4th of July

I am posting all of these so late because my time has been spent between Jack and getting ready for yet another challenging, but exciting position this year.  I am teaching 7th grade Language Arts and Literature and 6th grade Literature for the 2012-13 school year and I have to transfer all my ideas and mindset from elementary to middle school.  It has been a fun and huge undertaking!  Anyway...here are some pictures and videos from the 4th.  We spent the day with family and friends at my sister's house (did I mention how awesome it is to have them in the same neighborhood?!).  Jack has become quite the "swimmer" and dare devil!  He LOVES the water.

My sister's tablescape

 Just some All-American kids enjoying some corn-on-the-cob.

Woo-Hoo!!  Water Slide Time!

 

Jack gets some air here...

This kid went down the water slide all day!!

Jack with his Papa

Hope everyone enjoyed their 4th of July!

Summer 2012...Part 1

I can't believe I haven't posted anything since Easter!  In my defense, I bought Surya a new camera for his birthday and I haven't taken the time to learn how to upload the photos to the computer.  But here we are now and summer is completely underway!  We have had so much fun around here with crafts, pool, park and beach days that I can't even think about going back to work anytime soon!  Here are some pictures of the things we have been up to:

Lazy mornings surfing the internet

Snuggling with Dixie

Having Fun at Pump It Up

Lounging, Being Silly and Having Fun With Cousins and Bestie Anayah

 Helping Daddy Work in the Yard
He prefers to do everything naked.

Putting his My Gym skills to good use!

Crafts Courtesy of Pinterest
 We made "Dinosaur Eggs" out of flour and coffee grounds and then had an egg hunt!

 Jack's First Finger Painting "Masterpiece"
And the clean-up afterwards!

Can't forget our Dixie Girl!!

 Next post...4th of July and swimming adventures.  Phew!  We've been busy!!

Happy Easter!

I can't believe this is already Jack's second Easter.  It was a super mellow Easter this year, which was actually very nice.  Jack slept in a bit and when he woke, he got to find his basket from the Easter Bunny.  I am currently on Spring Break and being home with my baby has made me so happy, even though my poor Jack-Jack is going through a REALLY rough time between two-year molars and allergy season.  But he is the apple of my eye even on his worst day.  Here are some pics our Easter Sunday:

The Easter Bunny visited Jack!  He must have been a very good boy!

Checkin' out the goods.

My happy boy!

No Easter is complete without a Reese's egg!

His new favorite...GUM...just like his Mama.

Hot Wheels...YES!!!!

The Easter Bunny must have known how much Jack likes to help Daddy in the yard...he got a brand new wheelbarrow!

Happy Easter 2012!

Busy and Sick

I can't believe how long it's been since my last post.  Adjusting to working full-time has been a struggle for me.  As much as I LOVE teaching, I miss being home with my Jack.  But I am so grateful to have a job in this economy and I am incredibly grateful that he gets to be with my sister, dad, or Surya all day.  My first few years into teaching, I began to fear how I would be the teacher, mom, and wife I want to be.  As many of you who are teachers know, a teacher's job is not finished when the school day is done.  I remember going to bed as a child only to watch my mom begin her long night of lesson planning and grading.  Now that has become my reality.  For those of you who don't know, I landed a job as an Enrichment teacher at my nieces' school.  It is a private Catholic School literally 1 mile from my house.  I started out part-time in October, which was perfect, but then they offered my a full-time position effective January.  Now I teach small groups of kids grades kindergarten through 5th throughout the morning and then I teach 6th grade Literature in the afternoon.  I also tutor after school Monday through Thursday.  It is a wonderful little school and I actually have one of my nieces in my class!  I try to take everything one day at a time, but knowing I get to come home to see the most beautiful shining faces makes my days brighter.

Jack and I just got hit with the stomach flu...hard.  Luckily, Surya works from home and I have an amazing family who came and helped us out while we were down and out.  Watching Jack go through that was tough.  Oh, AND Jack's second year molars are coming in.  It has been rough waters in the Von Rosen house, but we are making it through the storm!

On a positive note, Surya worked very hard the past few months to get the backyard all prepped for grass.  He really wanted to do it himself and he did such a fantastic job.  Again, we are blessed to have such wonderful family and friends.  My brother-in-law, Will, came to help as well as our friend Ryan and my dad.  They couldn't have picked a better weekend either, we had 10 hours of rain yesterday!  Dixie is in heaven with her new backyard (and so am I now that I don't have to look at mounds of dirt).  I can't wait to get some new outdoor furniture and backyard toys for Jack.  It is going to be a great Spring and Summer!  Here is our new backyard:

We are hoping to add a fire pit on that circular cement pad there in the next couple of years.

We're thinking the owners before us had a fountain on the other cement pad.  We are thinking about doing the same.  In the far right corner is a big concrete pad that we will cover and place patio furniture on.  We also want to do a built-in BBQ.  Finally, we want to add a patio cover to the house.  Surya is looking into doing this himself.

Surya wants to make a gate here so we can enter the backyard from both sides.  This is where I want to put a slide and other backyard toys for Jack.

This will one day be the location of our garden!

Thanks for stopping by our blog!  I will hopefully post again soon. In the meantime, take care and be well!