It's a GIRL!

She is so CUTE! She has TONS of hair, lots of ROLLS and loves to EAT... She's my kind of girl :)

Seattle Visit

Over UEA weekend, I took off a couple extra days and flew up to Washington to see my brother and his family.

One day we went downtown and did a Seattle tour on "Ride the Ducks" which is both a land and water tour. The boys thought it was amazing, most likely since we went in the water AND they had whistles that sounded like a duck quacking...


Afterwards we went to the Pacific Science Center and looked at some of the exhibits. For some reason this yucky looking caterpillar was the optimal spot for a photo opp. However, it was better than getting our picture taken with the naked mole rats - YUCK! Not a fan...


On our way out of Seattle, we stopped to get our picture with the famous space needle. We also stopped at a couple of food spots that had some yummy treats :)


The weather was actually pretty amazing - low sixties and sunny! So we went to the park a couple of mornings before A had preschool. Those boys are pretty entertaining - don't they look like they are up to something?!?

On one of the last days I was there we went and picked out pumpkins. I never recall picking pumpkins to be such a big task, however I learned that the entire field must be scoured in order to find the perfect pumpkins, both in size and color!

Lego "Mini-Me"

I have always enjoyed Legos and now that my sister and her family live at my parent's house, they have the joy of playing with the Legos I played with as a kid. It is my life ambition to think of different things to build when we play with them and today, the objective was "mini-me". Granted the colors are limited, so we did the best we could :)

When my other nephew C came home, he was so impressed he wanted a "mini-me" himself, so I helped him out and he finished the head today all by himself with the following result:


Fun times playing with Legos on a Saturday evening :)

And The Winner Is...

I know this is a really special picture of me :) That is because I took it myself with a program on my computer. This morning I was given this plaque and one of my students was invited to come and say a couple of sentences as to why I was a great teacher. Incredibly embarrassing, but the girl is so dang cute, so it was nice! The plaque will NOT be hanging in my classroom, so if you ever want to see it, it will be put away in a box somewhere and you can dig it out yourself...

Give Us a Hand for Great Speech!

That is this year's theme in my classroom. I feel obligated to change every year since I have a lot of children that stay with me for a few years :) So after I have 6 themes I will be done and just rotate through them again!

Another Year Older...

And Wilder Too, Happy Birthday to You! Isn't that how the song goes?!? A turned 3 for his big birthday. We went bowling in the morning and then had Lighting McQueen cake and opened presents later that night.

I hope you notice the amount of detail on the cake... I spent 3 hours with my sister making this cake! We put a base layer of icing on and all the details disappeared, so I had to freehand the details on! Skilled, huh? Other than that I was the mixing and cleaning specialist :)

A loves the TV show Little Einsteins and Annie (featured above) has been called his girlfriend on occasion. So when I found a singing Annie, I just couldn't pass it up! I can't believe how fast he has grown into a little boy...

Impressed Much?!?!

You SHOULD be! With some assistance from my sister and technical help by phone from my mom, my amazing quilt is done and ready to hang in my classroom :)

P.S. (Real Quilters - don't look too closely...)

Just Messing Around...

Since receiving a new computer for school, every time the boys come to see me they want to make "funny faces" so here are a few highlights :)








Fascinating huh?!? I know you're all jealous :)

Grassless

I finally have a backyard that doesn't make me cringe. And the best part is that it is grassless - that's right! No more lawn mowing, weed-whacking, edging... Ah, doesn't that sound good?!? For those of you nay-sayers, I did consider astro-turf, however, vacuuming the backyard didn't sound that great either :) So this is the final result. Backyard - CHECK!

Seattle Christmas

I spent Christmas with my parents at my brother's house in Washington. Needless to say, taking pictures has not been my strong point lately. Hence I only have 2 pictures of me at Christmas. (Technically 3 - but I'll save you from the Christmas morning picture - SCARY!) When my mom and sister-in-law are taking pictures it is hard to justify making everyone stay still for another picture, so I get what I can from others...

I love to play around and wrestle with the boys...


And it generally results in hysterical laughter from my nephews! Or J trying to get away from me as quickly as possible - you can decide... :)

The BIG 6!

My nephew's birthday occurred in December and his favorite show right now is Ben 10. My friend at work convinced me to buy these balloons. As the Walmart worker started to blow them up (in a VERY slow manner) I was slightly shocked at the size of them! Needless to say C liked them and amazingly enough they are still half-floating in his room a month later!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was low key at the Baker household this year. We were graced with the presence of cousins and extended family :)

The obligatory dinner picture... Afterwards we played a roaring hand of Bohnanza. For those of you who have never played it - you should!

However, as a warning, I do get highly involved with this game and get VERY upset when people try to cheat (usually couples). So we'll see if my cousins ever want to play that with me again... I never win, but that doesn't stop me from continuing to play it!

Halloween

I'm not sure what possessed me this year to carve a pumpkin, but I'm pretty sure I have done enough to cover the next 10 years of my life...


My highly skilled helpers at work...


A wanted fangs on his pumpkin (which is what I am holding) and then C wanted the Batman sign, so that was my first attempt at free handing something that should be recognizable. Not too shabby if you ask me!


And the hoards of pumpkins that we completed that night!