Great News!

I have some wonderful news! I did my portfolio presentation on Wednesday. I presented myself in front of a committee of four. I sat at this table and they sat around in desks and watched me while I did a speech on my learning journey in the ECSE program. I have to admit, it was a little scary, but it wasn't at all as terrifying as I pictured. Two of them were smiling at me constantly so it made me a little bit more comfortable. They sent me out after I presented and they asked all the questions they wanted, and ten to fifteen minutes later called me back in. They said, "Cynthia, of course we feel it is unanimous that you are indeed ready to student teach." I was so very happy. Then they told me about my strengths, gave me some recommendations, and then congratulated me. I went out and jumped around with my friend Amyra and helped get her ready to go in. Since she had to sit out and wait for me, I had to wait until she was done with hers. Of course she passed because she is amazing. We went and celebrated after at Subway. She is student teaching in vegas too, so it will be exciting to still be able to see her a little bit. She is coming to visit Ryker after he is born too! :) Anyways, it was like this huge burden was lifted off my shoulders when they said I passed! :) oh, and my cooperating teacher for my kindergarten practicum sat in on the committee and she gave me a gift after. It was so sweet. This is what she gave me:
Cute huh? I love children's books! I must have told her or something. Isn't that so sweet of her? I've really had a great semester! :)
Anyways, last night was my baby shower. It was really fun. We had brownies (the most delicious chocolatey brownies ever), cake, and some yummy grapefruit soda drink. Not really sure what kind it was, but it was delicious. Ryker liked it a lot. It was very nice of my friends Kristen and Alex to throw the baby shower for me. They made it really comfortable and decorated it in a Christmasy setting. It was very nice! My friend Linda got pics of me opening gifts, but I'll post those when she gets those to me. It was super fun, and I got a lot of great gifts! Ryker will love it all! Also, thanks everyone! :)

I got a pack of 5 onesies (they are sports onesies, super cute), three hooded towels (super cute), four receiving blankets, a really soft blanket, two packs of baby wash cloths, two home made burping rags, and like 14 nursing pads. My friend Kristen made them. :)

I was so excited to get all this essential stuff! You can never have enough I've heard! I got 4 things of lotion (one is Aveeno brand) and 4 baby washes (one is Aveeno brand), a little sample of aveeno baby shampoo, some baby shampoo, and diaper rash cream (heard that stuff is magical). :)
I don't know why this pic wouldn't come up the right way, but I got a cute striped sleeper, a long sleeve moose onesie, a bib that says "Thank Heaven for little BOYS" :), a cute little green outfit with little footsies, and four burping rags! :)
Two cute striped onesies with a matching six pack of socks, a bib that says "born to eat," a cute bear blanket, cute little "things that go" book set, and little vans with dinosaurs on them. Aren't those the cutest little shoes EVER!? :)

A little lion outfit that says roar all over it with a lion bib and the pants are backwards just to show off the ROAR butt :) Also, the sleeper right next to it is REALLY soft and a girl in my ward MADE IT. She is so talented! It's for 6-9 months, but I'm pretty sure Ryker won't be that big at 6-9 months, but ya never know! :)
The little sleeper on the left is what Joe picked out right after we found out we were having a boy, a blue onesie with cute little jeans, and a cute little one piece outfit (an up close look below), and some cute little booties! :)
Isn't that so cute? I like the tie and the watch on the arm! haha!This is me yesterday after the baby shower as you can see from the stuff in the background. Over Thanksgiving break I just kind of popped out! yikes! It's exciting now though because people can tell. A little girl in Kindergarten even asked "Mrs. Gebhardt, are you pregnant?" I told her yes and that I was having a boy. She said, "I have a baby boy!"

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope everyone is having such a wonderful holiday! We had fun in Ogden and had a delicious (as always) Thanksgiving dinner made by mom, and are now enjoying our time in Henderson...we had Thanksgiving dinner (or should I say lunch) with Joe's Aunt Karen, Uncle Mark, cousins, and friends. We are so grateful that they were willing to share this holiday with us! It was delicious of course. Aunt Karen cooked her turkey for 12 hours... it was so tender and juicy. Delish! It truly has been fun despite all the homework I've been doing. Finishing up my portfolio and writing my speech so I can memorize it by next Wednesday. It'll be a scary day, but it will be exciting when it is accomplished! Plus the next day will be my Rexburg baby shower. I look forward to it! I'm grateful for such wonderful friends who are so nice to do so much for me! I'm so grateful for all my family, Joe, and Joe and I are both thankful for our baby boy Ryker! We are also excited to see Kiki go through the temple tomorrow! What an exciting day for her and her family! :) She is going to Indianapolis, Indiana--the same mish her dad served in! :)
Thanksgiving Dinner at Mom's! :) Thanks Mom!
The almost finished product! Can't wait to get this wide load out of my hands and into the ECSE faculty's.

Overwhelming!

I had my first mental breakdown yesterday for the first time in a very long time... I just felt so overwhelmed with school, my calling, and the fact that we'll be moving in the next month. It's so sad! I am really going to miss Rexburg, but I know that it will be much fun starting the next chapter of our lives. It's exciting, yet very scary! I have my portfolio presentation the Wednesday after Thanksgiving break. I am TERRIFIED...as is everyone else who has to do theirs this semester. They start presentations today, and I bet my peers will do great! It will be so nice once I'm past that point. That's the scariest part of this whole program. I'm not even scared to student teach compared to this! I have to present for fifteen minutes in front of a committee (including ECSE faculty, my cooperating teacher for Kindergarten, and some dude high up in the education department) and be able to show them that I know what I need to know to move on to student teaching. They ask me any questions they want after I'm done presenting, and I have to answer them right there. Then, they send me out for like ten more minutes and wait until they call me back in. They tell me my strengths, weaknesses, give advice, and then tell me if they feel I am ready to move on to student teaching. If they don't feel I am, I FAIL. Well, they'll just have me present again the next week. Usually people pass though. The next couple weeks they look over my actual portfolio (that I've worked like 10+ hours on--still not done). This is really all I fret about right now. For my calling, I have to do visiting teaching interview, which aren't hard. They last about 5 minutes, but I'm just starting them and I have 18 girls to interview... and half of them probably won't sign up or even show. I fear it is because they haven't done their visiting teaching, but we tell them that it is okay and that we would still like to talk to them. Also, we are leaving Friday at noon to go to Utah and then Vegas for the break. We want to start moving stuff down, so we don't have to worry about getting a UHAUL, but I feel like I have NO time to start packing that stuff because I have all these other assignments. We have a Relief Society activity Thursday, which I'm second counselor so I must be there. I have an intervention session for my Strategies class Wednesday night, and aside from this I have to do the interviews. Joe is studying for a huge test to get licensed for insurance because we think that will help him get a job easier when we move, and he has been overwhelmed too... he just handles it better than me. Other than that, I am so happy and excited that we know we are having a boy! His name is Ryker Thomas. Don't judge. We love that name and that is his name! We've decided. Ryker because we just like that name and Thomas after Thomas S. Monson. Cute huh?
We had stake conference this weekend and it was wonderful, but I just get so distracted by the babies and especially the boys now that I know we are having a boy. Joe was quite distracted himself. So cute! Also, I just love looking at baby clothes, but I need to just hold off until it's baby shower time! I'm hoping someone here throws me one, but I'll end up having one no matter what, so it's okay. It'll all be fun! My friend Jessica who is the Relief Society president found out the same day that she is having a girl. Everyone thought that we would have the girl and she would have the boy. It's always the opposite of what we think. But Jess and I say that we both knew deep down inside that she was having a girl and I was having a boy. Anyways, I really need to go do some homework. Love you all family and friends! :)

It's a BOY!!!

We are pleased to announce that we are having a wonderful little boy! We are super duper excited. She didn't print any pics that show proof that it is a boy, but we have some great pictures of his head! He's so cute! They gave us a DVD of the ultrasound, and I just watched it. Definitely a boy. Not that I doubted it because I'm pretty they wouldn't make a mistake, but when she said it's pretty clear I kept missing the screen because I was looking at Joe and talking about how surprised he was. He was sure it was a girl, but he is very excited to have a boy too. We both are! Ah! I can't even describe how excited I am! I think it's just the fact that we finally know to say "he." Ok, since everyone has been asking... we like the names Ryker or Ethan. We haven't really looked too much into it though, so we aren't sure on first or middle names or whatever. Anyways, we are so excited about our baby boy! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!

4 More Days...

until we find out what this baby is!!! We are super duper excited. Oh, and I just got a call from the doctor saying that they got my blood test results back. They said my CBC test looks good, but they want me on some additional folic acid. My red blood cell count must be low. Also, they want to do a CBC on Joey, so they'll be doing lots of fun things on Friday. The ultrasound will be the best part of course. Hope that everything goes well! Yay for our little baby!!! :)
Here's my updated baby bump at 20 weeks! I don't know why Joe feels he has to get me close up. He's so silly!

Here are our updated numbers!
We have 17 votes for a girl (Matt and Logan voted a girl too; very surprising)
We have 13 votes for a boy
We have 2 votes for one of each (twins, which is pretty much a cop out answer because clearly we are only having ONE baby)
Anyways, this is so fun for me even though it's a 50/50 chance. I still like to see what people think. Next Friday needs to come faster!!!Okay, so I might have cheated a little bit and angled myself to make myself look bigger, but I figure I'll look like that next week if not earlier! :)

What Do We Have?

So far 75% (6 votes) have said a girl and 25% have said a boy (2 votes). I don't know how many more people are planning on voting, but I guess I'll do another update right before we find out.