Christmas Jammies

I love finding cute Christmas jammies for my kids. Last year they wore the warm fleece zip up kind but since Reece is getting so big it's hard to find cute one piece pajamas. I found these soft fleece two piece sets online at an after Thanksgiving sale. Raine loves anything Disney and Reece loves anything Marvel comic. They were very excited to open their new jammies and couldn't wait to put them on.

Heading to Park City on Christmas Day

On Christmas day, we woke to rain pouring down. We loaded up our snow gear, presents, food, wood for crackling fires, Dublin dog, and two very excited kids. Reece and Raine couldn't wait to see their uncle Brian and the snow covered mountains in Utah. Every time we crossed over into new state Reece would ask if we were getting closer and how much longer till we get there? Raine fell asleep an hour into the drive so I started reading The Tale of Despereaux to Reece. I am hoping to read the whole book aloud to him before I take him to see the movie. (such a teacher I know) We read about 6 chapters before Reece needed to go to the bathroom and became too distracted. We pulled off the 15 and took a quick pee break. Raine woke up so we had a snack and the kids played with some of their new toys. They were such great passengers. We watched Horton Hears a Who and The Batman cartoons. I wrote thank you cards and Mo navigated through some serious rain showers. It was getting dark so we all took a little power nap. I woke to flurries of snow out the front window. Mo was on the 80 cutting over to Brian's town. The weather was amazing, it went from rain to snow in seconds. The road was so snow covered we almost missed the Kimble Junction exit. After very careful navigating and patience we arrived at 4850 Meadow Loop Rd., our favorite place to visit! All in all, another super successful Hauguel family adventure.

Merry Christmas Eve

WOW, I can't believe it's here! Our family has been having so much fun lately. December has been full of adventures. I have 2 weeks off for winter break and will fill you in on all the exciting things we have been doing.

~I had friends over for Bunco

~Played with the kids in the snow

~Finished Christmas shopping & shipped presents to east coast

~Made treats & gifts for neighbors and friends


~Went to the Festival of Lights at the Springs Preserve with the fam and saw Santa & Frosty

~We picked out a real Christmas tree

~Reece sung Happy Birthday Jesus in his Christmas program
~A friend created my cute Christmas cards

~I had an extremely busy final week of work before break

~Reece suffered an ear infection

~Attended a Christmas card party and addressed envelopes
~Las Vegas saw snow and CCSD canceled school=SNOW DAY

~Played with the kids in the snow

~Finished Christmas shopping & shipped presents to east coast

~Mailed off my Christmas cards

~Went to the Magical Forest with the Castillo Fam

~Stayed up wrapping presents until 1 am three nights in a row

~Enjoyed a delicious Christmas Eve dinner with the Feldmans

~Attended Cornerstone's Christmas Eve service with my family & the Feldmans

Details about all of these memories will come as I travel 7 hours up to Park City to spend Christmas Day with Brian.

I pray that all of you enjoy your Christmas as much as I have. Remember the reason for the season and make some great memories with your love ones.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

SNOW in Las Vegas

Look how happy Raine is to feel the cold, hard snow.

I told her to take a bite and taste it, even after being a little apprehensive she had fun with it.

Here she is sharing her snow with me.

She couldn't wait to get on the playground.

When we we finally pulled into the driveway this is what we found in our front yard!

Look how much we had in the backyard!

While at school today I watched the snow come down pretty hard and heavy all day long. It's been 4 years since the kids have seen snow in Vegas. They were all talking about how it snowed when they were in first grade and they went outside to see it. Well, just before school let out I took the 5th graders outside to have a snowball fight. The kids were psyched! We ran around like a bunch of chickens with our heads cut off. The kids had such a good time. So did I.

Red Rock with The DeRusha Family

Mo loves to take shots of nature.

Daddy and Raine start their trek.

Snack Break!

Group shot on the big rock.

Say cheese kids :0)

I am not ready to hike yet...

Yep, we headed out there again, but this time Mo and Dublin joined us. We convinced our great friends Erin & Tommy DeRusha to come with us. They were here visiting family for the Thanksgiving holiday and they were excited to hike an old favorite of theirs. Mo was just as excited to get out in the wild also. He was very impressed with our children and their hiking abilities. We love the outdoors, why wouldn't mini-me and mini-mo love it too? Reece was very eager to lead the group. He felt like he was Jake's big brother & Ashley's little sister. It was cute! Raine wouldn't keep up with us and would purposely stop because I wouldn't pick her up. She is so stubborn! We took a break at the huge rock and took some pretty pictures. Hiked some more and stopped again for some snacks. Mo enjoyed shooting the scenery and came up with some cool pics. It was another great morning out on the trail.

Happy Thanksgiving

Hope that all of you are as Thankful as we are. I asked my students to write a

Top Ten List of Things They Are Thankful For and then I wrote one.

10. Teaching 5th grade again

9. Free tickets to UNLV Basketball, Wranglers hockey & Bette Midler

8. Paying off a credit card last week

7. Mo's landscaping business doing so well

6. Deidre the best babysitter ever

5. Reece's preschool, he loves it there

4. Weekends spent playing with my kids

3. My awesome friends & family all over the country

2. My Beautiful Family

1. My Lord & Savior who provides me with all of this

Red Rock... Take 2

I am addicted to that beautiful place. I brought the kids out there again on Saturday, but this time with tow other children in two. After convincing my dear friend Jess to take pictures of my darlins (on an hours notice); I gave her a few hours without her precious gems Violet and Riley.

Reece adores Riley and was so excited when he heard we were bringing the Baldwin children. Violet was an awesome helper and led the two boys along the hike while I trailed behind with Raine. She was a trooper again this time, a little bit more needy bit still did her fair share of hiking. I think we probably could have hiked the whole strenuous 3 mile hike over rocks, through rocky creek beds, under huge boulders, and around rocky crevices. The kids were cruising right along and we almost made it all the way to the end where a spectacular pool is filled by a trickle down what must be a 1000 feet of vertical sandstone cliff, but we had to start heading back to the car because the Baldwin kids were heading to the UNLV basketball game and needed to be home by 1:00. The kids hustled back to the parking lot and had yet another snack. The best part of the morning was the fact that Raine wore a new pair of Dora undies and kept them dry the whole time. She even went potty on those awful national park style port-a-potty with the toilet on top of the big hole in the ground. I was so proud of her! We will be heading out to Red Rock every weekend until it gets too cold. My kids and I love it so why not! Hope you don't get sick of reading about it!

3 day week full of excitement

I had Monday and Tuesday off this week but the rest of the work week felt like a whirl wind. Wednesday I had the annual observation by my administration (yes, I nailed it and was a model teacher), Thursday a field trip to the Lied Discovery Museum and Friday was a solid teaching day minus 6 kids. What a huge difference it was in my room with out those six students. In NV they allow 34 kids in the 4th & 5th grade classrooms. Today I had 23! It was heaven. My class is a very chatty bunch of kids so it was like they were asleep or something. I had a very enjoyable week, even though I had to write an extremely boring paper for my free ipod class. I also have to write an intricate lesson plan, blogg style for the Laura Ingalls Wilder book "The Long Winter". I probably should have started this assignment a week ago. I am the queen of procrastination and work better under pressure so it will get done and get done well. As for the weekend, we have several things to accomplish. I will take the kids on a quick bike ride and then for another hike at Red Rock. Saturday night I am going out with my dear friends Erin and Jessica whom I haven't spent time with in ages. Sunday we will go to church, nap and watch football all afternoon. I will also try and complete my blogg lesson plan. Mo has several landscaping jobs in the works and will probably be busy with those all weekend long. Yay~we may actually be able to go visit friends during Christmas, that is if all of his jobs come through....

Hike at Red Rock Canyon

You wish you were with us on our hike today because you would have had a ball!

Look how happy we were, yes the whole time! I have been waiting for this day for since my kids were born. I can't wait to take them hiking again next weekend!

My kids were rock stars! We started around 11:00am and when we returned to the car it was 1:39pm. I was so shocked. We brought Dublin dog and she was more of a pain than the 2 yr old. Reece wouldn't stay with Raine and I, he would scurry ahead and then call back to us from a top a rock, it was fantastic! We had lots of snacks and played hide and seek in the wash. Then as we were leaving we found this really tiny run off from the natural spring. I told Reece to grab a stick and play in the water. Raine followed right behind her big brother except she was actually standing in the water. I can't wait to take them out again next weekend. I really need to be independently wealthy so I can be outside playing everyday! I was so excited to have another fantastic outdoor adventure with my 2 awesome angels.

MUSIC

My weekend has been spent playing with my little wonders, listening to music, organizing photos, grading papers, doing laundry and cleaning. Can I just say that without music, I wouldn't have been able to enjoy half of those things or actually get through them. It's so much better cleaning when loud hyper music is playing in the background. My kids ask for their Elmo, Mickey Mouse or Veggietale music while taking their evening bath. I can find great tunes on my satellite radio while driving around town. The best part of music is the memories it brings back. I was importing some of my cds to my itunes and it brought back so many awesome memories of college and even high school. I also realized that I need some new music. I think I will raid my friends collections soon. I was watching some clips on utube and starting making a list of artists I have been wondering about. Music is such a powerful way to express your thoughts and enjoy other people's talents. I really miss hearing my talented friends Melissa and Shontell sing...

Bike Rides

I am so thankful for my wonderful morning. I was awoken by 4 yr old arms cuddling around me and then the beckon of a 2 yr old. We all snuggled in front of the tv watching some toons until Reece asked his daily morning question, "Where are we going today Mama?". "How about for a bike ride baby" I replied. He was so excited, he ran upstairs and got dressed to go. It was only 7:30 am and I still hadn't had my coffee. We made it out the door around 10 am; which was far too many hours for Reece to wait. He was such a good boy on our 2 hour ride though. Raine is a testy lil 2 yr old and bugs her big brother. He would say, "Mom, Raine just hit me. Mom, Raine is crowding me." I tried to distract Reece by playing I spy, but he'd rather tell me a story. The first Batman story turned into a novel full of chapters. It was so entertaining. I wish I had a video camera. After a few more minutes and lots of "When are we gonna get there?" comments we made it to the red swings playground. After almost 2 hours of riding around in circles, we arrived at our destination. I felt bad cuz I didn't let them play for very long. I had to get home to feed them lunch and shower before meeting my girlfriends for lunch. We rode back home as quick as a flash. They were very thankful we went on our ride, something I plan to do with them every Saturday morning.

Halloween Traditions

Halloween traditions in Las Vegas include candy, chili, grilled cheese sandwiches and family! Ever since we have lived here, our surrogate family (the Dahirs) have always invited us over for every, yes every holiday celebration. Well first my dear "sister" Shontell, up and moves to Reno, then my goofy "brother" Kristopher moved to Virginia. Poor Mama Kris had no children left to entertain her this Halloween. We were very thankful she invited us over for her yummy chili and grilled cheese. The kids were troopers, I made them eat a sandwich before they hit the streets. Who knew they loved grilled cheese so much? Mo and I indulged in the yum-o food after trick or treating.

Can we go yet? Raine was getting tired of waiting for us to be ready.

As you can see, Reece decided to wear Optimus Prime this year. If I would have ordered a Batman costume when I wanted to, I'm sure he would have chose that. I think he may just get a halloween costume for Christmas this year...

Daddy did the door to door business while I waited in the street snapping pics. My kiddos thought they were guests in every house. They would walk right over the threshold and into the homes. It was driving me nuts. After only about 10-15 houses Reece asked if we could go home. He said he was tired of walking and he had lots of candy already! I was all for it because I don't think he will ever ask that again.

Hand me down costumes are the best! My mom bought my cousin Dylan the Tigger costume and each of her grandsons and Raine have worn it also. That is money well spent Mom! Casey James always picks the best costumes and then passes them down to his cousin. Reece just loves wearing Casey's old treasures. Thanks kiddo!

Happy Halloween

Hope you are as excited to go trick or treating as we are. Reece still can't decide if he is going to be Spiderman, Batman or Optmus Prime. Raine has been practicing shouting "trick or treat" for the past few days. I am just so excited to have a day off of school. Too bad I have a zillion papers to grade, any one want to come over and grade papers with me?

Disney Playhouse Live

Way back in the beginning of the month, October 5th to be exact, we went to see Disney Playhouse Live. The kids were both thrilled and couldn't wait for the show to start. My friend Rebecca and her daughter Amaya joined us for this fantastic afternoon. Raine became very excited when Mickey made his appearance on stage. She shouted MICKEY very loud, then when he left the stage she was so sad. She kept asking Mickey there? Mickey there?

Reece & Amaya had a ball dancing to the "Hot Dog, Hot Dog" song. They were laughing so hard & shouting at all the characters dancing.

They sat next to each other and enjoyed every minute of the show. I was so glad Uncle Travis sent Reece & Raine money for their birthday so I could take them to see their favorite TV shows live on stage.

Raine was so mad it was over. She wanted to see more Pooh Bear and Mickey.

$500 & a free IPOD

I went to a class tonight about incorporating American History trade books into your reading, writing and social studies lessons. It was pretty interesting, as I am a nerd and love learning. I am always up for a free class, especially when it's only 5 weeks long and there are only 2 face to face meetings. I had to take a pretest earlier this week and found out I can hardly recall the facts I am supposed teach these 5th graders. Thank goodness I only teach the reading and writing. When I got to class there were a zillion books all set up on this really long table. I signed in and was handed an 80GB classic ipod. At the end of class, we were asked to line up and select one of each book as if we were getting food from a buffet. NICE!! I came home with 18 books and the entire Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House series. The class will also pay me $500 as long as I get a 60% or better. COOL HUH? Now I better get to reading...

WHY?

Why

~won't my son listen to me?
~can't I get rid of this sore throat?
~am feeling so exhausted when I am exercising and eating right?
~won't Raine potty train faster?
~can't there be more hours in the day to get my work finished?
~am I so behind in my grading?
~can't I get out of debt when I haven't been spending?
~won't my laundry just iron itself and put itself away?
~don't I have any good beer in the house? (Miller Lite is horrible)
~can't it be Friday already?
~won't my son stop lying to his teacher?
~doesn't my house stay clean?

Why oh why, can't it be summer break?

One Last Hurrah of the Summer

We did it! We touched both oceans again this year! Are we spoiled brats or what?

On Saturday, August 16th, we packed up a few things and jumped in the truck for one last road trip of the summer. We headed to Temecula, California to visit the DeRusha family. On Saturday, we drove straight to Oceanside and played on the beach for a few hours. We didn't tell Reece we were going there until we could see the water. He was so thrilled, he couldn't sit still. It was all he could take to not run down the hill to the beach by himself. As we held hands and walked he kept pulling me and saying, "Come on Mom, let's go." It was so great to see the ocean again. I love listening to the waves crash on the sand. The Pacific Ocean was much warmer than the Atlantic Ocean. Although we were tip toeing in the Atlantic at the end of June and swimming in the Pacific at the end of August. We brought Dublin with us because the DeRusha family loves her as much as us: they used to dog sit for us. Mo made a few trips back to the truck to check on her since there are no dogs allowed on the beach. I felt so bad for Dublin; stuck in the back of the hot, smelly truck.

After a few hours of playing on the beach and in the water we cleaned up and went to walk around town. It was dusk and I so badly wanted to watch a sunset over the ocean, but the kids were ready to eat and my patience for the sand was decreasing. We rinsed off, changed into clean clothes and headed to the local pizza joint. It was just a few blocks from the ocean. The DeRusha family recommended it because they are friends with the owners. It was just a few blocks from the ocean. A small quaint place with the best pizza I have ever had. Dave the owner whipped us up a chicken & veggie pie that was to die for! The kids loved it too. Afterward, we walked over to Cold Stone Creamery for some yummy dessert. I ordered Peanut Butter Cup Perfection, Mo had Coffee Lovers and the kiddos shared a cup of strawberry with gummie bears. It was so very delicious. It was now 8pm and we still had to drive 40 minutes to the DeRusha casa. Both kids feel asleep 10 minutes into the drive, I guess the surf, sun and sand wore them out.

We played at the DeRusha home for about three days and actually made it back to Oceanside one more time. Reece loved playing with Ashleigh and Jake in the sand. Raine enjoyed eating snacks with Ashleigh on the blanket. We miss our friends Tom & Erin but we are so thankful they take us in for a visit to conclude our summer travels.

Saturday Mornings

Boy do I love my weekends! I pulled my waffle maker out a few weeks ago and it seems to be the thing I do on Saturday mornings. Yesterday, I went to make waffles and didn't have any eggs for the batter. YIKES. I called our friends Jared & Jess a few doors down and invited them over for waffles, if they brought the eggs. No response from them, so I sent Mo to the store. As he is pulling in the driveway with our breakfast necessities, Jess calls back. I told her Mo just returned but to still come over for breakfast. How impromptu of me and them!! It wasn't that nice of a breakfast, (nothing my dear friend Mel would cater) but it was yummy! The menu consisted of: waffles of your choice, blueberry, banana, cinnamon or plain, kiwi fruit, bananas, lemon bars, oj and coffee. Let's not forget the sprinkles for your waffles if you are Reece and Raine. All in all a meal that fattened the best of us, which in turn lead Jared to the couch with Reece for some serious TMNT cartoon time! So much fun for Reece!


It was now 10 am and the kids had to get to their tumbling classes. Not to be rude to my breakfast guests, (they were heading to a birthday party soon anyway) but I asked them to be on their way, that we had some forward rolls to do! Raine was a few minutes late for her class but that is probably better since she isn't really fond of acting like an animals, crawling up and down the mat. She is all about the wedge and bar.

JOY

I started a new bible study and it is so great! It is called Joy by Calvin Miller. I think things in my life are finally feeling smooth and systematic; which may have helped me find joy again. It's really hard to find joy when you have to jump back into the real world; a Monday-Friday work week. Especially when you are a spoiled brat and travel the country for a month.


One of the questions asked: Where is the most beautiful place (outdoors) you have ever been?


How does one who loves nature and travel answer that question? IRELAND indeed. There are so many amazingly, beautiful places there. California has some pretty amazing beaches and national forests. Utah is an incredible place with all of the red rock sculptures. Colorado has those enormous mountains that take your breath away. I could go on and on. So how would you answer that?

Happy 4th Birthday Lil Man

HAPPY 4TH BIRTHDAY REECE

BATMAN, BATMAN, BATMAN, that is all Reece wanted on his cake. I asked him if we could make chocolate cupcakes with yellow frosting. He wasn't convinced so we added some Batman confetti to the top of each cupcake. I forgot to get a picture of that though:( We had a breakfast birthday for him before his afternoon swimming party. Daddy made us a yummy breakfast and Reece got to eat a cupcake for dessert. He opened his presents and seemed a little disappointed that more of them were not Batman oriented, until we gave him his Batman Trike. He was so excited! Reece screamed with glee when he heard the sounds it made. It so fun to see him so interested in one set toy. Mo started this Batman obsession on their journey home from the east coast with Batman cartoons. It is all he wants to watch, play and act like. Reece was very excited when his Auntie Jen gave him a Batman that rides on this super cool motorcycle. He even takes that present to bed with him. Can you guess what he's going to be for Halloween?