Home updates and decorating tips!

Sorry for bombarding my blog with posts the past couple of days. We've had so many projects and they all seemed to be finished around the same time! One thing that's been driving me nuts since we moved in was our GIANT living room wall. I never knew what to do with it. At one point it looked like this...

A tiny picture on a hugggge wall! Very sad and pathetic.Well now it looks like this!!..

I was freaking out about the lack of stuff on the wall and wanted it decorated before my baby shower. My sister Richelle is amazing with home decor, so she gave me a few pointers on where I should hang things. Here's a close up of some of the photos..

(Our adorable Trash The Dress photos! I'm so glad I finally have a place to hang them. And below, why yes, of course I took that picture of the Salt Lake Temple!)

Now for the tips! Ian and I are pretty horrible at hanging things on the wall. We tend to put a billion holes in the wall before we decide everything is straight and looks nice. So, I saw another photographer post on her blog about tracing what you want to hang up on news paper. Lucky for me I have huge backdrop paper and used some scraps to trace everything.

(Notice the different color of the shelf. Ian was so sweet to stain it a different color. I thought I'd never have a need for that ugly shelf!) After I traced everything, I cut out the shapes and hung them up where I thought they'd look good.  

Then we hammed in the nails right over the paper and pulled the paper out once we hung everything up. The only thing that needed to be nailed in a couple times was the temple picture since it hangs on a wire. Other than that, this paper trick was a life saver!

Ta da! LOVE IT!

Tie-Dye Cupcakes

Saturday was my baby shower! I got so many cute gifts and baby cloths. Sadly, we didn't take a SINGLE picture. For some reason it just didn't cross anyone's mind. Pretty bummed about that.
But, for my shower I decided I'd pitch in and do some of the work. One thing I decided I was going to do was make some Tie-Dye Cupcakes! This is what you need to make them..

1 White Cake Mix
Food Coloring
Cupcake Liners
Your favorite frosting

You make the cake batter as directed on on the box. Next, divide the batter into as many bowls as you'd like. I did three. Next, use your food coloring to dye each bowl of batter.

 Scoop a spoonful of each colored batter and put it in the cupcake liner. Don't stir the batters together, otherwise you wont achieve the tie-dye effect.

Bake cupcakes as directed on box. Once they have cooled, frost them with your favorite frosting. I did a Vanilla butter cream frosting and dyed it pink!

I didn't pick out the best cupcake to cut, there were some that looked super awesome inside. Too bad you can't tell until you bite into it!

But super cute eh?! I tired to make them baby colors.. pink yellow and green. I've seen some crazy colored ones! Go nuts! I have heard that purple ends up looking pretty ugly.. so I might keep that from you choice of colors.

Vanilla Butter Cream Frosting
about 24 servings
1/2 c butter
4 1/2 c powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
6 tablespoons 2 % milk

At first I thought the frosting was SUPER thick, so I added more milk. Then when I attempted to do the swirl with the frosting (I had a frosting bag with a tip, you can also use a zip lock bag and cut the tip off) the frosting looked like it melted all over the cup cake. so I had to scrape it off and start over!

The other thing I made for my shower was my invite! I got teased a little for this, but when invites are something you do for a living, you just can't help but design your own!

 

Thanks to all of you who attended my shower and made it so fabulous!! xoxo

Baby room projects!

For the past few weeks Ian and I have been working on some baby projects for her room. After putting the crib and other furniture together I wanted some cute wall art to go with her baby bedding. I browsed the internet for some cute vinyl trees. This is what we found and both agreed on. (I loved the tree.. Ian loved the kitties! hah). For the most part it was pretty easy to put on. They're just like stickers. We unpeeled and then pressed them on the wall. I thought the flowers would be the easiest... until I realized EACH flower came in 5 separate pieces! I got it all done in a few hours though :)

My other project was some wall hanging pieces. I found a cute little set of owls and trees online, but it came in 5x7 prints. I decided I wanted some 10x10 canvas prints instead. So what did I do? I opened up photoshop and designed it myself! Here's the actual photoshop design...

Then I put a 2 inch border around each art piece and got it printed on canvas...

 We went to some art stores and bought out all of their 10 inch stretcher bars. This took about 2 weeks and 4 different stores to get 24 stretcher bars! Ian then put the pieces together and stapled the canvas to the stretcher bars. I'm so grateful for all of his work the past couple weeks. He's been so great to help me out with all of my projects despite how busy and tired he is after school and work xoxo

 Here's the final product on the wall! So cute!!

30 weeks!

Okay, so 30 weeks and 5 days to be exact. :)
Here's some pictures I took to commemorate this moment. Plus I chopped my hair up a little bit and got rid of the highlights. It takes a lot of money to upkeep bleached hair, and with a baby coming along I figured it'd be best to ditch the blonde and try to go back to my natural color. So alas, here I am ...

My mommy dear is flying into town next week for my baby shower :) I'm super excited! I just hope people show up. haha 

Things are going really well at this point in the pregnancy. I've been feeling these really annoying, repetitive "kicks" the past few weeks. I finally realized the other day that they're hiccups! She gets these crazy hiccups at least 3 times a day. Poor baby, she probably hates them as much as I hate feeling them! haha

Acid reflux also is a killer right now. I thought it was bad before, but man, it's HORRIBLE now. I probably extend the amount of tums I should have in a day, but I can't help it. It's nasty! I almost thought I was going to die in my water aerobics class yesterday. I couldn't do any movement without acid coming up. Gag! I'm excited to be done with that!! 

Anywho, 9 weeks and 2 days to go... IF she comes on her due date :)

3D Ultra Sound

I went in today, at 28 weeks and 1 day, hoping to get a 3D ultra sound done while my parents were in town for Christmas. We sort of made a big to do about it and scheduled everything around us. The family spent New Years Eve at our house so my parents would stay the night and be with us the next morning to go to the ultra sound. We even invited Ian's mom. I was soooo excited to see these 3D pictures. Then low and behold, my placenta was in the way! I guess it was laying right over the baby's face so he couldn't get any good photos. The tech tried his best to at least give us one photo... so here's our baby.. chubby cheeks and all!

This is a photo that shows her profile. The arrow is near her mouth. He said she has super chubby cheeks and I guess it's a little obvious in this photo :) Her head measures to be 29 weeks and her femur measures to be 30 weeks! I just laughed when the tech said "wow, that's a big femur!"
So, we've come to the conclusion that I'll either have her early, or she'll be one massive chunk! Or who knows, maybe she'll be as tiny as can be and they were wrong on all the measurements.
They told me to come back and try again when I'm around 32 weeks... or later. Here's to waiting a few more weeks!

Meatballs with Rice

This morning I woke up craving my mom's meatballs on rice. Over the years I had totally forgotten about this delicious dish of hers. So I went online and started looking up recipes. There are SO many ways to make meatballs and gravy it's ridiculous! That's when I contacted my mom via text message. All she told me was "I use Swedish meatball seasoning" and that was it. I responded back with... "but I don't even know how to make gravy!!" and I didn't hear back from her. Come to find out this little Swedish packet has it all! It comes with seasoning for the meatballs and a mix for the gravy.. and it even told me how to make it. I feel like I cheated since I didn't make it from scratch, but now that I think about it, if I were my mom and had 7 kids there's no way  I'd make things from scratch either! haha

Here's the meatballs hanging out in the gravy. I must admit, it's a  heck of a lot harder to make meatballs than I thought. They kept falling apart!! Stupid meatballs. 

It didn't taste as good as I remembered too. Or it could be the fact that working with raw meat makes me want to vomit while pregnant. hah

But anyway, if you were ever wondering how to make meatballs with gravy and rice.. that's how it's done!

26 weeks and Happy Holidays!

Yesterday Ian and I took a few pictures to send out for our Xmas card. Here's how they turned out!

 Ian also took a couple shots of me to show how I look. So here I am...26 weeks. Nearing the end of my 6th month and 2nd trimester :) 95 more days to go!

I like this studio one. This dress makes my belly look smaller than it really is... or so I think.

Right now the pregnancy is going really well... as far as I know. Every once in a while I'll get an uncomfortable pressure or the baby will kick me really hard and startle me. Water aerobics is great, except getting out of the pool. Gravity can be a very very cruel thing. Today while I was leaving water aerobics (in my two piece swimsuit btw) a lady told me how I have the cutest little figure. I completely shocked her when I told her I am pregnant! For already gaining 30 lbs some people don't even notice I'm pregnant. Plus my instructor asked me if I've even gained any weight at all. She was totally thrown off when I said I've already gained 30 lbs. Here I thought I looked like a boat and others think I'm tiny. Guess I have nothing to freak out about anymore.. as long as I maintain the weight that I'm at right now! ha!

Anyway, I hope everyone has a fabulous Christmas!! Best wishes to you all :)

Our Thanksgiving

Mine and Ian's Thanksgiving was spent at home, alone. His parents went off on a cruise and my parents decided to not come up this year. Most of my family drove down to CA to surprise them, but since Ian and I JUST drove down there Ian couldn't get time off work to do it again.
It started off with Ian making a mini Thanksgiving lunch which consisted of Turkey, candied yams, crescents and sparkling cider. I was horrible and didn't take pictures.
THEN Ian surprised me (okay so I knew a couple weeks in advance) to a 2 night stay at the Zermatt Resort in Midway! Our last little getaway before the bebe comes :)
This is what we saw when we walked into the room..

We started off our evening to a movie.. Harry Potter. I didn't read the books, so I thought it was okay. Ian  on the other hand loved it! On our way to the resort on the freeway a deer decided to run right in front of our car!! I screamed DEER! Then closed my eyes and braced myself. According to Ian, he turned the wheel one way, then realizing he was about to drive off the road he turned the wheel another way, then somehow we spun around and the car died in the middle of one of the lanes. Ian thought we were going to roll the car. I was just waiting for a loud crash. Luckily we were okay and that stupid deer made it across the road safely! Poor Ian was totally shaken up.
When we finally made it back to the resort we had a pretty little tray waiting for us. So we hopped into our robes (mostly because we forgot to pack pjs to lounge in) and devoured our strawberries and sparkling cider.

We had a HORRIBLE nights sleep that first evening. Ian kept seeing us swerving around the freeway and I couldn't sleep due to LOUD banging and clinking noises around us. It seriously sounded as if we were sleeping next to a kitchen. 

The next morning Ian had a couples massage planned for us. This would be our 2nd couples massage together. We LOVE massages :) it felt so amazing and they even had a little maternity pillow for me to lay on so I wouldn't squish the baby!! After our massage we headed out to the Tanger Outlets to do some Black Friday shopping.. even though we obviously missed the morning rush. We ended up getting some more cute cloths for the baby.. and a swimsuit for me since we forgot to pack those as well! ha

When we got back from shopping we got into our suits (Ian had to buy one at the resort since there weren't any on the clearance racks of ANY of the stores) and put our robs on to head out to the pool! But we got stopped by the manager who asked if he could switch us to another room due to a leak on the floor above us!! Totally nuts. So we moved our things and headed to the pool.

They had an awesome indoor/outdoor pool and hot tub. I actually preferred going in the hot tub outside. There's just something about being surrounded by snow and enjoying a nice hot soak!

After some hot tubbing (which only lasted about 20-30 minutes, can't stand the head for too long, plus I didn't want to roast the baby! hah) we headed to the wellness center where they have an awesome Eucalyptus steam room.. which is medicated. Totally amazing! There were also these crazy 10 headed showers! I want one. There was one HUGE shower head straight above, then rows of 3 shower heads on three sides of your body. I absolutely LOVED it!
When we got back to our room we had another surprise for us with a little note. The note said something along the lines of.. sorry for the inconvenience of moving you lets us know if there's anything else we can do for you. They also gave us free dinner that evening to a Sea Food buffet that was $40 a person. Sea food made me want to puke at the moment, so we down graded to their more basic restaurant! ha! Which also wasn't appetizing to me either. Oh well.. here's our cute tray that they brought us!

This fruit dessert was pretty yummy. The chocolate one was disgusting! So we only had two bites and left it. ha!

We slept SO much better that night. No loud, crazy noises and no more bad dreams for Ian! Besides the close call to DEATH due to a stupid deer, the getaway was really nice! I love my hubby so much. He can be so thoughtful and creative when he wants to be ;)

Thanks for the awesome Thanksgiving babe! xoxo

5 month baby bump!

I'll be taking photos of my baby bump each month now until she's born. Here's my belly at 22 weeks! Which is actually the end of five months :)

I can feel the baby move so much more now! At first I wasn't sure if I was feeling her kick or not, but now I'm certain it's her. I typically feel our little girl move the most when the cat is laying on my belly and purring. She has her own personal massager! In 2 weeks at my 24 week appointment they will measure my uterus. I have no idea how they'll start measuring the baby to see how big she is without an ultrasound. I believe I get one more ultrasound at 38 weeks. I may just go to Fetal Studio again and do some 3D pictures when I'm 30 weeks. It's so hard going so long without seeing our little baby!! 

Her crib set came today and Ian can't wait to set it up! We started doing some cleaning in the bedrooms, but we have SO much  more to do before he can put the bedroom set together. We have time though, a good 3-4 months to prepare. Such an exciting time!

Blessing Dress!

I've made it known to everyone on Facebook the first of this month that I've already been in search of a blessing dress for our little girl's baby blessing. I figured it'd take me a good 3-4 months to find exactly what I wanted. Ian and I are pretty particular when it comes to fashion for our soon to be little one. I made it clear that a looong traditional dress with puffy sleeves just wasn't going to cut it for me. I'd prefer something short, puffy and tutu like. When Ian and I went to Bako this past weekend I got my blessing dress from my mom. It is short and pretty cute, just not what I've been hoping for.
So last night Gardner Village was having a Moonlight Madness Sale. Each shop had some sort of sale going on. We went into the little girl and baby shops and found the cutest blessing dress! It was the only one like it, and the only one that didn't look traditional. Plus it was 35% off!! There was only one downside, it's spaghetti strap. Ian insisted that our little girl wasn't going to be born into dressing like a slut. I had to talk him into it, letting him know we can always alter the straps or have someone sew together a short sleeve cover up. He finally agreed to it and I'm soo so so so excited! It's the cutest dress ever :)

Now that I found the dress 3 months sooner than I thought I would... we've got a lot of waiting to do before we can put a baby in it! ha! At least some alterations will keep me busy with it :)

Oatmeal Chocoloate Chip Cookies

Honestly, I'm feeling quite ill from eating so much cookie dough and cookies. But here's what I mixed together!

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups quick-cooking oats
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 335 degrees F
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; stir into the creamed mixture until just blended. Mix in the quick oats, and chocolate chips. Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets.
3. Bake for 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes 3 ½ dozen.... although I only got 2 dozen out of it because my heaping spoonfuls were a little   TOO heaping! See picture for proof... HA! It almost spread out into one giant cookie.

Crib set!!! Woo hoooo!

Ian and I have been searching for cribs for a while now. At first we took a used white crib from my brother, then Ian decided he wanted cherry and brand spankin new. Crib sets are outrageously priced! After searching MULTIPLE websites today I came across www.simplybabyfurniture.com Everything was marked nearly half off! After Ian sending me to a ton of links that had sets with changing tables that cost $775 plus, I decided... hey.. I don't want a crappy changing table. So I started looking up sets with larger dressers that I can put a foam changing pad on top. This way the dresser can always stay in the bedroom and I don't have to worry about putting it away once the baby gets older.
Then I came across this set....

I totally fell in love with it! It was nearly the exact crib I've wanted (still not sure what to think of the drawer on the bottom) and the exact longer dresser I had in mind! It's perfect. So I ordered it ASAP! Not only was it less expensive than the links Ian was sending me to, and super duper on sale, but I also found a $50 off code! Sooooooo excited :) It should actually be here in 3 days! ha! We've got a lot of cleaning and new carpeting to do before we can set that baby up! Happy days!

Some people might think we're crazing for spending more than $200 on a crib/set, but I find it 100% worth it. We wont have to worry about used furniture falling apart or recalls due to old unsafe cribs. Plus the crib changes into a bed! Woot! Even though by the time the kid could probably fit into a toddler bed we'll most likely need it as a crib again for another baby. But we wont be having babies forever.. so someday I'm sure it'll turn into a bed ;) Now the bigger objects are officially purchased! Minus a glider/rocking chair.

Baby Bedding!! and other recent happenings

I'm SUPER excited!! I've been looking at this baby bedding for over a month now anticipating when I should buy it. Well.... Ian found a great steal on ebay and it included the bird mobile. Since my mom typically buys the stroller (which I already bought) I talked her into buying me the bedding instead :) Well, she just purchased it and will bring it when they come up for Christmas! I'm super excited!! Now all we need is a bedroom set....

Ian is being so cute about this whole baby thing. When I originally showed him this photo he told me how cute EVERYTHING is and wants the baby's room to look JUST LIKE IT. He said "oooh I want the bunnies, the wall art, the valance, the mobile, EVEN the cloths hanging on the wall!!" I found it quite hilarious. My mom says he's going to be a cute daddy. He's always rubbing and kissing my belly.

This past weekend we drove down to Bakersfield AGAIN for another wedding :) We made it in late Wednesday night, hung out and did a little shopping on Thursday, ate an early Thanksgiving dinner on Friday since my parents aren't coming up this year, then we also went to a hockey game that evening. The Condors just so happened to be playing the Grizzlies who are from Utah. My parents are SUPER into the Condors and of course Ian and I were rooting for Utah. It was pretty funny. Then Saturday I photographed my friends wedding. Here's a peek at one of the photos I'll be posting on my photo blog within the next week or so..

After the wedding we hung out with my parents and played some games. I love spending time with my mom and dad :) I also love playing the wii with my dad! haha! Early Sunday morning Ian and I headed back home to Utah. I sure do hate that drive.. and it's even worse when pregnant. The way there my back was killing me.. I was almost in tears. Then the way home I had to pee every 2 hours. Ian LOOOVED that. hehe

OH! and PS. A week after my 19 week ultra sound I met with my Dr. to discuss everything that happened with the testing. Everything came out fine and dandy but he said the baby weighs "a whoppin 10 oz!" yes. he said it just like that. apparently my baby is a couple ounces bigger than average, which can mean 1 of 2 things. Number 1, the baby comes early. Or number 2, I have a chunky monkey rollie pollie baby! hahaha

Super exciting :)

Baked Quesadillas

I got another dinner idea from church a while back ago and decided to try it out!

 

You know me, I seem to never have all the ingredients, but I somehow mange to find something else to use! ha
This time around we didn't have any monterey jack cheese (so we used cheddar) or green chilies, so Ian improvised and put chili powder on his. I decided to skip out and regretted it because his tasted SO much better than mine!

We decided to make 2 whole ones instead of 4 folded in half. Once I put the top tortilla on I sprayed each side with butter spray. I love me some butter :)

 They were pretty good! Mine tasted better dipped in salsa since I didn't have that chili flavoring. I think green chilies would have been very tasty on this.