highlights #94

Well, now that baby Nemrow is common knowledge, you can fully and totally expect these highlights posts to be full of things for the little one.  I've already been caught Pinteresting wayyyy too many maternity/baby/nursery paraphernalia, and got called on it before we even started telling people we were expecting.  I had more than a few conversations that went like so:

Them: (without preamble) Are you pregnant?
Me: Um.....maybe.  Well, yes.  Wait, how do you know?  Who told you?  We haven't told anyone yet...
Them: Pinterest. 

And here I thought I was being really sneaky, only doing a few pins here and there, trying to fly under the radar. 

Fail.

Anywho, while I go Pinterest maternity clothes to my heart's content, here are some fun finds from the web:

the cutest card for a pregnant mama

love this gal's beauty uniform

lets be honest, I would live in this maternity shirt

love these bundles of gladiolas

rethink measuring tape - maybe great for keeping track of kiddo's heights at different ages?

if this calendar is real, I want it

we all had an awkward period

next time I get my hair cut, I'm going for an even more long angled bob...I think...

this is weirdly accurate

and in case you need to smile, leave it Bert & Zach

xo

table for three please!

 

Lets be honest, my mom knew we were baking a bun in the oven since I was 5 weeks along, but I've been so, so excited to spread the news and, this weekend, we finally did!!  Surprise world!  We're having a little one and we are all sorts of thrilled about it.  We're upgrading to a little townhouse with two bedrooms, reading up on newborns, and feeling completely and utterly unprepared.  Good thing we've got 6-ish more months to become experts before baby makes his/her appearance around here ;)

As of tomorrow, I'll be 15 weeks along and going strong!  We've been to the doctor three times so far - with an ultrasound each time! - and I gotta tell you, there is nothing more fun than watching that little tiny squirm up on the screen.  Each time I get more and more excited.  It's hard to believe we'll get to hold and cuddle that sweet bundle before the year is out!

I'm due November 14th, just in time to make me thoroughly frazzled with a newborn for the holidays, but who cares.  Baby comes when baby comes, right?  Just don't expect me to be cooking up the Thanksgiving turkey.  But right now, all I can think about is our next doctor appointment in June when we should find out the big question: boy or girl???  I've flip flopped between what I think we're going to have, and I'm still on the fence - we'll just have to wait and see!

Expect lots more baby updates to come and, well, some from before as well.  For those interested parties (ahem, my mother), I've been keeping a weekly little baby journal from day one when we found out we were expecting.  We'll see if I can keep up the weekly bump pictures (maybe...), but for the updates you can find them all here - and the story of the day we found out right here.

xo

baby journal: week 14

Journal from Monday, May 26th ● Posted 5.27.14

Alright, if I'm being totally honest, my number one pregnancy symptom for the past four months has been - not morning sickness, not cravings, not swelling - but crazy, bumpy, red, angry, pizza face, teenager, acne-ridden skin.  There.  Now you know.  It's been the pits.  And that's coming from someone who didn't have good skin to begin with.  But, you guys, my chin!  It's been a war zone.  Not.  Even.  Exaggerating.  I've been drinking (tons and tons of) water, wearing barely any makeup, using only the best skincare products, but no dice.  It's just a hormonal mess and stubborn to the max.  BUT, I think I've finally found something that starting to help.

Last week I bought a jar of coconut oil to start (hopefully?) combating stretch marks before they start (and if it isn't really working, I don't want to know - plus it smells great).  While reading online about other uses for coconut oil I kept coming back to articles about the benefits of using it as a facial moisturizer.  At first I just laughed - more oil?  Thanks, I've got that in spades already guys.  But after loving what it did for my skin elsewhere I decided to opt out of my normal lotions and give it a try.

The results?  So far, so, so, so good.  My skin is getting crazy hydrated, my makeup lays better/ stays on longer, and my spots?  They're starting to recede.  Ever so slowly, but hey, progress is progress, right??  And it make me smell like coconut cookies, so I'm just not complaining.  Now, I did just hit my second trimester, and that is when the hormones are supposed to start to back off, so, really, that might be the true cause of my healing, but who knows.  I'm going to stick with the oil for a good long time if the results I'm seeing stick around.  Fingers crossed!

On a more ironic note, I officially broke the barrier of second trimester on May 21st.  (Woohoo! Let's celebrate!)  I had been feeling so, so good for the past few weeks and only expected to get a huge boost as we passed through to the next round, but...no.  Honest to goodness, those first two days of my second trimester were some of my worst through this pregnancy!  Tummy problems, aches and pains, and nausea! What the heck??  It was too funny (not at the time), and it passed, but that timing?  Too much.  And lets talk about how everything in there has started to s-t-r-e-t-c-h.  Round ligament pain is no joke people.   

But that wasn't the end!  Somehow, by some mean, vindictive, unkind force of nature I got a really, really bad cold on Memorial Day weekend - we're talking fever, chills, headaches, sore throat, aches and pains - the works.  Now, first off, I think it should be against the rules for pregnant women to get sick.  And secondly, it was pretty miserable to be sick on a holiday weekend - just adding insult to injury over here.  Hellooooo second trimester.  You can only go up from here!

Aside from my physical woos, this little lemon is:

• Huge!  Ok, not really, but 3 inches sure seems big to me.
• Barely showing...despite the fact that I feel like I'm bursting out of my pantaloons.  I went maternity clothes shopping this weekend and the store clerks couldn't believe I was 4 months.
• Making mama soooo excited to find out if it's a boy or a girl!  Ugh, is it June 11th already??  My next appointment can't come fast enough.

highlights #93

So, lets talk about how Dave and I are moving in just three short weeks...and we just bought a huge new dresser and two heavy nightstands for our bedroom.  And, yes, being the housewife I am, of course I wanted to bring them up three flights of stairs to our bedroom on the third floor so we could move into them.  No big deal right?  Good thing we have the missionaries in our ward on speed-dial, and they brought three of their other buddies with them.  I didn't have to lift a finger.  Now can y'all just come back in three weeks and help us move it all back down?  Thanks.

While I go stress out about packing up our hoard (and making a big Good Will pile), here are some fun finds from the web:

I love the cake toppers at this little ice cream partay

binge watching, don't pretend you don't do it

my preferred method of travel

fashion through the decades

some fabulous IKEA hacks

this is what I say to little babies when they cry too - also isn't she the cutest?

the 50 most beautiful wedding dresses of all time

atta go Old Navy

also I want this and this from ASOS

and a book on my too read list

xo

found: the best cookie recipe

Alright, so lets be honest, I am always on the hunt the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe.  My sister-in-law is a master baker and even she says she never has luck with this cookie staple.  Disheartening?  A tad.  I mean, if she can't do it, I probably have next to no chance of besting her.  But upon our trip eastward a few weeks ago we walked into her kitchen and low and behold, what what on her kitchen counter?  Beautiful, crazy delicious, perfectly soft chocolate chip cookies.  She finally found a winner in this recipe and, of course, I couldn't wait to go home and try it out.

Now, I'm a bit of a chocolate chip cookie snob.  My ideal cookie has a high chip to dough ratio, is nice and plump, and is soft, not cakey.  A common cookie issue. 

So last week, I pulled out all the goods and got baking.  And you know what?  This recipe is crazy easy and pretty much idiot proof.  The only kicker is that you have to refrigerate the dough for an hour or two before you bake it, but besides that they come together super quick.  And chilling the dough helps the cookies stay nice and plump - no more flat, sad cookies around here - so it's totally worth the extra prep time in my book.  And, unlike lots of cookie recipes, these stayed SOFT instead of cakey - my cookie texture of choice, for sure.

We've found a winner!!

And my newest happy discovery?  You can freeze these little cookie dough balls and pop them in the oven for a few more minutes and voila!  Fresh, soft, warm chocolate chip cookies for dessert.  I'm going to have to limit that practice in our house or, well, my waistline might be sad about it...

And a few of my humble cookie making notes:

• The recipe doesn't call for salt, but I added just a little more than a 1/2 tsp - I made it more of a heaping half teaspoon really.

• I melted the butter in the microwave for 45 seconds and then put it straight into my Kitchen Aid bowl and went ahead with the recipe without waiting for it to cool too much. 

• And, also, if using frozen dough, bake for about 13 minutes instead 10.