A very BLESSED Thanksgiving!

Over thanksgiving my whole side of the family came up to be together. The main reason was for my sweet nephew Staussen who was diagnosed with Leukemia at the end of October. They all wanted to come be where he is and support him and my sisters family. 

Naturally when the whole Janis family is together, we make a music video! Here it is :)

This Thanksgiving was a crazy week full of fun and LOTS of changes for Cody and I. My aunt Maryl was so nice to let everyone stay at her house. It is a good sized house, but when you put 8 kids in there (6 under the age of 3) and 11 adults it can be a little chaotic. Luckily we have some master planners (my amazing mother and oldest sister Kylee) who organized the planning of food/activities for the week. 

We actually ended up just hanging out a lot more than we usually do when we get together. I think a lot of that had to do with the fact that there were 3 different kind of sicknesses brought into the same house and everyone (except the Doria's thank goodness) got sick for at least part of the time. It was a little crazy and VERY loud... but it was an awesome week and so fun to spend that time bonding with family! 

Now, to the changes happening in our life. A couple weeks before everyone came up for Thanskgiving, Cody started talking to me about pursuing other options for his career. He had been putting a lot of thought into his current work situation and came to the realization that it wasn't taking him in the direction that he wants to go in the future. 

After a lot of talking and praying, we decided that we would start looking for other options. If nothing came up of course we would stay here because it is a stable job and meets our current needs, however if something better came up we would really consider leaving. Well, turns out, at the beginning of Thanksgiving break we got two really good offers that were really hard to turn down. One was a position at Moki where Cody did an internship for a year during his last year of school. He became really good friends with the COO of the company. He has been such an amazing mentor and friend to Cody. I also did personal soccer training with his daughter over the summer. They are an awesome family! Anyway, the other offer was going with Dentma. 

After a lot of talking and praying, we decided to go with Dentma and we are starting... well basically right now. These past 2 weeks have been so crazy busy trying to figure out what needs to happen in order to make this move smooth.

Although it's been busy, we feel incredibly blessed for the opportunities ahead. We are especially excited for our little girl to come beginning of February. I'm so grateful for Cody. He is such a hard worker, helps me more than I even know, and is an amazing example to me every single day. I can't imagine having anyone else by my side right now and forever! 

We're Having a....

1st Ultrasound! Boy or Girl??

Yesterday we FINALLY had an ultrasound. I was a little late getting one because we were in the process of switching insurances, so at 21 weeks 1 day, I got my ultrasound. It was seriously one of the most amazing things I've done and felt in my life. I have felt the baby kick but I felt like I was able to connect with the baby on a whole new level!

The lady who did my ultrasound was so cute and sweet. I am trying really hard to remember her name because I asked her twice... but I can't. She had a really cute accent, I'm thinking maybe Russian, but it wasn't a super strong one, just enough to sound like a sweet lady. I wish I knew her exact origin but I couldn't think of how to word the question so I didn't bring it up.

Anyway.  I was in there for almost an hour, though it felt shorter. It seemed like she had a really good time. She kept saying how it was good that I am thin because we could see the baby a lot better because of that. She also kept giggling and laughing because the baby kept moving and sometimes it was hard to get a good clear shot of things. She kept saying "I can't believe how much this baby moves" and would be chuckling while she said it. She sent me home with a little over 20 pictures which was really nice. I don't know what is normal, but I felt like that was kind of a lot.

I am really lucky that I got such a nice lady to do my ultrasound. I was kind of nervous that I would get a grump... and I mean this is my first baby. But Heavenly Father has been answering my prayers and is looking out for me, even though these are little eternally insignificant things. I do feel blessed.

I wish the pictures could show how much the baby moved and were a little more clear. It was so amazing to see the baby moving around, moving its fingers, even got a little yawn in there. Haha the feet were hard to get a good shot of too because they kept moving... our little soccer player :). Anyway, here are some of my favorites that I put up on the side of the fridge:

The yawn looked a lot cuter when you could see the face and the baby moving!  

It's amazing how I could see all four chambers of the heart!

Perfect little feet(foot). 

And the profile.

Cody and I don't know the gender yet. Only Auna, Kylee, Maryl, and Ron. Geez. I'm almost regretting this haha. I won't tomorrow though. We are doing a little gender reveal which I will post on after I make the video... if it turns out.

I really think the baby is a Boy. I didn't have any strong feelings about it until the last few weeks but honestly I just have a feeling that we are having a Boy. Cody however has the feeling that we are having a girl. Haha. I really have convinced myself though... I feel like I'm at least 90% sure. Guess we will know for sure tomorrow. 

Dates #5 and #9!

I know these are very late, but I thought better late then never! And i'm not even going to try to remember the exact days we did these dates.

Ok, so this first one (Date 5) we did a few months ago and it didn't quite turn out how we expected but it was still really fun, and a funny little story. I know i've used plaster of paris before so I figured it would be fine but turns out, I should have been a little more prepared haha. So we figured that once we mix everything together that it would get to a consistency that we could sort of mold it into what we wanted. So we mixed it and it was wayyyyy to thin so we just kept testing it and waiting, THEN all of a sudden it started getting REALLY hard haha. We tried to grab handfuls out to make hand prints but... it was pretty dang hard... see the pictures below! At least we know now for next time that we need to have a tin or something to put it in, then do handprints or have a mold of some sort. It was really fun!

 Cheesy face #1... 

 Cheesy face #2... 

 Cheesy face #3...

And... this is kinda what we ended up with haha. Such a fun memory! 

Date #9... I have to say, I have an amazing, creative, talented sister! For this date we popped some popcorn (not pictured, sorry) and did a game of 20 questions. These questions were great haha. Some of them we just took turns asking, then some we would try to answer for the other person how they would answer. So, we didn't follow the instructions exactly but it was tons of fun and sparked really good conversations! We only have a few dates left... sad.. but i'm so grateful that we have them!

Baby belly bump. :/ 

I have a video of some of the questions and answers... but it's a little too long so I'll have to upload it to YouTube and just add it in later :). 

Announcement!

Photo Credit: Damon Victor Janis 

Yesterday I had my 10 week appointment. We are having a baby! I thought I was going to be just like my sisters and only feel nauseous, but it seems although we share similar genes, my reactions have been a little different. It definitely hasn't been horrible though especially compared to some stories I hear. I have absolutely nothing to complain about. Cody and I are thrilled. We know it will bring new challenges, but we are still excited for this adventure that will change our lives forever.

Monson Family Vacation 2014

I am posting this video very late, but this is the video I made of our trip to Oceanside California with the whole Monson family at the beginning of June. Such a fun trip and amazing memories. I love these people more than I can say.

(By the way, when you click play, make sure to change the setting from 360p to 1080p. It will look a lot better!)

First Year of Teaching Has Come to an End.

It has taken me a very long time to get this post out. I want to make it long and emotional and stuff, but i'm not going to. The month of May was so busy that I didn't had a lot of time to reflect. A few weeks ago we had the very last day of school and likely the last time I will be teaching. We will see what happens when we move back East but as of right now, it is very unknown. I have learned so much this year and have grown so close to my students. These kids will always keep a special place in my heart.

The last week of school was filled with all sorts of fun things! One thing Mlle. Gimenez and Mrs. Cummings (the other second grade teachers) did for me is they had the students write a book of "advice" for me since I will be really bored over the sumer because I wouldn't be teaching anymore. They are so funny. Here are some of my favorites. I will put translations under because sometimes they can be hard to read. There are quite a few, so if you get bored, you can just keep scrolling down.

They are freaking hilarious!!! I love them all. Anyway, I have a video that I made which is almost 20 minutes long. So if you watch it, you can skip the boring parts! Also, currently it doesn't have the music with it because I am a complete airhead with copyright laws and am still trying to learn how they work. 

Spring Break and Date Number 4

I know it has been a while, but there just hasn't been a whole lot going on in the month of March. I have been teaching with very few breaks (up until this last week) and Cody has been working and studying like CRAZY! I'm so proud of him. I think that March is a difficult month especially for elementary age kids because there literally isn't any break and it's the start of testing. These next few weeks will be hard, but probably a little bit easier because everyone is getting excited for summer!

This last week was spring break for me. Unfortunately Cody was still busy as ever, but it was nice to catch up on some things, get some cleaning done, and pursue some hobbies. Cody and I just got a DSLR so I spent some time this week learning about shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. I've learned a few other cool things, but I have been trying to learn the basics so that I can shoot in manual a lot. I did some comparison pictures with manual mode and auto, holy cow. The manual pictures were so much better! I actually deleted the auto ones so I can't show a comparison on here but I will have to do it on a future post.

Another fun thing I have been doing is making a movie for my class. I've completed from the beginning of the year to Christmas time. Now I need to finish from January till the end of the year. It's already a little over 5 minutes long, so to some it may be a little bit boring but I think the students will love seeing themselves!

This weekend Cody also played in a little charity soccer tournament at Timpview Highschool. I was actually kind of bugged that I didn't get to play because I wasn't invited... but I need to get over it. Anyway, he did really well and he scored 4 goals! (including his PK at the end)

This is Cody totally beating this guy!

 All my pride and jealousy put aside, I really enjoyed watching him play :)

Now to finish off I have a few pictures from our latest date! We haven't done one in a while because I just didn't have the mental energy to make the effort to actually do a date and Cody has been so busy with school. But this past week I have been able to catch up on a lot of things and a date was definitely needed. Thanks Auna :).

So the date we did on Saturday night was date number 4.

Painting faces with something that has to do with the movie we pick. 

So, unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the paint sticks but they were actually really awesome! I was a little hesitant at first because face paint can be pretty annoying, however it went on super easily and came off easy as well. The movie we watched was the Prestige. Here is what we came up with!

I did Cody's face first, and neither of us looked until the end.  

Cody wanted me to close my eyes so that the blue dots would look like eyes haha.

It was a nice relaxing date and made a regular movie date night into a fun interactive face painting party as well.

Cody graduates in less than 2 weeks! I'm so excited for him so that he can focus more on the things he really wants to focus on. Well thats about it for now!

Class Pet

Shortly before Christmas I gave in and we got a class pet. He was actually donated to us by a PTA mom. He was a guinea pig and we ended up naming him Buttercup Morrumotto. Interesting name, but that is what the kids voted on. About a week and a half ago, he died. Luckily he died overnight or something because I just came back the next morning and he was gone. I was really nervous to break it to the students, but we just talked about how sometimes things get old (I don't know if that is why he died) and sometimes they die. We held a little commemoration ceremony for him and talked about what we loved about him. The Blue class was very calm about it all, then when I did it with the Red class, half of my students were bawling. It as pretty sad, but it was also a good experience. Two of my students from the red class wrote this note and read it to everyone during out little "ceremony":

The underlined words are spelling and vocabulary words we had that week. They are so cute using those words for the letter. One of my boys also wrote this and had me read it to the class: 

To me, these are just heartwarming. These kinds of things are the unpaid benefits of teaching. Seeing my students growing and writing things like this just makes all of the hard times and low pay worth it. 

I have to end with some funny things my students have said this last week. On Wednesday I had to go to a meeting for half of the day so I was having a sub in the afternoon (when the Red class was in my class) and I told them this at the very end of the day. When the bell rang one of my students asked me: "Mrs. Monson, but do you know her?" I said "no, not really but I'm sure she will be nice." Then she said "THEN HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO TRUST HER?!?!" It was really funny and made me laugh. 

The next day as the classes were switching another student came up to me as I was leaving and said "Mrs. Monson, do you know what my first words were when I was a baby?" I said, "Mrs. Monson?" (in a joking voice) she said "No, I LOVE MRS. MONSON".  My students are truly the best.