Christmas Tree!

I really wanted to make my tree match our front room this year and have had so much fun making my own ornaments this week! Yellow and black are not exactly the most popular colors for decorating a tree, but I love it! :)

She is very excited for Christmas :)

Thanksgiving 2011

My handsome man on Thanksgiving!

I love that Brent and Ann had smiles on their faces when I tried to surprise them with a picture! Apparently they were busy laughing at me because I put a bowl of gluten in the gluten free area... whoops!

My sister-in-laws!

Here is the belly on Thanksgiving! I was 38 weeks and 1 day!

My Thanksgiving pies!!

Oh how I love this man!

Grateful

So life has been so crazy and busy lately I feel like I need to post, so that I can look back around remember how I was feeling at this point in my life. Today we are 37 weeks. As we learning in our childbirth preparation class, it this point, this little bundle of joy would be considered full term! I absolutely cannot believe it! The whole first half of the pregnancy seemed to drag so slow, and now I feel like each week just goes flying by!

As we are preparing for her, it has really been neat to reflect on all that I am grateful for! I love November, and reminding my kids about how much we have to be grateful for during this holiday season!

I am so grateful for my incredible husband. There is a first grade mom that comes in and volunteers a ton every week, and today one of my team teachers told me that the other day she said how much she would die to have my husband for just one day. Brent is so good to me. I am so lucky. He is so good to come and help me at school all the time. Every time he comes and helps, I always get the comment, "Oh I can tell you are newlyweds, that will wear off soon." But I know that it won't. He is such a genuine person and is always doing things for others, especially me. I love knowing that even when we have been married for 30 years, that he would still come and help with class parties, and help the PTA stuff sack lunches for our Halloween carnival.

Brent's grandma recently had a pretty severe stroke and it made me fall in love with him all over again as I sat and watched him spoon feed her, especially when she won't eat for hardly anyone else. He is so compassionate and I am so excited to see him as a father. He is already so protective of our little girl, and I know it hasn't even started yet!

A coworker of mine has a daughter that is pregnant as well, and is due only a few days after me. As I hear about her struggles of currently being in a separation, I am constantly reminded of how lucky I am. No matter how tired he is, he is is always willing to rub my feet and cater to my every need. I have gotten quite spoiled as he has become my security blanket, and I rely on him for so much. I am truly lucky to be married to my best friend. He have such a blast together, and have a good time no matter where we are because we are together.

I am so grateful for the opportunity to become a mother. I cannot possibly imagine how much my life is going to change in the next month. I already feel like I know her, and am so excited to get see the little girl she will become.

I am so grateful for how blessed we are to have jobs, and the means to support our growing family. These days it is truly a blessing.

I am so grateful for family. They are always there for us, no matter what.

I am so grateful for Lole. Although this year she has had some odd health issues and really been a pain, I am grateful for the happiness she brings. It is so nice to be able to be greeted everyday by someone who just loves you so much! Sometimes I think it would be easier if I didn't love her so much. :)

I am so grateful for my kids. They are so excited to share everything with me. They love to come and rub and hug my belly. They want to bring me in every leaf and acorn they find at recess. They tell me I am the best teacher ever (haha I know they are just trying to make me happy, but I TOTALLY appreciate the effort). They make me laugh.

I really am so lucky and have so much to be grateful for. I am so excited for this new adventure and can't wait to look back a year from now to see how my life has changed!

Laughed til I Cried...

So on Fridays we get all of our first graders together for music time right before it is time to home. This is always fun and quite crazy with singing, dancing, and 70+ six and seven year olds. Well today we were practicing our songs for the Christmas program and then the kids were belting out "Must be Santa," when the announcements came on. They were announcing the winners from the weekly drawing. So, as you can imagine, nothing quite quiets up a group of kids like prizes.

So it goes from being crazy noisy to silent within a matter of seconds. A couple seconds later a little girl farted. Now let me just tell you that as a teacher, it is important to not laugh at these moments. I am usually really good about keeping a straight face, but it was just so quiet and she was just so loud that I just lost it. When the kids saw me laughing they started laughing, which made me laugh more. Tears started coming and I had to turn around so the kids would stop laughing.

I finally got my giggling under control and was feeling so bad for laughing at this poor first grader who was probably already embarrassed. I walked my kids back to class and as we were lining up to go home, one of my kids says to me (so sweetly), "It's ok Mrs. Keller, when my mom was pregnant she farted a lot too."

Well, that came back to bite me! HAHAHA! That is when I realized that my kids thought I was laughing because I did it!! So that is when my kids started telling me how funny it was that I farted. I quickly corrected them, but thought it was so funny! Now I have an even bigger reason not to laugh when that happens next time, so I don't get blamed!! :)

Day in the life of a teacher

So one of my kids has never turned in his homework before. He comes in today telling me that his mom throws his homework away so that is why he doesn't have it. I asked him if I needed to call his mom and tell her not to throw it away. He just kinda stared at me like... Uhh... I dunno..... So before he leaves for the day I pinned a note on his shirt (this works fabulously in first grade since they can't read upside down, and this they will keep it on).

Here is what the note said:

I have never turned in my homework and today I told my teacher that my mom throws away my homework so I can't do it. Please help me get my homework done and turned in every Monday. Thank you!

About 10 minutes after school gets out his mom comes in with him about the note. She tells me that she didn't know he had ever gotten homework because she has never seen it and that he always tells her he doesn't have any. I proceed to give her a new one for the week and explain my homework packet. When I asked the student if he still had his new folder I gave him yesterday in his backpack (because he lost his) he didn't know, so we checked.

There in his backpack was his new folder with this week's homework, his old homework folder with a previous week's homework, along with a zillion other papers I have sent home. Needless to say, I think she felt like an idiot. Oh and did I mention that this was the same parent that I had a big confrontation with at the beginning of the year? I am sure glad I go through the effort to keep my parents informed of everything with a calendar, and a note attached to their homework every week :)

If you are reading this and have a child in elementary school - please I am begging you -CHECK THEiR BACKPACK!!! :)

***comic relief*** watching this student entertain himself in the mirror for like 30 minutes while his mom stayed and talked to me :) they call him "shiny object," haha I am glad this student and I have something in common!

Yellowstone!

Lots more pictures to post from our trip this weekend, but here are just a few for now! We only have taken like 500 so far... haha :)

Special Needs

So on Sunday we had the Special Needs Mutual come and do a program for our sacrament meeting at church. I feel like if I don't write down how it made me feel, that I may forget. I appologize ahead of time if this post bores you. This blog is the best journal I have and I really want to remember this experience!

I don't think I have ever felt the spirit like I did that day. I love my job and working with kids, but it really made me realize why Special Education was always what I wanted and thought I would do with my career.

They started the program by singing In This Very Room. This message of this song is basically that Jesus is in this very room. I cannot express how true that statement was. I know that each and every one of those special needs mutual had such an amazing spirit in heaven that they were sent here to be protected. They are truly celestial beings.

Throughout the program they had the leaders speak a little, a parent spoke about her daughter, had special musical numbers, and a few members of the group gave talks. They all had different ailments and special needs. There were those that couldn't walk, talk, hear, or see among others. I loved to hear their testimonies in both words and song.

One particular man got up and spoke about how he had meningitis as a child and couldn't see well out of one eye, had a hard time walking, and couldn't hear. He told a story about how he felt the spirit to sing Silent Night with the choir. He mentioned how you can't understand him so when he sings it just sounds like loud noise. The choir director was clearly upset and looked around to find out who was making that loud noise. When she discovered it was him she smiled, nodded, and continued directing the song. I truly understood how that woman felt when she realized who was making that noise. When they got up to sing their musical selections it didn't sound how people would describe as "beautiful." There were many who were singing but clearly not singing the words. But it was one of the most beautiful things I have ever heard.

Clayton and Amy came up for the weekend and came to church with me and the three of us sat on the back row of the congregation and were bawling by the end of the program. I know with every bit of my heart that each and every one of them is an angel here on earth to teach us and make us better. They have already proven themselves and are already celestial. Being able to experience that program that day was such an incredible reminder of what is truly important in life.