For Corrie!

So I get a text from Corrie yesterday that says "Update your blog lady! That is how I tried to keep up with your life..." So now I know I have a blog stalker, for she has openly admitted it to me. muahaha

So first off, we had our 2 year anniversary on December 22. We had BIG PLANS of going up to Salt Lake and eating at Teppanyaki and going on a carriage ride around Temple Square. Well mother nature hates us and we got about to Lehi and the traffic was pretty much stopped from wrecks and bad roads. So we turned around and ate at Teppanyaki in Lehi, went to Best Buy, came home and watched 24. But atleast this year we were able to get out of the parking lot of our apartment, so maybe next year we will actually get to do what we have planned...and watching 24 on our anniversary has seemed to become a tradition :)

For Christmas we went up to Evanston. Between me and Devin we had Matt convinced he was getting a rachet set for Christmas, but he ended up getting what he REALLY wanted.. A GUN from my parents! And not only ONE... Its an interchangeable barrel one, so he now has a .22, a 243 and a 20 Gauge Shotgun. My dad said it would be a really good one fore him to learn on, its just a single shot, but it will make him a better "aimer" (so my dad says). And he should be able to hunt like antelope and maybe deer with it as well. We has super excited, but wouldn't co-operate for a picture. This is the best I could do to show how excited he was.

We were both very spoiled this christmas. Matt got the gun, a new suit, Modern Warfare, some shirts, socks, a ski lift pass and a gun case.
I got a bread machine, a magic bullet, a kindle, a cricut expressions, some shirts, vinal sheets for my cricut and an awesome sweater.
WE got an awesome baby heartbeat listener thing (SO EXCITED), a giftcard to Outback, some movies, Season one of the Big Bang Theory and Season 1-4 of The Office, a Kohls gift card (that matt finally picked out an outfit for the baby with. Its so cute) and a book called "what the scriptures say about raising a child." I'm excited to read that one. Oh and plane tickets to Ohio... More to come on THAT adventure.
Even BABY Mitchell got spoiled! She got a lot of adorable clothes, my favorite being a little Hawaiian Dress from Aunt Debbie and Uncle Doug who just got back from Hawaii... I can't wait to get her pictures taken in it!

SO we made up for missing the carriage ride, and brought some awesome company along with us. The Scallions family came with us and it was so much fun. This may need to turn into a day after Christmas tradition as well.

Man! Isn't that Temple beautiful! I feel SO LUCKY to be able to say I was married in such a GORGEOUS building!

oh yeah, Matt got an apron too, but he wasn't allowed to open it until he was with Devin, I'm sure you can see why. :) I think it was his second most anticipated gift to open. haha

For New Years we went up to Cami and Devin's again. It was a lot of fun. Devin made us some AWESOME Chicken Teryaki, we played video games then the boys played Modern Warfare and Cami and I read and talked. Cami got "Devin" a Sega Genesis game pack thing for his PS3, that was pretty fun to be able to play all those old school games... Well THEY all seemed to have fun... I just watched.

The next day, while the boys went out shooting, Cami, Abbie and I went up to Park City to check out the sales. I got two new adorable outfits for our baby, Cami got us a Panda Bear stuffed animal and she got herself matching dresses for her two girls. They are so cute, she had the hardest time finding two outfits that were the same and came in the right sizes. She was VERY excited.

On the January 2nd we headed up to Ogden for a family dinner. It was to Celebrate Grandma and Grandpa Deans 61st Wedding anniversary (CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT! I can't...Thats just amazing!) and Grandma's Birthday that was on January 4th. Its so nice that so much of the family was able to be there to share this precious time with them. I know we are all very busy, but family comes first and although grandma and grandpa are very healthy, you never know what could happen. I would hate to miss out on an opportunity to see them one more time just because I planned on going to a movie that night or I don't like to drive a few extra miles. My sister even made it. They left Lake Havasu EARLY that morning and she arranged a way to get up there. The pictures I have from it aren't great and kinda fuzzy, but here they are anyway...

Rikki was so excited when she found that sippy. Jocelyn's name is spelled right and everything. She laughed though because she had told Eric she doesn't want to name her kid any name you can find on a keychain... When we saw the display at Babies R Us, an associate was straightening it and Rikki sarcasticly said "I wonder if they have a Jocelyn" and the associate said "Jocelyn?" and held up the sippy cup she was just about to re-shelf. It was awesome.

And finally! We had Christmas with The Shantz Family last weekend. Jocelyn had been sick all week and by the time we got there was only puking once a day, drinking a couple ounces of formula and maybe one can of baby food per day, which was surprisingly an improvement. She wasn't herself and looked tired all the time, but she still gave us a couple smiles, played a little bit and best of all was very cuddly. And while we were there, Rikki started getting a cold and Eric either had some food poisoning or a 24 hour flu thing, but we all still greatly enjoyed each others company and had a lot of fun!

She definitely preferred to be close to mom. I told Matt on the way home "I can't wait till I'm the on that the baby wants..." Her shirt says "If you think I'm SUPER CUTE you should see my mom!" I loved it. I think my parents bought it for her... But its so true!

Posing for the camera, telling Grandma thanks for the Carhart bibs! haha I can't wait to see her in them...

She won't keep hats or headbands on, but the present bow didn't phase her.

I promise the whole family was there, even though you can't tell by the BIASED pictures I took. Haha. Rikki made us an amazing Lasagna dinner. It was so yummy. She is such a good hostess.

Some more little tidbits, Matt is starting to hear back from Grad schools on his applications. He has an interview at Youngstown State in Ohio in two weeks, so we will be heading out there for a couple days for that and to see his family. I'm very excited to be able to go out there again. I hope the interview goes well. He was told to expect a call for a telephone interview from Baylor, a Military School in San Antonio. He has applied to Rocky Mountain University here in Provo and plans on applying to a couple more schools, one of which will be in the Philedelphia area, per my request. :) We have heard back from Utah, and it wasn't very good news. We have learned through very reliable (a friend of Matt's Aunt works in admissions at Utah) word of mouth that if you are a resident of Utah and/or LDS you almost have no chance of getting into the University of Utah grad school program because non-residents bring more money and they don't want to look like they favor the LDS religion. So we still have NO IDEA where we will be living or moving too in a mere 6 months or so. Just a little nerve-wracking with a baby on the way and no concrete living/job situation.

And on a more happy note, I have a few funny stories from work.

In one of our classroom observations from Central Office, they said we (as teachers) need to engage the kids in better conversation at lunch, so we really have been trying, but yesterday we had a lady from Central Office observing again, so I was really trying hard to get, at least the kids around me, to carry on a good conversation with me. I started asking about movies and the ones they have seen in theatres and such and it took off! I had the attention of all but about 2 kids in the class! It was AWESOME! Well I asked them what their favorite part about going to the theatre was and some of them didn't really understand the question and told me their favorite movie, but this one sitting right next to me said "the GIRLS!" And he is s HANDSOME four year old...He is gonna be a GOOD LOOKIN BOY. His parents are both gorgeous, so all I could think was "OH NO!" haha

We have had "spirit week" this week (not for sure thats what you call it) but yesterday was costume day. I printed out this picture and pinned it to my apron...

I told the kids I was an oven and they 1. didn't think it was very cool 2. didn't care, but the other teachers thought it was pretty dang cool!

Last week Jennifer was having the kids make banana Bread and there was a little girl helping her and I asked the girl if she helped her mom cook sometimes and she said "yeah, but sometimes she gets mad and kicks us out of the kitchen." I just laughed because of how she said it. I asked her mom about it when she got there and she was like "My kitchen is SO SMALL! I hardly have enough room in there to cook by myself, let alone a 4 and 3 year old "helping" me. But my pantry is AWESOME! Its the size of my kitchen!" haha. And in the same banana bread making experience, some of the kids were mashing the bananas and I was playing a memory game with another kid. When he saw what they were doing he said "AHHH SICK! That's DISGUSTING" and it sounded like a 15 year old said it. This one does that a lot, says things I don't expect to hear from a 4 year old, never inappropriate, but just FUNNY. He later joined the fun of making the bread and said "I LOVE this school!"

There are so many other funny stories from these kids, but Placenta brain is killing my information retention of them. So until I remember more, or have more news to share, this ridiculously long blog will have to do for now. :)

P.S. One of my belated New Years Resolutions is to blog once a week...
P.S.S. We have a name picked out for baby Mitchell... :) Well I am 95% sure, cuz I have to see her to make a final decision, Matt is 100% sure because he doesn't get how someone doesn't look like a name that is picked out "I know TONS of Matt's that don't look like me!" uggg...Men....