Baby Fever

GG recently turned the big 3-0. My mom says she doesn't remember 30 being a big deal but those of us in our 20's feel like that is the transition from young adult to adulthood. The beginning of getting old. GG should have already had that transition when he was called as bishop but 30 still seems big for him.  He luckily had Sunday "off" since it was stake conference. So he didn't have to worry about early morning meetings or interviews after church. We came home from conference and he was like "so this is what it's like to come home after church." He actually got to eat lunch and take a nap. I thought about throwing him a party but I was feeling pretty tired that week and he "says" he just wanted to relax anyway since he never gets a day of rest anymore (which is true). I think in the end he enjoyed his birthday and all the little celebrating we did that weekend.  Hope he knows how special he is....because he is pretty fantastic.

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I think Baby fever is finally hitting me and I'm getting excited. Until now, I haven't had any desire or inclination to buy or really do anything to prepare for baby. But good sales do help motivate me. :) The other night I found a "sit N stand" stroller on clearance for about $85.

I think that is a good deal...yes?? no? I didn't see any cheaper on craigslist. Friends who have them do you like them? I feel like several of you have them. This is something I wasn't anticipating buying. Originally, I was thinking Boo could walk on her own this summer and she probably wouldn't be interested in sitting in a stroller anymore anyway. But this way she can walk if wants or sit and it isn't HUGE like double strollers. I'm hoping this might be a good investment for the summer when I hopefully start walking again and get this body into shape!

I also got an awesome deal at the good ol' Younkers. They are have a coupon for $30 off of $75 plus my discount so I got all this for $40 with tax! GG isn't super excited about me spending money but I don't think I couldn't have gotten this good of a deal even at Once Upon a Child.  Baby Sister needs clothes since Boo was born in the fall and we have no baby summer clothes. I feel weird buying 3 and 6 month clothes but Boo never wore newborn clothes so hopefully these will work out for her otherwise we'll be running to the store to buy some newborn clothes for her when she's born. I guess I'm anticipating an 8lb+ child since Boo was 9lb9oz when she was born.

I'm even starting to think about clearing out some drawers in Boo's dresser for the baby and cleaning up that darn closet in her room-it is the storage closet for pretty much everything. So it just might be time to re-organize it again. I'm pretty sure I did right after Christmas but its one of those things where I'll forget I have things in there unless I periodically see it.

Well, just thinking about that makes me sleepy..so I think I'm off to my afternoon nap... so sleepy these days.  Good night. :)

A Long post of What's Up :)

Hey,

I'm just sitting here like I normally do while GG is away at meetings. I just thought I'd send a little note out to the blogosphere.  We don't have much to report in our little world. Boo and I just hang out most of the time. I'm thankful that most of the sicknesses are beginning to wear off out there. We've been trying to keep to ourselves most of the time so we wouldn't get sick. Thankfully, we've been doing awesome healthwise this year. I just remember last year being awful. I felt like we were always at the doctor every few weeks. That was also the time Boo got tubes in her ears. So we are feeling really blessed this year.

Pregnancy is going great...as far as I can tell. I just keep praying everything is going alright and that she is developing beautifully. I still have my fears, even though I'm this far in the pregnancy, that something is going to happen.  She was kicking and moving like crazy around the week surrounding Valentines. She has slowed down quite a bit but still moving. My mom says it was probably the sugar in take (because I  was eating a TON of chocolate). She would seriously move to the point it would make me feel sick and uncomfortable. It was weird. But hopefully, everything is still good. My niece told me of a story of her friend who's baby moved a lot to the point she wrapped the cord so tightly around her that she died in the womb. So sad. Needless to say, I'm feeling a bit paranoid.  I'm anxious for her to come so I can stop worrying about her but then I know I'll only begin worrying about her in a different way.

Boo is potty training. We aren't going all hard core, we're just kinda letting her do it at this point. She wears diapers to bed and when she wakes up she'll sometimes want the diaper off right away and changes usually into underwear. But when we go out shopping I put a diaper on her and sometimes she'll wear the diaper most of the day but still taking it off to go potty and putting it back on. I'm kinda letting her do this on her own and figure it out. We'll remind her to got potty frequently, especially if she is wearing underwear. But she is improving on knowing on her own when she needs to go potty, stopping what she is doing and sitting on the toilet.   I know there is probably a million things wrong with this but I've dreaded potty training and hate, HATE the idea of her using public toilets. I really do. Besides the inconvenience  (selfish, I know) the bathrooms are often disgusting.

Like the other day we were in Hobby Lobby, she was wearing a diaper but she said she needed to go potty. We walked over towards the one toilet bathroom and someone was in it...and it smelled out in the hallway. I couldn't make myself wait around for her to try and use the potty....especially since she had forgotten all about the potty and probably had already gone in her diaper by the time we made it to the bathroom. What do you guys do about nasty public restrooms for your kids? They put their hands on everything and it's just dirty.

SWITCHING TOPICS. It's been a LONG time since I've posted anything crafty but this is my project that I'm collecting supplies for this week.

 It's going to go in our bedroom. I've been thinking about making this mirror for at least 6 months. So I'm finally doing it...hopefully it turns out lovely.

I keep thinking I should be doing something for baby girl coming but I'm not sure what it is....am I missing something? Should I be doing something? I thought about redoing...or rather doing the girls bedroom but 2 problems 1) I'm lacking inspiration and 2) I don't sew ...and adding another 3) it costs too much to probably be worth it.  So we'll make do until they are actually in the same room and the bedding clashes or something like that I guess..... but maybe I should be doing that now because I won't have the time or energy??? how much lazy time am I going to lose with this new baby. I've seemed to have forgotten what it's like to have a baby! Oh heaven help me. :)

Well, this is definitely long enough. I make no promises of when I'll be back on here again but I'll try. :)

bye

Some Healthy-ish desserts- whole wheat and oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

I'm just copying these recipes from my old blog so that I can have them here and I just might pin them so I can find them easier later on too.....not sure how I feel about pinning my blog though.  

Chocolate Cheesecakes

This one is from the Taste of Home Healthy Cooking. This one if made as directed would only have 5 grams of carbs-Perfect for Diabetics. Of course I didn't use the sugar substitute and it only made 18 cakes instead of 24. So it came out to more like 18 grams of carbs which is still pretty good for a dessert. And they were pretty tasty.

-24 miniature vanilla wafers or gingersnap cookies (I used regular sized vanilla wafers)
-1 pkg 8oz reduced fat cream cheese
-Sugar substitute equivalent to 1/2 cup sugar ( I loved that they didn't just say 1/2 sugar substitute that way I could just use sugar)
-1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips, melted and cooled
-1 tsp Vanilla extract
-1 egg lightly beaten
-1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
-4 tsp confectioner's sugar ( I used more than that and added some vanilla to my cream)
Chocolate curls, optional (I didn't do this, it never works out for me anyway)

1. Place wafers flat side down in paper lined miniature muffin cups; set aside.
2. In a small bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar substitute until smooth.
Add chocolate chips and vanilla; mix well. Add egg; beat on low speed just until combined. Spoon about 1 Tbsp. into each cup. Bake  at 350 for 10-12 minutes or just until set. Cool completely on a wire rack. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.
3. In a small bowl, beat cream until it begins to thicken. Add confectioner's sugar; beat until stiff peaks form. Top cheesecakes with whipped cream mixture ; garnish with chocolate curls if desired.

1 cheesecake: 65 calories, 5 grams fat, 20 mg cholesterol, 50 mg sodium, 5 g carbohydrates, 2 g protein

Whole Wheat & Oatmeal Chocolate Chip-Walnut Cookies

My friend made these for me a few years ago. If you want a healthy cookie these are the best I've had so far....they take care of the craving but they just can't always replace a delicious unhealthy cookie but every once in awhile. :) 

1/2 c Applesauce

1/2 C Butter

3/4 C sugar

3/4 C Brown Sugar
2 eggs
2tsp Vanilla

2 C Whole Wheat Flour

2 1/2 C oatmeal

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 c walnuts (optional)

1- 1 1/2 C chocolate chips or raisins

Mix wet and dry ingredients separately and then together. (next time I make them I would probably cream the sugars and butter first, then add wet ingredients and then the dry ingredients). Add nuts and chocolate chips or raisins. Bake on a greased cookie sheet at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Do not over bake. Let cool on pan for a couple of minutes.

Happy News for a Happy New Year- Gender Reveal Party

Happy New Year!

We celebrated our New Year by finding out if our baby would be a boy or a girl. PS. we're pregnant. Haven't shared it on the blog but we shared the news already on FB.  We had some friends over (at my parents home since an apartment is not made for any kind of entertaining) for a New Year's Eve celebration and the gender reveal. I've been wanting to do this for at least a month so I had been scouring blogs and pinterest for ideas but we didn't 100% implement the plan until a couple days before. We were afraid not enough friends would be in town. The day before the ultra-sound, we thought we weren't going to do it but I found myself depressed thinking we weren't going to do it, so we went forward and hoped for the best.

I'm so happy with how things turned out. I just wish I had taken pictures- I was too busy running around and my camera decided to die.  I wanted it to be a New Year's Eve party not just a gender reveal party, I think we did pretty good balancing it out... I hope. ;)

These are the pictures I was able to get as people were walking through the door.....
At the entrance to cast their vote...we used their vote to divide into teams for the games.

(In the basket are fun size Hershey bars with the "HE" and "SHE" colored in pink and blue with a thank you note on it. I actually did a small party favor! Something you always see on the fancy party blogs but who really gets that done in real life? And I actually did a small one! Ha! :) 

The dessert table...simple. Didn't get the appetizer table. So much yummy food there...I loved how I stringed the gold and silver balloons over the buffet-super simple but it turned out festive.  oh well. (this is me documenting maybe I'll just remember it by reading it without pictures. 

I tried to quickly snap a picture of Boo and I using the photo props before my camera died so it ended up blurry....but you get the idea. They didn't end up getting used for pictures but the kids played with them. (I had a hat and Boo had glasses)

I had 4 balloons hanging along one of the wide entry ways into the living room. (they had numbers on them....4-3-2-1...like counting down but you really couldn't see them). Anyway, inside each balloon were the games that we played. We popped them as we went on through the evening. We played 2 truths and a lie of 2012 (I think they all seemed to enjoy that one), a couple rounds of Pictionary, Minute to Win it games, and Guesstures.  

The winning team....which ended up being the Boys (the ones that voted that we were going to have a baby boy)., got confetti poppers to shoot off at our midnight (8:30 so the kids go home and go to bed). 

I had thought long and hard how to do a cool New Year's Eve Gender Reveal. I saw on one blog that they did fireworks. How cool would that be??? They would have either pink or blue fireworks! So cool. Unfortunately, fireworks are illegal in Lincoln. I figured it wasn't a good idea to have the bishop blatantly disregarding the law in front of several people from church, so we scratched that. I thought about a balloon drop but couldn't figure out how to hide the pink or blue balloons from the party until "midnight" drop.

So I thought I'd do confetti but struggled with how to implement it until my dad on New Year's Eve made a confetti shooter out of PVC pipe.  We gave him the sealed envelope from the ultra sound tech a half hour before so he could fill it with the appropriate color and at "midnight" shot it off the balcony (is that the right term? not sure) that over looks the living room.. It was pretty cool and messy with all the confetti poppers that everyone else shot off plus the PINK confetti from up above. yep PINK. we're having a girl!

yep PINK. we're having a girl!

It definitely made celebrating the New Year more exciting by finding out awesome news for our 2013! I'm so glad so many friends were able to make it and play with us that night. 

A Few of My Favorite Things

So far this has been the best Christmas in a long time.... I know Christmas hasn't even come yet but everything is better with a little kid who is just discovering the magic of Christmas. And when they discover it they help us find the magic too that has some how disappeared over our teenage and young adult years.

I already posted about playing in the snow....I haven't really done that for several years...I remember playing games in the snow in college but before that who knows when! Not that I was rolling around in the snow much but it was so much fun to see how much Boo loved it. She's asked to go play in the snow everyday. When she gets out there running around in it, I love how she says how much she loves it as she prances around. 

Yesterday, we made a snowman, named Fozzi. I haven't done that for probably 20 years, not joking. It turned out dang cute, in my opinion.

Granted, it had the help of the snowman kit I made for my siblings and obviously one for myself. This is why before we went to bed, we went and took his face and buttons off. I didn't want any stupid people stealing it...not that it's worth anything but I really love it and don't want to have to make anymore. And lets face it, people are stupid and take meaningless stuff.  

I'm also in love with getting Christmas Cards in the mail and hanging them up. It just feels me with joy getting a card from loved ones. 

Boo doesn't get to go out too much when it is dark outside...especially out on residential streets. A couple of weeks ago we were driving to a friends house through residential areas and she saw Christmas lights. SHE LOVED IT! She was so excited to see a simple porch have a few strings of lights on them. I am so excited to take her tonight to see houses that have gone all out.

I'm loving this Christmas season. I hope the day lives up to the season...

I might post one more time before Christmas....maybe if not come back afterwards I promise to post then. I've got a few more thoughts to share.
Merry Christmas if you don't hear from before then!

Let it Snow

So this was Boo's first time really playing in the snow since last year she did not like the snow much at all. I'm really glad that I bought her the snow pants and gloves. Thankfully she can barely squeeze into the snow boots I bought her last year and didn't use much. 

Lots and lots of fun! She keeps asking to go outside and play. Unfortunately standing out in the cold isn't the most exciting thing for me. I wish the snow was wet enough to make a snowman or a snow ball or something. But she isn't board of trudging around in the snow and picking up frozen chunks.

Maybe I'll get some pictures of the projects I worked on this Christmas season....maybe by the end of the day or Monday or something. :)  I will be posting a few more things on here in the next week or so. :) promise.

Fall

Apparently fall has come and gone. Today I was getting out the Christmas decorations and putting the lights on the tree as I listened to Michael Buble's Christmas CD while the snow was falling sideways in Nebraska fashion.

Here are our picture highlights of the last several months. Ha. Sorry. I'm not good at blogging anymore.

Trip East with the parents:

Riding the Dells in Wisconsin

Birthday Pizza

Kirtland Ohio

Boo's Birthday:

The Blindfold: :)

Pin The Bow on Minnie:

 The Pinata:

 The Birthday Girl:

The Grandparents: (LOVE IT!)

Halloween:

 Above Trunk or Treating. LOVE THE YELLOW SHOES!

Getting the Christmas Tree:

 So cold!!! We gave up trying to find a tree in the "forest" and went back to the cabin to get a pre-cut one. 

Playing with the Beard that came in the bag of toys they gave her at the tree farm:

Well, I guess that catches us up. Without much commentary. :) We are generally well and happy. We are happy we were able to spend Thanksgiving with my parents and my siblings who came to visit.

Goodbye Fall.