Merry Christmas and new nephew!!!

Merry Christmas everyone. We have gotten to spend a lot of time with family and it has been so much fun. We didn't get a white Christmas but a green Christmas is okay. :) It is still very cold. Mt. Hood is very white. :)

We forgot to add something to our big update last time. We have a new nephew!! My brother and sister in law had him at the end of November. His name is Beau Vance Catt, Born 11/27/07 weighing 8lb 2 oz. He is super cute. So here are some pictures.

That is Lanie when Beau was still at the hospital. She likes being a big sister.

We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas. Happy birthday, Jesus!

The Big Update

Okay, so where to start. Well, since it has been awhile since we updated this we will have to start at the beginning of the summer. This summer Jeff surprised me for my birthday and took me to Cannon Beach for an overnight trip. The weather was absolutely beautiful. I even got a small sunburn (which is rare for our coast).

Here we are trying to fly a kite. It takes a bit to get used to controlling it.

We celebrated our 3rd anniversary by going north. We headed up to Alaska to visit Jeff's mom and step dad. We got to relax and just hang out. We had so much fun up there until the flight back. I can truly say that flying stand by is for the birds. We got to the airport and found out the flights were not until later in the evening, maybe I should say earlier in the morning, so we listed for the flight that left at 1am but you can't check your bags until 4 hours before your flight. We were stuck outside the gate area for a while. We sure played a lot of cards. Then when we finally got to check our bags we got the "special" security search because we were flying stand by. Then we waited some more but when you fly stand by you don't necessarily get on the flight you list for which is what happened to us. So then we had to try for some other flights. Finally we got on one but it only got us to Seattle. Once again we were stuck. Let me just say that by the time we finally reached Portland we had been in airports for over 24 hours with no sleep. I must be getting old because all-nighters to finish projects in college seemed like no big deal but I was exhausted after all that time in the airport. I don't have any pictures of the airport ordeal because well, we just didn't take any but I do have some pictures of Alaska in the summer. It sure was weird going to bed and having it still be light out side. You really lose track of time when it doesn't get dark.

Doesn't he look cute in pink? It goes with his eyes. :)

I rained a lot. We brought it with us from Oregon.

This is in their cabin's backyard. They live in such a beautiful spot.

After Alaska we just did little stuff for the rest of the summer. I took Nicole (our niece) to the zoo one day. We had so much fun walking around the butterfly area. I got my classroom ready for the next round of first graders and took a really fun and informative class. My class is a great group of kids this year and I can hardly believe that it is already December. 1 more week and we are on Christmas break. Yeah!!! Well, here are a few picture of my class and other random things since the last time we updated.

My little munchkins. A very cute group of kids.

Okay, So we are slackers.

So we have had internet back up and running for a little while and we have yet to update our blog. So here is a little post to say that it will get udated after parent teacher conferences are over. (Not my favorite thing to do. I just get so stressed.) We hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. We are very thankful for all of you!! :)

Here we are at the top of Tom, Dick and Harry.I thought the page needed a picture. :)

So Sorry We Haven't Updated

Wow, I am so sorry we haven't updated this in a while. We are still alive and using our blog. We have been without Internet for almost 2 months now (I did not realize how much I used the Internet until we did not have it anymore. It is a pain to be without it especially since we don't have TV, we feel very out of the loop). I try to check email and what not when I am at work but have not gotten a chance to sit down and update this. I plan on adding another post really soon to let you know all the things that have happened since the beginning of June. Things like, we went to the beach this summer for my b-day and we went to Alaska in July. The brand new school year has started and I am already into the 4th week of school. I will write more about these when I post again and put in pictures. I need to bring my laptop so that I have all the pictures. Well, I hate to make this so short but I want to leave work. The day is done and it is time to go home. :) We love all you guys and I hope you keep checking our blog. :)

Whoville is missing a Who!

Our niece, Lanie, just celebrated her 1st birthday in May. Katie, her mom, put Lanie's little bit of hair up in pigtails (well that is all the hair she has) and I thought she looked like a little who. Let me show you what I mean. :)

Ok, here is Cindy Lou Who from the Grinch.

This is Lanie and Kaite. I think the little pigtails make her look a bit like a cute little who.

I just wanted to put in another picture because I thought it was cute. She really liked climbing through the coffee table more than playing with her new toys.

Only 2.5 days of school left. I think I can make it. :)

So a new building is more of a nessecity now.

3 day, holiday weekends (Memorial Day weekend) are supposed to be fun and relaxing, right? Not so much today. We were helping Jeff's older brother move to his new townhouse out here in Sandy when Andrea, the school's secretary, called me. Our school got vandalized sometime during the night. Whoever did it threw large rocks through several windows, 2 of the windows were to my classroom. Wow, what a phone call to get. The vandals had thrown rocks through my windows, the other 1st grade room's windows and 2 other classrooms' windows. The windows are plate glass so there were shards of glass everywhere. Nothing in the classrooms was stolen or broken. What an amazing blessing. Jeff and I went down to the school as soon as I got the call to help and to clean up my room. Jeff got to help board up the windows and clean glass out of every nook and cranny in my classroom. It is amazing how far all the glass pieces went. We definitely need a building now. The possible new building is in a much better neighborhood. Our poor school has been vandalized 5 or 6 times just this school year.

Here are my broken windows. :( So sad.

The end is near!!!

Only 10.5 more days to go!! I think I can make it but I am not sure if my sanity shall remain intact. First grade has had some exciting times lately. I think my kids are just sick of each other and so they are arguing a lot. It is just a little annoying (okay, it is a lot annoying).

We have had some good excitement, too. In first grade we study the frog life cycle which means we get to raise tadpoles. (this is my favorite unit since I love frogs :) ) Some of our tadpoles have matured into froglets. They are so cute and tiny )about the size of my finger tip). Today I released them back into the pond that the tadpoles came from. Here are a few pictures of the froglets. They are a little like a hidden picture, you have to find the baby frogs.

Hint: There is one by the stick and one in the water.

Can you see it on the big rock?

Okay I know it is blurry but this is just to show you the size of the frog baby. (It is hard to take a picture of something so tiny with my little digital camera. It can only do so much.) They still have little tails left.

Well, I think the frogs are exciting anyway and so I thought I would share. Some other exciting things for my little school are that we might be getting an actual building with a roof and walls and staff restrooms (currently I use the same one that the kids use and they are not always the cleanest. yuck!) and a multipurpose area so that the ankle biters would not have to eat lunch in the classroom anymore. Please pray for us that we get a building. We only have one more year to be at our current site but with adding a second 4th grade next year we are out of room. It will mean a lot of work this summer if we do get a building but it is so that the school can stay operating and I would still have my job. I will keep you posted on building progress. Well, I am going to end this one for now. I will post again soon.

Is It Over Yet?

18.5 days left of school and the count down has begun. I can't wait for this year to be done! I get to pass my little chittlins (not sure if that is word but oh well) on to the second grade. (Yeah!!) We are pretty excited about summer. We are planning to go up to Alaska for the first week in July. I got to see it in the winter. I am excited to see their summer weather. We are going to visit Jeff's Mom and step dad. I can't wait to get away and relax. On another note, Earl was the Survivor winner this season. (In case you are not into Survivor you may want to skip this part.) We like our weekly fix of survivor. This season was not the greatest but it got pretty interesting toward the end. One guy, Yau-Man, gave the 60,000 dollar truck that he won to another player for immunity. But then Dreamz, theguy who got the truck, decided to go back on his word and kept the immunity. It was all quite crazy. But fun times any way. Well, we will update again soon. I will let you know how the count down is going (if I survive). :)

New Niece

Sorry we are so bad about updating our blog (it has been awhile). We have a new niece in the family. Jeff's sister Paula just had a baby girl. Sadie Josephine Booth Born: May Day, 2007 21" tall ~ 8 lbs. 15 oz. Parents: Jeff and Paula Booth :) Here are a couple of pictures of the cute little girl. We will write another post again soon. We hope everyone is having a fantastic May!!!

Yeah!!! Spring Break!!!

Spring break came at just the right time. I needed the break. Jeff and I headed to the beach for a day. The coast is so beautiful even if it was raining. We went to this little waterfall near Tillamook. It was amazing and we had never heard of it before. It is way off the beaten path but well worth it. It is called Munson Creek Falls (now you can visit it when you are down in that area). We tried to hit the Tillamook cheese factory but they weren't packing :(. I guess it was time to do routine maintenance this week. We were a bit bummed. But hey, we still got our squeaky cheese. :)

Here we are at Munson Creek Falls. The next one is just of the falls.

During the break I also got to babysit my niece, Lanie. She is such a cutie and I just couldn't resist taking this picture of her. She is almost walking and she loves playing in the water. She took one solo step for me that day.

oops, it has been awhile

Wow! It has been a long time since we updated. Well the school year is half over for me. Spring break is in a week. Yeah!!! I get to sleep in. Jeff and I got to go snopwboarding a couple of times this winter. I somehow managed to not get hurt like every year prior. I think I must be getting better. :) The times we went up the snow was awesome, lots of fresh powder.

Here we are dreaming at the car show. It is fun to sit in all the bright shiny cars and inhale that new car smell. The mini is my dream car. Jeff got to sit in a brand new porsche and various other cars. We walked around for quite a while. We had a lot of fun. The other picture is of Jeff playing a video game with the guys from Suburban. They had the ultimate tailgate party set up.

Ok, I better go for now. I will try to update more.