park city & salt lake city

A week before Christmas break, Ammon's family came to Utah and stayed in Park City. We went and stayed with them for the weekend. Then Ammon went again the next week to snowboard. I stayed back to teach and keep baby safe. :)

Family photo in the lodge

Outdoor, heated pool

Baby bump!!

Beard!

My sexy husband on the ski lift

 The next week we went to Salt Lake City.

Nephi's "Yup, that's cold!" face

Waiting in line to see the Christus

The longest I've ever seen his facial hair!

announcing baby girl

Wow! It sure has been a  good while since I've written in this here blog. I thought for sure I would blog over the holidays but it turns out I like spending time with family, eating goodies, sleeping, talking about baby girl, playing in the snow, and scrapbooking more than blogging. Catching up is going to be quite the endeavor. Where do I even start? I think I'll start back when I was 20 weeks along.

For those who don't know, 20 weeks is a big deal during your pregnancy because that's when you typically go in for a very important ultrasound. They measure the growth of your baby and make sure that everything looks how it should. It is also a great time to find out the gender because by then, things have grown enough that you can know the difference between boy or girl. (Assuming that the baby isn't shy.)

Here's how things played out for me:
On Sunday, November 23rd, I was officially 20 weeks along.
The next day, on Monday, November 24th, I went in for my 20 week ultrasound. I didn't take any pictures, but my sweet mother was there and she took a video! (Thank you, mom!) Here are some snippets from the video:

Waiting in the lounge

Little baby bump

Ultrasound room

Getting started

When I officially found out that I was having a little girl, I wasn't surprised or overcome with emotion.To be honest, I was more happy to find out that the baby was healthy. Before going in for my appointment, I was worried that something might be wrong with my baby. The excitement of having a girl hit me later, after I had more time to think about it. I am SO excited to have a baby girl!

The next day was the last day of school before Thanksgiving break. It was the perfect day to announce to the kids what I was having. Many of them had been waiting and waiting for this day to come.

I went to school that day with two plates full of cookies and a scratch card on top. I set them on the back table and just let the anticipation build and build as the day went on.

Then, just before the bell rang, I picked a student at random to scratch the card and tell the class what I was having. Here he is, opening the card:

The next picture is just after he read the card, announcing baby girl:

I love how some of the students are clapping and then I've got one student, who has jumped in the air with excitement. Oh those kids make me happy.

Treats!

A cute note that one of the girls wrote me

So that was how I announced baby girl to my students. To announce it to my extended family, I made cupcakes with pink frosting in the middle. They may not look that cute or fancy, but they took me all day to make. At the end of the day I was doubting whether this cutesy announcement thing was worth it. Well, when all was said and done, it was totally worth it. I loved watching my cousins get excited.

Mystery cupcakes!

My family eating the cupcakes

It's a girl!

So there you have it. We're having a little baby girl!!

And we couldn't be more excited.

Approaching 20 weeks

Tomorrow I will be 20 weeks along! Sometimes my pregnancy feels like it is going by so fast and other days I wish I was past this pregnancy thing, holding my little baby and telling him or her how much I love them. But alas, I still have quite a few more months to go.

The second trimester has been good to me. The first week or so, I was still throwing up (again, not a big deal! I didn't even feel nauseous.) However, the past few weeks have been throw-up free and for the first time in a while, I could feel hungry without feeling so faint and nauseous. I started biking and exercising more.

As for the getting bigger part... some days I love my body! I will look at it and then excitedly say to Ammon, "Babe! I'm pregnant!" Other days, I feel so fat.  I know I'm supposed to get bigger but sometimes I can't help but worry that I'll never go back to how I used to look and feel.

My circulation has been affected ever since the second trimester. The other day, I sat at the carpet with my students. My legs were crisscross for the 20 minute meeting on respecting school property. When I stood up, both legs were completely asleep. One time, I crouched down next to a student who was struggling with a problem in math. Well, this student was struggling a lot longer than I would have liked. I think I was crouched for a good 5 minutes. As time went on, I started to feel very faint. I just have to be careful with how long I bend my legs. Which is tough, because I'm a leg bender, even at the kitchen table.

My lower back aches all the time.

My heart is racing like I'm always working out, when let's face it, I never work out anymore.

I've finally got boobs! Yeah they're sensitive, but I can't help loving them when I've been as flat as a pancake my whole life.

I am definitely more emotional. The other day, Ammon and I were watching Netflix on our tablet. Ammon leaned over to grab something and bumped the tablet. The tablet came crashing down on my forehead. I grabbed above my eye in pain and before I knew it, tears were streaming down my face. It didn't even hurt that bad. Poor Ammon felt so guilty! I also totally cried during Interstellar. Matthew McConaughey was crying, so without even wanting to, I totally felt his pain (something I'm actually not very good at doing) and totally bawled with him.

My  hair is growing like crazy. In some places it's great, but in others, I'm like, "Seriously? I just shaved you!" haha.

I'm peeing all the time. Luckily, I can somehow manage to hold it in during the 8 hours I teach. But as soon as school's out... get out of my way. One day I was anxiously waiting to use the faculty bathroom when a parent was trying to talk to me about their child's math homework. I did not hesitate in telling them that I would meet with them after I used the restroom.

Pregnancy brain... what's that again? So far I think I'm doing just fine remembering things. Ammon might tell you otherwise. Okay fine, I forget some things. The biggest pb moment was when a fellow teacher turned to ask how far along I was. I completely froze! Was I 20 weeks or 40? I truly couldn't remember how far along I was. I had to tell her that I didn't know. What the weird!

 

Okay enough about pregnancy. Now onto other things.

Red Ribbon Week.
Can I just say that teaching 4th grade is the best? They are old enough that you can have serious conversations with them about drugs, but they're still so young and innocent that they will pledge with all their heart that they will "never ever do drugs-not even once!" I know the odds say that many of my students will try drugs and some of them will become addicted. But I want my students to beat the odds. So I made a BIG deal about it all week. I even recorded them on video when they placed their leaves on the tree of being drug-free.

Don't FALL for drugs. Leaf them alone!

Free pumpkins!

Making guesses. It pretty much went like this: the girls picked girl and the boys picked boy.

Halloween.
I survived.
4th graders hyped up on sugar is not as fun as I thought it would be. Just getting their attention and getting them to listen to me without touching their neighbor was a nightmare. Not to mention I had parents there watching my every move. I may or may not have lost it in front of them... nah. It wasn't that bad. I loved getting to see all their costumes and I think mine turned out pretty good. But I seriously had to go into school that day knowing that it was going to be chaotic.



"Seatbelts everyone!!"

Ms. Frizzle!

 



Ms. Frizzle costume with Liz

 

November 13th. The first snowfall of the season. It didn't stop my kids from playing soccer!

 

Teaching is still going well and I love it.

 

Monday is my 20-week ultrasound. I find out the gender and I get to see my little baby again! I pray that all is growing well.

october so far

October has been good to me. Attending General Conference with the husband. A pregnancy that is going well. Festivities with my students. Cardigan weather. Pumpkins. Fall Break. Breakfast in bed from the husband today. :)

Other things I'm looking forward to

-Another appointment on Monday. 

-Halloween because my costume is going to be amazing. (It's a surprise.) 

-Presenting at a conference in Park City with my bestie, Brianna! I can't wait to see her! I'm not entirely thrilled to present at a conference. I am extremely terrified of speaking in front of people. But at least I get free food for 2 days, a night at the Chateaux, and quality time with the girl I miss so much. 

The only thing worrying me right now is our car. It is in the shop right now and has been for over 24 hours. They still haven't called to say what's wrong. I just wanted to pass our safety and emissions test! Is that too much to ask for!? Yes... yes it is. Especially when your car is an '87 Reliant K. Sigh... please call back with some good news... please?

My first pregnancy photo! My bump looks bigger in real life. I promise I have one!

Making monsters with my students for a class party. 

Food drive bucket contest. We won 3rd place!