Ward Camp Out

Every summer our Bishop likes to have a ward camp out up at his "cabin" in Island Park. I put cabin in quote because it is huge!!! Really, the cabin is more like a lodge than a cabin.

This year's camp out was back in June I think. I have just been really bad about getting this blog post up, but here it is now.

We went up on a Friday after school. There was kayaking and fishing, lawn games, board games, and just plain visiting with the other ward members. We had a big campfire and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Joseph had a normal smore, but I had mine with no graham cracker...just double the chocolate...delish!!!

One of our friends is pretty much a city boy from Iowa and had never gone fishing before in his life. So, he went fishing and caught his very first fish!! Yay him...and then we made him kiss it...hehe...that was the fun part.




On Saturday, several of the guys in the ward got up really early and went and jumped in the lake, which was pretty cold at 5ish in the morning. I stayed in bed and didn't get up until breakfast time. We had eggs, pancakes, and hot chocolate, and it was yummy.

After breakfast Joseph actually talked me into getting in a kayak. I was scared to death at first, because I was pretty sure I was going to tip over and die, but after a while I got used to it and actually started to enjoy myself. It was so peaceful out on the water with nothing around you but the wind. I would love to go and do that again.

By mid-morning, we pretty much had everything cleaned up around the cabin and all that. There were only a handful of couples still around then, so Bishop decided to get a couple of 4-wheelers out for us to ride. I was so excited, I love 4-wheel riding! I don't like to drive though, so I went with my friend Heather and she drove. It was a ton of fun.

Overall it was a great camp out this summer. There were a lot of ward members there, so we were able to make new friends and then just enjoy time with everybody that was there. A huge thank-you goes out to Bishop who loves to do this each year, and for providing his wonderful "cabin" for his ward members to enjoy!!!

New Stuff...Always Exciting :)

So far this year Joseph and I have acquired several new things that we have added to our household.

The first thing was Joseph's amazing road bike. He pretty much lives on this bike; he loves it so much. He had been looking at this bike probably since around Christmas time, and he finally bought it for himself as a 'job well done - you survived your internship' kind of reward. He rides the bike to school everyday that the weather is decent...pretty sure it won't get put away until there is snow on the ground. It's so fun to watch him tinker with it, trying to make it ride 'just right'.

The next addition that we got was a new kitchen table with matching chairs. This was my request. It may not seem like much, but getting these made me soooooooo happy. Our old table was one that I had purchased when I first moved out of home 4ish years ago. It was bought from a thrift store for about 5 bucks, and was honestly worth about that much. We finally broke down and agreed it was time to get a new one when the legs started falling off when we would try to move it. Now we have a much nicer and more 'sophisticated' table with 4 matching chairs (our old one had only 2 and they were falling apart too). I love how we have actually have people over for dinner and all sit at the table to eat!

 Lastly, we bought a plant. I had an empty plant pot sitting around and so this spring Joseph decided we should get a plant to put in it. I was a little hesitant because I have been known to kill plants, not on purpose of course. So we went to look at plants and found a hearty one that didn't need a lot of care and attention, and then we bought it. Joseph brought it home and carefully potted it in new dirt. It's grown pretty well since we bought it. It sits on our counter and makes us look all domesticated and all that. :) Joseph named the plant Mr. Stinky after the Sesame Street plant that was Oscar the Grouch's friend, mostly because he says that's what it looks like, not because it stinks.

Preschool - Dog Day

The last week of teaching for preschool was one filled with such mixed emotions. I was so happy to be done with all the planning and teaching and stress, but at the same time I was really going to miss the routine of it all...and I was definitely going to miss all the children.

My partner and I did our last week on dogs. It was really fun because the children already knew quite a bit about dogs, so they were able to just have fun and enjoy the activities we had planned for them.

Joseph helped me again with preparing for my teaching day. This time around he helped me draw out and paint cut out for a large dog house. The frame for the house was already at the preschool, so he really just helped me transform it into the dog house. The children LOVED it!!! We put huge stuffed dogs in there for the children to play with. It was so much fun.

There were other fun activities that  we had for the children as well, such as the tumbling mats, wood puzzles, and match the dog treat. We also had a really fun activity that some of the children spent so much time at. We set out an old record player and would paper plates on it. After turning the player on the children could use markers to draw on the paper plate.

We also had a special visitor this week in our preschool class. We got to make a new friend named Dottie, who was a dog. Dottie came and played with us in the playground, and then she helped us during our large group time. Dottie showed us some of the many dog tricks she could do, and then the children got to feed her a dog treat.

My time in the preschool was so special to me. I was able to learn so much from the children and was able to have so much fun. I will always be grateful for the opportunity that I had to participate in the campus preschool.

Preschool - Fish Day

Okay, so I'm pretty bad at keeping up on my blog updates...so we'll see how much I can get done today.

 
For my second week of teaching in the preschool I got to choose the topic that my partner and I taught on. I decided to do fish...mostly because I figured the kiddos would really like it.

It was interesting trying to come up with different activities for the children that were related to fish. As part of the preschool curriculum, we would always try to have the real, tangible thing there for the children to see, touch, and learn through first hand experience. So my partner brought in a huge dead fish on her day so the children could learn about the different parts of a fish. It was pretty smelly!!!

For my teaching day I also brought in a fish for the children to use in painting. There was one little boy that sat there for a good 15 minutes making sure every part of the fish was painted before he made his fish print on the paper.

I also brought in a ton of goldfish and had them swimming in our sensory table. We gave the children little glass baby food jars and let them 'fish' for the gold fish. It was so fun to see the different strategies they came up with for catching them.

Oh and this if Frankie our Fish Friend. For my large group lesson, I was able to teach the children about the different things we can put in fish tanks. The children then helped me put together a fish tank for our friend Frankie. Overall, it was a pretty great week in the preschool!!!!

Preschool - Baking Day

So for this past semester I was able to do my Preschool Practicum on campus. I was so worried when I began the semester because I had heard from a lot of people that being in the Preschool was a lot of work and all that. It really turned out to be not that bad.

For my first teaching week in the Preschool my partner and I decided to teach on baking. Most of our activities related back to that topic.

Here are some pictures from my first day of teaching. Joseph helped me a lot in preparing for for all of my activities. He helped me make little cardboard ovens that were child-sized. I have such a wonderful husband.

My partner and I also had a bake sale for the children to participate in during our Baking week. It was so fun to see the college students talk with the children...they were so sweet!!! It was a great week for us teaching in the Preschool.

Back in WI - Internship and All That

Well...first off I should apologize for not updating this blog in like forever...I have no excuses...just haven't done it.

Joseph and I spent the first quarter of this year back in Wisconsin. Joseph had acquired an internship with Vanden Huevel CPAs in Wausau for the tax season. Needless to say, it was an interest 3 1/2 months.

He started off only working short half days because there really wasn't much for him to do. As the season progressed though, he started working much longer hours. By the time we left in mid April he was working 11 hour days...poor guy.

I think he enjoyed himself as much as anyone can when they are having to do tax work. It was a little rough at the beginning because he really was a little unsure of a lot of the procedures that the firm did, but he caught on and life became a little easier.

Overall, Joseph decided that the internship was a great experience and it gave him actually work experience, and credits toward his degree. I think the biggest thing that he learned from the internship though was that he doesn't really want to work in public accounting after he graduates.

Also while we were back in Wisconsin we got to welcome a new member into our family. My older brother, Roland, and his lovely wife, Christi, became the parents of the most beautiful baby girl. Little miss Abigail Reina was born on January 31, 2012. She is probably the most adorable little thing that I have ever met. I tired to go down to Stevens Point to visit her and her momma as often as possible.

I also went back to work while we were back in Wisconsin. One of my old managers at the Old Navy was so wonderful and hired me again. It was nice to be able to work with some of my old friends. I found it so easy to just slide back into my old routine...I guess you just never forget how to fold clothes :) hehehe

Joseph also celebrated his 24th birthday back in March. It was a good day. We went to the doctor that day and got the first look at our new little baby!!!! It was so fun to see it move around and know that we were going to be parents again. After that I took Joseph out to Texas Roadhouse...he had never gone before...and he loved the huge slab of meat that he chowed down on!

We had a great time being back in Wisconsin and getting to spend so much time with Joseph's side of the family. They were so great to let us take over one of the rooms in their home. It was hard adjusting back to having so many people around, but we enjoyed spending time with family. We miss them all so much.

Even though we enjoyed being back in Wisconsin, we were so happy to move back out to good old Rexburg. I couldn't believe how much I had missed it!!!

Ethan Ervin Huckbody

So today marks the one month anniversary of our little baby boy's birth, and so I figured I would post a little something about his story.

I had gone into the clinic just to listen to his little heartbeat, because I hadn't felt him move much the day before. I didn't think much of it, but they couldn't find his heartbeat with the Doppler or with an ultrasound. Instead they found a pinched umbilical cord wrapped around his neck, thus cutting off his blood and oxygen supply. Our little baby was no longer with us, but instead with his Heavenly Father.

Our doctor scheduled an inducement for later that day, so we headed up to the hospital to wait. They checked me and I was 4cm dilated and 80% effaced...so I was pretty much in labor already and didn't even know it. They broke my water and started me on Pitocin. I didn't start feeling any contractions until I was around 5 1/2, 6cm dilated. I had planned on having an unmedicated labor and delivery, but with the Pitocin, I decided on an epidural around 7cm. An hour later I was ready to push and two hours after that, at 10:06 pm on November 8th, our darling boy was born. Overall is was a practically perfect delivery, with minimal tearing and everything going smoothly and without any kind of complication.

Ethan was 7lbs. 10oz. and 20 1/2 inches long. He was a beautiful little baby boy. The nurses cleaned him up and put him in a little outfit and brought him back to Joseph and I. We got to hold him and cherish what time we could have with him. He had my nose and lips, and overall just looked a lot like his momma. He was a perfect little guy. I got to watch Joseph hold his son and fall asleep with him on his chest like he had always dreamed of doing one day. It broke my heart knowing this was the only time he would be able to do that with Ethan. Joseph was even able to give little Ethan a name and a blessing with the help of our bishop.

Both of us shed many tears over our little boy. We had grown to love him so much throughout my pregnancy, and our love for him has continued to grow. We are so thankful for the time we had with him and the memories we were able to make. We are thankful for the opportunity we had to provide a body for him, and we are also super thankful for the privilege of still being his parents from now throughout all eternity. We know that we will be able to be with him again as a family, for that I am most grateful.

Both Joseph and I have grown a lot throughout this past month. We have learned to really rely and trust in our Heavenly Father and his son, Jesus Christ, our Savior. We are grateful for the gift of our Savior's atonement, and the immense healing it has been able to bring us. We know that the Plan of Salvation is there to bless families, and through that plan we know that we can continue to be a forever family. We are thankful for the holy temple and the wonderful blessings we are able to receive through the covenants we make there.

I would also like to say how blessed Joseph and I are to have such wonderful friends and family members that have been there with us the entire time. Thank you so much for all of the prayers and thoughts on our behalf, we have felt every single one of them and they have helped us so much.

Joseph and I refuse to look at this as a loss, because we know that we have not lost Ethan, not really. We just didn't get as much time with him here in this life, but we know that we will one day get to hold him again and love him. Both of us look forward to that day with great joy and excitement.

We are doing very well, and are moving forward with faith and trusting the Lord to lead us to where we need to be.