Maternity Leave

Well I am on my second to last day of Maternity Leave, which has flown by! On November 24th 2016 our family welcomed Addison into this world! It has been so fun dressing her and deciding which bow to put in her hair! The transition from 2 kids to 3 is not easy. Norm and I are officially out numbered. Our 2 year old Hudson has been very good with the transition and our 9 year old Carson is so excited to have a baby sister, he claims her as the "cutest sibling he has". Just recently Hudson our 2 year old has been saying "mommy put the baby down", so he can have my undivided attention. I am realizing that is the key to parenting multiples : Undivided Attention. Really that is what all relationships need to flourish feel valued and important. While on maternity leave we took a small family vacation to visit my mom and dad in Vegas and we were able to take our oldest Carson out for his own special time while my parents watched the two littles. While out we asked Carson, "what do you like about having two siblings, and what do you not like?" He said, "I like having siblings to play with, but I don't like not having your attention." We took Carson bowling that night and to sushi (he loves sushi) and it was amazing how one night of "undivided attention" really lifted his spirits and gave him time to open up to us. He literally had an extra hop in his step after just one night of his "own time." After this night Norm and I declared that at least 1x a month we will get a babysitter to have a Carson night. He is approaching pre-teen and in just a few weeks he will be 10, we know the time is now to build a solid open relationship with him where he feels he can open up to us and talk to us! Time Management, Realistic Expectations, and Healthy Choices

In addition to being enlightened on how important undivided attention is for our children. I have also learned how important time management, realistic expectations, and healthy choices are as illustrated in the picture above! TIME MANAGEMENT: Getting a toddler ready for the day is one thing but getting a toddler and a baby ready who are both really needy and both still in diapers requires extra time because just when you think your ready to leave the house their is another poopy diaper and a shirt filled with Jelly from the breakfast toast. The top left picture I documented the first day I got both littles ready and dressed for church and got ready myself! It was a Christmas miracle! REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS: I wanted one of those cute family pictures in front of the Christmas tree. You know the kind everyone feels obligated to take and post to Facebook and Instagram where everyone looks cozy and happy in Christmas pajamas under the tree. I pictured this perfect picture in my head and was already fantasizing about my christmas family picture post! Then REALITY hit, oh wait we don't have Carson this Christmas Morning he is at his dad's house.. and by the time we got Carson in the afternoon he definitely was not wearing pajamas, no one was. I let go of my dream of my Christmas jammie post and thought I can wait until we are at my parents house on the day after Christmas. Well after literally 30 pictures I made my family sit in the pajamas and attempt to get that perfect picture in front of my parents tree, that picture on the top right is what we got. I realized my expectation was a little unrealistic. Trying to get a baby to look and two boys to care about a picture enough to smile and look happy at the same time wasn't going to happen, especially when all they wanted to do was be done with the photo so they can go play with their new Christmas toys. So now I just embrace it, I may not always get the perfect family photo, but what I do get is a perfect snapshot of how our life is perfectly imperfect and crazy, and I wouldn't want it any other way. HEALTHY CHOICES: Lastly I realized that I need to make healthy choices if I want to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight and feel good again. I didn't want to have any unrealistic goals or try to attempt any crash diets. Norm and I sat down and he typed out our goal for the year (and printed them so we have them throughout the house to remind us to stay on track) My health goals were to be "active" 5 days a week. I didn't say hit the gym or run or even exercise but be active. And so far I have hit that goal. Norm has told me for years how bad carbs are but I was never willing to give it up. This month I started reading "Whole 30" and "It Starts With Food" both have enlightened me on what food is doing to my body and the negative affects it has. So I joined a Whole 30 Facebook group and have been cooking meals without sugar, grains, or dairy. I haven't been 100% on whole 30 I have had some slip ups, but overall this has changed the way I look at food and read labels! I am looking forward to my new normal of 3 kids, and trying to balance work life, time-management, realistic expectations, and healthy choices! Happy 2017! (yes, I know it has been 2 years since my last blog post!)

Cabinet face lift!

One thing that's been on my to-do list for this school year was to give these nicely sponge painted cabinets I inherited last year a face lift. I wanted to do something easy, and quick and since I am 6months pregnant something that didn't consist of a lot of fume intake(like painting or spray painting)  I found This adhesive wall paper at Target for $30. It's more expensive than the $6 roll of contact paper but the quality is much better and you get a lot! (I had enough to do this cabinet and plenty left over) Plus it also comes in a lot of cute designs.  

4 easy steps!!

Step 1: clean off your cabinet with wipes and make sure the surface is clean and dry. (I skipped this step and think it would have stuck better in places if I would have taken the time to do this first)

Step 2: remove all hardware (if possible) you may need a screwdriver for this step.

Step 3:begin peeling back the wallpaper and Stick to top of cabinet. Slowly roll down 5 or so inches at a time so you can flatten out any bumps and wrinkles 

I rolled over the creases in the door than used my exacto knife to cut the gaps and  I used the back side of the exacto knife to push back the extra wallpaper into the crease and flatten it.

Step:4 use exacto knife to cut the holes any hardware screws go into and replace hardware. 

Read across America

We had celebrated "Read Across America" in the same week we had a field trip to see Charlotte's Web the play! We had a great time at the play! When we got back together we compared the book with the play using a Venn diagram. 

I found a lot of free things online for Dr. Seuss! I made sure to have lots of Dr. Seuss books available to my class all week long to read. 

On the day we got to all dress up as a Dr. Seuss character I went for Horton, he is my favorite! Than I read the book to the class and they all got thier own clovers and had to write about who was on their clover. The week before I took a picture of all my students from on top of a chair so they would look smaller, I got these developed and put them on a clover I made for the bulletin board so they would look like little "Who's"

Earthquake!

Earthquake!

We had our first real earthquake today in class... it was super mini! The class did great! As soon as I said, "get under your desk," they were all under their desks and holding on until I told them it was safe to come out! Few, now all my fears of "how will they respond??" Have melted away! We are ready. 

My first official Teacher Post :)!

The Best Part about my Job is getting to teach at the School my son goes to. He is my favorite student! This is my first year teaching and I have loved looking at all the cute teacher blogs, so I decided to start one myself of the happenings in my class. I found this before the school year started, BOGGLE , I started this with my class, as an opening activity on Monday Morning, The class copies down the new Boggle Board (the letters are velcroed and removable) Then they have all week to find as many words as possible. It's a great earlier finisher activity as well. At the end of the week whoever has the most points is our Boggle Champion and they get there picture on the wall and a speech bubble next to thier name with their picture on it.

I have been doing Math Centers every Monday for review on the chapter concepts before the test and to spend extra time with students who need some intervention and one-on-one time. But recently I found these cute graphics on teacherspayteachers: I printed these graphics onto cardstock and with my aid's help cut it all out. It keeps the center rotations clean and neat, then I found cheap $3 pocket holders in the bins at Target and I used plastic plates to spell out M A T H. I love that each center rotation spells out MATH: M-Math Facts A: At your seat T:Teachers Choice H:hands on On the Teacher's Choice rotation I have the kids that had the lowest scores on the recent math test re-do the problems they got wrong and we review what mistakes they made. For the kids that got an A on the test I let them choose between a couple of games that work on multiplication, or division, or strategy/reasoning skills. The Math curriculum we use gives me at least 3 centers that go with each chapter and I use these for my Math Facts, Hands-on and At your seat stations.

If your looking for a super organized way to display your math Centers I would click on the link above and for $6 you can have this organization at your finger tips! My new favorite thing in my classroom is my Anchor Chart board, our fourth grade teacher uses Anchor Charts all the time. I have noticed especially in Math that when I have the kids take notes on Math Vocab and copy my notes from the Whiteboard into their Math Journals, they dont have these out and in thier faces reminding them what key math terms are. When I take notes on an Anchor Chart that doesn't get erased but stays up in the classroom as display, they refer to it constantly. I have been finding some cute anchor chart ideas on Pinterest. Below is a picture of my anchor chart explaining how to use a multiplication chart to divide:

Here is a pic of my Helper Board, I laminated pocket holders I got at Lakeshore Learning and glued pics of my students to Popsicle sticks and each week we pick new jobs!