Cake

1. I am pregnant and when I want something to eat I want it right away.

2. I've been watching "Cake Boss" on Netflix waaaay too much.

3. I saw a picture of my friends' kid eating cake on Facebook.

These are the 3 reasons to justify why I put a yellow cake in the oven at 7:50pm. I will not go to bed tonight until the cake has been frosted in chocolate and partially devoured.

Halfway There - 20 Weeks

This pregnancy is going so fast. I can't believe that I'm halfway done already. If the second half goes as quickly as the first half our new baby will be coming home to a house unprepared.

Boy: As I posted already we found out that we are expecting a boy. While I was initially shocked and still am not used to it we are thrilled. I think having a boy is going to be a great adventure and I'm very excited about it. I'm thankful that most of our stuff is neutral or if it is girly it really doesn't matter. Our son can be swaddled in pink and he will be fine. The only thing we really need are clothes since I'm not really willing to dress him in pink dresses. I bought some newborn stuff off of Craigslist and have had some offers for boy hand-me downs that will definitely be helpful!

Name: We have pretty much settled on a name for our little guy. It is hard for me not to call him by name so we wanted to decide fairly early. Of course it is not set in stone yet but I think we'll go with it. Do you want to know what it is? Caleb Matthew. I'll give you the reasoning behind that choice in another post.

Pregnancy Symptoms: A few things to report on pregnancy. First, I posted a few weeks ago that I had to take my glucose screening test early and I passed it by 1 point. Yikes, that was close! I am still having issues throwing up first thing in the morning everyday and my breakfast a couple days a week. I'd really like that to end but I can deal with it if it doesn't. Finally, I've been feeling Caleb move a ton. I love how much stronger the movements are getting and am looking forward to the really strong ones as he continues to grow.

Hoppy Halloween

We had a nice Halloween weekend and enjoyed several fun activities with friends and also just relaxing at home. Our adventures started with a party at Matt's work on Friday afternoon. Grace got all dressed up in her bunny costume and headed over to see other kids and Daddy. She was hopping all over the office and loving being around other people. The highlight was a little girl dressed as the devil (about 3) who kept chasing Grace around because she wanted to hug the bunny. I couldn't stop laughing at the scene.

Saturday we just spent the day at home and enjoyed a nice walk around the neighborhood. We were invited to a couple of parties that we were unable to attend because we didn't get a babysitter. While they would have been fun I didn't mind spending the evening at home with Matt.

Sunday we had a fun morning at church. All the kids were dressed up and most of the adults went out into the community to do some service projects. I stayed back with the kids and several other moms/volunteers. It was fun watching the kids run around church and play together for a little longer than their usual 1 hourish Sunday morning class.

Sunday evening we invited our small group to come hang out and trick or treat with us. Only a couple of families came and we had a blast. Grace got to trick or treat with her friend Elliott. He was a good example of saying trick or treat and thank you at every house we went to (which was only about 6). Grace however left her bucket behind, emptied it on peoples doorsteps, tried to enter (and even succeeded once) people's homes, and didn't really get was going on. I only took 1 picture all weekend and it is posted above.

Glittens!!!!

I've never owned a more wonderful set of winter handwear than my new pair of glittens. My friend Jenna owns a pair that I love. She got these for me because she knows I've been on a quest to get a pair for at least a year. I've never found anything good. She found these though. I love them. I think they will be especially helpful in getting Grace in and out of her carseat in cold weather. I love my new glittens:)

Mexican Meatballs

Thanks to my friend Amy we have a new favorite recipe in our house. I made her Mexican Meatballs tonight and we LOVED them. The only thing I did differently from her recipe is I didn't measure anything (just guessed), skipped the onions and used onion powder instead, and I used medium instead of mild enchilada sauce. As Grace says when she eats something she likes these were nummy!

Ingredients :

• 1 pound ground turkey or ground beef
• ½ cup finely crushed tortilla chips
• ½ cup grated zucchini (sub. shredded carrots)
• ¼ cup green onions, finely chopped (sub. white onions)
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• ½ teaspoon ground cumin
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• ½ teaspoon oregano
• salt and pepper to taste

• 1 can (10 oz) mild enchilada sauce
• ½ cup water

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375. In a large bowl, mix all ingredients except enchilada sauce and water. Shape into 1 ½ inch meatballs. Place on a sprayed baking sheet with a rim. Bake for 20 minutes or until browned. (Freeze after this step, if freezing to eat later. Then thaw and follow directions below.)

In a large skillet, combine enchilada sauce and water. Add cooked meatballs, bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 5 minutes.

Serve over rice. Sprinkle shredded cheddar on top.

18 Months Old

Grace is 18 months old. Unbelievable. She is really growing up and is so much fun. We took her to her 18 month doctor's appointment today and she weighed at 23 lbs 14 oz which is about what we thought she would be. She also was 31.75 inches tall. Here are several things Grace has been up to since my last "report" at 15 months.

• Learned to identify and say the capital letters of the alphabet (16 months)
• Started climbing on furniture. She can climb on couches and chairs without help but she has a little foot stool she prefers to carry around and use to help her get up (16.5 months)
• Started eating off of a plate and is slowly learning to hand it to us when she wants more or is done instead of flipping it (17 months).
• Goes down slides all by herself at the park.
• Saying lots of words. I updated her list of words the other day just to get an idea how much she can say and she has over 200 words that I could think of.
• Still loves being read to. She would love to sit on laps and read books all day.
• Counting. Grace can count to 11 and is starting to show that she knows when she counts she is counting things. She likes to count fingers, toes, and blocks (17 months).
• Obsessed with putting on shoes and going outside. Mentioning either word sends her to the front has impatiently waiting for shoes to go on and the door to open.
• Learning to identify people by name. She knows Grandma and Grandpa for both sets of grandparents, her cousins Josh and Jenna, her aunt Laura, and several of her friends that she sees regularly.
• Throwing temper tantrums. She is really beginning to learn that she can have some independence and wants what she can't have. Hence the temper tantrums.
• Caring for her dolls. Very recently Grace has taken to carrying her dolls around, putting them night night, laying them down and saying diaper like she wants to change them and really being into caring for them. She has always liked her babies but this is a new thing. Hope this means she'll be a good helper when her baby brother is here.

That's all I can think of for now. I'm loving this age and can't wait to see what Grace will learn/do next.

Haircut Reveal

So I got my haircut a few days ago and am now finally ready to post a reveal picture. After the cut I was happy with how it looked and the style in general. Unfortunately it was not even. A friend of mine from church is a hairdresser and looked it over on Sunday morning and confirmed it was uneven. Even though you couldn't tell from afar or even that close up how uneven it was I knew and it bothered me. I kept messing with the longer parts and just felt a little unhappy with the cut.

My friend offered to fix it for me for free so today I went in and got my hair re-cut. She did and excellent job! So I booked my next appointment with her. I feel like I'm being disloyal to my other hairdresser but I guess I just need to move on.