Melissa, Andy and the kids' Blog

Every Sunday night Andy and I go over to his parents for dinner. Most of his other siblings come as well. It is fun to be with the family, especially the little nieces and nephews. They sure do keep us entertained at times. For mother's day we got Lindsey a Nana frame since the grandchildren call her Nana. I finally got around to taking a picture for that frame, but of course I haven't printed it yet. These kids just love their Nana! We will have to take a picture with all the grandchildren the next time the out of state grandkids come to visit. Miles is full of energy and life. He is a funny kid! This is how these brothers bond. However, it is a little unusual that they only had one cell phone out! Sunday nights are great. I love spending time with Andy's family. I just wish that I got to see my family as often. I miss them, and I wish that I could watch my nieces and nephews goof off every week. Whenever I see them, they are even more grown up then the last ti...

I am in my second year of teaching first grade. My first year in first grade was great, but I decided that I want to be an even better teacher. Lately I have been spending hours reading teacher blogs and websites, and I have come across some great ideas. Some ideas are about organizing, decorating, reading, and so on. Here are a few I have already used: 1. Birthdays - Instead of just writing my students' names under the month they were born, I took pictures of all of the kids born in a month. I had them hold the sign of the month and their date. Look at the kiddies below. (Now I just need to get them printed and up on the wall.) 2. Mystery Readers - I'm going to have parents come in and be mystery readers. Before they come in I will read clues about them, and the students try to figure out if it is one of their parents. Then the parent will come in and read to the class. 3. Names - I've also done a few fun things with my students names. They had to cut apart the...

On Wednesday, August 10th, my sister Trisha and her family came to visit for a few days. I got out some fun stuff for my little nieces to play with. First we had princess time. Ava and Mya sure make adorable princesses. It also happened to be my birthday. Do you like what Andy had put on the cake? Dork is our pet name for each other! The next day we enjoyed some time outside with water guns and bubbles. On Friday we went to the Lindon pool. I was trying to get Mya to take a little nap, but I guess she didn't want to. However, she fell asleep for her mama. Mya is under the blanket on Trisha's lap. Jeremy and Ava were swimming like crazy. I think the girls had a blast! This is what happened to me after spending 3.5 hours in the sun. (I'm sorry about the amount of skin I'm showing.) I had so much fun with my family. It was really nice to have them staying with us. I miss them!

Here is our main living room. This is a picture of how it looked when we bought the house. The room was red and green, and made me think of Christmas. I do love Christmas, but I don't need a room to look like that all year long. Andy hated the red wall, and it was very splotchy. We decided to get rid of the red, so we used porcelain skin color on that red wall. We are both pleased with the way the green and porcelain skin goes together. Here is what it looks like now with decorations and all: Andy already had the couches and the TV. The little coffee table used to be my TV stand. We did have to buy a new TV stand to fit in the corner and to hold his giant TV. The door on the left goes into our office, and the one on the right goes into our bedroom. The door on the left is for the guest bedroom, and the one on the right is for the bathroom. Before we moved in I had told Andy that this room can be his man cave, but since I was in it for a good deal of the summer, I took over. ...

Andy and I went on a little weekend trip to Las Vegas because he was sent there for a conference. This was good for me, since I used to live there and have family and friends to visit. When I lived there, I only visited the strip when family was visiting. This time I was the visitor, and I got to stay in the the Stratosphere Friday night. (This was paid for by the pharmacist that sent Andy to the Conference.) We were supposed to get a regular room, but they didn't have our room when we got there. After asking a few questions we got a free upgrade on our room. Here is our suite: I've always wanted to stay at a place with a jetted tub! While Andy was at his conference at Ceasar's Palace, I went and saw one of my childhood friends. Linda and I were best friends in Jr. High, and this past year we connected on Facebook. It was great to have lunch with her and catch up on each other lives. That night I went to my friend, Kim's, house for dinner and games. Saturday nigh...

This is our guest bathroom. There is not much to it. I put up the same stuff that was in my apartment bathroom. We don't like that there is carpet in our bathrooms. Putting tile in will be a project for another year. It does have a very small counter, but it left room for a hamper. Currently the hamper holds our beach towels, but I'm sure someday it will be used for our kids' clothes.

This is our guest bedroom. Thankfully Andy and I both had a bed before we got married, so we were able to put his mattress in the guest bedroom. (His was older, but still in great condition.) This room never got painted. It is just the plain white that was painted when the house got built. It reminds me of going to some old cottage or something. This room kind of got a lot of my old random wall decorations. The bedding was Andy's. The nightstand was mine from my last apartment. The hope chest was made by my grandpa. For years it held the kitchen stuff that I had been collecting, but I never used it until last year when I got my own place. Now it holds my old baby clothes and baby books. The wall hanging (quilt) was made by me my senior year. I made it for my mom, but she insisted that I should have it back now. Well, I think it will be cozy enough for our guests. Mom and Bill used it when it was mainly just the bed. Trisha and Jeremy will be the first ones to try out the...