February

Everything is looking good with Baby Charles!  During February we spent every weekend packing and fixing up the house.  We occasionally get out to do something fun..

Like go to Central Market.  Are you really into food?

A sick day for Elia

Gianna made her own Valentines.  They were really creative.  This was my favorite!

Someday I won't be lame and forget to take pictures of my sweeties.

January

New Years Eve was uneventful, as usual.  I think I made it to midnight, but I can't remember.  I was too excited for the next day, when Aunt Shanny and Uncle Tom came to visit with Baby Brendan!  Although he is less baby and more toddler now.  We didn't do anything spectacular- just hung out around the house, and had friends over one night for dinner.

We did venture out on the DART to visit downtown Carrollton.
Someone has a huge obsession with trains!

Other pics from January:

Enjoying Christmas presents: cake Pops from Aunt Col and Uncle Bobby

Color your own bag from Grandma

And of course, Rainbow looms.  Ow the rubber bands.  They are everywhere!!!

A friend of ours was taking care of puppies.
Elia was in hog heaven.,  Can we get one mom???

December

It has been so long!  A year ago, if I had taken a peek into my current life, I wouldn't have believed I could do it.  Chris and I both have new jobs, a long commute for me, brand new curriculum, cooking a baby, and to top it off, putting our house up for sale!  Its all going to be worth it though.  We found out in December that we will be welcoming a baby boy into our family.  We are going to name him Charles but are unsure of the middle name.

After we found out it was a boy, we went across
the street and picked out some gifts for our boy.

For Christmas, we spent a little over a week in Napa.  It was so fun, as usual.  I even got to see some college friends.  

We went to my favorite winery.  I mostly talked, and of course drove.  :)

It was a very Frozen Christmas.  We saw the movie with all the girls- cousins and aunties.  There were a lot of Frozen themed toys at Christmas as well.  

Chris and I were spoiled too, so much that we had to send 2 boxes home because all of our loot wouldn't fit in our suitcases!  Since almost all of the grown kids were back home, Grandma rented an RV, and the boys all slept in there.  They set it up with a tv and video games, and it was a very popular spot to visit from the 4 little girls.  

Phoebe kept calling it the IV.  So cute!

We came home to Dallas late Saturday night to a tree with lots of present underneath it!  It was a wonderful Christmas.

Ice Storm Dallas 2013

Thursday around 4:30 I got the call that there would be no school tomorrow!  It started raining around 4:30 and then that started freezing soon after.  Chris even got Friday off, so we made the most of it by doing. nothing.

Sadly, Colleen and Bobby had to cancel their trip here.
Its like Mother Nature carved out a path of destruction, just for them from Missouri, through OK and into North Texas.  We will see them in the Spring.

Icicles!

Love this hat on Elia!

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!

October

Well, the cat is out of the bag.  I am pregnant!  That, and a new school year, are just 2 of the many reasons I have neglected blogging.  Here are some October Highlights:

Elia's first field trip to the pumpkin farm tuckered her out!

Alumni weekend- we spent Sat morning at UD
Cap Bar

Trail from West side to the art village

Swing by the fish bowl

My parents came to visit for a long weekend!
So did Grandma Rowles, but I took no pics.  :(

 

We explored Grapevine with my parents

Obligatory Pumpkin Patch photo

My awesome room mom threw me a party the week I revealed to my class I was pregnant.  She also had a baby blanket made- gender neutral, that says "Jesus loves Baby Rowles, and so does 3rd grade!"

Halloween- a zebra and a kitty cat

Bittersweet- probably our last Halloween in Carrollton!

Pregnancy details to come...

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.

A little house updating!

Over Labor Day, we got rid of all of our old furniture that we had been storing for Chris' cousin since we got our new couch in May.  We bought a new ottoman, and now our main room feels really grown up!  Its funny, when you buy one new piece of furniture, it always leads to buying more furniture to match everything else.  I already want to buy something taller to house our tv, but patience, right?

Dardar photo bombs

On Thursday night, Chris figured out that our sink hose was leaking, so we were in need of a new sink faucet.  Saturday morning we all made a family trip to Home Depot and picked out a nice new fixture.  It totally modernizes our kitchen!  I took the girls grocery shopping while he installed it, so there would be no girls distracting him, and he sent this picture out to me and a few of his family members.  I bet you didn't know Dath Vader could also be a handyman!

Simple and pretty!

First Week of School, Chris in Manila

We love our new school!  Both girls love their new teachers, and I am falling in place with the rest of the faculty and my students too.
A few weeks ago, Chris got an amazing promotion, that makes him director of the call center at his company.  They were in the process of opening a call center in Manila, Phillipines, and asked him to go over there for a week.  Which just happened to be the first week of school.  So it was a tough week, and I have a new found respect for single moms and military moms etc!  The girls did ok without him, but now, exactly 2 weeks after he dropped them off in Joplin, they are really ready to see him tonight!  Maybe I didn't feel the need to come home as quick since I knew he wouldn't be there, but we got home late every night.  So that made the time we had at home very rushed with homework and bath and lunches etc in time for bed.  I'm excited for him to get home too!

This is the only pic I remembered to take on the first day of school!

These pictures with the signs are the 2nd day of school.  I ran out of time on day 1!

Loving the uniforms.  G told me earlier this week that she loves wearing uniforms because then she doesn't have to be stressed about what to wear each morning.  Took the words right out of my mouth!

I asked them to show me a tooth smile!

Chris sent me flowers for my first week back.  Love that guy.

Here are last years pictures!

A Week without the Girls

Saturday Chris drove the girls to Joplin, MO and came back to Dallas all in one day!  Since I had in-service and weird hours all week, I worked it out with my mom that they stay with her all week.  It was a blessing, because there were a few days I wasn't home until 8:30 at night!  This is the first summer ever I have not been to StL, and that hurts my heart so much!  I'm glad the girls could go though.  They had a blast hanging out with Aunt Colleen and Shannon, Uncle Ryan, Baby Brendan, and of course the grandparents.  Uncle Craig was even in StL for a night or 2 for business so they got to see him too.  And maybe best of all, Gianna and Sophia got to reunite twice, thanks to my mom coordinating with Rebecca.  Then, after a week, I drove back to Joplin to pick the girls up.  It was wonderful to see them!

Aunt Colleen and Rebecca's baby, Mary

Love everything in this pic!

Aunt Colleen took the girls to the Magic House!

We found a park in Joplin.  Glad to see Ry!

WE stopped on the way home near Lake Eufala- prettiest place in OK if you ask me!

 The next day (Sunday) we hit the ground running- taking the girls to the park with the dog.  This is their latest trick- DarDar running next to G on her bike, while Elia tries to catch up.

This was literally seconds before Daria took off across the street and almost got hit by a car, 

just so she could say hello to another dog across the street.

Then we had a back to school mass and came home to get ready for the first day!