Carson says "ollie"

Stats: 36

How Far Along?  36 Weeks

How Big Is Baby? The size of a Coconut

Total Weight Gain?  +3 lbs. Weight 177 

Sleep? Not great. Up a lot to pee. Ready to be up with a newborn instead of up for the toilet

Best Moment of the week? Packing my hospital bags. Makes it just so much more real

Food Cravings? Banana's, and cottage cheese

Food Aversions? Nothing really...

Symptoms of Labor? Lots of Braxton Hicks, and painful contractions. Lots of cervix pressure as well

What I'm looking forward to? Dr. Appt tomorrow, last ultrasound tomorrow

What I miss? Sleep. I'd rather be up with a newborn than up with back pain and pee. 


Exercise? Yoga, Squats, lunges and walking 

Hospital Bag Check List

Towards the end of every pregnancy the one thing that weighs on a mama's mind most (besides her baby) is what to take to the hospital when its time to bring baby home. As most mama's I wanted to get my bags packed early "just in case" but I hate the idea of packing and repacking. I think I packed my hospital bags 5 or 6 times waiting to go into labor with Carson. Only ending up being induced. I took a lot of crap the first time. Probably a lot of first time mommy junk I didn't know I wouldn't really need.  I wish I could remember what all I took. I remember I took my own wipe warmer. (okay we totally used that for ever, just not in the hospital) 

Labor Bag

1 - I love my Victoria Secret tote, its nice and structured

2 - black nightie, I plan on wearing this through labor. I actually wore it while I was in labor with Carson, it never got "gross" and it looks so cute. Its got this really pretty lace trim

3 - Bikini to wear in and out of the Jacuzzi tub. I know I won't be wearing the bottoms but I want to wear them in the hall way on my way to the tub.  - its old and I don't care if it gets ruined -

4 - Tennis balls for back labor pain relief for Chris to rub my back with

5 - Video camera

6 - Chapstick

7 - Socks to wear to walk around 

(Not pictured)

Camera

DVD's 

Laptop and Power cord

Toiletries Bag 

1 - Bio Oil ~ you don't want to stop your anti stretchmark routine or they WILL pop up after delivery

2 - Facial Cleanser

3 - Victoria Secret make up bag

4 - mini loofa

5 - Shampoo/conditioner/body wash

6 - Natural color eye palette

7 - Make up brushes

8 - Foundation and powder

9 - Water proof Mascara and curler

10 - Assorted Hair clips

(not pictured) 

Ponds face cleanser pads

Hair brush

tooth brush and paste

Post Pardum Bag

1 - 8 pairs of old cheap underwear

2 - Monster Pads (I hated the feel of the diaper pads at the hospital)

3 - Luna Bars for snacking

4 - Cotton robe and a nicer shawl for guests

5 - Pajamas from Motherhood Maternity 

6 - 4 Tank tops/Nursing Tanks

7 - Victoria Secret Nursing Bra

8 - 2 pairs of black yoga pants (Victoria Secret and Nike) 

9 - Probably my favorite find in the Target 1$ section, is this bag to take all this in. Its zippered!

10 - Breast pads

(Not Pictured)

My own towels and pillow and blanket

The Baby Bag! 

1 - Fuzzy Blanket and Swaddling Blanket

2 - Skip Hop Bento Bag

3 - Wipes (Hospitals do NOT provide wipes. They give you paper towels WTF?)

4 - Hand Sanitizers pads and gel

5 - Shout Stain removers in case of over spillage onto any of my clothes

6 - 2 pairs of newborn Jammies so he doesn't have to wear ugly hospital clothes

7- 1 preemie onsie in case he's smaller and 3 NB onsies for day time wear

8 - 2 hand knit hats for photographs

9 - Socks to protect his face from his fingers

10 - a Bink for the ride home 

I still have yet to pack the husbands hospital bag, since he'll be coming home to sleep he doesn't need much. He'll probably hang out a bunch at the hospital but come home at night so he doesn't need much. 

I am going to pack him:

Flip flops

Swim trunks 

these are in case I need him in the Jacuzzi with me or in the shower 

Mommy Saves Money: Swaddling Blankies!

I never swaddled with Carson, he slept with us and all that jazz. This time my main goal is to keep Oliver in his own crib/pack and play.  So I figured, I should buy some swaddling blankets. But then the ones I wanted, These ones are not cheap. 

I still wanted swaddling blankets, even if they weren't going to be cheap. Well today while I was at Joann Fabric (I hate this store with a passion but they have a HUGE selection of fabric) I had a 50% off coupon so I wanted to purchase a nice thick piece of fabric for a backdrop for Ollies newborn photos.  I ended up getting a really big nice fluffy brown blanket material type fabric 

I think it will make a nice backdrop. They had a TON of colors I might go back and buy a few more colors as I snag some coupons.

Back to todays project. 

I wanted to "test" out my stamp. I didn't want to ruin the Muslin if it didn't work. So I ran and grabbed a cheap plain onsie and well, it turned out pretty stinking cute

Here are my homemade stamps. Just hard felt spray glued on to styrofoam board. Super cheap.  I free handed and cut these out myself.
I love owls and elephants

Ooops its a shirt not a onsie. I painted the fabric pain on to the stamp. I think a little foam roller would have worked a bit better, but I have tons of little brushed from all Carson's artwork

BAM! I put a bird on it! 

Now that I new it worked. I washed and dried the Muslin. It washed up SO soft. I love these already. I am going to make like four more. 

Its so boring all plain

I finished the first one in about 20 minutes. I love the owls and Elephants! 

This is the second one. It got even easier and faster.

Over all this was a really fun easy picture. If you aren't artistically inclined you could die the Muslin fabric. I might do that with Carson. Get a tie dye kit and let him go to town making brother some swaddlers. 

For $3 a piece I got organic, unique swaddle blankets for Ollie 

Cuteness

I'm not in trouble? right!

35/35

STATS: 35 weeks!

How Far Along?  35 Weeks

How Big Is Baby? The size of a Honey Dew! 

Total Weight Gain?  - 3 lbs I was down to 174.7 which is just 14.7 lbs gained total. WTF?

Sleep? Not very good anymore. Up 5 times a night to pee is no fun, especially when you can barely make it when you stand up and Ollies weight shifts to my bladder

Best Moment of the week? hitting the 35/35 week marker for sure! Also knowing that if I go into labor, I can just go into labor

Food Cravings? Oranges, honey dew, lots of yummy healthy foods! 

Food Aversions? Anything that might give me heart burn

Symptoms of Labor? Lots of Braxton Hicks contractions some are really painful, so maybe its early labor? 

What I'm looking forward to? Last ultrasound of the pregnancy on 1/31! 

What I miss? I miss having my body be MY body. I'm really looking forward to getting back into working out HARD and seeing results. Exercise while pregnant is a good thing, but its really hard to put in a lot of effort and still get bigger 


Exercise? Yoga, Squats, lunges and walking 

Nursery Progress

Super long Nursery Project post! 

Here is probably the final nursery update (since its FINISHED) before we put a baby in it! Best piece of furniture EVER! lol. I was very excited to get the decor up. I posted a bit about the decor I was planning on making Here in the first nursery post. I think everything I wanted to get done (besides that damn rocking chair) is done. the rocker isn't going to happen, I can tell ya that much. I don't live in lala land. It actually "matches" the carpet. I'm not one for "matching" things to the carpet. Especially in our apartment. If I had my way I'd rip all the carpet out and put laminate flooring down (lets face it I wouldn't pay extra for real hard wood in a rental) but I'm pretty sure that would lose us the security deposit. =P

Mobile:

My AMAZING mother in law was able to make the cutest little cut outs for Ollies room and for the mobile I talked about in my last nursery post. 

I totally "stole" the idea from an etsy store. This one with the help of my MIL I was able to make the mobile for under $5 

Wall Art: 

Again I was able to do some really awesome DIY and use some of the great tractors my MIL made while I was at it. 

You'll remember I posted about the sign I was making. Well here it is above the changing station! I love it. I think it turned out super cute with the tractors. 

The blue sign got repurposed from Carson's old Nursery. I put it by the door, because its such a lovely saying. 

The Gear:

After Carson had grown out of his bouncer and swing we got rid of it. At the time we were living in a tiny 2 bedroom (500SQFT) house and didn't have space and the "what if" of having more kids. So we needed a lot of "gear" not the big stuff, I was smart enough not to get rid of a basically unused Crib, and matching changing station.

I personally think the Crib/Changing station look nice like this. Ollies room is the smallest room because it will eventually be turned into a play room for the boys and they will get bunk beds. 

I love having the changing station all set up. In the baskets under the changing table are onsies, and sleepers all NB size. and socks and hats and a place for binkies in the little drawers. 

In the hanging Basket beside the changing table are NB diapers, wipes, hats I haven't put away and bottles.  (My mom snagged this at a moving sale for like $5 WAY back in August. I was going to put it in the bathroom but its the perfect size for diapers and wipes and other baby necessities. I'm going to take the hats and bottles out of the top and use that to store my extra pumping parts and pump. 

This Vibrating Chair

I'm kind of at a weird point with the Bouncer and the Swing right now. I have them set up, I've let Carson test them out, and now they are put away till Ollie is here.  I got the vibrating chair for like $15 at BRU with a coupon and it was already on sale! SCORE especially since you never know if a baby will like it.

This Swing

I snagged this swing on 70% off at Target recently for like $30 not bad if you ask me. Again I didn't want to spend a ton of stuff Ollie might not really like. It also folds really flat so we'll be taking it with us places like my parents so Ollie has a safe place to hang out 

Nice little Touches:

Loving the Sleep Sheep

One of my really awesome friends gave these to Ollie for Christmas! I love them they have little planes on them! 

The Mobile 

The monitor. We have this one from amazon, it was cheap and in color and has night vision. We used it in Carson's room when we moved him from Crib to Toddler Bed. If I feel so inclined I might buy a second camera to keep in Carsons room. But we haven't used it in his room in forever. 

I am pretty proud of all the work we put in, in such a short amount of time. The pack and play is sitting in the doorway still waiting to go up in our room. I'm not really sure if we'll put Ollie in the PnP for the first few weeks or if I'll just treck it to his room every feeding. I'll still put it up for naps while I'm showering, or when ever. I like options. 

34 week check in

I'm trying to do these more regularly now that things are starting to happen with pregnancy again.

I went to my OB appt yesterday (I braved snow!) I've been having a lot of pressure and crampy feelings in my cervix, ute area. Also fairly bad lower back pain. Saturday morning through the entire day I was contracting every 8-10 minutes for most of the day. Again on sunday night. When I woke up monday I felt like I'd been hit by a truck.

I had a doctor appointment on tuesday so I figured I could wait it out. Obviously I would have gone in had things gotten worse, but I figured at 34 weeks it wasn't the most pressing thing in the world to be having some false labor or early labor contractions.

Well when I went in to my doctor I explained what was going on, and my OB checked me out. I am 1.5 cm dilated with a VERY low baby. She said that once I get to 4 cm I'll have to get admitted to the L&D and they will get things going from there, especially since its my second, and when I hit 4 with Carson he was born 4 hours later.

I'm still having tons of cramps, and back pain and pressure. So we'll see if I make it to my next appointment on the 31st. Fingers crossed I make it till at least my next doctor appointment. I don't want Ollie to get here to early.

For now, I am still just enjoying it being the 3 of us. I've been trying really hard to go in and snuggle with Carson at night before bed.

Its hard finding a balance between trying to prepare Carson for not having mommy's 100% attention all the time, and wanting to just coddler him until his brother is here because it will be harder splitting the time.  I'm going to miss it just being me and my little man, but I can't wait for Little Buddy to join us. I think we'll be having a lot of fun very soon.

The nursery is almost done. I still need to hang his farm sign and Chris' mom is sending really cute little paper tractors for me to hang from the mobile. I'm really excited to work on this project since its basically the last thing I have to do before he gets here!

Thats all folks

A new section of the blog

If you look up into the page bar, you will see that I have a new category. Cooped Up Kitchen - Cooking Channel. I've recently been doing a LOT of cooking and realized that not only is it something I'm good at (most of the time) its also something I am incredibly passionate about. I want to share that with all my followers. Especially quick (under 30 minutes) meals and inexpensive (under 15$ for several people/several meals)

Please give me some feed back. I'll try to keep my videos shorter, but please keep in mind I don't normally do video blogs so I'm not that great at it right now. I'll get better, promise!

Cooped Up Kitchen Channel

Feeding the Freezer - Project two

Today our little man went for his first hair cut, and we enjoyed some winter snow (our first winter snow! this season!) So we had a really fun morning. Before Carson's hair appointment we swung by the grocery store. I wanted to get some things for freezer meals. I originally only had the plan of making Cowboy Casserole, and Rigatoni with Meat Sauce. That was it for today. Instead I ended up making the Cowboy Casserole, Rigatoni with Meat Sauce, Bacon Mac and Cheese, and Mini Meat Loaves.

I feel fairly confident now, that if I do nothing else until Ollie is born. I won't be stressed out about what to cook, or going to the grocery store. Mr.C is really good about helping around the house and going shopping. But I just want us to really be able to enjoy as much as we can of Ollie being small and still eat healthy (some of these are not super healthy FYI)

• Cowboy Casserole 
• What You need: 1.5 lbs hamberger, 1/2 onion, 1/2 cup milk, 4T Sour Cream, 12 oz Corn, 1.5 cups cheese, Tater Tots
• Fry up half and onion chopped up finely
• Add hamburger (80/20) and brown it
• While the hamburger onion mixture cooks, mix in a bowl 1/2 cup milk, 4 table spoons Sour Cream, the corn and 1C shredded Cheddar Cheese. 
• Layer tater tots on the bottom of casserole dish
• Mix the meat/onions with the mixture you made while it was cooking. Combine thoroughly.
• Layer mixture on top of tater tots
• Add more tater tots and remaining cheese
• Either cook now at 350 for 15 minutes
• Or freeze and cook later at 350 for 35 minutes 

This next one is SO simple and only takes 3 ingredients! Pasta, Sauce and Hamburger

• Rigatoni with Meat Sauce
• What you'll need: 1 box of whole wheat Rigatoni (or other favorite shape) about 16 oz, 1/2 lb of ground beef, and half a jar of pasta sauce (pick your favorite) 
• Cook pasta till tender
• Cook meat until brown and mix in pasta sauce 
• Combine pasta and meat sauce and place in casserole dish 

This might be my favorite meal to make, especially when I have company. Its bacon wrapped meat loaf. But this time I made it mini for quicker heating

• Meat Loaf with Bacon
• What you'll need: 3/4 lb hamburger, 10 half strips of bacon, 1 egg, 4T ketchup (more if needed) and 1/2 C bread crumbs, Salt and Pepper to taste
• Mix Hamburger, egg, ketchup, bread crumbs and salt and pepper. Squish it all around in a bowl, really make sure it is combined really well. 
• Place mixture in pans and lay 2 strips of bacon on top. 
• Cook for 35 minutes at 350* and then broil for crispy bacon for 5 minutes

Last but not least, and definitely the one I am most looking forward to chowing down on after Ollie is here. Bacon mac and cheese. It sounds SO unhealthy but I made it fairly low calorie and healthy with whole wheat pasta, low calorie cheese and well, you can't make bacon healthy. 

• Bacon Mac and Cheese
• What you will need: 1 cup Shredded Mozzarella, 1 cup shredded cheddar or colby, and one 16 oz box of whole wheat pasta, and 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 package of bacon
• Cook pasta till al dente 
• Mix Cheese and milk together while chopped up bacon cooks and pasta cooks
• Mix cheese and bacon together 
• Mix Cheese/Bacon and pasta together
• Cook for 30 minutes at 350* 

When all was said and done, I spent maybe 3 hours cooking and cleaning up and yeah, I'm exhausted. But I feel SO much better at least knowing that if he comes early, I won't have to worry about any food for the first month + . 

I figured out the portion sizes + making a quick side dish for each meal. Each of these boxes will be enough food for 6 meals. So 3 meals for each of us.  Making these cheap and easy meals for us. Carson is still fairly picky so I'm guessing he'll be getting a lot of mac and cheese (normal) and grilled cheeses. 

I think I spent MAYBE 30$ on everything listed for all these meals. Including the throw away casserole pans. I went to the Dollar Store for those, 3 pack for a 1$ is not bad especially when you can MAYBE find them for 2 for 3$ at walmart or freddies. 

If you have any specific questions in regards to the feed the freezer project just let me know. 

This is what my indoor freezer looks like. The chest freezer has tons of veggies and berries, cheeses and potatoes. Also I have a bunch of "Stew packs" which are just carrots, celery, and onions pre-cut and frozen to toss in the crock pot with meat and potatoes. 

I'm pregnant not helpless...

But Jesus Christ Mary and Joseph, I swear if I have to chase an employee at a store down one more time to get help with something rediculously heavy I might lose it. Not once, not twice, but at 3 separate stores today I had to actually track down an employee and ask for help.
First off babies r us, normally I don't really shop here unless I have a great coupon or super specialty thing I need. (potty seat that folds tiny for public potty? Scored it there) but today I had to go buy a crib mattress for Ollie's room. Here I am struggling to wheel the mattress around and I'm knocking shit over, at one point a bunch of strollers fell down. I had other shopping people! Finally I went and ditched it at the counter and I still had to lift it over for the lady

Then we progressed to the big box store. Costco. I bought like 1200 wipes today and could hardly lift the Costco sized box out of my cart let alone back in. I asked if someone could help me out and they were like "we'll page someone" 20 minutes later? No one came to help so I left and did it myself.

Off to Fred Meyer, the final destination to my shopping experience. I bought Mr. C a bag of dirt. Really long, probably only funny if your is, kind of joke. But it's his bag of birthday dirt. I couldn't get the stupid 40 lb bag of cow shit into my cart so I just kind of drug it infront of the cart as best I could. Finally I flagged a lady down and asked if she could help. Oh no I can't help I have bad knees. Um okay. Can you call someone to help so I don't drag cow shit all over the store? Oh my walkie is dead. FINE COW SHIT, ISLE ORGANIC MILK!

I finally found another employee who helped me push the dirt in further so it wasn't dragging on the ground. Thank you! Got my groceries and went to pay. Asked for help carrying out my big ol bag of shit...well guess who isn't answering the walkie? Carry out.

Finally found a strapping young man (it might actually have been our upstairs neighbors teenager) who was totally kind and great about putting this ginoous bag of crap in my trunk. He even loaded up my milk for me :)

Vent time over. But come on people if you see a pregnant lady walking around tired and dragging of bag of cow crap in front of her cart, maybe, just maybe...ask her if she needs help.

Feeding the Freezer - project

This is going to come out in project posts mainly because there is just no way I'll be able to keep track of weeks of feeding the freezer for one giant post. Also, the goal is to have six weeks of healthy freezer meals. That's a lot of meals!! But not only that I want to make sure I have breakfast, lunches and dinners. I probably won't focus to heavily on dinners. I'll make enough that I dont have to worry what's going on the table, but I will have help in the evening. During the day i'll be on my own! :-0

Today I worked on feeding the freezer chicken and pork taquitos! I had a few for lunch and I must say, I approve they are even better than store bought and so much healthier and cheaper! I will post the cost breakdown as I go. Then break it down and show you just the kind of savings you are looking at.

All you need is a package of corn tortillas (72ct $3.79) one roteserie chicken picked clean ($4.99 Costco) two packages of cream cheese (1pkg for each meat) ($2.50 Fred Meyer on sale) I used left over pork that I made in the Dutch oven a few days prior so we got about 3 meals out of it before I used it and had a ton left for taquitos. It cost ($7.89) for roughly a 3 lb pork roast. Then last but not least, 1 package of Mexican spiced shredded cheese ($2.50)

I spent probably an hour picking the chicken and pork this morning. The pork was more just defatting it for the dogs. They were my best friends today! Then I tossed the chicken in the skillet on low with a packet of cream cheese and 1 cup shredded cheese and let it melt and pulled the chicken so it was a nice consistency. Then when that was all blended nicely, I scooped it into a bowl and dumped the pork and cream cheese and shredded cheese and did it again. But I just left it on the stove to sit while I worked through the filling.

::huge tip:: place a wet paper towel on A plate put 2 corn tortillas in the microwave and place another wet paper towel on top. Heat for 40 seconds. They will be HOT!

Scoop filling and spread so you get an even mix of filling throughout the taquitos.

Place on a cookie sheet as you go, once filled pop it in the freezer for 1 hour to flash freeze and get extra moisture out. Then place in freezer bag!

Repeat directions for other fillings!

Total cost break down
$21.67 for ingredients
Divide that by 72 taquitos
That makes them about .30cents a taquito!

I will have to look up what 72 taquitos would cost at the store. But these are so much healthier its worth it right there to make your own

Edit: I looked it up
Store bought Taquitos - 22 per box at $12.65 a box
I'd have to buy 3 or 4 boxes to get as many taquitos as I made at home. If I bought 3 boxes I'd have to spend 37.95

Thats a huge difference of $16.28 cents. I also got 3 meals out of the pork before I used it in the taquitos and I ate some of the shredded chicken with my rice the night before. So I really got a lot out of these meals.

I got 2 bags this size!

Don't fuck with a preggo

I ran to Target today with my little man to get some seasoning for my tomatoe sauce and some chocolate cookies for DH's birthday cake (I'm making a flower pot cake) 

I was coming down the parking isle and saw I spot. Another car was coming and probably 6 or 7 spots away, I flicked my blinker on and swung into the spot. NBD right? there was another spot 1 car over that was empty. I notice that the guy in the car that was approaching me pulls up behind me and just stops. I'm like "Wtf" So I pull DS1 out of his seat and proceed towards the store. 

This guy in his mustang rolls his window down and yells "Hey fatass can't walk any further? That was MY spot" I turned around and looked at him and said "Sorry asshole! Can't you see I'm 8 months pregnant and have a 2 year old. No I don't WANT to walk any further" and I turned around and kept going to the store. 

Seriously wtf is wrong with people. His blinker wasn't even on the spot nor do I think he ever turned it on. Otherwise I would have taken the further spot cause I'm not a parking lot jerk. 

So I thought I was nesting....

Yeah I didn't know what true nesting was when I wrote that last post. Today I worked on my "feed the freezer" project and made 60 home made freezer taquitos! (The feed the freezer project post is coming) and then I went out to our chest freezer and noticed it had a funky smell and that some of the things looked a bit freezer burnt. So I chucked the freezer burned stuff, and pulled out all the bags of frozen tomatoes that Chris grew last summer. It was like 20 lbs of tomatoes! I found a sauce recipe on Pinterest (shocker!) and away I went making my sauce. Its currently simmering since it said it could need to simmer up to 6 hours I decided I better get cracken!  The house smells amazing right now! So thats really fun.

I cleaned the chest freezer out with a bleach/water solution and the smell is gone. I also only put back the stuff I KNEW wasn't freezer burned at all and would be fine in there. I needed to make room anyway for the feed the freezer project I'm doing.

I also cleaned the tubs again, and have been furiously cleaning the kitchen every time so much as a speck of food appears on the counter its wiped up and sprayed down.


Gotta go take the cake for Chris' birthday party out of the oven! Feed the Freezer Project post coming soon!

Nesting? Oh I haz that

 
I wish I could say this was me, but nope not yesterday. I had just talked to my mother in law about how Mr.C was nesting more than I was. Since he wanted to paint and then there is me. Not really worried since I assume he'll be here on his induction date, I had no urge to do anything to really get ready besides getting some decor up in his room thats about it.

Then the "nesting" began. I bought a jug of bleach and a spray bottle and went to town. I cleaned the kitchen and the bathrooms with bleach, then I sprayed the carpets down with rug cleaner and vacuumed. I scrubbed the tub, I scrubbed under the kitchen sink (literally, I scrubbed the sink basin that no one sees) I categorized my pantry. I started making lists of things I need to go out and buy in bulk because lets face it, once life settles and Chris goes back to work, and my mom and MIL leave and the help is gone. I am not going to want to go to Costco alone with  a toddler and an infant. But at least the carts are actually big enough. unlike normal stores that give you the "shopping cart for one"

I have a "murphy's law of childbirth" outlook. I know that as soon as everything is nice and finished, cleaned and polished, I basically know he'll stay in forever. I started nesting with Carson at 26 weeks, everything was finished and ready to go. I sat, on my hands for another 14 weeks getting anxious and crazy hoping he would pop out. He had to be forcibly removed.  He was totally worth it. But at least this time. When everything is "finished" and ready. I'll probably be fairly close to full term, so I won't be sitting around getting anxious and then feeling like an asshole because I want my baby here, but he'd be pre-term. (I never wanted C to actually come out pre-term. I just wanted him here happy and healthy)

So at least, for now. I sit here, planning out freezer meals (I am working on a freezer meals post that will be coming soon!) I'm having a sprinkle sometime in the next few weeks! That will be super fun. I'm really looking forward to my sprinkle.

Luckily my lazy self doesn't feel like nesting today though. =)

20 minutes and coffee

Oh how I love me some white woman crack.

Seriously

Some days I don't even know what I would do if I didn't hear that wonderful sound coming out of the kitchen of the coffee maker percolating. Somehow I feel like this must be how dogs feel when they see the leashes come out, or the treat jar open.

Yeah, I compared myself to a dog....

But coffee is worth it.

I shudder to think what my house would look like with out coffee.

Probably like one of those hoarders hell hole type houses.


So coffee keeps it clean during the day, and a 20 minute bath time is all I need to really tidy the house up. Last night in a 20 minute bath time I was able to clean the living room, dining room, Carson's bedroom, and get the kitchen clean, coffee ready for this morning (see the loop?) Sundays are always the day I start nesting for the week. I can't keep up as easily during the work week because Husband is at work, and Carson is a bit of a tornado when it comes to his toys.

I need a better system then trying to do all the major clean up on sunday. I just haven't figured out what I need to be doing. Small maintenance? I can't sleep if my house is messy, it just really bugs me. My OCD is tingling

Pregnancy update

I'm 33 weeks pregnant today. Jesus. He could be here in as little as 4 weeks. I have an appointment next week and then one on the 31st which is an ultrasound appointment to make sure the little turkey flips from breach to head down. My stomach has been all over the place and I feel him in weird spots now. I think he might actually be going from breach to side to side. ::eye twitch:: that would hopefully explain my wideness.

I've only gained 22 lbs total! So thats awesome. I think I would just die if the scale tipped 200+ again. I've stayed fairly active, and I eat pretty much as healthy as I can. Sometimes I give in, but most of the time I try to think if something is a craving can I live with out it. I also brush my teeth around 7 pm so that way I am less likely to randomly snack. I've been really lucky that I crave mostly healthy things, recently its been kiwi's and mellon, and oranges!

I've also been really lucky to have a fair amount of energy especially in these final few weeks. I really need it now. Thats for sure. Nesting hasn't totally kicked in. But I have a feeling its going to soon. I keep getting these urges to clean. I really need to finish up the nursery space. This weekend I'm going to go pick up the crib mattress and get the closet all organized and the changing table. I can't even believe just a few weeks left until he could be here.

Part of me thinks I shouldn't do anything else and not purchase anything else because lets face it. I'm setting myself up for an induction at 39 weeks and I'll just sit around with a complete nursery like I did with Carson. So hopefully if I don't do anything he'll just come on his own after 37 weeks.

The Nursery Project

We've really slacked on the nursery despite the fact that I really want to start Ollie off right away in his own room and not get into the bed sharing habit like Carson. Nothing wrong with Bedsharing but after sleeping with Cars' for 13 months full time, and now when he crawls in our bed at night and we don't get good sleep; I really can't fathom how we did it for so long with him. But, I'm also thinking realistically and I washed the snuggle nest today, along with the carseat cover! (Holy crap its getting REAL)

Up until last month the nursery room was an office/storage room. But thanks to the kindness of my folks, who are housing our decorations in my dads fishing room (thanks daddy!) I also didn't really know what kind of theme I wanted to go with; Carson's room was space ships and very boy. This go around I wanted to keep the room more boy/girl neutral because I know we want to try for a 3rd, not right away. But we do. And I don't want to repaint for a girl. So we did yellow.

After I picked the yellow I decided lets to a tractor/John Deere theme. Chris painted the nursery for us today while I worked on some crafty projects for his room. I'm pretty happy with how well it turned out.

Enjoy some pictures!

The crib just kind of "floating" in the room white walls behind it

First wall of yellow before I was kicked out so it would be a surprise :) Love my husband

Crazy Big Brother was taking his job of testing out baby gear very seriously. Also this is not a Car Seat. Its a Space Bucket 

Material for a name plaque (I hated all the letters Jo anns was carrying) 

Freshly painted, I put another coat of paint on it again after the first coat dried

The Letters! I free hand cut these from heavy duty felt

"finished" plaque, I want to add a little tractor to the bottom. I just need to spray glue the letters on

I bought flannel for my mom to make Ollie a light weight car seat blanket

REALLY crappy iPhone pic of the finished walls and curtains and rocking chair (next project is redoing the rocker)

Closet changing table

I like having the crib and changer like this the crib is just SO big at first  for a new baby. 

Phase two will start soon. Finishing touches! =) 

Weirdo Projects That I Enjoy

Avocado Seed

I'm attempting to grow an avocado plant. Not cause I want to have a fruit producing tree. I am kind of trying this to at least get a neat house plant....or a story of how I attempted to grow a tree from a nut. 

I'm going to keep tabs on how it grows. It should put little roots into the water about 2-4 weeks after the start

No worries, I won't bore you with daily details of my nut

Not so Healthy foods are good too

So I was half inspired yesterday's healthy foods post; however, I went a different direction tonight. 

Total fatty at heart. 

Grilled Cheese Sandwich, but instead of cheese, I used home made mac and cheese + bacon chunks

Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot. 

I tried my hardest to keep it healthy, but that was hard. All things considered.

• 14 oz box of whole wheat elbow macaroni
• 1 lb bacon fried up
• 8 slices of bread
• 1 can of cheddar soup 
• 1 bag low fat craft shredded cheese (roughly 2 cups)
• 1 cup whole or skim milk

I mixed up the can of cheddar soup, whole milk and bag of low fat cheese. 

Microwave it for 1 minute to help the ingredients mix together better. 

Cook the elbow pasta till its tender and add it to the cheese sauce. 

Once combined pull the cooked bacon off the stove and butter the bread. 

Place a hefty helping of mac and cheese on the bread and sprinkle with bacon crumbles. 

Cook until its golden (since the filling is already warm) 

Enjoy!

Weirdest thing I've ever seen

Today as I drove the pups to the yuppy puppy dog park in the next town over, I got behind the worlds slowest school bus. So slow, I was just kind of staring out the window of my car driving through farm country. I noticed up ahead something was wrong with a Llama butt. 

Well lets face it, I actually said to Carson "Oh jesus what is wrong with that Llamas vagina?" Yeah. Good thing he didn't reply "Naughty vagina" instead he was all "Bunny bunny, dog fun?" 

and like a mother fucking horror movie.

A baby Llama shot out of Mama Llama

It was probably a really good thing that we were going so slow, I am fairly sure I would have driven right off the road.

Also, How many kids do you think saw a baby llama be born today? 

Just an FYI: I grew up on a goat farm, I've seen baby animals be born before. But this was like so totally shocking I did not even expect it for a second. Also I hardly believed my eyes, but there was a very cute baby llama with the same mama llama when I drove home. and some guys in a john deere tractor kind of watching the llamas. So it totally happened. Not seeing things. 

A real life resolution

Nothing shallow, nothing to hard. Just being a better family over all. We're really working on getting Carson back on his normal routine. Really working on getting him to not zombie out in front of the TV (that one is BAD) I was so sick in my first trimester, and so tired in my second; we got in a bad habit of just turing on Sean the Sheep and laying down with him. And zombie Carson was born. Another bad habit we got into since his birthday is making him his own meal (usually mac and cheese) which he eats....in front of the TV ::hangs head in shame::

I realized these are really, REALLY bad habits we've allowed him to get into. So I explained (as best as you can to a 2 year old) that in this new year, we're going to sit at the table as a family, even for snacks, no tv, no phones, no computers at the table. I'm making ONE dinner each night. Everyone will eat it, it will be balanced meal (okay lets face it, some nights will be pizza)

I'm done allowing Carson to watch TV all day. This might change back to "lets watch some Sean the Sheep" when Oliver is here. But for now, we're cutting WAY back. We've actually had days of no tv at all. Which is great! We played together, we snuggled we did some art projects. I was almost a zombie by 4 pm.

Another big thing is trying to get in at least 2 meals a day together as a family. This one is super important to me. Especially breakfast and dinner, I really enjoy starting our day out with a yummy meal and ending it with a yummy meal. It also gives us a nice time to talk about our day and to really feel like we're connecting and not just zoning out watching TV after eating and "talking" about our day.  Making one dinner is hard when you have a really picky two year old. I don't make weird foods either. But we've had some fights and some struggles getting him to eat, but over all I think in the long run it will be way better doing this now. Than when he's 5 and we can't strap him down and make him sit at the table even if he isn't going to eat.

We're just trying to be better, not perfect. Thats impossible. But just better, everyone can strive to do better.

Healthy lunches, that taste great too

Mr.C is probably one of the few people that actually kept his new years resolution last year to lose weight and have a healthier life style. Over the summer he took up walking to work since its only a couple miles one way, it saved on gas, and he was dropping the weight really fast doing it. He also started taking lunches and eating more fresh fruits and veggies. We kind of got out of the habit after Carson's birthday, we were just so busy with holidays and trying to not buy food because we'd be gone, and then tons of leftovers. Then Mr.C only had a few days of work in december. So again, not really buying "lunch" foods. But we are back in the swing of things, and its time to get creative! Sandwiches and carrot sticks are not going to cut it all year long.

Tomorrows Lunch! + Apple, pear, and carrot slices

Whats in the wrap? 

Half an avocado

3 strips of bacon

Turkey lunch meat

Cream Cheese spread

(I'm thinking next time I might sub lunch meat for chicken breast)

Mommy Saves Money - Freezer foods!

One of these days I will compile an entire list of things I've made to put in the freezer and actually enjoyed them up to a couple months later (okay lets face it, we eat them like right away and forget about them and eat the last one a couple months later)

I found a really yummy looking recipe on Pinterest recently, for breakfast sandwiches. We love breakfast freezer foods mostly because thats where we spend a lot of money when we are rushing out the door in the morning or sometimes cereal doesn't sound that great. But to make one breakfast sandwich doesn't always make sense. So I enjoy making and freezing breakfast foods.

Anyway, today I made eggs in cup cake tins (for the shape) baked bacon and sliced cheese and put it all together on english muffins...The final product...was AMAZING. I had one for lunch before I wrapped them up and put them in the freezer!

I have no idea why, But I can not get this photo to be the right direction

Almost ready for wrapping! I put it in the freezer for an hour before wrapping to get rid of all the moisture and to partially freeze before wrapping 

Finished!