Sweet Olivia and School Stuff

Derek and I both had a crazy but good week back to school. First we will tell you a bit about Derek's first week back. Derek has been so so busy with his homework already. He gets home from work/school at about 5 most days and then it seems we have just enough time to get a quick bite to eat and he is off to do homework the rest of the night until ten or eleven when its time to bed. He has a very demanding semester ahead of him and we are already seeing the results. He will enjoy it though. He has some fun and interesting classes ahead of him.

My first week of school was so busy. I came home everyday just exhausted. I forget how much work it takes out of you to work with 3-4 year olds for 6 hours a day and most of them have very specific needs met. I would not survive without my teachers aides. They help out so much. Its been so busy though that my boss has approved for me to higher another aide for a boy I have in my class that has Cerebral Palsy and can basically do very very little by himself. It will be nice to have a little extra help. We covered so much in preschool this week and sometimes you assume the kids would know how to do things, I have to model so much for them. Even as simple of what it means to sit on your pockets, or how we wash hands, or how to push the soap dispenser to get soap, etc. Its so much work but it has been so fun too. I have some challenging kids, but they are so darling and I'm going to have a great year. I also started my USU class for my masters that I am working on. Its every Tuesday night for 3 hours which makes a long day, especially after a day at the preschool. It is also going to be a very demanding class but I'm excited to get going and get that much closer to earning my masters in special education of early childhood education.

After our first week of school we got up early Saturday morning to head to Vegas with Derek's parents. We went there to celebrate Brian's birthday as well as see Olivia blessed. It was so fun to go and visit. We spent most the time just hanging out and visiting at Brian and Amy's house. We also went out to eat at Sweet Tomatoes restaurants, all I can say is YUMMY. Derek and I are going to make it a point to go to the one that is located in Sandy most times that we go up to doctors visits. It was just so good. And you could eat so much and not feel that guilty because its like salads and soups galore. It was fabulous. Sunday we saw Olivia blessed and then we headed home to have a quick lunch (which was also very amazing, thanks Amy) and then headed back home to good ole Cedar City. Here are a few pictures from our trip.

Derek building a tower with Noah

Grandma and Grandpa loving baby Olivia

The child in the picture above is one of the cutest children I know. Seriously. 

Derek all tuckered out from the days adventures. 

An Uncles job: Getting the kids all riled up right before bed time. Wrestling with Noah and Hannah.

I'm just watching Derek play with the kids on the couch when he got this lovely picture. We were both pretty tired at the end of the day. 

Just chillin' at Brian and Amy's. 

We spent our Labor Day holiday off from school just catching up on homework, classwork, and things we needed to do around the house. We did go out to dinner with all of my family at the Pizza Factory and had fun doing that. I guess we are back into full swing of school work and reality at our house.