Callie's first time Ice Skating

I know I have blogged before about Callie and how she tries new challenges in her life and how proud I am of them.  I can't seem to express enough how much joy it brings me to be her mother.  To see these new accomplishments in her life at such a young age.  No wonder people have so many kids...it is AMAZING to experience all of her firsts!


Callie and I picked up Jet & Alexis to accompany us in some open skate time :)  It was actually Jet's idea!  I asked this hockey knowing family what time open skate was, and Jet responded with, "I want to go!"  And from there it happened :)

Alexis and her friend Hailey were wonderful helpers to Callie!  They helped her get ready, talked to her about the ice, and they were her buddies on the ice :)  When we first approached the ice, Callie watned nothing to do with it.  A few of my 6th grade students were there, and then having Jet & Lexi there, and everyone was encouraging Callie to get on the ice :)  Callie doesn't like this kind of attention!

I convinced her to let me carry her around the ice (I wore tennis shoes this time), and eventually, she let me hold her up!  Within a few minutes, the picture below is where we were :)

She really enjoyed watching the figure skating finals to go to the Olympic games, and she learned quickly that if you fall, you just get back up and try again!

The girls, at Jet, helping her!

Soon, Callie wanted Johanna, one of my students, to help her!  Johanna and Lexi skated around the ice with her :)

Here is the whole gang, so excited for Callie's first time skating!  

These two claim to be Collin & Carter's girlfriends :)  Such sweethearts to help Callie skate!

This is such an adorable picture of Lexi & Jet - I sure do love these two kids!  They are like a brother and sister to my kids!  The boys were saying Jet immediately after saying "mom"...he ranks pretty high :)

Greatest picture EVER!

The girls decided to try and have Callie sit on the chair and they'd push her around.  Yeah she didn't like that :)  Callie quickly hopped off the chair and started skating more!

My little love bugs :)

Seriously - she was AMAZING with Callie!  So encouraging and helpful.  Callie really looks up to her!

She finally accepted the walker - she wanted nothing to do with this at first.  She used it for about 5 minutes before she realized she didn't like it...

Then she thought she was pretty brave and told Lexi to sit down so she could push her around.

And then Callie realized, "Hey, I can do this on my own!"  She was skating all by herself!  I was so proud of her I could hardly contain myself!  What a big girl :)  I love this picture of Jet and Callie skating side by side!  So sweet :)

When we first put her skates on her, she couldn't even stand up...and now, she is able to skate on her own and walk around by herself!  

Winter Wonderland

Sometimes there just isn't anything better to do than to get outside with your family and just...PLAY!  The boys pushed around shovels, Callie ran, jumped, fell, made snow angels, crawled in and out of the fort, pulled the sled, rode in the sled and of course...ate snow!

The boys have played in the snow this winter, but today was perfect!  Josh was home so we were all out there!  Josh built a great fort for the kids that they can crawl into and hang out, and then crawl out the tunnel.  

Carter had a blast shoveling the snow and walking around...on the driveway!  Turns out his boot is a little big for his foot (our boots were donated to us from friends), and it kept falling off.  He was a trooper though - he never complained about his boots being off!  There were two times that Carter was standing on the driveway looking into the yard and decided to just drop into the snow - belly flop style!  He picked his head up out of the snow and looked at me like "WTF MOM"!  It was hilarious!  Then he just did it again :)

Collin is going to be Daddy's little side kick whenever it comes to outdoor work!  If snow blowers had an attachment for kids, Collin would ride in it.  Heck there's a million dollar idea - they have toy lawn mowers, why not toy snow blowers!  Collin is much more daring IN the snow.  He was in and out of the fort, in the snow, eating the snow and wanting to get into all of our "adult" shovels!

Josh was throwing the kids into the snow - it was HILARIOUS!  They just plopped down and stayed there!  It really reminded me of the movie Frozen when they dropped 100 feet away from the snow monster :)

Carter was so cute - he fell in and would have stayed there all day!

Josh's great "10 minute" snow fort!  "Hi Callie"

It's so quiet by our house - why not go for a walk down the middle of the street!  One thing I love about our neighborhood!!!

In the picture below, I told Collin to go hold Carter's hand.  Collin started to reach out and Carter took off running...Collin just walked behind all sad!  So he held my hand instead!

Since the snow pile by our house is a fort with a tunnel, we don't want the kids on top of it, so our traditional snow pile hill is at the end of the driveway.  Not my favorite place, but it was okay today :)

Who's in there??

"Hi Collin!"

One of Carter's many face planting moments!

We had a fun filled day in the snow and it was so nice to get the kids outside and out of my hair the house!  Back to work for mom and dad tomorrow...

A Simple Random Act!

I have really fallen off the face of the earth as far as keeping up with our blog.  I believe I went the whole month of December without one single post.  I almost feel like it is too late now to go back...

There were so many wonderful things that happened in that month too.  I was so busy with our family that I didn't stop to blog the memories.  I do have the pictures and will begin our Shutterfly book shortly - that is a must :)

I wanted to do a fun update on my year in 6th grade!  I could not be happier that I made the move to 6th grade!  Now don't get me wrong, I love the younger students - they bring their own party to the mix, but there is something about my students that makes me feel like I am really doing something important - something life changing.  I'm not sure if it is the fact that they are older, so the conversations can go that much deeper, or if I can relate to them on a different level.  I'm not sure.  Maybe it is because I go home to three littles, so I don't have the early childhood void.  I love my coworkers - talk about team!  I love my students and I love the building I work in.

In all of my years of teaching (7 in Austin and 8 overall) I have NEVER felt as proud as I did today.

Over Christmas break, all of Language Arts assigned our 6th graders with an assignment to perform one Random Act of Kindness on a stranger.  Their assignment was to write a reflective paragraph about their experience.  I had several students telling me about their experiences today, what they did, how the person reacted, how they felt, etc...

I even shared the Random Acts my family has done.

It wasn't until about 2:45 that I felt this extreme sense of happiness.  My principal, Jean McDermott, came to me and asked if my class was doing this type of assignment.  I informed her that all of 6th grade was, but what wondered why she was asking.  Then she showed me TWO - not one but TWO thank you notes from two individuals in our community that were given Random Acts of Kindness from our very own 6th graders.

I felt the tear lump form in my throat - that one you get when you are so proud and happy but you don't want to look like a sobbing mess so you fight back the tears!  Yeah, that one!  These sweet 6th graders, children only 11-12 years old made such a significant impact on another human beings life that they felt compelled to express their gratitude!

I am so proud of their hard work, their determination and their kind hearts.  These kids make me so excited, every single day to get up early, head to school and challenge their thinking, question their understanding, inspire their souls and feed their minds.

"Let it Go" - Callie's rendition!

I know I have dropped the ball on posting, but Christmas preparations took the best of me!  Enjoy this little treat until I get caught up :)