Happy Halloween 2011!

Halloween felt very different this year.  I'm not sure I saw a single child dressed up.  We didn't get a single knock at the door for trick-or-treaters.  I'm glad I didn't pick up that bag of candy I was eyeing at the store earlier today!  We did however dress up the girls!  Let me tell you, they loved every minute (sarcasm).  Stella didn't mind her costume actually- she sat like a perfect little puppy for pictures and wore her helmet like a champ!  Lola on the other hand couln't get out of her costume fast enough! She kept trying to rub off her costume on the ground.  Poor baby.  She sure did make a cute bumble bee though!  Our friend Jeff took some photos for us! Enjoy!

Oh Happy Day!

Sometimes I go through my ordinary day and then it hits me, we are going to have a BABY!  It's still surreal and everytime I see our sweet Baby B on the ultrasound monitor I am in awe that there is a human forming inside of me.  We found out we were pregnant at 5 weeks. We went in for an ultrasound later that day. Did I mention how thankful I am for an amazing clinic?  We saw a perfect little yolk sac forming.  The doctor wanted to make sure my HCG levels were going up and they also ran blood tests and checked my progesterone level.  I had to go back two days later to have blood drawn again to match the HCG levels.  Nurse Eva called while I was out shopping and she reported my HCG levels looked great! Praise God!  I had to wait a few more days for my progeterone levels to come back because the lab missed the note to check progesterone the first time around.  Those results came back normal as well!  After miscarrying at a little over 6 weeks last year, the healthy numbers were a huge relief.  We went in for another ultrasound at 7 weeks, 2 days. Matt and I were both shocked to see a little tiny form of a baby on the screen that early!  Things were really progressing.

As far as pregancy symptoms I've had food aversions since day one. Just walking into the kitchen was a struggle!  My number one food aversion is chicken. The thought of chicken makes me want to yak.  Matt has been quite the trooper.  He has done a lot of the cooking and has been flexible with my many food complaints!  Other than food aversions, headaches have been my other major pregnancy symptom. They started at 10 1/2 weeks.  I took a trip to Sioux Falls to do my fall photography sessions and had nights I couldn't sleep because my head, shoulders and neck were aching so much. Tylenol doesn't begin to touch the pain.  Since then I've had a headache almost daily, until today!  I have been headache free all day.  I try to stay hydrated and also started drinking Powerade today.  I hope this headache free situation stays!  I've used relief cream which provides a cool tingling sensation and when I develop a headache at night it helps me to fall asleep. I've also started making trips to the chiropractor.  I will continue to go this week but may stop after that if I remain headache free.

Sleeping has become interesting.  I read it's best to sleep on your left side for the best blood flow and oxygen to to the baby. However, I've found that I need more cushioning under me because I wake up with a very sore hip every morning!  I get up at least once a night to use the restroom which isn't too bad. I suspect it will get worse as baby grows.  Speaking of growing, I'm still waiting to grow! At 15 weeks I can still wear most of my pants, although I need to wear tanks over them so I can leave the top buttons undone.  I dont' have a noticeable belly and many people comment that I don't look pregnant.  I am okay with that as long as baby is healthy!  Hopefully I don't explode later in pregnancy!

I consider myself blessed in this pregnancy.  Sweet baby B has caused me little distress as far as symptoms go and now that I'm getting further into my second trimester I hope even the minor symptoms go away.  I had vegetarian sushi for the first time today!  I couldn't believe it even looked appealing. I brought it home and it was delicious!  I hope today is a sign of good things to come- less food aversions and relief from the headaches.

Baby B- we are so excited to watch you grow. We get to see you again in 3 weeks!  We aren't sure if we'll find out if you're a boy or a girl yet.  We might wait to find out the news with everyone at Christmas.  We'll see if we can make it that long, though.  Mommy and daddy love you so much!

That's all for now- 15 weeks tomorrow!!!

Two years later and I'm back.

I can't believe it's been nearly 2 years since my last post.  I just re-read my past posts and I will be much better about blogging from here on out. It's so fun to read and relive the past via blog.

The Update:
Presently we are living in Tyler, TX. We left Sioux Falls and arrived in Tyler on June 8th.  We went from a 4 bedroom house to a one bedroom apartment.  Granted we live in a community with lots of great amenities (3 pools, workout facilities, free golf and a beautiful clubhouse). The puppies have started to make some new puppy friends and I got to work on meeting some friends of my own almost immediately after moving. Kjersti has been a dear friend and I am so thankful for her.  Jacque and Sachi are wonderful girls I met through church and I am excited to start a bible study with them soon.  Matt is busy with Locals Love Us and we are waiting to hear if we will move again in January or not.  I am working part-time at a company called Mentoring Minds and the people there are great.

The Exciting News:
We are having a baby! Due April 24, 2012!  We will find out the sex on November 21st (unless we decide to wait until Christmas to find out when the rest of the family does).  We are so excited to be pregnant and can't wait to meet our little bundle of joy. 

The Truth:
In some ways this move has been the hardest one yet.  While we have friends and a nice place to live in Tyler, finding out we were pregnant changed a lot of things for me.  We accepted this position (yes, the one where they told us up front we'd be moving every 2-4 months) with the intention of eventually having a baby. 

But here's the thing. Thinking about it in a futuristic way and actually being pregnant realizing this relocating thing is going to be our life are two different things. Knowing there is a sweet babe growing and knowing we are so far from family/old friends is brutal. I have had so many mixed feelings about continuing in this lifestyle of constantly moving.  I've also realized how good we had it in Sioux Falls. I had a job I LOVED, I was surrounded by people I LOVED, and Matt and I had hit the best point in our marriage since meeting with our fantastic counselor Dave.  So why did we leave it all?  I've asked myself this question often. 

Sometimes I honestly feel like we were led to Tyler to pursue this new job venture.  Other times I think we rushed into things and are now left inbetween a rock and a hard place.  Our Sioux Falls home is under a 2 year lease.  We still have a year and a half to go until we can return to that home.  We don't know the future of Matt's job and may not until right before we have to make a decision about whether or not to move.  It's all too much for me at times.  I've been told I am mourning the life I had and must learn how to accept my life as it is now.  What makes that so challenging is that I had full input into this decision.  But of course I believe in the leading of God, so would he have let me make this decision to move to Tyler if it wasn't His Will?

My current theme song is Revelation by Third Day, here are the lyrics (I don't feel this strongly all the time, but generally speaking it sums up my feelings quite well)

My life has led me down the road that's so uncertain

And now I am left alone and I am broken

Trying to find my way

Trying to find the faith that's gone

This time i know that you are holding all the answers

And I'm tired of losing hope and taking chances

On roads that never seem

To be the ones that bring me home

Give me a revelation

Show me what to do

Cause I've been trying

To find my way

I haven't got a clue

Tell me should I stay here

Or do i need to move?

Give me a revelation

I've got nothing without you

I've got nothing without you

Puppy Portrait Session!

My babies. My point and shoot camera. My Saturday afternoon.

FYI: These puppies are our pets, NOT models. I know, these pictures are misleading.

 I love these girls!

Ashley's Visited... a belated blog.

My dear friend Ashley was in town last weekend.  It was a glorious weekend filled with photo shoots, cooking, tv watching and lots of Say Yes to the Dress episodes.  Best weekend I've had in a long time! Thanks for driving the 4.5 hours Ashley! :)

Here are some of the highlights!

Ashley and I trecked through some serious mud for these shots!

He was such a friendly horse! I think he had a crush on Ashley.

Ashley is slowly sinking into the mud wearing her pretty mary jane shoes, of course.

I love horses.

Next: Homemade wreaths!

Below is my very first attempt at making a homemade wreath! Ashley inspired me with the idea and we spent a solid hour and a half picking out the materials! I am so happy with how it turned out.

FYI: we had picked out completely different materials but changed our mind at the very last minute. We found these gold covered berries during the last 5 minutes of our Hobby Lobby trip and decided to pick out all new materials. Go figure!

Next: Wall Decor

Oh boy. This wrought iron decor has quite the story to go with it.  Long story short-ish. It took us two visits to Hobby Lobby, about an hour of fighting with a printer trying to get the 40% online coupon to print, returning to Hobby Lobby to try and bargain with the sales team to let us use the Joanne Fabrics coupon we had for 40% off one item (we were rejectied!) and ending with us finding out that between our first visit and our second visit (on the same day) the store had started their 50% off wall decor sale! whoohoo! Despite all the struggles we had to get this piece, it was totally worth it.

Now if I only had a stud finder so I could hang it!

Hostess Gift: Perfect ending to a perfect weekend.

Ashley is so incredibly thoughtful! She brought me a hostess gift bag complete with homemade apple sauce, homemade salsa and an amazing Chicken cookbook! I love chicken and the recipes in this book look amazing! I can't wait to try it out.

Speaking of food: Ashley made me her Pasta Fagiolo soup and it was AMAZING! So amazing that I forgot to take a picture... mmmm. So good!

I'm thankful for good times and especially the good friends that go with them.  Thanks for making last weekend so much fun, Ashley!

Sunday Morning Idea.

Matt has to work most weekends. So while he's at work I like to be productive with my time off.  Mostly, I like to cook and try  new recipes.  This morning I was craving apple fritters.  I love the ones from Starbucks but have no idea how they make them.  So I did a little research, found a recipe and realized I had everything I needed already in the house!

Not only was this exciting because I could make them right away but also because I didn't have to change out of my pjs :)

I found this recipe:

6 large cooking apples, peeled and chopped

1 c flour

1/4 c sugar

2 t baking powder

1/4 t salt

1 large egg beaten

1/2 c milk

oil for deep frying (I used vegetable- its what I had in the house)

powdered sugar or cinnamon/sugar

Mix all dry ingredients.

Beat egg and add milk.

Add egg mixture to dry mixture!

Add apples and mix until fully coated in mixture.

Drop teaspoon size balls into 1/2 inch of hot cooking oil (I heated mine on high in a deep pot)

Make sure to flip them once! Cook for approx. 3 minutes total. Remove from oil and immediately top with sugar- I used cinnamon-sugar.

*NOTE* You will want to eat more than one.

pancakes and pie, oh my.

ooooh, apples how I love thee!

So far we have enjoyed two apple crisps, some fluffy apple pancakes and tonight- apple pie!

Here are a few pictures for your viewing pleasure:

I mixed shredded apple into the batter.

The pancakes were served with cinnamon, syrup and fresh apple slices, of course!

The smell of the pie baking and the pancakes frying = intoxicating.

My very first attempt at a homemade apple pie.