First garden post of the season!

Hello!  I am so excited that it is Spring!  We have had gorgeous weather so far!  We've been fishing, boating, getting the garden ready, and raking so many leaves.  Yes, we have huge trees in our yard and are still raking leaves from the fall.  I'm guessing we had 20 bags in the fall and just filled another 15 today.  I'm crossing my fingers, but I think we are done raking for awhile!  Hallelujah!

One of my hobbies is gardening.  And as most of you know, I got this from my dear mother!  She has taught me everything I know!  I still call her for advice each Spring.  And...she is coming to visit Easter weekend!  My dad, mom AND Phil!!  Aaron and I are soooo excited to have them visit for the weekend!  We plan on doing lots of fun things with them!  

Below you will find some old & new pictures of the garden boxes we completed today!  I am very thankful to have a husband that is supportive, hardworking, and enjoys helping me in the yard.  Our yard is huge, which we really enjoy, but definitely takes a lot of effort to maintain.

Casey Boy absolutely LOVES leaves.  He likes to lay in them and roll around and get all dirty in them.  Oh to be a dog!  So that's why he is sitting on the leaves in the garden....this is the before picture!  The garden boxes were made by the previous home owner and were rotting away.  We were in need of a garden face-lift!  

Oh, and I haven't planted a thing this year and I have onions and carrots already growing!  Pretty cool how plants can re-seed!  We already bought lettuce, spinach, and sugar snap peas to plant over Easter weekend with my parents.

Ahh...don't the paths look so clean and weed free?  That crabgrass is a PAIN to pull.  It's long and stringy and is full of sharp roots.  My hands definitely hurt this eve.  Aaron was so sweet and helped A LOT.

More garden pictures to come over the next few months!  

Also, we decided on another home improvement project for this summer....a bigger deck for the back yard!  Maybe even with some corner stairs!  We really enjoy being in the backyard and have such a small deck right now, however, the patio is a nice size.  Aaron is also a pro at building decks, so it's only natural for him to take on this job! (You can see the current deck in the first picture of this blog)  

Alright, enough for now.  

-Maria

Fishing with the new BOAT!

Okay, to continue our Spring Break we came back home to Hesston for the tail end of break.  With such amazing Spring weather we just HAD to take the boat out Friday AND Saturday!  I think we should start sleeping in the truck/camping so that Aaron can get his fill in for the weekend...ha!

My handsome husband is the captain of the boat!  He knows how to load and unload the boat easily and made my first ride out on the boat very fun!  We packed a little cooler of pop and snacks for both afternoons.  

Oh the life of a fisherman... 

This was my view of the boat!

I'm fishing!!  And snacking on a lollipop :)  I will probably do some sun-bathing this summer! 

So far I'm the only one to bring in anything on the line!  I snagged a tiger muscle.....NOT COOL.

I think it was empty.  It sounded hollow.  We do have a fish finder on the boat so we can see if there are fish below us, and it marks the depth.  There are lots of fish, but the water is a bit cold yet for many bites.

Loading the boat!!  The lake is beautiful!

So the lake is located at the Maxwell wildlife reserve about 30 minutes North of Hesston.  I had no clue this place existed!!  To get to the lake you get to drive through pastures of buffalo and elk!!  How cool is that??  We were lucky that they were just crossing the road as we drove by!

So thus ends our Spring break.  I'm positive that we will be taking the boat out every weekend!  The boat only holds a couple people, but come visit so you can see the buffalo!  Okay, now to get ready for the week.  We aren't looking forward to waking up early tomorrow.  

Love, Maria

A Wonderful Spring Break

To begin our much need break from work and school, we got to celebrate our sweet nephew, Logan, at his 3rd birthday party!  The theme was dinosaurs!  He was such a sweet boy the whole time and smiled and laughed a lot!

After opening presents we played outside!  It was a beautiful weekend in Garden City!   Makenah was loving kicking around the soccer ball.

Uncle Bear (Aaron) and Logie!!

Logan's party was Sunday evening, so Monday morning we set off West towards Colorado Springs!  The drive is about 5 hours through flat farm lands and small, small run-down towns.  Then amazingly, right before you're eyes, MOUNTAINS APPEAR!!  But...you have to drive an hour or so before you get very close to them.  The mountain range is beautiful!

Of course we had to start the trip off by stopping at the Garden of the Gods.  We love this place!  Lots of places to hike and take pictures of the beautiful scenery.  On this occasion we saw some rock climbers braving a very steep incline and then gracefully descending down the side.  We took our nice Canon camera and will be framing some of the beautiful shots in our dining room!  Come visit us so you can see them :)

 We did some mini golf that evening, which was conveniently located near our hotel.  This picture is mainly shadow, but I had to capture the cool old western town.  Aaron is actually holding his golf club, but you can't see it.

The next few days we were in CO it was cloudy and cooler weather.  So we enjoyed some shopping!  We stopped for lunch at a great Mediterranean place called Garbanzo.  Salad, pita, and falafel. Yum!

We also enjoyed a great evening hanging out with Aaron's sister, Jenna, and her friend!  Jenna took us out to eat at a great restaurant called Zios.  We always enjoy spending time with her!  Thanks for hosting us a bit in your hometown Jen!  On Thursday morning we headed back to Garden City, KS to pick up Casey Boy.  He was sure happy to see us!  I'm going to finish our Spring Break adventures here, and begin a new blog post all about the BOAT!!   Needless to say, we are fishing people!  

-Maria

Bowling and Bulletin Boards

How is it almost March and we haven't had a snow day yet?  I've heard so much about the East Coast getting tons of snow, and out West they have gotten a lot too....BUT NOT HESSTON!  Snow is in the forecast for this weekend for us, so we'll see about possibly Monday.  (Doing my snow dance now!!)  :)  

Anyways, Aaron and I have had a busy week with work and school work (for both of us).  Did I mention Aaron has been in school over a month?!  It's flying by!  He is liking his 5 classes and getting good grades!!  This week he showed me a grade book, made in Excel, for a pretend class of kids.  He gave them grades, put formulas into the document to calculate their final grades and cumulative grades! I think he really likes the grading part of teaching.  He is already an awesome teacher!  I have seen his love for books growing as well :)  I'd like to say that I have had some influence in that though. hehe

So last weekend we planned a trip to see Aaron's family.  We made it a very quick visit and made the most of our time!  We did lots of fun activities including IHOP for Saturday morning, playing with Makenah and Logan, bowling in the afternoon, a delicious lasagna dinner, and games to end our busy day.  Sunday it snowed all day out West so we got on the icy roads and headed home in our Chevy Cruze.  Love that car!  We drove about 35-40 MPH the whole way home.  

The Stuckys!  Love them!

My handsome man!

Snack break!  Popcorn and cookies!  

Hi Jenna!!

 This was Makenah and Logan's first time bowling!  They got a cute red, light, ball to use and bumpers in the lane!  No naps meant for a couple good cries.  Uncle Bear (Aaron) was consoling sweet Logie.  

You can't leave the bowling alley without playing the arcade games!!

ARE YOU READY FOR A BIG POP OF COLOR IN YOUR LIFE!??

Welcome to the hallway leading to my classroom!  I have 2 of the most creative and artistic paras in the whole school!  Basically what usually happens with the bulletin boards is I tell them what themes are coming up and we do a little Pinterest looking and researching for fun ideas.  Then....a few days later the girls have the most amazing 3D bulletin board ever!  The kids love looking at it and it really makes the school so inviting!  March is the month we celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday so it seemed fitting to deck the halls!

For art next week the kids will use their hands to make fish and Thing 1 and 2.  The books are 1 fish 2 fish, Red Fish Blue Fish AND Cat in the Hat!  We will be reading so many other books but this is the art activity!  

Love the truffula trees! (paper towel rolls painted black and wrapped with yellow streamers)

Here is our door for the month of February.  Green Clovers are about to make an appearance next week!

This week we learned all about going to the Dentist!  We did lacing with foam teeth cutouts (flossing teeth!), and marshmallow teeth mouths.

I wanted to add a few other pictures that made me happy this week!

Buffalo Chicken Pizza topped with Red Onions.
Made by Aaron!  Even the dough :)

My snowflake Jamberry nails & pig timer.  ha!  Thanks Nate and Maggie!

And to top off the week....Chocolate Mousse from Applebees!  I went with a group of girls from school after we finished work this evening.  

Currently I am ending my night with some homemade Chex-mix, thinking about my Yoder family who are all spread out.  I remember all the times mom made us Chex-mix and we couldn't wait to eat it so we burned out tongues when it came out of the oven.  Anyways,  I'm hoping for snow this weekend.  Love you all!!

-Maria

February Pics

Hi everyone!

I hope everyone out East is staying warm!  Weather in Kansas this winter has been so back and forth between warm, beautiful days and frigid wind temps.  Our family is hoping for consistent warm temperatures soon!  Read further down in the blog to find out what we bought for Valentines day.  You'll never guess!

In other news, Casey got a trim and shampoo!  You can really see a difference in his shaggy paws in the first picture compared to, after getting home from the groomers, in the second picture!  

He is so soft and beautiful!  He is sporting a Vday bandana!

Superbowl Selfie!

So one of the big Western stores in Wichita is called Sheplers.  I haven't been there since moving out to KS, which is hard to believe!  Aaron needed new boots and so we made an afternoon of it!  This store has awesome clothes, boots, and accessories for REAL cowboys and cowgirls. ha!  

We found the pair Aaron was looking for!  He looks really good in them :)  

We also had to look around at the clothes and we each came out with a new pair of jeans! Woohoo!

Okay, on to Valentines week!  These are my Valentine Jamberries!  Thanks to my good friend Rachel, she let me use her second set!  My preschoolers loved looking at them and touching them throughout the week!

On Thursday, I came home to a package from my dad!  He sent me chocolates!!  (sea salted carmels!)  Thanks dad!  I love you!

Friday, the 13th, was our Vday celebration for the kids!  I spent much of my Thursday evening making about 50 sugar cookies (I have 34 kids, and made some extra for my Paras).  I used pre-bought dough to make it go quicker.  I liked the kind that comes in a roll.  The bag kind turned out a little different and more brownish.  Anyways, I had to post a picture of the cool icing tool that I got for Christmas! :)  It was perfect for writing a sweet note to my hubby on the cookies for Vday!

I took icing with me to school and let the kids help decorate!  

They were so excited for the Vday party!

Did I mention how giving gifts at Vday is more popular that giving them at Christmas?  I don't know the reason.  It has happened the last 4 years though! I got flowers, chocolate, a teddy bear, and plenty of cards.

BUT....I have to say that my hubby was the best Valentine of all!  When I got home on Friday after work he had flowers waiting for me, and the shower attachment in the downstairs bathroom was mounted!  This beautiful tub is also a shower now!  My husband is so handy!  I got him some chocolates and a new Milwaukee tool for his collection.  I am so thankful for Aaron.  He is so thoughtful and takes very good care of me, and Casey boy!

And now for the big finale!!!!!!

Yes, we are boat owners.  WHAT??!!  

YES. 

You heard right. 

Before I was in the picture, about 4 years ago, Aaron had his eye on buying a boat but decided against that decision once he started traveling to see me on a monthly basis from Kansas.  So to make a long story short, Aaron started looking at boats a couple weeks ago and researching what he wanted to buy.  We drove to Wichita on Vday and spent a good part of the afternoon talking with the owner.  The owner basically re-modeled a lot of the boat, and Aaron really likes it!  I don't think the boat has a name yet, but I think we need to name it.  :)  Anyways, you can guess what Aaron will be doing on the first warm day out here.  FISHING!  

Love you all and stay warm!

-Maria