Sometimes I just have to brag about my husband

So last night Clint and I were able to attend BYU's athletic Y Awards. It's basically an awards ceremony for all of the athletes at BYU. There was music and an announcer who made jokes that really weren't that funny and clapping and pictures and thank-you speeches.

=

We went to this awards ceremony while we were dating and it was way fun to get dressed up (did I mention it's a semi-formal event?) and I loved it. Last year, we didn't make it because of the busyness of life, but this year we got to go again. 

It was slightly different getting ready for the party this time around. 

First of all, try being 27 weeks pregnant and finding articles of clothing that are even wearable on a day to day basis - then try to find semi-formal attire that fits in that category. 

Not much to choose from. 

Then, picture your 27 week pregnant self finally finding something that fits the belly, then walking into this amazing convention center they just built in Provo, only to remember that not only are you walking in with people who do not have your belly's ginormous size... they're athletes.

 o ya...

I felt like a WHALE...   

This is how my night could have gone. 

Except that I have an amazing husband. 

Again and again Clint told me I was beautiful all night long. I can't even count it. He told me before we left, in the car on the way, at the party a million times and when we got home. I voiced my concerns that perhaps I resembled the biggest mammal in the ocean and I was immediately comforted and reassured that I was the most beautiful girl in the room and my big belly only made me more beautiful. 

So I felt pretty good sitting listening to the award ceremony and meeting Clint's friends and walking around with my dashing husband.

he really did look extremely good in his suit. like really.

There was an after party on the upstairs balcony and it was pretty amazing. There was a gorgeous view of Utah Valley and lights hung up everywhere and a band playing good music and these mouth-watering little chocolate mousse things... yum... and we were mingling and chatting and enjoying ourselves.

When the band played a slow song and Clint took my hand and asked me if I wanted to dance, truthfully, I said "umm... I don't think people are doing that." But I'm glad he convinced me not to worry so much and I got to slow dance with my husband which really doesn't happen as often as I envisioned it would before I got married. The chance really doesn't present itself all that much. 

But that night it did. 

And Clint took it and I got to dance all close to my hubby on a rooftop with an amazing view and lights all around. 

We came back to our little group and kept chatting (Clint gave me his jacket because by this point I was shivering uncontrollably), took a picture or two and finally called it a night. 

Pretty much I have a really really awesome husband and I love him a whole whole lot. 

It was a pretty great night

Pictures and Funny Field trip stories

Here is a little update on the bump at 21 weeks!
Let's just not worry about how messy our room is...
~It is for sure getting bigger! One of my little girls at school told me it looked like my baby was actually growing up today. I told her not quite growing up, but definitely growing out! She agreed. :)

~We had our big 20 week ultrasound last week and everything is healthy and normal (yay yay yay!) Our little girl is 10 oz and is measuring about 4 days behind schedule for the due date, but that is just about perfect. Ps. Does it just amaze anyone else that these doctors and tell how far along to the DAY this baby is? Wow. That is crazy.
~ I'm feeling great, not sick at all anymore... except last night when I forgot to eat for 5 hours... this may seem a normal amount of time, but it made me so sick in the middle of grocery shopping. I am so thankful for Subways in Walmart. (although their speed left a little to be desired... they could never hack it at the subway I used to work at...)
~ I'm feeling the baby now! I felt her the day after we had our first ultrasound. It was so crazy. I laid down after a long school day and suddenly I felt a little bloop in my stomach... almost like a bubble popping... weirdest feeling- cannot describe it. I didn't know if it was her, but I stayed still and I felt it again about an inch away from the first one. I just laid there and felt my baby for about 15 minutes before she stopped.

 So so cool. Definitely my favorite part of being pregnant so far. 

Nowadays, I feel her pretty often. She doesn't like being squished... so when my kiddos give me hugs, she is always pushing back. It's kind of fun though because sometimes I can get her to kick on command just by pressing my tummy. Clint has even felt her twice now! It is so fun.

In other news...

My class had a field trip last week and it was so fun! We got to go see the play Repunzel and they loved it. It's crazy how none of them knew any Repunzel different from Tangled so they were looking for Flynn the whole time and were disappointed Repunzel never wielded a frying pan... I think they liked it though. Some funnies for you...

*On the way to the theater, we were riding in the bus and I sat next to two cute little boys in my class. One of them has a Chromosome Deficiency and acts more like a 4-5 yr old than the 7 yr old that he his. I love this little guy so so much. He is so sweet and always says the funniest things. Today, he was staring out the window and asked me a question.

"Teacher, are we grownups?"

"Umm, what do you think bud? Are you a grownup?"

"No..."

"Am I a grownup?"

"Yes."

"Victor, how old do you think people are when they turn into grownups?"

 (I love asking my kids these kind of questions...)

"Maybe 20?"

I thought that was a pretty good guess. I asked the other little boy by us.

"Spencer, when do you think people turn into grownups?

"Umm.... (long pause. He is really pondering this one. I almost thought he was ignoring me).. I think about 14. No, 13. No, 12. Ya, probably when they are 12."

*On the way home from the play I was sitting by a different boy. This is my little talkative lover boy. We talked about how he liked the play and he started looking out the window. Suddenly, he turned to me, very excited.

"Mrs. Prestwich, I know a game we can play! I play it with my dad when we are in the car. Have you ever heard of slugbug?!"

(In my mind's eye I see the newspaper heading "Second Grade Teacher Punching Students on Field Trip")

"I have heard of it..."

"Ok, I'm really good at it."

BAM. Score one for him... 

BAM. Two to nothing...

"Mrs. Prestwich, you're not very good at this game. You have to look out the window!"

"Oh, got it... ya know, I don't think I'm going to get very many points..."

BAM. three-zip.

"I do have an advantage since I'm by the window."

"Yes, you sure do..."

BAM. 4-0

Finally, I think he got bored hitting his teacher because there was a lull in the game and he didn't find another slug bug until the street the school was on.

BAM. 

Ending score = teacher nothing, student 5.

Clint's about to be outnumbered...

That's right folks! A little GIRL is coming! 

We got to have an early ultrasound today (18 weeks) and she was moving around and looking like a little baby in there! 

So a few people have asked about pictures... so here we go. This is the first ultrasound I got at 9 weeks. Remember how I said the baby looked like a little misty blurb? Proof. 

See the dark spot? Then see that misty blurb off to the right inside the dark spot?

 That would be my upside down child facing right. 

Yes. That is a small tail up on the top of the misty blurb... don't worry, that's gone now. Thank heavens. 

 Ok, so now we have a few more baby-like photos for you!! I don't really like the idea of showing off her gender reveal shot... I mean, even as a wee one, we'll give her a little privacy... but there are some other good ones :) 

Here is her little body facing to the left... with her hand in front of her face.

And my favorite of the day with her all curled up hugging her knees. Much more like a little baby huh!? 

It was so much fun seeing her moving around in there! I'm still not able to feel her, which the doctor says is alright, but as I was watching her moving everywhere on the screen I tried really hard to feel what I was seeing... not happening. I guess I'll have to be patient. It made it a lot more real to see her moving and alive in there. 

We get to have another ultrasound in 2 weeks for her normal 20 week full check up. I'm so excited! 

Ps. I'm also so excited to not call my child "it" anymore... there has got to be another way to say it, but it gets a little tiring saying "the baby" and "our child" all the time... "her" is so nice. I love it. 

Tonight, I shall buy something pink for her. 

Plus some pink balloons to announce it to my kiddos at school. They were sooooo excited today. So was I. It was an excited morning. 

I'm sure tomorrow will be even more so. 

Here's to pink and bows and sugar and spice and everything nice! 

We're going to have a little girl!!!!!!

Old people and Apples

So I was MIA on the blog for awhile because mostly I didn't trust myself to keep our little baby secret, but now that you all know, I'm back! I know you're so excited (all 5 of you that read this...)

So, this past Monday was a big day in my classroom. It was 100s day. As in the 100th day of school where we do a million things that have to do with the number 100 and my kids start dreaming of summer because they realize they are more than half way done with second grade... man, they grow up so fast. In fact, here are some of their old people papers... I seriously LOVE their wrinkly pictures so so much!

They all seemed to think old people are crazy... I don't know. Maybe they have crazy grandparents? I couldn't get them away from it...

love love love this wrinkly picture! hahaha bald, no eyebrows, no smile. just wrinkly. 

In other news, my kids have gotten this new found obsession with bringing me apples. No joke. At least one everyday. It may have something to do with the fact that I eat a lot during class these days.... nothing too distracting of course, just a cutie orange here, a cracker there...

 and during recess and their specialist times-

 an apple. 

Maybe they've seen these apples in my drawers and decided Mrs. Prestwich must LOVE apples...

Whatever their little thinking is, I get apples everyday. 

These are from the last 3 days this week (I ate Monday's apple...)

You know what they say... an apple a day....

except I still go to the doctor's every 4 weeks... 

but I haven't gotten that dang flu that's going around and I haven't even been allowed to get my flu shot yet! 

I think it's the apples. :)

O baby!

WE'RE HAVING A BABY!!!

That's right folks! A little Prestwich will be arriving July 11th (or around there). We couldn't be more excited!  It happened just in time. Like, 4 weeks before we head out to Tennessee and a month before insurance runs out and right as I was so tired of getting those little minus signs on the pregnancy tests. 

It's a long story and I'll spare you all the details, but we had been trying to get pregnant for a year when it finally happened. I understand that a lot of people wait a lot longer to get pregnant and I can't even imagine nor do I think my situation was even comparable to theirs, but I will say it was a long year.

 We had gotten a false positive test the month before and when we realized it was false... well, I was kind of a mess. That's when I went to the doctor and he said we could start Clomid. I have a love/hate relationship with this drug... love because I now have a little avocado sized baby inside of me, and hate because I was a DRAGON while I was taking it... It wasn't pretty. I mean, birth control was bad, this was probably 100x worse and I just prayed I wouldn't have to up the dose for a second month. Luckily (for Clint who was so so patient with my dragon-like nature and for all the reasons mentioned above), it worked that first month! 

Now we're just enjoying every minute of getting ready for our little one. I have loved the doctor's appointments, especially getting to see our first ultrasound and when I get to hear the little heartbeat going so fast. Can I just be honest though? I've heard so many people say that hearing the heartbeat just moved them to tears and got them so so excited... and while it does get me excited, mostly when I hear it, I just get relieved. I just hold my breath until the doctor finds it and then I just feel so glad that the little peanut is ok, that even though I've been eating a little more take-out food, its healthy and growing and everything is good. Is this normal? I hope so.

Some new things now that I'm pregnant:

pants.don't.fit. My mom was an angel and got me some maternity slacks to wear to work and I feel 100% classier not walking around with my pants unbuttoned....

hungry.all.the.time.  I've always been a good eater, but I eat constantly right now. It's the only thing that helped me feel better when I was sick. I'm craving salty things. I love anything in broth. So I go through a lot of top ramen. Really beneficial for the baby I'm sure with all those nutrients. And vinegar. I guess its true about pregnancy and pickles... Fruit always sounds good right now too. Not so much chocolate or sweets. Which is strange because I've always had a sweet tooth.

always.out.of.breath. It's a little comical actually. I get to school and walk around my classroom getting ready for the morning and by the time I sit down to read the kids a story I need to catch my breath. 

love.looking.at.pictures.of.baby. I downloaded this app that shows the baby's growth weekly and it's finally starting to look less like a tadpole and more like a miniature human. I like that. I also got an ultrasound picture at 9 weeks and I love looking at the little misty blurb that was my child so early on.

We will find out the gender two weeks from today! 

Grateful

So this week and the past weekend Clint and I have been so excited to have my family in town for Jake's hip surgery!! We've been staying up late, watching chick flicks (mom and I were not that impressed with the "Lucky One" movie we got at redbox... although we both just think Zac Efron is really cute as a marine...) and eating a bunch of food!

Next week is Thanksgiving. Here is my list of top 10 things I am thankful for right now. In no particular order...

1. Clint

It was the best decision I have ever made to make this man my forever partner. He is loving and kind and gives me a back rub anytime I ask. He makes me laugh and helps me when I am way too stressed to handle life. We have learned so much in the last year and a half and look forward to all the great things this coming year will bring! 

2. Family
My family and my in-laws are the best ever! I don't know what I will do when we have to move away from them next summer to go to Tennessee



3. My job. I seriously have the best job in the entire world. I love my kiddos so much and they make me laugh and smile everyday. If you would like a picture for this one... go to an earlier post.... :)

4. Clint being accepted into Optometry School. I feel so blessed to be able to have this decision made and not have to stress about it anymore. Although I am still scared out of my mind if I think about it too much, I am so grateful that we have our little future plan and our little family is moving forward in it.



5. The Church. I am a proud member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I am proud to be a mormon. I enjoy the blessings of the gospel in my life everyday. It helps me be happy, it helps me have hope and it gives me knowledge of what is really important.

6. Where we live now. I know who would have thought this one right? I know so many people talk about how they can't wait to get out of Provo, Utah... but the closer I get to moving out of it, the more I think of things I love about it. Like the fact that it is where I met my #1 blessing and we flirted and dated and got engaged and started our life together. Or how the leaves look in the fall. Or all my adventures at BYU and hiking the Y... good times.


7. Friends. I have the BEST friends ever! I seriously couldn't put all their pictures in here and if I tried I might miss one, so I won't, but I talk with them, and cry with them and vent about all life's crazyness.

8. Books. I think I'm the libraries biggest fan. And I also think they should include library fines in that placque with the library donors, because with how much I pay them, I probably have made it up there. It's ok Springville library, I'll be an annyonomous donor.  I love you anyways.

9. Laughing. Clint will roll his eyes when he sees that I posted this because he couldn't get through the whole thing with how awkward he felt, but I really love it. So here's a laugh for you. Because everyone needs at least one good one a day :)

Ellen's practical Joke

ps. I don't know how to put in this youtube video for some reason so follow the link.

10. Food. Let's be honest. I am a major fat kid at heart. I love food and I love making it and I love eating it and I love enjoying every single bite of the healthy and unhealthy food I create. Clint and I have so much fun cooking together. It's one of my favorite things for sure!


Well, I hope you made it. I am so glad I get to live my life. It's not always perfect, but it's a lot of learning and growing and I love it.

Politics

I know you're a little worried with a title like that... But i'm just going to say that politics are really funny when you are in second grade. Let me give you some examples. Enjoy :)

1. I know exactly what each parent in my class voted based on their Child's comments to fellow classmates...
"Romney lies.."
" Romney has my vote"
"Obama ruined our country"
" Obama gives us have hospitals and takes care of us when we're sick"
"Ron Paul is the only one who can save us!"

2. My kids are obsessed with knowing who I voted for. Not going to tell, sorry. It just seems ridiculous to defend my political opinions to 7yr olds. And believe me, if I had said, I would have some heated 7 yr olds...

3. It is now one of my kids ambitions to be the president. I told him I'd vote for him to which a little girl responded "you won't vote for him! You'll be a grandma!!" So I said " who says grandmas can't vote?" So there!

4. I have officially banned all political discussion in my class room unless we are saying the pledge or saying how much we love our country and everyone in it.

Man, if this is any indication of their lives later on, these kids are going to grow up to be very involved political citizens!! :)