Christmas Vacation

Well, it's sad to say that our Christmas vacation is already over. We are both back to work at Melaleuca. But, we did manage to go over to the Boise area to visit Kirks sister and her family. We had such a fun time! She's got the custest kids. We were also able to see Kirks brother a couple of times and he has a brand new baby! That brings our total to 24 nieces and nephews!! Crazy! Here's some photos of our vacation.

This is me with Amy's (Kirk's sister) kids - Kiersten and Brennan. So cute!!!

Kirk holding baby Jay. He was only 11 days old in this picture :)

Look how cute he is!!!

Me holding baby Jay for the first time. I can already tell that I'm his favorite Aunt!

I had to put a picture of this in. Amy and I made the most amazing Christmas Eve dinner!! It was my first turkey and it was a success. I was so proud of what we did that I had to take a picture of it!! :)

Graduation

Well, it has certainly been a while since I've posted anything, but life has been crazy! First of all, I've finally graduated from BYU-Idaho!! I'm so excited! Graduation was on the 14th of this month, and I had a lot of family come up for it. It feels so good to finally be done. I received a Bachelors of Music in Music Education. Here's some pictures from the big event

This is Kirk and I at the Graduation Luncheon

Me and my Mom :)

My Dad and Step Mom drove up from Las Vegas

I thought this was a cute picture of me and my sister Jill

I've also officially started my new job as the Band Director at Snake River High School, Junior High, and Middle School. It has been so much fun! I've been there for two weeks now, and I just love it. It's definitely going to keep me busy though!

Elf Yourself!

Okay, so I saw this on a few other peoples blogs and I thought it was so funny! So, I had to do it for Kirk and me. http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1243841648 Just click on this website!

Christmas

So, it's no contest that I have the cutest nieces and nephews in the world. I was home for Thanksgiving and got to hang out with two of my nephews Drew and Cameron. Drew has started learning Christmas songs, and I got a few videos of him singing with my mom. He's so adorable!

Student Teaching

Well, I can't believe it, but today was my last official day of Student Teaching. What a great experience it was! The kids were so great, and I'm so lucky to have had the chance to teach them. They gave me the cutest gifts today to say goodbye! I start my new job at Snake River High School on Monday. I'm nervous but really excited at the same time. But, I'm really going to miss being at Bonneville High School!

Miss Utah

This is my sisters DVD that was sent in the TLC network for the Miss America Reality Show that will air 4 weeks before the pageant in January (one episode each week). All of the Miss America contestants were sent a list of questions, and a prize went to the person who could answer each of the questions most creatively. And guess who won! - My sister Jill! I couldn't figure out how to upload the entire video. There are some cute pictures of her in some different costumes that you won't get to see here, but we were able to upload all but the last two minutes. It's a really funny DVD!!

Orchestra Concert

So, this one is mainly for Mom and Dad in Germany. Brett (Kirk's brother) had an orchestra concert last Wednesday, and since I was already in Rexburg I was able to go. I snuck on stage for the first picture - Brett was warming up right before the concert began.

I tried to get a group picture of everyone in the orchestra on stage - but it ended up looking like a picture of the back of a bunch of balding heads. :)

The last picture is of Brett right after the concert.

It was a great concert - I really enjoyed it! Brett was sitting all the way in the back, so I didn't really get to see him, but I'm sure that he played great. Hope you enjoy the pictures Mom and Dad!

Exciting News!

So, I've not said anything about this in our blog for fear that it is too good to be true. But, as soon as I'm done student teaching I will start my new job as the Band Teacher at Snake River High School, Junior High, and Middle School. The coolest part about it is that my Grandpa Bruce was also a band teacher back in the day, and in about 1954 he was the first band director at Snake River High School. So, I get to teach at the same school my Grandfather taught at. I was able to visit the school yesterday and got some pictures of my new band room!

Can you just picture me standing up in the front of the room teaching my band students? :)

My favorite part is the light fixtures and the wierd paint on the wall. Very 70's!

Those of you who know me well will know exactly why I'm excited about this picture! Brand new marching band uniforms! The school spent a huge amount of money on them, and they only used them for one year! I couldn't believe it when I saw all of the perfect uniforms in the closet!

Joy!!!

Kirk and I have just purchased our very first washer and dryer!! We've been without them for about a month and a half and it has been the biggest pain in the butt!! Luckily, we have good friends - McKay and Paige - who have been letting us do laundry at their house. I'm sure their just as excited as we are about the washer and dryer :) It is great the joy you can get from just doing a load of laundry at your own house!! Here's a picture of them

Pictures of Kirk

So, my husband is going to love me for this one :) These are my favorite pictures of Kirk - and they've all been taken within the last two months. Some of them are super funny





Sometimes I think I have the craziest husband ever :) But, I wouldn't have it any other way

Wii

Sunday night, my little brother Mitch came up to visit! Well, I guess he's not technically my little brother - this is the first time he's ever been taller than me!!! It was so great to have him here. He didn't have school on Monday or Tuesday, so he decided to come up and check out the band program where I student teach. He is in 9th grade, and a really good percussionist. Well, he brought up his Wii so we could all play together. Here are some funny videos of us playing :) The first one is of Mitch and Kirk playing each other, and the second one is of McKay and Kirk. I was laughing so hard just watching them! (I'm the one you can hear with the really annoying laugh in the background)

Miss America

So, I've had this blog for a while, and I can't believe that I've not said anything about this! If you are not a fan of Miss America, I think that you should become one this year. My sister will be competing!! She won the title of Miss Utah at the end of June this year, and will be competing in Miss America in January. So everyone should watch. I'm going to try my best to actually be there for the competition to see her.

She is also making history. I think that she is the first woman who is a war veteran to compete in the Miss America Pageant. Below is a picture of her as a combat medic in Afghanistan.

So, make sure you are watching this year to root her on. It should be pretty fun to see!

Amazing Pictures

My mom sent me these pictures in an email. It didn't say who the artist was - but it did say that he was featured in Readers Digest. He only does things like this with his hands. I just thought these pictures were so great! Hope you enjoy them. Just FYI - if you want to make the picture bigger, just click on it.

Homecoming Game

Here's kind of a fun video. Last Thursday, Bonneville High School had their Homecoming Football game, and the band played at the beginning. This is the closest thing to a marching band that Bonneville has. The video was taken with a cell phone camera, so it's not very good quality. But, if you look really close you can see me directing the band. Student teaching has been great, and I'm going to miss these kids when I go to a different school.

Promotion!!!

Kirk received a promotion at work!! We are so excited. He works on the French team at Melaleuca in Idaho Falls, and was given the job as a supervisor over some of the French, Spanish, Korean, and Russian associates. He's been waiting for a position like this for a long time, and we are so glad he's finally got it!

As many of you know, I have been furiously trying to learn how to play the guitar for student teaching. I had never played the guitar in my life when I found out that I was going to be teaching a beginning guitar class. (I was so stressed out about it that I was losing sleep!!) Well, Kirk took this video of me a few weeks ago and I thought it was fun to see my amazing guitar skills :-) I'm not that great - but I'm getting better everyday. It's been fun to try and pretend I know what I'm doing in front of a class of 20 students~!!

Chuckar's

Kirk and I have been in Eastern Idaho for... way too long now, and we had never been to a Chuckar's Baseball game!! Well, we finally decided to go during a Melaleuca night with our friends McKay and Paige and their little boy Camden. Here are some pictures:

Kirk and I together - with McKay deciding to randomly stick his head in the corner of the picture. Thanks McKay... :)



Not the greatest picture of the field



McKay - with his wife Paige hiding behind him. She loves pictures just about as much as I do.



Their cute little boy Camden. He had a lot of fun!

The Chuckar's won - 8 to 1, so it wasn't really that much of a nail biter. We still had a really fun time at our first Chuckar's game :)

Student Teaching

Well, I'm finally in my last leg of being a student. I'm student teaching this semester at Bonneville High School, and then I will get my Bachelor's Degree!!! I've had such a great time already. I've only been there about 3 weeks, but the students have been great. We are getting ready for a Halloween concert that will be on Oct 24. Here's some pictures of the band playing at some of the football games.

I've learned so much about myself as a teacher already. It has been so fun to be teaching such a great group of kids! I'll put some more pictures on of our Halloween concert coming up.

Vacation

We finally took a vacation, and decided to go and see family in Las Vegas for a week, and then in Ohio. We had such a fun time!! Through the trip, we got to see 14 of out nieces and nephews, and I think Kirk went home with the "Uncle of the Year" award. He was so great! I'm going to post a bunch of pictures, because they are alot more fun than me describing what we did.

Teej and me at his home in Vegas - then with Drew




Cute Pictures of Baby Cameron!!



Dad's dog Rowdy, and Brad's dog Ella - so adorable!


Brad and I at Smith and Wollenskie's ( I'm sure I spelled that wrong). It was the most expensive restaurant I've ever eaten at - but the dessert was amazing!!



A great view of the strip from on top of the Eiffel Tower. It was so windy up there!




Two of my cute nieces - Audrey (left) and Eliese (right)


Kirk trying to show off wake-boarding. This was his first summer getting out of the water - he loved it!

We wish we took more pictures. It was so great to spend some time with family. I'm so glad we got to see Teej and Lind's home before they move to Utah. It was so fun to see Brad at work. We finally got to see Gaylinn's beautiful home in Medina - and were so glad that Joy was able to make it out with her kid's. And I'm sure that Kari and Dirk felt our timing couldn't have been better :) Good luck with the move to Pittsburgh!

A New Member to our Home

Well, as many of you know, Kirk's brother Brett is living with us for a couple of months. To be honest, I was a little nervous :) , but it has really been great! Kirk is excited to have someone (other than me) to hang out with. Granted, there has been a lot more wrestling, and a lot more X-Box (as you can see from the photos). But, all in all, it has been really nice to have Brett here and get to know him better!

Melaleuca Picnic

We went to the Melaleuca Picnic yesterday. We had a lot of fun with friends, and a bunch of free food! They had 40 whole pigs lined up that were cooked and they fed to the 4,000 employees that came. We were hoping to win some prizes in the drawing, (especially when they announced they were giving away 50 26" LCD TV's) but we didn't win anything. Oh well, we still had a bunch of fun. Here are some random pictures, I'm not in any of them (surprise surprise). I couldn't get a good picture of Brett - hence the weird picture with the water bottle. And, no, the baby isn't ours - his name is Kaden, and he belongs to our friends Sarah and Kaili.