Holidays as a Teacher

Celebrating holidays as a teacher, (especially a Kindergarten teacher),

makes the celebrating 10x better!

Halloween:

For Halloween, we painted our  v e r y  o w n  pumpkins! 

A little messy, yes, but 100% worth it!

I'm totally against handing a student a piece of candy and

"calling it good" when it comes to holidays.

For Halloween, I made my kiddos their

own individual  s ' m o r e  packet. 

Throw a 'mallow, 2 grahams, and a fun size Hershey's bar

into a cellophane bag.

Tie a bow with my favorite gift-wrapping essential, twine,

attach a clever little note, and you're good to go!

Let's be real, though...  This is  w a y  better than the alternative.

Christmas:

 

Christmas in Mrs. Yates' Kindergarten Class

wouldn't be Christmas without Cocoa.

Meet Cocoa ::  Our Classroom Elf on the Shelf.

What a fun little addition he has been this December.

He has been up to a lot in our classroom!

From bringing us our own Christmas tree,

to surprising us with doughnuts (complete with his own elf doughnuts),

to magically changing our candy-cane kisses into candy-canes,

he has overjoyed us day in and day out.

The kids always come curious to see what he is up to next!

Tomorrow is our last day of school before Christmas Break

and he is supposed to surprise us with our  B I G  Christmas Present!!

We are so excited to see what he brings...  Stay tuned!!

 Christmas is here!  You know what that means ::  Gifts for my kinders!!

What is something I could do that would be fun for the kids,

but different from the boring go-to piece of candy routine? 

This is what I came up with... Hope you like it as much as I do!

This is just a little something I got for a few of my coworkers...

[ oven mitts, chocolate, soaps, wooden spoons, stamps, cookie cutters ]

Practical, yes, but still cute and fun. 

Bottom line :: Giving is SO much better than receiving.

And last, but certainly not least, I want to leave you with a wish of

"Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!"

from myself and my crazy cute kinders...

[  X O X O  ]

Playing Catch Up

Well, well, well...

Lindsay dropped the ball on being

on top of her A-Game when it came to blogging...

What a surprise. 

I am making a New Year's Resolution to blog AT LEAST once a month. 

If I'm really great, I'll do it once a week...  We'll see. 

What has gone on since July?  Well, a lot.  A lot a lot! 

I got a  p r e c i o u s  new nephew :: 

Cohen Preston Perkes 

Born September 27, 2012 

7 pounds 12 ounces

I could hold this baby non-stop. 

He is the sweetest, happiest baby you could ever meet.

Having to live an hour away from this babe is torture.

6 months has never gone by faster!  ::

Daren and I celebrated 6 short months of our

h a p p i l y   e v e r   a f t e r

together in November.

I walked downstairs on Friday, November 16th

to that adorable note hanging across the entryway to the kitchen.

He surprised me with a weekend getaway to  P A R K   C I T Y.

We stayed in the Newport Resort and felt like a million bucks.

Our room had a jacuzzi tub,

a fireplace at the foot of our bed,

a full blown beautiful kitchen,

and our own balcony, complete with our own private hot tub.

It was absolutely perfect.

Thanks to an amazing man for the huge surprise!

...It's the  l i t t l e   t h i n g s.

My brother got his Mission Call ::

He will serve as a missionary of

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

in the Chile Santiago West Mission.

 He is excited to report to the MTC on

March 13, 2013.

As a sister, I could not be more proud. 

This boy started on his papers just  m o m e n t s

after the Church announced missionaries

could serve at the age of 18,

and one short month later, he received his call.

S-T-U-D.

I've been teaching school for 4 months already! ::

Wow.  These children are my life. 

I  l o v e  every last one of them like my own.

With the events that happened just a short week ago at

Sandy Hook Elementary in Conneticut,

I am competely grateful for the chance to see every one

of these beautiful faces every day.

I do not know what I would do without their

s w e e t  souls in my life.   

Daren and I are about to spend our  f i r s t  Christmas together as a married couple :: 

How exciting!  This is a picture of our  t r e e... 

I absolutely love it.  And it looks even better with all of our

presents underneath it!  I have always loved Christmas,

but it is  s o o o  much better when you're married. 

I bet it'll be even better when we have kiddos... But that'll be a while!

Life is a lot of fun right now, to say the least! 

Although this is my blog for Daren and I, I've also decided to incorporate things that I do in my classroom, as a teacher.  I use Instagram and Facebook to share my fun Kindergarten life with those close to me, but I think that keeping a blog about it is a

little more personal and a little more important. 

So throughout my posts about our lives,

you may see an occasional teacher post... 

Just love it.

10 days later...

So the last post was all about Lindsay and how I had the luckiest Friday the 13th a girl could ask for.  Well, ladies and gentlemen, this past Monday, the 23rd (exactly 10 days after I was hired) was another lucky day for the Yates family.   And I am here to tell you why...

As our close friends and family know, Daren has been interviewing for various accounting positions in/around the Salt Lake City area.  He had received a phone call initiating a call-back interview for this past Monday for a company by the name of Boart Longyear, which confirmed that he was 1 of 2 front runners for the position they were hiring for.  While he was in the two hour long interview, he missed a phone call from Hoyt Archery - another company he had interviewed for the previous week.  When he checked his message from Hoyt, he heard Susan's voice requesting a call back from him ASAP.  Of course, he called right away, and that is when Daren was offered the position of being Hoyt Archery's new Cost Accountant.  Absolutely thrilled, he called his wife and told her the great news!  However, in just interviewing a second time for Boart Longyear and knowing he was a front runner, he realized he needed to let them know he had been offered a position for another company and would like to hear their offer if they were willing to give it.  So he did just that, and it wasn't 12 hours later that Boart Longyear called and ALSO offered Daren a position with their company...   

2 job offers in 2 days.  NBD.  

 

After careful consideration and much discussing, Daren will be starting his career for  

as their new Cost Accountant starting on August 6th! 

We are thrilled!!  Not only is it an amazing position, but it is for Hoyt Archery!  

We all know that hunting is just a small obsession of Daren's, and for him to get to work for a hunting company on top of being their Cost Accountant is definitely a double whammy! 

I cannot believe that we have both accepted careers in just ten short days between one another.  We are feeling so blessed and could not be more thrilled for one another, as well as ourselves.  

So there ya have it... 

Daren and Lindsay have:

Graduated from college, 

gotten married, 

moved to a new city,

and started new careers...

all in 2 months.

We're grown ups now.  

Weird.

Lindsay's LUCKY Friday the 13th

So the old wise tale is that Friday the 13^th is always unlucky.  Well, guess what?  Forget that!  Forget that in Ancient Rome, Friday was execution day and in Britain, Friday was customarily Hanging Day.  Forget the association with the number 13 and the superstition it carries in order to make it where cities don't have a 13^th Street or Avenue, highways often do not have a 13^th exit, airports do not have a 13^th gate, and hotels and buildings don't have floors or rooms numbered 13… Have you ever noticed those things?  How about combining the two together to make the dreadful 
Friday the 13^th?  Yah, well forget those superstitions... Ya know why?

Because for this girl, Friday, July 13^th, 2012 was anything BUT unlucky.  

That's right.  I had an extremely 

LUCKY day yesterday!  Why?  

I was hired for my dream position!!

I, Lindsay Yates, 

will be teaching Kindergarten 

for the 2012-2013 school year 

at Sunset Elementary!

GAHH!  I am so excited!!  Ever since I was blessed to be in Miss Renee's Kindergarten class during my Level III placement, I have known that kindergarten is where I belong as a teacher.  There is something about those sweet, innocent, children coming into a classroom and learning all of the initial, but essential, steps to being successful in life.  There is nothing more rewarding as a teacher to watch your students come into your classroom and go from simply learning to recognize numbers and letters, to applying that knowledge to be able to add equations and read actual words.  I am feeling so unbelievably blessed right now and cannot wait to meet my kinders!  

[Here I am, glowing and gleaming 

in front of my new school!]

Wanna know what else is lucky?  

Last night, on our hott date, I found 2 new pairs of teaching pants for only $10 each, and an adorable Volcom leopard print maxi skirt for a whopping $6.49!  Totaling at a big $28?  Um yah, you know I'll take 'em!

Hello!  I have finally started a blog for the Yates family.   

As you know, Mr. Daren Michael and I tied the knot on  
Saturday, May 19, 2012.   
2 months ago in just 6 short days.  
Wow, I can't believe it's been that long - It's gone by too fast! 

We have been able to spend most of our married lives enjoying the
 company of our wonderful families on

vacations and in various other celebrations.  

I've decided to post some pictures from our [wedding day] 

and what we've been up to so far in our short 2 months of marriage... Enjoy!  

[Our Wedding Day]

Honeymoon

[Cabo San Lucas]

 [Puerto Vallarta]

Family Times

[Lake Powell]

 [Birthday Time!]

 [4th of July at Flaming Gorge]

 [Golfing in Bear Lake]