Busy, busy time....

We have been so busy that I haven't updated in the blog in forever. Obviously the big news around here is that Little Man will be here in less than 2 days. To say we are excited is an understatement. His room is ready with everything hung up except for 4-5 baseball cards of John's that I am matting and framing. We also have one wall ready to go for when Grandma comes down. We're thinking Bevo and Smokey...gotta have some UT in there somehow, someway.
I am officially on maternity leave. I started Friday at 4:00 but didn't leave school till 5:30. One thing about me as a teacher is that when it comes to my lessons I am overly prepared so getting ready to be out for 8 weeks was nerve wracking but luckily I work with 2 awesome 6th grade teachers and my department is wonderful so I'm not worried. It was strange walking out of there on Friday knowing I wouldn't be back till the end of March. Of course, I'll go up and visit once or twice but March is the earliest that this would happen. We have to wait till cold & flu season is over before I'll even think about taking the baby up to school.
Mollie is getting excited about her "Bubba" getting here. She knows how many days are left and where his room is but I know the truth of what is going on hasn't hit her yet and that's okay. However, we are still working on her potty training and are proud to say that she has gone potty 3 times so far! She loves how excited we get when she goes, and the candy she gets after wards, so hopefully after he gets here she won't get off course.
She's doing so well in school. She can count to 20 in English and Spanish, count to 10 on her hands, knows her left from her right, is speaking in 4-5 word sentences and loves to take her crayons and quiz me or John on the colors. Of course if we get it right, we get praise from her. It's so cute!
John's spring has started to really gear up. He is full-on with girls and boys basketball and soccer and also has baseball, softball and track about to start practicing. The nice thing with him being at Dickinson is that they don't have wrestling so we get him home a little bit more during the week and weekends then we would have had he still been at Brook. He'll be taking this week off with me and the baby since I'll be in the hospital till Friday but will go back next week. At that time, since I won't be able to drive, my mom and John will be shuttling Mollie to and from daycare so we can keep her in her routine as much as possible.
Well, that's all for now but no worries. Come Tuesday pictures and a name will be posted. Of course since my c-section isn't scheduled till noon it may be awhile but we are excited to meet the newest member of our family. Love to all!

Super Busy

We have been so busy with finishing up the semester at school, John's been on jury duty, getting the baby's room together, and of course, Mollie running around with more energy than she knows what to do with. Finally on Sunday night we decided it was time to go look at some Christmas lights. Mollie's really into the lights this year and finding Santa so this year was going to be fun. We have a tradition that we make hot chocolate for me and John, Mollie gets chocolate milk and we put her in her PJ's and we ride around. Here is a picture of little miss right before we left. Like her shoes???

LIttle Man at 30 weeks

His foot

The 4 chambers of his heart. (it's in the middle of the picture)

His cutie face. Look at those chunky cheeks!!

We went in for an ultrasound today and everything is looking really good! Little man is moving around a lot and loves to stretch out which is fine for him but uncomfortable for me. However, he's not like Mollie was during this stage as I don't have a foot up in my ribs constantly and he also is pretty decent at night so I'm sleeping better than I did with Mollie at this stage in my pregnancy. We got some good pictures and the technician and my doctor said he's looking good.

Hard Day To Be A Teacher

Even though I wasn't at school today (I was at a conference in Houston) my heart was at Space Center more than it ever has been before. This morning I saw on the news that a fire had broken out at a local apartment complex and mentioned to John that I thought the kids that lived there went to SCIS and how I hoped everyone was okay. Well, it wasn't. I found out later from a
co-worker that it was possible that one of her students had perished in the fire along with a younger brother. It wasn't until this afternoon that she texted me and told me that it was indeed her student and they were about to tell the kids.
Don't think that I didn't want to get in my car and go to school so that my kids could see me and know that I was there for them. However, our principal had been at the conference with us before she went back to SCIS and specifically told me and my other co-worker to stay at the conference but to be prepared to come in tomorrow if she needed us there. I don't think it really hit me until I got home and saw it on the news. Granted I knew what was going on but I was in the little bubble of the conference and really hadn't had time to think about what my co-workers and students were going through until I got home. Then the tears started pouring. I felt so bad that I couldn't be there today to support my kids and my wonderful co-workers. After speaking to my principal she told us that she still wanted us to go on back to the conference tomorrow but to be prepared for Monday. Our kids are okay and we have to be strong for them.
I am praying with a heavy heart tonight for my co-workers/friends that taught the wonderful young lady that God needed with him and also for my students. Also, don't think that every time I look at Mollie and feel little man kicking/moving around that I don't think about the mother of these two wonderful children and hope and pray she can find comfort in knowing that they are in a better place.

It's Candy TIME!!

Well we can definetely say that Mollie has trick-or-treating down this year! She had so much fun last night and got a ton of candy. We stayed in our neighborhood and were out for about 2 hours. My parents came over last night to hand out candy at our house so John and I both could go with Mollie. The first few houses she was a little shy but when she started realizing that she was getting candy at houses with their front porch lights on, she was one happy little girl. Since she was a "scaredy cat," John would have her tell the people what a scaredy cat says. (BTW: it says "meow" then "boo!") It's so stinkin cute!
Our weekend was nice and slow since John's game was on Thursday so Friday night we had family time, Saturday I worked in little man's room and John worked in Mollie's play room and Mollie did who knows what around the house. That evening we went to Victoria's school carnival and then to our friends Stephanie and Dale's house. Everything was going really well until John went running outside with Mollie because, poor thing, was throwing up. We ended up taking her home and she was up and down till about 2 the next morning sick. However, she must have known what yesterday was as she jumped outta bed like nothing was wrong. I felt sure that trick-or-treating would not be something we would be doing last night but she proved us wrong. Anyways, she had a wonderful time and it was so neat to see her start understanding what's going on. Who knows what next year is going to be like????

Checking out the treasure chest our neighbors had.
Mollie and Carol, her babysitter. Carol surprised Mollie and came over for a bit!

Mollie surprising Pappy at our house. We had to go back to our house to unload before we kept on.

Mollie taking the easy way and riding in her wagon. We've taken off the ears at this point.

Daddy and Mollie heading up for more candy.

Me and my girl going to our next destination

Getting ready to head out.

Daddy doing Mollie's make-up.

Zoo Time

Last weekend we made our annual trek up to Boo at the Zoo. This is a really fun event they host and it's usually not too hot. However, last weekend wasn't that cool. In fact, you will notice that we are all in shorts. Who would've thought that 2 weeks before Halloween we would still be wearing shorts on a regular basis? Even though, Mollie had fun and that's all that mattered. Mollie getting her "Tatzoo"
Chillin in her wagon ready to see the sights.

Waiting in line for the carousel with Mr Jason and Chloe and Christian. Jason is to John's right.

Trying to see how much she can spread her arms compared to an eagles wings.

Mollie and Daddy looking at the otters. She loves this ever year!

Me and my girl at the elephant exhibit.

New things happening around here

We have been so busy (plus a broke camera) that I don't even want to know how long it's been since I've updated the blog. However, things are going very well around here. Last Friday was a big day for Mollie as we decided to break her of the Binky (aka pacifier) and she is doing so well! She's asked for it a few times but we just tell her it went bye-bye and she's good. We have also started potty training. It really helps that they work on it at school so she's getting it around the clock. She's in pull-ups now and loves to go sit on the potty. Unfortunately, she goes right for the toilet paper and likes to throw it into the toilet before she's even tried but it's a start.
John's football team is doing really well. They have only lost 1 game in district and even that one was a close one. We have 4 games left and then play-offs start and his volleyball team is doing well also. He's pretty busy with Junior High football once, maybe twice, a week then JV/Freshman football on Thursdays and Varsity football on Friday nights. However, he's not nearly as busy as he was at his old school.