Melissa, Andy and the kids' Blog

So lately I've been in a crafty mood. I tend to do that when babies are being born or when someone has a birthday. Well, last weekend I was busy with a couple of different crafts. Craft #1: I made decorated some onesies for my friend's little girl who just turned 1 year old. I got the applique templates from pinterest, and I used Wonder Under and fabric glue to apply the appliques. I just love the giraffe! Craft #2: I had some frames that I wanted to give my sister-in-law for her baby's room, so I figured that I'd put something in them. I used some of the applique templates and came up with these cute little pictures. What was great about making these birds, was that I made them out of scraps of my scrapbook paper. These are going to look great in my new niece's room. Adalynn was born early this morning! I'll post more pictures later!

My newest sister-in-law, Mandy, is having a little girl in March, so we decided to throw her a baby shower. Everyone is excited for a new little baby in the family. Mandy and her sister, Ashley...Mandy is the cute girl in the hat. My mother-in-law, Lindsey, made a delicious lunch. We prepared a few little shower games, but the main activity was a craft. We decorated little onesies. I bought fabric glue, but Lindsey had this amazing stuff called Wonder Under. It worked out very well. Everyone seemed to be having a wonderful time! I even bought iron on letters for the not so crafty people. Savanna and Marissa even decorated 2 onesies. They are very crafty little girls. Savanna even got to assist her mom. We hung the onesies on a string, so that we could all see the finished products. The one with the skirt was made by Lindsey prior to the party. We did not have a sewing machine available at my house. Here are some more onesies. If you look closely, you will see that I even m...

Last Sunday, November 27th, Andy and I stayed home after church instead of going to the in-laws. We made some turkey rolls, using the left over turkey, and enjoyed a quiet dinner. After Andy went through some of his old boxes, we started to decorate our house. I actually put up the tree the day before. We got it from a teacher at my school, who got a new one that came pre-lit. Andy did have to help me fix part of the top that I broke off when he got home from work. It sure is nice to have a handy husband. So on Sunday we decorated the tree with our ornaments. I'm glad that my mom has made it a tradition to give all of us a new ornament every year because it was nice to have enough to decorate the tree. However, I did have way more than 29 ornaments because I've been given some by other people as well. Andy also had some ornaments that he has collected through the years. As you can tell, it was a very relaxing Sunday. We didn't dress up to decorate at all. Andy ev...

My sister-in-law, Chevon, and Andy planned a surprise for her husband, James (Andy's brother). James and Andy love watching the show Top Shot . This is a reality, shooting show. On this show the contestants have to complete different challenges. The week before we went shooting, Andy was busy building things for the different challenges. We went shooting last Saturday morning. It was cold, but the wind made it freezing. The wind also made it a little difficult to get a good shot at times, or at least that is my excuse for missing some shots. Enjoy the show! (Hopefully this works.)

Last week (September 20-23rd) Andy and I went to St. George for 3 days. He had a conference to go to, so I would spend the day at the pool reading a book. On that Thursday, we had the opportunity to go to the St. George Temple. I had never been there before. We did a session and then we wandered the grounds taking pictures. We also went inside the visitors center. We learned about the process of building the temple. Then we got to watch a new church video of Heavenly Father's Plan. It was a really good video. It made me think about how lucky I am to be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints...the true church, and that I'm lucky to be sealed to my family and especially my husband. I know that we will be together for eternity as long as we keep our covenants. This is my goal!

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...