Autumn

I have a friend that does photography work on the side, she is a full time teacher. She & I actually taught first grade together for a brief time. She is a wonderful teacher and an AWESOME photographer! She took a ton of pic's of Bean yesterday for me. He is wearing my grandpa's overalls from when he was a little boy! It melts my heart to see him in these! I am so excited that these overalls have been saved over the years...so special! Just wanted to share our autumn pic's!

WFMW: $20 Photo Book!

For $19.99 you can get an AWESOME photo book from winkflash.com. Right now they are running a sale on hard (leather cover) bound photo books with UNLIMITED pages! Yes, that is right, UNLIMITED PAGES! Both of the books I have made have 100+ pages. I have done this deal twice with them and both times I have been really pleased with the outcome. It is a perfect (and cheap!) Christmas gift too! I highly recommend heading over there to check it out. The deal ends on Nov. 4th!

For other awesome ideas, head over to Rocks in my Dryer!

Website: http://www.winkflash.com/
Coupon Code: 93D8E74

*I have absolutely NO affiliation with winkflash.com, I am just a happy customer!

Choco-LOT

The chocolate "issue" is in the process of being fixed. Brownies are in the oven as I type. Not just plain old brownies, mind you. They have chocolate chips in them and I made chocolate frosting...so it will be just like a cake, only better! YUM! I can not wait for the oven timer to beep!

I do need to clarify a little bit about this chocolate craving stuff. I have Gestational Diabetes so I am supposed to really watch what I eat and watch my blood sugar. With Bean it was really rough...my sugar levels would spike if I even looked at something sugary, but with Bub they really haven't been too bad. Not nearly as finicky as they were with Bean. Soo I am little more lenient about giving in to my cravings this time around.

*BEEEP* Oooooh! They are ready!! Wish I could share!

**UPDATE: Hubs just finished his "brownie" and said, "That was more like chocolate cake than a brownie" :-) Yes, dear it was.

All I Want...

All I want is a huge piece of chocolate cake with yummy frosting...is that too much for a girl to ask for? I don't think Hubs is up for a late-night run to a bakery to find me a little *errr...BIG* slice of heaven. I think I'll have to settle for a glass of chocolate milk....but when my birthday comes around next month WATCH OUT!

This was our Groom's cake at our wedding...oh my it was fantastic! Chocolate & blackberry filling OH MY!

*sigh*

YAY! I finally had the time and energy to redecorate this blog. I decided against the fall-ish stuff...I will definitely put up Christmas "decorations" though! Hope you like the purple-ness!!

Fluffy Bunny

If you have ever played the game Fluffy Bunny then you know what is coming! I found Bean in the kitchen today eating marshmallows! Okay, so I didn't really "find" him. I was sitting on the couch watching him tote around a bag of marshmallows and curiously watching to see what he would do when discovered "what" was in the bag. It was absolutely hilarious! He started by dumping about 5 of them on the kitchen floor (which I had just swept thankfully!). He then picked one apart and analyzed it for a few minutes before attempting to eat it. After he tried one, there was no stopping him! He immediately tried to put an ENTIRE marshmallow into his mouth at once! It was like the Blue Man Group stunt...he stuck a whole one in his mouth, closed his mouth and then pulled the entire thing back out! GROSS! :-) If we continue along the path of him being able to put as many marshmallows in his mouth in correspondence to his age, we might have a Fluffy Bunny champ among us!

No More...

I have made the executive decision that today was my last day of going to the gym. I'm only 23 weeks, but it is taking it's toll on me. I love working out, but lately (past 4 weeks) I come home so sore in my tummy-supporting muscles that it knocks me out for a few days! Today I feel like someone kicked me between the legs...I can barely walk! It's just not worth it to me, or to Bean! Plus, despite my best efforts, I have gained more weight with Bub so far than I did at the same time as Bean! Grrrr.... I'm sure exercising is and was helping, but I have had enough. I'm ready for a break. I'm hoping we can "suspend" our membership for a few months (very doubtful), as I will really REALLY want to go again after Bub's arrival and after I have healed. I'm fairly certain that if you relinquish your membership then you have to pay a fee if you rejoin within 1 year...BOO! We will see if they have a soft spot for pregnant ladies!

Baby Bub

We had another sono today! It was fabulous! The purpose of this sono was to check on Bub's kidneys and to measure the chambers of his heart. All looked great! His kidneys were both in the normal range for size (which is awesome!). He had his hands up over his head and was wiggling away! We got to see an awesome view of his piggies. Both feet held perfectly still for a brief time and we could see all 10 toes and even see all of the bones in each tiny toe! It was sooo cool!

It is such a relief to see that little boy and to know he is doing just fine. It makes my heart ache to hold him and to see him. I was excited about Bean's arrival, but nothing like this. I know how amazing it all is now and I can not wait! I'm so anxious to meet Bub. We are now in our last 4 week wait until our next appointment. After that one we will go every 2 weeks (then every week once I hit 36 weeks-I didn't make it that far with Bean!). It is flyyyyying by!

More Than I Think

This afternoon Bean woke up from a wonderfully LONG nap! I went upstairs and scooped him up, then; immediately brought him down to Da Da so that I could go grab a shower. Why didn't I shower while he was napping you ask? The answer is this, our bathroom shares an UN-insulated wall with Bean's room. If we do anything in our bathroom that involves water (sink, shower, toilet) Bean will wake up. During nap time and after 7pm our bathroom is out of order. I digress...back to the story. Bean is broken up about leaving his Momom to hang out with Da Da. But I do manage to dash upstairs and shower. When I return to the basement I can hear Bean and Da Da playing and giggling. I realize that they are playing with light dimming remote (it dims part of the lights in our basement) and so I flip on the big lights using the switch at the top of the stairs. Da Da then says "Oh, I can't control those lights. Who do think did that?". To which Bean screams excitedly "MOM-MOM-MOM-MOM!!!!!". I think he understands FAR more than I think he does!

GO ILLINI!

We (especially Hubs) are die hard Illinois fans. Hubs was in Orange Krush (the student section for basketball) all through college. We even did Bean's room in an Illini theme!

We have been TRYING to get season basketball tickets for the last few years without much luck. The waiting list is hundreds of people long...they do a lottery-type drawing for so many season tickets a year and we always put our name in. This year, Hubs's name was drawn!!! WOO HOO! We are now the proud holders of season basketball tickets! YAY! And the best part is that the majority of the games are before Baby Bub is due! Now to find a babysitter....

*Bean is about 3 months old in this pic! Soooo sweet!

WFMW: Baby Bouncing

When we had Bean, he was a snuggler. He wanted to be held, rocked, cuddled...all of the time! We discovered a great and comfortable way to keep him happy, bouncing! We purchased an inexpensive large exercise ball and bounced away! He loved it when he was itty bitty. Now the ball still roams our house and is used as an extra chair and Bean LOVES pushing it around (it's as big as he is!). You could also use it for...ummm...exercising?!?! :-) This is what worked for me! For other awesome ideas go check out Rocks In My Dryer!

Punkin Patch

It has been sooo HOT here lately! We had planned on going to the pumpkin patch/apple orchard this weekend for quite some time. When this past weekend finally rolled around, it was 92 degrees outside!! We decided to tough it out and go anyway. It was a good decision. Bean had a GREAT time and absolutely loved the goats & chickens. (Which made me realize that we have got to get this kid to a zoo!). We melted our way out to the pumpkin patch, only to find ourselves surrounded with rotten, stinky pumpkins (they don't care for the hot weather either!). It was really unpleasant, but I did get some cute pic's of Bean in the pumpkin patch.

The best part of the entire day there was the apple cider slushes...oh my! They were absolutely amazing and worth every single penny! A great alternative to hot apple cider :-)

Faaancy!

Last night we ate our dinner on our china. We hardly EVER use our beautiful china (anniversary, fancy dinners...) but last night was a rare night. We were out of dishes! Yup all of them were dirty (even the tiny desert plates!). I debated serving dinner in bowls, but I figured I might as well use 2 of the 12 extra plates sitting in our china cabinet! Did we dine on steak? or fancy Italian food? Nope. We had leftover pizza and quesadillas. AND water in our awesome Illini cups...now that is fiiiiine dining!

Fried Ice Cream

I did it!!! Tonight I successfully made fried ice cream!! I never EVER thought I could master this at home, (it is soooo good in restaurants) but tonight I did it! And guess what...it.was.easy!! I am still amazed at how stinkin' easy it was! This recipe is NOT mine, I definitely found it online (and if I could remember where I found it, I would give them props). However, for the record: this is NOT my creation!

Fried Ice Cream

Make ice cream balls (fist size or smaller)
Freeze 'em for an hour

Meanwhile...
Beat 3 egg whites until frothy (next time I am going to add honey to this)
In a separate bowl: crunch up corn flakes and cinnamon (use common sense on how much you need...I don't have the recipe in front of me...you guys are smart)

Take frozen ice cream balls out of the freezer. Roll them in the egg whites, then completely cover them in corn flakes! Put them back in the freezer for 3 hours. *I just put them on a plate and didn't even cover them.

Heat up a pot of oil until it is 375. (I did not check the temp. I let it heat up for about 8 minutes and it was fine).

Drop your ice cream balls into the hot oil for 10-15 seconds, remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. SERVE IMMEDIATELY!

*I drizzled chocolate syrup over ours tonight! Caramel would be good too!!!

YUM YUM YUM!

It's a....

BOY! I am so excited and I was soooo surprised! I had convinced myself we were having a girl!! It was so fun finding out that he is a HE! I will now be referring to him as Baby Bub, or just Bub. We are going back for another sono in 2 weeks because they could not get him in a position to check out the chambers of his heart and one of his kidneys is slightly dilated so they are going to check on that (anybody with experience or know anything about this???). They told us that it's no big deal and that it will probably clear up on its own.

It has been an awesome day! I'm going to go throw Big Brother Bean into the tub and then sit down with Hubs and eat pizza and watch TV!

WFMW: Big Boy Bed!

This week Shannon over at Rocks In My Dryer has decided that this week instead of posting a tip we are all asking for advice! Here is what I'm seeking advice on: How do I transfer my 15 month old into a twin bed? How did you do it? What worked? What did NOT work?

The fact that he is going into a twin bed right now is not negotiable so please do not suggest purchasing another crib, this is not an option for us.

I can't wait to hear all of the sweet little tid bits of wisdom! Bring it on!