Catching Up...

Man I have been horrible at updating my blog recently, but maybe it's because one thing after another has happened for the last month.
First, my only brother turned thirty this month!!! I love Moroni, he is such a funny character, never a dull moment with that kid! We had his little party at our house. We were so excited about the theme we chose. Moroni LOVES France, mainly anything to do with Europe, but France being his favorite. So we decorated in France colors, which is also American colors so it looked semi-patriotic. We love "Friends" so we watched the episode where Rachel turns 30. We were laughing so hard, more at my mom's reaction to the jokes. We had lunch, presents and cake. Super fun all around!

Can you see the 30?

Then that Sunday, Tyler and I got to cater for the Pioneer Day Devotional at Weber State, we got to meet this guy....

YES! Elder Holland! He shoke our hands, heard we both served in Portugal and told us we better keep up on our Portuguese or he would send us back. :) Then when he came back into the room after the devotional for the meet and greet. He came up to me and toook my arm and said, "There you are my portuguese wonder." I was grinning the whole night. He is such a sweet person and just lovely with the children. Side note: A 7/8 year old boy, with buzzed hair, walked up to Elder Holland with his family and Elder Holland turned to the boy and said, "I love the hair, do you think I can pull that off? Maybe for General Conference, it would make it cooler in there." The boy laughed and nodded his head. Super cute!


The we were off to Rexburg and Bear Lake with the Hochs. Oh, how I love Tyler's Family. Every time we get together and then go our seperate ways, I go through withdrawls of hearing Tiffany complain about everything under the sun, and yet it is so funny. Jordan, Deeds, and Kyle making fun of everything and anything about Tyler and yet they fit under many of the categories that they make fun of Tyler for. Playing Wii and card games with Amber and TJ. Someday we will all be a little closer I hope!
We went up to Rexburg for a day we went to chill with Jordan, Tiffany, Kyle and his fabulous girlfriend Alex while the real adults went to Amber's graduation. I can't wait until she opens a cupcake store and I can eat my weight in red velvet cupcakes! The next day we headed of to Bear Lake. But first a stop in Afton, WY to see Glenn and Debbie's old stomping ground.

In Bear Lake we went wave running. Fun, yet deathly scary if Kyle, Jordan or TJ are driving. We also chilled at the beach one day were most of the clan fried under the hot sun.

The World's Largets Elk Horn Arch in Afton, WY.

It really is a small town don't let the massive number of people behind us fool you. The was a car show going on on the main street that day. 

Shopping in Afton

The crew after wave running

Playing Apples to Apples

Tyler and Jordan with their sand castle

Tyler's lucky hole...3 straight hole in ones!

The children

We then made our way back down to Ogden to show off our new classrooms. Go to the Katy Perry Concert (just Tyler and I). Meet up with cousins aunts and uncles. Play at FatCats until we drop. Shop at Deseret Book and Seagull Book until we drop. And of course, eat at Costa Vida. It for sure was a fun filled weekend.

Waiting for Katy Perry

Costa Vida

Jordan's Favorite past time...golfing!

Our new addiction...DEAL OR NO DEAL

Tiffany and Jordan and their 1300+ tickets!

24 hours after making it back to Ogden I was off to Girl's Camp and just got back yesterday. Girls Camp was super awesome, but yet a little sad when I realized it would be my last one in this ward, since by next summer we will be moving closer to our schools. I really love working with the leaders and girls in Young Women's even if sometimes I complain about my calling.

*PICTURES COMING SOON*

Now the countdown is on. We have 3 weeks until we start working and having trainings, and 4 weeks until school actually starts...YIKES!

We're Employed!

Today I got the call I have been waiting for since I was in the 4th grade!! I am the new 6th grade teacher at Knowlton Elementary. It's the elementary by the Smith's in Farmington close to Lagoon. You can actually see Lagoon from the school! The awesome thing is Tyler got a job a couple weeks ago at Mountain High School, it the alternative high school for davis school district. The 2 school are less than 3 miles away from each other!!!

They are our dream jobs! Tyler wanted High School and wanted the freedom to teach creatively and not just lecture and textbook based. Mountain High looks for teachers that can be creative with the students. I wanted to teach upper grades. When I went to the interview the school had a 2nd and 6th grade opening. I would have taken the 2nd grade job just to get my foot in the door, but I really love and feel comfortable with the upper grade students so I really was leaning more toward the 6th grade job.

Knowlton Elementary

Mountain High

Honestly, our...(to be honest more MY) patience has been tested. It's so hard to have your future be in the hands of other people. I had to keep telling myself how we grow with these experiences in our lives. However, when Tyler was offered the job at Mountain High, I felt like what am I doing wrong that I haven't received job offers. My faith did waiver, and I thought that I wouldn't get a job. I thought I would have to sub instead of having my own classroom. But, there were many people in my life that kept telling me to keep my chin up, and kept telling me to stay positive, so thank you Tyler! And, Julliana and Emily for continually telling me to call and email principals. Plus, Kitty for helping get ready for the dream interview! After thinking of all the people that helped me land this interview and get the job, I started to think of Elder Holland's about angels amoung us. Truly, I have many angels that have blessed my life and I am excited for what the future holds for us.

Mothers, Birthdays and Concerts...

Just a little of what has happened since my last post. It's interesting how busy life can get even while you are trying to start a career. After studenting teaching was completed Tyler went back to working at Weber State. It was nice to start getting a little money coming in again. I started working as a substitute teaching. I was loving it, but it's not always consistent. So this month I started working at Weber State with Tyler also. Days when I sub and work that night are crazy to say the least, but it does keep my mind distracted from thinking about constantly applying for jobs. Tyler and I have had a couple interviews this month but nothing set in stone yet. So working 10-12 hour days really helps sometimes, and then at night I sleep like a baby.

So Mothers Day came and went, I had all intentions of blogging about however work has been pretty busy the last 3 weeks. We decided to go down to Midvale and surprise my mom since she has a hard time with the move. Moving away from family, and friends, and especially 2 wonderful grandsons have been hard. We went over and watched the new Narnia movie with them. And of course we called up my favorite #2 mom Debbie (tyler's mom). I love sitting back and listening to Tyler have conversations with his family, expecially Debbie. I always ask him to put it on speaker phone. I can just tell that she loves all her children and in-laws to the moon and back. I am so lucky to be part of that kind of love! I hope to be half as wonderful of a mom as those two women!

My lovely mother

The Fam

During our visit Tyler and I helped my parents put up their shelves,

 it was interesting to say the least.

Mrs. Debbie

Then last week came Tyler's 25th birthday! It's crazy for me to think how fast time is going. His birthday was on the 21st...you know the end of the world! Well, I'm glad it wasn't I would like to make it to my 25th birthday too! We went out to lunch to The Old Grist Mill here in Ogden - a gold mine! Fabulous sandwiches, soups, and cookies! I go for the soup, Tyler for the cookies. Then we went and watched the new Pirates movie. Surprisingly a decent movie. Tyler received a new phone for his birthday...he really, really, really needed one. With his family's help we got a wii and fifa game. Tyler is now a soccer freak! :)

He's like a little kid in a candy store with his Old Grist Mill cookies.

Then the climax of it all...
Yesterday we went to U2!!! I am not the biggest U2 fan out there, I only know a few songs, but we decided to get graduation gifts for ourselves concert tickets. Tyler chose one, and I chose another. So we went to U2 first, sat 16 rows away from the stage. (It did hurt my heart a little to sit at the rice-eccles stadium with no BYU football players, however I did make sure I didn't wear any red so no one would speculate) It was a fabulous night!

The Stage

The Fray opened for U2

The Fray

We found some Portuguese friends!

Bono...

The Edge...

...the other U2 guy

The wave while waiting for U2

U2 entrance

U2 concert entrance

Beautiful Day

Graduation Pictures

As graduation gets closer and closer (tomorrow!) Tyler and I decided that we needed to get our pictures taken with our cap and gown and some more pictures of us two together. My sister is super talented and amazing! Hence, the reason I always turn to her for all my photo needs. Thank you Julliana!!! Enjoy!

Shake it up!

We have the cutest couple in our ward! The Crandalls are just the nicest and cutest people ever! They have lived the ward for 50+ years. Last year we would go over to the Crandalls a lot, just to visit and see how they were doing. They would share some of the coolest stories. One time that we went over there Brother Crandall was telling us about the awesome shakes that he makes that keep him healthy and still going at 88 years old. He told us we need to start having more homemade shakes so that we can stay healthy and live a long live. We told him we would try.

Well, a couple weeks later he called us and asked us if we had gotten a blender yet. We told him that live is busy and we actually forgot about getting a blender. The next Sunday he went up to Tyler in the hallway, gave him a 20 and told him to get a blender that week. We obeyed. Tyler started doing some shakes, but we saw how expensive it can be if you don't have your own garden, (fresh fruits and vegetables are expensive).

Just last weekend, Brother Crandall called again. This time he wanted to show us how he makes his shakes so we can learn how he does it. We went over Friday night and learned from the shake master. Now we have cut up all different fruits and vegetables (Brother Crandall told us where to get the deals) all frozen and in the freezer. Now we are ready to be shake masters! :)

Tyler helping with the shake

Sister Crandall, us, and our shakes!

Tyler and the Shake Master!