Celebrations and progress

First and foremost... I have some VERY exciting news..... I'm pregnant!  

Ok, but really.... I seriously did a happy dance and had a huge weight lifted off my shoulders today... my principal found me a maternity sub!! YAHOOO I really have been worried about this. But they have a girl who used to teach at our school who is getting off her mission who will sub for me Air High Five **smack** hip bump **boing** (yeah.. don't hip bump me these days, I'll win)  

And the very best part about it is that she will start on February 24th. So then I can teach her how things are run in the classroom, the kids will get used to her and I will be able to personally teach her how things go with my diabetic student.  Seriously, I have been so worried about my kiddos.  They are MY KIDDOS.  I am seriously very protective about them, I love them with my whole heart.

And in case you couldn't tell.... these pictures are from... a baby shower!! (gasp) I know... so shocking you had no idea that's what they were!!

BUT my MIL and SILs threw me a very fun and exciting baby shower. And I've concluded that baby showers are TONS better than bridal showers. Like seriously, so. much. better.

ALSO lots of progress have been made.  Are you ready to be WOOOWED?? Woody and I moved our couch out of the nursery!! Raise the roof! **woot woot**And by Woody and I, I mean WOody.  But I promise I supervised and pretended to be super duper helpful!

In case you didn't hear... I had a dream... that I had my baby and he was a puppy!!! Seriously, a puppy! And I had thoughts like these.... "well no wonder I had so much heartburn, everyone says if your baby has hair you'll have heartburn" and people were asking me for pictures and I'd think "I can't send a picture! He turned out to be a puppy he's not even cute" and people would say "Well no wonder he moved around in your belly so much!" 

So... If you've got room in your prayers this week.... pray that I have a baby and not a puppy! Ok, seriously though... I looked at my ultrasound pictures afterwards to make sure he looked like a baby.

At one point in my life... my stomach looked like Audrey's.  Not so much anymore haha. But she's such a babe. And I love her!!

Speaking of dreams... It was Martin Luther King Jr day the other day and so my kids wrote about how they would make the world a better place. Their dreams were things like:
 - take a rocket to the moon to see if it was made out of cheese (no I didn't tell him we'd already been to the moon)
- make the world a trampoline
- have a FREE day, where everything is free
- no more black friday (cuz people fight over the deals)
- give everyone a rocket so they can get places quickly

I'm officially tired of having a fat face... just saying...

These kids loved helping me open the presents!

And these ladies and gentleman are baby J's babysitters!! Who wants to bet he comes home with glitter on him?

What else do you want to know about life currently?? How about.... Today I wore these really cute brown boots that I got for Christmas and I was at school for uh... hm... 10 minutes? And they were OFF!! Now before you judge me, it was not because they were uncomfortable (I mean, they're flat) it was because I was SO STINKING HOT

Now before you judge me... again... (geez stop judging) know that I keep flip flops at school for times like these, so I was not walking around barefoot! 

Here is what progress looks like

So... we replaced the couch with a different disaster..

And the belly's progress

AND Just so you know I have made progress with my preparation I have made LOTS OF LISTS so I think I'm very prepared now ;)

Oh boy oh boy OH BOY

Well.. we're getting closer to starting our baby count down!! I've had a "oh crap! I could really have this baby at anytime" moment this weekend.  Woody's cousin had their baby at 35 weeks.. I'm only 2 weeks away from that! SO I guess it's time for us to be serious about this baby coming.....

Woody was reading about what the baby looks like and stuff at 33 weeks. (I still can't believe I'm having a baby) On one of the websites they said that this weeks activity was to "wash baby clothes and crib sheets and to put the FINISHING TOUCHES on the nursery".  (I had no idea my skin could stretch so far) Let's take a look at our nursery so far

You could say it needs some Finishing Touches.. you could also say that we need to START!! You can't see it, but a portion of our couch is in the back corner (we had to move it to fit the Christmas tree).  We still haven't bought our mattress for our crib yet, the stroller is hanging out, (is there seriously a human being inside of me??) Woody's golf clubs are in there somewhere, we have a stash of different decorations we could use that we didn't use elsewhere in the house, I have a sign that I painted before I changed my nursery colors. (7 weeks is so close... no it's really far... actually I thnk it's too close) Haha so yeah.. I guess we are little behind according to the baby website to do lists.

I did however write down a general outline of how things are run in my classroom. (What happens if I go into labor while I;m driving to Vegas... and we're in Fillmore....)  AND from now on my goal is to actually write down my lesson plans for someone else to be able to understand and to not leave my room a complete disaster. (you mean I have to push this baby out?? Of where?? Are we sure??) That way if something does happen my substitute won't feel like they've entered a tornado of some sort.

I also can't decide about what to bring to the hospital.. suggestions?? I mean really I don't want to hang out in that lovely hospital gown, (wait.. I'm still gaining weight?? for another 7  weeks?? Yeah it's a long time) but I've also heard that I won't really want to wear pants even PJ pants either.. so do I bring like a pj gown thingy? A rob thingy? hang out naked thingy? Will I want to shower there? Blow dryer? socks? laxative? I've heard I'll want that one..

I also need to buy some nursing bras, I've heard different things about what size to get.. do I get my current size? a size bigger? do I need nursing tanks? (I hope my water doesn't break at school, I hope my water doesn't break at school, I hope my water doesn't break at school, I hope..) and I need to call my insurance about a pump, and I think I need to register at the hospital? I don't know, do i? And find a pediatrician, any good suggestions for that one?

So the time is coming, and yet not coming but still coming :) Woody and I are pretty excited to meet our little man and start this new adventure, but first we have a few things to accomplish

But.. let's leave you with a happy thought

DISNEYLAND!

Christmas.... in reverse

Well I still have yet to figure out the order that pictures are placed onto blogger... and since I am officially pregnant and lazy, I shall share with you my Christmas Story in reverse..

Once upon a Sunday, the Sunday after Christmas, but before New Years...

 Shani and Chris blessed baby Jake!!

He is such a sweet baby and everybody loved passing him around while we hung out throughout our days together

I have a FABULOUS mom, and

  fabulous moms make amazing Grandmas.  

She brought up a snowman craft for us and the kiddos to do! They LOVED it! But their attention spans are no match for moms and mine... so we made more snowmen than they did ;) We win!

They day after Christmas (this picture is WAY out of order) we talked to Heidi!! We got to talk for about an hour and loved it! It was nice to be able to ask her questions about the mission... for someone who LOVES telling stories, she's not the best about keeping us in the loop while on the mission

While the big boys were out and about (I'll tell you what they were doing later.. remember this is in reverse) the kids (ya, I'm one of them) made some gingerbread houses!! Brighton was an awesome helper.  He would tell me where he wanted some frosting and then would add his decorations.

So excited to make their plain houses... .not so plain! (I really outdid myself with how descriptive that was)

We Albrights like to cheat and hot glue the houses together.  Kherrington and Brighton loved to talk about how they couldn't eat the hot glue, but they could eat the frosting!

The Saturday after Christmas the boys went four wheeling! If you can't tell by their attire, it was a little bit chilly.

Oh! Here's Christmas Day! We had a very relaxing Christmas day.. Jake didn't even get out of his PJs, lucky duck!

What a good looking family! 

All of the kids had a great Christmas.  We opened our presents up in turns...

The Wongs came up later in the day (that's why they look so put together) and were the last to open

Brighton was awake and ready in the first round of opening... He even let us sleep in until 8!! 

Baby Troy was feeling a little sick and didn't open his presents up until the afternoon.. but how cute is his sleepy hair and face??

Jake didn't do any opening.. he just snuggled and slept

In Utah, unlike Vegas, you don't have to DrEAm of White Christmases! 

Pre-present opening.. we are so cute in our morning glory

Brighton and Troy got hoola hoops from Santa.  B and Woody had to test them out.. I'm pretty sure B won!

The stockings all laid out with care... Christmas morning

And to end.. or start this Christmas tale... the tree after everyone is asleep on Christmas Eve

Because mom and dad came to Utah we were able to do Christmas Eve with Woody's family.  We went to the annual Woodruff party earlier in the day.  We got to eat some delicious food (Grandma makes AWESOME pies) and played a fun filled game of White Elephant. Woody was very pleased with what he came away with.. an omelet maker and a puzzle.  

Afterwards we went to his mom's Christmas Eve ward shindig.  Every year they act out the nativity and hand out a bag of goodies afterwards.  It is a fun tradition that Alpine started years and years ago and is a great reminder of the real meaning of Christmas.

Then we had a laid back Christmas Eve night.. just the way we like it! Kelly and I put together a Vegas puzzle that was slightly impossible, but we did it! And Kolton and Woody played some x-box, like real men ;)

It was nice to be able to do Christmas Eve with the Palmers and Christmas with the Albrights.  I love living so close to so much family!

I have LOVED every second of my two week vacation!! I have NO idea how I am going to go back to work especially since pregnancy has just gotten more and more fun.. but the good news is 

I LOVE MY KIDS!