Pictures of Chloe's new room

The before pictures: Will's Office



The after pictures
Chloe laying on her new bed


Book shelf


Full view shot


Night-night

33 week update

With such a busy spring (which included the husband and I taking a romantic weekend getaway to Chicago, me taking a 3 credit class, Chloe moving into her own big girl room, and lots of play time indoors and outdoors) I haven't had time to update the blog. I'm officially on Spring Break - thank you, God!!! Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy my job, but this break is a very needed one for both the kids and the teachers.
Update on the baby: At my 28 week appointment, along with the glucose tolerance test (everything came back clear!), I had my follow-up ultrasound to ensure the placenta was positioned in the right place. The tech measured and said it was 8 cm away from the opening of the cervix which is perfectly fine for delivery! I was so relieved!!! I also had her double check to make sure the baby is a girl and yes, all girl parts! We have a named picked out but you'll have to wait until she's born to know what it is :) After a blood draw, they discovered my iron count was too low so I have to take an iron supplement everyday in addition to my prenatal vitamins. This has helped my energy levels tremendously! Last Wednesday I had another appointment and everything continues to develop on target. Baby is very active (around 5:30 every morning I'm awoken by kicks and flips and the activity continues throughout the day) and she is already very schedule-oriented, much like her daddy.
Update on the toddler: Chloe is just the sweetest little toddler I've ever met! She's so caring and loving and she makes us laugh every day. I'm so lucky to be her mommy!! We have started potty training and that was going well until last weekend when we hit a bump: she refused to even sit on the potty. She does really well if we let her run around without any bottoms on and she will run to the potty to do her thing. She's very good at using the potty until we put underwear on - then she thinks it's like a diaper. We're still working on that. She recently moved into her brand new big girl room. Daddy moved his office downstairs and Chloe moved into what was his office. We (okay, not me, but Will) painted the walls pink and found green room darkening curtains from Target. Will and our friend, Andy, carried a closet/wardrobe up from the spare bedroom for Chloe to use and I have moved almost all of her clothes, books and toys to her new room. It's very cute and girly and we have a few finishing touches to put in there. I'll post some pics when I upload them from the camera.
We are just enjoying life and spring and playing outside and going for walks and I'm enjoying pregnancy and watching our new little one grow. She will be here soon and we are all getting very excited to meet her!

24 weeks and cooking!

After we had our ultrasound at 20 weeks, the doctor called me several days later to inform me I had a low-lying placenta. It is nothing to be concerned about (or so the doctor says) and she told me that she finds low-laying placentas in 5-10% of pregnancies at 20 weeks but most (90%) correct themselves. So I have to go in for a follow-up ultrasound at 28 weeks to make sure it has, in fact, corrected itself. It happens when the top of the uterus grows faster than the bottom but as the baby grows, it evens out. Worst case scenario, if it hasn't corrected itself, it can develop into placenta previa and then I'll have to be restricted movement and they'll have to take the baby at 37 weeks.
At my 24 week appointment yesterday, she said everything looks good, baby is measuring right on track. Baby Sister (that's what we call her because we have no name yet) is a bit over 12 inches and more than a pound. She is moving all the time (!) and is already waking me up at night with her circus antics. At my next appointment I'll have the glucose test and the follow-up ultrasound. I'm excited to see my little girl again!

My kind of Art!

For Christmas, Chloe received a wonderful present from her favorite auntie - bath crayons and bath paint! For a girl who LOVES to paint and do craft projects, this is the perfect gift! While Chloe explores her creative side, she can do so in the tub where clean-up takes 5 seconds - this makes it the perfect gift for Mommy too. In the past month, Chloe has been busy painting and coloring on the bath tub.

She has also taken an interest in body art.

The only downfall is that I can't get her OUT of the tub!

Yummy Lasagna!

For our New Year's Eve dinner party (that unfortunately didn't happen because our friends and their kids got sick), I made my famous lasagna. I have always loved lasagna and it has become a bit of a specialty for me. It can easily be converted into a meatlovers meal, but considering we're vegetarians, this is how I make it:
1. Use whatever veggies are available in the fridge and need using up.
- Today I used 2 large cloves of crushed garlic, half of a large onion, the rest of the red and orange peppers (a bit more than half a pepper), 3 carrots, and 8 ounces of mushrooms. Soften veggies in the frying pan with a bit of oil.

After the vegetables are soft, add the marinara sauce.

2. Boil 12 lasagna noodles and drain when soft.

3. Mix cheeses together with one egg - I used a tub (15 ounces) of ricotta cheese, 2 cups of mozzarella/parmesan/italian cheeses with whatever was left of the cheddar I shredded and put in there too.
4. Layer the lasagna
- Put sauce on the bottom
- 3 lasagna noodles
- 1/4 of the cheese mixture
And continue with the layers (4 layers total = 12 noodles)


Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for an hour.
ENJOY this yummy, delicious lasagna in large quantities!

Christmas 2009

Here's a belly picture of me and "baby sister" on Christmas Eve - I'm 20 weeks in this pic!

Christmas Eve we spent as a family of three (and a half). We went to church at 5pm and then came home to make a yummy dinner. We opened our Christmas Crackers (an English tradition in which we pop open a cylindrical tube to find a paper crown, a small toy, and a usually not-so-funny joke to share) and read the Christmas story in Luke 2.


Chloe and Daddy after we popped open our Christmas crackers on Christmas Eve

Christmas Day we opened presents with Will's family via Skype. They got to share in the enjoyment of watching Chloe open all her fun presents. We even got a special treat - we got to talk with Chloe's great-grandparents!


Chloe looks so sweet all dressed up for Christmas!

After Skyping with Will's family, we headed toward my hometown. My mom's side of the family is so large, the only place we'll all fit is a rented hall so that is where we celebrate Christmas. The kids had fun running around and we even had a visit from Santa! Chloe was not so happy with Santa and said, "No yike Santa," and "Santa's scary." Needless to say, she did not sit on Santa's lap this year :)


Chloe playing with Grandma!

Later in the afternoon, we headed toward my parent's house. The roads were icy, so it took us a while to get there. That was fine with Chloe - she napped until we arrived at Grandma and Papa's house! Christmas evening, we opened presents and had a fun time with my parents, sister, brother-in-law, and nephew!




Hugging Madeline - a gift from Grandma


bath paints from Auntie


Very excited about Elmo bubble bath!


Trying out Papa's new winter hat!

IT'S A GIRL!!!

We trudged through the snow, which was a big task considering they hadn't plowed our street yet, and made it for our scheduled ultrasound! The baby was moving around a lot during the appointment (could it have something to do with the Christmas cookies I consumed before leaving??) so the pictures are a little blurry. Nevertheless, we got to see pictures of our precious little one. She has 10 fingers and 10 toes, her heart, kidneys, stomach and mouth all look great, she weighs approximately 12 ounces and the estimated due date is May 13th. Because of all the movement, the tech couldn't get a great shot of in between the legs so she had me go to the bathroom to give the baby more space to move. That did the trick! When I came back, the baby was in a new position and we got to see that she is a girl!!! I was so sure it was going to be a boy, it took me a couple of hours to digest this news, but I'm glad we found out now rather than when she arrived in May! Wow, another girl! I can already picture my little girls in tutus and tights preparing for their dance recitals :)












Have a wonderful, warm and wintry Christmas!!