What the heck we've been doing lately

Well, I'm glad you asked. I tell ya', we have been up to some serious things. Gabe has been focusing all of his energy into growing and smiling. No one can look at his smiling face and not laugh. I dare you to try.
here it is

Oliver has been working so hard at work and school. He likes doing music for the elementaty kids and they love him. He got accepted to the elementary ed program and will start next year! woot woot. I have been busy working too. I have learned soooooo much during this, my first year of teaching. I feel like I've done a really good job. I love my coworker, Stefanie. We spend a lot of our free time talking and laughing about everything. I also love Jessi, the other 11th grade english teacher. She is so helpful and sweet and fun. She has a baby at home too so she understands me. I have been really trying to do a variety of things in my classroom and keep my students engaged. I have been happy with the results. I have just started applying to jobs for next year and we will have to just wait and see what happens. I interviewed with Mountain View (where I am currently interning) and it went very well. It is just a matter of if they have an opening for me. I am giong to do everything I can to get a job and trust that the right thing will happen for us.. We have been blessed with a lot of support from our families and friends and we really really really appreciate it. Lots of people have come out of the woodwork and given us baby clothes and things and our families have just been awesome too. I am so grateful.
As for other things we have been up to. We took a trip to Logan a few weeks back. We went to Pirates of Penzance. Hannah and Mallory were playing in the orchestra.
here we are

We went on a couple late valentine's dates. One was to dinner and then to MVHS' choir performance and man, it was quite a spectacle. One was a date that I planned that involved ice cream, strip yahtzee, and some other stuff. And, if you can believe it, we still have one more valentine date to go. Oliver has something cooked up that he has been working on for a long time and has just finished. We are now just waitng for a free day to make it happen. We also went to MVHS' ballroom dance performance just this last week. I like to go to things that my students are in becuase it's fun to see them in a different light and I like to talk to them about it the next day. They always seem pleased that I noticed them. Plus, it's a hoot for Oliver and I to go and discuss the performaces and have free date nights. MVHS certainly puts a lof of emphasis on the arts programs and they put on a good show.
here is us at the ballroom dance performance

We read "Hunger Games". We absolutely hated "Hunger Games". There, it's out in the open. First book we were so into it and couldn't wait to see what happened but as the trilogy went on, we found that we just had more and more difficulty wanting to read and it just seemed to drone on and on and just be so dark and gloomy. Truth be told, we didn't even finish it. We got 2/3rds of the way through the last one and googled the ending. lol. My friend, Angie, did the same thing so I didn't feel so bad. We will probably see the movie though. I did read "Extremely loud and Incredibly Close" and love loved it. We saw the movie last night and it was good but not even close to as good as the book.
Yesterday we saw the acapella group "Vocal Point" at BYU with my fam. They were pretty darn good. I wanted to go up to them afterward, though, and tell them that if they should ever find themselves on tv (the sing-off) again, to please refrain from praying on camera cuz that made me feel weird and made mormons look odd. It was a fun thing to do though and then we went to SLC and browsed the giant antique store called "Euro Treasures". It was huge. You walk upstairs and there is a sea of chairs. Really, more chairs than you have ever seen in your life in one big space. Then we went to the Red Iguana mexican restaraunt cuz we heard they were soooo good. Then we went to check out the new shopping center called City Creek. It has so many nice, expensive stores. There were so many people there, though, that we could barely even walk and so we left. But not before we took a walk through Tiffany's. Wow, sparkly diamonds. I want. And I'm not even a jewelry gal. I do have to say, though, that I kinda don't like having such big shopping center so close to temple square. I mean, as I walked around yesterday I just couldn't help but be a little grossed out by all the materialism going on around me and the whole time I could see that beautiful builing, the Salt Lake Temple, the one that the saints sacrificed sooo much to build, and it just seemed off, like the colliding of 2 very different worlds. I don't know. It's weird to me that the church owns the city creek property. Anywho, it was interesting to see.
A really fun thing that Oliver and I have discovered is called "The Porch". It takes place at Muse Music in Provo and it is a community storytelling event. They do it once a month and they have a theme. Last month was funny stories. This month is "roots". Oliver is going to try to tell a story this time. They take a limited amount of audence stories. It is a great community togetherness event.
here we are at Muse
















Oliver and I teach the 12 year olds in sunday school. I know you will think I'm making this up but they are so so so nice. By far, my favorite calling I've had in a long time. Such great kids and we really feel like we teach them things. The ward we are in now is my favorite ward since getting married. I have always wanted to be in the young women program, but I will just have to wait for that.My mom and I went to a relief society dinner a few weeks ago and we had such a good time talking to the nice ladies at our table. Well, that's a good wrap-up of our last few weeks. more to come soon. :)