Wordless Wednesday: We haven't turned our heat on yet... so this is how I stay warm!

23 week survey!

How Far Along: 23 weeks! 

(Turn on the radio and sway to the music. With her sense of movement well developed by now, your baby can feel you dance. And now that she's more than 11 inches long and weighs over a pound, you may be able to see her squirm underneath your clothes. Blood vessels in her lungs are developing to prepare for breathing, and the sounds that your baby's increasingly keen ears pick up are preparing her for entry into the outside world. Loud noises that become familiar now — such as your dog barking or the roar of the vacuum cleaner — probably won't faze her when she hears them outside the womb.)

Size of baby: A large mango! (11 inches long and over a pound in weight!) 

 

Total Weight Gain/Loss: 1 pound this week.  I have officially gained 13 pounds.

Gender: A Sweet Baby GIRL!!

Movement: ALL THE TIME.  This week's newest movement this week was SOMERSAULTS!  Craziest feeling ever!  Kyle felt her move for 5 minutes straight the other night, BIG movements.  She's becoming very active at night :)

What I miss: Nothing this week, trying to enjoy every second of this trimester!

Sleep: Sleeping great.  Love it when it's cold in our house but warm under the covers!  I also put on my sisters maternity pj's for the first time this week and they are the most comfortable things I've ever put on my body.  It's going to be very hard for me to go back to normal pj's after this :)

Symptoms: Feeling great!  The only thing Kyle's noticed this week are my mood swings :)  But only after I wake up from naps... I am NOT a happy camper, feeling very groggy and really thirsty for the rest of the day.  Acid reflux hasn't been as bad as last week either, thank heavens!

Notes: I make more lists now than I ever have. We are debating doing a big project in our house which I might share about next week if we decide to do it!  Either way it's so exciting to have some projects to do around our house again.  I think about them all day when I'm at work and can't wait to go home.

"To-do" items checked off our list: I mailed in my hospital application this week, and signed us up for birthing classes in January, which will be here before we know it!  We also renewed our flex spending card and calculated around how much it will be for appointments, labor & delivery.  It'll be nice to not have to pay a huge chunk of money once we have the baby, and instead have a small amount come out from Kyle's paycheck every month (all pre-tax yeah!).  Lastly, we ordered our Graco car seat & stroller this week (takes a while to come in so you have to order way in advance)!  After tons of debating we decided to go with a girly looking one that I have loved even before we knew the sex, the pattern is called "Zarafa".  We couldn't find one gender neutral pattern that I liked (all of them look boyish), so we went with this one and if our next child is a boy we can just sell and probably make money since we got this through one of Ky's friends here in ATL with a hook-up!  So excited!

Cravings: Warm hearty meals that fill me up!

Best Moment this week: Date night with Kyle and feeling G-Baby do somersaults!  We also saw my family last weekend and I laughed till the point of crying numerous times.  Love them :)

What we are looking forward to: Invitations went out this week, from my best friend Lauren, for my first shower in Charlotte, NC and I am so excited!  I cannot wait to catch up with the ladies that can attend!  We are also heading to Nashville this weekend for Kyle's half marathon, and are really looking forward to spending some time with Kerry (Kyle's sister) and her husband Brad!

And here is the belly shot in my new $6 Target dress!

November Date Night!

*Warning all the photos in this post are blurry and just plain bad... but it documents the night so I'm posting them!*

Last Thursday, Kyle and I went out for a long overdue date night!  Kyle had been planning it for a couple weeks, and I was so excited to find out what we were doing!  Our first stop was to FIGO, our favorite Italian restaurant downtown.  I have been craving Italian for so long now, and it was well worth the wait.  We ordered our favorite fried mozzarella for an appetizer and talked for a while.  I managed to spill water all over my lap and we laughed at that for a while. 

Next were our entrees!  We both ordered ravioli; mine were stuffed with 6 different cheeses, and Ky's were stuffed with Crab meat.  Both were amazing, but next time we'll just go with the 6 cheese.  While we were halving our meals and transferring them onto each others plates, Kyle dropped an entire ravioli completely into his drink turning it a lovely red color.  His face was priceless and I was crying I was laughing so hard.  GOOD THING we weren't on our first date, as both of us completely lost our cool points during dinner.

Next was driving to the famous FOX theatre!! I was so excited as I've never been there before, and I've heard so much about it.  It's as amazing as everyone talks about, the character in that place is awesome.

Normally Broadway tickets are too expensive for us, but Ky found discount tickets on Craigslist for WHITE CHRISTMAS, one of my all time favorite musicals.  I watch it every year and know all the songs.  It was plenty cold outside so it sure did feel like Christmas :)

The inside is unbelievable and our seats were so close directly in the middle of the stage.  Here is the view from our seats:

There was an entire row of short, older ladies behind us, so Kyle and I sat the entire first act completely scrunched down in our seats to not block their views.  I also sat behind a very tall college student who repositioned his head every 5 seconds.  We voted to sit upstairs the second half to get a new view :)

Since it wasn't crowded we were able to find great seats upstairs.  The ceiling in this place is unbelievable. It's a blue sky with clouds actually moving.  It lights up everything just enough so you can see if you have to leave during the show.

And another picture of our view from upstairs:

At the end of the date I realized we had not taken one picture of ourselves.  Unfortunately it was almost pitch dark and took a while to actually flash so this picture is horrible.  Either way it documents our date!

Thank you Ky for planning such a fun date night, it was perfect... spilled ravioli and all :)  I don't know how I'm ever going to top this one!!  Love you!

Chicken Parmesan Bundles Recipe!

I found this recipe off of Kraft.com and we just love it.  The cook time is only 30 minutes, and it's a great way to trick yourself into eating Spinach (am I the only one who dislikes veggies?).  Hope you enjoy!

Chicken Parmesan Bundles

Ingredients:

4 ounces Philadelphia 1/3 Less Fat Cream Cheese, softened

1 package (10 ounces) Frozen chopped spinach, thawed, well drained

1 1/4 cups Kraft Shredded Low-Moisture Part-Skim Mozzarella Cheese, divided

6 tablespoons Kraft Grated Parmesan Cheese, divided

6 small Boneless chicken breast halves ( 1 1/2 lb), pounded to 1/4 inch thickness

1 egg

10 Ritz Reduced Fat Crackers, crushed (about 1/2 cup)

1 1/2 cups Spaghetti sauce, heated

Directions:

Heat oven to 375 degrees.  Mix cream cheese, spinach, 1 cup mozzarella and 3 tablespoons Parmesan until well blended; spread onto chicken breasts.  
Starting at one short end of each breast, roll up chicken tightly.  Secure with wooden toothpicks.  Set aside.

Beat egg in shallow dish.  Mix remaining Parmesan (3 tablespoons) and cracker crumbs in separate shallow dish.  Dip chicken bundles in egg, then roll in crumb mixture.  Place, seam-sides down, in 13x9 inch baking dish sprayed with cooking spray.

Bake 30 minutes or until chicken is done (165 degrees).  Remove and discard toothpicks.  Serve topped with spaghetti sauce and remaining mozzarella (1/4 cup).

Halloween 2010!

Kyle and I started decorating for Halloween a little late this year, but better late than never!  We only decorated our dining room as it's minimal cleanup afterwords!  Cute table cloth, spider webbed light and a couple candles did the trick...

 

We also carved a pumpkin together.  We chose an owl drawing to carve out... here is the one picture that I took of it with my iphone.

Sunday afternoon we went outside to light the candle in our pumpkin, and it was no where to be found.  I asked Kyle if he had moved it for some reason, and he immediately said "uh oh" looking over at the field next to our house.  This is what we saw...

To say I was mad is a huge understatement.  I have no clue what possesses someone to vandalize but that's exactly what happened to our cute little pumpkin... stolen from right off our front porch and torn to pieces only a couple feet away.  I seriously wanted to turn out all the lights, close the blinds and not participate in giving candy away to the kids that did this.... but Kyle didn't think that was right to punish every kid for one persons mistake.

Well I got my way in the end because we didn't even have ONE SINGLE TRICK-OR-TREATER!!!

Saturday night though we really did have a great time at my friend, Jen's, party.  Her and her husband David went all out this year and didn't forget any details!  Look at how cute their outfits were, as the Chiquita Girl and a Banana!

Here is all the food that they had prepared!  It was all so delicious, YUM!

Kyle and I totally procrastinated on our costumes until the day of the party.  LUCKILY my friend, Holly, at work had made a "Bun in the Oven" costume and wasn't going to use it over the weekend, so we snagged that!  Kyle found a cheap hat & jacket and soon became the Baker.  Such a cliche costume for us, but it worked!

The only snag with the costume was that the box was HUGE... like can only fit in an SUV huge.  I couldn't even touch my fingers together in front of me, so eating or drinking was completely out!  The "oven" didn't stay on for long, but at least I found if I bent down I could completely hide inside of it!

Lacey and Brooke from work went to the party too, so we had to get a work picture!

Brooke brought her 4 month old baby Madeline for a little bit, she was so cute!

At the end of the night we all voted for best female and male costumes.  Waldo won for male (we made him get in the back of almost every picture that night) and Lacey won for female!

A very fun night for sure, thanks again Jen & David for inviting us!

Chex Mix Recipe!

I always crave home made Chex Mix during the winter months, but the craving has been undeniable now that I'm pregnant.  It is so easy to make, and since you have to buy 3 cereal boxes worth, you can make so many batches and even give some to friends!  Hope you enjoy!

Original Chex Party Mix

Ingredients:

6 tablespoons Butter or Margarine

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1 1/2 teaspoons Seasoned Salt

3/4 teaspoon Garlic Powder

1/2 teaspoon Onion Powder

3 cups Corn Chex cereal

3 cups Rice Chex cereal

3 cups Wheat Chex cereal

1 cup Mixed Nuts

1 cup Pretzels

1 cup Garlic-flavored Bagel Chips, broken into 1-inch pieces

Directions:

Heat oven to 250.  Melt butter in large roasting pan in oven.  Stir in seasonings.  Gradually stir in remaining ingredients until evenly coated.  Bake 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.  Spread on paper towels to cool.  Store in airtight container.  Makes 12 cups.

We aren't huge nut fans, and I didn't feel like buying pretzels or bagel chips so I left those out of mine.  The liquid mixture doesn't look like much but just keep stirring your ingredients in and they'll get coated.  YUM!

21 & 22 week survey! MONTH 5 belly shot!

I missed the survey last week, so I'll combine 21 & 22 together!

How Far Along: 22 weeks! 

(At 11 inches and almost 1 pound, your baby is starting to look like a miniature newborn. Her lips, eyelids, and eyebrows are becoming more distinct, and she's even developing tiny tooth buds beneath her gums. Her eyes have formed, but her irises (the colored part of the eye) still lack pigment. If you could see inside your womb, you'd be able to spot the fine hair (lanugo) that covers her body and the deep wrinkles on her skin, which she'll sport until she adds a padding of fat to fill them in. Inside her belly, her pancreas — essential for the production of some important hormones — is developing steadily.) 

Size of baby: Spaghetti Squash (nearly 11 inches long, almost a pound!) *Although she's already over a pound since 2 weeks ago she was 14 ounces-- ahead of schedule!*

Total Weight Gain/Loss: 2 pounds in the past 2 weeks.  I have officially gained 12 pounds.  (I'm okay with this weight gain, just need to make sure I walk everyday and eat better so I'm doing everything I can to stay on track.)

Gender: A Sweet Baby GIRL!!

Movement: All the time, I really look forward to feeling her everyday.  Kyle feels her all the time too, which I love.  One day I lifted up my shirt and could see my stomach slightly bouncing from the outside when she moves/kicks... crazy!  I still can't tell a pattern yet of when she's sleeping, but we do have one active girl for sure!

What I miss: A Jimmy John's COLD ham and cheese sandwich.  They are my favorite.  I've heated up the meat a couple times, but it's not exactly the same.

Sleep: Sleeping great.  I wake up a lot in the night to just rearrange my body pillow and position, but I think it's just getting me ready to wake up for the baby!

Symptoms: Baby brain hasn't been TOO bad this week, Praise the Lord!  Acid reflux has gotten progressively worse this week, but Zantac helps a little.  

Other notes: Still no stretch marks and my belly button is opening up more every week but definitely still an "innie".  I've always had such a deep belly button that I've never been able to see the bottom.  Kyle said this week he could KIND OF see the bottom but it's still about an inch down there, so I'm confident my belly button will stay an "innie".  I also am cold all the time still, haven't switched to being hot yet.  And no swelling as of this point, except in my fingers.  I am just wearing my wedding band these days as it's a half size larger than my engagement ring.  OH and Kyle has learned to like coffee :)  He thinks he'll need that caffeine boost in the near future-- haha


Cravings: Chex Mix (recipe post coming up tomorrow!) and a good Italian meal.

Best Moment this week: Spending a weekend in town.  It was our last one until December 10th!  We went to see "Life as we know it" on Friday, then Saturday cleaned and organized around the house.  Our goal over the next couple weeks is to organize the office downstairs so we can start moving guest bedroom furniture down there!

What we are looking forward to: DATE NIGHT on Thursday!!  Kyle has had this planned for a couple weeks now and I cannot WAIT! He finally spilled the beans to me -- we are eating at my favorite Italian spot downtown, FIGO, and then going to see a Broadway Show at the Fox!  What did I do to deserve such an amazing husband?

Here is my belly shot at 22 weeks... yay for being 5 months!
And a vertical one!

Halloween party at work!

Last Friday, our company celebrated Halloween like always.  Remember last year when we went all out for the room decoration contest?  (Click here and here to read those posts).  This year was way more toned down, but we all had a great time in our individual costumes.

Here's Jen, Lacey and I.  Jen was a nurse and Lacey was Leonardo from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (we made & wore those costumes here). I tried to wear my Wilma costume (that I wore here) but it was way too tight on my tummy.  Luckily I fit into Kyle's Fred costume no problem... talk about comfy!WE LOVED the product girls outfits... Christina was a grape and Amanda was a chicken!  The sales girls dressed up as little miss muffet and a jelly belly bag!
And more pics!
Holly is also pregnant and due in February!  She made a "Bun in the Oven" costume, and ended up winning "Most Creative".
Here is a group shot of everyone who dressed up:
Besides the costume contest, we also had team pumpkin carving contests. They all ended up being so different and unique, it was really fun!  Jen's team carved an awesome spooky design, and Katie's team had a 'sick & throwing up' pumpkin. Ew!

My team carved out our "Kate girl" and then glittered her up like a disco ball... hilarious!  I also loved the hedge hog one below with Christmas lights as the spikes!
And the winner of the pumpkin contest was Gina's team with the pumpkin hamburger!  The fries were even carved out of pumpkin, and the seeds were pumpkin too!  So creative!

The company ordered everyone pizza for lunch as a special treat.  Very fun Halloween around here for sure!

Hanging with the Fam

During our Raleigh weekend, we stayed with Kyle's parents.  We found out earlier that day that we were having a girl, and they decorated our room so cute for us including little badges for us to wear around!

Look at our bathroom!

A close up of the beautiful roses, and the posters that they put all around their house!

Rachel, Mike, Kerry and Brad came over to spend some time with us on Saturday!  Since Lacey was there we were able to get a photo including everyone in the family!  Crazy how fast it's growing!

 

And another one:

 It was so great to spend time with all of you guys, love you!