Sunday, June 27, 2010

...with a chance of showers




The end of the school year is always exciting, exhausting, and emotional. We do super fun things to celebrate our learning (and keep the kids attention), and it's tiring to make sure everything fits in (all the June rain we had didn't help with this!)! At the same time it's bitter sweet to say goodbye to the kids you've spent everyday with all year and watched grow and learn. You love them to death, yet are so ready to get a nice long break from them! Needless to say there are a lot of emotions involved in this last week of school...then you add that to pregnancy and you have a teacher in tears over just about anything :) My first graders this year were amazing kids and will always have a special place in my heart because they have certainly been a part of my pregnancy journey. They dealt with the occasional "cranky Mrs. Ross" and produced some of their best work at the Baby's request. In fact, they think the baby is partially theirs and came up with an entire summer school plan in order to be with me AT MY HOUSE to help out with "their baby." And they also suggested I come back next year as their 2nd grade teacher and bring "our baby" with me each day! So I was very honored when they threw me a baby shower the last week of school (with the help of a few super mom helpers!). Sadly, in order to post pics of the event I had to crop or blur out these sweet little munchkins. The funny thing is that the morning of the shower we also had a special field trip to Shiloh to visit our pen pals and many kids told me that between these two events it was the best day of their life!!!  SO cute!
The adorable "Congratulations Mrs. Ross" cake!
This student wore a bouncy ball in his shirt the entire shower!

One of the games was to estimate the size of my belly with a string---they tended to think I was about 2 to 3 times bigger than I actually am! HA!
They also made a book of advice for me as a new mom---HILARIOUS! I was given instructions on how to change diapers and make bottles. I now know that it's my job to care for the child, and it's Keith's job to play with them.

The very next day the staff threw a shower for the THREE pregos in our building!!! We are all within about a month of each other, it's been really fun to share stories and encourage each other along the way. Heather on the right is having a boy, and Suzy in the middle is having a girl...what do you think I'm having???
We were serenaded by Marty who wrote a really funny song about being pregnant!

and got to open lots of baby stuff! The staff was so thoughtful and generous!!!!!!!!!! I know we all had a great time  :)
THEN...
When school let out there was yet another amazing shower!
These are the beautiful hostesses and me. Thanks Ladies, I feel so loved and spoiled! I'm very lucky to have such amazing and fun friends :)
Something I learned at this shower is that children make great tables!
FAMILY!

Keith got to join in the fun for a bit, he stopped by after golf and even got a little gift.
This week was all about happy tears, rain showers and baby showers! The rain and baby showers were much appreciated! It was a full and busy week, but soooooo much fun to feel all the love and stock up on baby gear. It makes us both so excited to meet baby in about A MONTH!!!!!!!!!!!!! Stay tuned....

Sunday, June 13, 2010

The Birthday Suit

Friday, June 11th, was a very special day; it marked Keith's 31st birthday and the day this suit joined our family! We were supposed to go out to dinner before he went to Mead's graduation, but he called and said "change of plans, I'm buying a suit!" And sure enough he did! SUIT UP! He's been talking about wanting a suit for years and he finally just did it. Doesn't he look so handsome??? So professional??? I love your "Birthday Suit" babe :) I think you should wear it to the birth of our child...then you will both be wearing your birthday suits!

Saturday, June 5, 2010

the jungle is gone


A while ago we decided to recruit a few high school kids to help us get our yard looking good for summer (with the hope that they could put the money toward Malibu this summer)....well, that was back when our yard was pretty tame! With all the rain we've been having and several delays in finding a weekend that worked for everyone, our yard turned into a complete weed jungle! I was just a little embarrassed to have our yard looking like this, however, weeding has taken a backseat these days. I was sooooooo happy that the boys came today to help Keith create an awesome looking landscape. Thanks Babe, it looks super! We still have a ways to go before it's just right, but we are definitely on the right track and ready to move forward.

Here is a before picture: see, I told you JUNGLE!
And an after
This is the future site of our fire pit! and the future future site of a carport? maybe. needs some rocks. perhaps next weekend (or when Dad, aka Grandpa John, gets in to town!).

before pic of the guys

after pic with new bark...man, new bark makes everything look so fresh!
before

after
oh, there is actually grass out there, and a few real plants! Hey Mom, aka Gramma Denise, wanna help me put some flowers in the pots?