Goodbye 2010!

I can't believe that 2010 is over! What a great year it was... filled with family, friends, work, and fun! Here are some highlights from this year in no particular order.

~ Watching Rachel hit so many milestones- rolling over, sitting, crawling, walking, talking!

~ Celebrating the beginning of 2010 at our home with friends

~ Meeting new friends from church

~ Celebrating the Fourth of July at the top of a mountain!

~ Taking a road trip with my mom and Rachel to Indiana to see family

~ Taking a vacation with my husband while my parents watched Rachel

~ Paying off Dustin's car!

~ Rachel's 1st birthday

~ Celebrating 5 years of marriage to an awesome guy!

~ Graduating from Grad School

~ Seeing friends become parents

~ Learning that more friends will become parents in 2011!

~ Dedicating Rachel at church

~ Watching my brother-in-law get married

~ Helping throw a wedding shower for my new sister-in-law

~ Meeting my niece!

And some things that I'd like to accomplish in 2011... not resolutions because those don't usually work out so well...

~ Take pictures of adults! (you'd think Rachel lives by herself!)

~ Become a couponing queen- any tips will be gladly accepted- anyone else care to take this on with me?

~ Keep up with birthday/holiday cards (oops, already late on one of those!)

~ Spend more time with friends

~ Try different foods

~ Have even more fun than last year with Dustin and Rachel!

Nieter Christmas

On Monday after Christmas, we loaded back up in the car and headed up to Chesapeake for Christmas with the Nieter side of the family. They had also gotten nailed with snow (one of the worst snowstorms in history there- 14 inches! Don't laugh all you northerners- we're not used to that here!)

The newest member of the Nieter clan- Allison "Alli" Marie! She decided to make things interesting and make her grand (forced) arrival on December 21st! They spent their first night at home Christmas Eve- what a great gift. Everyone is doing well, and she is an awesome baby- rarely fussy and likes her sleep!

Poppy and Rachel (and the singing/dancing snowman)! I don't know how that toy is still working- between Rachel AND Blake starting and stopping at least 20 times a day- and the rest of us resisting the urge to throw it out the window! They loved dancing with it though, and THAT was really cute to see.

Playing with the new toys with Mimi.

I took my new iPad from my classroom to show Blake some of the cool apps I have. Brent is slightly jealous! I am loving Blake being the same age as my students- so fun to show him some stuff I do in my classroom.

Blake's new toy from us! He was always wanting to use our cameras, so we got him one of his own (not great quality or anything, but the picture shows up on the back, which is all he really cares about)

The two buddies ran down the hallway constantly. All of the sudden we wouldn't see them, but hear giggling, and there they were, back by the laundry room!

What can I say?

Since Blake's life has been turned upside-down recently, we decided to take him out, just the three of us for an afternoon at Chuck-E-Cheese's. Brent and Kim took Alli to the doctor for a check-up and Mimi and Poppy had Rachel to themselves for a while- all were happy!

I still don't know who had more fun with this game!

I got to have some fun playing games too!

Such a great little guy!

My parents just got finished adding a sun room on to the back of their house. It turned out great! It warmed up in there by the afternoons, so Blake took Rachel out there with some toys and they played together. (I love how Blake is cuddling with the doll!) There was no use trying to keep the glass clean, between the kids and the dogs... (Millie had a few incidents of running into the glass!)

Rachel and Zoe kissing each other through the glass!

Playing together again... Rachel really was pushing Blake some!

Snow!

Here are a few pictures of the crazy amount of snow in Chesapeake!

Blake was trying to comfort Rachel. She was a little upset that she could not move AT ALL! The snow was up to the top of her legs and if she tried to move she just fell over- poor girl!

The guys out with the kids. (The ladies were in the warm sun room with Alli!) This is the sled that Brent and I used to sled in when we lived in Indiana. I remember sitting with Brent and being pulled by dad the same way our kids are in it here!

McCollum Christmas

Christmas with the McCollum side of the family was split up into a few different sessions this year. Dustin's parents came up to Virginia on Wednesday night after Dad got off of work. They spent Thursday with us (which I was horribly sick for), and half of Friday. Then they went to North Carolina to spend Christmas Eve with some other family members. On Christmas day, after our Christmas morning at home, we met up with everyone in Madison for lunch, then headed to Winston-Salem for dinner, then down to South Carolina for another day with Dustin's parents, Benji and Katie. It was a packed day, but great to spend time with family.

When the McCollum's came up to Virginia, they brought up one of Rachel's presents with them. (We were not sure how much room we would have in the car traveling back since we were heading to the Nieter side directly from SC). Rachel absolutely loves her bumble bee car!

I was excited to start Christmas off with snow on the ground, and did not expect it to stay with us all the way to South Carolina! The roads were not too bad, but were getting a little slushy towards Christmas night.

Rachel took the pens out of Uncle Tommy's pocket!

Uncle Tommy and Uncle Danny helping Rachel with her gifts. (I think they had just as good a time as she did!)

Papa Puckett in Winston-Salem. Rachel went right up to him and sat on his lap and just talked to him! She loves the men in her life!

Baby Jake, Dustin's cousin, was born in November. He is such a cutie, and very easy-going. He was content the whole time we were visiting.

The family portrait! Quite a story behind this shot... the original plan was to take one outside, but the snow prevented that from happening! Then we tried to find outfits that coordinated (oops, Rachel didn't have any black, white, or gray), then had to clear out the living room so we could have room to take the picture, then we all had to be looking at the camera. We ended up setting Dustin's phone by the camera, then had Benji call it so it would light up and make noise so Rachel would look at it. Still didn't work out as well as we had hoped, but this was as good as it was going to get!)

It's amazing the giggles that will come about from tip-toe-running towards someone! (Oh yeah, Rachel laughed too!)

Aunt Katie helping Rachel put on her new shoes.

I have a feeling Rachel will be our little Miss Priss. She loves dressing up already...

and playing with her dolls!

First Christmas at home!

This year was the first year that we have spent Christmas morning at home in our own home. It was great to go to our church's Christmas Eve service and spend some time with our friends and just be together.

Rachel on Christmas Eve in front of our tree.

I loved coming home Christmas Eve, putting Rachel to bed, then filling the living room with her gifts and preparing for the morning. Christmas morning was great! We woke up to snow on the ground, the reading of the Christmas Story and the traditional sausage balls for breakfast!

Rachel in her Christmas pajama's checking out the snow!

Our living room!

Rachel loves her new fold-out couch! This year was great since she was actually coherent, unlike last year when she was 2 1/2 months old and slept through everything.

Santa!

I learned about where the real Santa is this year. There is a history museum in Downtown Roanoke that has a setup of Santa's fantasy land. The museum is open all day, but Santa sits down with kids about 5 times a day. He is awesome! He pulled out his guitar and sang songs, read a story, and just talked with the kids. He even pulled out his nice list and added the new kids from this year. After the program, he took his time with each child and let the parents take pictures. (So much nicer than the whole mall insanity!)

Rachel and Santa

Checking out fantasy land before heading in for the program.

She LOVED the music!

Getting ready to sing with all the kids!

Telling his story

He played cow bells too!

I highly recommend that if you live in the Roanoke area and want to see Santa, that you head downtown! What a great experience!

Graduation!

So this is what I have been looking forward to for the past 2 1/2 years! I was not sure if I would go to graduation or not, since I had only actually been on Radford's campus two times prior to graduation! After talking to some others who had been through the program, I decided to attend the hooding ceremony that was specifically for the graduate program graduates. It was a nice, smaller ceremony with just the 44 of us graduates and our professors. No huge speeches, no crazy stunts, just half an hour of complete respect for the others who have undergone the same insane life for the past few years. It was also great to see my classmates that I have only seen on the tv screen each semester!

They had just announced us graduates!

Getting hooded by my advisor, Dr. Kathy Hoover!

My wonderful husband and little girl!

Our awesome friends, Mike and Amanda, made the trip to see me graduate then have dinner with us!

Mom and Dad were able to come too!

Dustin's mom was able to come up too, but I don't have any pictures with her! Ahh!

The past 3 1/2 years...

This past Friday was a day that I have looked forward to for the past 2 1/2 years. (I will get to that day in my next post!) It all started when we moved to Roanoke in 2008. Dustin had landed a great job and I just knew that I would be able to find a job no problem-after all, I was certified k-6, and schools always need elementary teachers. (This was probably the beginning of the job crisis, which I did not realize at the time.) So after putting my application out to every school system within an hour of here, I was sure that it was just a matter of time until my phone started ringing off the hook. Well, that never happened. I ended up getting a job at Honey Tree Early Learning Center just a few miles away from our house. I was offered the preschool teacher position, which I though would be a dream. It ended up not being that at all. I knew that I wanted to be in the school system so I began making the school systems phones ring off the hook. Every day during my lunch hour I would call a handful of systems and every day it was the same conversation.

"No, no openings at this time, we'll keep you in mind. Your certification is---"

"k-6"

"No special ed?"

"No"

"Hmm, OK"

So after about a month of that, I decided to get a certification in Special Education. I took the intro class through University of Phoenix. I took a leap of faith and put my 2 weeks notice in at Honey Tree. Within those 2 weeks, I got a call from Roanoke County asking me to do a long term sub job for a special ed teacher who was out on maternity leave. "Yes!" (This happened at Thanksgiving) For the rest of that school year I worked nearly every day as a substitute, most of which was long-term. It just so happened that a supervisor of mine also happened to be in charge of the preschool program for the county. I talked with her one day in the hall and happened to mention that I had preschool experience. She just happened to have 2 preschool openings for the following school year! The only problem was that within 3 years I would have to have certification in Early Childhood Special Education. No Problem!

That Fall, I began my job as well as my curriculum at Radford. I was excited to find the program at Radford since they offered classes at a distance so I would not have to travel for every class. My advisor told me that I could either take classes to get my certification, or take 4 extra classes and receive my Masters degree. I decided to just go for it! So I took 2 classes each semester, including 2 classes over the summer the past 2 summers. (I did take a semester off after having Rachel and only 1 class this past semester)

It is amazing to me that 3 1/2 years ago we moved here and I had no clue what was in store. A year of not having a job, then 2 1/2 years of having a job and taking classes, and having a baby has shown me just how amazing God is. We never know what He has in store for us, and I tell people that He laughs when I tell Him my plans! Through all the trials, I would not change this time at all.

Thank you to all the support and prayers that have been sent my way. I could not have done it without you all. Especially Dustin! I know it was not easy on him when I was gone multiple nights a week, and when I was at home, I was often consumed by schoolwork. We have eaten our share of frozen pizzas and other frozen meals, that's for sure! So thank you, Dustin for being my rock!

Snow Day!

Well, Christmas Break started early for us this year! We got just enough snow/sleet to cancel school for today. Since the roads will be nasty, we've already been cancelled for tomorrow! So we were excited to spend the day at home. Zoe was a little confused to have us home all day, but I think she liked it!

She is such a pretty and gentle dog- we love her! (Even if we did leave her off the Christmas card this year-oops!)

She's already got the snow day look down... pj's and crazy hair!

This is how Rachel uses her fork now... well, she has the concept down at least!

Ready to go play in the snow!

She likes it a little better than last year!

She reminded us of A Christmas Story at times today. A mix between the pink nightmare and poor Randy not being able to put his arms down. I have to admit we did laugh a bit at her expense. She fell on the floor and could not get up! She finally rolled herself onto her tummy, but couldn't bend her knees to stand up again. Poor girl!

Christmas Dress Photo Shoot

Here are a few of the shots that we got of Rachel in her Christmas dress tonight. We thought it would be easier to take pictures of her since she can hold herself up this year... we weren't really counting on her walking off set! I had to keep re-setting her! A few games of peek-a-boo and putting the dog out of sight helped some. She may be a bit of a show-off in front of the camera...