Thanksgiving

We went to Idaho for Thanksgiving this year.

We cooked:

I was in charge of pies, pecan, caramel pecan, and butterscotch custard. YUM

We ate:
My brothers long hair inspired me to dress him up. Once a big sister, always a big sister I suppose. And look how cooperative he was!

We played games:
Killer Bunnies is always a big hit!

We relaxed:

And we tried to open a massive jar of pickles:
Who would have thought this was the only way to open them. Dad, Brian , Jaron, and Grant all tried and couldn't get the dang thing open.

And we saw friends:
Bests friends for life!

H-Dance Force (minus a few). Sarah (far left) and I talked about everything together, Hailey (the red head) was my dance teacher for 12 years, Mikianna and I have danced together since we were 6, and CoCo my amazing sister who was the only reason I started dance in the first place!

And then we drove home:
A normal 6 hour drive took us 10. Thank you winter snow storms.

Last Teacher Post For A While

Monday was my last day with my adorable 3rd graders at Orchard Hills Elementary. I cried to say the least. They were all giving me sad pouty faces all day long telling me they wished I didn't have to leave. I felt so loved. They surprised me with a book of notes they each wrote to me. I wanted to share a few.

Dear Mrs. Romney
thank you for the fun seince (science) you taught us. Thank you for helping and teach us. Thank you for coming will you come again. Thank you for being my friend. I hope you have fun playing at BYU. Ther's one more thing I want to say. you rock.
your best friend,
Hunter

Dear Mrs. Romney
Thank you for every thing you have taught me so far. I really hope you teach here. You are one of the nicest people I know. I hope your class next year will listen to your lessons. Remember your beautiful.
Sincerley,
Isabelle

dear Mrs. Roumy
I love the sience progecs that you had us do they wer so fun... I want to do it again I ber that you will be a good teacher. I bet evry one in the class likes you even me. You are so nice and you wil always be. You are ready to be a techer.
Love
Amber

Dear Mrs. Romney
Thank you for everything and teaching the class science. And helping me with everything I needed help on ever ciencs (since) you bin hear. Your my best friend forever. I love you and I allways will. Forever I will always cepe (keep) you in my heart I will never forget you threw (through) all my heart. I now (know) I can allways ceme (keep) a seacret with you allways I never had a best friend like you. I like you forever.
Love,
Autumn

Here they are

Pretty adorable right? Man I will miss them.

Grant and I are sitting at home trying to wait out the crazy blizzard that is supposed to be heading this way, worst one in 7 years they're saying. But really we just want to be driving home for Thanksgiving. Dang it snow. Anyways wish us luck, 7 am tomorrow we're braving it! Until then we'll probably just read Harry Potter, our newest obsession.

I'm in love

It's true, I absolutely love, love, love my third graders. They are each so unique and special to me. I can't even describe how much I look forward to seeing them everyday.

You see for the past week and for the next three weeks I will be a 3rd grader teacher in Santaquin. This is a required experience for my Elementary Education major at BYU. I get to teach at least one lesson a day and give individual attention to my hearts content. Can I just say how magical it is when you see the light bulb turn on for a kid. It's truly one of the most rewarding experiences I've ever had.

Today, I was sitting in my classroom observing all my students and I suddenly had to fight back tears. I was overwhelmed with such a strong testimony of how special each and every student sitting in front of me was. Some are shy, some are silly, some give me the most heart melting smiles I've ever seen, some are stinky (but still so loved), some learn easily, others not so much, but all of them are sons and daughters of Heavenly Father and that is so special. I can't believe I could get paid to take care of these little ones everyday. I know some may be skeptical that I really love it this much, but I promise this is the coolest experience I've ever had. I'm not saying I don't ever get frustrated, because I do. Some of those kids can really test me, but I know they are doing the best with what they've been given and what they've been taught. Teaching little chiclets has got to be the best job in the entire world!

The first day I was with my class they were convinced I was a vampire, especially with Halloween right around the corner. But they've realized I'm not scary so I've been promoted to a fairy, which I'm totally fine with. My students think I can fly, so basically I'm their superhero right?!

Speaking of kids, that's me in 3rd grade.

Teacher Pants

Usually Halloween kinda just comes and goes in this house. But this year I've been making a point to be a little more festive. I've come to the realization that traditions don't just happen, but you have to make them happen so I'm doing my best. We carved pumpkins with a few really good friends and I must say it was the best pumpkin I've ever carved!

Can you guess whose is whose?

We've gone to 2 haunted houses this year. Nightmare on 13th and a $1 haunted house in Provo. Both were nice a creepy! We're going to the play Dracula on Friday and I think that should do it for Halloween spookiness.

I also started teaching today. Hence the "teacher pants" as the girls in my major like to call them. I met my mentor teacher and she is wonderful. I think it will be a great experience and hopefully I will learn a lot.

My first day of school! Teachers can't wear jeans... lots of "teacher pants" and skirts for the next month!

Jumbled.

Warning: there will be no coherent order to this post.

I am loving this semester. I finally have 3 of my greatest friends all living near me! So we decided we need a monthly dinner in which attendance is mandatory. September's was fab. We ate Chicken Cordon Bleu, salad, potatoes, asparagus, rolls, and peanut butter bars. Yum. Then we played...

Yup you guess it, Quelf. What a grand time we had! Here are some of the favorite pictures of the night.

Meet Aaron. The poor kid had to do all the most embarrassing tasks of the night. (He's my friend Caitlin's, remember the returned missionary, boy toy.) What a good sport!

Jordan was banished underneath the table for a little while, love the face my friend!

Erin and I had to creepily slow dance with each other, circa high school. I'm so creeped out, look at that face.

This handsome guy was a beautiful miming ballerina. Look at those lines!

Oh Aaron you poor thing. He was, I believe a mime stuck in a box on this one. Thanks for all the laughs though!

We also played a rousing game of Guesstures in which the boys pummeled the girls. We were so certain we were going to win too. Bummer.

I love my friends! Jordan is working her fanny off at dental hygiene school, amazing right? Erin is working as a dental hygienist, plus being a mom of the cutest one year old boy I know! And Caitlin just worked her tail of for a year and a half as a missionary. I am one lucky girl to have such incredible friends.

Last weekend I went on a girls getaway to St. George. It was so fun and so nice to get to spend more time with my sister-in-law Elizabeth and her two funny girls. You can read all about the trip here. Basically we went to Tarzan at the Tuacahn, an amazing outdoor theater. We shopped, ate, talked, and watched some seriously amazing people run a marathon.

With the girls. Tarzan was SO good, I cried... multiple times. Who doesn't cry when they hear "You'll Be in My Heart?" Such a good song.

Thanks Betsy for SUCH a fun trip!

Funny side story. As I'm sitting waiting for the play to start, my lovely friend Dantzel comes waltzing in front of us and literally sits directly in front of me. I haven't seen this girl in at least a year... and we both live in Provo! Who would have thought we'd see each other in St. George of all places. Needless to say we resolved to have lunch together more frequent than once a year.

Oh and I dyed my hair a lovely shade of brown. It was time for a change. I'm slowly adjusting to the strange girl looking back at me in the mirror! Change is good right?

Other than that we're just schoolin it up, Grant's murdering his tests... 100%? Ya, he's a stud. Fall hit this week, I actually felt cold once or twice. This morning I walked outside took a big sniff and thought to myself, fall is here. Fall just smells different ya know?

Behind...

Again.

We've been alive the last month or so, although it may not seem like it.

We left Texas with a bang in August. Grant decided to be a rebel and skip out on the first 2 days of school and we spent some time in Dallas with the fam. It was a really nice way to end our summer and have a few days to relax before starting school.


I know, I obsess over my nieces and nephews. I can't help it they are the cutest kids in the whole world. You'd think they were mine.

Grant and I drove the 20 hour drive home like champs. Straight through. I fiddled around with

Artsy eh?

I also got to experience Grant with a "beard." I call it a beard because it's the most facial hair I've ever seen on him! I thought it was pretty sexy if you ask me.

When we got back to UT one of the first things we did was camp. Well we ate at Cafe Rio first... but then we camped. We ended up at the same area we went to last time, it was beautiful just like always. We planned ahead this time and brought our extra sleeping back for some cushion. We both slept MUCH better.

Oh and we roasted GIANT marshmallows. I highly recommend these puppies.

Since then we've done a lot of school and homework. Grant's teachers are trying to kick his fanny, accounting does not sound like a fun major to me. So much reading. But Grant is a stinkin hard worker so he's doing awesome... LAST SEMESTER BABE!!

We've spent a lot of time with our lovely friends Bridger and Jordan, we even played another round of Quelf, (remember this game) and laughed our heads off like usual.

It's always joyful being back in Provo, only this time it's slightly bittersweet. I'm noticing everything is my last! My last fall semester on campus, meaning no more beautiful changing leaves. My last semester living in UT with Grant. My last fall in UT. My soon to be last winter in UT, although that isn't really all that sad for me.

For those of you who didn't know, Grant is moving to Dallas in December to start up a pest control company. I, however have one more semester left at BYU so I have to stay behind. Yup, 4 months apart. It will be worth it we know, but still sad. In April I will giddily join him in Dallas and we will make a little life for ourselves there. Woot!

On a side note... we're always looking for people who need or want a summer job to come sell with us. Let me know if you're interested!

Life is good for the Romneys here in Utah!

She's back

After a LONG 1.5 years, this little peach is back and you better believe I'm so excited to see her!

Dear Caitlin,
You have been missed dearly. I will give you a giant hug when I see you.

Reunited will feel so good....

Suckas LOVE YA!