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Busy, busy and wonderful has the last week been! I did fail to take a single picture over the last week however.  I really need to get better about that.   Especially with this baby girl on the way.

Last weekend was filled with many Christmas celebrations and it even snowed most of the day on Christmas Eve.  Both of our sisters live out of town, but came back for Christmas, so it was really fun to see them.  I always feel a bit spoiled after Christmas, but we just have really wonderful families that are so kind to us.  My mom did save me by taking a few pictures while we were at her house on Saturday.

33 week belly shot with my sis...

This was one of my favorite presents.  If you can't tell (which is highly likely based on this picture) it is a little snow-leopard print one-piece outfit for our little girl.  It it warm and cuddly and has a hood with little ears.  Her coming home outfit I hope!

Bright and early on Tuesday morning we headed out to Faithwalkers, a conference that our association of churches has every year.  Knowing that I would be over 7 months pregnant this year, I wasn't sure about going.  I thought I would be really uncomfortable and unable to really pay attention to many of the speakers, but I am so glad that we went.  I can't really imagine better preparation for parenthood and other than being a little more tired and needing to take more walking breaks I felt pretty darn good throughout the week.  It was so refreshing to remember that what is really important is our relationship with God that created us and knows us and desires for us to seek to know and follow him.  So simple, but so hard to live out on a consistent basis I know.  I don't know if this is a really a new year's resolution, but I really want to focus on connecting with God in a real way through prayer and reading His word and making prayers much more fervent.  I know that everything else that I want to see in my life will flow out of that. 

Happy 2011 in a few hours!!

Our Christmas 2010

Merry Christmas Eve!  My office is closed today, so I am home cooking, cleaning, wrapping, apparently updating the blog, and potentially working out if I can find some motivation :)
Every year Adam and I pick a night to celebrate Christmas for just our little family and last night was our night.  I saw a recipe that I thought looked really good a while ago on Iowa Girl Eats blog: Bacon Wrapped Turkey Breast with Wild Rice Stuffing.  We also made a cranberry chutney to go with it and an easy romaine/mandarin orange/dried cranberry/etc. salad.  The recipe was slightly more ambitious than I usually attempt, but it was actually quite easy.  I don't know if this is a pregnancy craving or not, but lately anything with sour cream I am big fan of, so there was much sampling of the ride mixture going on in the kitchen last night :)

Cooking Together...

The spread...

After dinner we exchanged presents.  We had a spending limit this year since we have a new member of the family to be preparing for.  I got Adam a DVD of "the Mysterious Islands".  It combines two of his favorite things: animals + biblical truth.  I do believe he liked it, because we also watched it last night, but I ended up feeling a little lame with my gift, because he was so thoughtful!   I got a cute little newborn outfit for our little girl (that he picked out by himself), a picture frame for a new family picture of the three of us, a high school musical ornament, a CD I have been wanting and a letter.  Adam has started a tradition of writing me a letter each Christmas, which is honestly probably my favorite thing to receive.
It was a wonderful, relaxing night.   I am just thankful that I have such a wonderful man to start building a family with.  Next year there will be three of us in our little family!  Maybe even a fourth on the way - ha...I'm totally not sure about that :)

Okay....now I am off to pray that my sister is able to get here safely tonight!!  It needs to stop snowing :(

More Baby Shower Pictures and 31 Week Update!!

I failed at taking any pictures of my own at my shower, but I just got some more pictures from my friend Allison.  So for my own memory keeping and your viewing pleasure :)  more pictures!!!

Here is a belly shot of me at the shower.  I was 30 weeks along.

 Here is a picture of the "fire" aka a video of a crackling fire.  How fun!

Everyone chatting and eating yummy food

More friends chatting.  Notice my friend Julie in the red cardigan.  She had her baby yesterday!!!

I just love this owl pillow.  I registered for it, so I guess that is obvious, but I was very excited about it :)

 The tray of baby necessities....one of the games we played at the shower was to try to remember everything on the tray.

And a little update for my 31st week.  I saw this little survey on another blog and I thought it would be fun to fill out for the next few weeks until she arrives!


How Far Along: 31 Weeks

Maternity Clothes: I did find one pre-pregnancy shirt that still fits me this week.  Other than that all maternity clothes other than sweatpants and Adam's t-shirts to lounge around home in.

Gender: Sweet baby girl

Movement: I have been feeling her more and more lately.  I am supposed to start doing kick counts, but have failed at that so far.  Mostly, I just try to make sure that I can feel her being active everyday.

Sleep: I'm sleeping very well this week, but....I think it's mostly because I am starting to be exhausted all of the time again

What I miss:  Okay...this sounds really vain and probably is, but my CLOTHES!!  I really miss having more than a couple options of what to wear everyday.

Cravings: I have been craving everything orange flavored lately.  I bought a big bag of oranges to eat, had an amazing orange flavored dark chocolate at work, I bought orange/cranberry muffin mix to make, and I have been enjoying orange flavored teas at various coffee shops.  Ha.  

Symptoms: I am starting to swell.  I was really hoping this wouldn't happen to me :(  My ring is getting a bit tight and my shoes are noticeably tighter especially towards the end of the day.  Other than that...normal stuff.  My back hurts if I am on my feet for a long period of time.  Really though I think I have it pretty good.

Best Moment this week: I am pretty sure that Adam and I agreed on two different baby girl names today.  That is serious progress!

Baby shower!!

Last Saturday little girl H and I had our first baby shower and it was so much fun!!  I think that this was actually only the second baby shower that I have ever been to, but I am sure that is going to be changing going forward :)  It was such a great time though.  I really felt so blessed from everyone and their kindness to us.  We were given SO many cute, cute outfits that I can't wait to dress her up in as well as many other things that we needed and helped to feel a little more prepared.
My friend Allison hosted at her house and her house was the talk of the shower!!  It was so christmas-y and wonderful.  I think that she is just a great decorator and such a great friend too.

Here is one of the cute baby girl outfits we got.  Adam normally does not approve of Hawkeye clothes in colors other than black and gold, but he says that an exception can be made for the baby clothes :)

Brrrrrrrrrrrrr

It is downright cold around here tonight!!  Even the pregnant girl thinks so :)   But it's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas, which makes me happy.  Now all we need is a little snow.  Reason # 1,846,026 that I have a wonderful husband:  Adam helped me put up and decorate the Christmas Tree this weekend and pretended to enjoy it. This picture showcases my lack of photography skills, but here is our pretty tree.

I did buy one new thing decoration this year.  I had a coupon at World Market and I had to spend a little bit more to use my coupon, so you know I just really didn't have a choice ;)

Here is a picture of my 29 week belly.  Please excuse the post-workout good looks :)  While I was working out I noticed that this outfit does a very nice of showing off the belly.  Plus, I got a little scolding from my sis today for not updating the blog in a while.

We are in the third trimester now - the home stretch!!  I do not have gestational diabetes and everything is still very normal and good.  I am feeling her movements more and more.  I think there a few times that she has jumped over the past few days - once during the Iowa game and once during worship at church. This morning I read the verse in Luke about how John the baptist leapt in Elizabeth's womb when Mary came to visit her and it reminded me of our little girl.  Maybe she is just like her mommy and daddy and just get really excited about football and worshipping the Lord with music.

Thankful

"Every good and perfect gift comes is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights" - James 1:17

I am so, so thankful for my many good gifts (including those that I didn't have good pictures of on my computer:))!  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

28 Weeks

We are 28 weeks along as of yesterday! According to my weekly e-mails our little girl should have fully functioning lungs now - her last organs to develop.  If she was born now she would have a very good chance of survival, not that we are planning on that of course :)
On Wednesday when I came home from work, Adam was convinced that my belly had grown since just that morning.  The shocked look on his face of how big I looked was priceless and so funny!  I don't know if I was really noticeably bigger in the course of a day, but I have been growing a lot lately, so I thought it was high time for a belly picture.

Do I look bigger than the last picture??  I think so.

We are going to the doctor again on Tuesday.  I have to take a glucose test, which includes a really sugary drink and then a blood test.  Bleh :P  I actually don't mind the blood test - it the sugary drink that kind of grosses me out!  
Lately, I have been going back and forth between having an insatiable appetite and feeling like only very small portions of food will even fit into my squished stomach.  I am really hoping that for Thanksgiving I am in the crazy hungry phase :)

Meet my new bf!

I don't know if I can totally blame pregnancy, but I am so HOT almost all of the time lately!  Maybe I just have really good circulation?? :)  I am especially warm at work.  At my office the temperature is kept at around 76 on an average day, which I find a little excessive.  It is not uncommon for me to perspire while just sitting at my desk - not exaggerating.  So I broke down yesterday and purchased this little gem and it is making me a much happier worker!  It was actually the only fan in the store, everything else in the aisle was a heater - ha :)

Painting Pictures of Egypt

Pregnancy can be overwhelming at times.  As it should be really.  Entering into the most responsibility I have ever known should cause some reflection and some serious awareness of my need for help.  Lately....moment by moment...I am either so excited or so scared. Eek! I can't believe that I am going to be responsible for every physical, emotional and spiritual need of a tiny, eternal soul.  I know this didn't start when I became a mom, but I often think about how important every decision, even the seemingly small ones, really matter because it will affect her.  It matters what I eat, because she needs all of those nutrients to grow into a lovely and healthy little girl. My body is not my own. It matters that Adam and I treat have a relationship that is characterized by love, patience and respect, because she needs to know that she has a secure place to grow up.  And on a more important scale, it matters that I nurture my relationship with the Lord and work hard at having a soft heart and letting God mold me into a woman of godly character, because I am the example that she sees.  It really, really isn't about me any more. 

Those are just some honest thoughts, and I thought I would share and old favorite song that I have been taking a lot of comfort in lately.  I just love the lyrics to this song so much.  It based upon Numbers 11.  God had just miraculously delivered the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt.  They were headed to the promised land and they started complaining about how they wanted to go back to Egypt.  Crazy people! Did they forget about the SLAVERY part???  But, actually I do this too. When life feels hard or you are going through a big change it's really easy to feel unsure and just want to go back to a previous time, mostly because it is comfortable.   And I am going through a big change.  Not that I would want to change it for anything.  I feel so incredibly blessed.  There are just some worries to work through and it is good to remember all of the life changes that the Lord has brought me through in the past...and that every worry or anxiety...well they just aren't necessary :)

But Sara Groves says it way better than me...

Painting Pictures of Egypt - Sara Groves

I don’t want to leave here
I don’t want to stay
It feels like pinching to me either way
The places I long for the most
Are the places where I’ve been
They are calling after me like a long lost friend

It’s not about losing faith
It’s not about trust
It’s all about comfortable
When you move so much
The place I was wasn’t perfect
But I had found a way to live
It wasn’t milk or honey
But then neither is this

CHORUS:
I’ve been painting pictures of Egypt
Leaving out what it lacked
The future seems so hard
And I want to go back
But the places that used to fit me
Cannot hold the things I"ve learned
And those roads closed off to me
While my back was turned

The past is so tangible
I know it by heart
Familiar things are never easy to discard
I was dying for some freedom
But now I hesitate to go
Caught between the promise
And the things I know

BRIDGE:
If it comes too quick
I may not recognize it
Is that the reason behind all this time and sand?
If it comes too quick
I may not appreciate it
Is that the reason behind all this time and sand?

Going Healthy!

One of my desires as a wife is make food that is good and healthy for Adam and I.  This also now goes for our little one now too, since whatever I eat, she eats :)  I really don't cook dinner very often right now.  Our lifestyle is just a little too out and about to lend to that very well, but I am actually excited about being home more and cooking more once our little girl in here with us.  Another desire of mine is to be frugal  - thank you Mom and Dad for this good quality!  It just seems silly to be to spend gobs of money on going out for lunch every day.  It adds up to a lot of money FAST.  I do believe that I now have Adam convinced that packing your lunch is best.  We were bringing grilled chicken salads with lots of veggies, but it gets cold in Iowa and my mom's tomato plant froze - sadness :(  Plus, we needed to change it up a bit.  I am always on the quest for easy/healthy recipes, so I thought I would share a few that we have been enjoying lately.

Chicken Salad 
This recipe is courtesy of Kristin at Iowa Girl Eats.  Super easy, super good and packed with lots of protein and good stuff that the pregnant girl needs :)  We actually have been taking this recipe x's 5 and eating chicken salad sandwiches all week for lunch.

Ingredients
6 oz shredded chicken
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup sliced almonds
2 green onion, sliced
2 small ribs celery, chopped

Dressing:
1/2 cup plain Greek Yogurt
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
2 teaspoons soy sauce
squeeze of lemon juice
salt, to taste

Directions
Combine chicken through celery in a bowl. Mix dressing ingredients and pour over chicken mixture. Toss to coat. Serve! Makes 3 sandwiches.



Turkey Chili
Again, super easy!!

Ingredients
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 pound ground turkey
2 (10.75 ounce) cans low sodium tomato soup
1 (15 ounce) can light red kidney beans, drained
1 (15 ounce) can dark red kidney beans, drained
1 (15 ounce) can black beans, drained
1/2 medium onion, chopped
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 tablespoon garlic powder
1/2 tablespoon ground cumin
1 pinch ground black pepper
1 pinch ground allspice
salt to taste

Directions
1. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Place turkey in the skillet, and cook until evenly brown; drain.

2. Coat the inside of a slow cooker with cooking spray (or use a liner like me!).  Mix in turkey, tomato soup, kidney beans, black beans and onion. Season with chili powder, red pepper flakes, garlic powder, cumin, black pepper, allspice and salt.

3. Cover, and cook 8 hours on Low or 4 hours on High.

Wedding!

Last Friday Adam and I were in our friends Alex and Amber's Wedding.  Every wedding I have been in so far in life Adam has been my partnering groomsman and I like it that way!  Especially this time around...I have found my balance to be a bit off lately, so it was really nice to have someone to hold me up while walking down the aisle in heels!!  I was very thankful that my dress fit me, even though it was rather tight in the belly area.  That's okay though - at least I know our little girl is growing in there.  

Here is a picture of us at the DTC before the ceremony:

All of the sudden I feel like we need to get a move on with our preparations for Baby H, so we have been getting more things done lately and it feels good!   Thanks to our wonderful parents we now have our car seat and stroller.  We have also been making progress on the room we are finishing, so that I can get going on organizing/decorating the nursery.  Tonight I put my sister to work helping me clear all non-baby stuff out of the nursery.  Later this week I think we are going to again go shopping for a rocker/recliner chair.  I will have to post some pictures soon of our nursery progress...just don't have too high of expectations...I'm not that skilled of a decorator :)

25 Weeks

I am 25 weeks as of yesterday!! Only about 3 months to go!  A lot of people have said that they can barely tell I am pregnant by looking at me but I think they are C-R-A-Z-Y!  Our little girl is about the size of an eggplant and about 2.5 pounds now. We had a doctor's appointment this week and it was short and sweet because everything is going well and is normal. Praise the Lord!  I really am so thankful for that.

Here is that I am looking like these days:

Go Hawks!!

Football!!!

So...this is going to come as a big surprise to those of you who have known me for awhile, but I am starting to genuinely enjoy football...weird i know!

Exhibit A:  Yesterday, I watched the Iowa game BY MYSELF.  Granted, I did take a small nap in the middle, but the ending was kind of a heartbreaker and I had a real emotional reaction of sadness.
Exhibit B:  Last night after church I hung out with some friends and there were a wide variety of activities going on....baseball game...football game...playing cranium....and watching UFC...so many options!  I was most interested in the football game.
Exhibit C: I am playing in fantasy football league for the first time this year with Adam and I am pretty sure that I care more about winning my game each week more than he does.

So, don't worry...I recovered from the Iowa game quite quickly and I don't think it is even possible for me to become too obsessed :)  But it is really nice to enjoy something that my wonderfully hubby enjoys a lot too!
Okay...gotta go we have the Vikings/Packers game to watch!!

Life Snapshot: My Reading List

Do you notice a theme?? :)

2 Years

2 years ago today I married the most wonderful man and I am so thankful I made such a good decision.  He is the best husband I could ask for, such a hard worker and always striving to love Christ and me more and more.  Plus, he teaches me to lighten up more and stress out less, which I need :)

October 17, 2008

We are certainly not perfect in life or in marriage, but I love looking back upon the past two years and seeing how our relationship with Christ and our love for one another just keeps growing stronger.

We had the most beautiful fall day again today!  To celebrate we did a combination of some of our favorite things.

We enjoyed God's amazing creation of fall colors and fresh air

Chased around furry creatures

and finished off an amazing piece of chocolate cake!

Such a wonderful anniversary day!!

23 Weeks

We are 23 weeks along as of yesterday!!  My belly (and our baby!) are growing.  In fact, I am in a friend's wedding in a few weeks and realized this week that my dress didn't fit anymore - oops!  I really didn't think it would be a problem, since the dress is fitted at top, but flowing over the belly area. Last weekend I figured I should try it on to be on the safe side and I got a shocker - there was no way that dress was zipping up!  Thankfully, it was from David's Bridal and I was able to exchange for a dress a couple sizes larger.  I still have to remind myself that the fact that I can fit into less and less of my clothes is a GOOD thing and answer to my prayers that our baby is growing and developing.

This week seemed busy! Adam and I went to a class at our hospital on baby care...swaddling, changing diapers, bathing, feeding, etc.  Adam got to change a diaper for the first time. We also got to practice swaddling and learned a lot of helpful tips.  Don't worry, all of the practice was on a doll.  We weren't experimenting on real babies.   Adam was very adamant that I was taking good notes :) Although....I'm just not sure how much we will remember to consult those once the baby is here.  I have started a baby only journal.  I have been taking all of my notes in there and I plan to use to keep track of her feeding/sleeping schedule once she is here.  Hopefully it helps me stay more organized.  Plus, it's a really cute journal :)

I also experienced a little milestone this week.  Last night, I was sitting on the couch reading when all the sudden my bible jumped up a little bit!!  I quickly put my hand an my stomach and I could feel several definite kicks.  I have been feeling movement for a few weeks now but nothing so clearly and nothing from the outside.  I so wished that Adam was home, but she was kicking a little bit more today that he was able to feel.  I am loving feeling her move more and more! 

What I am looking like these days...

Fall is by far my favorite season and the weather around here has just been perfect lately!!  It makes me wish I didn't have to go to work so often :)  This morning was another beautiful fall day, plus I got to sleep in until 7 - about the latest I can sleep anymore.  I think that means I am getting old.  I made some pumpkin scones I had from world market and got together for breakfast with my mom, sis and dear friend Allison. It was the epitome of a wonderful fall morning.  The scones were so so in my opinion.  I think they could have been a little drier and needed a little more flavor....however since having the best scones of my life at lazy janes in Madison, WI I might be a little picky.  If anyone has a great scone recipe feel free to pass it my way.  

Apple cake and pumpkin scones...fall food is the best!!

Tomorrow is our 2 year anniversary!!  We are going to go hike around in the pretty fall colors and eat lasagna and I could not be more excited!

Registering Day

Today was registering day!!  Going into the day, I had my list and felt very well equipped...coming out of the day, not so much. I have spent what at least feels like countless hours researching...reading....asking and listening to advice about all the "stuff" involved in taking care of a baby and Babies R' Us still totally overwhelmed me. 

But it was great to get the majority of this task behind us and I did learn a few things along the way:

1. Even if you claim to not love the color pink, you may be easily swayed when you see all super cute pink stuff for little girls.

2. There are approximately 5 million differing opinions about what you "need" when your little one comes.

3. Adam is a little kid at heart and gets VERY distracted in toy aisles.  (and I think he is going to me a really great dad because of this fact :))

4. Stuff is necessary sometimes, but I need to remind myself of how incredibly excited I am to meet this little girl and that if I don't have the absolute best baby wipes or cutest wall decor it will probably bother me more than her.

21 Weeks

As of last Friday I am 21 weeks along - more than halfway! Yeah!  This phase of pregnancy is my favorite so far.  I am feeling pretty good for the most part and I have way more energy than the beginning.  I am also starting to feel our little girl move more consistently, which is sort of weird, but really fun and reassuring.  For those who I don't get to see very often this is what I look like these days. 

 I know it doesn't really look like much of a bump in this picture, but it feels big to me.  None of my pre-pregnancy pants fit me any longer, so getting dressed just isn't as fun anymore.  It is for a very good cause though! 


On Sunday, Adam and I went on a hunt to buy a little outfit now that we know that we are having a girl.  Finding something that we BOTH liked, was slightly challenging :)  But we ended up with this little number from Target.

If she is here on Valentine's Day I think this will definitely be her outfit for the day.

Ultrasound day!

The ultrasound appointment was by far the most fun of all our doctor's appointments so far!  The night before our appointment Adam and I wrote our predictions down on our dinner napkins.  I am not sure what Adam's prediction was based on, but I predicted boy because so far I have had three dreams about having a boy and zero about having a girl and I just didn't have anything else to base it on :)

 We were both quite wrong though :)  We are having a sweet little girl and I am not sure that I could be any more excited! The ultrasound was such an amazing experience.  I really wish that we could do it again.  It made the fact that there is a person slightly smaller than a can of pop growing inside of me right now much more real - so crazy!  At first our little girl was being a little bit shy.  She had her hands over her face and was laying on her back.  She opened up a little bit later and showed us her face and she also had the hiccups while we were watching, which I thought was awfully cute.
Here a few of the pictures...





I think the second picture here of her feet might be my favorite.  Its so cute!  The 3D picture is a little weird looking, but still cool!

My first post...

I am finally being true to my word and starting a blog!  I have been wanting to do this since we found out that we have a little one on the way.  Adam and I had our 20 week appointment and ultrasound this week.  It was SO fun! I will post pictures soon.  Well...as soon as i figure out how to do that on here and get those pictures on my computer.  More to come soon :)