Pinterest Picks

I pin a lot of recipes on Pinterest and if it weren’t for that, heaven knows I wouldn’t be cooking.

Here are my two recent favorites that I have cooked:

1- Enchilada Lasagna from Mogwai Soup

I was shocked that this was so good. We did add some chili powder to the recipe, which I think was a great addition. Also, if you happened to be out of tortillas, chips would give this a nice crunch.

There was a ton leftover and I was able to freeze some for another meal. I would definitely add this to my rotation.

2- Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole from Organize and Decorate Everything

I have actually made this recipe twice. It is pretty simple to throw together and tastes great. I didn’t have any saltine crackers for the topping, so I added some tortilla chips and it added the saltiness and crunch that it needs.

Also, as a note, in both of these recipes, instead of making the chicken as shown in the recipes, to save time I just bought and cut up a rotisserie chicken. Totally worth the lack of effort :).

Bumpdate Week 21

How Far Along: 21 weeks

Total Weight Gain/Loss: 4 pounds. Will weigh again the next time I go to the doctor. I can tell I am growing, though. I was starving all day today!

Gender: It’s a girl!

Movement: She’s still moving lots when I eat. She also moves most (where I can feel it) if I am laying down watching tv or going to sleep. I can feel her more now when I am standing.

Sleep: This week was an improvement. I still get up at least once a night to go the bathroom, but that’s normal.

Maternity Clothes: Still none yet. I had to laugh because I bought some shorts in a smaller size in April thinking that they would fit all summer. What in the WORLD was I thinking? I tried them on yesterday and they were a bit snug (to say the least), so I bought a Bella Band today.

Symptoms: I swear my veins are sticking out more this week. Increased blood flow maybe? Also, my lower back was hurting me a bit today. May be completely unrelated to baby, though.

Aversions: Fried food. Thank goodness!

Cravings: Sweets!! Tommy and I split a Hey Batter, Batter Blast yesterday and it was good for the first 10 bites, then I had to stop because it was too sweet. So I guess I am not too obsessed with them.

I also would love some Key Lime Pie or a Lemon Square. Tart apparently sounds good.

What I am most looking forward to: I have been looking for furniture and décor for her room, so that has been fun!

Best Moment this week: We cleaned out her closet and moved all of her little things that we have purchased or received for gifts to her new space. We also got a new car for me. I had my 2-door Honda for 11 years, so it was a little bittersweet, but I definitely have way more room for baby in my new one! (Another Honda – a Pilot this time.) Also, so grateful for a three day weekend to get stuff done, spend time with Tommy and sleep in! (And, of course, grateful for our troops, which goes without saying.)

In non-baby news, Carter went on several walks with Gracie (my mom’s dog), so that was definitely a highlight this week.

Weekly Faves

Here’s what I am loving this week!

You know how I have been craving Key Lime Pie? Well, now I am craving lemon tarts. Don’t these look delicious from The Farm Girl Recipes?

I obviously have sweets on the brain. I mean, I need these skillet chocolate chip cookies. Like pronto. Or if that is too much trouble a cookie cake would do. Photo via Cookies & Cups.

I thought this gumball necklace project featured on Project Nursery would be really cute for a kid’s sweet’s party.

My friend Cheryl threw an amazing succulent planter party. Not only are the succulents fabulous, her party details were adorable!

Glorious Treats threw a really cute vintage baby shower and I was looking through her menu and the food not only looked delicious, but super easy to make. I thought this would be a good inspiration menu for anyone looking for something to serve at a shower.

I thought this take on cake balls for a tennis party was really clever. Featured at Kara’s Party Ideas.

Isn’t this a beautiful cupcake? It also incorporates my other favorite dessert – cookies. A total win! Photo via Cupcakes Take the Cake.

Hope you guys are having a great Memorial Day weekend!

Bumpdate Weeks 19 & 20

How Far Along: 20 weeks (today, but I am scheduling this for tomorrow…so, the information is from the weeks before)

Total Weight Gain: 4 pounds on the doctor’s scale.

Gender: Girl! It really was the best moment ever finding out if we were having a boy or girl. It was probably the best surprise of my whole entire life. I wish I could have recorded the moment to replay, but love having the memory. She knew right away, too. Tommy and I both thought it was a boy going into the appointment!

Also, we are getting close on a name! We have two we like, but haven’t fully committed. We will probably use both names, though, one as the first and one as the middle.

Maternity Clothes: None yet. I think I am about to enter the stage where I find the fact that I considered buying no maternity clothes laughable. Don’t worry, when I get there you can all tell me “I told you so.”

Sleep: Meh. At best.

Movement: She loves it when I eat! She moves the most then and when I am laying on my back.

Cravings: Fruit (specifically watermelon) and things that are sweet sound great. Today I was craving ice cream, which I haven’t had a craving for yet. I think I am needing more calcium in my diet.

And let’s be honest, this is on my summer bucket list:

Other crazy symptoms: Nothing new.

What I am looking forward to: Working on the baby’s room! I have lots of ideas and we started to look at furniture, colors, designs, etc. Very fun. Also, I know this is cheesy, but I am looking forward to meeting her!

Best Moment this week: Finding out the gender of the baby at week 19! As noted above, it was just the best moment ever.

For week 18, we had a really great trip to Florida. It was so relaxing and it was great to be on the beach, eating out and generally not worrying about anything.

Baby’s first trip to the beach:

A bit of this, a bit of that

So we are finally coming out of the fog after our turn of events last week. A lot of time has been focused on our sweet Carter. He is such a good dog, but was so dependent on his big brother Pudge, so we have been giving him lots of extra special attention. Poor pup. My heart just breaks for him to lose his best friend because we know how hard it is.

Pudge also was his motivator. Forget treats, if we wanted Carter to do anything, we would just get Pudge to do something and he would follow. This has made going on a walk tricky as Carter isn’t interested. Tonight my mom is bringing her Golden Retriever over, so we are hoping he will actually leave the house and go on a walk. (Here’s hoping.)

To help ease the pain, I have been partaking in retail therapy. Because that’s always effective for at least a 5 minute pick me up, right? But it is fun to buy something for the new baby (and baby’s mama), so I got me a diaper bag in Pudge’s colors at the Kate Spade one day sale. (How do you like that for rationalization?) I am hoping I like it once it comes in!

Also, we are still, of course, thrilled about baby, and I wanted to show you the cute way (if I do say so myself) that I told my coworkers that the baby was going to be a girl.

The night before the big day we went to Walmart and I bought some tiny boxes, ribbon and pink and blue candy.

I put all the boxes together the night before and then before I went into the office, filled the boxes with pink whoppers!

I had also bought some blue York Pieces for my something blue. Just a hint…it is hard to find pink or blue candy at the store, this is the best I could do.

I made all of the little labels myself and thought they turned out cute. It was fun to get everyone’s reaction as they opened them.

Anyway, I did want to thank you all for your sweet comments, tweets, texts and cards last week. I do appreciate each of them.

Life is full of ups and downs

Today’s post was going to be fun with bumpdates, cute ways I told people that the baby was a girl, etc. Instead, with a heavy heart I am mourning the loss of my sweet dog, Pudge. Isn’t life funny like that? A great day, then a not so great one.

For those of you with animals, you can understand the special bond that you have with your first “baby.” Pudge has been with us for ten years. He is how Tommy proposed to me, the source of many, many laughs and a great big brother to his dog brother, Carter.

And, honestly, I can never read people’s posts honoring their sweet deceased furry companions, so I understand if no one reads this post, I understand. It is just too hard.

Anyone who knew Pudge would definitely say he was a gentle giant. He loved people. Loved them. And everyone who knew Pudge loved him (with the exception of Tommy’s grandmother…but I will chalk that up to her not being a dog person).

Of course, with every loss (and dog) there are so many lessons:

1- Spend more time with the those you love.

2- Have boundless enthusiasm for those around you.

3- Seek to love unconditionally.

I am trying to find the positive in our loss. Pudge was 100% fine last night, then got sick during the night and we were beyond shocked when he didn’t wake up this morning. (Understatement of the century.) The vet said that because of his age (10) and size (95 pounds), he just died of natural causes.

We will always miss our first sweet baby.

But we feel very blessed for the time we had with him.

Pudge, you are so very missed. We love you.

What will baby bee?

So today we found out what our sweet baby’s gender was! I have to say, it was definitely the best surprise I have ever had in my life. I was also shocked! She could tell right away what baby was, so that was so, so fun! I wish I could have taped the moment because I could just relive it again and again. It will definitely be a memory I have forever.

Also, we left feeling very thankful.

We didn’t really tell our parents/family that we were having a baby in a very fun way. So we (let’s be honest, I) wanted to do something fun to share the news. So we threw a gender reveal party tonight. The theme was “What Will Baby Bee?” I wish I had come up with this idea on my own, but alas, I am not that clever.

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The chocolate cupcakes revealed the baby’s gender!

And since I love the element of suspense, I made everyone wait until after dinner to eat their cupcake :).

Everyone voted for their choice:

The group to the far left up until my sister and Finley are Team Pink and from AB (our tallest guest) on is Team Blue.

And baby is….

If you can’t tell, the center is pink! We are so, so, so excited! Like beyond.

As you can see, Finley knew it would be a girl and was thrilled.

The only pink thing we could find to take a photo with – my sister in law’s bag. Ha!

It really was the best day. I also had several other friends who had good news to share, so it was even more sweet for us! We are so grateful for this little baby and for having so many friends and family to share the news with.  (Sorry for the super cheese post, but it really was an amazing day.)

Menu Sunday

We just got back from a lovely trip to the beach and if I wasn’t too lazy, I would upload the photos, but I guess that is another post for another day. After eating every lunch and dinner out for five days, I am more than ready to eat at home!

Monday:

Lasagna, Salad and French Bread. No photo of the lasagna, but here’s a tip:

I love this oven ready lasagna. The no-boiling of the noodles makes making lasagna a million times easier and this one tastes great!

Tuesday:

Chicken Cashew Lettuce Wraps from She Wears Many Hats. I have made these before and they are spicy and delicious. I also make enough to eat the leftovers for lunch.

Wednesday:

Baked Pesto Chicken from Kalyn’s Kitchen with Broccoli. Again, another one I have made before. This is the easiest recipe in the world, tastes great and requires about 5 minutes of prep. My kind of meal.

Thursday:

Chopped Chicken Salad. The link to the original recipe doesn’t work, but here is the recipe on my pinterest board. In the interest of keeping things as simple as possible, I will be using rotisserie chicken because that’s how I roll.

Friday:

Another new recipe is Enchilada Lasagna from Mogwai Soup with corn (well, the corn isn’t a new recipe, obvs, but I have to throw a veggie in for good measure).

Only, I don’t think I will use 5 cups of cheese. I probably will only use it on top.

Hope you have a great Monday!

Bumpdate Week 18

How Far Along: 18 weeks (today…so, I guess the information is from the week before)

The updates from week 17 are pretty much the same as week 16, however, I am definitely growing! Baby is sitting really low. But still no updates on weight gain (only because my scale is completely inaccurate), nothing new in maternity clothes and I continue to go back and forth on what I think the baby’s gender is.

Movement: I still feel the baby move, some days more than others. I am still pretty much obsessed with watching my somach move (or waiting for the baby to do something). I can’t tell you how many DVR’d shows I have had to rewind because I missed the plot because I was so engrossed in my stomach. Tommy finally saw the baby kick, too.

Sleep: Sleep is about the same. I still get up at least once (sometimes 2-3 times a night) to go to the restroom, but I am getting much better at falling back asleep.

Also, I finally had to move from my stomach to my side.

Cravings: I finally indulged my Key Lime Pie craving. Luckily my friend Iris has a sweet tooth and was nice enough to treat me! Still loving sweet potato fries, salads and fruit!

Other crazy symptoms: My gums have started bleeding when I floss. Also, I feel like the baby is now moving some internal organs around for room??? I honestly have no idea, but there were a few days where things had sharp stabs to them internally. Obviously my high school anatomy class got me far.

For the first time this weekend, I got the intense feeling of pressure on my bladder that would come and go (usually to the point where I would have to find a restroom – stat). I assume that was the baby kicking in that area.

What I am looking forward to: Learning the gender of the baby and starting to work on the nursery.

Best Moment this week: Watching the baby move and talking to friends about the baby!

Weekly Faves

A couple of faves this week!

I loved these shower invites featured at the Creative Party Place. They would be really cute for a spa or slumber party!

Honey We’re Home had a spotlight on Casey Grace Designs and I just loved all of her interior design photos. If you are looking for decorating inspiration, both of these sites have great home décor ideas.

Again, Fail blog never fails to crack me up.

You know how I feel about a free printable! I thought this one was super cute available at I Heart Naptimes.

Wouldn’t this have been a fun treat waiting for you after school? I thought these were just really cute (and easy)! Via Disney Family Fun.

 

Hope you guys had a great week!

What do you think?

So on Pinterest the other day I saw this:

Frankly, I had no idea what a face primer was.

I did some research (and Yahoo Answers has all the right answers, right?) and found this:

A face primer is one of the best ways to insure your makeup stays on longer. They pamper the skin and create a protective barrier. Primers are excellent for people with combination to oily skin. Just apply after moisturizer and let it sink into the skin for a few minutes, and carry on with your regular foundation routine.

I was still baffled that a high end brand could have the same effect/ingredients as a low-end feminine product (well, I guess they are both feminine products…just used in different places).

So I did some research and found this blog:

http://www.skindeco.net/2009/04/monistat-chafing-gel-vs-smashbox-photo.html

And this article: http://shine.yahoo.com/fashion/expert-opinion-monistat-vs-smashbox-foundation-primer-492667.html

So, what did you think? To save $30 could you use chafing gel on your face??? As someone with a background in marketing, I find it fascinating that I would be more likely to pay $36 vs. $6 because of the idea of putting a feminine cream on my face disturbs me even though it shouldn’t. Amazing what branding can do to your subconscious.

Would you be willing to try low-end cream to save some $$? (I cannot bring myself to type the brand name for some reason!! Obviously, I have modesty issues!!!)