Elle's 1st grade year

I have so much I want to document about Elle's 1st grade year. She had the BEST teacher! Ms. Todd is incredible - a teacher who loves, inspires, cares, is genuinely interested, extremely patient, and made it a truly magical year for Elle.  She has a gift for making everything so magical. Every lesson, activity, project, and holiday was well thought out and tied in perfectly to what they were learning. I know a lot of teachers, and Ms Todd is one of a kind. Elle never wanted to miss a minute of class time. I feel so lucky that Elle got to learn from the best this past school year! 

This writing assignment from back to school night summed up Elle's heart so well:

A closer look . . . 

This year they studied plants, made plant projects, grew their own beanstalk, and performed Jack and the Beanstalk play. 

Elle was a cook with her buddy Heidi. They were adorable and did a fabulous job!

Elle's castle:

Elle's giant is the green one:

I had the privilege of helping with reading every Tuesday morning (until James was born - I only helped one more time after his arrival). It was amazing to see Elle go from a level F at the start of 1st grade and ended with being able to comprehend levels N-P. She reads constantly and loves it which is so awesome to see. 

At the end of the year Ms Todd gave each student a little plaque unique to each child. I was so touched by this and how perfectly it represented Elle's talents and nterests:

She also gave them a special bag full of magical things to help them feel confident moving onto 2nd grade! This was a year never to forget! 

Cal's last day of school

Today was Cal's last day of his first year of preschool. I came to his class for their party. It seemed a little silly for us parents to be there, but Cal sure was excited to see me (which I loved)! I snuck in as he and his friends were talking about how huge their bikes are, got in front of him with my camera and said "hi Calvin". Love the sweet smile he gave me.

He finished his ice cream, cleared his dish and ran to the reading area.

When all the kids were done eating they went to the rug for songs and dancing. I love seeing Calvin interact with friends. 

What a great year it's been. Thankfully we didn't have to be sad to say good-bye because he's coming back to Peep in the fall with Ms. Julie  . . . 

and Ms. Barbara! Love these sweet teachers who take good care of our handsome guy! 

And yay for friends who will be returning with him in the fall - Marli also will be in Ms. Barbara's    4 day a week afternoon class next year. 

12 years!

Spencer and I celebrated 12 years of marriage this weekend. We were able to sneak away for massages and Thai food yesterday afternoon and then today we choose a family favorite and climbed the sandhill!

I sure made a good choice 12 years ago. Marriage definitely isn't easy, but I'm grateful to have Spencer by my side. I love what a strength he is to me. I love the amazing communication we have - I know I can always tell Spencer everything, even when I know he doesn't want to hear it. And I love how he always gives me the brutal truth.

Madi's school Open House

Wednesday night was Open House at Cape. What a treat it was for Madi to get to take us around her school and show us all her projects. 

Silly kids! It's the only one I have that James is in too! 

What a great year Madi has had! I wasn't thrilled about Madi changing schools, especially without her sister . . .

and it's definitely been a sacrifice for our family, but Cape is such a prefect fit for Madi. It's been such positive school experience for her and I'm grateful for her wonderful teacher Ms. Upton, for inspiring and motivating her! 

Still can't believe I'm gonna have a 4th grader next year!! 

When I first started teaching 14 years ago, 4th graders seemed so old, and now I'm going to have one! Crazy!!!

3 months!

James continues to be our angel baby. He's happy, patient, quiet, and content.

At 3 months old, his typical schedule is:

bath around 7pm
nurse about 7:30
bed 8pm
cry for 15-20 min. (sometimes we have to go into help him but many times he's fallen asleep after crying 20 min. There's been 2 or 3 times this month where I've put him to bed wide awake and he puts himself to sleep. SO awesome)!!
He wakes up once at night - usually around 2:30 or 3:30am, eats and goes right back to sleep (usually only 1/2 hour). We had a couple nights this past month of sleeping till 5am! It was amazing!
His longest night sleeping stretch this month was 9 hours!
Naps are still hit or miss which I'm ok with since he's sleeping so good at night.

The earlier bedtime has been so nice - it's wonderful having a little bit of time to myself at night before bed. James continues to be loved and adored by his brother and sisters. I love hearing Calvin say things like, "Let me see James - I haven't gotten to see him yet. . . Oh he's so cute. . . . James is the sweetest baby ever."

There's usually always someone ready and willing to play with him, read to him, and hang out with him so I can get things done around the house.

When James isn't napping (crying or making noises in his bed) one of the other kids will usually go in, rock his cradle, sing him a song, read him a book, and next thing I know James will be asleep. I can always tell when Calvin's the one who got James to sleep cause he'll have all sorts of toys tucked around him! 

May 7th was James' first time in the bumbo. Love having him be able to sit up and not always laying on the floor or in our arms. 

LOVE him SO much!!

Camarillo Stake Ward boundary changes

On April 24th a stake meeting was called to discuss new ward boundaries. At the meeting our 5 Camarillo wards were condensed to 4 wards. Everyone was released from their ward callings (all stake callings stayed the same) except for 4 of the Bishops. Our Camarillo 6th ward became Santa Rosa ward. The changes were pretty crazy for most people - our ward didn't change too much though. 

It was weird being released from my calling like that. After serving as Primary President for over 3 years it seemed very sudden. I breathed a huge sign of relief though and felt a weight lifted from my shoulders! An official thank you was emailed to me later that evening. 

I was able to enjoy a full 4 days without a calling. Then Thursday evening Bishop Whetten came over  with a calling for me - Primary President! He apologized and let me know that he is very aware of our family situation with new baby and all. My name wasn't even on his list, but the feeling to call me kept coming back to him.  Ya, I had my fingers crossed for a more chill calling, but I love serving in primary and am ok with getting to serve just a little bit longer.

It's been a few busy weeks since then and we almost have our primary reorganized. Life just doesn't seem to be slowing down. It's killing me not to have my blog updated. I've got a bunch of posts to finish. James is growing so fast and I can't document all that I want to. Soon!!