Happy Easter!!!

Here's our cute little Easter bunny from last year. :)Easter weekend is finally here! I definitely miss being around my big extended family at Easter time. My grandma always made a huge, delicious dinner, and my parents have lots of cute pictures of me wearing a frilly dress and hunting for eggs with my cousins every year. My Dad and my uncles hid hundreds of eggs every year for us to find, all around my grandma's yard! I wish we could take Kirsten to a big family party like that. Couldn't we just adopt some cousins for Kirsten? I want those fun pictures!

I guess we'll just have to do the best we can. I'm getting an Easter basket full of goodies ready for her, and planning out my Easter menu. I've decided to try all new recipes this year! Here's what I'm planning on making:

Easter Baked Ham-

One ham, precooked (I'm definitely doing a half of a ham!)
2 cups of apple cider or apple juice
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
½ cup packed, dark brown sugar
1 can pineapple slices, drained
Preheat oven to 350F and place the ham with the fat side down in a non-stick
roasting pan. Pour the apple cider or apple juice over the ham and set aside.
In a separate bowl place the Dijon mustard and brown sugar together with a little bit of melted butter. Rub all over the ham.
Bake the ham for approximately 8 to 10 minutes per pound of ham. During the
last 15 minutes of cooking add the pineapple slices and a sprinkle of brown
sugar.

4-Cheese Au Gratin Potatoes-
(I'm so excited for these! I love potatoes and I love cheese, so putting them together is just heavenly!)

4 russet potatoes, sliced into 1/4 inch slices

Salt and pepper to taste
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
3 cups shredded cheese (I think I'll use Sharp and Medium Cheddar, Jack, and Swiss)
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Butter a 1 quart casserole dish.
Layer the potatoes into bottom of the prepared casserole dish. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
In a medium-size saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Mix in the flour and salt, and stir constantly with a whisk for one minute. Stir in milk. Cook until mixture has thickened. Stir in cheese all at once, and continue stirring until melted, about 30 to 60 seconds. Pour cheese over the potatoes, and cover the dish with aluminum foil. Bake 1 1/2 hours in the preheated oven.

Easter Jello-
(because you need to have a jello fruit salad type of thing on Easter!)

1 6 oz. pkg. of lemon Jello

2 cups boiling water

1 cup orange juice (really needs OJ, don’t substitute cold water)

1 cup Cool Whip, thawed

1 can drained, mandarin oranges

Dissolve Jello in boiling water. Add orange juice. Allow to partially set up in refrigerator. While it is slightly thickened add in 1 cup thawed Cool Whip and 1 can drained mandarin oranges. Mix together and refrigerate, allow to set until firm.

White Chocolate-Dipped Strawberries-
('Cause I love them and want an excuse to make them!)

Cadbury Egg Cookies-

I was thrilled to find this recipe for putting those addicting little Cadbury Mini Eggs into cookies! YUM! Head over here for the recipe.

What are you having for Easter dinner? Are you taking your kids to a big family Easter egg hunt? I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter!

Savoring the Moments!

Since the new baby is due SO soon, I have been really trying to savor the moments lately. Moments like these:

*Sleep! I happen to really like sleeping through the whole night, uninterrupted. I know that I will sleep through the whole night again, someday, but for awhile that will seem just like a dream instead of a reality!

*Spending time with Kirsten as my only child. It's crazy to think that after the next week or so, she will never again be an only child! Never!!!

*Playing games with friends for a few hours after we put Kirsten to bed. It's nice to have such a long block of free time without interruptions!

*Not breastfeeding. This sounds kind of crazy and probably shocking to some people, but I had a very difficult time breastfeeding Kirsten and am extremely nervous about doing it again. I should really do a whole blog post about it.

*Enjoying Kirsten's recent silly antics, like climbing into the dryer and wanting to play in there. She's such a funny girl! Lately she laughs hysterically at SO many things, and she does lots of things that make me laugh too. I love these pictures of her in the dryer!

Most people have been assuming that I'm totally feeling done with being pregnant, since I'm nearing the end and am at the huge, awkward, uncomfortable stage. In some ways, that's true. I'm very excited to meet our new little girl and find out what she looks like and what her personality is like. But on the other hand, it really has been a joy to be pregnant with her and I'm not dying for the pregnancy to be over. It's much easier taking care of her inside me than outside! So as much as I'm looking forward to our new baby being born, I'm still happy to be pregnant.

I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow, and I'll find out more about how close labor might be and whether I'll be induced again. Last week my doctor checked my cervix and said it was very soft and the baby has already dropped, but I wasn't dilating at all yet. Any guesses about whether the baby will come early or late?

Until then. . . I'm doing my best to savor the moments.

Kirsten's New Bedroom!

We have been busy getting our third bedroom ready for Kirsten, so that the new baby can have the baby room. And we finally ordered this awesome furniture set from the Land of Nod! I'm really excited to get it all set up in the room and see how everything looks!

I totally fell in love with this bunk bed as soon as I saw it. It's just so cute, and I love the fact that it can come apart and be turned into two twin beds. We'll set up the bed in Kirsten's new bedroom, but she won't be actually sleeping in it yet. She's still very happy in her crib and has never tried to climb out, so I'm definitely in no hurry to get her out of a crib. We're borrowing a second crib from friends, so Kirsten can stay in a crib as long as she wants and we'll just set up the bunk bed in her room anyway and hide the ladder so she can't climb up to the top.
Isn't the bed adorable?

Question for the experienced moms out there: How old were your kids when they moved from a crib to a regular bed? (I know it's different for every kid, but I'd like to get an idea of when she might be ready for it.)

We also got this dresser that matches the bed:

And this cute nightstand too! I'm so happy that I found such great-quality furniture that I love for the room that Kirsten will have and eventually will share with her little sister.

I'll be hanging these gorgeous butterflies from the ceiling! I bought three of them (purple, blue, and green) and Kirsten already loves them even though I haven't hung them yet. "Butterfly" is one of her favorite words to say! Aren't they beautiful?

We found this adorable purple lamp at Pottery Barn Kids.

And we got a few of these super cute storage totes too!

I'll definitely be posting pictures when we get her room finished and everything set up in there. I'd love to know what you all think of my finds!

I Got Showered!

Last weekend my friend Miranda threw a baby shower for me! It was so much fun! It was a small get-together, about 8 people or so came, and I was so thankful that Miranda took the time to host the shower for me. I didn't really think I would get a shower for this baby, since it's my second girl. But it was really fun to get together with friends and celebrate!

There it is. . . my 37-weeks-pregnant belly in all its glory! My belly button is poking out a little bit now, and I am not one of those lucky women who get no stretch marks on their tummy. I look like a bear clawed me up! But at least my feet stay the same size and my ankles don't swell up. Thank goodness for that!

Miranda was so creative. We had a nacho bar (she knows me all TOO well!!), and homemade red velvet cupcakes. We also played a couple of fun games and then everyone decorated tiny little onesies for the new baby.

Everyone was getting crafty with the onesies! It was a really fun idea and it's kind of hard to believe that very soon I'll be holding a baby small enough to fit into them! They look so teeny compared to the clothes Kirsten wears now!

I got some really adorable outfits. Baby girl clothes are just WAY too much fun!

Thank you so much to everyone who came! I had FUN and now the new baby feels totally special. I can just tell. . . she's happy in there. :)

April Fool's SNOW!

This photo was taken almost exactly one year ago, on April 2'nd. Beautiful, sunny day at the beach! I love this picture of Kirsten and me.

This year? I'm looking out the window at all the SNOW flurries that have been falling all morning. Snow in Seattle in APRIL! It's Mother Nature's ultimate April Fool's day joke on us. "You think it's spring? I'll show you. . . "
Although it hasn't actually felt like spring at all yet this month. March was full of rain and clouds! Someday it will feel like spring here. . . just not yet. I hope everyone has a fun April Fool's day!

Stephen's Birthday!

Stephen turned 29 last week! It's officially his last year until he's 30. I tell him that to make him feel old, but it doesn't really work. :) I made him a Texas Sheet cake like he wanted, and does anybody recognize the sign I made from The Office? Dwight made it for Kelly's birthday when he was on the party planning committee. "It Is Your Birthday." Nice, huh?

We didn't do a whole lot for his birthday, because his main birthday present came a couple of weeks ago when we saw Lion King on the stage here in Seattle. It was AMAZING!!! I had seen it before, but Stephen hadn't. We had seriously awesome seats too, which just made the show even better. I always loved it, but it seemed even more spectacular to me this time! The costumes, dancing, and songs are just so incredible and I never wanted it to end.

We also went to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse before the show for the first time. Talk about an amazing steak! It was pure perfection on a plate. So Stephen had a really awesome birthday, except that it was a couple weeks before his actual birthday. :)

Anyway. . . Happy Birthday Stephen! I love you so much!

Fun Giveaway!

If you have any little girls, you have got to go enter my friend Rachel's giveaway. She makes the cutest bows EVER, and whenever Kirsten wears one I get tons of compliments on it. It's always hard for me to decide which ones I want to buy, because they're all so cute! Her giveaway ends on April 8'th, and you can go here to enter.

22 Months Old Now!

Kirsten is 22 months old! It's getting to the point where we don't even count her age in months anymore. When people ask how old she is, we just say, "She's almost 2" or "She'll be 2 in May." She's such a funny girl! It's really fun to hear her repeat words we say, do animal noises, and to see the things she laughs at. And it's hard to believe she can already do so much!

Some of her favorite things right now are:
-Fruit snacks. She'll ask for "Snack!" and just keep repeating the word over and over until we get her one. Sometimes she'll accept other snacks, but fruit snacks are her current favorite. She also loves raisins.
-Counting to 10! She counts with us, or sometimes starts counting all on her own. It's so cute to hear her count!!!
-Ernie from Sesame Street. She asks for "Ernie" several times a day, and she usually wants to watch Play With Me Sesame instead of Sesame Street, since Ernie is a main character on that show. She still loves Elmo too, but I think Ernie has taken over as her favorite!
-Opening and shutting doors. She's been able to reach the doorknobs for awhile now and has figured out how to open and shut the doors really well, so she does it all the time.
-She has tons of new words she likes to say, but some of her favorites to say are Moon, Butterfly, Sunshine, Snack, All gone, and Go. She loves butterflies and loves to see the moon in the sky and point it out.
-Her favorite movie is still Mamma Mia, and she loves the songs from it.
-Pointing out body parts, especially facial features. She knows how to point out eyes, ears, mouth, nose, chin, cheeks, arm, hand, and foot.

Things she absolutely hates:
-Nursery. Oh gosh, she despises it! Stephen stays in there with her too and tries to get her to play and have a good time, and even when he's there she still cries, whines, and begs to "Go!" This hate is probably closely related to the next one. .
-Other little kids. They scare her to death! Even little kids she's familiar with and knows really well make her turn into a weepy, clingy little girl. Anytime they cry or whine or make any loud sounds at all, she freaks out. It's hard to handle and I hope she grows out of it soon! I've never seen a toddler so afraid of other young kids.
-Getting her hair brushed/combed/touched at all = Torture. This has never changed. Especially when we comb her wet hair after a bath, she cries like she's being killed!
-Sitting still. It's been hard to get good pictures of her, because she won't stop moving or look at the camera long enough!

Thankfully. . . her weeks of bad sleep that she had a month ago have passed, and she's been sleeping really great again. YAY!!! She usually goes to bed between 7 and 8, and sleeps until at least 8 the next morning. I am very thankful for this! I love my good little sleeper! We still don't know what caused that bad month of sleep. . . maybe she was teething or having nightmares? I guess we'll never know for sure.

She thought it was SO fun to climb into the laundry basket a few weeks ago.

It's been difficult to take her places lately since she's so freaked out by other kids, but we did have a good time at the Imagine Children's Museum the other week with our friends Miranda and Saide. They had lots of fun in the water play area!

Kirsten is such a sweet, happy girl and I really do have such a fun time with her! It's so hard to believe she'll be 2 years old soon!

I Ordered My Double!

I decided on the Valco Twin Latitude stroller, and it's on its way to me right now! I even found it on sale for $80 off and the shipping was free. Score!!!

So now I'm excited for it to arrive so I can set it up and figure out how it all works. I hope it's as great as the reviews say it is. It definitely seemed like the best option to fit everything I wanted in a double stroller.

It feels nice to be checking things off my checklist of things to do before the baby arrives. Double stroller. . . check!

Decisions, Decisions!

I think we've narrowed down our name choices for our second baby girl to two names. We really like them both, so I'm sure we won't decide until right after she's born and we can see which name seems to fit her better. But I'd love some opinions! Our new baby will be. . . .

Natalie Joy

or

Brynnley Kathleen

Which do you like better? Neither are family names, except that Kathleen is my middle name and my mom's first name. Natalie was our second choice name for Kirsten, but we obviously went with Kirsten instead. Brynnley would be called Brynn for short, if we decide on that one. I'm not going to say that whichever name gets the most votes will win or anything like that, but I'd love to hear what everyone thinks! So please comment!

The Top 10 Late Pregnancy Lifesavers!

One month left! Now that I am way into my third trimester, I thought this edition of Tuesday Top 10 should be about the top 10 things I cannot live without right now! These things literally do save my life. . .

1. Tums Smoothies- I think regular Tums are so gross and taste just like chalk, so I was thrilled to discover that the Tums Smoothies taste like candy! And they work so well too. I take them before bed so I don't get leg cramps or heartburn during the night. I used to take 2 before bed, but then I had bad leg cramps one night, so now I take 4!
2. A great husband! Every very pregnant girl needs somebody to bring them stuff when they already got all settled into a chair or couch and then realize they forgot something. He brings me ice water refills, chapstick, ice cream. . . you name it!
3. A body pillow. I sleep with one of these between my legs every night and it definitely helps to relieve lower back pain.
4. A DVR with a great line-up of shows to watch! My favorites right now are American Idol, Survivor, and Amazing Race.
5. Really comfy drawstring pants and pajama pants. Gosh, I wish I could get away with wearing these things everywhere! Maternity pants are just so uncomfortable.
6. A fridge with ice and water dispensers in the door! It makes it so much easier to refill my water cup a ton of times a day.
7. Chocolate. Of all kinds!
8. Flip-flops! My feet thankfully aren't too puffy and I can still fit into all my regular shoes, but flip-flops are by far the comfiest.
9. A great recliner chair! I love sinking into our chair at the end of the day and not getting out for awhile. Kirsten even loved this chair when she was really little!
10. A due date in the spring. I've never had a due date at any other time (Kirsten was born in May, and this baby will be born in April), but I'm convinced it's the perfect time. I'm not pregnant in extreme heat, and I'm not slipping along on wintry roads towards the end of my pregnancy either.

Shoes!!!

Aren't these gorgeous shoes? They're by Michael Kors and I saw them online for a really good deal. I told Stephen I want them in my Easter basket. . . or as an I-just-had-a-baby present. . . or whatever. I just want them!!!!

I do NOT look forward to having a post-pregnancy body again, with the deflated tire around my waist. . . ugh! But I do look forward to being able to wear hot shoes again without falling over! I'm way too unbalanced to wear them now!

When Adventures Have Glitches. . .

You just have to grin and bear it! Or at least bear it. I'll admit, I wasn't grinning too much during my ordeal last Saturday that turned what should have been a 3-hour trip from Seattle to Victoria into an 8-hour trip!!!

Me and my awesome friend Miranda thought we'd have a nice little relaxing weekend getaway, so we booked tickets on the Victoria Clipper. It sounded so easy. . . catch the 8 am boat from Seattle, read a book for a couple hours, and arrive in Victoria on Vancouver Island by 10:45. Miranda's trip did go that smoothly, because she went on Friday. She was going to spend one day there by herself and I would be joining her on Saturday.

Saturday dawned. . . rainy, windy, and cold. I drove to the ferry terminal through sheets of rain, stood in the long line to check in for the boat, and then found out that because of heavy winds they had canceled the sailing. My choices were. . .

1. Cancel for a full refund, leaving Miranda there all by herself until Sunday
or
2. Take a bus north over the Canadian border, then take a different ferry to Victoria. The lady said it would add an hour and a half to two hours to the overall trip length.

So I waited for the bus, got on it, and my gosh, it seriously took all day to get there. I don't know what that lady was thinking, because it added five hours to my total trip length! The bus ride alone was three hours, not including the time it took to get everyone off the bus at the border, put our luggage through a scanning device, and be asked lots of ridiculous questions by the border patrol. When we arrived at the ferry terminal at 11:30, the next ferry didn't leave until 1:00. So of course we had to wait around for that, and then the ferry ride was another two hours, with another half an hour in the bus on Vancouver Island until we finally got to Victoria. I didn't get there until almost 4 in the afternoon! I was ready to pull my hair out!

I took this picture from the ferry, going between some of the islands. It was hard to get a good picture through the dirty windows, but it really did look pretty!

Miranda was really glad to see me, and I had exactly 24 hours to relax and have a good time in Victoria. The city was very pretty! Here we are in front of the city's Fairmont Empress Hotel, right on the water. We stayed at a Best Western, but it would be cool to stay at this hotel someday!

Here's some beautiful architecture, mixed in with a Pacific Northwest totem pole. We mostly walked around the harbor and went in lots of shops. It was so fun being with someone who wanted to browse through shops with me, because Stephen never would have gone for that!

Despite my long ordeal, I'm really glad I got to go and I had a great time with Miranda. Thankfully, Sunday was clear and sunny and we had no problem getting home the regular way, on the 3-hour boat. It was nice! Here's the view of the harbor from our boat.

The boat seats reminded me so much of airplane seats, it was kinda funny. It was nice to have some girl time, and now I can add Canada to my list of countries I've traveled to!