youre gonna miss this

this weekend was simple but wonderful. Saturday morning bj and i woke up early to go to the temple. we were all ready to go but couldnt find his recommend. so instead, we made breakfast together and noticed the weather was too nice to not do something outside. we decided to go on a bike ride together. except we only had one (borrowed) working bike. i rode the bike while bj ran with toby. we let toby play in the fountain in our neighborhood to cool off and bj kept telling me i was torturing him as he ran beside me. after that we ventured off to home depot to get supplies for a project we are doing together.

((we are building this together. more on that later))

we wandered around home depot getting everything we needed for the project. it took longer than we thought and bj was getting grumpy so we sat outside and chatted while he ate a hot dog. we picked up lunch on the way home and went to work on our project. the majority of the day was spent in the garage cutting the wood together and bj teaching me how to use a table saw. around 4 we had most of the wood cut and decided to take a break. we took toby in the car and drove out to one of bjs flip houses. it was perfect weather that night and we sat in the back yard of the flip house with toby trying to decide if the road that ran behind the house was too loud or not. we dropped toby off at home and went to meet some friends for some dinner. after dinner we came home and watched a few episodes of our current favorite show how i met your mother before falling asleep.

we did not do anything extra special or even kinda special this weekend, but it was a good weekend and i want to remember it. as the time gets closer to our little babe making her entrance into our lives, my heart aches a tiny bit that weekends like this, of just us, will be few and far between. 4 years has been perfect for bj and i to get to know each other and find our own little niche. i dont think this takes away from how excited we are to become a family of 3 or to be new parents. it will be a big change and a really, really good change that we couldn't be more thrilled about. but i know in the future when those moments of pre-baby nostalgia come, it will be weekends exactly like this one that i miss. i love bj and i love the "us" that we have become. after the baby comes i hope we remember to make an extra effort to keep go on dates and spend some time with just each other. the end.

let the countdown begin!!!!

i am finally in the 3rd trimester! wooooo freakin hoooo. this has been an exceptionally long pregnancy. why, you ask? oh, because i found out i was pregnant like the day i got pregnant. well no, but i basically took a pregnancy test everyday that i could after we started trying to get pregnant and knew the second that the line turned the fainest pink to ever exist. my dates were off and i thought i was 6 weeks along when we found out. that morning bj and i promised not to tell anyone. that was at 5:00am. at 5:15 i picked my friend amanda up for the gym, screaming the second she got into the car, "im pregnant!!!!!". oops. the day continued that way and by the end of that night, all of our family and anyone we worked with knew. they knew that we were 6 weeks along. except i actually wasn't. when i went to the doctor a few weeks later, it turned out i was actually only 6 weeks along at that point. before, when i was telling anyone who would listen, i was only 3 and a half weeks pregnant. kinda funny. needless to say, the countdown has been long and i am excited to be on the homestretch! 10 weeks left.

a few things at 7 and 1/2 months

- slight swelling of the hands and feet at night

-braxton hicks. i feel them more when i am working out consistently. those false contractions may or may not be my only motivation for the gym these days. the more i feel them, the sooner i will go into labor..right??? no? no. but it makes me feel like it, so to the gym i will go.

-i feel her move more on my right side than on my left. weird.

- we had her 3D ultra sound which was so awesome! i am so glad we chose to do one.

- pregnancy cravings- citrus. i loooove anything citrus and eat grapefruits/oranges every single day.

- im still more emotional. not mean, just more weepy. my irritability also seems to be increasing but that could just be because im gumpy about my increasing chubbiness. who knows.

5 months

6 months

7 months

its really hard to imagine growing for another 10 weeks.

here are some of the 3D ultra sound pictures. SO neat! whats crazy is that these are "bad" 3D pictures. she was facing the wrong way, so the tech (who i love) spent like 20 minutes trying to get pictures of her face. this is "all they could get", and the tech said that when they can get a good shot, you can see every feature perfectly and that the pictures look just like a baby in real life. this type of ultra sound isn't routine in the office i go to, so it was going to be $150 to get it done. they couldn't get any "good shots" though, so it was free! since we dont know the difference, we are trilled with the way they came out and are just happy to have gotten a sneak peak at our little babe for no additional charge. woop!

although we are bias, we think she is simply adorable and cant wait to meet her!

yum

when bj and i first moved into our house, i wanted to paint my kitchen red. i was devastated when i saw that my sister in law, who lives a block away, had a red kitchen. a real travesty. i couldn't copy her, i had to be original. or something. dont worry, ive wised up since then. ive since learned that copying is what families are FOR. duh. they always have great ideas, clothes, furniture, decor, makeup....so what better to do than copy them? nothing, i tell you. i am currently in the process of forcing my husband to buy me the exact same sectional that 2 of my sister in laws have. what? i know exactly what shade of velvety chocolate brown it is in real life, how to clean it and that it is amazing for sunday naps. perfection.

so, since i am so into copying these days, here is a recipe that made my husband love me slightly more than he did before. i copied it from said sister in law down the street. who copied it from sister-in-law across town. enjoy.

umm and i guess you cant really call this a recipe bc i dont have any measurements. but this is how it was told to me and i figured it out, so you can too.

Coconut Tilapia and Shrimp
-thawed tilapia fillets (however many you want)
-thawed jumbo shrimp (with the peel OFF)
-panko bread crumbs
-coconut flakes
-canned coconut milk
-salt
-pepper
-onion powder
-flour
-honey (optional)
-eggs
-rice

mix flour, salt, pepper and onion powder in bowl. in separate bowl combine panko crumbs and coconut flakes, you can mix equal parts panko and coconut but i really like coconut so i did more coconut. beat eggs in separate bowl. dip tilapia into flour mixture first, next into the egg mixture, then into the coconut mixture. repeat with remaining tilapia and shrimp. drizzle butter on top and bake on 375 for 30 min, or until done. i broiled mine at the end for a few minutes to get it extra crispy.

make rice as you normally would, except make with half water and half coconut milk. serve fish and shrimp over bed of rice. take the remaining coconut milk and drizzle it on top of your rice and fish, or add a little honey and use as a dip.

the end.


another recipe we have been loving lately are these giant chocolate chip cookies. so good. i am generally not a fan of plain homemade chocolate chip cookies. i like the kind made out of the premade dough and of course the ones from paradise bakery...but all other than that, chocolate chip cookies usually dont do it for me. i got the recipe off of this little blog i follow- thereciperecycler.blogspot.com and i have made them 3 times. in the past month. dont you judge me. instead make them for yourself and thank me later. yum.

Thick and Chew Chocolate Chip Cookies
From The New Best Recipe

Makes about 18-24 large cookies.

These over sized cookies are chewy and thick, like many of the chocolate chip cookies sold in gourmet shops and cookie stores. They rely on melted butter and an extra egg yolk to keep their texture soft. These cookies are best served warm from the oven but will retain their texture even when cooked. To ensure the proper texture, cool the cookies on the baking sheet. Over sized baking sheets allow you to get all the dough into the oven at one time. if you re using smaller baking sheets, put fewer cookies on each sheet and bake them in batches.

Ingredients

2 cups plus 2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled until warm
1 cup baked light or dark brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1-1 1/2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips

directions

1. adjust the oven racks to the upper and lower middle positions and heat the oven to 325 degrees. line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper or spray with them nonstick cooking spray or use a non-stick silicon mat.

2. whisk the flour, baking soda and salt together in middle bowl, set aside

3. either by hand or with an electric mixer, mix the butter and sugars until thoroughly blended. beat in the egg, yolk, and vanilla until combined. add the dry ingredients and beat at low speed just until combined. stir in the chips to taste.

4. roll a golf ball size of the dough into a ball (or use a two tablespoon ice cream scoop), for standard size cookies or use a scant 1/4 cup amount of dough for larger cookies. (i used 2 tablespoons). hold the dough ball with the fingertips of both hands and pull into 2 equal halves. rotate the halves 90 degrees and, with the jagged surfaces facing up, join the halves together at their base, again forming a single ball, being careful not to smooth the doughs uneven surface. place the formed dough balls on the prepared baking sheets, jagged surface up, spacing them 2 1/2 inches apart.

5. bake until the cookies are a light golden brown and the outer edges start to harden yet the centers are still soft and puffy (and look a little bit wet in the middle), 15-18 minutes, rotating the baking sheets front to back and top to bottom halfway through the baking time. cook the cookies on the sheets. remove the cooled cookies from the baking sheets with spatula.

enjoy!

called to serve!

a few weeks ago my little sister virg received her mission call. she put her papers in and didnt get her call until a month later! it was a long month with 4 disappointing fridays but we finally saw that pretty white envelope in the mail! since she lives with us, bj and i were able to be with her while she opened it and it was such a fun experience. we had my mom, kim, jerry and heather all on the phone listening.

she was called to serve in the cuzco, peru mission where she will be speaking spanish. she leaves may 11th and we are so thrilled for her! she will be an awesome missionary and i cant wait to hear all about her experiences.

bj looooves anyone who can speak-a-spanish and anything that has anything to do with those cultures, so he is THRILLED for her. he even told her that if he could, he would go there right now for 2 years. he loved his mission so much that he would drop everything going on in his life right now and just serve mission after mission his whole life, if he could. i tried not to take it personally when he said that. aaaahh, what a sweet husband who loves serving the lord. siiiiike, i almost punched him in the head. what, life with a 7 month prego isn't blissful?! HUH?! ahem...anyway. we are thrilled for her but will miss her dearly. tragically i will be pregnant when she leaves and probably pregnant when she returns. blah. we love you virg!