Snow Days = Pinterest Recipes

The past two days have been snow days, Thursday was the blizzard and today was spent digging out. On top of all the snow, one of our cars won't start. Which doesn't seem like a big deal except we have a narrow driveway and park our cars behind one another. And of course the car that doesn't start is parked behind the working car. Mike spent the better part of yesterday trying to fix it, in the snow I might add. We gave up and called to get it towed. However, because of all the snow, it's going to take 6 hours before the car can get towed today. Which means we're stuck here for a while.

This is our driveway.  The snow is past my knees!

While on vacation, I did a lot of pinning so I decided to make use of my forced time at home and try some new recipes out. I tried 3 new recipes, all of them a success!

The first recipe was something to satisfy my chocolate pregnancy cravings I've been having,
Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal Balls. They are super easy to make, super yummy, and on the healthy side. I'm getting my chocolate fix and some good protein all in one bite.

E helped make this recipe.

Yum!

The second recipe I tried out was a quinoa dish. I haven't had quinoa in a while and when I came across this recipe I had to try it, Cheesy Greek Style Baked Quinoa.. Again, on the lighter side and full of protein and veggies. Next time I make this I will add more spinach because I love spinach and it cooks down a lot. I could cut back on the cheese if I wanted to, but did anyone ever say "Less cheese please?" This recipe was such a hit with Mike and E we ate the entire thing before I could take my after pic.

The third recipe I tried was Cookie Dough Greek Yogurt.  I made this for Mike and E as a snack this afternoon. I had a few bites and wish I would have made one for myself. This is another great recipe for the chocolate cravings without all the guilt of making a pan of brownies (which I happened to make today as well). Lots of protein from the Greek yogurt and I used mini dark chocolate chips for just the right amount of chocolate.

My boys approve!

Happy Pinning!

While We Were Away

We are starting to get our house ready for the addition of Baby 2. Because our house is cozy, (I prefer cozy to small) E and his new baby brother or sister will have to share a room. I wanted to redo the room so both kids could have some individual space. My mom offered to paint the room and add a few decorative pieces while we were away in Florida. That sounded like a fantastic offer to me so I told her to have at it!  After a few phone conversations with Mom during the week we were gone, I got the impression she was doing more than just painting. My mom is a talented crafter and decorator and we have the same taste, so I completely trusted her.  

When we got home, it was like I turned my house over to HGTV for a week and got a surprise reveal. Not only did she paint the kids' room, she totally redid it and did some redecorating in our bedroom and the living room. I absolutely love what she did to our house and I'm excited for more decorating to come. I'm also more confident that my family of 4 can live comfortably in our cozy house. Thanks Mom!


E and Baby 2's Room:

This is E's side of the room, right above his bed.
Letters recovered, construction decals, and road painted.

The canvas needs to be hung but this will go right above the crib for Baby 2 on the other side of the room.
Tree decal is new and Mom made the canvas with paint and stencil.

Reading corner.
New rug and Ikea spice rack as bookshelf.  Reused the elephant picture Grandma and Grandpa G took in Africa and E's old animal decals.

Our Room:

Baby 2 will sleep in our room for a a few months so we needed to make it baby friendly.
Moved rocker into our room. New rug, curtains, and canvas tote. Bassinet to come.

Dresser will double as changing area while Baby 2 sleeps in our room.
Mom repainted our old ugly brown dresser, stenciled and added new hardware.

Living room:

Photo collage above couch.
Used frames I already had and spray painted old frames from Goodwill. New lamps and lampshades and pillow.

Love these rules hanging in our living room.
Mom made this from a canvas she painted and stencils.

:

Our Florida Vacation

As I write about our week in sunny Florida, I'm looking out the window at mounds of snow.  However, if I look up in the sky the sun is shining and the sky is the perfect shade of blue.  It's almost like I'm back in Florida, except then I look back down and the snow is still there.  I also know what's coming tomorrow. Another winter storm, a predicted 3-6 more inches of snow.

My in-laws rented a house for a week in Cape Canaveral.  The house was on a quiet dead end street with a trail leading to the beach.  The house was geared towards vacationing families; fully stocked with beach toys, beach blankets, beach chairs, and a beach umbrella.

Mike, E, and I went to the beach everyday except for one when the temp dipped to 60 with some pretty strong winds.  E spent hours digging in the sand with his shovel or his front end loader.  He'd make occasional trips down to the water to splash and scoop water up with his shovel.  He would giggle when the waves crashed against his legs.  Then he'd head back up to our camp and begin digging again.  Outside parenting is easy, when Mike and I weren't digging with E, we'd relax in our beach chairs watching the waves in the ocean.  There was plenty of good people watching on the beach as well.

The majority of our time was spent at the beach, but we joined the rest of the family for some day trips.  We were about an hour away from Disney World but decided not to do the theme parks.  For the cost, Mike and I didn't think E would get enough out of it.  We did check out Downtown Disney one day.  It's basically just an outdoor mall and it didn't really feel like Disney.  But they had a huge Disney store which E liked since he is obsessed with the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  There was also some construction going on and E's other obsession is construction vehicles so seeing the crane and excavator at work was probably the highlight of Downtown Disney.

We also spent a day at the Kennedy Space Center.  E liked looking at the rocket ships and the various videos each exhibit had.  There was also a kids dome play area which was great because towards the afternoon, E was done walking though exhibits.

I was worried about how E would handle vacation, from the pane ride to being in a strange place for a week.  He did so great, much better than I expected.  The plane ride was fine, he was asleep within minutes after takeoff on the way down and slept for over an hour.  The rest of the time he was content looking at books and I was prepared with lots of snacks.  On the way home he was a little more restless, probably because we had to get him up at 4 in the morning to make our flight.  But he did well as long as he was sitting on Mom or Dad's lap.

As far as being in a strange place for a week, he adapted well.  Sleeping was a little rough, mostly on Mom and Dad.  He didn't get many naps in because there was so much to do.  And he was up around 5am each morning and crawled into bed with Mike and me.  Sometimes he would fall back asleep and sometimes he would just roll around.

I smile as I look through the pictures of our vacation.  We had such a wonderful time escaping the cold Minnesota winter and it was good for E to spend time with his grandparents and aunt and uncle.

On the plane to Florida

 We headed to the beach as soon as we got to the house.  

Days on the beach!

 Touching a moon rock at Kennedy Space Center

Downtown Disney - construction site and a big Mickey

 E chose Goofy at the Disney store

 Part of the fun was seeing grass and wearing shorts!

My Resolution, Goal, Hope, and Dream for 2014

I can’t believe we’re almost a full month into 2014 already.  This year I wanted to make resolutions that were meaningful and would truly make it a great year.  In the past, my resolutions always seemed to revolve around losing weight or exercising every day.  They also were usually forgotten by the end of January.  After much thought, I've finally come up with what I really want out of 2014 and broke it down into four categories; a resolution, a goal, a hope and a dream.

My Resolution:  My resolution for 2014 is to stop living in the future.  I find myself too often thinking "When": "When we have a bigger house...", "When we have more money...", "When I lose some weight..."  2014 is all about focusing on the present, living in the moment, and being genuienly grateful.  Because I do have a lot to be greateful for.  And who knows if  we ever will have a bigger house or make more money or if the weight will ever be lost.  So why live in the uncertainty of the future when the present is pretty great?

My Goal: 2014 is the year Mike and I become adults when it comes to getting our affairs in order.  We'll soon be parents to two children and we don't even have a will.  We owe it to our kids to have everything in order for the worst case scenario.  It's not a fun topic to think about but it's a part of life and it's the adult thing to do.

My Hope:  I hope for the contiuned health of my family.  Especially with Baby 2 coming in April.  I'm hoping my scheduled c-section is exactly that, I check in, get prepped, have the surgery, and soon after am holding a healthy baby.  

My Dream: We're in the midst of remodeling our basement right now.  My dream in 2014 is that Mike continues his reodeling projects and tackeles the kitchen this fall.  He hasn't said, "In your dreams." to me yet, so this dream may just become a reality.

Here's to a happy, healthy, and greateful 2014!

A Tale of Two Pregnancies

Just as all babies are different, I'm learning so are pregnancies.  The first trimester was very similar...exhaustion.  I have never been so tired in my life during the early weeks of both pregnancies. Thankfully, I had no major morning sickness with either pregnancy, just a little nausea here and there.

The differences began as I entered the 2nd trimester.  I started to feel Baby 2 move a lot sooner than I did E, probably because I knew what it felt like already.  But Baby 2 is a lot more active.  I feel like he or she is constantly doing flips.  If this is any indication of what's to come, we're in for a treat!  Baby 2 must be sitting right on my bladder, I pee way more than I did with E.  In fact there's times when he or she kicks and I'm afraid I'm going to pee my pants.

Heartburn, oh the heartburn.  I normally like spicy food and don't have issues with heartburn.  With E I craved spice and could handle it.  Now the mildest of salsas or pepperoni pizza cause me to reach for the Mylanta.  Spice wasn't the only thing I craved with E, glazed doughnuts and coleslaw were my go to foods. I would stop every Friday morning on my way to work for a glazed doughnut.  I haven't had many cravings with this pregnancy.  My one craving with Baby 2 is beer and wine.  I didn't miss the adult beverages with E, but this time around I find myself smelling Mike's beer and ogling over wine lists at restaurants. I know a small glass of wine now and then isn't the worst thing for pregnancy, but I'm playing it cautions and resisting. Only 3 more months to go and that Sam Adams summer pack will be mine.

I'm much more hormonal with Baby 2.  My mom even commented on how sensitive I am to everything.  I'm usually not a big crier but I find myself crying at commercials, TV shows, and I don't dare look at baby pictures of E for fear the water works will come on.  A few months ago, I was watching the movie Bridesmaids and I found myself crying through nearly the entire movie.  Was Bridesmaids meant to be a drama?  In my defense, there is some pretty deep friendship issues in the movie, it's not all raunchy comedy.

Now to the bump.  I thought I had a cute baby belly with E all the way to the end.  Baby 2, not so much. It's more like a lump, several lumps to be exact.  It's my second pregnancy and things are already stretched and let's face it, I didn't lose much of the baby weight from the first time.  So instead of a cute tight bump, I have squishy lumps.  I'm very thankful for leggings and that I can wear jeans and fleece pullovers to work.

With this pregnancy, I find myself overall feeling better.  At 6 months in with E, I was having trouble sleeping, bending, and just felt uncomfortable.  Thankfully, I've been feeling great with this pregnancy. I'm sure lugging a 30 lb toddler around has helped my body feel better this far along.  It's certainly not due to time spent at the gym.

In the next few weeks, I'll enter my third trimester and it's finally starting to feel real to me.  With E, I was reading everything I could to prepare for pregnancy, birth, and bringing home a newborn.  I had weekly emails updating me on what was going on in the womb and Mike and I took several classes.  With the second pregnancy, I find myself losing track of how far a long I am.  But with only 3 months to go, it's game time.  These next few months will be a whirlwind of getting ready for Baby 2.
                 

A Week of Birthdays

This week was filled with birthday celebrations.  Mike's birthday was on the 22nd and my mom's birthday is today, the 24th.  I wanted to make sure we did something special to celebrate each birthday.

Mike began his birthday by sleeping in until 8, which is a huge treat in our house.  E and I made him pancakes and sausage for breakfast and then we spent the day at the Children's Museum.  We went to the Children's Museum last year for Mike's birthday and we thought it would be a fun family tradition continue.   There was hardly anyone there so we were able to enjoy all the exhibits without dealing with crowds; there are a few positive things with my weekend work schedule.

           Having fun at the water tables.    

Operating the crane

Art Project: putting tissue paper in the giant
chicken wire fish.

That night, Mike and I tried a new restaurant for dinner, Red Cow.  It's fairly new and has become known for their gourmet burgers and wine on tap.  I of course didn't enjoy the tap wine but it's always fun to look at the list and plan for a post Baby 2 visit.  We both loved our meal, the service was great, and it's a fun atmosphere.  We'll definitely go back.  Thanks to Auntie Andrea for babysitting E!

Happy Birthday my love!

Mike's birthday celebration continues as he heads up north for some ice fishing this weekend.  It doesn't sound like my type of fun, especially when temperatures are in the single digits or below 0, but he seems to enjoy it.

While Mike is away, my mom or "Gammy" as E calls her, is up for the weekend.  We celebrated Gammy's birthday with a stop at Caribou, pedicures, and a nice relaxing lunch. It was nice to have some Mom/Daughter time and she's ALWAYS taking me to lunch or shopping so I wanted to take her out on her special day.

Fresh pedicures! 

It's been a fun week of celebrating and I hope my loved ones enjoyed their birthdays!

Kidless Days

It's too quiet, it's too clean, and I have too much free time.  We've been without E for 4 days now and it's starting to get weird.  It all started last weekend when the flu infested our house.  First me, then E, then Mike.  And of course Mike got it when I had to work.  I had already missed a week of work when I had the flu and I couldn't miss more.  Thankfully, my mom and dad were able to take E for the weekend while Mike recovered and I worked.  We were supposed to drive down to their house today so we could finally see E and spend the rest of the week with my parents but the lovely winter weather stopped us.  We will leave first thing in the morning because I'm ready to see my little E's face!

As much as I miss E, I do admitt that today was nice.  Once we made the decision not to drive to Iowa, Mike and I made the most of our kidless day.  We had a mini Breaking Bad marathon, took naps, and went out for a leisure dinner.  Usually when we go out to eat we hurry because who knows how long E will stay put.  It was nice for a change to just relax and take our time as we ate our meal.

But, Mike and I are both ready to put the kidless days behind us and have our little family back together. I'm like a kid on Christmas, I can't sleep because I'm too excited for morning to come.