Happy Valentines Day!

My dear blog readers....

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!! 

I will be honest...it's not my favorite holiday. But I go with it anyway. 

This morning I woke up to a sweet gift from my darling. 

(Thank you to whoever left these delicious cupcakes at our doorstep.)

I created a shutterfly book for Blake from the time we got engaged to now. He loved it. It was more a gift for the both of us. So glad we have something like this now. I just love looking back at photos. 

I love my valentine. Life would not be complete without him. 

I love you Blake! 

Valentines Day in Mrs. Millers class

A few days ago I had a small conversation that went like this with one of my boys...

Boy: mrs. Miller...is mr. Miller going to be your valentine? 

Me: yes! Of course!

Boy: (a little sad look on his face) oh...okay.

Me: who is your valentine? 

Boy: umm....I don't know. 

And he walked away to get in line.

The very next day he came to school, looked at me with his backpack open and said.... "Ummm uhhhh I have a gift for you." He pulls out this adorable fuzzy, {incredibly} soft bear. He won me over with this one haha. Sorry Mr. Miller....

So sweet, right?

So today was valentines day.....and I am glad it is over with at school and I can just spend it with my sweetheart. My kids have been crazy this week. Monday everyone was asking me for a list of names (and within the first 30 minutes of class). So I made an announcement to the class telling them that I will have a list for each of them at the end of the day. They all got way too excited. 

Everyday after that at least 6 kids would tell me what they are bringing for the kids. "Well that is great! I can't wait for you to hand them out to your friends in class." That is I would respond and have them hurry back to work. They are crazy, funny kids! 

Today had to have been worse than Halloween and Christmas (maybe combined?). No one told me that.... 

I think the fact that they would all get to hand out their candy to each of their friends is what thrilled them the most. 

Maybe it is because I had cookies for them to decorate. And then someone brought donuts. And it was one of my girls birthday...so we had cupcakes too. And then all of their valentines.... That is a total sugar rush right there. Glad I waited til right before we were going home to have our party so I didn't have to deal with all of that. (Sorry parents!) 

These kids are so stinkin adorable. I can't stand it. I received WAY too much from them.....so I am giving away chocolate until it's gone. Please help me out. I don't want to gain 50 pounds from all this. 

Here is the little valentine gift I made for my little darlings....

Viva Las Vegas

I Blake and I took a quick getaway trip this weekend. We got out of the cold and had some sunny warm(er) weather. It was great. We tried to fill our short weekend with as much as we could. Here is what it looked like: 

Check into hotel

Katelyn,Kyle, Sophie, Audrey visit

Dinner at five50 pizza bar

Watched Frozen

Sleep

Walked the strip and different hotels

Shopping at Caesars palace (for Blake)

Lunch at Max Brenner

Gelato 

Paris and Ballys

Mystere at treasure island 

Wynn, Palazzo, Venetian 

Dinner at Mon Ami Gabi (the BEST steak and French fries I have ever had!)

Sleep

Check out 

Pure Joy.

My little kiddos love when I play music in my class.  Whether it is enya, classical beethoven music, or disney, they just love it.  Well, today I put on some disney music while my kids were working on their last assignment for the day.  A few of the songs from Frozen came on.  These kids absolutely love Frozen and know all the words to the songs.  The song "Let It Go" came on and about half of my class started to just bust out singing it.  I just had to drop everything I was doing to listen to them and take it all in.  I sat at my desk and enjoyed this moment.  I realized how lucky I was to have these beautiful, wonderful kids in my lives.  I feel so privileged to be their teacher; to help and watch them grow.  I got teary eyed admiring how happy they were.  It is the simple, little things that bring things kids so much joy.  How can that be?  I started to think about the little things that make me happy and the blessings I have in my life.  I have been blessed to teach these 23 kids.  I love seeing their smiling faces everyday. Even though these kids can drive me completely crazy, I wouldn't want it any other way.  These kids are beautiful and amazing, and I love them to pieces.

Parent Teacher Conferences

The past couple days we had conferences with parents.  This was the third set of the year and the last ones.  I am glad to be done with them.  They are such long days.  Teaching 8:15-1:30 and then conferences right after school until about 8:00.  Good news....I made it through!

After conferences I started to think about how great they went.  I don't care talking to parents and telling them how their child is doing.  It's the long days that make things hard.  I really enjoyed talking to all of the parents these days.  Especially a couple of them in particular.  Here is why....
I have some students who are low and I worry about constantly.  And part of me thought that there is not much happening at home to help them.  But, my goodness.  Talking to their parents I had a change of heart.  I realized that these parents work so hard for their kids and family that they really don't have time to help out because they are working 2, 3, or 4 jobs.  A couple of these parents told me they are going to do whatever they need to do to help their child get to where he or she needs to be.  The dads would tell me that their child wants to go to BYU and wants to be a doctor.  I love hearing this.  The dads then say they don't want their child to be like them when they grow up.  They want them to try hard in school, do well, and make it big in the world.

I really love being a teacher and seeing how much these parents really care about their children's lives and education.

I'm Back....Sorta

Well, it has been a long while.  Work has completely consumed my life.  I finally finished at UVU in December, and so my load has not been as heavy.  But now I am able to put all my focus on my little kiddos and not have to work about finishing my teacher work sample. Thank goodness!!

Blake just started a new job and his last semester of school at BYU.  We are both excited to graduate and be done with college.

We were able to spend almost two weeks in California for Christmas with family.

We had such a wonderful time in all of the warm weather in California.

80 degrees on Christmas day is not a bad way to spend the day.

I am so blessed to have such amazing families in my life.