Gingerbread Houses

These were the only pictures I took from Thanksgiving, so enjoy!

Carlie's House:

 Dad's House:

 Ethan's House:

 Aubrie's House:

 Aaron's House:

 Mom's House:

Christmas Time Is Here

My life is WAY too busy right now (and as I sit here my ribs have turned into a punching/kicking bag). So here is a quick blurb about our house when we decorated it for Christmas before Thanksgiving.

We listened to Christmas and drank Egg Nog.

We put up the tree that we bought on sale from Walmart! Yay for having a tall, real-ish Christmas tree!

It was pre-lit and then we put some ornaments on it that we bought (more I am sure will be put on the tree in years to come).

We then of course also had to have Hot Chocolate because Aaron is really not an Egg Nog guy!

Merry (almost) Christmas Break isn't coming soon enough!

Double-Date Nights

No, we didn't go on "double-dates" but we did go on dates two nights in a row and these days...that is amazing (really the fact that we go out on a planned date is a big deal).

Friday I picked Aaron up from school and we went to the hospital so I could take my glucose test to see if I had Gestational Diabetes. I couldn't eat a couple hours before and then I had to drink this whole container of basically melted orange Otter Pops....so it didn't taste horrible but was a lot to handle. We had to wait there an hour and then I got my blood taken. (Thankfully the results came back negative!)

 We then decided to actually try what everyone talked about while I was in College, the Hospital Cafeteria. After walking through the Hospital and seeing sick people I had about lost my appetite but we found it and actually enjoyed a decent and cheap meal.

 The next day we went to the BYU Football game (thanks to one of the 1st Grade Teachers who gave them to us). It was FREEZING! Our seats were a foot deep in snow that Aaron had to scrape off.

 Also, thankfully, they let us borrow their stadium seats which kept our bottoms from freezing to the ice!

 We love date nights!

I'll See You On Election Day!

On Election Day...a month ago, I had so much fun with my students getting them informed. Though they couldn't pronounce Barack Obama's name (It sounded like Obmananana) and one student called him Barack-oli Bama. And Mitt Romney was "Mick" Romney. Here is what we did:

We read "Duck for President"

 Each student made and decorated their own "Voter Registration Card" with their picture and information. They had to present this to me when they came to vote and turn in their ballot.

 Each student voted and then I read each vote out loud and we put it under either Obama or Romney.

Afterwards we counted and graphed our results. Obama won with 11 votes and Romney only got 9...a little telling of what would happen that night.

 They each got an "I voted" badge to wear! They loved it.

 The next day we made these cute things where the students wrote about if they were president, what they would do. Here were some cute responses:

-I would scream and be really gorgeous!

-I would take a long vacation.

-I would sell Yo-Yo's.

-Everyday would be Halloween

-There would be no school.

-Everything would be 1 cent.

How I told my class...

So...back at the beginning of November (yes, I haven't blogged in FOREVER) I told my class I was pregnant. I waited until then because well...I wasn't showing and I didn't have to tell them or their parents yet :) I decided to tell them by reading the book "I Heard Said the Bird". It is a cute book about some farm animals talking about the "new one" that is coming. The students were trying to guess who the "new one" was. In the end it is a new baby that the farmer and his wife had. I knew the students wouldn't put two in two together that I was expecting so then we played "telephone" and I whispered in my students ear "I heard said the bird, that Mrs. Butler is having a baby!". There were only about 2 who actually got it but once a few caught on, so did the rest of them. They were so excited!

 We sat and talked, I answered all of their many funny questions and then they wrote in their journal about the news they had just heard. There were some adorable journal entries. Here is one of my favorites:

"Mrs. Butler is having a baby. I am so excited. I can't wait. He is a baby boy. I love him. This is her first baby, I can't wait to see you.

Cornbelly's

The "Aaron's" and the "Sisters" all went on a date night 2 weeks ago to Cornbellys and we LOVED it! We went the week after Halloween and missed the crowds! It was perfect! Here is a recap of the night:

Where we parked...it was reserved for us since Carlie was in the car! ;)

Took pics before we got in...because we wouldn't get enough inside the place...

My pregnant belly...and Aaron's...

Weird...

Favorite activity...the jumping pillows

Found a huge cornucopia...of course we had to reenact the Hunger Games.

We rode some really really mini trikes that didn't move too well.

We drove a firetruck...

Smashed pumpkins...

Rode a cool tractor train ride around some corn fields and saw some awesome carved pumpkins...

Found some go-cart things that were even harder to ride and steer around a track...

Another favorite of ours...the corn kernel pile. 

We played, buried and poured down people's pants :)

We went through their cool corn maze that was for the Election. You could pick to go on the Romney or Obama maze. We made it!

It was a great double date night ended by hot chocolate at Carlie's apartment and Taylor Swift music videos! I sure love having my sister live so close!