Easter Egg Hunt

Every year there is a BIG easter egg hunt in our little town up at Sorosis Park. Berkeley's favorite treat - Ding Dong
Seriously....this is the 1-2 year old section. Too small of an area and a bunch of parents that should let their kid get their own candy. Berkeley did great though.
Pretty Carlie

Carlie was in the 5-6 year old section

My cuties
Pretty sweet view of Mt. Adams in my town (soon to not be my town anymore...we are moving in about a month)

Is it just me or does Berk look afraid?

Carlie and her buddy from Kindergarten

My kiddos with the tooth fairy. Carlie thought is was pretty awesome since the tooth fairy had just visited her the other day.

Psych Party 2011

I am the Stake Camp Director. For all my non-LDS friends - this means that I am in charge of a week long girls camp in the summer for girls ages 12-18. This calling consumes my life sometimes. The past few months I have been working like crazy for our Psych Party. We introduced the theme to the girls and leaders of the stake with a silly skit, showed a fun video of last year's girls camp, sang songs, ate yummy food, did a little certifying, and got organized. It was TOO much work, but I think that it went well. Thanks to my all my assistants....I could not have pulled this off without you!

Copper War

A lovely young lady, Hannah Olheiser came to me one day in my classroom requesting me to be the sponsor in her desire to raise money for The Make a Wish Foundation. She told me a touching story of her inspiration and how could I possibly say no?

The first thing we did was sponsor a Copper War at our school. We put all the 4th period classes on 10 different teams. I was the captain of the purple team. You put pennies in your own team jars and them silver coins and dollars in other people's jars. Pennies are positive points and all other money are negative points. Your quest is to stay in the positive. Of course I bragged all over school that my team would win. I even wrote a "beautiful" song about how the purple team would be victorious and sang it on the video announcements. Of course, if you tell teenagers that you will win, they will do everything in their power to make you lose. It was AMAZING to watch the students and teachers be so generous and competitive. Just when you think teens are selfish and too self-absorbed to serve or give to others, they surprise you. What a great experience. As could be expected my team ended up losing (we were something like negative 12,000 points - even after bringing in 150 bucks in pennies), BUT we raised the most money. All in all we ended up raising almost $1300 to help grant some wonderful child dealing with a horrible illness their wish. I wish I had taken more pictures, but here are a few of the kids that volunteered to come in a count all that money.

Berkeley the Hair Stylist

Berkeley loves to have his hair done. He is always asking my to do his hair. I usually put gel in it and make a faux hawk. But, recently he has been sneaking into my bathroom and stealing my pomade and putting hand fulls in his hair. Yikes!!!! He likes to do this right before we need to go somewhere. Of course the process to get all that pomade out is a HUGE annoying one. Oh well, can't get too mad at those blue eyes.

I am Lame

I have been so extra busy this year that I have not blogged in over two months! How ridiculous. So I changed my background tonight and I promise (not that anyone reads my blog except my sister) that since it is Spring Break (oh baby) that I will do some blogging over the next week.

Billy Bob Sno-Park Adventure

A few days after Christmas Kim, Juan, Jordan, Andres, and Adan came for a visit to The Dalles. We went sledding at Billy Bob Sno-Park (yes I live in hick-ville) with Corey's two sisters families - the Maganas and the Nietos. What a fun day in the snow. Thank goodness there was a warming hut that some snowmobilers had a fire going in. It was a freezing day. Carlie had a BLAST sledding with her cousins. She was so brave and never stopped to hang out in the warming hut. On the other hand Berkeley does not like the snow very much. I am not sure if it is because it is cold or he can't walk very well, but he spent A LOT of time in the warming hut. On the way back the roads were very snowy and slick. Anne Marie was in front of us and ran off the road. We had no cell service and the snow was really deep. We were able to dig and push her car out though - all because of my super fit body (ha ha...I have been working out though).

Christmas Eve

Here are some photos from Christmas. It was a nice mellow Christmas with NO traveling!! Hooray! For the first time in my teaching career I did NOT want to go back to work at all after Christmas break. I wanted to call my principal and tell him I quit. I love my job, but I love my job as mommy a lot more. Trying to balance a career and my family is the toughest thing in the world. But, at least I get to spend my summers as mommy - a much easier and enjoyable job! :)

Happy New Year

Corey and I spent New Year's Eve at the Stake Youth Dance. Good times.....

Merry Christmas

As I sit here missing my family and avoiding all the pre-Christmas work that I should be doing here is a random mixture of some Christmas pics I have taken the past week.

I hope everyone has a FABULOUS Christmas!

Ward Christmas Party

Here are some random pictures of my very cute kids from our Ward Christmas Party.

RANDOM ALDRIDGES

Carlie LOVES the snow....here she is making snow angels and posing on the trampoline.

I do believe Berkeley is the most handsome boy EVER!

Here I am in my hotel room when I went to Time Out for Women with my mother-in-law, and sisters-in laws. It was AMAZING.

Here is my cute little family at the Starlight Parade in our small little town

Carlie and Claire

Carlie & her cousin Claire

They LOVE each other & fight like sisters. This love/hate relationship is probably due to the fact that they are in the same Kindergarten class, go to daycare together, have dance class twice a week together, live a block away from each other, etc....

That is a LOT of time spent together.

Look at their sassy personalities!!

I LOVE these girls

Best Buds....

Fall Fun

Last month we hung out with some of Berk & Carlie's cousins and went to Rasmussen Farms. What a great time picking out pumpkins, buying fresh fruit, navigating the corn maze, and checking out the pumpkin character displays. I love the fall in the Columbia Gorge!!

Oh Cocomotion, how I love you!

Everyone should have one of these. My sister bought me one a few years ago and I have been in love ever since. Just add some milk and hot cocoa mix and push a button. A few minutes later you have perfectly blended hot cocoa at just the right temperature. If you are super awesome like me you will add a teaspoon or two of your favorite Torani flavoring. My favorite is hazelnut.

This is the best thing to get you through the cold winter months.......seriously.