Mid-Diet and the Yard

Well, so much for posting the pictures the next day. We did take some though. Jon is down 17 lbs and I am down 13 lbs now. We are pretty excited but at the same time stoked to eat normal food again.

Here's skinny Jon. His shirts are all getting to be loose.

I haven't lost as much as he has, but my jeans are fitting way better.

In other news, this weekend we got four new fishes for our tank from one of the ladies at my work.

Here are most of the fish. There are: a bala shark, koi, angel fish, and bottom feeder. The others are our tiger barbs, gourami, and placostamus.

We also worked a lot in the yard. It's looking pretty good but it will be even better by this time next week. We planted the flowers and put down some dandelion killing fertilizer. Jon will be rerouting a few of the sprinklers in the back yard this week and we will plant our vegetables and a couple trees back there too.

The flowers in front are red, white, and blue. The bushes are a new addition as well.

Last on our update, we have a family of birds living above our porch and it is so fun to go out and hear them in the mornings.

That little black hole is where the nest of birds live.

Free Advertising

Nope, it's not Jon like I bet Maggie would have guessed, it's me, Rachael. Since completing school a couple of weeks ago I have decided to declutter our house. Not that a house that has only been lived in for 8 months can really be that cluttered. We moved all of Jon's things from the basement of the North Salt Lake house and went through them. I cleared out the storage room getting rid of papers from elementary school and receipts that Jon had in boxes since before his mission. With his permission of course. Together Jon and I cut down some branches from one of our trees, gutted both flower beds and moved our rose bushes.

We are finally getting down to business and fixing up the things around here that we said we wanted to. I have not taken pictures yet of these projects because we haven't planted new flowers and the office is deskless until this weekend when we move the BEAUTIFUL wooden desk into our house finally. We did frame Jon's documents though and we are just waiting for my diploma to get here so that it can be framed with Jon's and posted on the wall in there also. So, where does free advertising come in you ask? Well, in all of this decluttering I found a few things that we NEVER use and they just take up space in our basement, so they are for sale. I posted them on KSL, but thought mentioning them here might not hurt. So, check it out. We have a full weight set, a printer, and a 300 disc CD changer. I know, not a whole lot of excitement but maybe something you could use? If not it's all good. Just thought I could mention it.

In other news, Jon and I are doing well on our diet. The Biggest Loser competition with the Hamilton family is still around and it will be interesting to see how everyone does this Memorial Day weekend as they come out to Utah to visit and celebrate. Jon and I are looking forward to that and I am definitely looking forward to my visit to Vegas the first week of June to hang out with the Barries. All of this weight loss will be worth it during our summer of travels. Hopefully we get better at keeping you all updated on those travels. Oh, and since no one reads a blog without pictures, here is a pre diet picture. We will take a mid-diet picture tonight that will be added to this post when I get home from work.

Not the best for pre-diet, but you will see in the mid one how much of a difference there is.

Summer is in the Air

Well, it's official, I am a college graduate. Yay!! That means never driving to Provo again, unless I want to. Never turning in lesson plans to a BYU professor who does not read them. So basically, life is great.

Since finishing school I have cleaned out the storage shed and reorganized it to fit all of the stuff from the basement at the North Salt Lake house, cleaned the house, mowed the lawn, and today I plan on pulling out everything that's left in the dog run and flower beds. Life is great now that I can live it at a pace of my choosing. So, here are some fun pictures from our recent escapades, because we all know that no one reads a post without pictures.

While my mom was visiting we bought these frames and picked the pictures to make a family photo wall.

Right before I went for the last week of school I ripped out all of the weeds in the dog run so that we can plant a garden.

One of the mornings when I was doing laundry Jon thought it would be a good idea to wrap me up burrito style in a giant blanket. It was very comfortable.
The last day of school we loaded up the 4Runner and headed down to Zions with some great friends. On Saturday we even went for a hike.

The hike lead to the top of this, Angel's Landing. I wimped out right about here, but Jon made it all the way to the top.

Here's the view from the top.

A fun little spot on the trail on the way up. We all took turns taking pictures in there.

These are the Wiggles. This picture was so fun, every set of us waited on a different level. So beautiful.

The Monday night after camping Jon took me to my first Bee's game of the season. I am so so so so so excited for this year's baseball season and for more outdoor time this upcoming summer.

School!

I am in my capstone seminar this evening and I feel like school is oozing out of me at this point. After twelve years of public education and five years of college education I have just about reached my limit with school. You know what the best part of this? Next Thursday is my LAST formal class for a very, very long time, hopefully.

For those of you who do not know, I am in my student teaching semester at BYU. During the first half of the semester I taught fourth grade and now I am working on my Early Childhood study with two kindergarten classes. I also completed my ESL endorsement during that first half and I am so grateful for all of those night classes now that they are over. It's been a really fun semester full of lesson plans, puking kids, and lots and lots of observations/evaluations. Thinking about all of this work, I realized that it really has all been worth it. As tiring as it has all been, I really do love working with the students and teachers. I like seeing the students start to understand. Here are a couple of fun stories from my teaching experiences.

I have this one tiny little boy in my afternoon class who is so cute I can hardly get frustrated with him. One day at recess he came up to me and said, "Teacher, Mine mom said I am coming to yours house. After school today. Mine mom will take me to yours house for a play time." It made me want to laugh so hard. He totally has the social idea of making friends at school down.

I have had three students move out and two new ones move in during the three weeks I have been in the kindergarten. One of the girls on her first day was asked to sit at the pink table between two boys. She turned to me and started crying. I knelt down to ask what was wrong and she said, "I DON'T WANT TO BE BOY TRAPPED!" We moved one of the boys over and she sat on the end.

Almost every day the afternoon class, part way through math time screams, "YOU FORGOT THE PLEDGE!" I am the worst at remembering to have them say the Pledge of Allegiance because the morning class does it with the whole school.

That's all I can think of for now, and I should probably be paying attention, so I am off for now. If I remember more funny things from the kiddos I will add them later.

Month In Review

It's the last day of January, and our last post was right before we went to San Diego for Christmas. We can't skip an entire month without updating everyone on our lives, so for your reading enjoyment, I have decided to write a month-in-review for January.

Before I can write about January, however, I need to write about Christmas.

We were in San Diego this year, and we had a blast! It was great to get the whole family together. It is always growing, and this Christmas, we got to meet the newest addition, Charlotte Leanne Quigley, Nate and Alyssa's daughter. She was born in October, and she is absolutely adorable. She has a smile on her face nonstop, and when she cries (which isn't very often, or very loud) she snorts. Seriously. It is hilarious!

Here is the family with the new addition, Charlotte.

Christmas was so much fun! Christmas at the Hamilton house is always awesome, but what makes it even more fun are the little kids. It is awesome seeing their faces when they see their
gifts.

Look at that excitement!!!

Happy Ben!

While in San Diego, Rachael and I went to the beach to take a picture for my mom to use as a decoration in the house. We got a few that we liked, but this one is probably our favorite.


January is Birthday month in our little family. Rachael's is on the 7th, and mine is on the 12th.
For Rachael's birthday, we went to Robintino's for dinner. The Mason's were in town visiting Jon's (yes, for all of you who don't know, my brother in-law is also a Jon, with his name spelled correctly) family, so they joined us at dinner, as did David and Aimee.

After dinner everyone came back to our house to open presents. Since we were in celebration mode, I decided to open my gifts as well, even though it wasn't my birthday. That's not something I normally do, because I like the suspense of waiting, but I was surrounded by early-openers so I gave in. Sam was a great helper. He is so enthusiastic to open gifts that aren't even his (but that could be because he thinks they are his...). He is so funny.

Rachael's new earrings.

Somehow, I convinced Rachael to come to the Utah Auto Show. Being from Detroit, the Utah show isn't very impressive. They only have a few hundred cars, instead of a few thousand like they do at the Detroit show. It was still a lot of fun, though.

Jon in the 2010 4Runner.

Rachael in the 2010 PT Cruiser.

Rachael's dream car (not really, but it is a pretty cool car), the 2010 Honda Accord Crosstour.

Also In January, we attended a really fun ugly sweater party with some friends. Good food, good friends, and good fun!

What a goofy bunch of people! But also, what great friends!

We have a had an incredible January, and already have some awesome plans for February. This year is going to be a great one!

Christmas is HERE!

Christmas is not really here, but here are a few things that make it seem like it started already.

1. Jon and I opened our presents from the Raymond side tonight. We love all of our gifts! We just wish we could be with you all this season.

2. We got all of the wrapping done, even stocking stuffers.

3. We packed up the plastic bins for transporting gifts and delivered them to David and Aimee.

4. We packed up our clothes and laid out our clothes for traveling tomorrow.

5. We packed carry-on bags including a great book to read if the flights are delayed because of the weather.

6. We reviewed the Christmas rules and agreed to help one another follow them.

7. We set up the light timer and fish food releaser so that the house and fish will be safe.

8. We wrote a blog post about Christmas to entertain our family and friends. Hehe.

We love you all. Since it is late, I must add Jon's words of Christmas Wisdom, "Merry Christmas to all! And to all, a good night!"

Christmas is almost HERE!

Okay, so I am a total slacker at the blogging thing, but I say with school, driving to Provo, and work, I am a busy girl who deserves some time with her husband. Slacking aside though, I thought I should post some pictures of the Christmas decorations and things here in Bountiful for my family spread across the states.

Since Christmas this year is in California, Jon and I are enjoying the snow here in Utah while we have it. I am sure come mid-February we will be so sick and tired of the snow, but for now, it is beautiful! Here are a couple shots that Jon took a few days before Thanksgiving when we hosted my sister Beth, her kids, Miranda, Maddie, and Matthew, and their adorable dog Japser, the quietest dog I have ever met.

The snow was coming down and it looked so pretty.

We love our cute little house, the snow makes it even cosier.

Beth and the kids anxiously awaiting the start of Thanksgiving dinner. It was a great excuse to use our wedding china and the beautiful silverware and crystal from Dar. We even had the candlesticks from Aunt Ida on the table.

Jon and I were so ready to eat by the time we sat down. Everything was delicious!

Jon's beautiful turkey. It's white in the middle because we took my dad's advice and put bacon on the top of it to seal in the moisture. Maddie liked the bacon.

Now, making this the longest post on the face of the planet, I will add pictures of the Christmas decor we have put up in preparation for the holidays. I finished all of the gift wrapping today and we only have one more gift to pick up tonight. Then just shopping for one another. Ugh, Jon is hard to shop for. The only thing I missed was our cute jingle bell wreath on the door. It's similar to this one, but in normal Christmas colors.

This is our little fiber-optic tree that sits on the right side of the entertainment center. It makes me happy because my Snow Babies finally get to be on display by this tree. They are too "wintery" to keep out year round.

Here is our large fake tree. We decided not to go for a real tree because Jon already had these two, and we ALWAYS had a fake one growing up. I think my sister Sarah was allergic. Next to the tree is our cute advent calendar that I got at Tai Pan Trading thanks to a giftcard from the Masons. We got most of our decorations there actually.

The entertainment center turned out cute in my opinion. The Believe blocks are a premium gift from Deseret Book this week with purchases over $30. The stockings and candy canes came from Tai Pan and the Willow Tree was a four month anniversary gift.

Jon and I have decided that we will get letter blocks for every holiday and these are our sparkly Merry Christmas blocks. Also, more of my Snow Babies.

The last Christmas decoration makes me smile the most. It is the dancing bear that lived at Dar's house all of my childhood. We figured Christmas was a good time to put him out for everyone to enjoy. Also, the lampshade is a little festive. You'll notice it has Moose cutouts. This stays up year-round though, because I left Jon pick out the lampshade. It's fun.

Feel free to leave a comment. Jon and I are trying to come up with our own Christmas traditions and I'd love to know what yours are.

Merry Christmas to all!