A New Year...

Happy 2017!
    This week my mom sent me an email and in part of the email she wrote about how much she enjoys reading some of my friends blog posts.  Lesson learned.  I will try harder this year.

For the last 4 months I have been busy working as a third grade teacher.  I LOVE it.  I love my students, the things that we do together, the other teachers, etc...  The only hard part are the mornings because my school starts an hour earlier than my own children's school.  We had to get creative.  We have survived and I look forward to going back to teaching at their school next week.    I am also still the Primary President and LOVE all the children in our primary.  I just love a lot of children right now :)

My guy has been in Texas for the last 10 days enjoying the warm weather :) It has been hard with him gone. We love it when he is home.

Our oldest enjoys archery, Young Women's, and the Hamilton soundtrack.  She also just turned in her high school schedule for next year.  It includes a lot of challenging classes and does not include a lunch.  That's my smart, beautiful, girl.  She has recently acquired not 1, but 2 parakeets and loves them. (pictures to come soon.)







Our oldest guy turned 12 this month and became a deacon at church. We are proud of him and the young man he is becoming.  For his birthday he received many ties, a sleeping bag, Nerf things, and 12 "popcorn" items. He is one happy kid. Also, he plays the baritone in band.
His birthday was on a Sunday and he received the Priesthood on his birthday.  For his birthday party he had 6 boys sleep over on a Friday.  They ate Duff's wings and played Nerf & X-Box.

Our 4th grader had a solo on her viola last week in her concert. She loves played a string instrument just like her sister.  They hope to duet someday.  She is als

o the only one in her class that has never had her name taken off of the "responsibility" board all year.  She enjoys Activity Days, Girl Scouts (if you need cookies let her know,) and dance.  She is taking 2 dance classes this year and moves as much as she can.

Our baby is 7. This is going to be a big year for him.  He got 100% on his last spelling test.  For Christmas Santa brought him the new Skylanders game and he loves to play it with me. He started basketball, is missing all sorts of teeth, and roller-blades around the house as much as he can.  He also loves his dog, Susie.

Here are some other things that happened in January 2017:
* Today I took my students to lunch and then ran to the church next door to attend the funeral of a dear friend of mine.  Heidi was born in Germany and came to Buffalo when she was 16.  She was kind, smart, and helped me with my family history.  She loved my children and I always wanted her to take Jane shopping because Heidi had an amazing fashion sense.  I will miss her. 

* New Year's Eve was spent at our friend's house and some other dear friends came too!  We ate Chinese food and played BINGO!

 * Last Saturday we went to the Science Museum with lots of friends.

Fun Time...

Here is one of my favorite pictures from the trip:

On Monday night B took the girls out in the canoe. Due to a little miscommunication- the canoe got swamped out in Fern Lake. Luckily my brother Chris was in a kayak next to them and helped them turn it back over. This picture was taken right after they all got back in the canoe. B said they were all laughing the whole time.  He was very wet, but didn't loose his glasses. :)

Damstedt Family Reunion 2016

We had such a wonderful time last week with the Damstedt family!  On Monday we drove up to the Adirondacks with Jill & Peter's families.  At the cabin we met up with Grandpa&Grandma Damstedt, Sarah, and Andrew.  The cousins were together again! 

Here are lots of pictures-

These are from Tuesday when we all hiked Mt. Jo.  It was a steep hike, but the view at the top was amazing!

 Brad carried Sven and they were both tired by the end ;)

We went to the lake everyday:

 The trail down to the lake:

The Wild Center & Adirondack Museum

On Wednesday and Friday we took everyone to the museums.  Here are some fun pictures:

The "Wild Center:"

 The Adirondack Museum: