Going Green

So I have read on a bunch of different blogs and websites about spinach smoothies. Well, to be honest I was not a believer! I am not a huge fan of dark greens but I knew that I needed to put them in my diet somehow.

Well, I tried out a couple of different things and can now proudly say that I am a believer. I make myself a spinach and fruit smoothie everyday for breakfast and they are sooooooooo good! And honestly you can not even taste the spinach...

Here's what I put in mine:
Half a banana

4 or 5 cut up strawberries

Handful of frozen peaches

3/4 cup of apple juice

About 3 spoonfuls of yogurt

Generous handful of spinach

Then I either put a handful of frozen blueberries or a cored apple.

At first I didn't really know what kind of yogurt to use but I've just been using whatever I have. Today it was vanilla but yesterday it was strawberry. What's the added benefit (besides how healthy I feel about my eating)? Hadley LOVES them! She doesn't drink it with me everyday because sometimes I make them while she is asleep, but when she does she just guzzles it right down!

Still not a believer? Try it for yourself!

Colorado Vacation

We had a fantastic trip to Colorado this past week!

The trip started and ended with beads galour! My mom pulled out these beads from when I was in high school and Hadley was absolutely obsessed all week long. She would wear as many as possible and hand them out to people, she was so cute!

On Thursday night my parents watched Foxx and Fiona and we had tons of fun! We all went on a walk, ate lots of ice cream, played games with blankets, and then got cozy to watch a movie.
Friday my dad and Steve went kayaking up in the mountains so we spent the morning with my grandma... and of course went to lunch at my favorite place, Panera Bread. Yumm!!

One of the main purposes of us going out there was for one of my good friend's wedding. Friday night they had a pre-wedding bbq at their house for people who came from out of town. I got to spend the entire night with my best friends from high school (minus 2). It's always great, like 7 years never even passed! I truly love those girls!!
Saturday we went to the zoo- Hadley was so fun! She loved each animal and saying the sounds of each :)
We got to feed the giraffes. She loved it until she put her hand a little to far in and then she backed way off!!

We got to see this awesome show with the grizzly bears!
All cute and ready for church....
Following church on Sunday we all went to an Open House for Jessie's wedding. Another friend of mine from high school was the photographer and she took these GORGEOUS pictures of Hadley. Isn't it amazing was talent and a really really really nice camera can do?


And some pictures of Jessie and I at the Open House!

On Monday we headed to Old Colorado City for Territory Days. It had a ton of booths and food and just fun stuff to look at... Steve panned for gold and he and my dad shared steak on a stick and one of those huge turkey legs!!

After Territory Days we went to the Penny Arcade and played some games and let Hadley ride a couple of rides! She throughly enjoyed herself...

It was so fun to spend so much time with my family- we certainly miss them though!!

Decisions

So this isn't really new news but I thought would share anyway! Many of you already know that I am going back to teaching next year but I kinda wanted to document more about it :)

So when I left last year I honestly didn't picure or have any plans to return any time soon. I have absolutely LOVED my year home with my little one and wouldn't trade one second (not even the tantrums, grumpy mornings, days without naps... etc.) of it for anything else!! I have felt so blessed to watch Hadley turn into the cutest little toddler ever and been to have been there for every new step, new word, new food, new toy, and new discovery. But over the year I have kept in close contract with my principal from Riverview and the oppurtunity just kind of arose for me to come back under circumstances that I was super happy with! She knew that coming back full time was not an option for me- so I have decided that I will do a shared day in 3rd grade with my good friend Ily!

I am honestly so excited to go back! Obviously not looking really forward to lesson planning (even only half a day's worth) but I am so excited to be back with the kids and with some of my best friends :) It turns out that my sister can only watch Hadley in the afternoons, so I will be doing afternoons and Ily will do the mornings. At first I was a little bummed because as a teacher afternoons are not ideal but when Ily and I did all of our planning last week I realized it's still going to be great! Plus the biggest benefit is that I won't really miss that much awake time with Hadley. I will drop her off at Becca's around noon and pick her up at 4 and since she consistenly sleeps from 1 til about 3:45 or 4, I'll miss about an hour or so with her. Right now even that seems like an eternity for me to be without her!

Ily and I haven't hashed out all the details but I know that I will be teaching math, science, social studies, and most likely writing. She will be doing most of the literacy stuff (reading groups, fluency, grammar, etc.). Other than that we still have a LONG way to go to be ready!! Luckily third grade is what I know and so I got lucky :)

So this is kind of a long post with no pictures- augh, I left my camera at my sister's in Salt Lake and won't get it back til we go to Colorado on Thursday- but my relaxed and super carefree life will change a bit starting August 22. So here's to a new and unexpected twist in life and I can't wait!!

Miss Hadley

So I don't plan on doing this all the time but I wanted to document how much Hadley has cahnged since she turned 1! And since I use this blog as our family journal, there is no better place to do it!

I really feel like Hadley changes so much each day but even since her first birthday she is growing so much and learning so many new things each day!!

- She LOVES LOVES LOVES to be outside and will stand at the door and cry and say 'side, side!' until we go out!
- She also has learned a new trick... opening our doors! What fun this has been :)

- She has such spunk and personality and is always laughing and making the silliest faces!

- She is currently obsessed with her little blanket/stuffed animal. Which is not necessarily a good thing- we have to take it everywhere we go!

- When she walks around the house she carries as many things (usually like 5 or 6) in hands as possible. If she drops one she'll just find something new to carry around.

- She loves to play in water and dirt :) Despite my best efforts, she's not the girliest girl around...

- Still takes about a 45 minute morning nap most days (I would say 5 out of 7 days). A 3 hour nap in the afternoon and goes to bed between 7 and 7:30. We love our little sleeper!

- Her biggest change of all is her talking! She can say so many words!!
mama, dada, baby (dede), star, ball, Max, thank you, please, papa, bottle (baba), doggie, me, yea, hi, hello, book (boo), more, outside (side), oh wow

And then the words I was hoping she would never learn- mine and no, no!

- She also knows most of her animal sounds. Although when you first ask her she will say all animals say "Woof, woo."

And we see this face several times a day about something or other that has happened... This one was because dad left for church before us and she was quite upset about it!

I sometimes get sad that she's not my little baby anymore, but it is so much fun to see her becoming such a big girl!

Has Spring Sprung?

Or is it too early to get my hopes up?

We have been having some gorgeous weather lately and I hope it is here to stay (I'm choosing to ignore the fact that it has been pouring rain all day!). So we have been taking advantage of every moment we can to be outside. Steve and I did yard work for most of the day on Saturday and when she wasn't asleep Hadley just wandered around in the yard exploring. She loves to be outside! Everytime she had to come in she cried and cried!

Steve took her out to play with her new golf set while I cooked dinner so I took a break to snap a few cute pictures...

We hope this weather is here to stay!!

The Working Mom

So I have been subbing for a friend of mine for the last 7 days and I still have 4 more! She needed to have a back procedure done and it puts her out for more than two weeks. Since it's time for end of year testing she needed someone Certified to do the class's testing. I actually have been really enjoying being in the classroom and feeling more like I was actually in charge (as opposed for subbing for just 1 day) and I have loved being with all the kids!

So really this post is to give a shout out to all moms who work full-time: it is hard! I know being home is hard too (since that is what I usually do) but I feel like this is has really tested me differently. So I am so impressed with them! It took my body a few days to adjust to it but now I feel like I come home and still have plenty of energy to play with Hadley, cook, and clean!

Hadley has done so well being at my sister's everyday. I was a little worried about her sleeping but she is still taking 2 naps a day over there and her and Max are getting along better and better each day. But I love to see her little face light up and her chubby little arms reach up to me and she says "Mama!" the second she sees me! And then all night she will come and just lay her head on my shoulder or my chest... I guess she misses me (which is good because I miss her too!). Although I have enjoyed it, I can't wait to be back with my sweet girl all day again!

And of course she is still as happy as ever!