Yay......I passed!!!

At the end of July I took the Elementary Education PRAXIS test. I fianally received my results after a long wait yesterday. I am happy and thrilled to say that I PASSED!!!

I was really nervous to open the envelope. Probably because if I didn't pass I'd have to pay a lot more money to take it again and then all of this stress cycle would have started all over again. But now that I have passed I don't have to worry about it anymore!! YAY!! One more thing to cross off of my checklist!!

Time for school already???

Well today was my first day back at school. It is my 2nd semester into the Elementary Education program at Dixie State College. (only 2 more to go!! Yay!) I really am liking it so far. It's hard to believe that summer is already over and school is starting back up. Summer went by too fast but it was one to remember! So far this school semester seems like it's going to be pretty good. I am going to be working at Bloomington Elementary this semester. It seems like a fun school so I am excited. I'm in a 5th grade class so that should be a good experience for me.

I'm especially grateful for family while I am going to school. They are my life savors when it comes to babysitting Mckenna. I was really worried about who was going to watch her this semester. Mckenna's aunt Nicole (Chris' sister) used to watch her on Wednesdays, but she recently got married and moved up to Salt Lake so I was out a babysitter and was really worried about what we were going to do. Luckily my prayers were answered and Jenna (another one of Mckenna's aunts) was able to fix her work schedule so that she was available to watch Mckenna every Wednesday morning! (Thanks again Jenna!!) So everything has worked out! Chris watches Mckenna Monday mornings and Grandma Debbie watches her on Tuesdays. It is so nice and such a comforting feeling for a mom to know her baby is in good hands while she is gone to school. If is wasn't for family being close and able to help I don't know what we would do. The Lord has blessed our little family that is for sure!

Sunsets in Paradise!

While we were in Hawaii we saw some of the most beautiful sunsets. Here are just some of the awesome pictures we took on our trip. Enjoy!

Tattoos and the Polynesian Cultural Center

We had a great time on our family vacation in Hawaii. It was a great trip with my family. We all had such a great time. Great family memories were made that's for sure. Here are some of the pictures from our trip.

This is taken at the Polynesian Cultural Center at our Luau. That was one of the biggest highlights of our trip. We had a very great authentic Hawaiian experience there!! I loved the fresh flower leis they gave us there. Too bad they didn't last long enough for us to bring them home with us.

Sarah, Geneava, Mckenna and I all got the same ankle tattoo at the Fiji exhibit. We learned that tattoos are very popular and important in different Polynesian cultures. We thought we could use a little culture in our lives!! =)

Here is Mckenna's tattoo up close!

Chris, Stephen, and Leonard were like the 3 amigos on our trip. They had to get matching tattoos too. Very tough guys!!

The Polynesian Cultural Center was very awesome.One of the best exhibits was the Tahiti exhibit. I think Chris and Steven especially liked this one because their dad went to Tahiti on his mission. The show they put on was awesome. The girls can shake their hips like 100 times a min. They are very quick movers and it looks awesome when they dance to the drums. We liked watching them dance a lot.


Mckenna loved it when we were nice and let her out of the stroller. She loves walking and especially loves the somewhat freedom that comes from it. She managed to find a lot of huge leaves to pick up and thought that was about the coolest thing. Oh well....At least she wasn't screaming!!

We are in HAWAII!!!

We are on our family vacation this week in Hawaii!! Chris, Mckenna, myself and Chris's brother, Stephen, all came out with my family. We are staing with my uncle right outside of Laie on the North Shore of Oahu, just about 100 yds from the beach and just a couple miles from the Temple. It is so beautiful here and we are having so much fun.


This picture was taken at Polynesian Cultural Center. We had just gotten done eating at our luau. The PCC is so awesome. We have lots of fun pictures and video from there. Anyways....Here is just a quick family picture and we'll post more pictures after we get back.

Playing outside

Since Mckenna has started walking, a whole new world has opened up to her...including the rock pile outside our townhome. Tonight, we were outside playing and she realized that she could walk over there and pick up rocks. But the fun didn't stop there, she found it even more fun to lick every rock she picked up....Yum Yum (I guess!). I guess kids will be kids. And I guess I can't blame her too much because her mommy used to eat red Moab dirt. So I guess Mckenna's cravings are just coming a little earlier in life!!

Another favorite thing Mckenna loves is eating GoGurts! She loves being independent and eating them while walking. It's cute and most of the time an outside activity because of the mess she usually makes!

We bought these sunglasses for Mckenna from Target. They were on clearance and somehow mommy snuck them into the cart when daddy wasn't looking. (Sorry again Chris! =D) But anyways...Mckenna plays peek-a-boo with them. It's really cute! Guess they turned out being a good buy after all!

Yay...My test is over!

Saturday morning I took my big PRAXIS test (with many, many other poor souls!!). It is good to have it done with. Hopefully all my random studying paid off and I passed. I will find out in about 4 weeks, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. It feels good to have that behind me, and now I can focus on packing for Hawaii! We're so excited. We leave next Monday for a week of fun in the sun!! We are going with my side of the family. It is going to be partly in celebration of Chris and my 2nd anniversary as well as my 23rd birthday! (which is tomorrow!!! YAY!) Hopefully Mckenna likes the plane ride over there and back....mom and dad are a little worried about containing her for like 6 hours in one spot. She is too mobile and doesn't like to be contained by anyone or anything so we are keeping our fingers crossed about that too!! If anyone has any traveling tips for traveling with an always-on-the-go baby, let us know!!