crazy houston weather

So this morning i got up to go to work and it was about 65 degrees, I was feeling kinda hot with my capris and t-shirt. When i got off work at 10:30 and walked out to my car it was 45 degrees. What is up with this weather? Last wednesday there was SNOW at our house! I couldn't believe my eyes. We were so thrilled to see the beautiful white flakes falling from the sky. I didn't get any good pictures (yes, in houston, we take pictures when it snows), but my church got some good ones. click here to see our church getting snowed on last wednesday. Funny thing is on thursday it was back up to 75 degrees again. How on earth are you supposed to stay healthy with all these crazy changes? We all have sniffles and coughs from all the craziness. One day we're wearing shorts and flip-flops and the next day we've got on our winter hats and gloves! Seriously!

We get out of school this friday, possibly my last day for awhile. Or if sweet baby girl decides to wait around, I will return to school on Jan. 5 to work until my due date. (Please pray that she will come during the holidays!!!) Anyway, tomorrow is the last day I have to actually teach. I am showing my students "Cinderella Man" for the last 3 days of school. It is such a good film about life during the Great Depression, which is our current unit anyway. And it gives all of us a break from "real" education for a few days before the break. Although quite frankly, I believe good movies teach people alot more effectively than any teacher can about some things. If it were up to me, I would show a movie over each history unit we cover. I think the kids might actually learn something if we did. Oh well, I guess that's why they didn't put me in charge of curriculum!

On the home front, Tatum is learning new words everyday. Recently she has started saying "hold me up" which means "pick me up," but I haven't corrected her b/c it's too cute the way it is. It's so fun watching her little mind work and figure out how to "use her words" to get us to understand her.

Avery has a black eye, poor thing. She was chasing Brian yesterday and fell and knocked her eyebrow on the bottom drawer of our dresser. It bled like crazy... of course, Brian said it's no big deal, it's just a little cut. But then 4 bandaids later, he said, well she probably could've used a stitch or two, but oh well, it's too late now. Thankfully, she doesn't seem to be in too much pain. She's a pretty tough kid.

New baby girl is still nameless. I love her so much, and I think it might actually take us seeing her before we know her name. I don't want to put that pressure on us, but the name is just not coming to us that easily this time. I am going to the doctor every week now. Last Thursday I was 1 cm, 50% and -3 station. Sorry if that's TMI for anyone, but some people like to know. I'm really hoping for some progress when I go in this week.

I have been the hostess with the mostess lately. I don't know why this happens, but I always sign myself up to host things all at once. So I'll go for month or two and not have anyone over to our house, then for a week, I'll have several functions at my house right in a row.
We trade babysitting with two other families so that we can each get two date nights each month. Last week was our turn to babysit, which means we keep 7 kids (including ours) from 5-8 pm, feed them all dinner, bathe them all and put them in their PJ's then let them play until their parents get back. It's great when it's our turn to go out on a date b/c when we pick up our kids at 8:00, they are ready for bed. But when it's our turn to babysit, well it's chaos, but fun.

Here's our pajama pals: Jackson, Carson, Rylin, Avery, Tatum, Jacob & Julia

Then Saturday I hosted a playgroup for a few moms from church. We all ate lunch then let the kids play while us moms (tried to) talk about our Christmas plans, etc. It's fun b/c the moms are from different areas of Houston and different careers, etc. so there's lots of different viewpoints represented.

Then today we had our kids' Bible study over here. Me and 3 other moms have been doing "Children Desiring God" Bible study with our older kids, where one of us teaches the older kids a Bible lesson, including a memory verse, while a couple moms watch the little kids play and the host usually gets lunch together so we can all eat when Bible study is over. These friends are such a blessing and I am so thankful to be a part of each of these groups. It's just funny that it all happens at once. Now I should have a break from hosting anything for a couple months. I will just mooch off everyone else now.

Here's our Bible study group eating lunch.

Our Christmas cards should be out soon, but here is one of the pictures I took of the girls that didn't make it onto the card, but I think it's cute. Tatum looks unhappy, but really she's just saying "Cheese" as best she can for the pictures. She was trying so hard to be a good girl! Look at her pigtails! I hadn't tried pigtails before b/c I thought her hair was too short, but it worked, and it made her look like such a big girl! I used my "Hotsticks" from my high school years on Avery's hair and she loved her curls! They both looked so pretty.