Snow Day!

The weekend before this, we headed up to Mt. Lassen for a day in the snow. It was beautiful, cold (a chilly 24*) and even snowed while we played. We, and by we I mean everyone but me, sledded, built a snow man and had a blast in the snow. I had fun too, but I, of course, just watched and took pictures. I think I lucked out being able to pull the pregnant card though because I didn't end up with snow up my back. ;) We didn't last too long because the girls got cold. Actual snowboots and thick socks probably would have helped, but sometimes you have to improvise. Kayleigh got really cold and started marching back on her own. Ha. She is so her mommy. When we are over it, we are over it. We asked her if she wanted to go back to the snow the next day and she said, "NO SNOW!" She's even reminded me a few times since that she is not a fan of the snow. Perhaps we better get some snow gear before we go again. :) Campbell was a trooper as always though she was "Fweezing!!!!" They did have fun and Daddy built a great snowman.

  

 

Bumpdate 33 weeks

I'm the worst about keeping track of my pregnancies or taking pictures along the way. Forget keeping up with baby books. Hopefully my kids will forgive me. So...when I do take a picture, I'm a little shocked by my ever expanding belly. When did I get so big??? How am I going to make it another month and some??? How big is this little man?

I'm really looking forward to meeting our little boy, and we are pretty much ready for him. Just a few odds and ends to buy and a hospital bag to pack, and we are ready to go.

I'm down to two week appointments at the OB, which is so exciting when it is your first but seems less of a milestone in subsequent pregnancies. It is always nice to hear his heartbeat, but I definitely forgot how little they did at these appointments. Though I am very thankful we are both healthy and that they are uneventful visits. Surprisingly the old wives tale about the heartbeat (over 150 for a girl and under for a boy) has held true the entire time for all three of my babies. His has held pretty steady around 135. My blood pressure is low as always and weight is...ummm...well within normal though it remains my least favorite part of the visit.

In the meantime, I'm surviving. I'm so incredibly thankful for this pregnancy and this sweet baby, especially with the miscarriages we had before him, but I can't say I'm not wishing these next few weeks will fly by. As you can see from my picture, not only am I dealing with SPD, I am running out of torso. He has his feet and legs firmly planted in my right ribs. Thankfully, I have an amazing husband who has picked up some of my slack and two incredibly helpful and understanding little girls. Now if I can stretch my shirts to cover this belly for another month or so, we'll be good to go. Or maybe a Target trip is in order...for the sake of those who are graced with my presence...and this belly.

A post with pictures of a visit to the snow coming tomorrow and hopefully official word on our new duty station coming very soon. A baby and a move? Life couldn't be more exciting!

And for the record, that is not the start of an outie in the picture above. I have an abnormally deep belly button that has yet to ever go outie. I think I'd take outie over huge and stretched but you can't have it all. ;)

To Delicious to Not Share

So unfortunatly, we devoured them too soon to take a picture, but I had a few quick, easy recipes that are just too good to not share.

A CG friend shared a recipe for clean pancakes, though we call them banana pancakes. They are really good and beyond easy. We made homemade pancakes a lot around here for breakfast because I prefer homemade versus buying them filled with stuff and the girls love them. This is revolutionary for me though. It is 3 ingredients and takes less than 10 minutes to make. Not that regular pancakes are hard, but it does require digging quite a number of ingredients out of the pantry. Give them a shot. Even my non-banana eater (Kayleigh) ate them. :)

Banana Pancakes

1 banana
2 eggs
2 t vanilla extract 

Mash/mix all the ingredients. Cook like regular pancakes. 

This made 4 medium sized thin pancakes, which was enough for my two girls, but obviously it is pretty simple to double, triple, etc. I cooked them in coconut oil, but cook your usual way and dig in!

Now for dinners around here, I just started using eMeals new paleo plan. So far so good. It has definitely saved me a lot of time/headache in meal planning and grocery shopping. I do a once a month big grocery trip and then pick up fresh produce along the way, so my once a month trip takes forever in planning and shopping. This has freed up a lot of time and, more importantly, saved me from the monthly headache trying to think of/find enough yummy meals to keep everyone well fed and the list under budget. I have had to add in a side dish here and there to make more of a complete meal. If you've seen my husband and know how active he is, you'll know why. But there is ALWAYS plenty of nights where I just lack motivation to spend time in the kitchen preparing any meal, planned or not. This would normally be where we'd get fast food, order a pizza or get Chinese, but I threw together this meal one night, and it is my go-to meal ever since. Give it a shot. It takes practically no time and is as healthy as you can get. Not to mention cleanup is a breeze. Win. Win. Win.

Prepare this salmon recipe from the Pioneer Woman (Isn't she amazing? I have yet to try a bad recipe from her. She has a gift.) Pair that with steamed spinach. I keep salmon in the freezer at all times. I cook it on foil sprayed with olive oil for easy clean-up. It takes just 25 minutes from the time you turn the oven on.

Steamed Spinach

Make a foil packet and spray with olive oil. Toss in as much baby spinach as you'd like (remember to do a lot more than you think you'll need since it will cook down a lot) and toss it in the foil. Spray/drizzle with olive oil. Seal up your packet and toss it in the over on whatever temp your oven is already on (in the case of the salmon, it is on 400). When it is nice and cooked, sprinkle a little sea salt and toasted sesame seeds if you like. 

Hope you enjoy these as much as we do!

VOTE for ROM!

 

Politics are exhausting to me. I just get frustrated and my blood pressure rises. At some point, we all have to laugh at the ridiculousness of our politicians, but inevitably we must pick someone. Whatever you believe, GO VOTE! I have been shocked at the number of people I know who don't even vote.

Do your part and vote.

A Beautiful Ballerina and Miss Cheer Bear

First, let me start off by saying that Halloween is my least favorite holiday. Ever. But in the never ending attempt to give our kids an amazing childhood, I made an attempt at a festive celebration. I still have around 300 pictures to edit, including more pumpkin patch pictures, but I did manage to get the rest of our Halloween celebration pictures ready for their blog debut.

Without further adieu, I present to you the cutest little ballerina and Care Bear you've ever seen.

 

We had a bit of rain, but we had a blast nonetheless.

Earlier in October Grandma came for a weekend visit. She of course had lots of fun things planned for the girls. They did lots and lots of crafts and made these ghosts pizza. Grandma's are so fun.

   

This is before baking them. The cheese melted, and they were less ghostly but very yummy!

Halloween morning, we did school and then made cookies! They had fun making a mess...I mean decorating cookies. They were delicious, though we are now in sugar overload thanks to trick-or-treating and cookies. :)

Kayleigh's creations

Mommy's cookies

Campbell's creations

And a little Halloweeny Sloppy Joes. By the way, the Pioneer Woman has a delicious Sloppy Joe recipe. Mandarin oranges are a hit around here too. The girls would eat them all day every day if I let them. If you don't have kids, take my word for it and don't feed your niece/nephew/friend's kid/random neighborhood kid or whatever other little kid you might feeding too many oranges. It's not good. Even if you are handing them back to their parents, have mercy on them. ;) But that's beside the point. We have a very festive Halloween and the girls are already asking to do it again. Thankfully, it's a whole year away.

 

 

Bugs, Babies and Wish Lists

We have been MIA due to a fun little stomach bug. Campbell had a mild version the weekend before last. I really didn't think much of it until I was up all night Tuesday very, very sick. That's never really fun when you are pregnant. Thankfully Brett went into work for just a bit while we were still asleep on Wednesday and then came home and babied me and took care of the girls. Such a lifesaver that, for now, he has a pretty flexible schedule. I thought we were good to go until Kayleigh came down with it Friday. Poor little bug got the very worst of it. I think it just intensified as it passed between us. It is so very hard to tell a little one that she can't eat when she's hungry and her belly is doing somersaults. :/

Thankfully, I think we are over it, but not after I spent a week cleaning and doing laundry. On top of that, my SPD is getting progressively worse. SPD (Sympysis Pubis Disorder) basically just means my symphysis pubis (the middle of the pelvic bones that meet together) are moving a lot due to the ligaments all relaxing and are basically rubbing and clicking together. Yeah...not fun. I never had this with my girls thankfully, but I am counting down the days until this Little Man arrives. They referred me to physical therapy but told me that there probably wasn't much they could do. I also have a belly band that really doesn't help. Basically I'm stuck with tylenol and relaxing on days it is really bad, so we haven't gotten much done around here other than school (which is going great) and keeping the house in decent shape. This too shall pass. The doctor offered to induce at 39 weeks due to the SPD. Vaginal birth could cause more trauma to the bones meaning I could still have problems after birth, not to mention, I'm over being in constant pain. Assuming all goes well, we could have a December baby. Praying he decides to come before that or that the induction goes as smoothly as it did with each of the girls. I've been kicking it into high gear getting all the last minute things ready for him and I think we are pretty close to having everything we need minus the diapers. With just 8 weeks until then and Thanksgiving and Christmas in between, I know he'll be here before we know it!

On another baby note, there are such awesome things now that they didn't have when the girls were babies. I feel like they are still so little, but nonetheless, here are a few things on my baby/mommy wish list.

1. Nighty Night Nursing Light - The perfect amount of light to see for a diaper change and nursing session AND you can set it to vibrate after a certain length of time as an alarm in case you are in that mommy exhausted daze. It can also help keep track of which side you were nursing from last.

 

2. Little Green Pouch - First, they didn't have these handy little pouches available for store bought baby food when the girls were little. That little invention alone is pretty awesome, but being able to make our own food and use these reusable pouches is economical and so convenient!

3. The sugarSNAP Car-Go - This is the kind of thing that makes me giddy. Organization and practicality rolled into one. I'm such a nerd...and a mom...so I'll just own it and tell you how I NEED one of these. I will definitely be purchasing sometime before our PCS (military move...which we are praying will be a cross country trip). It has pouches to hold all the things you need with kids...spare clothes, toys/crayons/etc., DVDs, snacks, sunscreen, lotion, diaper cream...ahhhh...the possibilities are endless. You can take out a pouch to carry with you wherever you are going. Need a few toys to entertain them at the restaurant? Need some snacks for the zoo? It's all there in a nice little bag for you to toss in the diaper bag/stroller/backpack.

 

 4. iBaby Monitor - First, let me say we will not be purchasing one of these. I am way too cheap. We already have a cheap, practical monitor that works just fine, and this may be the last little one, BUT...it is super cool. 

  

My goals today include getting the Halloween pictures off my camera and getting them edited, so hopefully, I'll have a post soon with a cute little Ballerina and an adorable Care Bear. <3>