A Kicker!

So, as you know we're having twins! Jenn went to the doctor this past week for a check up. As her doctor was listening to the amazingly loud heart beats, she had to start her count over several times due to a kicker. One of the babies is apparently a feisty little guy (or gal). If this is a foreshadowing of our near future, then watch out world!

In love,

the Rileys

Donations needed!

My classroom is still, after a year of gathering books, in desperate need of quality literature. I have created a project on donorschoose.com to aid in the growth of my classroom library. Your donations will help my students experience literature at different levels and of different genres and topics.

Here's the link...

http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=351708&sharebar=true

Thanks!

Pregnancy Pictures

We have a friend in Kyle, that is a talented photographer. She wanted to take pregnancy pictures of Jenn to build her portfolio. So here are three of them.

Family

Being out here can be rough. Luckily we have extended our family while out here. We have three God children: Ashleigh, Angelina, and Antonio. Those three are also our "nieces and nephews". These three are the children of Tonie, our "sister". She also has Kayla who is another "niece". We love having "family" out here.

Since we are so far from biological family, it is nice to hear "Uncle Matt" or "Auntie Jenn".

Antonio is in Kindergarten this year, Angelina is in 1st (in Jenn's class), Ashleigh in 8th, and Kayla is a senior. I have posted pictures of Antonio (cute boy in the red stocking hat) and Angelina (cute girl in the purple coat).

We also have a church family. I have also posted pictures of some of those people.

Winter has come

Well...Winter has come. -30 degree mornings and night with -7 degree days. Our dogs love the snow. I guess that makes sense, seeing as how labs are winter dogs.

Today at school was a bit rough. I was accused by a student of being a racist teacher after putting his 3rd check mark next to his name on the board. I was quick to respond that I can't be racist...if I was I would not have chosen to

work at Little Wound and Gallegos. Both are elementary schools that no white children. I have NEVER taught a white child, only Mexican and Indian.

Down below are some recent pictures of our lives.

Surprise

We're having twins! We went to the doctor this past week, and found out that either Jenn has three heart beats or we're having twins! They are both strong beating hearts. This adds a bit of a kink to our original plan, but adds much excitement to our future.

Our boys

Today was a bit rough in the classroom. However,I got to play with our new camera.

I took a ton of pictures of our dogs. (and a few rez dogs) The black and chocolate labs are our dogs Ryne and George (respectively). The kind of ugly multi-color dog is a rez dog, and the dark-colored dog, with babies, is Girl.

The other night, Jenn and I were walking to Kyle Grocery and Girl was walking with us, until she walked into the road and was hit by a car. We rushed her to the hospital (an hour and a half away in Rapid City). She is ok, but has a slight limp.

Oh, the multitude of dogs.

Pow Wow

Many of you have requested to see pictures and hear stories about our lives here in South Dakota, and specifically on the Pine ridge Indian Reservation. To answer those requests I have created this blog. I am not a big "blogger", but I will attempt to do my best at keeping this as up-to-date as possible.

Today's blog is about our Back to School Wacipi (Pow-Wow). This is an event that involves the entire community of Little Wound School (K-12). The pow-wow is a time to honor and to celebrate a new year. Many of our students dance, drum, and sing at the pow-wow. We also honor many outstanding students at this time. Teachers, especially new teachers, are honored as well.

I have included some pictures that were taken by our friend Brittany. We just

bought a new camera so we should be adding some quality pictures soon. For now, though, we will be

displaying Birttany's.