fall!

not much has been happening lately but the next year is going to be so crazy that i'll be surprised if i get to blog about it all! i have been working for about a month now and as usual i am loving it! i am in the same classroom that i was in last year and it has been so much less stressful already knowing the teacher and routine. we have such a great class this year and it has been so much fun getting to know all the students. kindergarten is such a fun age and it's hilarious that these kids aren't afraid to say what's on their mind! on thursday i was the sub for the morning class and it was quite the experience! the morning class has such a different personality than the afternoon class that i'm used to but luckily it didn't go nearly as bad as it could have (i only had to send 2 kids to the principal which is a good day for that class!) this year i am also working some extra hours as a lunch aide. i watch the kids at recess then take them to the lunch room when it is their turn (they have recess first, then eat). i haven't had reason to complain yet but once it starts snowing i might be thinking twice about my decision to take that job :)

in a couple months curtis' mom will probably be moving in with us. most of you know that the house we live in presently is actually owned by my in laws...we are just renting from them. right now they are paying $1200 dollars in rent for their apartment in colorado plus the mortgage on this house. with her moving in here and curtis' dad moving in with some relatives for the time being, that will save them quite a bit of money every month and it will also hopefully cut our rent a little too. it will be nice to have her help once spring comes :)

a few months after that curtis will be graduating!! he changed his major from accounting to business management without any delay to his degree. he was told he could have a job with a company, we just aren't sure where they are going to send us. no matter what, it sounds as if we will be pretty far away from our family. i have never lived anywhere but cedar, and never lived in another city than my family. wow. it makes me want to cry thinking about it. its going to be so hard on me but i think it will be a great experience at the same time.

mason is growing like a weed and has the vocabulary of a 3 year old :) he picks up every single word he hears and i can basically have whole conversations with him! lately he has become absolutely obsessed with elmo. we have three elmo videos and i am sick of them all!!!! he can sing all the songs and do all the actions and i hate hearing about elmo all day! ah, parenthood :) next month he will be 1 1/2 and going to nursery. CRAZY!

last weekend our usual gang of friends headed up to our cabin for a couples retreat. we all left our kids at their grandparents house for the night and enjoyed the chance to spend time together without kids screaming and fighting. it was so much fun!! we ate a ton of junk food, got to sleep in past 7 a.m. and we could just take off without worrying where the kids were. the boys played nintendo, went 4 wheeling, and did "guy" stuff while the girls made cute hair thingys and noelle did a photo shoot of cheryl. we have the best friends ever and that makes it all the more harder to leave. we all get along, we can talk about anything and everything, and our kids are the same age. i am going to miss you guys so much! :( maybe we should go on that cruise once a year :)

anyway that is it for now. more to come soon!

living on the lake

lake powell is a big tradition in curtis' family but we thought it was out of the question this year. out of the blue and last second, his aunt and uncle invited us to stay on the house boat with them for 4 days...how do you say no to that!? curtis was working days that week so we headed to page tuesday after he got work. we met up with everyone else and spent the night on the boat at the dock. the next morning we got up, had orientation, then off we went! after some searching we found the most perfect beach to anchor...it was in a little cove to protect us from wind and the shade hit us at about 1 p.m. preventing us from getting too hot in the afternoon. at night, the 4 couples got rooms and all the kiddies slept under the stars on the upper deck. it ended up raining most of the nights we were there so most of the kiddies ended up on the floor of the living room.

this is mason and james driving the house boat. the beach! mason loved it!

curtis' younger brother, casey, recently bought this sea doo and everyone had a blast on it. mason went for a ride with his grandpa and probably would have enjoyed it more if he didn't have to wear a life jacket while doing so. he HATED his life jacket!!

tubing! so scary but oh so fun!

one day we had to go into the marina to get some gas for the sea doo and on our way we found this little place to do some cliff jumping. all the boys climbed up and me and kylee stayed behind to man the boat.

our last full day at the lake a group of us went to rainbow bridge. it was beautiful! there was a ranger there who was really nice and she showed us a dinosaur print left in the sandstone nearby.

on the way home from rainbow bridge we went into this super narrow canyon to see how far we could go. it was a tight squeeze but we got pretty dang far up there! after that we stopped at dangling rope marina for gas and ice cream! on the way back to the house boat we got stuck in a storm which was a little scary! everyone was huddle on the floor with towels wrapped around them trying to stay warm. no worries though! we all made it back in one piece!

walking on water ;)

the two youngest boys!

the little girls made these mud balls and lined them up on the edge of the house boat....i thought it was cute :)

we are going to miss our army boy! we were so glad he just happened to be on leave when we went to the lake! i don't think curtis would have had much fun without him.

thank goodness there was a fence all the way around the boat!

our perfect beach!

cody up on the top level...we even had a hot tub up there!

the boys had fun jumping off the back of the boat and going down the slide.

with 24 people on the boat, things got a little chaotic at times but we had an absolute blast!! we are so grateful that we were able to go and to curtis' family for inviting us. we hope to go again many times in the future!

summertime = reunion time

the andrus reunion is held every year up beaver canyon and this year we actually got to stay up there for a couple nights! we were a little nervous because mason hasn't stayed in a tent before (we usually go to the cabin and last time we camped we stayed in a trailer) and i was certain we were going to be up all night. luckily i was wrong! he did awesome! not only did he sleep like a champ, he took the whole trip like it was a piece of cake! it is so funny how social he is considering who his parents are...we like to keep to ourselves :) mason on the other hand will walk up and start chatting to anyone and everyone willing to pay attention. one of his favorite buddies in the sullivan family is curtis' cousin, coben. coben probably never says more than 5 words total when we are around him but when he starts playing with mason he totally opens up! i loved watching the two of them play together. all the other kids love mason too and it's comforting to know that he has such an outgoing personality to handle everyone treating him like a life size doll :)

so i may be biased but is he not the cutest thing ever!?

in between doing absolutely nothing, we did have time to squeeze in a couple activities. i made some super cute necklaces at the ladies craft, curtis went golfing in beaver with the boys, and there were a couple rounds of horseshoes thrown in there too. along with good food and good company, it was a perfect weekend!

baseball games, birthdays and zoos

this past week we went to colorado to visit curtis' family. it just so happened that his older brother chris and his family were going out that same week so it was fun to have the whole family (minus casey) together. the friday that we were there we went to a colorado rockies game. we were in the 23rd row and had a perfect view! the game was great too and yes, the rockies won! while the adults were at the game, the two toddlers stayed home and curtis' cousin aubri baby sat them. i was kind of worried because A. mason usually gets babysat by my mom. only a handful of times has someone else watched him. B. when mason and talia gang up there is no telling what will happen. luckily talia played by herself and mason just clung to aubri the whole time with minimal crying! she said they were good for her and mason even went to bed at a reasonable time! phew! what a relief to know that your child can handle tough situations!

my awesome mother-in-law had a birthday on saturday and she loved having all her grand kids there to celebrate with her. they helped her unwrap her presents and enjoyed eating cake and ice cream later that night.

our last full day in colorado, we went to the denver zoo. we have never taken mason anywhere like this before so it was interesting to see how he reacted. it wasn't has good as i hoped...mason was running on no nap and he couldn't have cared less about animals. oh well. it was still fun and maybe it will be better when we go back next time!

these two are nothing but trouble when they get together!

this monkey was picking his nose :)

he really does love his aunt carolyn....just not when he hasn't had a nap.

i love talia!

the whole gang!