baby boy

Alyse is the very first friend I remember having in my life.  Lucky for me, she is still in my life!  I could go on and on about all of our memories and adventures.  Our families did everything together.  Then that day came when the Thorks moved to San Diego...but the minute Alyse and I could drive, she was coming down to see me and I was always going up to visit her.  My friends became her friends and her friends became my friends.

I really enjoyed going through all of my pictures to find these.  We have so many pictures of us making the same faces.  She is such a huge part of my life!  Even now, I am finding more and more pictures I could add to this collage.

In May of 2008, Alyse married Chad.  We didn't think that I was going to make it to their wedding - to read that story, visit here.  Chad is perfect for her and has become one of my good friends too - exactly how a girl hopes her best friends husband will be.

Loved this day.

Then, a few years later and more currently, she told me she was pregnant.  It was right before Kelsey's wedding and I remember the first time I saw her after she called with the exciting news.  We were waiting for Kelsey and Scott to come out of the temple.  I got teary eyed seeing her, knowing that my best friend was going to have a baby. That was more than 6 months ago...

And this morning (at 2:00 am to be exact) I get the following text: "It's baby time!!! You're almost an aunt."  Texts don't normally wake me up...but this one did!  And I could hardly sleep after that.  When I saw his picture this morning, I couldn't help but cry.  He is perfect.  So, guess who went to visit after work?!  That's right...me, Aunt Tati.

I am obsessed with him.  Have I told you how perfect he is?

So congratulations to the Bennetts!  I cannot wait to watch this little guy grow up.  

I love you guys so very much.  

Happy Birthday to my Mom

Earlier this school year I was meeting with my literacy cohort (maybe it was during new teacher training last year, I can't remember), but we always start with someone from the district reading us a short story that we can read to our kids.  Mars Needs Moms was one of the books that I can't forget.  I am not sure how I had never read it before, but it is such a sweet book.  Recently it has become a movie, one that I watched just a few Sundays ago.  Both the book and movie got me a little teary eyed.  I am so grateful for my mom.


This post is mostly about how wonderful my mom is and...

TO CELEBRATE HER BIRTHDAY!!

As I was thinking about what I wanted to write in this post, I was walking to change my laundry.  Guess what?  As I was walking into the laundry room, mom was walking out with my clean clothes draped over her arm.  Then tonight, she made me dinner.  Every morning she will make me a smoothie.  (We are doing a little healthy eating together.  6 meals a day is a little hard for me to prep and she is so good to help me!) It is amazing all the little things she does for me and my siblings that just went unnoticed when I was a kid.  Moving back home has really opened my eyes to all the little things that I took for granted.

My mom is my best friend.  She always has been. 

She supports me in everything that I do.  She has never doubted the things that I can accomplish.  She has pushed me to always give it my all.  She listens to all of my crazy stories and she very obviously will do anything to help me and keep me from pain.

We always have so much fun together.  I love when she laughs at her own jokes.  She is very funny.  So sweet.  Kind.  Selfless.  Just wonderful.

Once we were playing charades, well we play a lot, but one time in particular...she was really funny.

Did I mention that my mom is beautiful?

Here she is (on the right) with Michelle and Lyman.  Such a cute girl.

Wish you could see all of this picture.  Her hair goes all the way down her back.  I could probably write a whole post on how amazing my mom's hair is.  People always comment on it and I remember all of my friends growing up thought my mom's hair was the prettiest.  We all wanted long, curly hair...

Mom and Dad at Kelsey's wedding.  She is still beautiful!

I love spending time with her.  Growing up, I loved when she would ask me to come with her to the grocery store.  Once I left for BYU, I would call her every time I went shopping just because I loved that time with my mom.

We are real cool.

I love my mom.  I don't know how I got so lucky.  I don't have her curly, beautiful, thick hair, but I like to think I got her humor, her smarts, her dance moves, and her big heart.  I look up to her, not even just that, I aspire to be like her.

Room 201

I won't lie, going back to school after a break makes me a little nervous. I have a flood of emotions the day or two before. Anxious. Excited. Nervous. Overwhelmed. Our behaviors and memories just aren't the best after 17 days of no school! And we were getting a new student that I knew nothing about.

But guess what!

My class is the best. They were perfect today, and I am not even exaggerating. Everyone went where they were supposed to. They all did what I asked. Everyone participated. Everyone worked hard. They were so much fun. I could not be more proud of them! I sure missed their sweet faces all break long.

And my new student? Well, he is just the most polite, friendly, social boy I have ever met. He has a great little sense of humor and follows my directions as fast as lighting. He is a wonderful addition to my classroom and I cannot wait to get to know him better.

I could gush and gush about my kiddos forever. Gosh. I am so lucky to be their teacher. Now, I just hope this perfect day can be repeated over and over again (which I am sure it can be, right?).

Also. I went to a jazz game tonight with some of my most favorite people in the whole wide world. I loved every minute of it.

Happy New Year!

Here is to 2012! Yaaaaaaa!! It's going to be a good year.  I can just feel it.  Can you?

Because I am so nostalgic and a lover of photos, I have been going through all of my 2011 pictures, over and over and over again.  I have lots of memories from 2011.  Some of them hard and heartbreaking, but those have definitely been good experiences that have helped me grow.  Most of them are wonderful and make me feel so accomplished, because I did so much over this last year!

So just some tops of 2011:

My top song(s):

• Domino by Jessie J. I only heard this one in September, but it flew to the top of my most played list on itunes.  Makes me dance in my car every time.  Not kidding.
• Next2You by Chris Brown with Justin Bieber.  Yes.  Love them both, and combined, this song came in a close second.  Love.
• Angel by Cody Simpson followed in third.  Cody Simpson might be my fun discovery of 2011.  He is young and fun and great to dance to.  Angel is where I get most of my great lines, like, most of the ones mention at this post.  "You're the jam, baby, I'm the toast.  It's so sweet when we're together."  Don't worry, he has plenty of good one liners.

Top food:

• Chicken.  Not just any type of chicken, but chicken strips.  I ate a whole lot of chicken this year.  I would crave protein and chicken is just my favorite.  I have no idea why I craved it so much.  The sad truth is though, that I have really cut back on my chicken intake the last little bit...I miss it

 Top movies: This is a hard one, because I love movies...

• Rio - best one to watch with my students.  They know all of the words and the soundtrack is the greatest for our dance parties.
• Thor - Cami and I saw this in St. George.  He be fine = super fun to watch on the big screen.
• Hugo - just came out around Thanksgiving and I wish people enjoyed it like I had.  We went with a very large group to see it and most weren't so impressed.  I LOVED it.  A lot. Original plot.  Good characters.  Beautiful cinematography.  I really enjoyed it.

Top book:

• The Help by Kathryn Stockett.  I really don't read as much as I would like (it's one of my new year's resolutions), but this one was sooooo good.  You love the characters.  You laugh with them, cry with them, and feel their fear.  Absolutely recommend it. 

Top TV show:

• Friday Night Lights.  No doubt about it, I loved this one.  I got way hooked on this one this summer and finished all four seasons in a ridiculously short amount of time.

Now to the fun stuff.  I did a lot this year, especially when it came to traveling.  Constant road trips here and there.  Some favorites were:

• LA for the NBA All-Star game to visit Aubrey in February
• Vegas for the MWC Tournament in March
• A cruise through the Mexican Riviera with Cami in April
• Lake Powell TWICE this summer
• Three visits to San Diego throughout the summer
• Following the football team to Texas in September
• Traveling to New York, Connecticut, and Boston in October to see Aubrey
• Disneyland and San Marcos right before Christmas with Cami

Now, that is not bad!  

I also started my second year at my school and earlier this year, I watched 5 of my 6th graders move on to middle school.  And this school year has been fantastic.

I hiked Timp.

I was all up in the action of Jimmer's final season at BYU.

I taught my first summer school class.

Kelsey got married!

I moved home...looking for a place though, so if you hear anything, let me know.  I really can't decide if I want to go back to Provo (it would have to be south Provo) or stay here in Draper, so anything helps.

2011 was good to me.