November and Pregnancy Update

I hardly took any pictures during November.  Thankfully by mid-November, the morning night sickness went away.  In some ways I was lucky, because I didn't start feeling really sick until about 5pm most days.  Which meant that I was in bed by 8pm 5-7 nights per week.  I would wake up feeling like a million bucks and then slowly throughout the day start to feel a little worse until I was so worried I might puke I would just go to bed to avoid the feeling.  We officially found out I was pregnant at the very end of August (although I had my suspicions before I saw the + sign).  I am due May 9th, which is hilarious because if I make it to May, we will have 4/5 birthdays in May in our family.  So far everything is going well, I have a healthy baby according to my most recent doctor appointment.  The best part of this pregnancy is that I have 2 little girls who are old enough to understand that I am pregnant!  They are seriously so excited, and this baby is so loved already!  I took the girls to my last appointment and they got to hear the heart beat.  On December 17th, I am going to take them out of school early for my 20 week sono so we can find out if baby is a boy or girl!  Its going to be so much fun.
I was 12 weeks right at the end of October, when Grandma Rowles happened to be in town.  Chris and I had been plotting and planning to get their reaction on tape etc, and when we told them, it was SO anti-climactic.  I think these 2 girls had been praying for this so long that when we finally told them they were like, oh yeah, well of course mom is pregnant, we knew God would answer our prayer, no big deal.  We were totally disappointed by their reaction, so we reenacted the telling, and told them they had to be super excited.   This is what we got on tape, its too funny!

Other November pics:

Gianna's soccer team won their division championship.
Chris helped coach the games, which he loved.
Elia was too young to play in the games, but she still went to practice every week, so she got an honorary trophy.

Why yes, you can sunbathe in November in Texas.

One week mama got all efficient and made sandwiches for the whole week.

Day before t giving I took the girls to IHOP

Chris had to work Friday and Saturday after thanksgiving,
so I took the girls to downtown Carrollton via the DART.  Fun times!

School Update

Week 3 is in the books and we are chugging along!  The girls are so happy at school, and have made so many friends.  During week 3, dance practice and soccer practice started!  Both practices are right at school, so I am able to work in my classroom while they enjoy those after school activities.  They are especially excited about dance, and LOVE their teacher.  Both girls have been correcting Chris and I's posture already.
I think school at this point is mostly review for Gianna, so right now her favorite class is Latin.  She takes it twice a week.  I think she likes it so much because it is brand new and exciting for her.  Her Latin teacher is so wonderful, and comes up with all these cute little songs to help them remember certain words.  The Latin teacher also goes down to the pre-k once a week, so Elia has learned 2 words and thinks she is the coolest.  It is so cute to hear her say Salve or Salvete!
This school is very small- only one class per grade, so it has allowed me to see them many times a day!  My classroom is right next to the cafeteria, so I usually see them walking to lunch.  Their classrooms are right next to each other, and also on the way to PE, so I often see them when I take my class their way.  Elia's recess time overlaps with my 3rd graders recess time, so when I go to pick up my class from recess, there is little Elia running towards me to give me a hug and say hello!  The first day of school when I started to take my class back to the building she started crying because she thought I was going to stay out there with her!  She has since learned that I can't always be there with her.  I pick my students up at noon, and the whole school stops what they are doing at noon and prays the Angelus.  So she will come over, say the Angelus with my class, gives me a hug, and then runs off to play with her friends.
My students also have taken to Gianna and Elia.  They think its pretty cool I have kids at this school and I talk about them all the time so they are always saying hi to the girls and trying to get on my good side by being nice to them.  :)  What else could a working mom ask for?
I am still adjusting to this new curriculum and there are still a lot of late nights!  The commute isn't so bad with the HOV lane, but there was one day this week it took us 50 minutes to get there.  It is really motivating me to move out of our house and move closer!  Definitely thinking about putting our house up for sale in the early spring.
Last night, Chris and I went to the parent teacher social.  It was at a beautiful house in Highland Park.  It started at 7, and I thought maybe we would be there for an hour or so because I was worried it might be awkward and parents might turn this time into a conference- "so how is my child doing in your class?" kind of situation.  We ended up staying until 11, mostly because I was trying to introduce Chris to co-workers as we were leaving, and everyone wanted to talk to him about Manila and such.  Also, I talked with quite a few parents who were just fun, and wanted to know more about me and didn't even bring their children up! There is one social per semester.  Such a positive experience and fun evening.
And lastly, there is this great reading competition that Gianna is getting into.  It goes by non- homework reading minutes.  G is required to read 15 minutes each night for homework, so any minutes after that go toward the competition.  So in 3 weeks, she has racked up over 100 extra minutes for the competition.  She loves reading, and Elia loves listening to her read.

With the Carse kiddos last weekend.