I have 2 more weeks left of work before summer vacations! I'm really ready for the break. I'm actually not going back to work for First Baptist Church School next year, and am not quite sure where I'll be and what I'll be doing yet. I know it will all work out but am not sure what the best thing to do is just yet. I am also getting my Master's degree in 2 weeks, so I'm pretty excited about that. I really don't even want to attend graduation, but Judd and Scott talked me into it. I hate graduations though. They are so boring! But I have worked hard and it'll be nice to celebrate it.
I love teaching the kids at my school and will really miss being with them. It was fun to be at Field Day with them last week!
I just got zumba certified last month and I love it! It's a lot of fun, but it's pretty hard to get a routine together and memorize it. It's just finding the time to practice that's challenging.
Today is mother's day and I think it's one of my favorite days. I love being a mom so much! It's a day to celebrate that honor and privilege and also a day to relax and get to feel pampered. It was cute to see Brooke sing with the primary. I loved getting cute gifts from them that they made at school. Judd made me breakfast and cleaned. I got to celebrate the mother's in my life also. My mom is so awesome and I'm so grateful for her. I get to see her tomorrow on her way up to Dallas to help Brent and Laura with their new baby that they are having tomorrow! I'm so excited for them! We went to visit Judd's mom yesterday and it's so nice to have her in town now and get together with family. The kids have a blast playing over there with their cousins Owen and Layla and Noah. We went to Judd's dad's house today for lunch with Adrian and Amanda and it was great hanging out with them. Then we went to Scott and Tracey's house tonight with Nathan and Jenny to celebrate Scott's birthday. We are so blessed to have so much family around! I'm so glad my kids get to grow up with so many cousins around. We wish we could see everyone more often.
Brooke has been playing T-ball the past few weeks and Judd has been her coach. It's been pretty fun, but I don't think she still quite gets the idea of the game. She doesn't really pay attention when she's out in the field and doesn't really get where to run after she hits, but she tries! That's how a lot of the kids are at that age.
It was a lot of fun going to her Field Day and cheering for her. She loves her school and her teacher, Mrs. Crank. She also loves that we do a babysitting co-op on Friday nights so she can play with her friends. She loves playing with Lydia and Kayli. We will really miss the Dyers who have been in it with us. They just moved to North Dakota. We love our ward so much, but sometimes it gets hard to see people come and go so often being with so many military folks. There are so many good people that we get to meet, but it gets hard to say good-bye so often to people.
Rylan loves his daycare at my school with his teacher, Miss Melody Wheeler with his buddies Jake, Morgan, and Shepherd. She always says he's such a good boy, so happy, always puts things on his head, always finds new tricks to do, and she thinks he'll be a gymnast because he's jumping and flipping and stuff all the time. He loves to play t-ball at the house. He absolutely loves his little sister Ava. He is always talking and playing with her and making her laugh.
Ava is already 5 months old and is such a joy. She is very expressive and loves to be talked to. She loves her attention, that's for sure. She is so stinking cute! If I'm tired or frustrated, I just look at her and feel so much joy and innocence. Babies and children are amazing in that they can make you feel so loved and give you perspective on everything and remind you of the purpose of life.
I still teach a few aerobics classes a week. Judd is doing a 3 months without sugar challenge with some people, but no thanks - count me out of that!
Judd and I are still teaching the 4-5 year olds in primary together and we have fun doing that.
We love taking family bike rides together. Judd pulls all 3 kids on his bike.
I love my family so much and am a very blessed mommy!

I took a new job for next year and am so excited about it. I worked at Captain Shreve High School for four years but will be teaching PE and First Baptist Church School private school for K-8 next year. It'll be great because I can have Rylan and the baby with me. I'm ready to get back into PE too work with little kids. The only slightly negative is coaching 5th and 6th grade basketball, but I'm sure I'll learn to love it. Brooke got into Arthur Circle's ECE so she'll be going there next year, which is great because it's free! yeah! I really feel that it was an answer to a prayer though and know that it's where I need to be.

We've been having these ward food storage firesides every month and I've been getting so much out of them. I'm slowly getting better at it all with little baby steps. Tonight it's on wheat! It's a topic I should know about rather well since it's my mom's favorite thing and she put it in everything we ate growing up - orange juice, brownies, you name it. I'm making wheat meat burgers tonight and making the wheat meat has been a pain so far. I seriously need to invest in an electric mixer. I've had to beat it with a rubber mallet, which on the plus side I got to get out some aggression. We'll see how it turns out.
I recently went to Painting with a Twist, a new store in town that gives you a canvas and paint and teaches you how to paint. It's so much fun to do with friends. I wish others could have made it but at least my girl Sue Ellen and I had fun. It turned out pretty good. It's even hanging up at the house.
We watched all the 10 kids for co-op Fri. night and it was quite memorable. There's a sandbox and kiddie pool in the backyard so together it's a recipe for disaster with no swimsuits on them. Needless to say they got all nasty and muddy and I wasn't about to bring them in the house and get it dirty too. So I had the bright idea to give them a bath on the trampoline together. They stripped down and Judd and I scrubbed them with soap and shampoo, hosed them down, and brought them in one at a time with a towel and put them in their pajamas. We had a pretty good system going and they kids had a blast slipping and sliding on the trampoline. It was hilarious and I think since they were all 5 and under it was okay.
My new obsession is with Everybody Loves Raymond. It is so stinking hilarious! I have to watch at least one episode before I go to bed at night to get a really good laugh in - not that I don't have them throughout the day with Brooke and Rylan. When I was single it was Friends but now that I'm married it is this. I guess we like what we can relate to.

I just posted 2 videos I found on lds.org that I love but don't know how to get them to show the full screen or to not play at the same time, so oh well. I'm going to leave them on there because I love their messages and hopefully others will too. You can just push pause on them to not hear them play at the same time and pause on the music too.
Anyways, today has been great. I'm really growing to love our 4-5 year old primary class more and more each sunday. Kids really get the gospel and they just say it like it is. They are so cute and funny and remind us of the simplicity of the gospel. I love teaching it with Judd too because it's neat to see him interact with the kids. He's so good with them and I love spending time with him. Brooke gave her first talk in Primary today and did such a good job. She talked about how the Holy Ghost guides and protects us.
The summer has been great so far! I am loving being at home and spending time with my adorable children. We are always finding fun things to do like go to the library, pool, indoor gyms, parks, gymnastics, the zoo, and anything else that will entertain them. I taught swimming lessons and am teaching gymnastics and water aerobics, playing on a tennis team, and taking online classes this summer too. I enjoy getting together with other moms and letting our kids play.
Brooke is "little mommy". She loves to help clean and help show her little brother how to behave. She helps me cook and loves to read her books. The playroom at our house has been the best thing for the kids! Rylan is our little crazy man. He is full of energy and life and goes non-stop. Literally we could just sit and watch him and be entertained for hours.
Judd has been so busy working on their new playset and it looks amazing so far. He already made a sandbox that they love too. Last night we had a great date night and Papa and Grandma Sandy watched the kids for us. We went to dinner and watched the movie "Grown Ups" with some friends and family and it was hilarious! We went to see Big Daddy and Grandma and Uncle Mike and Aunt Mel and Shalom last weekend and had fun playing tennis and playing in the pool!
Every Sunday we go to the Relief Society room during Sacrament meeting instead of the chapel because Rylan is a little rambuncious - sp?! We're always in there with Scott and Tracey and Bryce because he's a little wild man too. I've tried taking him in there but it's just so hard because he's everywhere and doesn't want to be still at all. Any advice out there?
We had a fun Maranto gathering at our house recently watching the World Cup. It was a lot of fun to get the cousins together to play. Dominik made some great burgers!
Judd recently went to Costa Rica with Jared to go surfing! How fun! I was really happy that he got to do that though! Especially since I'm going to Paris on July 7th for a few days for free. I got kids at my school to sign up for a Spanish trip to Costa Rica next spring break and this educational company was doing a promotion for first time teachers doing a trip to take them to a training tour to Paris if they got enough kids for their trip to sign up. I did it and even though I won't be teaching at Shreve next year I'm still going as a leader on the trip so am going. I'm excited but wish Judd could go too. My mom's nice enough to come up and watch the kids. I'm hoping I can make it out to Utah this summer too with the kids to visit Megan. It's been too long! We'll make a Dallas trip too to see some family soon and play!
My mother in law made this awesome cook book with great recipes that I've been using a lot actually. She's doing the 3 day walk for the cure - 60 miles - in November. I so wish I could do it with her but will be almost 9 months pregnant by then. We'll find out what we're having at my next doctor's appointment on July 6th. I can't wait to find out! I have some name ideas but any suggestions?
We're also enjoying doing the co-op babysitting switch every Fri. night. The kids are really good and have fun playing together and we love that we get some extra time together as well!
We planted our first garden this year and it's super tiny but we've actually gotten some stuff out of it, so we'll try to go bigger next year.
I still have lots of goals this summer - one of them being couponing. I really want to get it down but always feel so overwhelmed every time I try. I know it'll be worth it if I stick to it but it's just a little overwhelming.