Holly's Baby Shower!

I have so many girlfriends who are pregnant right now, it's just such a blessing to go through this amazing experience together!!  My friend Holly, who I met in our Newlywed biblestudy, is due in February so we've enjoyed swapping tips and checking off to-do items together!  Holly and Chris are naming their baby girl, Bella Rose -- so sweet!

A couple of the n-wed ladies hosted a shower for her and it was so much fun!  Look at all Holly's gifts:

The food was amazing.  I need to get copies of all these recipes!

All of the n-wed (alumni) girls.  It's so neat how we've all stayed so close since we graduated the n-wed class through book club or other bible studies.

And of course we had to do a belly shot!

Congratulations again Holly and Chris, we are so happy for you both and can't wait to meet Bella Rose!

Snow Day in Atlanta!

Last night we got around 6 inches of snow in Marietta, the most we've ever had since living here!  It was coming down so hard last night, just beautiful!  We are supposed to get a wintery mix for the rest of the day, so we'll see how the roads are for going to work tomorrow.  But today we are enjoying an extra day at home!

You can't start off a snow day without drinking some hot chocolate and coffee!

We were in the middle of eating our bacon, egg & cheese biscuits (WOAH they were amazing) when we looked out the window and saw our neighbor in need of help getting out of the driveway.  She was stuck and trying to dig out her tires with the end of an umbrella... seriously.  Kyle closed his eyes and said "I'll be back" very unenthusiastically.

After digging tire tracks out for 2 hours and spreading salt she was finally able to make it to the top of the driveway.  All the roads are so slick though there was no point in even trying to get to her work.   

These are the pictures I took at the beginning of the day when the snow was all fluffy:

Kyle took a couple trips out with Chris, and then we posted so many things on craigslist to sell (HUGE "to do" item checked off!).  We ended up not going on a walk until around 5:00.  With a wintery mix of sleet coming down all day it weighed down the snow, and the roads are complete ice.  We walked in the grass, with Kyle holding on to my arm very tightly.  Don't worry I didn't fall!  It was really nice to get out in the cold weather!

I had to suck in with all my might to fit in this jacket.  Kyle cracked me up when he said "MAN that jacket is doing some WORK right now" hahaha.

We walked all the way up to the square, it was a ghost town!

Poor Tyson was sliding everywhere but loved being outside in the cold weather!

A very fun snow day for sure!  Hope you are all warm and snuggling with loved ones too!

Hiccups!

For the past 2 weeks at some point in the day Emery would move/kick/punch constantly for a couple minutes.  It is so steady like a heartbeat, happening every 3 seconds or so.  I finally caught up on my pregnancy book last night and she has BABY HICCUPS!  They aren't painful or annoying to babies like they are to adults, so it's nothing to fear, more just funny to experience and feel from the outside!

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, so glad it's finally here!

Baked Chicken-Bacon Alfredo Recipe!

This recipe is one recipe I found here from Our Best Bites, and we just loved it.  It does take more time since there is some prep work by cooking the chicken and bacon, but it was worth it!

I do have to say, I felt like such a "chef" making my own alfredo sauce FROM SCRATCH.  It was actually really easy and tasted great, not to mention it's way healthier than what you can buy in the store!  Hope you guys enjoy it as well!

Baked Chicken-Bacon Alfredo

Ingredients: 
8 oz. penne or bowtie pasta

1 recipe Guiltless Alfredo Sauce (1 16-oz. jar would work in a pinch)

2 chicken breasts, grilled and chopped (about 2 c. chopped chicken)

6 oz. (1/2 package) cooked bacon, chopped

1 14-oz. jar marinated artichoke hearts, drained and chopped

1/2 c. chopped green onions (about 1 decent-sized bunch)

1 c. shredded mozzarella cheese, divided

Salt and pepper, to taste

Guiltless Alfredo Sauce Recipe

Ingredients:

2 C low-fat milk
1/3 C (3 oz) low fat cream cheese
2 T flour
1 t salt
1 T butter
3 garlic cloves
1 C grated Parmesan cheese

Click here for instructions on making the sauce.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350.  Prepare pasta according to package directions.

While pasta is cooking, prepare Guiltless Alfredo sauce. When pasta is done, drain and add to the sauce. Toss with chopped chicken, bacon, artichoke hearts, green onions, and 1/2 c. mozzarella. Season to taste.

Transfer mixture to an 8x8" baking dish and sprinkle with remaining 1/2 c. mozzarella cheese. Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until heated through and cheese is bubbly.

7 month belly shot!

How Far Along: 31 weeks! 

(She can turn her head from side to side, and her arms, legs, and body are beginning to plump out as needed fat accumulates underneath her skin. She's probably moving a lot, too, so you may have trouble sleeping because your baby's kicks and somersaults keep you up. Take comfort: All this moving is a sign that your baby is active and healthy.

Size of baby: 16 inches long and about 3.3 pounds (4 navel oranges)

Total Weight Gain/Loss: I gained 0 pounds this week, so I'm still up 21 pounds.

Gender: A Sweet Baby GIRL!!  Emery Katherine!

Movement: All the time!  Since I'm past 30 weeks, my doctor wants me to count her movements/kicks everyday.  I have to make sure I can feel her 10 times in an hour, twice a day.  With how much she moves at night though I'm sure it'll only take 5 minutes to feel her 10 times!

What I miss: Being able to sit or be on my feet without my back hurting.

Sleep: Sleeping great, getting up once a night to use the bathroom.

Symptoms: Left rib hurts all the time, and my back gets real sore.  Just makes me rest which I'm fine with since I'm so tired at night now. (Only made it until 9:00 pm on New Years Eve!)

Notes: My stomach measured 30 weeks last week at my appointment so I'm right on schedule.  Also Emery's heartbeat was in the 140's, lower than usual but still sounded strong as ever.

"To-do" items checked off our list: 

- Emery's armoire is completely set up!  I bought lots of baskets for it, and have clothes organized by size hanging up, in the baskets, and the drawers.  I am so grateful for all the clothes we have from Tara & Brooke, I don't think I'm going to have to do any laundry!

Look at the socks & little shoes!

Drawer for bibs, hair bows and hats!

- Bought baskets for the changing table.

- Got the entire guest bedroom set up with newly painted nightstand and headboard.
- Kyle finished the furring strips and framing out the hot water heater wall, as well as the electrical work.
-Plumber came by and officially hooked up all the pipes.

Cravings: Italian and Mexican food.

Best Moments this week: Having such a productive weekend, and even being able to squeeze in a movie at home.  We haven't watched a movie in ages, it was a treat!

What we are looking forward to:  Another weekend in town to work on our projects.  Kyle has huge plans for the basement and Lacey's coming over to help hand paint the main wall in the nursery!

Here's the belly shot we took before church last weekend!  YEAH for being 7 months!

Only 9 more weeks to go!

Guest bedroom is done!

Our office in the basement has now completely transformed into the guest bedroom!  We had moved all the furniture down a couple weeks ago, but were waiting to paint the headboard and nightstand before we set it up.  The furniture is actually what my brother used all growing up, so we wanted to update it just a little!

Here is the "before pic" of the headboard:

Here is the "before pic" of the nightstand: 
(do you notice the corners where Puck had chewed on them?  Seriously what cat eats wood?)

Kyle sanded & puddy-ed them, and then I painted a coat of primer and 2 coats of our trim paint on them:

  And here is the finished room.  I love that we didn't even have to change anything that was on the walls or buy any bedding for this room.  The less work and money the better!

A close up of the nightstand being white with new knobs:

Please disregard the wrinkly duvet cover.  I'll get to steaming the wrinkles out at some point!

Nice to have that room checked off our list!  Now we just have to get the bathroom done so our guests can have their own private suite down there!

We are getting there!

We had such a productive weekend, I wish every weekend was 3 days!  Kyle made huge progress on our basement bathroom project so I wanted to update with pictures!

He finished the furring strips into the concrete wall and added insulation in between the boards.

 Next he framed out the walls that will enclose our hot water heater.  This made a huge difference as now you can really see where everything is going!

Kind of hard to see in this picture but all the walls are framed in!

Next was installing the bath fan.  The only option for venting it was to go out underneath our front porch.  This provided several challenges, one being that our deck is 8 inches off the ground and another being that Kyle had to cut a 4 1/2 inch hole through plywood, siding and a 2x10.  Thanks to a new tool that I gave him for Christmas he was able to do it no problem :)

The other challenging part of the installation was the electrical.  This bath fan has a light, fan, heater, and nightlight built in so there were lots of wires to connect.  After a little help with the wiring diagram from Tim the Tool Time Hammer he got it all hooked up, running like a champ!  Thanks again dad!

This was Kyle's first time really doing electrical work by himself, we were so excited to turn on all the switches and have them working perfectly!!

Great job Ky, so proud of you for taking on this huge project by yourself!!

30 week survey and belly shot!

Oh my word only 10 more weeks to go, how crazy is that!!

How Far Along: 30 weeks! 

(A pint and a half of amniotic fluid surrounds her, but that volume will decrease as she gets bigger and takes up more room in your uterus. Her eyesight continues to develop, though it's not very keen; even after she's born, she'll keep her eyes closed for a good part of the day. When she does open them, she'll respond to changes in light but will have 20/400 vision — which means she can only make out objects a few inches from her face. (Normal adult vision is 20/20.)

Size of baby: 15.7 inches long now, and she weighs 3 pounds.

Total Weight Gain/Loss: I really wanted to skip this question this week.  I ate whatever I wanted and constantly over Christmas.  I gained 3 pounds, so I'm up 21 pounds.  Guess my no gaining cycle is over.

Gender: A Sweet Baby GIRL!!  Emery Katherine will be here before we know it!

Movement: All the time!

What I miss: Being able to be on my feet without my back hurting!

Sleep: Sleeping great.  Still getting up only once to go to the bathroom.

Symptoms: Sunday was a pretty rough day.  We left NC in the afternoon, and ended up having to stop in Shelby as I was having terrible back pains and could not be in the car any longer.  Lauren & Matt let us stay the night with them which I am so thankful as I was throwing up and so light headed from the pain.  Kyle took wonderful care of me and we ended up driving the rest of the way to ATL the next morning.  Since then my back has been pretty sore and I've been carrying around a heating pad with me wherever I go.

Notes: I PASSED MY GLUCOSE TEST!!  AND my belly button is going to be an "outie" any day now.

"To-do" items checked off our list:
- I painted the final coat on the crown molding in the nursery.

- Kyle caulked for the last time in the nursery.

- I built her crib and changing table, yeah!!

- We took everything out of the armoire and Kyle hung a rod inside so I can start hanging clothes!

- Kyle started putting the furring strips up in the basement and framed out the last wall of the shower.

- We went through all of Tara's baby girl clothes and brought home 2 boxes full!  We are so grateful!!

- We brought home a glider and ottoman from my parents house!  We are in the process of researching how much it is to repurpose cushions to see if it's worth the work.

- We bought a new sofa for our living room.  So excited to finally have a nice leather couch, it should be here in 3 weeks!

Cravings: PIZZA and icecream!

Best Moments this week: Seeing our sweet little girl in 3D and laughing at her folded in half position!

What we are looking forward to:  Having a long weekend to work on our house projects!

And here is the 30 week belly shot:

And I have include this picture.  Kyle and I are amazed how big my tummy has grown every time I wear these pants.  Crazy to think how much bigger I am still going to get!

Christmas 2010

I can't believe that Christmas has already come and gone, this month has truly been a blur!  Kyle and I celebrated Christmas together in Marietta on Wednesday night after work.  Kyle had been traveling for the 2 weeks prior, so he had to run out and go shopping for a while, but we stayed up late to swap gifts.  We both cannot believe that next year we'll have a smiley 9 month old to celebrate with us!

Here's Kyle with his presents:

And me with mine:

We also had combined gifts where we bought a new leather couch to replace our micro-fiber one (it should be delivered in less than 3 weeks) and a flat screen for our bedroom.  What treats!

Thursday we made the drive to Raleigh, and split up so we could spend some quality time with both of our families.  Kyle and his dad worked getting the garage completely organized, and I played with all my nieces and nephews for most of the day!  Friday night I drove over to the Guenthers and celebrated Christmas Eve with Kyle's family eating a wonderful meal!  We woke up Saturday morning and opened gifts with everyone.  

This year we did gifts for the community, grandparents, dogs and babies.  Emery got so much stuff: Activity Mat, Diaper Bag, Ear Thermometer, Look Book, Clothes, some ornaments and more!  Look at the dogs enjoying their toys and bones!

Gunney was dressed so cute in his Santa outfit!!

For one of Gunney's presents I made some G-Diaper inserts for Rachel & Mike.  They love the g-diaper cloth diapers so I found a tutorial and wanted to try it out.  They came out really cute, but I have no clue if they actually work or not.  Oh well it's the thought that counts!

For Kerry and Brad I made some blue and white burp cloths that Sara introduced me to.  They were really fun to make and I love how they fit right to your shoulder.  Sadly I didn't take any pictures of those though!

Saturday afternoon we headed over to my families Christmas celebration.  We had so much fun hanging out with family and spending some quality time with Nick before he left for Peru.  He will be volunteering in a dental clinic down there as a resume builder, since he'll be applying to Dental Schools next year.  He actually left today, and will be down there until April 2, oh man how we are going to miss him!  He'll get the chance to travel every weekend so we can't wait to see pictures from all his adventures.

Mom and Grandma made a wonderful meal for us all that night.  My dad's parents (Grammy and Pop Pop) also came in town that night, so we got the chance to visit with them too!

 Hanging out before dinner:

We always draw names for my family with gifts and we had a wonderful time opening and seeing what everyone received.  Nick gave Kyle the ESPN dvds 30 for 30 which is a documentary series featuring thirty films from some of today’s finest storytellers. Each film details the issues, trends, athletes, teams, rivalries, games and events that transformed the sports landscape from 1979 to 2009.  My dad gave me a beautiful fresh water pearl necklace and earrings as well as some ornaments and plates.  Emery even got presents too!

Sunday morning we woke up to 8 inches of snow!!  It was absolutely beautiful and even knocked out the power! We all huddled by mom and dad's fireplace and enjoyed some grilled cheese sandwiches!

This was the view from Tara's back deck of the church... just beautiful!

Unfortunately, Georgia did not get near the amount of snow (only 2 inches I think) so Kyle and I had to make the trek back to ATL so we could make it back to work on Monday.  Luckily the main roads were completely dry and perfect to drive on.  Due to horrible back pain on my part we ended up stopping for the night in Shelby, with Lauren and Matt.  It was so great to spend time with them as usual, and I am so thankful that we did not have to drive all the way back on Sunday night.

It was a very quick trip, but we really enjoyed spending time with family and celebrating what Christmas is truly all about.