Thirty Weeks!

...or thereabouts.

It's kinda craziness to me how quickly this pregnancy has gone compared to when I was preggo with E.  I guess that makes sense since she keeps us on our toes (toddlers do that sort of thing, ya know?).

Not too much has changed in the last weeks, other than adding in some minor heartburn, tiredness, a voracious appetite, being hot all the time, and sleeplessness.  All of that comes with pregnancy, I believe :)  I usually do feel pretty wiped out at the end of the day and I attribute that to ending the second trimester and welcoming the third.  I'm still so, so thankful that this pregnancy has been a good bit easier than with Elise.  It's been so helpful since this time around we've had a little one in tow.  We have a gracious God.

Here's da belly...as you can see, we're shaping up! ;)

In other news, Nora was breech time before last, but as of yesterday's appointment she's head down.  However, she is a mover and a shaker and is flipping around a lot.  We're just praying she will end up head down for her big debut in April.  You can join us in prayer for that, if you'd like :)

We also visited the hospital we'll deliver at and set up our 38 week appointment.  It's getting real! Wildness.

Finally, her due date is still kind of whack.  She's supposedly estimated to arrive around the 2nd of April, but she's measuring anywhere between a week "behind" and two weeks "behind" whenever we go...so we'll see what happens...thank goodness God already has it planned out and hopefully all we have to do is just watch, pray, and be attentive to body signs warning of a forthcoming baby ;)

Thanks for joining us in this journey!

Monthly Meal Planning

Confession:  I'm far from the world's greatest chef.  In fact, I don't have much of a passion for it...

But it had gotten so bad, a couple months ago I would just dread planning meals and figuring out what to make for dinner that I would wait until the very last minute, scrounge something up, and barely put together something to feed our little family (well, mainly just Jas and I).  Seriously, ya'll, it was ugly.

It definitely stressed me out and consequently stressed my poor hubby out.  So towards the end of last year I just knew I needed to do something about it.  I needed to figure out a way to be more efficient in the kitchen and in coming up with meals.

I researched meal plans, talked to my friend Steph about it (who's much better at cooking, food planning and prep in general, than I), and beefed up (haha, pun intended) my pinterest food board with high intentions of following through with a weekly meal planning strategy.

And I did.  I planned all my meals (using pinterest, cookbooks, and a list Steph sent me) every Friday for the upcoming week.  On Saturday we went shopping for all ingredients and I finished out the year happily cooking for my family.  I felt so much more confident and prepared in what I was planning and serving to the ones I love.  It. felt. good.

Then came the new year.  And I wanted to be sure I stuck to it.  I didn't want to drop the ball or fall off the "feeling prepared" wagon...ya know?  But this time I just decided to try something different.

So I decided I would meal plan for the whole month of January.  And I would like to tell you, I am in love.  So much so that I can't wait to start planning meals for the month of February, ha!  And all that coming from a girl who just months ago despised planning and figuring out dinner.

I faithfully planned all of my January meals one afternoon at the very beginning of January and have weekly just made a shopping list.  We still go on Saturday's to get all we need, but the whole process is SO MUCH LESS STRESS.  And I feel so good about planning ahead and knowing what I'm going to make.  And then I get to check it off of my nifty little monthly meal planner calendar that hangs proudly on the fridge.  Can you tell I feel so much better about it?

(Above is the meal planner print-off I use.  It can be found here.  And I guess I should make a note that I do believe in leniency and not sticking to it just to stick to it, ya know?  Having a plan helps me tremendously, but if we have a sudden change of plans, I'm ok with switching around meals, or dropping a meal here or there, and not feeling bad about it...)

So, that, in a nutshell, is how I'm taking my family's hunger into my own hands ;) Haha.

How do you do get dinner on the table?  Or are you like I was and don't plan?  Do tell!

Full-Fledged Toddler

...and we love her sooooo.

Elise is right at 16 months and I can hardly believe it.  I know every mom says that, but seriously, I just really can't comprehend how time flies by.

This girl is a legit toddler...
Unrolls toilet paper, you ask?  check.
Places miscellaneous objects on (thankfully, closed) toilet lid?  check.
Stomps her feet and squeals to get attention?  check.
One day loves banana and the next screams about it?  check.
Is the cutest girl around? check. check. check.

We love her.   It's been awhile since I've updated on her growing self, so I wanted to document a few cute things now, in random order.

Teefers - She now has six whole teeth!  Four up top and two below.  She's not the quickest teeth-grower, but man, the ones she has are cute as ever.  She can eat most everything, though tougher foods like apples and oranges need to be cut in half or small bites.

Bows - The girl knows where her bows are and if you catch her looking at them she'll say "more" over and over again until you get as many as you can in her hair.  It's quite humorous!

Baby Obsessed - E is completely smitten with her baby (or babies for that matter).  She knows how to give them "wawa," put in their paci, pat their backs, and rock them.  She even continually asks us to put her own shoes on her baby.  It's the sweetest...not to mention great prep for being a big sis soon!

Winter Wear - She's constantly asking us to put her winter coat on while we're inside.  She's too funny.

Ipad - It's kind of incredible how well she already knows the ipad.  Sometimes it amazes me.  Sometimes it makes me scared (I mean we really want to her be way more in to books, ya know?)  So we limit the ipad time.  But wow, it's impressive.

Mommy - It took her some time, but she now says "mommy" like a champ!  She says it quite often too, which warms my mama heart :)

Lil Burrito - One day I rolled her up like a burrito, or taco, in a big blanket we have and she was sold.  It's now a favorite game.

Alex and... - She still loves her favorite monkey Alex, but also needs "Mimmie" (Minnie) or  "Gigi" (her gingerbread girl) to accompany her to bed too.

Dancin' Queen - All you have to do is put some music on and this girl is in her groove (and has some for real rhythm!)

Ehh Veggies - E is still not a great veggie eater, but we manage to mix them in and she gets 'em down.

Keepin' Them In - She will only leave bows/clips in her hair if directly after they're put in she becomes distracted.

Words - Elise now has quite the vocab with some of my fav words being "rohhwull" (roll), "mnam" (yum), and "tenk ew" (thank you)

People - By all appearances to date it would seem that our girl is a "people person."  She doesn't seem to mind, and really seems to enjoy, being around other people.  We will see how this develops as she grows :)

Tenting - She really likes to do what we call "tenting" (like a forward bend, head on the ground, rumpus in the air, peeking through her legs).  It's hilarious.

(that pic of her above is so true to who she is right now...asked for her shoes to be put on over her jammies, wanted her shoes to be put on baby, she just finished giving baby "wawa," and she started tenting...too much adorable)

She's such a fun girl and brings such joy to our lives.  E, you are one well-loved lil chick :)

Snowy, Snowy Day

We've had quite the snow lately.  The last few days it just hasn't stopped falling (until today, that is).  So after language the other day, we took advantage of it.

I ventured out with the big camera and got some good shots, but then we retired it back to the house so that it wouldn't get all wet from the snow.  Wish I had kept it out a little longer because we ended up making a cute little snowman friend for Elise :) I did get a pic of him on my phone, however.

She wasn't quite sure what to think about it all at first, but then she warmed up (punny :) and seemed to enjoy her time just sitting in the snow.

But first, we got some pics together...

Family pic, but E said, "huh uh, I'm checking out this white stuff..."

And then we spotted a tiny snowman on a bench nearby.  Perfect for a photo op, or so I thought.  E had other ideas (aka decapitating Mr. Snowman).

Too funny she is.

And then we made our little snowman complete with a carrot nose and chestnut eyes, mouth, and buttons...

Fun, fun afternoon...even if after building our snowman Daddy decided to unleash a fury of snowballs on E and I (and therefore baby Nora too :)  Love them.

Sharpie Mug...Fail or Success?

If you're anywhere on pinterest I'm sure you may have seen the many "draw on your dish, mug, etc. and then bake it" pin.  If you haven't, there's definitely a lot of them out there.  But I have an undying love for Sharpies and wanted to give it a shot.  Upon further research of how to best go about this crafty diy, I realized that there were both positive and negative reviews (aka successes and failures).

So, I gave it my own go just to see what the outcome would be :)

I decided to design a mug for a close friend and cat-lovin' lady, thus the cat.  I just drew it up with Sharpies and decorated it with fun colors.  Then I baked it in the oven.  Word has it that 30 minutes at 350 degrees will do, but I read that it wasn't always a success (aka would wash off easily).  Others were saying try 30 minutes at 425 degrees.  Still others said you need to put it in a cold oven, let it heat up, wait the 30 minutes, and then let it cool down all in the oven.

So here's what I did:  1) placed it in a cool oven, 2) turned the heat on to 425 and let it heat up about 10 minutes (with the mug still in there obviously), 3) then left it in there to bake for 30 minutes, and finally, 4) let it cool down in the oven.

When I took it out the colors were faded, but that's supposed to happen (kind of like what happens in a kiln).  I'm not going to try it in the dishwasher, but hand-washing is fine (and you know, no scrubbing with washing)!  So when I give the gift I'm just going to give a hand-wash disclaimer.  And it's not technically food safe, but hopefully she won't lick the outside of the mug, ya know?

I want to try my hand at some more because it was way fun designing it.

And one last side note, if nothing else, she can use it as a pencil holder, or even to scoop out cat food...that's an idea, huh!?

Have you ever drawn on your dishes/mugs/etc. with Sharpie?  Success or failure?