One more week and counting

We only have 6 school days left....yahoo!! And actually, tomorrow is the last day for seniors, so we threw a little bash for them today. I decorated my first cake ever, we had cute decorations, and we ended the year with a bang. Here are a few of the pictures:

This is the cake I made. It's nowhere near perfect, but I'm proud of it anyway.

These are our graduating seniors...their fingers say "2009."

And this is the gang: Me and the other deaf education teacher, our classroom assistant, and both of our classes together. Seven of them are mine, and three of them are hers...but the quote "it takes a village to raise a child" certainly applies to all the students in our program. One of our traditions at the end of the year is to take turns acting each other out...it is hilarious to see the funny little habits that these kids pick up on, and then they're portrayal of it. This year, our classroom assistant Debbie did the honors. We laughed for 45 minutes straight. Here's a little clip of it...she's making fun of me in this video---the body language is easy enough to understand! :)

I love my job so much, and these kids are so great. I can't wait for another great year! (I mean, I can definitely wait...I do need my summer!)

And the "Best Husband in the World" Award Goes to...

my husband, Brent! Yeah, that's right...I really do think he is the best husband in the world. Now, I do realize that I have a bit of bias towards him. But, I also think that most of you will agree when you read the following story:
Two days ago I was craving donuts--but not just any donuts. I really wanted one of those long, thick maple bars that I have loved since birth. It has been almost two years since I have eaten one, because I have never seen them in a store in South Carolina. Brent and I have gone to Dunkin' Donuts a few times and we've eaten plenty of their mediocre donuts, but it certainly wasn't going to cut it this particular time. So, 10 o'clock at night, Brent heads out on a mission. He comes home forever later with stinkin' Dunkin' Donuts!!??!! Well, I can't be too mad because he procedes to tell me that he stopped at 3 different grocery stores searching for the coveted maple bars, and nobody has them--it is after 10 pm, after all. The donuts were great, but didn't satisfy the craving....thanks anyway baby!
**Side note: I realize that many, many fathers-to-be have run insane errands like this for their mild-to-profoundly crazy pregnant wives. Therefore, I think it's only fitting that the "Best Husband in the World" Award is dedicated to all of these blessed men. We wouldn't make it through without you (no matter how many times we tell you 'I hate you'....'you don't love me'....'you did this to me'...etc)!
Now the story gets really good--I wake up early the next morning and get in the shower. When I come out of the bathroom, my husband is nowhere to be found. I proceed to get ready for work, and he shows up about 20 minutes later with four thick, delicious, perfect maple bars in tow. Last night he had hunted down one of the bakery workers, found out that the store didn't make donuts like that ever, and special ordered them!!!! He had four maple donuts especially made just for me!! What a total HUNK!!!! He's just the greatest ever....

More about Baby She-Dukes!

We had another Dr. appointment today, and another ultra sound (which is obviously my favorite part of any Dr. appointment)...these things are absolutely amazing! We can actually see the baby that is growing inside of us! They can even do them in 4D now, which completely astounds me! Here's our latest picture of our sweet little girl.Isn't that unbelievably mind-blowing!! Who does she look like more--me or Brent? :)
Everything looks healthy, she moves around a ton, we saw fingers, and she smiled and yawned while we were looking at her (or at least made crazy facial movements that resembled a smile and a yawn). Cool stuff!!

Tummy

Until a week or two ago, people were surprised when I told them I was pregnant. After all, they all said that I wasn't even showing yet, and they never would have guessed. Well, all of that has changed. My little tummy is beginning to poke out and none of my clothes fit me anymore (at least not comfortably). Per Jesse's request, here is my first picture with a pregnant tummy....I'm 20 1/2 weeks here.
Cute, isn't it?? :)
Well, so far I've been able to hide my pregnancy from my students at school (there are a couple of them that really don't need a baby to obsess about...heaven help us all if they decide babies are so cute and fun that they want one, and then figure out how to really make it happen). However, I don't anticipate that it will be a secret for very long. After all, I can only wear the same baggy shirts so many times...

It's a girl....but not too girly...

So, I figure I better clear up one thing before everyone gets too excited:
Brent has already declared that our daughter (and this is before we even knew that we were having a girl....it was probably before we knew we wanted to have children yet at all [which was a really long time ago]) will not wear pink!! Now, I'm assuming that many of you out there reacted the same way as me "HA!! There's no way we can have an entire girl's wardrobe without a hint of pink...there's not enough girl's clothes in the world with no pink....our girl (like it or not) will have to have some pink in her life!" I think the compromise is that she's allowed to wear pink hunting camouflage...hehe.. Actually, he has accepted the realism of the idea, but we've also noticed that there really are quite a bit of clothes for little girls and sweet babies that have little/no pink. But, let's all be honest, the girl will wear pink, and she'll look darn cute in it!! Plus, she'll have daddy wrapped around her pinkie before she even has clothes on, and I don't think he'll ever notice... Love you babe!

It's a girl!!

Okay, so we finally had our ultra sound on Tuesday and found out that we are having a sweet little girl. We are so excited!! Although, I'm not sure I know how to shop for girls...every time I walk into a store, my eye immediately goes to all of the cute boy stuff and I have a hard time deciding if I like any of the girl stuff... I hope this problem goes away soon or my poor baby is going to be al natural for the first few months of her life. Sigh...

Well, I know everyone in my family is dying to see, so here are two of my fav pics from Tuesday...
The first is a picture of her legs with her feet together, and the second is a profile. Enjoy!

Baby Bedding

So I've decided to make crib bedding...I made this decision for a few reasons:
1. All the crib bedding I've found so far that I love costs a zillion dollars
2. I thought it would be fun to have something unique
3. I will have absolutely nothing to do this summer besides lounge around by the pool, and I need something to occupy the cloudy days and days when I'm too sunburnt to take any more rays.
This is the color pallet I'm thinking about...I might add a little pink if we find out that we're having a girl, but I'm definitely adding some pattern. I really like the idea of a jungle...I love monkeys lions and think it would be really cute in a baby's room. Of course, these are just fore thoughts because I still have a lot of time to think about it and plan it, but I had some free time so I hit the fabric store. These are the two fabrics I found that I liked...
If anyone has an opinion about one or the other, I'd love to hear it!