Noteworthy Updates

These past few weeks have been so much fun! I love Christmas time and it's so fun to teach during December too. I've forgotten how exciting it is for kids who still believe in Santa! In social studies we learned all about Christmas around the world and made tons of fun crafts for each country. You can see their oh so cute work on my bulletin board. (Which by the way, has red lights around the border but you can't tell because of the flash.)

Friday was our last day so the kids had a blast at our Christmas party put on by the parents. They decorated gingerbread houses, played a funny game of trying to unwrap a present with oven mittens on, and saw how many "snowballs" (marshmallows) they could scoop out of a bowl while blindfolded. They also colored little stocking ornaments and wrote a note about "Why they like Mrs. Winn" on the back. (My fav being the boy who wrote, "I like Mrs. Winn because she is beautiful.") I gave the kids a Christmas activity book, pencil, cute erasers and a copy of the multiplication songs we practice in class. I didn't realize they would get so excited about the songs. They couldn't wait to go home and listen to them! I also got a desk full of goodies from them. (Perks of being a teacher!)
As far as other things going on, Scott is super excited because he got this new flash for his camera and can use it to change his white backdrop to any color. Here's a sample pict he took of our friend Brent when he came out to visit from New York. Scott also has a lot of photography shoots coming up. Yesterday he shot an 11 year old actress' head shots. (They are really cute!) He also has a wedding today, then the day we get back from WA another wedding. What's even better is that both weddings are at the two temples within 10 minutes north or south of our apartment. (Draper and American Fork)
FINALLY, Scott and I took the time to take my first pregnancy picture. 15 weeks and nothing to show for it yet. But hey, it's a start! Now that I am in my second trimester I am feeling slightly better. I was never really TOO nauseous to begin with. I would just start feeling that way if I don't eat a meal at least every hour. The same is still true, so if I take care of that appetite I feel great. I'm still pretty tired in the afternoons but have been able to stay up past 6 or 7 lately! (Although I always seem to wake up around 4 - 5 so that probably has a lot to do with the early bedtime.) I do feel like I have more energy too; enough to keep the house clean instead of leaving it for poor Scott. I'm not bugged as much by smells as I used to be either. This is probably because my nose is constantly stuffed up or runny. (Even though I'm not sick.) Anyway, I think that's about it for random updates. Tomorrow we fly to Spokane for Christmas with Scott's fam! My family is driving over there to hang out during the first part of the week too. Such fun! How great is it to have in-laws that are close with each other?!

Merry Christmas all!