A Circle of Leaves

My favorite time of year to be Pinteresting is when the season starts changing from hot to cool to cold. I have always loved Autumn - when the leaves start changing, the air gets crisper, and I get to pull out all of my somewhat forgotten long sleeved t-shirts. It's like suddenly getting a whole new wardrobe every year! (Granted, this year is a little different because I won't exactly fit into all of my seasonal fall clothes.)

Along with the season change comes Holidays!! And crafts! I found a cute Halloween wreath to make, but after asking Holly if she wanted to do it with me, we decided together that we wanted to make a wreath that we could hang on our doors in both October and November. So we designed our own! No little tutorial to follow. We felt pretty, well, crafty!

We both got an 18" grapevine wreath for $3 at Michael's. $3! Not too shabby. :) Then we went to Hobby Lobby and bought leaf garland, gourds and pumpkins, and little plastic beads on wire sticks. I also grabbed some raffia (thanks to Ashley for reminding me what it's called!)

We sat at the table and threw them together in a mere 30 minutes or so. We used wire cutters to get the leaves off of the garland, and the pumpkin/gourd sticks and beads we simply shoved into the grapevine. We hot-glued the leaves into the wreath. I also made a little bushel of sorts out of the raffia and glued it on. I managed to get away with just a minor glue gun burn, and our wreaths turned out great!

Holly's wreath

My wreath

Ryan isn't quite as ready for the colder weather as I am, so our wreath won't be making its big debut until October 1st, but I can't wait to put it up and enjoy it until December!

Immunocompromised

I am not usually one to complain about things. I try to stay positive and take things in stride.

But you know what is not the most fun thing in the world?? Being immunocompromised. And that is what I am - an immunocompromised baby-building woman. And let me tell you something: I can tell!!

In the past I have had a pretty stand up immune system. It was not incredibly often that I picked up other people's ailments. Got sneezed on? No biggie. A snotty nosed, coughing child nearby? Meh. Piece of delicious food accidentally got dropped on the ground? 5-second rule!!

But now???? That sneeze that got on me means a wicked cold for at least a week. The coughing child equates to yet another cold that lasts at least a week. And that food off the ground? Oh, that leads to almost certain death.

You would think I would have learned more quickly to AVOID GERMS while pregnant!!! I guess it takes me a good 6-months to get something thoroughly through my head.

Let me tell you a little story.

Two nights ago after I finished washing the dishes, I got very tired and just wanted to lay down. Shortly thereafter I found myself feeling just completely unhealthy. My night proceeded to be a loooooong one. I had not had a sickness like that since...oh... junior high? The next day (yesterday) I spent in bed. Literally. And if you ask my husband, I hate just laying and being sedentary for much longer than necessary, so obviously I was feeling pretty deathly. I managed to eat 2 pieces of toast (even though it took me 2 hours to get them down), a few saltines, half of an apple, and a couple bowls of plain white rice. It was rough.

And of course I had myself all worried about the baby. I took a microbiology class a couple of years ago and we learned alllll about lovely foodborne illnesses (which is more than likely what I had). And there is one, listeria, that is particularly cruel to a fetus. But my doctor said not to worry, and as if she could read my thoughts, baby girl was wiggly all day long so that I knew she was doing okay in there.

Ryan was also an incredible help. I may have kept him up half the night, but he did not complain about it one bit. He was obviously genuinely concerned for my well-being. When I asked him for a blessing to help me to sleep, he gave no hesitation, even though it was 4:00 in the morning. He stayed home with me in the morning and went to the store to get me 10 different kinds of juice, fruit, and crackers. He didn't even complain about the mess in the house when he got home from work (I guess I get lazy when I can't hardly stand to move). What a great guy I've got.

You will be happy to hear that this morning I woke up feeling superb. I slept just fine last night and even ate a bowl of cereal today! Things are looking up, and maybe my immune system is not so bad after all. :)

The Room

We are starting to design the baby's room! Shortly after we found out that we were expecting, we found this pretty awesome painting at Hobby Lobby. Usually I'm not one for impulse buys, but oh my goodness, I had to have it! I knew that's what I wanted the nursery themed around. It has a white background, a dark brown tree, and a single teal bird sitting in the tree. I love it. I really wanted to match the color of the bird for the paint in her room, but realized that it would turn out rather intense. This is the color of the bird and paint:

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To help counter act the boldness of that color, we decided to put in some wainscoting. I was hoping that we would get to do this, and Ryan has always loved that look, so when we realized how not-too-expensive it is, we bought some! It will look like this:

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I have always liked bold colors paired with a bright white. I think it is going to turn out looking really nice when we are finished!

In other - but similar - news, here is me showing off a little baby bump! Almost into the 3rd trimester!

A Progression

Since I found out I was pregnant, every four weeks I have been taking belly pictures. I have enjoyed watching and feeling my body change (well.... sort of...). Here's my current line-up:

Still not much to show for being over half-way there (23 weeks today!), but I certainly feel larger. People are usually surprised when I tell them how far along I am. Most people had no idea until I announced it via Facebook when we found out the gender. Doc says it will be obvious to the whole world by 24 weeks. It's been obvious to me since 12 weeks, when some shirts and pants were put into hibernation for a while!

Little baby girl is moving around a LOT lately. So much, in fact, that a few nights ago I dreamt that she managed to stick her entire leg out of my stomach. It was rather freaky so I shoved it back in. Then she stuck out her head. She had dark curly hair and glasses and was not very cute. So I shoved that back in, too. :) Ryan can feel her kicking and rolling around, and I love that he is able to share that wonderful feeling with me.

The #1 most common question I have gotten so far: "How are you feeling?" I feel great, thanks for asking!! Seriously though, there is not much I can complain about with this pregnancy thus far. Morning sickness has been minimal and easily tamed by food. Mood swings have been pretty much nonexistent, and yes, Ryan realizes he is blessed for that. I haven't felt completely exhausted hardly at all, and have actually been able to keep up with exercising 5 days a week. I think the only thing I really don't like is how much I have to go pee! I am sure that will change in the next 4 months, but I am not anticipating anything completely awful (knock on wood!).

I cannot wait to meet this little girl!

Peoria

Last week I traveled to Peoria, IL, with my sister and mom to visit my other sister and her family for a week. It was a 14-hour drive to get there, but it wasn't as bad as I was afraid it might be. I did, however, get to experience some lovely swollen ankles and feet from sitting for so long. 

We did lots of fun things while we were there! We made Oatmeal Scotchies... and Crystal showed us her totally impressive baking skills!!

The three sisters all wore the same shirt (that we bought separately). Crystal and I wore ours on the same day, but we wanted to take a picture of us all matching, so Holly put hers on too. This was taken after a 5-hour shopping and dinner outing. It was SO fun! Probably one of the biggest highlights of the whole vacation for me.

 We went to Wal-Mart! The girls both got a new toy from Nana (my mom) and we picked up some groceries.

We played outside! It was surprisingly not humid for the majority of our stay. One day we got out the slip 'n slide and watched the girls play for about an hour. It was fun to see them get so ridiculously excited about something.

We played on my iPhone and iPad! Brielle and Aislynn both very much enjoyed getting to play with electronic gadgets. After a while, I had to start suggesting that we use our imaginations to have fun instead.

We sat around being cute! Aislynn woke me up on this particular morning by jumping on my air mattress. It was startling, but cute. :) Then she put her little doll to sleep in an oh-so-fluffy Kleenex bed.

We went to Monkey Joe's! Monkey Joe's is a fun place with lots of bouncy things and slides. Apparently my age and size were not the only things restricting me from getting to play, too.

We made banana bread! We found a recipe similar to my mom's (which is totally delicious), and were pleased to find out that it was quite yummy! Brielle and Aislynn thoroughly enjoyed getting to eat a little of the batter.

We went to Steak 'n Shake! This restaurant is all over the Midwest, and since I was the only one of the group who had never gone, we decided to make a stop there for dinner one night. I had a scrumptious burger and then shared a Mint Cookies 'n Cream shake with the two littlest girls. I even got to wear a totally awesome hat!

And then, it was the last night there. It came so quickly!

Thanks for letting us crash at your pad for a week, Brendon and Crystal and family! It was so much fun to spend time with all of you, and I hope we get to see each other again sooner rather than later!

The Order of Things

Ryan and Chantal, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G

First comes love...

June 10, 2010

Second comes marriage...

August 14, 2010

Third comes a baby (girl!) in a baby carriage!

~ December 15, 2012

This, that, and the other

In the past little while we (Ryan) have been busy getting the backyard landscaped. It is coming along nicely! We have five cute trees planted (2 maples, 2 aspens, and a spruce). The sprinkler system is FINALLY installed. And as luck would have it, there was a ginormous downpour of rain the same day that Ryan filled the trenches back in, so they have sufficiently settled. Thank goodness they were filled in... otherwise I would have cried for him.

We watched some pretty awesome fireworks on July 3rd. Yes, the third. Our little town does it a day early in an attempt to get a good turnout. I don't think they were disappointed this year, as many surrounding areas had their fireworks cancelled due to the massive amounts of fire in Colorado this summer. I was really quite impressed by the whole shebang - they had food booths, bouncy castles, a climbing wall, and several other fun things to do before the fireworks. Granted the fireworks didn't even start until 10 PM because of wind and that wind was not particularly warm. But Ryan and I had our little camping chairs and cards and we had a good time! 

We saw the new Spiderman movie. It was a fantastic movie, especially compared to the previously made Spidermans. Spidermen? Anyway, I certainly recommend that one. I do not, however, recommend ordering nachos from Rock Bottom Brewery, unless you like really crispy cheese.


We had people over for dinner. Not that this is necessarily a new thing, but I was really really excited about the food we ate (the company was good too; it was a couple of friends/coworkers of Ryan's). A monthish ago after a temple trip with my parents we had dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. I ordered their Chicken Bellagio, and I was not disappointed. Ryan was even jealous, and that never happens! Then one day on Pinterest I came across the recipe. And it is the legit recipe, straight off of the Cheesecake Factory website. The dish has pasta in a basil oil sauce, topped with a little Parmesan cream sauce AKA alfredo, then breaded chicken, prosciutto, and arugula. It was so beautiful. I also served homemade breadtwists from fabulesslyfrugal.com and broccoli with toasted almonds. 

For dessert I made a bundt cake that is a copycat of a Nothing Bundt Cake that I found on favfamilyrecipes.com. I was originally planning on whipping up a box of brownies due to the more involved-ness of the Chicken Bellagio, but Ryan quickly requested the bundt cake, and how can I turn him down? He was happily surprised when he saw I had decided to make it after all, which made it all worth it. 

We went to a Rockies game. We played the Pittsburgh Pirates. The game was pretty good, and our seats weren't too bad either! Front row! (Thanks, Dad!) We got rained on pretty much the whole game, but thankfully we were prepared with our rain jackets and tarp and we left relatively dry and warm. I can't speak for any of the other people we were with, but the rain didn't dampen Ryan's and my experience! We got to eat yummy Monster Chicken Nachos and Polish sausage and hang out with my family. It was really quite fun. Unfortunately the game was delayed at the top of the 9th inning with two outs before the potential end of the game. We were ahead by 3, so we decided to just leave since it was pretty late and the rain didn't seem to be letting up anyway. The Rockies ended up winning! 

It has been a great summer so far, and I have a feeling it is only going to get better!!