Oh, first here are some pics from Christmas. We got to go to Utah and see everyone! Sometimes I really miss being so far away from everyone. My nieces and nephews are growing up without me! Christmas was great though. Everyone was there, even Nick's family from Ohio!
Here is Mylee coming up the stairs on Christmas morning.
She got a new slide...
And opened her presents...
Grandma got this dinosaur tent from Santa Claus, and Mylee had a blast crawling in it.
Then, when everyone got there, Grandpa took the kids for a ride on the sled and 4-wheeler
Mylee stayed out until her cheeks and nose were red and her hands were frozen. She grinned the whole time! Shalissa made her the pink and green hat she is wearing. It was soooo cute on her!
Mylee loves babies! Here she is giving her cousin Dallas a kiss. =)
And she had fun playing pool with Eli.
Later, we went to visit Uncle Ryan and his family. Ryan said this picture was typical... The girl taking care of babies while the guy just lounges around. It made me laugh. He sure has some cute kids!
By the end of the day, Mylee was so tired! I found the idea for this teddy bear rug at a local toy store. I loved it so much that I spent Christmas Eve making it for Mylee. I'm glad she likes it! =)
Mylee is growing so fast it makes me sick! Where did my baby go? She is growing into such a tease. This morning she grabbed a diaper and said "bummie bum!" and then got a huge smile on her face, stuck her foot in the diaper and said "sock!" She has so much of her dad in her! She's getting to be very independent too. Yesterday RJ bought her some new jammies. Her response was perfect! She grabbed them from him and said "Jammies! Tank oo!" and then tried to put them on. Anytime I tried to help her or even touched the jammies, she screamed "a-SELF!" at me. One time she had one leg in and was trying to get the other in, and I just straightened the leg to make it easier for her. She yelled at me, stood up, took the other leg out and started all over again. She cracks me up.
When Mylee is upset, Sidekick howls and it makes her laugh. It's pretty funny actually to see her laugh so hard with tears streaming down her cheeks. And then she remembers that she's supposed to be upset so she'll start crying again. It's a pretty hilarious cycle. Next time I'll have to get a picture of Mylee... =)
This is where we put her for time out... J/K! She climbed in there herself and screamed when I tried to take her out! She spends a lot of her time pretending to be a dog...
As far as teaching goes it has been a busy few months. We are getting ready for our annual "Thundershack." It's a business run by the Culinary I kids. They use the skills they learned throughout the year to make and sell food. The money they earn pays for our competitive teams and things our department needs but our limited budget can't cover. It's my favorite time of year because it is fun and I don't have to write lesson plans =). There is a lot of shopping involved, but I much prefer shopping to writing lesson plans!
As far as the competitive teams go... the teacher that was advising the Hospitality Management team resigned from activities, so I found myself advising that team too. It was busy advising both teams, but rewarding in a lot of ways. I have some great students this year,and both teams did great at State. The management team didn't place, but they were told they had some great ideas, and they amazed me with how well they answered some pretty tough questions. The Culinary Team took a very close 2nd at State. They were only about 2.5 points behind the first place team. I was happy with their excellent work, and was congratulating myself on being done with all of the practices and work (I was looking forward to a relaxing last two months of work...) when I got a call from the state director saying the first place team had dropped out. So now we are going to Nationals!!! It is going to be a lot of fun. I have a really great team this year. They are hard workers and they keep me laughing. I have never had a team that has got along so well and worked so well together. AND, I have two AMAZING mentors... They have both given us a ton of time and help.
Here's Mylee after practice while the kids are cleaning up. She loves tasting the food. =) She came with me to a lot of the practices and had fun with the kids. RJ and I took Mylee out to eat one day and she saw someone that looked a lot like one of my students and she said "Hi! Ben!" It made me laugh.
These are the girls on my management team. I'm so proud of them!
Here is our culinary team and one of our mentors.
Our starter was a baby green salad in a fresh parmesan wrap with homemade French truffle dressing.
Our entree was crab stuffed veal with asiago mashed potatoes and romanesco and baby cauliflower; drizzled with a mushroom demi-glace.
This picture doesn't do our dessert justice! But it is a lemon sabayon in a graham cracker crust garnished with a chocolate butterfly and strawberry rose. 
The kids and their 2nd place medals. Yay us! =)
RJ had Spring Break last week and got to spend a lot of time with Mylee. I'm glad they got to have so much fun going to parks and playing... They even met up with Stephanie and her kids at the mall in Fort Collins. Mylee had so much fun she couldn't stop talking about it. She still occasionally will bring it up. She says "water... bubbles" in reference to her new favorite fountain. And she will say "Rissa! tiggle tiggle tiggle" as she tickles her face because that's what Carissa did to her. She talks about how Katie held her hand and Justin kept bopping her on the head. It's cute cause she'll say " 'tin" and then smack her head, grunt and then just crack up. I love that she loves her cousins!
Well, that's about it! See ya in maybe another four months =)
