May 30, 2011

Finished nursery

Here are pics of our finished nursery... please keep in mind that it is our nursery, guest room, AND office :)









Belly mover

So last night, Carl and I were hanging out reading and Miles decided to wake up. Here is my belly normally (well, as normal as can be for 34 weeks)


And here is what it looks like after Miles decided there was not enough room, so he would make some:



Yes, that big bulge on the left is  him, pushing out his little baby body as hard as he could.

My belly looked like a lopsided alien tummy. 

Carl and I had a good laugh and gave my belly a rub. 

Miles moved back in and quit pushing (for about 2 minutes and then proceeded to do it on and off for about an hour).

I have decided that my little boy is going to be a bit stubborn, but that's ok with me :)

May 27, 2011

Dinner time

Last night, Carl and I made the most AMAZING dinner! (although he would say I made it and he assisted a bit)

 We made........

Alfredo! It was so easy and the best alfredo I have had in a really long time (maybe even the best I have ever had... yes, it was that good!)

Here is the recipe I followed. I used whole wheat pasta, added steamed broccoli and chopped fresh tomatoes, AND Carl made Parmesan chicken that I chopped up and added as well. It turned out SO good! Good enough that I commented to Carl, " this is the kind of dinner where you want to lick your bowl." 

The only down side was it used a lot of dishes..... although I think we could have used less if I had made the chicken earlier or made it in a skillet instead of on the grill. The dishes that got used was our little grill for the chicken, a blender for the sauce, my steamer pot (which is 2 pots... one filled with water and another with holes in it to steam veggies) with the noodles cooking in the water under the steaming broccoli, and a skillet. So, I ended up with a sink full of dishes to do this morning... BUT it was TOTALLY worth it! Sooo... If you want to try the guiltless alfredo sauce sometime, let me know what you thought of it!


I thought I would also include a pic I took yesterday of my ever growing belly and new haircut!!! What do you think?

May 24, 2011

My week in Farmington

I spent all of last week visiting in Farmington and thought I would share the highlights of my trip

- Lauren (who hosted my baby shower, along with my mom) ran me around! We went to tons of stores (target, party stores, the mall, cake stores, ect), getting the baby shower stuff bought and put together.

- Carl stayed home until late Friday night and although I missed him everyday, I slept better than I had been for the last month and a half.

- I often forgot to eat at my normally scheduled snack time and ended up really hungry for lunch almost everyday.

- I cut my hair on Tuesday. I decided to be radical and just go for what I thought would look good....this included bangs. I haven't had bangs since I was 17 but I think they look good. I also colored my hair really dark, but I think it is the closest to my natural color that I have been in a long time. Now I just hope I don't regret this choice when I'm in labor or when Miles gets here.

- Lauren and I ate California Pizza Kitchen's pizza and appetizer and it was so good! I was very surprised that it tasted more like a delivery pizza than most of the frozen varieties and the dip was SO good!





- Thursday it rained so hard that I took a "stay at home day" to rest and recoup from all the fun Lauren and I were having. The rain lasted right up until the baby shower.

-Saturday came too fast! It seemed like the week went by and all of a sudden it was baby shower day!

- We had a bunch of great food, friends, and family that made my baby shower so fun. It was a great day,  full of love and support. 

- So many people volunteered to help clean up that it only took us 30 minutes to undo what had taken Lauren and I days to accomplish. 

- Sunday morning Carl and I went on a photo shoot with his sister Linley. She took so many pictures and even though I have only seen 10, I know they are all going to be so great. I can't wait to print them and put them all around the house. I will definitely be posting the pics whenever I get them.

- I am now even more excited for Miles to get here because Lin is going to take his pictures too!! So we will have super cute pics of our new little one :)

- We finally got home Sunday night around 8:30 pm. I decided this was my las time traveling while pregnant. It is too hard once you get this far along to be comfortable in a car. 3 hours feels like forever and everything ends up super cramped and uncomfortable... thank goodness it was only 3 hours :)

- I already have everything unpacked and put away... this includes all the baby stuff. It was fun to go through it all and realize that I am so close to seeing my son...  5 to 8 weeks left. That's it... 5-8 weeks and I won't be pregnant anymore and my baby will be here. Honestly that is a bit scary and sad, but happy and exciting at the same time.

- I promise to update soon with more pictures :)

May 17, 2011

In Farmington

I am now in Farmington, spending the week with my mom, and getting ready for the baby shower this weekend. Yesterday, was a very busy day filled with a lot!

It started with waking up and watching some t.v. while cleaning out my mom's linen closet. I thought that since she is being SO generous with all the baby shower stuff, that I would help to repay her by organizing some of her home (these are things that she asks me to do almost every time I visit... and if I have time, I usually will organize whatever she needs). I took some pictures and here it is...


This is the before... and after I had already taken out the bunch of blankets in the next picture


All the stuff I took out at first (trust me there was A LOT more I took out) 
The after! I organized the blankets, sheets, towels, ect

The bottom of the closet all organized.

After cleaning out this closet, I went over to visit Lauren. We went out to eat, ordered the cake, went to the party store to get the plates and decorations, went to Sam's club so she could get a few things, went to the college, and then hung out at her house... it was a bunch of fun, but also bunches of errands! I even went to the grocery store afterward to get some things I needed. 

It was a long day yesterday but a lot of fun... and now I am one day closer to seeing family and having the baby shower! 

May 13, 2011

Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

Well, I posted this earlier, but blogger deleted it so I am going to blog about it again :)
I found this recipe and decided to give it a try! The only thing I did differently was I used a gluten free cake (I did it only because this was the only cake without trans fat!). 

Here is how my lemon poppy seed cake/bread turned out!

While I was making the batter, I found that I actually have a bunt pan! LOL... it does make a pretty cake though, right?

Look at that golden outside crust!! YUM!

The great thing about this cake is it is so moist! Having the pudding in the mix makes this cake super moist and yummy.... the only thing I would do differently is to put in a bit more lemon. Maybe I'll try lemon extract or some extra lemon zest for the next cake (and I am sure that I will be making this again.. Carl loves it!)

May 10, 2011

What did I do today?

Wanna see what I did today?

before


after

lookin good!

Yup... that's right folks. I painted my toenails. This might be a small thing to most of you, but for a 7 months pregnant woman this is a  BIG deal!

Hope it lasts to my baby shower ... honestly I hope it will last all the way to delivery because I don't think I can do it again :) LOL

7 months today!

I had another pregnancy visit and thought I would update all of you!

- I gained another 2 lbs in the last 2 weeks and am up to +7 lbs for this pregnancy.

-Miles is no longer measuring SUPER big. He is only a little bigger than he should be... measuring 34 cm at 31 weeks.

-Margot recommends that, as of now, we don't need another ultrasound to check for growth!

-Margot is very confident that Miles is head down. She felt my belly and said that at that moment, he was facing my spine with his head down... perfect position!

-I am officially having trouble sleeping. I can't get comfortable at night. My hips ache as soon as I lay down and no amount of pillows between my legs help.

-I have started sleeping on my back with a little pillow under one hip. This is the only way to relieve the pressure from my hips, but causes mega back pain when I wake up because my spine is curved funny all night long.

-The baby shower is less than 2 weeks away and I can't wait to see family and friends.... just don't be too surprised at the belly size... it is big!


speaking of belly... here it is!

To sum it up, everything is going really well. I am so excited for the baby shower... it is all I think about. Carl is doing good in school and keeping busy. I make sure he has a good breakfast, lunch, and dinner... but I don't mind. It is nice to be able to help him and know that all the house stuff is getting done. My home binder is doing well too... planning the meals ahead of time and shopping on Monday for the whole week is really working out! Soooo.... everything is great! I feel good...although I am feeling huge and am now sporing a few stretch marks on the bottom of my belly :(  and needing naps due to lack of nighttime sleep.

May 9, 2011

It's that time again

time to put in our summer garden! We always wait until at least Mother's Day weekend to plant... otherwise, there is a chance of frost and you don't want to kill the plants! We have been waiting and waiting through a month of warm weather and I'm glad we did because April was one of the most windy months EVER in our state. I think it actually took the record (or a close #2) for the windiest month.

So, on Saturday we decided to go to Low's and Home Depot to get some plants. Carl spent the afternoon tilling the ground (while I napped due to NO sleep Friday night) and we planted together that evening. Here is this summer's line-up:

-cherry tomatoes
-jalapeños
-strawberries
-radishes (these we are trying from seeds)
- snap peas (seeds also)
-lettuce (seeds)
-basil
-mint
- cilantro (seeds)
-and what we think is a zucchini  plant

You might be wondering.... how do we not know what a plant is? Well, this is why.... we have been composting our fruit and veggie scraps for about a year because we have bins in the garage with worms that make the best dirt out of kitchen scraps... well, Carl got the idea to plant some cilantro in a pot from some seeds we had with only compost as the soil.
Our compost is full of (mostly broken down) seeds and peelings from everything we eat. When our cilantro grew, so did a plant that looks like it could be a zucchini plant..... or it could be something totally different, lol. All we know is it was something that we have eaten in the past and that we composted the seeds of. So, we planted this plant in the garden, hoping it is zucchini, and replanted some cilantro from seeds into another container (with planting soil this time).


The Jezzie... this is where she laid, since I was sitting in the only chair planing herbs in our pots
Doesn't she look so pathetic? LOL

These are our compost worms. They are amazing... they make the grossest things into the most amazing smelling dirt. It ends up smelling like the mountains. I love composting!



This is Carl... he is putting that big scoop of worms into our outdoor composter. We had to move the worms to our garage for the winter so they wouldn't freeze, but now that it is warm enough, back outside they go!

We are hoping to make lots of salsa this summer with our garden and hopefully the plants will survive the wind for the next few weeks. Also, I will try to take pictures of our actual garden, but the plants are so small they are hard to see and some of them are still seeds, so it will have to wait a few weeks.

On a brighter note, we planted a raspberry bush last year and it is growing strong now! It has tons of flowers and we are hoping that they might turn into actual raspberries!

May 8, 2011

pancakes

Here is a very quick post.... about pancakes.

Carl and I have tried so many pancake recipes. They never taste like the kind you get at a restaurant. I am almost always disappointed. NOT THIS TIME!!!!

I looked up a recipe for IHOP pancakes and came across this website. I read the ingredients while Carl put it all together and it took about 5 minutes. That's it.... pancake mix in 5 minutes. The only thing we did differently, was we didn't have buttermilk so we made our own with lemon and milk.... and we added a tsp of vanilla.

These were the most fluffy, moist, yummy pancakes ever. They really did taste exactly like the pancakes you would get at IHOP, Village Inn, or Dennys. They were so good! And so easy! It made just enough for Carl and I to get full, plus about 4 more for leftovers. We even added mini chocolate chips to a few....YUM!


My pancake! 

Soooo... if you are like me (craving good pancakes without having to pay $7 a plate), try the recipe! You will not regret it!

May 6, 2011

Fries that are good for you!


Last night for dinner, I decided to try a recipe that I found. It was for zucchini fries! I thought it would be so easy to make BBQ crockpot chicken and have these as a side.. Easy Peasy...

I started the chicken at like 2- put chicken in crockpot, add about a bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce, turn on low. That's it! It cooks itself and makes your home smell amazing.

Then, around 5 I cut up 3 zucchinis into long strips, tossed them in with an egg, and put them into a ziplock baggie of shake and bake (plus Parmesan cheese). Then baked at 450 for 12 min (turning them at 7 min).

It was so easy to make and so yummy. Carl even commented that the dinner was amazing and we ate all the zucchini fries! They tasted like the fried zucchini you can get at resaturates, but better and more healthy! We used buffalo shake and bake, so ours turned out a bit spicy but they were so good... especially dipped in ranch!

I didn't take any pictures, but here is a pic from the website I found this recipe on... and if you want to read the whole recipe, click here... you can see the recipe, the picture, and read about TONS of good recipes.

Picture taken from this page

I really recommend that the next time you have zucchini, you try this recipe. You won't be disappointed... I know I will be making these fries a ton this summer with the zucchinis from our garden.

May 3, 2011

Cookies and Hiccups

COOKIES!

Today I decided to use the organic peanut butter that I had left over to make cookies! I found this recipe and only added vanilla extract. They were easy to make and really tasty!


Here are the cookies I made... they are so good and soft and a bit crumbly.

Here is a close up!

Sorry the pics are bit blueish but that is due to my funny phone. They are really good! I am hoping to give a few to my neighbors along with the lemon bars I made a few days ago (the lemon bars were a bit weird to make and turned out only ok or I would share that recipe too).

NOW... ON TO HICCUPS!

Yesterday, while talking to Carl, Miles started moving. Carl put his hand on my belly and we realized that the movements were too regular and too small to be kicks. That's when we realized that they were hiccups! I have been waiting to feel his hiccups, and figured that he was just too young to have them yet. It was so exciting to finally feel him hiccup! He kept up the hiccuping for around 45 minutes... every few seconds, just a little bump in the same spot. It was really neat to feel and GREAT that Carl got to be here when I felt it for the first time.