Friday, May 4, 2012

sparkling

sadie's teacher won teacher of the year and she asked sadie to be the student presenter that introduced her at the ace award banquet.  i thought it was a huge compliment that she asked sadie, but on the way home from the banquet i realized what a blessing this teacher is in sadie's life.  everyone needs people that think they are wonderful and this teacher sees sadie as important and capable and sadie feels it.  she is an amazing teacher and i know it was a tender mercy that sadie crossed paths with her.

sadie gave a two minute speech* she wrote as an introduction, then presented mrs. porter with a mountain dew.  mrs. porter gave sadie a bouquet of flowers and then before she started her speech she said to everyone, "isn't she sparkling?" 
 it was a neat night watching the teachers being recognized and awarded the ace award.  i even shed a few tears.  it could be that i just had a baby and am slightly emotional, but mostly it was watching  things like a special needs student introduce a teacher that she loves, and watching teachers who help their students sparkle.     


**sadie's speech
I moved to Wasatch County last year in the middle of 7th grade.  I heard a lot of great things about the TV broadcasting class, so I decided to sign up and see if i got in.  They only accept about 35 students and about 100 apply.  I was thrilled when I found out I did. On the first day of school, I walked into TV broadcasting feeling slightly nervous. I didn’t know that TV broadcasting would soon become my favorite class ever.  
To get to know each other, everyone in the class picked a candy out of a basket.  Each candy represented a question about yourself.  Our amazing teacher, Mrs. Porter, really took the time to get to know all of her students well and help them get involved.  She found ways to make everything exciting. TV broadcasting had a lot of fun kids, but the thing that really made the difference was the teacher.  Mrs. Porter somehow got 17 crazy 8th graders to film and produce 5-10 minute news broadcasts two times a week.  TV Broadcasting helped me a ton.  It was a fantastic start to a great year and somehow, that class boosted my confidence.  Mrs. Porter has really contributed to my year.  I miss her class so much and ever since it ended in January, I have gone to visit her every day.  I even got to help her teach her new students.
Not only is Mrs. Porter a phenomenal teacher, she is one of the hardest workers at Rocky Mountain Middle School.  Mrs. Porter is a teacher, the librarian, she is in charge of core testing, she does presentations for classes, she is in charge of all the technology at the school, and Mr. Judd makes her send out all of the emails and she is a mother.  It is no wonder that her favorite drink is Mountain Dew.  She must need it to keep her going!
Mrs. Porter deserves this award. She is a hard worker and she is a huge role model to me, and most of all she is my friend.  I am so glad I had the privilege of being in her class and getting to know her.  Thank you, Mrs. Porter.


 

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

random moments

 i thought i'd capture a few of the random, happy moments from the last few days.

i hadn't seen dave in a while and found him and abe reading way past bedtime.
  
my mom spent a few days with me when dave had to work late and overnight.  it was heaven.  she cooked and cleaned and taxi'd the kids everywhere.  i took naps and completely enjoyed holding my baby.  i love laying next to her, looking at her and hearing her breath (purr) and squeak.  my mom even sent my dad up for a day.  he walked in and told me my mom made him come to vacuum.  he drove an hour each way so he could vacuum my house and please my mom.  he would vacuum, then sit and have a snack and check his tweets from greg wrubell.  then he would vacuum some more.    

sadie photographs vivian often.  i think this one of her holding sadie's hand is precious.  i love viv's fingers and toes and her hair that sticks straight up.  i love watching sadie love her too.

this baby girl is an amazing gift!  i love when she puts her little arm around me... she and i belong together.

kai loves her and so of course he wants to share with her something he loves, like taking stats.  not real stats, just making them up for fun.  i think he likes to watch the numbers change and so he thought she would enjoy it too.  
impressive stats!

vivian's first real outing was to the elementary school for kai's first grade program.  i was a little nervous taking her because i'm sure walking into the elem school is like walking into a big germ.  it was good we went though.  kai knew every word of every song and had a dancing part that was awesome.  he also liked showing off his new little sister.

dave had the week off of work when we had vivs, but now that he is back to work he is quite busy.
he holds her when he gets the chance and i love to hear him talk to her. he is always telling her how beautiful she is and how glad he is that she came to our family.  
(did i mention i love her hands and feet?)

 abe tied his own tie for church and was really proud of his knot.  the tie was a little shorter than he expected....we like to call it 'fun size'.

kai and max went to soccer practice and on the way i could hear kai saying how much he hoped he got the orange pinny because then his outfit would look so awesome.  his wish came true:)

Monday, April 30, 2012

the help

kai skipped school today to have a turn being mom's helper.  he bathed vivian and read to her.  he loves her!!  i mentioned a few things he could do with her and he said, "and then we can play stats."  he loves that stat app on my phone!


Tuesday, April 24, 2012

one week

can't believe vivian is one week old.  it is so much better having her here than being pregnant!  today we had all kinds of subs at the house finishing things up, so...sadie and i had a photo shoot with little vivs.  

Monday, April 23, 2012

action shots

max takes loves to take photos of viv with my iphone. especially action shots....some have more action than others.

in love

we can't get enough of our vivs!!!
i love hearing kai walk in from school and say, "where's the baby?"
and.... max making up songs (singing with vibrato, of course), "there you you are, there you are, there you are, little guy. i love you, i love you, i love you, you know."

all i want to do is hold her and stare at her... and soak up her smallness.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

#5

baby #5 has arrived!!!
introducing...
vivian sophia
8lbs 4 oz 21 inches
born at 12:08pm

it was an eventful delivery (i will give details another day), so we are so happy to have her here and part of our family.

we decided on the name vivian because it means full of life. sophia was my great grandmother's name and it means wisdom.
what could be better than to be full of life and wisdom?
plus, i caught abe looking up the name vivian and he was so cute about it, it sealed the deal.