Happy Birthday!

My baby turned 6 years old on Monday. How did that happen? Because her birthday is so close to Christmas, we have her party a few weeks early, but we make her wait to open her presents from us until the big day. Happy Birthday AK! I love you!








You can tell by the last pictures what she was most excited about. A science experiment kit!
She also loved the locket we gave her. She's been saying she wants one to put a picture of her baby sister in. So sweet :)

BTW...ignore the date stamp in the pictures. It should say 12/20/10!

Belly Update

It's been a few weeks since I posted a belly picture, but here is today's belly one day before Thanksgiving:

I am 25 weeks and 6 days pregnant.

Here I am in the same shirt at 20 weeks:



Someone's been doing a little growing :)

I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!

Handmade Christmas

I really wish I was crafty. I tried to be crafty over the past year or so, but I ran out of steam when I got pregnant. Now I am starting to get my crafty back on. My plan was to begin making some things for friends and family for Christmas this summer. That way I would have plenty of time to finish. Well, since I was so tired all of the time it didn't work out that way. Needless to say, since it is November 18, I don't think my plan is going to work out completely. I still have some ideas in my head. I even have a supply list printed out! I have grand plans for AK and I to work on some things this weekend. I just hope I have the motivation. Anyway, I wanted to share some of my favorite crafty websites that have many great ideas. Maybe you will have the motivation to try some.

One Pretty Thing - I love looking at the pictures on this site. If only I could sew :)

The Crafty Crow - Very cute things for grown-up and kids!

One Hour Craft - I really love the birdie advent calendar.

Modge Podge Rocks - Fun stuff here.

Then there are always links to other great site within these sites. It's overwhelming at times, but I enjoy browsing. I hope you do too!

Cloth Diaper Hunt

John and I have decided to try cloth diapers with the baby. I was a bit overwhelmed when I first started reading about all of the options. The more I have read, the better I feel about it. I have found some great resources, such as the Cloth Diapering Mommies on BBC. They are a wealth of knowledge! I also came across Green Mountain Diapers website. That is where I decided to start with prefolds and diaper covers. I have ordered a couple of covers, and they sent me an All In One diaper for free! It is so soft and fluffy! It looks like this, but it is pink. Squishy! I can't wait to see this little girl in these cute, fluffy diapers :)

Lake Winnie

Last month we took a trip to visit John's parents. His sisters were in town, and we all went to Lake Winnepesaukah. I had never been, but it was a great place for kids! Anna Kate really broke out of her amusement park shell. She rode just about every ride in the park that she was tall enough for. The one that certainly surprised me the most was the OH-Zone. It's a 14-story free fall ride. OH-NO-WHAT-HAVE-I-DONE was more like how I felt! Once she got to the top, I got very nervous. She liked it but only wanted to go once :) I couldn't ride much since I am pregnant, so her daddy and aunts got to ride with her. Here are pictures!

I took a picture of her on the OH-ZONE, but it was nighttime, and it did not turn out :( Her favorite was the green frog looking ride (last picture). Just look at her face! We want to take another trip up there before Halloween so we can see all of the decorations. We're beginning to run out of time!

Baby Update!

Things are going well so far in this pregnancy. I have finally hit the "not so tired" portion of the 9 months. Although being pregnant at 38 is more tiring than it was at 32! I have a little mover and shaker in my tummy. The baby has been very active in the last 2 ultrasounds...wiggling, flipping, running...The ultrasound technician told me to buy a new pair of running shoes for this one! We can hear kicks through the doppler, and the doctor has to chase the little babe around my stomach when she's trying to find the heartbeat. Anyway, here are some recent pictures to share :)

Me at 15 weeks, 2 days



Me at 18 weeks...whew!

AND...our sweet baby... (drum roll)



GIRL!

It's been a while...

Oh wow! It's really been a long time since my last post. I had no idea. I've been busy. School recently started, and I am totally and thoroughly exhausted every afternoon. But the main reason for my lack of posting and exhaustion is this...

This little guy (or girl) has my body all in a tizzy! I have experienced morning/all day sickness that I never experienced with AK. I am SOOOOO sleepy and in bed by 8:00 p.m. every night. I am currently dealing with dizziness, and actually vomited for the first time of this pregnancy just this morning. What?? I'm 13 weeks along today. Aren't all of these symptoms supposed to be subsiding by now?

Even with all of these things, we are really looking forward to this journey. AK is over the moon with happiness. She's finally getting that sibling that the Easter Bunny kept forgetting every year :)

Summer Activities

I have tried to keep AK busy this summer. We've been visiting the water park a lot. She had theater camp for two weeks, and starts art camp and VBS next week. However, there are days where we have little to do, so I try to get creative. We decided to make slime the other day. It's a mixture of borax, glue, and water. Add a little food coloring to spice it up!

Motivation

I haven't had much motivation to post anything lately. I've been feeling very tired instead. So I thought I would just post a few pictures from our 4th of July weekend with our family. We had a very fun time!

Mary, Mary Quite Contrary...

How does your garden grow?

I am excited to say that the two veggies I planted this spring are growing! I have documented my tomato plant over the past couple of months. Look at it today! One red tomato :)

There are 4 other little green tomatoes beginning to grow too.

I also planted containers of lettuce this year. Fresh lettuce sounds so appealing to me. Look!





I think I need to thin out the lettuce, but it's so pretty!

What's for Dinner?

I used to make a very yummy chicken pasta salad. Everyone who ate it seemed to love it. I haven't made it in about 5 years, so I decided to make it the other night. I got the recipe from All Recipes. It is the best chicken pasta salad I've ever had! Here you go...

Best Chicken Pasta Salad

Ingredients

• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
• 3/4 cup steak sauce - I use Heinz 57
  
• 1 (12 ounce) package fusilli pasta
• 2 cubes chicken bouillon
• 1 Vidalia onion, diced - I use about 1/2 of this
  
• 2 avocados - peeled, pitted and diced
• 1 cup halved cherry tomatoes
• 1 cup Ranch-style salad dressing - I use Naturally Fresh Lite Ranch
  

Directions

1. Preheat an outdoor grill for high heat. Place breasts into a glass baking dish and marinate in steak sauce for 15 to 60 minutes.
2. Grill chicken until no longer pink and the juices run clear. Remove from grill, and chop into bite-size pieces.
3. To a large pot of boiling water, add bouillon cubes and pasta. Cook pasta until al dente. Drain, and rinse under cold water.
4. In a large bowl, combine chicken, pasta, onion, avocados and tomatoes. Mix in salad dressing, cover, and refrigerate until chilled.

ENJOY!

Sick Day

AK is sick today. She spent most of last night with a high fever, sore throat, and vomiting. Yuck. She seems to feel fine today, but the doc says it's strep throat. The first thing AK said was, "That means we have to stay at home all day." She did not say it with excitement. So to make her day a little more fun, we made these.

We used the shells we collected at the beach a couple of weeks ago. From the top we have a spider, a butterfly, a whale, and a girl (for some reason this one reminds me of Janice from the Muppet Show!)