands.

 Our 1996 Jeep Grand Cherokee

A little of everything...

This Sunday Tyler and I went with my family to the Conference Center to watch the Sunday Morning session of Conference. I hadn't been their since before my mission, and Tyler hadn't been in it since it was built. It was nice to be able to go again. Once we got there we saw a lot of missionaries, some were wearing little country flags like they do on Temple Square, some weren't and there were a lot of Elders. In all the busyness of having thousands of people there, and trying to go to the bathroom before sitting down we ended up running into an Elder that is from Tyler's home ward in Clinton, WA. Small world! When we went to sit in our seats, one the Ushers was an older lady serving a full-time mission with he husband on Temple Square, they too are from Clinton, WA. Crazy!

 Tyler and I with Elder Asay

I love this pic!
No one is looking at the camera except Tatti...why?
Beacause her dearest Chris is taking the picture!
Imagine that--the sun a factor in October!!!!

Also, this semester is our last semester of classes. In January we both start student teaching and graduate in April. Each semester, in the Education Program, we do something called "field work" where we go out to the schools and work along side a teacher for a couple weeks. We got our assignments and for the next month to 5 weeks. Tyler will be working in an English Class at Ben Lomond High School with Juniors and Seniors. I will be at Horace Mann Elementary, a block away, I will be working with a 1st grade class. Pray for me!!! Actually, pray for the kids!!!

 

 Ben Lomond High School

Horace Mann