33 weeks~

Seven more to go! We have been busy since Saturday trying to keep Gracie's room from looking like Babies R' Us blew up. I am ready to start washing all the clothes, bedding, and blankets so they are ready for her. I am starting to get a little more tired by the end of the day, and am no longer able to stay on my feet for all my classes, which I feel bad about...this week is Spirit Week at school, complete with dress-up days (hence the picture in the CAL gear and pom poms, it was "Sports Fan Day"). We had an appointment today...I took off the sports gear for the doc...and he informed me this was my last "boring appointment" that after today we will be checking on baby, talking about delivery, etc. Wow...to say it has gone by so fast would be an understatement. I just can't wait to see what she looks like and to hold her. I will add pictures of her room as soon as we finish getting all this stuff put away!

Family Baby Shower

We are so blessed to have had another baby shower yesterday for family, hosted by Tim's Aunt Leslie and cousin Kendal. Unfortunately, most of our family on both sides live out of town and couldn't make it, but we had an amazing afternoon. Leslie made "Chicken Diapers" (puff pastry stuffed with chicken, herbed cheeses, and onions), salad, fruit, asparagus, and a dessert bar.

We played games and visited and had a great time! I can't wait for Gracie to get here to meet all her family...near and far~~

January

The time seems to be flying by. I have already been back at school for two full weeks and only have about 8 more to go (if everything stays normal...). I have spent the last two weeks adding Science to my teaching schedule, one of our core teachers went on a missions trip to Africa and the other teacher and I each picked up an extra subject. I have to admit, teaching Science for a couple weeks was welcomed by me, considering I teach English (which I love) but let's face it, Science is way more fun! With the extra class came more kids, they were split in two groups instead of our normal three, so instead of a max of 20 kids, I had 28...ouch. I deeply value the small class size for both the benefit of myself as well as the kids! We will resume as usual tomorrow...thank you!

We are now 32 weeks into this pregnancy as of tomorrow, and it couldn't be going better. I do feel aches and pains, but it is what's to be expected at this point. The fact that the baby is nearly 4 pounds and over 16 inches long is amazing to me, and I feel her all the time, which is even more amazing. I had an appointment last week and it wasn't so easy to get a good reading on her heartbeat, so the Medical Assistant wanted the Dr. to check it again, since it seemed very low. That was a long 10 minutes...but when he came in he wanted to do an ultrasound (he likes them better than the doppler machine), and I was happy because I didn't think we would get to "see" her again until the day she is born! He checked her heart and everything was fine, heartbeat was strong (said the doppler isn't as accurate once they are moving quite a bit) and he even checked to make sure "she is still a girl" (in Tim's words). We saw her face looking at the screen, nothing like 3 or 4D I am sure, but it was still her face...and then he pointed out her hand by her face and she started to move it like she was waving to us! It was most precious :) We can't wait to meet her...just 8 more weeks!

We are very excited to be blessed with two baby showers in the next few weeks, one for family, hosted by Tim's aunt and cousin (this weekend), and a smaller one for close friends on Feb 7, hosted by my good friend Nicole. I am so thankful to them for offering to do them for me and I know they are doing a great job with planning, they will be a lot of fun!