Its a Boy!!!

We're having a BOY!!!! Surprise, Surprise! I know! It has been the running joke that all Mitchell's have boys! Well, we are joining that boy club:) We are so excited to meet our little guy! It was amazing seeing him move today! Seeing that heart beat strong, brings tears to my eyes every time. I am 18 weeks along and feeling great! I am really enjoying feeling his little movements and am excited to have Ben feel him move soon too. Now that we know the gender.. let the planning begin!

(Above)

His Little Legs:)

(Above)

His Little Feet:)

Here is a great profile picture!

He is facing you!

We Are Pregnant!!!

Hi everyone!!! It has been so long since I have updated my blog. Ben and I found out in November that we are expected our first child. We are so excited! Baby Mitchell is due July 24th, Daddy- to-be's birthday! Now wouldn't that be a fun birthday gift;) Now you might be wondering why my first post about our pregnancy is 16 week in. Well, my first trimester was rough to say the least. Lets just say that I didn't keep food down and a couple days before Christmas I spent many hours in the ER for dehydration. But through it all I kept praising God for what a blessing to be pregnant. On December 19th, Ben and I had our first doctors appointment and we were thrilled to see our little one on an ultrasound screen, as well as hear a very strong heartbeat! I was overwhelmed with joy to see our little baby growing inside of me! I am now a couple week into my second trimester and feeling good. I am still pretty exhausted after a day with kindergarteners, but I am keeping food down. Life is good:) Ben and I are so excited to welcome our little one into the world this summer and excited for all the new adventures to come!

Road Trip to Utah

Happy Birthday To Mer!!!

We celebrated Mer's birthday on Aunt Linda's House

Mom and Dad on the Heber Creeper

An old Steam Engine out of commission for the snowy winter

Burrr!! It is cold out here! Waiting to board the train.

Mom and I

We just had to stop coming home from Park city to get some photos of this view.

Mom and Dad called on Sunday last week and invited us to go visit Mer in Utah, So we packed up and were on our way the next morning. It was a great trip. We enjoyed visiting with family and wondering the sites in Utah. I saw snow falling for the first time, that was amazing. We also experienced some cold weather, the lowest we saw was 5 degrees. Burr!!!

NYC in the Fall

Ben and I in Central Park

This is for the FRIENDS lovers out there... can you guess what this is?

More of Central Park..look at those trees in the background!

We are in Brooklyn and have the most amazing view of the city.

Rockefeller Ice Rink

New York Public Library

Beautiful Statue of Liberty

Ben and I had the opportunity to go to New York in October. We have a blast. I was able to see all that I wanted to. Our adventures included: Chicago on Broadway, Statue of Liberty, Time Square, Central Park, Top of the Empire State building(not my fav.), lots of walking and much more. It was a great trip. I took over 400 pictures, too many to display on my blog.

My First Open House

Greetings from my class:)

Stained glass Butterflies

We have been studying the life cycle of insects...

Butterflies, Flies, ants, ladybugs, and bees

One of my students desks...

I wish I would have taken a picture

of the "Bugs! Bugs! Bugs!" book.

It was a pop up book.

"Painted" Lady Butterflies...

Two weeks ago we had our caterpillars arrived.

We have been observing their life cycle.

Of course the day AFTER open house the painted

buterflies came out of their chrysalis. Oh well!

My Garden of students:)

In the middle of the flowers are my students pictures.

My Bug Jungle.

Yes, all of those leaves are made by me...

I made TWO trees..Do the math on

the amount of leaves I made.

My first open house was amazing. It was a lot of work, but so worth the product. My students have been working so hard and the looks on their faces when they were showing their parents was priceless. It was a proud night for me.

I am a 2nd Grade Teacher!

Exciting news...As of Tuesday Morning I am now a second grade teacher at Julia B. Morrison Elementary School. Praise the LORD!!! What an answer to prayer. Many of you know that I completed my credential program last December and began to sub in the La Mirada Norwalk School District. I started giving out my resume to any school district that would take it, but did not get any responses. During the summer I decided to begin placing my resume with companies outside of the education realm in hopes to get a full time job. At the end of July I recieved a phone call from a private charter school for an administrative assistant position. I interviewed with two people but I did not get the job. When I realized I did not get the job, my heart sank. So many questions ran through my head throughout the summer: "I am I really suppose to teach? Should I move on to another profession? Why have I sacrifice to become a teacher, when there is not a job for me? Why haven't I heard from any district?"
By the end of September I had many teachers calling me to sub. I finially had enough work at Morrison that I worked 3-5 days a week. About two weeks ago the principal at Morrison pulled me into her office to talk. She told me that something was in the works for me and that I should not make any long term plans. My heart jumped. Could it be my turn? Last Tuesday morning I walked onto Morrison's campus ready to sub for the rest of the week, not realizing that God had a bigger plan for me. Marsha pulled into her office again. She looked at me and said, "Dawnel you have a job for the rest of the year! There is a second grade opening and We would like for you to fill that position." All I kept thinking the rest of the day was, "Wow!! I have a job for the rest of the year! Thank you God!" I have a great challenge ahead of me- Get these twenty students up to grade level by June. I am excited to conquer this challenge and am looking forward to teaching these children. Thank you all for your prayers.

I donated my hair!!! Here is my new "Do"

Close up of the new hair do
just one of the ponytails that I sent off.. others were a little so short. It doesn't look like a lot of hair but if you know anything about my hair..this ponytail has a ton of hair in it:)

The layers are different lengths on each side of my face.

Hair do from the back...its short!!

I did it!!! I cut 10" off my hair and donated the hair to Locks of Love. A couple of weeks ago I started to think about cutting my hair short. Once I started thinking about cutting my hair, I decided that I wanted to donate my hair to a organization that make wigs for sick children. I research the guidelines for donating hair and realized that I met all the qualifications for donating to Locks of love. So...I made my hair appointment for Monday September 7.

Monday I woke up and went straight to Long Beach to my hair appointment. I put my hair in a ponytail and Diane(Hair Stylist) Cut it off! It was the most amazing feeling, I just kept picturing some little girl being able to walk around with a wig and feel better because she had hair:) Now I posted some pictures, but they just don't do the hair style justice... I really love the hair cut though!! I encourage anyone who is able to, to donate at least once in your life.. it feels great to do something for someone else!