Goodbye 2015

Christmas has come and gone and we are about to say good bye to another year. It truly is amazing how fast the years go. People tell you when you have kids to not blink and you really don't realize that until you are living it yourself. I still am amazed every day Kinley is 2 and I am already 24 weeks with this baby boy of ours. We are definitely blessed.

We had a great Christmas. If you've been reading you know my mom was in town, which was such a great time. She seems to always visit us in the winter but has never been here on Christmas. It was so wonderful to have the time with her. I ended up with more time than I though too. I went to check her in for her flight on Monday (thinking she was leaving Tuesday morning) and come to find out she didn't leave until Wednesday morning. I was so shocked! The entire visit I was thinking she was leaving on Tuesday morning. It was pretty funny. Then her flight got canceled on Wednesday due to snow in Chicago and she didn't leave until Thursday. Such a great time and wonderful memories that were made.

It saddens me Kinley doesn't get to grow up with my family near but I love that she really enjoys the time now when they visit. It warms my heart. 

We didn't do a whole lot when she was here but we did get to the Botanical Gardens for the lights, which was worth it! Kinley really enjoyed it as well. Watching her enjoy the holidays is special. I always dreamed of the day I would have kids to spend these days with. It sure is true when friends tell you the holidays are better with kids. 100 times more chaotic but that chaos is worth every second, and to be honest I kinda like it. Is that weird?

My dad and step mom were also down for a day so it was great to see them too. My dad recently had quadruple bypass surgery 5 weeks ago so I was very excited to see them. I was a little worried about him traveling so far with him just having surgery but he says he is feeling pretty good and each day gets better. The weather was about 80 the day they were here so we had a blast enjoying the sun at the beach.

Overall we had a wonderful Christmas and we all enjoyed each other's company. I am always sad to see family leave but I do like to be on a schedule so it will be nice to get back to our schedule and not so many cookies on the table. I have eaten way too many of those this break.

Next week we go back to the dr for a check up on baby boy. We are having an ultrasound done because at the last one they couldn't get pictures of his heart. I will be confirming he is a boy and he is healthy. If you didn't know we thought he was a she for the longest time. You can read about the shocker here. It is about time for another update so I will be doing that next week after our appointment.



Happy New Year's Eve to everyone! I am sure I will be sleeping at midnight, at least that is the hope. It has been rough here with the 2 year old molars coming in.

Christmas Week - A Few Family Photos

I am so excited it is Christmas week! What is even more exciting is my mom is coming into town on Christmas Eve. Getting through these next 3 work days is going to be tough, but then I am off for 6 days!! WHAT??? Yes 6 days! I am so stoked!

My mom hasn't visited for awhile. It is coming up on a year I think. Being so far away is hard. Luckily we have been back to Colorado and she has seen Kinley but even the last time we were there was 6 months ago. Kinley has changed so much in the last 6 months. We can't wait for Thursday!

She comes in on Thursday morning and we will probably run some last minute errands and then let Kinley nap. I will be putting her to work on the pile of presents I have to wrap. Does anyone else hate wrapping presents? I really am not a fan. Luckily for me my mom is and loves wrapping, little does she know that I have saved all the wrapping for when she comes :). I am hoping wrapping with her will make it a little more enjoyable since I can't be wrapping while drinking wine :). We Matt also has an easel to put together for Kinley. We never had our "big" gifts wrapped when I was younger and I loved waking up and seeing that with all of the wrapped presents under the tree, so that is the tradition we have started for Kinley. Last year Matt put together a kitchen and we of course didn't wrap that. She was a little too young to understand last year but I think this year she is going to be soooooo excited when she wakes up.

Thursday afternoon we are going to go over to Matt's parents to open presents and celebrate Christmas because we are going to have Christmas at our house this year. I am very excited about that! My mom loves to cook so we are planning on a full menu with many yummy dishes.

Of course Christmas will start bright and early with opening presents and a yummy crock pot casserole we are going to try. Lets hope it turns out. At first Matt wanted to cook a casserole in the morning, though it takes 3 hours. So I asked him if he was getting up at 3AM to start breakfast :). He declined.

We want to go check out the lights at the Norfolk Botanical Gardens at some point while my mom is here. Have any local readers been? Is it worth it? Please tell me it is! I am kind of kicking myself for not getting Christmas Town tickets when they were $14! There is always next year right! Plus Kinley will enjoy it even more then and we will have little man with us too. Did you see news on us having a boy! We are still shocked!

Other than enjoy the time together we don't have any other plans. We actually might make these amazing sugar cookies again! If you haven't checked out the recipe go do that! It is worth it. Hopefully your dog won't eat all of them like ours did and you will get to enjoy them. Hence why we might make them again.

Cheers to hoping these next few days fly by for everyone and your holiday is blessed! I know ours will be. Merry Christmas from our family to yours.

I love our Christmas pictures so much! Lori Woodhouse does it again! Thank you! 

The BEST Sugar Cookies

I hope everyone had a great weekend! We had pretty unforgettable one! I can't believe there is only one more weekend until Christmas! And even better my mom comes on Christmas Eve. I can't tell you how excited we are for her to spend Christmas with us.

I worked all day Saturday but on the way home I really wanted to go see some Christmas lights. It was totally last minute but after we finished eating dinner we packed Kinley up and headed to a street that was full of beautiful houses. My friend had told me there was a street at the ocean front that goes all out with the lights. They definitely did not disappoint and Kinley enjoyed every minute. If you are a local reader it is off of 43rd and Pacific.

Sunday we had our family fun day! I love Sunday's with the family. It is the only day we all three get to spend the whole day together so we soak up every minute that we can. We went to Target and grocery shopping, made sugar cookies, made a few special deliveries of cookies and made a wonderful Philly cheese steak dinner with side salads. Perfect day.

I found the best sugar cookie recipe on PB&J Babes blog. I love reading her blog and her kiddos are the cutest. You should definitely go check her blog out. The recipe was super easy to make and the cookies are the best I have ever had. I highly recommended making these as soon as possible! And the almond extract is a MUST. It makes the cookies.

Christmas Butter Cookies

COOKIES

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 sticks butter, softened

2 large eggs

1/2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

ICING

4 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3-4 tablespoons milk

Festive sprinkles

--

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium bowl, cream butter and sugar until well combined.  

Add vanilla and almond extract, and then the eggs.   

In a separate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture while beating on low speed until smooth.

Scoop the dough by rounded tablespoons and roll into 1-inch balls.  Place them evenly spaced on a non-stick cookie sheet.  Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the cookies are golden brown at the edges and puffed.  Cool 3-5 minutes on the pan and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before icing.

While the cookies cool, prepare the icing.

Combine softened butter, vanilla, and powdered sugar, adding milk to thin as desired.

Once the cookies have cooled it is time to frost and decorate! 

She wanted the two colors separate....at first :)

 

Yep you caught me eating all the sprinkles mom. 

All finished and looking so pretty! We had such a great time making these cookies! I hope you enjoy these as much as we did. 

Who Would've Thought

We had our anatomy scan yesterday and let me start by saying it was quite the appointment. Matt originally had two subpoenas and I was so bummed he wasn't going to be able to come. We were trying to not stress since we knew the gender but we were upset. We didn't know if we would get another chance at an ultrasound. Thankfully at last minute he got an email saying he was excused from court. Woo hoo! Then he took the day off and we were able to spend the day together. It was really nice! I didn't take any pictures of us because we were just soaking in the moments! Read on!

So on to the appointment. I was wondering if I had an anterior placenta due to the movements still being very subtle. I can feel the baby move but it is still no where near how strong the movements were from Kinley at this stage. Matt was able to feel Kinley at 18.5 weeks. He felt this one move for the first time last night and it still wasn't very strong. Needless to say my though was confirmed and my placenta is anterior and that is exactly why the kicks are not very strong yet. The baby is still pretty small and now has to kick through the placenta for me to feel it since my placenta is up against my belly button. I am looking forward for some stronger kicks soon! I knew I wasn't losing my mind :). Look at that cute profile!

The 3D image is a little blurry but you can see how the hand and the foot is up by the baby's face. Since the baby was in such a weird position we have to go back on January 8th to get pictures of the heart. The tech was not able to get any. Everything else looked great though! I am really hoping for a few better ultrasound pictures in a few weeks. These definitely are not the greatest!

When I had my first dating ultrasound they determined my due date to be April 15, 2016. I knew that was not correct because I was pretty certain when I ovulated. Yes we were trying, so I was on top of things that were going on with my body. I went with the date and knew they would look at it again at the anatomy scan. The ultrasound tech asked me a few questions such as what was Kinley's weight and again what was the date of my last menstrual period. She informed me the baby was measuring a little small and about a week earlier. I explained to her I was not surprised and knew when I ovulated so I was pretty certain my due date was April 21. 2016. I know some of you might not think a week is a big difference but it is since I am trying for a VBAC. The doctors will not let me go over 41 weeks so I need to make sure I have all the time to go into labor on my own. If you have been reading for awhile now you know I had a c-section with Kinley. You can read more on her birth story here and here. After she was born I knew I wanted a VBAC with my second and the research began. I will save all that for another blog post. I haven't talked much about it but we have done a lot to prepare ourselves for this VBAC! We can do this!

The ultrasound tech told me she couldn't just change my due date and would need to talk to the doctor, especially since she was not the one to do the dating ultrasound (I was with a different practice in the beginning). She called me later on in the day and told me the great news! They are changing my due date to April 21, 2016! I know some people would be bummed because that puts me a week behind, so I am 21 weeks 1 day as of today, but I am super stoked! This picture should really be 20 weeks 1 day!

Are you ready for the final shocker of the appointment!!! Remember when I wrote that letter to Kinley about how amazing it was going to be to have a sister and she shouldn't be nervous. Well she is not getting a sister! It is a BOY! She is getting a little brother!

The ultrasound tech asked us at the beginning of the scan what we thought and of course we said girl because that is what we thought this baby was. We didn't share the dr had done a sneak peak a few weeks back. About 20 minutes later she says, "You better start thinking of boy names." Matt says, "Shut up are you serious?" I was like are you sure? Wow we were speechless! She was certain it was a boy and there was no denying it! I think we are still in shock though it is setting in a little. We are very happy either way but wow!

When she called me back about changing my due date I even asked her to check the scan again because I was in such shock still. She was certain she said! Now don't get confused like I did. Where she wrote boy is not the whole penis. Yes I was concerned it was that big already! She reminded me things were zoomed in for the scan and it was the size of a fetal penis. HAHAHA!

It is a good thing we have not started on the nursery yet! Thankfully I have only bought a handful of things but I think they can be easily exchanged. I will sure miss these matching moccs I bought though :(.  I need to decide if I can keep that Solly Wrap for a boy. What do you think? And we are back to square one in deciding on a name!

What a fun appointment that was! It will be a great story to tell the little guy some day! Hope you all have a great Friday!