It's done!!

The baby's room is finally done!! Well...actually I have to finish sewing the cover for her rocker/glider and get a couple shelves hung up, but other than that the room is totally complete minus Baby. My dad made it over last weekend and got the molding hung up, which was the final step.

He did a great job, didn't he?! My mom & I made the curtain a few months ago. I love the colors in it; it reminds me of this crib bedding set in Pottery Barn that I absolutely love but couldn't bring myself to spend that much money on for a wee baby that wouldn't fully appreciate it because she's just too little to know. Besides, my parents found the adorable crib set pictured below for $24!! That included everything: crib skirt, sheet, quilt, and bumpers. Amazing deal!!

Here is the ugly blue rocker/glider that I am working on making a cover for. My mom is helping me with this too. We make quite the perfect team together when it comes to sewing crafts. She likes to do the pinning and cutting but yet hates doing the actual sewing, where me on the otherhand HATES the pinning and cutting side of it but LOVE to do the sewing. So when we work on things like this together it works out perfectly!! She's done her part on the cover and now it's up to me to get my part done which I am really hoping to get finished by the end of the weekend but I'm giving myself a little more reasonable goal to get it done by the end of the week which ultimately I guess is the end of the month. So you guys better hold me to it! ;)

The little brown jacket in this picture is my absolute favorite piece of clothing this little babe of ours has. We've got it in two different sizes because we love it so much! And do you see my diaper bag hanging on the left side of the picture? It's actually a knitting bag but I loved it so much and it seems like the perfect size for just a normal day out. My aunt got us another cute diaper bag that is bigger that will be perfect for when we are going to be out for longer periods of time and need to pack extra of everything. Who knows, maybe as I get to figuring all this new mom stuff out I may realize I need that bigger diaper bag on a "daily" basis!

Sorry it has taken SOOO long to post anymore about her room. I realize I got started on it in September and never quite picked back up until now. The important thing is that I DID pick back up, right?

I've been feeling great and quite honestly would forget sometimes that I was pregnant because I felt so much like normal ol' Kayla but yesterday when I woke up something changed. This girl must have grown about ten pounds overnight! (ok, I know that is entirely NOT possible but that's what it felt like) It suddenly became that every second of the day I can tell I'm pregnant because of this heavy weight on the front of me! She seems more squished too because her movements have changed and feel much more "defined." Is it possible for her to go on a major growth spurt overnight? I can barely roll over in bed anymore and definitely not without making a huge earthquake as Brandon likes to call it, which makes me laugh every time.

We got the carseat installed on Monday, wrote our birth plan a few weeks ago, got pre-registered at the hospital last month and have our hospital bags packed. I am now 36 weeks and we are definitely ready for this baby to arrive! They consider full term anywhere between 37 to 42 weeks. We are really hoping she decides to make an early appearance!

Spring Fever

I already have spring fever! Not only am I just ready for February to get here so I can meet our baby (next month!!) but I am ready to start my garden and I'm so ready for the delicious produce (even at the store) to start coming in so I can make those yummy spring/summer dishes. I'm tired of heavy winter recipes (not to mention all the snow). I'm trying to make some of those more summer recipes but the produce at the stores just isn't that great since those veggies & fruit aren't in season. Oh what I'd do to eat some fresh strawberries right now!

New Year 2009

Happy 2009 everyone! I had a few of my friends over to celebrate the new year on Friday. We had a blast! Most of the pictures I took didn't turn out because I was laughing too hard that I couldn't keep the camera steady. Here are a couple that turned out the best. This one even though it's really blurry was too sweet to not use.

We had a wonderful time playing Rock Band. Erica and I are addicted to the game! She comes over every Wednesday, which we now have declared Rockin' Wednesday, and we play our world tour with the band that we've created. We have recieved our own personal jet, a sound guy, body guards and so much more. I didn't think I would like the game when we first got it but I am SOOO glad I gave it a chance because I think it is my favorite video game of all time! Anyway, back to New Years.

And here we are trying to get a picture of all of us using the self timer on our cameras. We had 3 cameras sitting across the room. We'd push the go button on our cameras then run across the room to the couch and wait it out to see whose would go off first. It was quite an experience the first time around.

By the second time we were a little more prepared for what to expect so it turned out much better.

Later when I was telling Brandon our self timer story he wondered why we didn't ask him to take the pictures for us. I wonder why none of us thought of that! Goofy girls we are! I didn't get a picture of the dessert we had but Amanda made this really yummy chocolate & peanut butter dessert. I made a recipe from Cooking Light. It wasn't bad. I'm still trying to decide if it is blog worthy, I'm going to take a vote from all the girls and Brandon to see what they think. So be checking out my cooking blog cuz that's where the recipe will be if we decide to add it.

Maternity pants & blessings

Last week my mom & I had gone to Old Navy to find me some maternity pants. I have been able to wear my regular pants up until now but as of late all my pants seem to be getting more and more uncomfortable each time I put them on and button them all the way up. I found two pairs of maternity pants that fit great and I really liked. One is a pair of jeans and the other is a pair of khaki colored cords that I can wear to work. I was super excited how easy it was to find them...until I looked at the price tag! Each pair was $32.50. Now that may not sound like much for some of you out there but I just couldn't see spending that much money for pants I'm only going to wear for TWO months! I knew I needed them and was able to soothe myself a little by remembering that we DO plan on having more children so these pants WILL be used more than just two months. After I got home and was showing my purchases to Brandon I got to looking at the receipt and discovered that one of the pairs was 60% off!! What a blessing!!

Christmas

Christmas was great this year (not that it isn't every year, well, except for the one where Brandon was in Iraq but let's not get technical ;) ! We got to spend most of the day at our house and each of our families came over to visit; mine for breakfast (cinnamon rolls of course...it's tradition!) & Brandon's for lunch (we had buttered shrimp (!), roast, mashed potatoes & gravy, corn, broccoli and rolls. All very delicious. I'm kind of bummed I didn't get a picture of my plate.) Later we went to my grandma's house for dinner and the entire family get-together which happens each year since before I was even born! (My family has always had the same traditions since my older sister was little...before I was around!)

I feel like a little kid for wanting so badly to show off what I got for Christmas but I am just really excited by it all! Here's what I got:

My talented mom made me this which will be my brag book after our darling daughter is born. I'll have to show you the "finished" product once she is here and I add her pictures to it. The top two pictures are the front and back of the closed album. The next two are of each side of the fully opened album and the next three pictures are just some (blurry) close ups. Didn't she do a wonderful job?! Be sure to click on the pictures to get a better view! I am so proud of her!

While we are talking about the craftiness. This cute penguin cookie jar is what my sister-in-law made for me. She is about 10 years old. It says "Favorite Cookies" on it. She did a great job too!

My parents also got Brandon and I some cookware. I have been wanting stainless steel pots and pans for quite some time now and I finally got them! This set came with a steamer basket too! I've already gotten to use it and it's the most amazing thing ever! I've actually used every piece in the set! Oh and the bowls all have lids too which works out great for me because I am one of those people that doesn't make sure she has all the ingredients on hand BEFORE she starts baking and has to stop mid-recipe to run to the store and get the missing ingredient. Luckily I only live 4 blocks away from the grocery store! Anyway, these pans are fantastic! Thanks Mom & Dad!

Over the summer while my aunt was in town, we went on a shopping trip to the mall with my grandma. When we were at Bed, Bath & Beyond I found some dishes that I like, commented on them and moved on. Didn't really think twice about it, well my grandma did! She went back and got them for us! We have our first set of dishes that aren't hand me downs! It's enough for 4 people and we are gladly taking donations to get another set so if you are interested in donating please leave me a comment and we can work out some sort of deal ;) Aren't they beautiful? (the picture doesn't show the complete set. We had already begun using them before I started taking pictures...actually that is a lie. I took all the pictures before we used any of the dishes then when I plugged my memory card into the computer to start blogging away my memory card went caput and I lost all of my pictures and had to get a new card. So by the time I got my new memory card we had already used some of the dishes and that is why the complete set is not shown in the below picture).

And Brandon got me (drumroll please...) THE OFFICE DVD BOARD GAME!!!! I was so excited when I opened my gift from him! We started playing Christmas day with his family but none of them have ever watched the show so we quit early and haven't been able to pick it back up yet because we have been back to the daily grind. Brandon has been so busy at work. His shift is over at 6:00 but he is still working right now and yesterday he worked until 9:30 too. It's nice having him downstairs though instead of being away at the office working this late. I feel bad he isn't getting much of a break though. I know how much I like to be done with work; when my shift is over at 4:00 I am outta there! He requested New Year's day off though so maybe we will get to play my new game then!

And look at these adorable shirts my parents got for our little girl! They got them in the size she should be come summertime. I can't wait!

The greatest thing since Vans!

A friend introduced this to another coworker and I today. I don't think she knew what she was starting! The rest of the afternoon we couldn't hold a real conversation without making some sort of Just Kidding phrase and laughing our heads off!

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Fancy shmancy breakfast

When I don't have to work I like to make special breakfasts that require more "love" than just a bowl of cereal or granola bars. Usually on the weekends we have omelets or my secret recipe pancakes. Actually the secret is that I add vanilla chips to the batter. It makes for delicious pancakes! Anyway, I have today off and I've been wanting to try my hand at crepes for a while so I decided to experiment and here is what I came up with (don't mind the picture, it came out a little blurry):


The crepes are kind of a pain to make because they are so thin and fragile. I think next time I might just do store bought crepes but still make the same filling and toppings. If you choose to make this recipe it makes quite a bit. I halved it and it made about 8 crepes which was more than plenty for just the two of us.

Swedish Pancakes

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3 eggs
3 cups whole or 2% milk (do not use skim milk)
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
salad oil for frying pan or griddle (I used PAM spray and it worked just fine)

Place everything in a blender and mix thoroughly - first 1 1/2 cups milk, 3 eggs, 1 1/4 cup flour, 2 Tbsp sugar, 1/2 tsp salt & the other 1 1/2 cups milk; mix thoroughly then mix in the 1/4 cup melted butter.

Slowly heat a non-stick frying pan until a drop of water will sizzle and roll off. Brush pan lightly with salad oil (or spray with Pam).

Stir batter before using. Pour approximately 1/4 cup ino a frying pan - tilting pan so batter spreads around. When the surface of the pancake bubbles, turn quickly and brown the other side. Serve immediatley or keep warm while the rest of the pancakes cook.

for the filling:

I mixed together about 1/2 cup cool whip with 2/3 cup ricotta cheese and about 2 tsp sugar. This should be very slightly sweet and a little thick.

I also sliced up bananas and cooked them with a little bit of sugar on the stove.

Then I heated some frozen blueberries with some sugar on the stove.

to assemble:

Spread ricotta mixture in a line a little off-center in the crepe, place on some bananas then add a drizzle of maple syrup. Roll up then garnish with cool whip (or whipped cream) and blueberries.

Shrimp Update

For those of you that are curious from one of my recent posts, they did NOT have shrimp at the Christmas party for Brandon's work. I was thoroughly disappointed. All they had for meat was ham and roast beef. I think they almost made up for it with their mashed potatoes, the gravy was amazing! The potatoes weren't dry either; you know what I mean. Sometimes mashed potatoes are so difficult to swallow because they are super thick and dry. These had great flavor and went down smoothly!

Penguin Waddle

For some reason lately I've really been getting a kick out of penguins and any time I see something penguin at the store I stop to look at it. My mom has caught onto my recent obsession and got a cute little penguin mug for me. She said it stays at her house and I can enjoy some hot cocoa in my special mug anytime I come over. It's a special thing at our house. When we were growing up my mom would always surprise us with hot chocolate when we got home from school during the winter. It was always so nice to have a warm cup waiting for us when it was so cold outside. My favorite thing to do during the winter is snuggle up in front of the fireplace (with a nice fire going of course!) with a cup of hot chocolate, a nice book and a fuzzy blanket. The book could easily be skipped if I had some nice company. My mom and I used to just sit there for hours visiting and watching the snow fall outside.

Speaking of my mom, I thought I'd share a picture of a cute tree she has decorated at her house. It's a year round decoration she made and I think it's adorable so I snapped a picture of it when I was over earlier today to share with you.

Help! I need SHRIMP!!

I had several days of vacation left that had to be used before December 12th so I've been taking random days off since Thanksgiving. Yesterday was one of those lucky days off! I've been treating these days like I would if I were to stay at home permanently. I'm loving it! I'm getting house work done and not minding doing it plus I have some time to sit and relax a little which is really nice, especially being preggo I just have to get off my feet, sometimes even 5 minutes makes a difference. I also can make a nice lunch for Brandon and I. Brandon is working from home now! He does the same thing for the same employer only he now does it from our office at home. Even though he is working and I can't bother him unless its important I can feel the difference just knowing he's in the house here with me. It's so much better!

This is the time of year for lots of Christmas parties. The one for my work was this past Saturday. It was nice; my biggest memory from the evening was the prawns. Oh my, oh my! They were fantastic! The dinner selection was between Salmon with a white sauce, rice pilaf, & mixed veggies OR steak, twice baked potato & breaded prawns. Each meal came with a delcious salad and tasty rolls. I would have been happy if all they brought me was a plate piled with prawns (and the salad and rolls too). They were so buttery and the most tender, delicious things ever. The Christmas party for Brandon's work is tonight. It's held at the same place as the party for my work so I'm really hoping they will have prawns there tonight! I try and try to make shrimp at home and it always turns out chewy and has a slight crunch to it that really should not be there at all. I get pretty discouraged when it comes to making shrimp because I've yet to make it successfully, but that hasn't been enough for me to give up! If anyone has any tricks or tips, please, please, please let me know! Does it have anything to do with the fact that I always buy the bags of frozen shrimp? I make sure to get the raw kind that I still have to cook myself and not just reheat. But does it really make a difference to buy it fresh from the seafood counter? All I can think about are those delicious prawns!!