Wednesday, March 28, 2012

She's a Hearbreaker...

Sarah Kate has become quite the heartbreaker, at least for her mommy lately.  She is getting more and more aware of the distance between here and Alabama and it makes her sad.  When we first moved to St. Louis she was young enough to not necessarily understand the distance or the time that would be between seeing the ones we love in Alabama.  Now she does.  The last 2 visits from grandparents have been really hard for her.  She gets so upset when they have to leave and it breaks my heart.  Then, yesterday she started saying how she missed her cousin, Haven.  Like, in tears sobbing missing her. 

I don't like to see my daughter sad.  I know she doesn't understand why we live 8 hours from so many people that she loves, but God is faithful and will continue to be to our family and he will grow her through this time at seminary, just like we are learning and growing through this time too. 

Changing the subject a little, she has become quite the little momma lately.  It is really pretty cute.  She takes care of me so well.  Dinner time has been a challenge for me lately and when I go running from the table to....well, eject the food that baby doesn't like...she comes over to me and pats me on the back and says "Did baby not like that bite, momma?  It's ok, do you want me to get you your water?"  And she will sit there with me holding me making sure I am ok.  It is really quite cute.

She told me the other day as we were walking back to our apartment that I didn't need to run because, "Baby might fall out!"  hehe.  She has opinions too on the name.  It is different this time around talking names, because she wants in on the decision.  We tell her we will take her opinion into consideration, but mommy and daddy have the final say :)

As far as me. I have been feeling alright.  I am thankful in so many ways for the nausea and tiredness, but it is hard at times.  This week has been Michael's spring break, so I have been able to nap a little more and rest, which has been nice.  He does a great job of taking care of momma and the kiddos :)

Yesterday we went to Target and I had nachos in the snack section.  This will mark the first time I have had nachos during this pregnancy (If you didn't know me during my pregnancy with Sk, you missed the fact that I LOVED them while pregnant with her and would take trips to Target just for the nachos...)  I have been a bit healthier this time around.  Really craving fruit and veggies a lot.  I could eat an apple 3 times a day.  Yum.  I guess one of the unhealthy cravings would have to be Papa John's pizza.  I think part of that craving is a craving for things that remind me of Alabama.  I love me a good ole Pepperoni and Pineapple pizza with their garlic butter sauce.  MMMM...pair that will a good ole sprite and it is incredible :)

Speaking of Alabama, we hope to get to Alabama this summer, and when we do, I totally plan of checking off my list all of my other cravings that can't be fulfilled here in St. Louis.  These would include Joel's, Cafe on Main, Charley's....just to name a few :)

Alright, enough rambling.  We are less than six weeks from finding out if SK is having a baby brother or sister.  Crazy, right?!?  So given my cravings, what do you think...boy or girl???

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Recipes

I thought I would now share the recipes that I mentioned in the last post.  I know so many (haha) of my readers are just holding their breath to get these great recipes :) 
Let's do it in list form...shall we?

1. Butter--oh. my. goodness.  I want to know why it took me so long to realize how easy making butter was.  And cheap!  SO here is the Link for butter.  All you need is heavy cream (not ultrapasturized) and a little salt.  Pour in food processor or blender and let it do it's work and voila!  you have butter!  You put it through a cheese cloth and that's it.

2. Coffee Creamer--  I love me some good coffee creamer.  I never have been a coffee, no creamer kind of girl.  I like the fun creamers :)  But have you ever looked at the ingredients in those things?  If not, go and look in your fridge and check out the ingredients list.  Gross...right?  I can't even pronounce some of the things listed.  SO here is the link for the creamer.  So, so very easy.  I keep mine in a mason jar in the fridge and that works great for me.

3. Salad dressing--Now that you have already made one trip to your fridge, go again and look at your salad dressing (store bought).  Can you identify what each ingredient is?  Didn't know you were going to be getting a work out reading my blog post today, did ya? (cause you are getting up right?  You are just reading through this....I am sure of it :))  Alright...here is the link for what I use for our salad dressing.  There are recipes out there for any kind of dressing you might like.  Most of them fairly easy to whip together.  I love this Italian one and I keep the dry ingredients in a little tupperware in my pantry so all I have to do when I need dressing is put 2 Tbsp. in with the oil and vinegar and that's it.

4.  Chocolate Syrup--So, I admit, SK loves, loves, loves her some chocolate milk.  And mama does too :)  So we have it fairly often around here.  In the past, we would get the syrup from the store and not even notice what the ingredients in it were.  Yep, if you have some...go look.  So now, we won't be buying it.  Instead, I found this recipe for making your own Chocolate Syrup.  It was quick and easy and tastes great!


Fun recipes right?  I think so at least.  I need to give yall some more things too that I have been making.  I don't know if it is pregnancy or just me having fun in the kitchen, but I have been all about trying to make all kinds of new things.  I have made my own potato chips, cheezits, apple chips, kale chips, just to name a few.  I find it fun lately.  And it feels good to be getting more healthy with our foods.

It is a drery day outside and I might need to go do something fun in the kitchen today since we won't be playing outside like we have been able to the last couple of weeks.

Happy Thursday, everyone :)

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Belly pic :)

So I had requests to see the growing belly.  Not much to see yet, but there is definitely a good bump after a good meal or by the end of the day.  You have to ignore the fact that I look horrible...no makeup, in jammies and I have a goofy look on my face.  If you can get past that, check out the little baby bump :)


In other news, I am gearing up for a cooking day with a friend today.  I am excited to get some meals put away in the freezer, esp. since I am completely unmotivated to cook lately. 
I have recently gotten really into learning things that I can make instead of buy.  For instance:
I now make my own butter, coffee creamer, salad dressing, chocolate syrup, and granola.
It has really been fun to give all of these things a try and I have really been impressed with how easy it all is and how much money it can save us, plus the fact that we don't have crazy additives and weird ingredients that we can't even pronounce.  I am becoming more and more a fan of cutting out as many processed foods as possible.
So anyone want the recipes :)
Maybe I will post links later for all of those things...

In baby news, I went to the doctor on Thursday and got to hear the heartbeat again.   It was a strong 194 beats per minute!  I can't believe I am already 12 weeks!  So far I haven't felt too bad, but this last week the nausea kicked into super drive.  I would think being at the end of the first trimester things would start to get better with that, but the opposite has happened.  I am thankful in many ways, but it does make it a bit hard for cooking for the family.  Last week, I think I was only able to eat one complete dinner.  All of the others I only got a few bites in before either gagging or throwing up.  Gross I know.  I know it is a good sign that baby is growing and that makes it totally worth it.

I have my next two appointments set, so that means I have my big ultrasound on May 8th when we hopefully will find out the gender!  So excited about that!

Off to get ready for some cooking today!  Hope everyone else has a lovely Tuesday!

Monday, March 19, 2012

Weekend with Nana and Papa!

Last weekend Nana and Papa came up for a visit.   We kept things pretty low key and spent more time just hanging out, not going to so many places.  It was a fun weekend and I know SK loved every minute of it.  We did go up to St. Charles on Saturday and of course SK remembered the candy shop there and got a little treat to enjoy in the "tower".  I think her favorite part was probably date night with Nana and Papa.  She asked when we were gonna have date night as soon as they rolled into town :)  She got treated to Chick-fil-A and then the movies.  Momma and Daddy got to go out on a date too, so that was a nice treat!
On Monday we introduced Nana and Papa to Ted Drewe's custard.  I am pretty sure it was a big hit with everyone.  And the weather was perfect for it!

I didn't take many pictures, I guess we were too busy hanging out and being together to take too many pictures this time.  Here is a little sampling though :)



Oh and, her other favorite would have been the "rock hunts" we went on.  She and Nana found some fun rocks to paint :)  I think that is what she said was her favorite!
Alright, finally getting around to blogging this week.  Hopefully there will be more to come soon!

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Mimi's spring visit!

I am slow to blog these days.  Oh well.  My mom visited us a few weeks ago for the weekend and we had a great time together.  Due to my nausea and tiredness, we chilled a lot and didn't go and do too much this time.   It was nice to just hang out and not be too busy.   Given all of that, I didn't take too many pictures, but I did get some from our morning that we went to the Magic House.  SK had a blast showing Mimi all of the fun things to do there.  We ate good and took naps (or maybe I just took the nap...) everyday. 
Michael and I got to have a date night too (and SK had her date with Mimi!).  It was a nice treat that we enjoy when grandparent's come to town. :)

So here are a few pictures I did catch while Mimi was in town!
 Fishing with Daddy and Mimi!

Introducing Mimi to the electricity room!


Dinner with Mimi!

Thanks for coming up Mimi!  We had fun with ya! 

Thursday, March 1, 2012

The dreaded stomach bug...

Since my last post, we all have had the dreaded stomach bug.  It all started Friday.  Michael and I had a date night planned and were so excited to go out with some friends for dinner (to a place that I had been craving too....)  We get to the door of the restaurant and I get the call.  She had thrown up her entire dinner.  Poor, poor baby.  We get back to her (minus the yummy dinner...) and tend to her and get her settled for the night after a few more pukes and such.  She slept of the floor in our room and was up quite a bit.  She was feeling much better the next morning and things were starting to look like we were on the mend.  After missing out on our meal (that I was craving...did I mention that...), Michael took me and SK to go get food from that restaurant to go so we could eat at home and get my fix in.  Well...by the time we got home, I was feeling crummy.  Then it hit me.  I was up most of that night sick.  Boo.  Next day, Sk and I stayed home from church and rested most of the day.  She was so sweet to try and take care of me and love on me.  By Monday, Michael still hadn't gotten it, and we were hoping it would stay that way.  Well...it hit him on Monday night.  He seemed to get it the worst at that.  At least I was feeling better by that point, so I could take care of him. 
That pretty much sums up our weekend.  We are all feeling much better and glad to be past it. 

Can't really think of anything else interesting to talk about.  I have been a tired momma lately.  I fell asleep last night on the couch at 7 p.m.  Michael finally got me to head to bed around 9 p.m.  I didn't nap yesterday, so I had to get the sleep in somewhere I guess.

I still need to blog about my mom's visit.  She came a couple weeks ago.  I still haven't uploaded pictures, so maybe I can get to that later today or this weekend. 

Alright, enough babling.  Off to take care of kiddos.  And laundry.  Maybe a cadburry egg after that.

Oh, fun story to end.  Yesterday, I wanted pickle chips.  Really bad.  I think I probably got pretty annoying talking about it while watching the food network.   My dear husband drove me and SK to get said pickle chips, even though he can't even stand the smell of the things (esp. since he is freshly recovering from the stomach bug).  I must say, they were delish.   Incredibly delish.