This has been a Pinterest heavy weekend,

For all my friends that know me, I'm kind of a Pinter-Whore. Its seriously my favorite thing to do online (and on my iPhone) 

Last night I made the most delicious Loaded Mashed Potatoes, they were AMAZING. I did whip some extra sharp shredded cheddar into the actual mashed potatoes, that way in case you didn't get a top layer bite, it was still nice and cheesy! I might do a slight twist on this dish for thanksgiving, and make this casserole with stove top stuffing on top too. Since I'm planning on making a fancier stuffing dish, it will keep some of the traditional foods alive. (There will be a later post about thanksgiving. Don't worry ;) ) 

Pre-baking!

Today I made Pulled pork tender loin, It smells amazing. I didn't actually measure out 12 oz, since I bought a 2 liter of A&W soda. Mr.C was all "ZOMG we're actually going to HAVE root beer in the fridge! SQUEEE" (well he didn't "squee") I guess my husband likes root beer? who'da thunk it! 

Pulled pork with just root beer. Waiting for a nice helping of BBQ sauce soon

Added BBQ sauce. Smells. AMAZING.

Dinner was BOMB

I made dog biscuits today

From this website. They were so easy and cheap to make. Our dogs have some allergies to corn so buying biscuits from the store is always a bit of a challenge because I have to sit and read whats in the boxes, and god forbid I buy the same brand and they change the formula, then the dogs are all diarrhea and whining.

I have also been wanting to make them biscuits because CB has a bad habit of wanting to give them treats, and then runs off and eats them himself. Which is so gross when you think of all the unregulated crap in dog snacks. So today I decided to try my hand at making dog snacks. Well they turned out great, I kind of want to eat them. I had to buy a little dog biscuit cookie cutter today for this project pretty much everything else was already in my cabinets.

I talk a hard game, but I love my poochies

This is 2 batches in the jar

Nesting pictures

I don't have any "before" pictures, but it was BAD. Like really bad. Read my earlier post about having 2 garbage cans full of crap thrown out.

My "Baking" cupboard! I have had most of this stuff all around my kitchen. (I store flour and sugar in mason jars)

Breakfast nook cupboard! + Coffee! 

Coffee cups, beer mugs, water bottles, and to go lunch boxes 

None of our dishes were in the same cabinet before. Finally got everything nice and organized together! 

Under the sink cleaning supplies

I made nesting my bitch!

I'm one of those people that starts nesting, almost as soon as that second pink line pops up on the test. We've also been having some major discussions in our home about living here longer, rather than shorter. In october we signed another 9 month lease, we were not ready to commit to another year here at the time. 

But we've kind of explored our options as far as finding a rental house and we've decided that our long term goal of moving out of the metro, and buying a small 2-3 acre farm and either building our dream home. That is the goal, thats the dream. So instead of moving, and putting another 200+ a month toward another "this is not our forever" home. We've decided to continue to live in our apartment, which is actually, totally big enough. 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and nice sized kitchen (while small, will make me appreciate building my dream kitchen) 

On to the point at hand, nesting. I decided to clean the kitchen. It was cluttered and unimaginably full of crap. Mr.C took out 2 full garbage cans of old boxes, old food, stale chips. Weird shit.  I then spent most of the day (in spurts) cleaning the cupboards, moving bigger stuff out to the pantry, and re-organizing. I'm pretty happy with the outcome. I've got some awesome proof pictures! I always figure right after cleaning it will be the cleanest its ever gonna be.

Other things I want to do since we've decided to stay a while, paint. I'm tired of white walls. I want to paint the kitchen orange, our bedroom slate grey, CB's room fun color, maybe one wall of orange or teal, beans room will probably be painted aqua blue to go with the orange, green theme we're doing. I might paint the living room grey as well, maybe a fun bright color in the hallway since its so much darker. I just have so many ideas of things I want to do. Make this our for-now home while we wait for forever. For a while we'd just been waiting to move again. But we both agreed we are done moving. Our next move will be to our forever. This place is perfect for what we need now. 

October 28th 2009, 4:32 PM

Was the day I knew what true love felt like. Two years later I can't believe the time has gone so fast. You amaze me every day, I can not even believe something so perfect, so precious came from the two of us. You are a little motor mouth, an amazing runner, a lover of animals, a dancer to music, a little mini chef, a picky eater, a lover of warm blanket snuggles, not afraid of getting dirty, wet, or cold, strong willed, and kind hearted.

When I think about what I want for you out of life, all I can honestly say, is that I want you, to feel the love someday that I feel for you. Daddy and I are so proud of you, anything you do in this world will be amazing.

Thank you Carson, for giving us the gift to be your parents.

Love, Mommy

Halloween Party Part Two

Its amazing how much MORE work goes into a well planned party as apposed to just tossing some beer in the fridge, grabbing take out pizza and hoping someone brings some chips. But tonights party was crazy fun, CB was being so cute trying to stall as much as he could "playing" the games with our friends. Thats the other thing, we're so lucky all our friends, while they don't have kids, just adore CB.

Now for the fun part, I made the homemade pizza crust I found on Pinterest, This one right here. Bacon wrapped asparagus was a HUGE hit. The pizza w/ toppings was amazing, I can't wait to have left overs with my family tomorrow for lunch! 

Time for the pictures! 

Reason 981 why I love my husband: I told him I am always afraid of losing my wedding band while I cook. So he went and got a hook and put a special ring holder up so I wouldn't have to worry about losing my wedding band again

CB's Artwork! =)

I love him.

the start of bacon wrapped asparagus

Toppings tray!

Finished BWA, Lit up sink, and the pizza bar

Games and extra Decorations

Give aways

Would my readers be interested in a give away? I'm going to be getting in contact with a few awesome ladies I know on Etsy to see if I can get some holiday give aways going. But I need some reader support. Please leave a comment on this post if you are interested!

Halloween Teaser Pics

Halloween....

Halloween is a BIG holiday in our house. It stems from Mr.C's upbringing at his dads. My FIL(father-in-law) is crazy obsessed about Halloween. I remember the first year Chris and I were together at Halloween, I was AMAZED by the amount of Halloween stuff he had. Growing up in the country, on a farm, in the middle of nowhere, we never got trick or treaters, and my parents would just buy us each a bag of candy and call it good. No decorating, no cookies, no costumes. So I never really "got" Halloween.

Fast forward 3 years, I'm *almost* as crazy about this holiday as Mr.C is, but I still hold on tight to my roots. I'm not a HUGE fan of clutter. In fact, it makes me nervous to have so much extra crap all over the house. But this year is different. CB is really enjoying seeing all the holiday stuff up, and its really special to see his little eyes get big when we plug in the lights.

We used to host a Halloween Costume party, it was always REALLY fun and tons of booze, drunk people, and skanky costumes...Two years ago, CB was born so obviously with a newborn I was not up to a skank fest halloween, last year I was to busy and to stressed about his first birthday, this year, we're taking a really laid back approach to his birthday and going on a trip to Great Wolf next week. So this year, while its not the drunken hoe fest it normally is, we're throwing a spooktacular game night. complete with a full spooky menu* and lots of scary movies, and games. I've got some awesome pictures to share when the house is complete, I've almost got the spooky outdoors finished it just needs the pumpkins and corn stalks.

*On to the Dinner menu for the party
I'm making home made pizza dough so everyone can have their choice of toppings on their personal pizza
Witches Fingers wrapped in Rat Meat - Asparagus wrapped in bacon and baked
Tomb Stones - Graham crackers covered in black dyed hummus
Pumpkin Cupcakes
Bloody Mary's

and probably some usual chips and dip.

Pictures to come, just gotta take em, and edit em

Oh the difference

6 weeks makes....Here is 14.5 week pic and 21 week pic in the same shirt!

The goal...

I'm trying to become a better photographer. I've never been good at it. I have a very nice DSLR Nikon that I only use on manual. sigh. I tried to learn when I bought it, when CB was 8 months old. double sigh. So my goal, and I think this is totally do-able is to actually learn how to use the functions on my fancy camera before Bean is born. I found a bunch of photography for dummies links on Pinterest so that should help....hopefully a lot. I might also try to join a online photography sites.

Thats the goal. Hopefully I can at least start taking better pictures before CB's pumpkin picking trip in about 10 days. Probably not a ton better. But at least off Auto

The difference between First and Second pregnancy

First and Second pregnancies are totally different. In almost every way. From getting pregnant, to staying pregnant, to enjoying pregnancy.

I ate, breathed and slept being pregnant with CB. Granted, I did not do it well. I gained 80 lbs total. Stopped being active and mainly spent the days resting, reading baby books and singing to my belly.  Second time around, well its different. I don't have the time to spend just sitting on the couch, reading baby books and singing songs to my belly.

I also realize that not everything has to be brand new. With CB EVERYTHING had to be new. I couldn't bear to have him in anything used. I felt like it was some kind of child abuse. (Wow I sound crazy) Well now I know, after probably hundreds, if not thousands spent on toys that CB never really played with, gear we never used. I had to have everything. Those registry suggestion lists? Oh yeah, I just clicked "Select All" and well...lets just say, what wasn't purchased off our registry, was promptly purchased before CB's birth.

Now, well lets just say, as a been there done that (BTDT) mom, I have a much more realistic approach to the gear Bean will actually need. He doesn't need brand new everything, especially since we have most of the stuff from CB.

We still need some extra stuff, since CB is still using some of the stuff. But we'll have more kids (I hope.) and so the doubling up on stuff isn't a big deal.

I'm going to get a second pack n play, double stroller, crib mattress, new sheets...probably some other things, like swaddle blankets. I plan on picking a lot of these things up at these really awesome consignment sales coming up. I just love the idea of recycling baby stuff even if its my second time around.

Getting stuff done....

I don't know why, but I keep feeling like I have no time to finish things. Nesting sucks when you still have 20 weeks to go. I have a feeling I'll go early though. Not like scary early, but I don't think I'll go 40 weeks either.

I went out to lunch with my girl friends today, one already has 2 kids, a 2 1/2 yr old and a 6 mo old. My other friend has a 2 1/2 yr old and is expecting 10 weeks before me. Which is fun, cause our boys are close to the same age. Its nice to talk to some one thats in the same spot as me (scared to death of the idea of 2 boys) and a friend who is doing it and doing really well.

Getting stuff done for CB's birthday. I can't believe he's 2 in just a couple weeks. In less than 2 weeks we'll be on his birthday trip to Great Wolf. I made his 2 year slide show. Its so hard to believe he's.....going to be 2.

Half-Baked!

20 weeks down, 20 to go. Little less actually since I'll be having a repeat induction before 40 weeks! But I am so excited to finally be half way.

I've gained a total of 10 lbs this entire pregnancy which is pretty darn good. I think with CB I was already up to 25 at this point. YIKES. I've been crafting like crazy, I'll post pictures of all the fun things I'm making Bean when I get a chance. Pinterest is like crack, I'm always on it finding new ideas for Bean's room, for hats, for big brother/little brother poses for photography. 

Bean is now the size of a Cantaloupe, thats pretty big! I have my anatomy scan tomorrow. Mr. C couldn't take off work, so my mom is coming up to go with, and to take care of CB in case he pitches a fit since its a long ultrasound. Since he's been rather bratty recently. 

CB is getting pretty excited to be a big brother. We went to a local indoor play gym today and he saw a few tiny babies and kept coming over to get me to show me the "BAAAABEEEEES"  so sweet.

Here is my 20 week bump pic

STROLLERS, STROLLERS, STROLLERS!!!

Its like mommy of two crack. CB still really needs to have a space to ride in the stroller. I  need to be able to strap his cute butt down so he doesn't run off. Which, I'm assuming with two children, will be incredibly important.

I want a side by side double stroller. One that folds almost completely flat. Has enough storage for 2 kids worth of crap + mommy shopping. Jogger is preferable because I feel like they handle better than non-jogging strollers. Affordable. Almost all double strollers come with a hefty price tag, but for someone thats on their third stroller in less than 2 years, well I just want a stroller that is gonna last and that I'm going to enjoy using.

The front runner of the Doubles:

City Mini Double

• Pros: 
• Went in store and folded it up. Folds flatter than our current single jogger
• I like that I don't have to uncover both kids if I want to check on Bean
• Easy fold system (Easiest I've seen in a stroller) 
• High weight limit (100lbs)
• VERY light weight which will be good for pushing 2 kids in a stroller + shopping bags and stuff
• Cons:
• Relatively expensive at 400$ + 50$ for the bar attachment to clip the car seat onto it. 
• Wide (but that comes with wanting only a side-by-side) 

Peg-Perego Double (I have yet to test drive this stroller)

• Pros
• 60/40 split seating - Bigger side for older child 
• Has child trays already built in
• Cons
• The shade kind of sucks
• For the price its not that great of a stroller
• Very little storage

Joovy Scooter Double (I have not test driven this stroller)

• Pros
• Built almost exactly like the City Mini Double
• Smaller price tag at only 230$ which makes it a big bonus in my book
• 90 LB total weight cap 
• Cons
• Reviews say it doesn't turn as sharply as City Mini 
• Unsure if it would work with our infant seat
• Can't seem to locate the actual website

Good lord there is a Micro City Double yeah I think I need to look around but I think I want this one. Its got most of the features I loved in the city mini, but with a price tag of 270$ its doesn't have that sticker shock factor. 

If anyone has any of these strollers or a seriously good suggestion for their own. I would love to hear about it! 

I can't believe it

My little baby....no, my little boy is going to be 2! In less that a month. Hell, in less than 26 days he'll be two.

Are we having a big party? Nope. Last year we did it BIG, over 50 guests, 3 tier cake, lots of food and drinks. While it was a very good time and we all enjoyed ourselves. It was very stressful. Not exactly worth it to me when he didn't even care there was a party going.

So this year, Mr. C is taking the entire week off of CB's birthday. We're packing up and going to Great Wolf Lodge for 3 days. The dogs are staying home and our neighbors are going to walk and feed them for us. Life is a lot easier with 2.

We are all so excited to take those few days before his actual birthday to spend having fun as a family! Just like his birth two years ago, its important for me that we spend at least some of his real birthday JUST us.

Video slide show will be here in a couple weeks. I can't believe how fast YET another year has flown!