Baby Shower

Here is a picture of my Mom, sister, Kimberly, and Michele. Kimberly was so wonderful to volunteer her house for the shower and my Mom, Shannon, and Michele helped with all the great food. Thanks everyone!


Here are all of the girls in our family: Caroline (Mike's wife), Mom, and Shannon.

It was so good to see my dear friend Megan. Good luck on your thesis Megan!

I was surprised with one diaper cake from Bethany and Scheila,

And another from Michele. Thanks ladies, they were adorable!

A Magical Night I Will Always Remember.

Here I am at the entrance to the dinner and celebration. They gave me a flower to wear on my dress and assigned Rafa and I a table.


Here is the beautiful table where we sat and ate a nice dinner.

The beautiful dining room.

Here are all of the recipients for this year.

I had a give a short speech thanking everyone. But first, one of my students spoke about me. She did a fabulous job. I loved the students' speeches the best, a few even brought tears to me eyes as I could see how their teacher helped them to excel in school.

We were each given a hand-made statue which showed a the hand of a teacher and a child clasped together, very special. Then we also got to take home an amazing (and huge) basket filled with free gift cards to restaurants and businesses around the state. I was not expecting any of this! I felt like a Queen for the night! This was a night that I will always remember during my teaching career. I just want to thank all of the wonderful teachers and mentors that helped mold me into the teacher I am today- thank you so much!!!

This is for you Lisa and Teacher Appreciation Week!

Here is the picture I promised you Lisa. This was me at 30 Weeks pregnant on May 7th. Thanks for reminding me to post a prego picture Lisa, because I will want to have a few for memory sake in the future. I will post some more pictures when the nursery is done.


Here is a picture of my classroom door after my awesome Room Mom decorated it for Teacher Appreciation Week. What was so fun was that the theme is the same as my nursery! Was it inspiration or just a funny coincidence?

Beautiful Washington and Oregon

Thanks to some special friends (Thanks Clark, Linda and Finn) we were able to take a last minute trip to Washington in April. It was so nice to get away for the weekend and see my favorite river-very soothing. It was also fun to spend time with my parents because they were up there. Rafa has not been to Washington for almost 4 years, and we won't be able to go this summer with the family because of the baby coming, so this was a very special trip.


Here we are in front of the Washougal River enjoying the sun.


Kicking back and reading by the river with my Mom.



Here is the beautiful Oregon Coast.

Rafa standing in front of a historic lighthouse we were able to tour.



This is Rafa's favorite picture of us on this trip. It was a little cold on the beach though.

Capitol Reef

So, I've been wanting to hike for a long time, but with all the snow in our mountains it is impossible around here. Rafa and I decided to take a three day weekend at Capitol Reef for a nice break. We stayed in a little town called Torrey, Utah in a cute bed and breakfast. I loved all of the awesome rock formations, sunshine, and bright blue skies.


This was the first hike we did at Capitol Reef, called the Hickman Bridge.

This was our favorite hike. We started at the bottom of the cliffs and hiked up more than 1,000 feet to the top, and were rewarded with an amazing view of the rock formations.

This was the beginning of the trail, when it was easy.

The hike was well worth it! This picture shows my favorite rock formations. I wish you could see all the way down to the bottom.

Here is another picture of those same rocks.

We took a beautiful drive on a scenic byway called highway 12. There was still an abundance of snow at the top of the mountains.

Here is Rafa on our Chimney Rock hike trying to scare me by standing next to the cliff.

We loved our trip and will bring our son back here in the future.

Ultrasound pictures at 20 weeks

We can't wait to meet our little boy!

Here is a close up of his face. I love his little nose and lips.

Here is our son in a profile shot. I love seeing his face and tummy.

We are having a BOY!!!!

So today was the big day! This afternoon we finally found out that our little one is a boy. We could not be more excited and happy. I feel like now I can start to get everything ready. He will have a little boy cousin to grow up with and play with because my sister is also having a boy about 5 weeks before me. I know the poll on my blog said I was going to be having a girl, but actually I had students coming up to me saying they had dreams that I was going to have a boy. So funny! Thanks everyone for your kind words and excitement when you found out.