Time to Catch Up...

Its April!!

 And I haven't blogged in over a month. Yikes!! Things have been crazy busy around here lately and I have lots to catch up on in blog land! I am officially now on Maternity leave! I finished up school a little bit early before Spring Break and its a VERY surreal feeling that I am not returning to school on Monday with everyone else. I really can't believe how fast this school year went for me this year! I had really hoped to blog more about school this this year, but as you know, that just didn't happen. Let's just say that 'it was one of those years'. With that being said, I still want to highlight some of the awesomeness that I experienced with my kiddos this year. 

Soooo this post will be a small peek into what my school year looked like...nothing like cramming 7 months into one blog post! Ha! 

This is what my classroom looked like when I was hired...

It is a BIG room...which I was VERY thankful for when I received my class list of 35 students...

And this is what it looked like after LOTS of work...

Some 'Back to School' activities early on in the school year...

Name Art!

We always spend a few weeks on 'Apples' at the beginning of the year. At the end of the unit all the kiddos bring in their own apple to chop, and we make apple crisp! Its always a yummy day!! 

We had many special guest readers for 'Read In Week' in October. 

Including my wonderful Mom!

Fall Art Project!

Halloween cookie decorating.

Halloween!

Crazy Kiddos!

In November I do a BIG unit on Gingerbread. 

It is one of my favourite units to teach!!

 To end the unit we made Gingerbread houses!

Then in December our friend Jingle the Elf decided to show up!

Students journaled about what Jingle did each day and they were SOOO excited to see what she was up to each day!

We celebrated the Winter Olympics in February and the kids enjoyed learning about some of the winter sports!

Watching the women's hockey gold medal game! Dressed all in RED! GO CANADA!!

Another favourite activity...learning about 'ing'. We made KING crowns to celebrate our learning!

Bowling trip! It always surprises me each year how many kiddos have never been bowling before!

 They LOVED it!!

Students made Leprechaun traps as a take home Science project. Every year I am impressed with the creativity!! Unfortunately we didn't catch any Leprechauns...but they did leave use some lucky charms for breakfast and lots of gold coins!

 I made some fun rainbow cupcakes for St. Patrick's Day!

 And then all of a sudden it was my very last day of school...

This is me with ALL of my grade one kiddos! 

They were a great group and I will miss finishing the year off with them!!

I was attacked with MANY group hugs throughout the day!!

And this is me heading out for my LAST supervision of the year! 

Woo hoo! Supervision sucks! Ha!

And THAT was my year!! Well a VERY brief version of it! 

Like I said before, I will miss my kiddos and the routine of being a teacher...but I am SO ready to start this next chapter of my life of being a Mommy for a few years!! Only 5 more weeks to go!!

30 Weeks!

30 Weeks!! I have been preggo for 30 weeks already!! Actually 30 weeks and 4 days to be exact...HA!

Some days it feels like its been SO much longer, and other days I just can't believe how fast it has gone. Since this blog is my 'online journal' of our lives, I thought I would complete a fun little Pregnancy Questionnaire to remember my 30 week pregnancy milestone! 

How far along: 30 weeks...only 10 more weeks!!
Baby Size: A butternut squash (17 inches, 3.1 pounds).
Weight Gain: 14 pounds so far
Maternity clothes: Pretty much all of the time! I do have a few 'non maternity' shirts/cardigans I can still wear. I am rrreally missing my regular clothes theses day tho!
Stretch marks: None yet! I use my lotions everyday!! Fingers crossed!!
Sleep:  Very hit and miss these days! I seem to wake up to change positions every few hours. My body pillow has been a life saver!

Gender: Girl!!! 
Movement: All.The.Time!! I think peanut is doing gymnastics in my tummy!!
Best moment this week: Getting the call that our crib has FINALLY arrived! Can't wait to pick it up! 
Looking forward to: Our next ultrasound on March 14, Celebrating St. Patrick's Day at school, SPRING BREAK!
Food Cravings: Croissants, Ice cream, Pop corn     Anything making you queasy or sick: Nope!
Labor Signs: Not yet thank goodness!!
 What I miss: My regular clothes, getting around easier! 
Symptoms: Back pain but just on my right side! And some lingering bronchitis symptoms...
Nursery: Starting to really come together! Now that the crib has arrived we are only waiting on the recliner/rocker we ordered. I am LOVING the colour scheme we choose!! Pics to come soon!

Belly Button in or out? In...but getting vvvery shallow! ha! Damian is rrreally hoping that it makes a POP sound soon! ha ha 
Wedding rings on or off? On! 

Mood: Tired but SUPER excited for the next 10 weeks!! 
Here's hoping the next few weeks FLY by!!!

A box full of SUNSHINE!

Someone close to me has recently been going through a tough time so I was on the hunt for something to 'brighten' their day on a recent visit. So of course I headed to my good friend PINTEREST for some inspiration! 

And I came across this...

A box full of SUNSHINE! How PERFECT!!

Original Picture link

I headed to some of my favourite stores...Target, Walmart, Michael's, and Superstore to start my search for all things YELLOW! It was surprisingly not hard to find yellow items, and I could have added a TON more food items if I had room! 

These were the items that I decided to go with:

I made a very simple basket tag using my Silhouette Cameo...

And put it all together in a large basket complete with a big yellow bow!

A BOX OF SUNSHINE TO BRIGHTEN YOUR DAY!

I was very pleased with how the basket turned out, but better yet...how easy it was to put together! And my Aunty was beyond thrilled with her 'Box full of sunshine' as it definitely brightened her day!! 

A day of LOVE!

We had a very 'low-key' Valentine's Day this year! It's surreal to think that this was our last Valentine's Day just the two of us, and next year we will be celebrating a day of LOVE with our little peanut. We can't wait!! 

We all know my LOVE for seasonal decorating, however not much got done this year for Valentine's Day, as I have been battling to stay healthy for the last month! Ssssigh...

The only portion of the house that got decorated this year was our mantle...Just a small touch of Valentine's Day to get us in the spirit! 

I found these Pillsbury 'Red Velvet' cookies at the grocery store and was very intrigued! Plus who doesn't love easy peasy cookies sometimes!! They turned out to be VERY delicious, and I am sad that I didn't buy another package before they were gone. 

Valentine's Day cards all set for my grade one kiddo's! Sadly I went the store bought route this year due to lack of time and energy. Bbbbbut I really don't think the kids cared all that much! Ha! 

In the spirit of Valentine's Day and everything PINK I wore my baby girl shirt that I got for Christmas! 

I managed to do a little bit more baking for Valentine's Day to surprise my cookie loving husband!

We decided not to exchange gifts this year, but my Damian still surprised me with some beautiful flowers! I am a VERY lucky lady!!

Valentine's Day was on a Friday this year which was awesome! I think celebrations should always be on a weekend in my opinion! Ha! We went for dinner at Red Ox Inn and had an amazing 6 course meal. We absolutely LOVE this restaurant and we hadn't been for a few years so it was a real treat! 

We forgot to take a picture at the restaurant...

so we took one when we got home!

The food was incredible as usual! A wine pairing was given with each course of the meal, so of course Damian enjoyed that! But obviously I couldn't partake in the wine...so they created a non alcoholic drink paired with each course for me! They were all so different and SO yummy!

 It was a wonderful meal with wonderful company!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day with the ones they LOVE! I feel very blessed to have so many people in my life that I love and who love me!!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

PINK!

On December 17, 2013 we found out that our little 'Peanut' was a GIRL!!!

I apologize for the sideways picture!!
It would not let me rotate it for whatever reason!! Grr!!

And from that moment on, we knew that there was going to be a LOT of PINK in our lives!!

 Finding out what we were having was probably more exciting that finding out we were pregnant, because this made it feel REALLY real! We could now start to create an 'identity' for our little peanut, as our precious little daughter! A few weeks leading up to our appointment 'what we were having' was a popular topic of conversation among pretty much everyone we saw. And 'girl' was by far the most popular vote! For whatever reason, people just knew that peanut was a girl! 

The morning of my appointment I told my students that I was going to be away in the afternoon because I was going to the doctor to see if they could tell what the baby was going to be. And OH MY WORD were they excited!! Ha! We made a little chart to show their predictions and all of the 'girl' voters were over.the.moon. when they found out they were 'right' the next day. We all celebrated with some yummy PINK jelly beans!

Peanut was SPOILED this Christmas! Pretty impressive haul for a baby that hasn't even been born yet!! Ha! We are already excited for NEXT Christmas when she is actually here to enjoy it with us!! 

I also have caught the 'little girl' shopping bug!! I just could NOT resist these mint skinny jeans and flats when I saw them! Little peanut is going to be better dressed then her Mom and Dad!! 

We have started putting together the peanuts nursery as well! Damian did an AMAZING job of painting the room over Christmas break and we have ordered all of the furniture. I can't to have it all set up!!

Testing out recliner/rockers was Damian's favourite part about nursery shopping!! 

Now that I can't take Spin classes anymore I have been trying to get on the treadmill once in a while! My fleeting energy by the end of the day doesn't help much though! Ha! 

Peanut and I working hard on the treadmill...

Spending some time sorting through clothes and trying to figure out the best way to organize it all!

And lastly...Peanut has been busy growing these days!! 

Thus so have I...Here are my 'bumpdate' pictures!

I know I say it all of the time, but I truly can't believe how fast time goes!! I am already 27 weeks and starting my THIRD trimester!! SO CRAZY!! I can't wait to meet our little peanut in just under 13 weeks!!!