Ice Ice Baby

I know I started this week of with Snowcember, but now we have an ice storm in the works. Well last night was ice, but now it's rain that will turn to ice pellets again this afternoon oh and ALL weekend. Nice. 

At least it's Friday!! Here is my 5 highlights of the week! 

We are hoping to start the bathroom renovation after Christmas Day next week! We still have no definite plan yet, which scares me, but demolition is half the process right?? 

I got dressed last night for the first time this week!! You can call me a bum! I just wasn't feeling it this week and I had nowhere to go. So I wore lounge clothes mostly and only pajama's one day. 

We went for dinner with friends last night and the waitress brought ALL of our food out at once. No appetizers first, everything. Our table was FULL!! 

 

The Christmas baking is done, aside from the tarts which will happen tomorrow, assuming we make it to the grocery store tonight. 

I am starting my day off dressed today! 

Apparently Instagram cut off my legs, but this is paired up with some grey leggings. 

I am looking forward to celebrating Christmas with my family this weekend!! It will be great to celebrate with both my Mom and Dad, just like old times! Hopefully we will snap a family photo of us all together! The last one we have is from my Dad's retirement:

 

Just days before my Mom's stroke and turned out I was 3 weeks pregnant!!

Love this pic of M and I!

 

Happy weekend friends!

 

Stay safe!!

Christmas Baking 2013

This past weekend M and I picked out a few recipes we wanted to make for Christmas this year. We usually do some type of baking, whether it be pies, tarts, cookies, gingerbread houses, etc.

Last year we made sugar cookies and in all honesty they were my least favorite to make! So this year we decided to make at least one classic cookie - which of course was my Grandma's Famous Chocolate Chip Cookies. It will be the one recipe you won't find me sharing. We made 3 dozen with more dough to spare in the freezer, because we weren't sure the cookies would make it to Christmas!  But we decided we would try 2 new recipes:

Christmas Bark Cookie Crunch:

Ingredients:
1 lb. white chocolate (I use Ghirardelli white chocolate chips)
14 Oreos, broken into pieces (I use the plain)
1 and 1/2 cups pretzels, broken- I used the thin straight ones
1 cup peanut butter chips
1/2 cup peanuts
1/2 cup miniature Reese’s cups
1/2 cup Peanut M&Ms (Christmas Colors)
Christmas sprinkles

Directions:
Cover a cookie sheet with waxed paper or foil. Spread the broken pretzels, broken cookies & peanuts on the prepared cookie sheet. Melt the white chocolate in microwave until smooth (1 minute to 1 ½ minutes, make sure to add a little canola oil).
Drizzle the melted white chocolate over the pretzel mixture, spreading with a spatula if needed. Before it sets, sprinkle on M&Ms, Miniature Reese’s, Peanut Butter Chips and sprinkles. Place the tray into the refrigerator until set. Break into pieces and enjoy! This is a hit at my parties!!!

I found the recipe HERE.

Now we have decided to modify this recipe a little bit. We used Hershey's White Chocolate Chips, we didn't use the peanut butter chips or the reese's cups, as I am just not all that in to peanut butter right now. We also used Christmas Smarties (because M says he couldn't find M&M's - which really means he prefers smarties over M&M's. He also spent $15 on a bulk bag of them) and we put peanuts on half of it for M and Skor bits on my half!

If I am being entirely honest (with my sister as my witness via the phone) this recipe was a disaster! We didn't have oil, so M improvised with Pam.... And when that didn't smooth out the chocolate he tried butter. It was still rather clumpy after heating, reheating, stirring, adding more butter, etc. He was soo frustrated and that  was an understatement. It wouldn't spread, so he decided to add regular chocolate chips to fix it using the stove instead of the microwave and well it turned out the same. He was frustrated, poured it all on the wax paper, smooshed it all in the middle, mixing our ends up and then used his his hands to smooth it out (insert cursing as the chocolate was hot - a lot of cursing and reminders that he is not a baker). My sister and I were laughing. I was laughing soo hard I was crying. 

He ended up pouring the remainder of the $15 bag of smarties left over from the other recipe (below) over the top of it. Z

M showed me the tray when he was done.... It doesn't look soo appetizing:

Maybe it will look like the first picture when we break it up? But I don't have high hopes. I am sure it will taste alright... But I'm calling this one a fail!! 

The second recipe we tried is this one:

The Perfect M&M Cookies:

 

 

I found this recipe HERE.

 

 

Ingredients

• 1 stick/1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1-1/2 cups all purpose Gold Medal Flour
• 3 tablespoons Instant vanilla pudding mix
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 3/4 cup mini chocolate chips
• 1 or 1-1/2 cups Mini M and M’s

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and line a large baking sheet with a silpat liner or parchment paper.
2. In a large mixing bowl cream your butter and sugars until well combined. Add your egg and vanilla mixing to combine. Add your flour, pudding mix, baking soda and salt, stirring to combine. Add chips and m and m’s stirring to combine.
3. With a medium cookie scoop, place dough 1 inch apart from each other. Bake for 10-12 minutes until cooked through. Let cool on cookie sheet for 10 minutes before transferring to cooling rack. Enjoy!

Makes 2 dozen cookies

We doubled the recipe.
We modified this with Smarties instead of M&M's because of the same reason mention above. I would prefer the M&M's. We also used red and green ones! M was in charge of making these ones. M also broke the rules and smashed the cookies down on the cookie sheet. They still turned out!

Today I will be making the nuts and bolts. Hopefully without issues.

Then we just have tarts for Christmas dinners with our families that we will make on Saturday. We will make raspberry tarts and lemon meringue, M and I's favorites. We celebrate with my family on Sunday.

What's Up Wednesday??

Another snowy day, it seems it is falling non-stop out there anymore. One perk to being stuck at home is not having to deal with it I suppose!

M took the girls for a super snowy walk last night and this is what they decided to do when they got home: 

I just love their snuggles. This pic reminds me of when G was a pup and used to lay on Lily!

 

 

 Lily also used to do this to Diamond!!

 

 

I just love the bond that pets create with each other! I love Grace and Lily get along soo well and

I love that these two are inseparable, they really do love each other!! Melts my heart!! 

 

I am officially finished my Christmas shopping, better late than never! The last few items should arrive by Christmas Eve!! Thank God for online shopping this year! I'm pretty sure 90% of my shopping was done online this year!! Now I just need to finish wrapping, but we have run out of tissue paper and most of the wrapable items are wrapped! We plan to go into town Friday evening to get our last minute groceries before Christmas and before the next storm hits - this one is calling for ice pellets... Fun times! 

We are just about done our Christmas baking! We have nuts and bolts to make and one other new recipe we are trying! Recipes should be up tomorrow! M made last nights batch of "M&M cookies" that we used smarties instead. He is definitely not a baker, but he tried. He is better at cooking and I am better at baking. Let's just say he smashed the cookies with a fork after as if they were peanut butter cookies, after reading that recipe stated not to flatten.... They still turned out alright! 

And finally today I will leave you with a picture of our Christmas card. I only printed two to try them out and really wasn't happy with the turn out. I refused to pay even more for more of them, so we decided not to send out any this year after all. Kind of sad I know, but the quality of the cards was poor. The backs of the cards weren't straight and didn't look any different from something I could print at home. But here is the general idea of them, 

Can you believe we will be celebrating Christmas in just a week from today?? 

Our last Christmas it's just M and I!!! 

Happy Wednesday friends!! 

27 Weeks

How Far Along:

27 weeks - December 8 - 14, 2013 

 

Size Of Baby?


A Rutabaga? Whatever that is!?

Welcome to the last week of the 2nd Trimester!! Baby should weigh around 2 pounds! Baby's retinas are developing.

 

Maternity Clothes?
Monday was a husband proclaimed PJ day! M had clothes laid out for me, but I wasn't able to get my PJ pants over my cast, so pajama day it was!!

Ended up getting my Pink Blush Maternity order! Loving this top:

Outfit to Wednesday's doctor appt:

Not that you can tell the shirt is a chiffon baby doll with a crocheted bust area - love this shirt and it was a steal -$6. It is also a high-low. 

The cardigan is pre-pregnancy and the leggings are maternity. 

Stretch Marks?

Still just a small one, but nothing really noticeable.

 

Gender?

We will find out in March! We did have ample opportunity during this weeks ultrasound as the tech kept scanning over and showing us the baby's bum and bladder. We didn't "see" anything, but we also don't know what to look for. Haha

What the Doctor Had To Say:

  Baby is doing awesome! Measuring a full week and 2 days ahead and a whopping 2.7 pounds!!! This makes me feel much better should I have to have the baby early. We will be having another ultrasound around 35 weeks to help us come up with a birth plan, as my doctor still doesn't want me going over due because of my blood pressure. Assuming it remains the same we can go right up to my due date! Baby was breech so s/he also needs to flip around by then, but s/he has lots of time to do that! 

He has no concerns with my placenta functioning, which is great, so we just carry on. We go back in 2 weeks! 

  

We also passed the dreaded glucose test!! I am soo happy about this! I was seriously concerned I wouldn't because I am not used to my sweet tooth. But my number was perfect!! We may have celebrated with some cookies!! 

Sleep?
Not going so well. In fact it is horrible. I don't know if it's pain that waking me, my nose, or a combination of the above, but sleep is not happening. Thursday night was my first night of actually getting decent sleep.

Baby Purchases This Week:

I bought a bunch of muslin wrap blankets on sale!!
I also bought the soothers I tried to buy last time, but this time they were actually in stock!

 

Also picture above is the sweetest journal Tiny Prints sent me!! I just love how it turned out and the colors are so true to form, and will match the nursery perfect!! I plan to write monthly letters to the baby in it for the first year! But I am very impressed with the quality and over all turn out of the journal!! It also shipped soo fast!! Thanks Tiny Prints!! 

 

M bought the first 2 boxes of diapers!!! I told him he wins for being the first to buy diapers! He was excited until I told him what he won! First Diaper Change goes to Daddy!

Made this Week:
Crocheting - its about all I am able to do for now ;(

  I have found another project I can work on. I am going to attempt the mobile. I just have to get some supplies - which hopefully this weekend I will! 

 

Cravings/Aversions?

Homemade chocolate chip cookies. The cookies I mentioned from above were not warm or homemade! But hopefully I will get some made!! 

Tried to have pork chops again this week and I couldn't eat them! Then I remembered it was like this the last time I tried them - that explains why we hadn't had any for soo long! So they are still a big no! 

   

Movement?
  Kicks/ punches are getting stronger and stronger! 

We stopped by the fertility clinic this week to drop off our card and chocolates and happened to see everyone we worked with there, which was soo nice! Our RE put his hand on my belly and sure enough the baby gave him a big kick. M was a but jealous informing our RE that he had to wait soo long to feel anything and that he couldn't believe the baby would kick so easily for him. I told M it was probably because of the glucose drink I had earlier. Lol. But I am soo very glad we got a chance to see everyone. Won't be long before we pop back in with the baby, which they made us promise we would. 

Feeling?

  Like I have really popped! I actually had a stranger ask when I was due! Proud Mama moment, especially when everyone is always telling me how small my bump is.

Back aches are bad from sitting soo much and stamina is lower, as I am not able to really exercise at this time easily and boy do I feel the difference. I definitely look forward to becoming more mobile as my ankle permits. I'm walking more with air cast and without the walker, which feels like a big step forward but in small trips only. 

Reflux is back with vengeance this week. So disgusting. Needless to say tums have been my best friend and have controlled it instantly without me needing to go buy Zantac. 

Highlights:
    On Monday we celebrated 3 months to go and 90 days!!! 

 

This is the last week in the second trimester!!

   

Belly Button?

In, but it is getting flatter and flatter. 

 

Wedding Rings?
On and really loose.

Best Moment of the Week?

 Seeing our sweet baby again. 

Crazy how much bigger s/he is. Seeing the baby yawn was soo cute. 

Feeling so incredibly blessed!! 

Crazy Pregnancy Moment:

  Riding around in a scooter at Wal-Mart definitely wins the boat this week!

I told M I felt like I was waddling, as my belly is so much more out front now, and with the air cast on, it doesn't help matters. His response was: "I didn't want to say anything". Enough said. Thanks Hun! 2ish weeks left with the air cast.... 

 

Bump Pic:

 

   

Looking Forward To:

  Getting out of the air cast. 

Snow-Cember

Holy goodness did it snow this weekend, like non-stop the snow fell on Saturday and Sunday there were some breaks and we didn't accumulate as much on Sunday as we did on Saturday luckily. But I think this snow is actually here to stay unfortunately. We probably got about 15-20 cm if I had to guess.

Friday night I sorted through the bins of clothes my sister gave me and pulled out all the gender neutral stuff that I can put away. We should have enough to get us through the first week alone on gender nuetral. We don't have too much, but enough as I am sure when the baby arrives I will want it in pink of its a girl or blue if it's a boy. We have kept the bins up in the spare room so the transition can be done easily! I think I watched a movie on the TV Friday night as well, but don't recall which one! M cut the dogs nails, and poor Lily moved her foot as M cut one of them and man what a mess! She now has her foot all wrapped up. The nail is pretty short and M feels horrible. 

Saturday M went and helped set up the breakfast with Santa at the firewall, and then since they had enough guys he came home, knowing I had a list of things I wanted to accomplish this weekend! 

We had purchased an electric fireplace during the week, but they sent us home with the wrong mantel, so we had to exchange that for the right one, then we came straight home, gathered 3 recipes for Christmas baking and then made a grocery list. M went into town on his own - scary. He seems to spend double the amount on groceries when he goes. He was the first to buy diapers for the baby though, so I told him he won! He was excited until I told him the prize was the first diaper change. While he was gone, I went and separated his Christmas gifts from everyone else's so he could bring them down to wrap later on. 

He finally came home, the roads were super crappy, we had some lunch, he put together the fire place while I started the Christmas baking! We got one recipe done - 3 dozen of my Grandma's famous chocolate chip cookies, with extra dough in the freezer. Boy to these ever taste just like hers used to! I was pretty proud! I saw though that it was really hard not to eat the cookie dough - that's my favorite part! 

M was in the Santa Claus parade with the fire department but was using our truck to pull the departments trailer to fill with toys and canned goods, so I tagged along with him and rode in the parade. It was snowiest parade I had seen! We don't usually have this much snow yet, it usually comes in the new year. The turn out wasn't great, but I think the weather was to blame! We did see lots of people in their windows watching and we had some people on the streets, but nothing like usual. 

When we came home from the parade we started wrapping presents! We got almost half of them wrapped, but quickly learned we had no tissue paper for the stuff going in bags! We spent the rest of the night relaxing! 

Sunday M shovelled the driveways and then we headed out to Cambridge to go shopping. The roads when we left were bare and wet, but about half way there it changed quickly. The roads were crap, we passed about 5 accidents and various cars in the ditch. We found out that once we got off the highway they shut it down. 

While M did his shopping in the mall, I hobbled around Target, found a few deals, then we headed to Henry's where M needed to go - so I waited in the car. We stopped at Rona to check out their bathroom sections to get pricing. Then I hit up Michaels to get the supplies I need for my crafting - ended up saving 40% off my bill too! Luckily the drive home wasn't as dicey as the ride there. I hate being out in bad weather! 

We came home, iced my foot, as I learned I'm not quite ready for shopping trips. I didn't think I had walked too much in the few stores I went, but my foot felt otherwise. 

Then we had a family Christmas dinner with M's cousins. It was great seeing everyone and dinner was good. We left shortly after dinner, as their little girl ended up with potentially the flu. I knew I didn't want it, and I can imagine it not being all that fun entertaining with a sick little girl. When we got home, I rested on the couch again with ice and watched Christmas with Tucker - a TV movie, but it was soo good, I reccomend it if you see it on!! 

That was my weekend wrap up! Without any pictures! Slacker with the camera right here!