Piano Lessons

Hi all :)

I want to start teaching 1-2 more beginner piano students every week.

I charge $12 for a half hour lesson.  You also would need to cover books.

I'd like to do them at my house because it's easier for Joey, but I am willing to travel.  I charge $.56/mile (the going mileage rate for taxes).  I am just north of Greeley.

I am free most days since I am a stay at home momma :)

Feel free to email me/text me/call me if you have questions.

Easter and Joey's actual birthday

Easter's are always kind of interesting at our house.  For the last few years, one of the big churches in Greeley has had their Easter service at the UCCC, so Neal has worked Easter morning for the last few years.  

The Easter Bunny brought us a family basket with a scripture book and some bubbles for Joey, and then some treats for Neal and I.  While Neal was at work, Joey and I spent the morning watching General Conference, and then in the early afternoon we headed down to UCCC to pick up Neal and go to Easter dinner.

We headed down to my Aunt Sonja's house for dinner with my family.  I love it because I get to see members of my family that I don't see any other time of the year.  We had a yummy dinner and sat around and talked.  The kids did an Easter egg hunt (which Joey missed because he fell asleep way later than he normally does), and then we headed to my parents' house.  My sister, Tiffany, and her husband, Chase, and their little boy, Lucas were visiting, and we wanted to spend more time with them.

We took a bunch of family pictures, and then played with the ball and bat that Joey got for his birthday.  Joey loves hitting the balls with the bat, and it will entertain him for quite a while.

It was a very relaxing, enjoyable day.  I'm so grateful for the resurrection of my Savior, and for the opportunity that we get to celebrate it every year! 

We still exist, too :)

I post on here pretty often about Joey, but now that he's a year old and I feel like I'm a little more caught up on our life, I'm going to try and post more than just my monthly updates on Joey.

So, here's a little bit about Neal and I right now.

At our church, I teach and help with the 16 and 17 year old girls, and I am loving it.  I'm super excited to go to girl's camp with them this year.  I went to every year of girl's camp that I could when I was a young woman, and I loved it.  Our theme for the camp this year is "Anchored."  I think it's going to be an incredible year, that's for sure.

Neal and I are working super hard at getting (and staying) completely out of debt.  A few months after we bought our house, we had over $4000 in car repairs come up that we just flat out didn't have.  We were pretty stressed out about it.  For our wedding, someone gave us a copy of Dave Ramsey's "Total Money Makeover."  Our friend's had used it to get out of debt, but we had kind of ignored it because we hadn't been in debt our entire marriage.  When we had to put the car repairs on credit cards though, I picked up that book and started reading.  Fast forward a few months, and we are now taking Dave Ramsey's class "Financial Peace University" (thanks to our friends that I mentioned earlier).  We are learning SO much.  I think one of the coolest things is that it lines up with the counsel our prophets and apostles have given about debt and finances.  We are really excited about this, and look forward to when we are done with paying off our debts.

After over a year, Joey finally slept a long time last night.  He went from 7:30 pm to 4:30 am.  Hallelujah.

Even with the sleep issues we've been having (which I've finally accepted are mostly my doing), I'm seriously baby hungry again.  We have a plan, and I keep telling myself that, but it doesn't stop my ovaries from jumping every time I see or hold someone's new baby.  It's interesting this time around.  When we first talked about trying to get pregnant with Joey, he really struggled with the idea - he was pretty slow to agree it was time.  This time around, he seems pretty excited about it.  I think he truly enjoys being a dad, and after seeing all of the joy Joey brings to our family, I think he's looking forward to adding to that joy.

Neal's job is going very well.  He has received many compliments from tenants and from supervisors about the work he is doing.  I'm grateful for his assistant technical director, who has made his job much easier to do because he can focus on his job instead of having to worry about his ATD.

We love our house.  We are currently working on starting a garden in our back yard.  We're moving a section of rock in our back yard every year - we have three sections total.  We moved one this year, and we're planning on moving one more each year until we are done.  After that, we are going to replace the other half of the rock along the back fence with a play area for Joey and any future kids.

Life is going really well for us right now, and I'm incredible grateful to Heavenly Father for that.  While we do work very hard, Heavenly Father has sent an amazing amount of blessings our way!

Joey - 1 year old

Joey is 1 year old!  Woo hoo!  Here's all about our last month:

- The day he turned 11 months old, we went outside in his snow suit to play.  We were both so tired of being cooped up inside that we braved the cold.  We had quite a bit of fun.

- He started the worst round of teething that we've had so far.  Two have come in so far, and we're still waiting on the other two.  He's been a drool monster for the last month.

- We went to the Family FunPlex in Greeley.  They have an awesome pool that's pirate themed.  It's freaked Joey out before, but he really seemed to like it this time.

- Joey has started figuring out how to maneuver balls, so he and Neal went outside to play soccer while I made dinner.

- We celebrated St. Patrick's Day by having corned beef and cabbage with potatoes.

- We went to the zoo with Neal's brother's wife, Robin, and their kiddos.  It was really fun!  Joey got to meet bears.  We also got to meet a possum named Walker.  (I was probably more excited than Joey was about that one).

- Great-Grandma Psuik and Papa Joe came out for lunch and brought him a fire truck.

- We discovered rocks.  They are now his favorite thing to discover outside.

- We went to the park.  A lot.  I'm pretty sure that's Joey's favorite place right now.  Actually, he pretty much just wants to be outside, constantly.

- We had his birthday party!  Read about that here.

 - He's gotten so big.  I can't believe it.    Here's a great picture that shows it.

It's so wonderful and amazing that we've been parents for a year.  It's been one of the most rewarding a joyful experiences of our life!

Baseball Birthday Bash

Before Joey was born, we started talking about his 1st birthday party.  We decided to do a baseball themed birthday party - first, because we love baseball, and second, because his birthday would be right around opening day.

So about a month ago I started planning.  Can I just say I'm grateful for Etsy?  We found the cutest decorations, and it was SUPER easy to get them done.

This was the cutest thing.  It was a "Rookie Year" banner, with pictures of Joey each month of his life so far 

Before everyone got here, we blew up some balloons and Joey thought they were the best thing ever.

We had hot dogs, salads, and funnel cakes for dinner. Then we opened presents.  Joey is so blessed to have so many people that love him so much.  He finally realized that it was fun to open the presents and figure out what was inside of them, so he started helping me a few presents into his stack.

My mom made a super cute smash-cake and cupcakes decorated like baseballs.  Joey started off by just picking at the frosting, but ended by digging his hands in and squeezing the cake between his hands and giggling.  It was SO cute.  I couldn't sing "Happy Birthday" to him because I can't cry and sing at the same time.  I still can't believe my baby is 1.

We ended the day by having a fire in our new fire ring while Joey and his cousins played outside.  One of his favorite toys is a bat and some "baseballs."  While we were outside, Neal or I would help Joey hold onto the bat and the other would throw a ball and then Joey would hit the a ball.  It made him so happy and excited every time he hit the ball.  Then he and his cousin Daniel crawled around the yard.

It's so funny how much Joey is like us.  He started the party by being very quiet and observant.  Once he warmed up to people being in his house, he became more himself by talking, playing, and just running around in general.  We had so much fun and enjoyed watching everyone love on Joey.  It makes me so excited for birthday parties to come!

Happy Easter

My heart is feeling rather tender this morning.  Today's a big day for me.

I'm celebrating the birth of our child.

I'm celebrating the resurrection of my Savior, Jesus Christ.
I'm listening to prophets and apostles of God.

I thought it only fitting to tell you what I know on this beautiful Easter morning.  In our church we call it "bearing our testimonies."

- I know my Savior, Jesus Christ, lives.  I know that He suffered in Gethsemane and was crucified for me.  I know He was resurrected on the third day, and that because He was, I can be, too.

- I know the amazing power of the Atonement.  I have utilized it so many times in my life - both to repent of my sins and to enable me to do more than my capacity.

- I know Thomas S. Monson is the prophet for the world, and that he is the Lord's spokesman today.

- I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared to him when he was 14 years old.  They told him there was no completely correct church on the earth at that point, and then under their instruction, he restored Christ's true church on the earth.

- I know the Book of Mormon is scripture, and that it was translated by Joseph Smith through the power of God.  I know that it works together with the Bible to give us the fullness of Christ's gospel.

- Because of my Savior, my family gets to be together forever.  Christ has given us temples to make special promises that allow our family ties to extend beyond the grave.

There are many more things that I know and believe, but these six are what I feel are most important.

Happy Easter my friends.  May God send bounteous blessings to you!