27 Weeks -- time is flying!

Since finding out that Bob and I were expecting another little one we have had 3 ultra sounds. Here is a look at how our little guy is growing.

9 Weeks -- I was worried that I was having an ectopic pregnancy because of a pain on one side. Everything was fine, and wouldn't you know it after the ultrasound the pain stopped.
At 15 weeks we had our first doctor appointment with the new doctor. She had just gotten a new ultrasound machine and was trying it out. And since she couldn't find the baby's heartbeat we got free picture of the ultrasound.

At 20 weeks we did the scheduled measuring of the baby and at that time found out that we were having another little boy. It took a lot longer to find out exactly what we were having because the little guy wouldn't cooperate and he just kept his legs stretched out so he was hiding the jewels. But after a lot of shaking the technician was able to say for sure that we were having another boy.

At 25 weeks our doctor asked if we could do another ultrasound because at the 20 week ultrasound the baby was laying in a way that they couldn't get a good look of the spine. I also had them recheck the sex of the baby. This little guy just didn't want to cooperate at all. He was laying so his bum was down and his spine was completely hidden. But after a lot of shaking he finally flipped so his head was in my backbone and his bum was pressed towards my stomach. He's quite the contortionist. But again we got definite confirmation that we were expecting a little guy.

We are very excited. And I feel horrible that I don't talk about the pregnancy as much as I did with Zack. But this pregnancy has been going so well that there isn't much to talk about. I only had a little morning sickness towards the beginning and then nothing. I started feeling his kicks shortly after the ultrasound. And Bob was able to feel him kick for the first time when we were in Wyoming for the BYU/Wyoming game. He's hanging out a lot lower then Zack was. I feel a lot of his kicks in my hip bone. I'm also get kicked in the bladder a lot. Which if you've never had children before it's such a weird feeling to be going about your day and be kicked in the bladder from the inside.

As for names we've got a few names on our list. I have a hard time committing to just one right now because I want to meet the little guy first before it's final. The middle name has been the hardest for us to figure out. I like the idea of using a family name for the middle name. With Zack he was given the middle name LaCon which is also Bob's middle name as well as his Grandfather's middle name. I wanted to give this baby a middle name from my side of the family which has proven to be very difficult! My mom's dad's middle name is Lavon which he hates. I actually really like it, but he wouldn't even pass his middle name onto his only son, so I'm pretty sure he wouldn't like it if I passed the name on. My dad's dad's middle name is Asale (sp?) which isn't a bad middle name but I can just picture some teasing if anyone found out that middle name. My dad's middle name is also the first name of my brother and I feel that it's his responsibility to pass that along if he wanted to. Which leaves us either the first name of my grandfathers or going into the next generation of grandparents. We'll figure something out though.

Zack and the new baby will share a room so we haven't had too much to do to get the room ready. The baby will stay in our room for the first few months which gives us at least 6 more months to figure out sleeping arrangements. We may get a new crib for the baby just because we aren't sure that Zack is ready for his own bed yet. But again we have some time. The new baby will also be given most of Zack's hand me downs so that makes it a lot easier. Of course we'll have to get some things like long sleeved onesies and some weather appropriate clothes. But for the most part we are all set.

It's going to be crazy having two kids under the age of two! I hope we are ready for this....

27 Weeks -- time is flying!

Since finding out that Bob and I were expecting another little one we have had 3 ultra sounds. Here is a look at how our little guy is growing.

9 Weeks -- I was worried that I was having an ectopic pregnancy because of a pain on one side. Everything was fine, and wouldn't you know it after the ultrasound the pain stopped.
At 15 weeks we had our first doctor appointment with the new doctor. She had just gotten a new ultrasound machine and was trying it out. And since she couldn't find the baby's heartbeat we got free picture of the ultrasound.

At 20 weeks we did the scheduled measuring of the baby and at that time found out that we were having another little boy. It took a lot longer to find out exactly what we were having because the little guy wouldn't cooperate and he just kept his legs stretched out so he was hiding the jewels. But after a lot of shaking the technician was able to say for sure that we were having another boy.

At 25 weeks our doctor asked if we could do another ultrasound because at the 20 week ultrasound the baby was laying in a way that they couldn't get a good look of the spine. I also had them recheck the sex of the baby. This little guy just didn't want to cooperate at all. He was laying so his bum was down and his spine was completely hidden. But after a lot of shaking he finally flipped so his head was in my backbone and his bum was pressed towards my stomach. He's quite the contortionist. But again we got definite confirmation that we were expecting a little guy.

We are very excited. And I feel horrible that I don't talk about the pregnancy as much as I did with Zack. But this pregnancy has been going so well that there isn't much to talk about. I only had a little morning sickness towards the beginning and then nothing. I started feeling his kicks shortly after the ultrasound. And Bob was able to feel him kick for the first time when we were in Wyoming for the BYU/Wyoming game. He's hanging out a lot lower then Zack was. I feel a lot of his kicks in my hip bone. I'm also get kicked in the bladder a lot. Which if you've never had children before it's such a weird feeling to be going about your day and be kicked in the bladder from the inside.

As for names we've got a few names on our list. I have a hard time committing to just one right now because I want to meet the little guy first before it's final. The middle name has been the hardest for us to figure out. I like the idea of using a family name for the middle name. With Zack he was given the middle name LaCon which is also Bob's middle name as well as his Grandfather's middle name. I wanted to give this baby a middle name from my side of the family which has proven to be very difficult! My mom's dad's middle name is Lavon which he hates. I actually really like it, but he wouldn't even pass his middle name onto his only son, so I'm pretty sure he wouldn't like it if I passed the name on. My dad's dad's middle name is Asale (sp?) which isn't a bad middle name but I can just picture some teasing if anyone found out that middle name. My dad's middle name is also the first name of my brother and I feel that it's his responsibility to pass that along if he wanted to. Which leaves us either the first name of my grandfathers or going into the next generation of grandparents. We'll figure something out though.

Zack and the new baby will share a room so we haven't had too much to do to get the room ready. The baby will stay in our room for the first few months which gives us at least 6 more months to figure out sleeping arrangements. We may get a new crib for the baby just because we aren't sure that Zack is ready for his own bed yet. But again we have some time. The new baby will also be given most of Zack's hand me downs so that makes it a lot easier. Of course we'll have to get some things like long sleeved onesies and some weather appropriate clothes. But for the most part we are all set.

It's going to be crazy having two kids under the age of two! I hope we are ready for this....

Updates, because I'm a slacker

I've been really slacking in the blog post area. I know I've said it before but being a part time working mom is hard work. When I'm home I love to play with Zack which also makes me a bad housekeeper.

So here is a quick overview of our past month...

The first weekend of November Bob, Zack and I went to the Wyoming/BYU game in Laramie, WY. It's great going to this game because we have family in Rawlins which is about 1 1/2 from Laramie. We left Friday after Bob got home from work. The drive to Rawlins is just over 4 hours. It was nice driving later because Zack slept for most of the ride. The only problem was when we actually got to Rawlins he was wide awake! Which made sleeping that night really hard. Normally we put Zack to bed in his own room and he does great. That night we tried to all go to bed in the same room at the same time. Zack wanted nothing to do with that. He knew we were there and he wanted out of his play pen. We tried to sleep in the same bed with him but he just wanted to sleep. Finally he fell asleep with us, which made horrible sleeping for me. Zack moves and kicks like no other. And there wasn't enough room on that bed for the three of us. I was very happy when morning came!

The BYU/Wyoming game was a lot of fun (for us, not the wyoming fans). BYU killed Wyoming. Which made it so I was able to focus more on Zack then the game. I also wasn't too worried about Zack being a distraction to those around us because let's be honest the Wyoming fans pretty much left after the 3rd quarter. Zack and I played on the bleachers. We ate hot dogs and popcorn and had a blast entertaining those around us. Nathan, Eric, Brandon (my cousins) and Evan (Brandon's son -- my second cousin) also were at the game. It was fun to hang out with the family for an afternoon. It was funny trying to get Evan and Zack to interact with each other. They pretty much just ignored one another the entire weekend. After the game we drove to Colorado to visit the rest of the family (my mom's sister -- my aunt Connie and fam).

We had a great weekend with my family. Sunday was a nice relaxing day for us. On Monday Bob, Connie, Evan, Zack and I went to Red Rock Canyon. It was really neat to see the amphitheater and to let the kids play on the stage. We also had a nice picnic. That night we went to Nathan's apartment clubhouse to watch the Bronco's game. It was fun. The guys pretty much got to watch the game in a room with comfy arechairs and a projector screen. The women all stayed out in the main area to let the kids run. It was fun because other families were there and Zack and Evan had a blast playing with the other kids.

This is a picture of Red Rock Canyon -- it was very cool and the amphetheater was built in between two of these type of rocks!

Tuesday morning we headed back to Utah. The drive was actually very nice. We went home through Veil so most of the drive was very mountain'ist (unlike the Wyoming drive which is pretty flat). We stopped in Grand Junction to let Zack play and to eat at a park. Zack did great on the drive home. He barely fussed, we are very lucky to have such a mild tempered child.

The next few days I'll try to post more...

What to expect -

Pregnancy update

Snow pictures... I actually might like this snow season!

Updates, because I'm a slacker

I've been really slacking in the blog post area. I know I've said it before but being a part time working mom is hard work. When I'm home I love to play with Zack which also makes me a bad housekeeper.

So here is a quick overview of our past month...

The first weekend of November Bob, Zack and I went to the Wyoming/BYU game in Laramie, WY. It's great going to this game because we have family in Rawlins which is about 1 1/2 from Laramie. We left Friday after Bob got home from work. The drive to Rawlins is just over 4 hours. It was nice driving later because Zack slept for most of the ride. The only problem was when we actually got to Rawlins he was wide awake! Which made sleeping that night really hard. Normally we put Zack to bed in his own room and he does great. That night we tried to all go to bed in the same room at the same time. Zack wanted nothing to do with that. He knew we were there and he wanted out of his play pen. We tried to sleep in the same bed with him but he just wanted to sleep. Finally he fell asleep with us, which made horrible sleeping for me. Zack moves and kicks like no other. And there wasn't enough room on that bed for the three of us. I was very happy when morning came!

The BYU/Wyoming game was a lot of fun (for us, not the wyoming fans). BYU killed Wyoming. Which made it so I was able to focus more on Zack then the game. I also wasn't too worried about Zack being a distraction to those around us because let's be honest the Wyoming fans pretty much left after the 3rd quarter. Zack and I played on the bleachers. We ate hot dogs and popcorn and had a blast entertaining those around us. Nathan, Eric, Brandon (my cousins) and Evan (Brandon's son -- my second cousin) also were at the game. It was fun to hang out with the family for an afternoon. It was funny trying to get Evan and Zack to interact with each other. They pretty much just ignored one another the entire weekend. After the game we drove to Colorado to visit the rest of the family (my mom's sister -- my aunt Connie and fam).

We had a great weekend with my family. Sunday was a nice relaxing day for us. On Monday Bob, Connie, Evan, Zack and I went to Red Rock Canyon. It was really neat to see the amphitheater and to let the kids play on the stage. We also had a nice picnic. That night we went to Nathan's apartment clubhouse to watch the Bronco's game. It was fun. The guys pretty much got to watch the game in a room with comfy arechairs and a projector screen. The women all stayed out in the main area to let the kids run. It was fun because other families were there and Zack and Evan had a blast playing with the other kids.

This is a picture of Red Rock Canyon -- it was very cool and the amphetheater was built in between two of these type of rocks!

Tuesday morning we headed back to Utah. The drive was actually very nice. We went home through Veil so most of the drive was very mountain'ist (unlike the Wyoming drive which is pretty flat). We stopped in Grand Junction to let Zack play and to eat at a park. Zack did great on the drive home. He barely fussed, we are very lucky to have such a mild tempered child.

The next few days I'll try to post more...

What to expect -

Pregnancy update

Snow pictures... I actually might like this snow season!

Funny things

Zack is a funny kid. I feel that most people don't get to know the real him because they don't spend time with him on a one on one basis. At church I'm so busy trying to wrangle him and keep him under control that he doesn't really do much other then run around. At family parties there are a ton of people so he kind of gets lost in the masses. And with friends he's so enthralled with the older kids that he's more of a tag along.

The other day Zack ran around me in a circle, I of course laughed because it was pretty funny. So he started giggling and kept running around me in a circle. I was laughing so hard by the time he was done.

Another funny thing that he's done was with a sombreo. Zack hates hat, but he loves to make other people put hats on. The other day Zack found the sombreo in our computer room. True to form he handed me the hat to put on. So everytime I put it on my head I'd dance around and make up a song. He laughed so hard! I love that my little boy thinks that I'm funny! So everytime I tried on the hat I'd try to put it on him. For about 1/2 hour we played this game, until finally Zack put the sombreo on himself. Then he started dancing around and finally ran out of the room with the hat on! It was so funny to see this little person who could barely see from the hat running around the room. I wish I could have caught it on camera but of course that would have taken time to find the camera and he'd be done.

He's such a silly kid and I love him so much!

Funny things

Zack is a funny kid. I feel that most people don't get to know the real him because they don't spend time with him on a one on one basis. At church I'm so busy trying to wrangle him and keep him under control that he doesn't really do much other then run around. At family parties there are a ton of people so he kind of gets lost in the masses. And with friends he's so enthralled with the older kids that he's more of a tag along.

The other day Zack ran around me in a circle, I of course laughed because it was pretty funny. So he started giggling and kept running around me in a circle. I was laughing so hard by the time he was done.

Another funny thing that he's done was with a sombreo. Zack hates hat, but he loves to make other people put hats on. The other day Zack found the sombreo in our computer room. True to form he handed me the hat to put on. So everytime I put it on my head I'd dance around and make up a song. He laughed so hard! I love that my little boy thinks that I'm funny! So everytime I tried on the hat I'd try to put it on him. For about 1/2 hour we played this game, until finally Zack put the sombreo on himself. Then he started dancing around and finally ran out of the room with the hat on! It was so funny to see this little person who could barely see from the hat running around the room. I wish I could have caught it on camera but of course that would have taken time to find the camera and he'd be done.

He's such a silly kid and I love him so much!

Mmm... food

I love finding new recipes to try out on my family. It has become very rare for me to actually look through my cookbooks to find recipes. I often frequent kraftfoods.com and allrecipes.com to find new recipes. I love these sites for many reasons.


Kraft Foods site:

• I love the simplicty of the site. They always say name brand for certain foods (I mean it is kraft foods website -- but I ALWAYS substatute for the cheap brand).
• I love how easy the recipes usually are.. and they have sections for fast recipes and holiday recipes!
• I like to read the reviews to see if the recipe is even worth trying (and sometimes getting tips before I make it)

All Recipes:

• I love how many recipes there are to choose from. I can always find a recipe that will fit what I want to make. Sometimes I take a few things from each recipe and make it my own.
• I love that you can change the serving size and it will adjust the ingredients, that way if I'm fixing dinner for just Bob and I; I don't waste a ton of food or have to split the recipe myself.
• I also love all the reviewes

For the past few months I have been part of a dinner co-op with some people in my neighborhood. Let me tell you; I love being a part of this group! Wednesdays are usually pretty stressful for me because that's the day I have to cook, but it's so worth it! There are 4 families (about the same size) in the group and each of us cook Monday - Thursday. It's been fun planning the meals for the days I have to cook and fun getting meals that I have never tried. I'll admit there have been a few days we have gotten food that we weren't too sure about or had something in it that we wouldn't eat (manily Bob -- he hates tomatoes). But we still try everything that we've recieved. And it's been great! Hopefully the families that I cook for don't mind that they are now becoming my guinea pigs (and hopefully they have been satisfied with the meals I've cooked).

The point of this post...

When I find a recipe that I especially like I'm going to try to post it on this website. It will be a recipe that we've tried and we liked. Like I said I find a lot of recipes online so I'll print the page and either it will get ruined while cooking or lost/thrown away in cleanup. So by posting it on this blog we document the foods that we've tried and liked as well as keeping it in a place that I hopefully won't loose.


So to begin the recipe portion of this blog I present you with yesterday's dinner


Sweet and Sour Meatball Skewers
Rice-a-roni
and corn


The recipe for the sweet and sour meatball skewers was found on http://www.kraftfoods.com/ as well as the picture.

Sweet and Sour Meatball Skewers

Ingredients
32 frozen fully cooked 1-inch meatballs (1 lb.), thawed
1 red pepper, cut into 1-inch squares
1 green pepper, cut into 1-inch squares
1/4 cup apricot jam
1/4 cup KRAFT Original Barbecue Sauce

I added canned pineapple for a splash of color and taste... yummy!


Directions

HEAT grill to medium-high heat. Thread meatballs and peppers alternately onto 8 skewers.

MICROWAVE jam in small microwaveable bowl on HIGH 15 sec. Stir in barbecue sauce; brush half onto kabobs.

GRILL 8 to 10 min. or until meatballs are heated through, turning occasionally and brushing with remaining jam mixture the last 2 min.


This recipe makes 4 servings (2 skewers a serving)

Mmm... food

I love finding new recipes to try out on my family. It has become very rare for me to actually look through my cookbooks to find recipes. I often frequent kraftfoods.com and allrecipes.com to find new recipes. I love these sites for many reasons.


Kraft Foods site:

• I love the simplicty of the site. They always say name brand for certain foods (I mean it is kraft foods website -- but I ALWAYS substatute for the cheap brand).
• I love how easy the recipes usually are.. and they have sections for fast recipes and holiday recipes!
• I like to read the reviews to see if the recipe is even worth trying (and sometimes getting tips before I make it)

All Recipes:

• I love how many recipes there are to choose from. I can always find a recipe that will fit what I want to make. Sometimes I take a few things from each recipe and make it my own.
• I love that you can change the serving size and it will adjust the ingredients, that way if I'm fixing dinner for just Bob and I; I don't waste a ton of food or have to split the recipe myself.
• I also love all the reviewes

For the past few months I have been part of a dinner co-op with some people in my neighborhood. Let me tell you; I love being a part of this group! Wednesdays are usually pretty stressful for me because that's the day I have to cook, but it's so worth it! There are 4 families (about the same size) in the group and each of us cook Monday - Thursday. It's been fun planning the meals for the days I have to cook and fun getting meals that I have never tried. I'll admit there have been a few days we have gotten food that we weren't too sure about or had something in it that we wouldn't eat (manily Bob -- he hates tomatoes). But we still try everything that we've recieved. And it's been great! Hopefully the families that I cook for don't mind that they are now becoming my guinea pigs (and hopefully they have been satisfied with the meals I've cooked).

The point of this post...

When I find a recipe that I especially like I'm going to try to post it on this website. It will be a recipe that we've tried and we liked. Like I said I find a lot of recipes online so I'll print the page and either it will get ruined while cooking or lost/thrown away in cleanup. So by posting it on this blog we document the foods that we've tried and liked as well as keeping it in a place that I hopefully won't loose.


So to begin the recipe portion of this blog I present you with yesterday's dinner


Sweet and Sour Meatball Skewers
Rice-a-roni
and corn


The recipe for the sweet and sour meatball skewers was found on http://www.kraftfoods.com/ as well as the picture.

Sweet and Sour Meatball Skewers

Ingredients
32 frozen fully cooked 1-inch meatballs (1 lb.), thawed
1 red pepper, cut into 1-inch squares
1 green pepper, cut into 1-inch squares
1/4 cup apricot jam
1/4 cup KRAFT Original Barbecue Sauce

I added canned pineapple for a splash of color and taste... yummy!


Directions

HEAT grill to medium-high heat. Thread meatballs and peppers alternately onto 8 skewers.

MICROWAVE jam in small microwaveable bowl on HIGH 15 sec. Stir in barbecue sauce; brush half onto kabobs.

GRILL 8 to 10 min. or until meatballs are heated through, turning occasionally and brushing with remaining jam mixture the last 2 min.


This recipe makes 4 servings (2 skewers a serving)

Halloween 2009

Halloween started off with Zack and I carving a pumpkin. For Zack's first pumpkin carving experience he also wanted to taste what pumpkin was. He didn't seem to mind it too much. Mommy of course put a quick stop to eating raw pumpkin.

Zack instead "helped" clean the pumpkin out with a spoon.

I'm pretty proud of our Halloween costumes this year. I decided that our family would dress as the Rubbles from the Flintstone cartoon series. Bob was Barney, I was Betty and Zack was BamBam. Zack took his role as BamBam very serious and practiced for days before halloween. His toys and poor Abbie suffered a lot of practice. I've very proud of our costumes this year because normally I would bombard my poor mother to have her help me make my costume(s) but this year I pulled out a old sewing machine that was in our basement (that I thought didn't work) and sewed all our costumes. The part that I was most proud of was all of our costumes only took $15 to make! I was very resourceful. My costume I used a previous costume that either Bob or I had worn to a Murder Mystery Toga Party. I just cut it to make the betty costume. Zack's costume was easy because it was so small. And for the brown I was able to use the remnants from Bob's costume. Bob's costume I was going to buy fabric but it all would have costed me $5 per yard and I may have needed 2-3 yards. But while I was deciding I looked across the aisle at Walmart and saw a brown fleece blanket on sale for only $4.00. And it totally worked! I am proud of myself for making all of our costumes myself. I even figured out (mostly) how to sew fabric onto the bat for Zack club. This is definitly a milestone for me! But my mom isn't out of the woods yet, if there is every anything that needs a pattern to make I will definitly be knocking on her door. I am horrible at reading/understanding sewing patterns!

Every year our ward has a trunk or treat on Halloween. I'm not sure Zack really understood what was going on, but he's having fun eating his spoils from going car to car. Of course Mommy and Daddy are partaking as well.

After Trunk or Treating we went to Deanna's house to have our family party. It was a ton of fun. We brought our pumpkins to display on her doorstep. The neighbors/trick or treaters helped decide which pumpkin won the contest. I'm sure it was my mom's because let's be honest she's amazing. But in the end Deanna and Kelly gave me the prize for my canibal pumpkin. I didn't get any pictures because my camera battery died... boo. But I know that my sister and Arielle were able to get pictures so if I get any from them I'll post them here. We had fun at the party. We played games -- pumpkin bowling was the funnest! And of course we ate all the spooky treats.

My family always comes up great costumes!

And of course Baby #2 was part of all the fun. He even got his own costume...

Halloween 2009

Halloween started off with Zack and I carving a pumpkin. For Zack's first pumpkin carving experience he also wanted to taste what pumpkin was. He didn't seem to mind it too much. Mommy of course put a quick stop to eating raw pumpkin.

Zack instead "helped" clean the pumpkin out with a spoon.

I'm pretty proud of our Halloween costumes this year. I decided that our family would dress as the Rubbles from the Flintstone cartoon series. Bob was Barney, I was Betty and Zack was BamBam. Zack took his role as BamBam very serious and practiced for days before halloween. His toys and poor Abbie suffered a lot of practice. I've very proud of our costumes this year because normally I would bombard my poor mother to have her help me make my costume(s) but this year I pulled out a old sewing machine that was in our basement (that I thought didn't work) and sewed all our costumes. The part that I was most proud of was all of our costumes only took $15 to make! I was very resourceful. My costume I used a previous costume that either Bob or I had worn to a Murder Mystery Toga Party. I just cut it to make the betty costume. Zack's costume was easy because it was so small. And for the brown I was able to use the remnants from Bob's costume. Bob's costume I was going to buy fabric but it all would have costed me $5 per yard and I may have needed 2-3 yards. But while I was deciding I looked across the aisle at Walmart and saw a brown fleece blanket on sale for only $4.00. And it totally worked! I am proud of myself for making all of our costumes myself. I even figured out (mostly) how to sew fabric onto the bat for Zack club. This is definitly a milestone for me! But my mom isn't out of the woods yet, if there is every anything that needs a pattern to make I will definitly be knocking on her door. I am horrible at reading/understanding sewing patterns!

Every year our ward has a trunk or treat on Halloween. I'm not sure Zack really understood what was going on, but he's having fun eating his spoils from going car to car. Of course Mommy and Daddy are partaking as well.

After Trunk or Treating we went to Deanna's house to have our family party. It was a ton of fun. We brought our pumpkins to display on her doorstep. The neighbors/trick or treaters helped decide which pumpkin won the contest. I'm sure it was my mom's because let's be honest she's amazing. But in the end Deanna and Kelly gave me the prize for my canibal pumpkin. I didn't get any pictures because my camera battery died... boo. But I know that my sister and Arielle were able to get pictures so if I get any from them I'll post them here. We had fun at the party. We played games -- pumpkin bowling was the funnest! And of course we ate all the spooky treats.

My family always comes up great costumes!

And of course Baby #2 was part of all the fun. He even got his own costume...