Tyson's First Easter

We celebrated Tyson's first Easter at the Jensen's this year.  It was a beautiful day as we were surrounded by our family and Brian's family.  The kids had an Easter Egg hunt in the front yard, and we all sat in the back yard and soaked in the sun.

Because it was Tyson's first Easter, we had to have him get his picture taken with the Easter bunny.  We were a little nervous of handing our son over to a person in a scary bunny costume for fear he would scream but it was a pleasant experience. Tyson fell asleep in line, rather than waking him up, we decided to let him sleep.  So here you have it, a sleeping Tyson with the Easter bunny!

My brother also had an Easter Bunny/Egg Hunt up by his Emerald City Smoothie so Tyson and I went up to support my brother and enjoy the festivities.  Tyson got his picture taken with his cousin Ava with another Easter Bunny while he was there.  This Easter Bunny experience was not as successful as the other.

Tyson and Ava's Baptism

Tyson was Baptized on April 15th at Trinity Lutheran Church in Enumclaw.  I know most churches, even the one Adam and I attend (when we go), baptize when the baptizee (sp?) is able to choose but we really wanted Tyson to be baptized as a baby.

I was baptized at Trinity Lutheran, as were all my siblings.  We grew up there and even got confirmed there.   We attended church every Sunday but when we got older, my parents stopped taking us because they wanted us to choose where we wanted to attend church.  I found a great non denominational church in Sumner that I absolutely love.  The pastor is extremely engaging and I found myself really looking forward to going to church every Sunday, it's also much closer than Enumclaw.

My Grandma Hahto was a member at Trinity until she passed in January.  My parents also were married there.  I wish my Grandma Haugen and Grandma Hahto who are both Lutheran could have been there for Tyson's special day, but I know they were watching from Heaven.

Tyson shared his day with his cousin Ava.  It was a beautiful day and Tyson was lucky enough to have 4 families as his sponsors.  They are, Brian and Melanie Jensen, BJ and Nicci Haugen, Marci Haugen, and Keri.  The church was filled with family and friends there to support Tyson and Ava. Tyson slept throughout the entire sermon, and woke for his actual baptism.  He was a perfect angel and didn't say a peep :)

We had a wonderful reception at my parent's house.  Everybody came to eat, socialize, and celebrate the baptisms.  We really appreciate the support from our family and friends.

It's Been Awhile!

If you are reading this, you can thank my Aunt Marilyn for kicking my butt back into Blogging!  It's been so long and I have so many blogs to post.  Where did I leave off?

I returned back to school on April 2nd.  I considered calling my principal on April 1st and telling him I wasn't coming back for the year as an April Fool's Joke but decided he might not think that was very funny (even though he's the coolest principal in the world).

My first day back felt like the first day of school all over again!  I was nervous and was worried the kids weren't going to like me :(  I made the decision to choose a young long term sub for my position, fresh out of college.  She was amazing and the kids LOVED her!  They called me Ms. Pries for the entire first week back.  I'm sure Ms. Pries got called Mrs. Barker for quite awhile while she was there.  Anyway, the kids were so welcoming which made me feel great!  They gave me hugs, told me they missed me, a couple of them even brought me gifts!  They made a difficult first week back well worth it and not so difficult. 

My friends and family also made me feel happy to be back.  My wonderful husband sent me flowers, as did my sisters.  My girlfriend Dianna who teaches Kindergarten brought me in some flowers and a mother of a student I had last year also sent in flowers as well as a picture frame to put a picture of Tyson in.  I feel so lucky that so many people cared about me, my classroom looked and smelled like a floral shop. 

I planned my return perfectly because after working 5 days, I was on SPRING BREAK for 9 days and back holding my baby every day :)  I look forward to ending the year with such a wonderful class.  I love my students.

Ps. I only called home twice on my first day.  Pretty good I think.