12 more weeks!

Wow has another week gone by! It's been a week since I posted and it has gone fast. We had a nice 3 day weekend last weekend. It was our 12 year anniversary on Sunday. Nana watched Nicholas so we were able to go out to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. It is nice to have a date night once in a while.

I also got a lot of scrapping done. I used every last bit of my August Color Me Daisy kit on some layouts and cards. On Tuesday we had an ultrasound to check on Jackson. I also got out of traveling to Denver this week for our annual finance strategy meeting. Can't go this year because of being pregnant. It is weird staying behind, I feel like I am missing out on something. But it has been nice to get to come home every night and not have the long meeting days and long nights at dinner. The office has been quiet and I've been able to get a lot done.

Jackson is a big boy. They estimate he is a little over 3 pounds. He is measuring about 2 weeks bigger than my due date. I am 28 weeks now. In comparison, Nicholas was born at 29 weeks and weighed 2 lbs.7 oz. I have been feeling really good this pregnancy, no signs of developing preeclampsia this time around. I am staying positive that it won't happen to us again.

Jackson is kicking a lot. He makes sure I know he is there frequently. It is a nice reminder. He was extremely cooperative yesterday during the ultrasound. As soon as the tech put the monitor on my stomach, he reminded us he was a boy. "All Boy". It's a good thing that we already knew, because there was no mistaking it.

Here are the pictures from the ultrasound:






It's hard to believe in 12 weeks he will be here. We better get busy getting his room together.

Here is some of the layouts and cards I did this weekend:

I scrapped this one from a challenge at Big Picture Scrapbooking's Big Wig Bash going on this week. I used Stickles around the edges of the scalloped paper to add some bling.



I made this card for Mike for our anniversary. I never know what to do with the owls and birds on patterned paper, and then this occured to me:



Here are a couple more layouts I made these from the remainders of the Color Me Daisy August kit. I used the Fiskars Leave it to Weaver punch to punch the slots to weave the paper and ribbon through on these:




I used up the scraps from the kit and made a bunch of cards, here are a few:






Color Me Daisy Sneak Peeks for the September kit are up, you can see them HERE.

Makin' Cookies

Yesterday this showed up in my inbox at work:

"Hi mommy,

I made cookies today during therapy. It was fun. I did not really like that stuff on my hands and fingers but I was a good sport about it. The cookies tasted pretty good uncooked. When I wake up from my nap, daddy will give me one for a snack. Not sure why he wouldn't give me one before a nap. Something about sugar.

I hope you are having a good day today.

I love you,

Nicholas"






I think I have some baking competition they tasted pretty good.

Rasberry Cream Pie

August 1st was National Rasberry Cream Pie Day. Did you know that? Well I thought a Rasberry Cream Pie sounded good so I found this recipe on the Every Day with Rachel Ray website. It took me a week to get around to making it. I finally made it over the weekend and tried it last night. It was very tasty for a hot summer day.



Chilled Raspberry Cream Pie
Sara Deseran

From Every Day with Rachael Ray
May 2007

SIX SERVINGS
Prep Time: 15 min (plus chilling)
Cook Time: 10 min

1 cup heavy cream
1/8 teaspoon almond extract
3/4 cup sugar
1 envelope unflavored gelatin
1 10-ounce package frozen raspberries
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 9-inch piecrust, baked and cooled

1. Using an electric mixer or whisk, beat the cream and almond extract until stiff peaks form. Michelle's Note (Use the electric mixer, even with that it took a few minutes to stiffen up)
2. In a saucepan, over medium heat, bring the sugar, gelatin and 1/2 cup water to a simmer and stir until the sugar and gelatin dissolve. Remove from the heat, add the berries and lemon juice and stir until the mixture begins to thicken.
3. Fold the whipped cream into the berry mixture and spread in the piecrust. Refrigerate until set, a few hours or overnight.


Enjoy!

Well it's Monday

Monday means back to work for me. Once I get through this week I have a 3 day weekend. Yeah me! It is our 12 year wedding anniversary on Sunday. We have no plans, but maybe we'll go to dinner somewhere (family friendly of course because Nicholas will be in tow).

So I was checking out the challenge blog, Scrapping the Music which sparked an idea for the title for this layout I did over the weekend:




One day I am sure I will miss having to cut up all of Nicholas' food so he can pick it up with his fingers.

The song is by Trace Adkins , who I loved on Celebrity Apprentice. I wish he would have won, he had a lot more class than the guy that did.

Pictures from the weekend with Andrew & Bryan

Here are some pictures from this weekend.

A Fun Weekend!

This weekend our nephews, Andrew and Bryan visited us. They are in town staying with their mom for the summer and we were able to take them for the weekend. Nicholas absolutely loved having his cousins here. They were great playing with him and he just laughed and laughed.

Andrew and Bryan spent a lot of time in the pool. Bryan said he couldn't swim when he got here Saturday morning and by Saturday night he was swimming like a fish. It just took a little coaxing from Uncle Mike and big brother Andrew and he tried. He did great!

We hadn't seen the boys since Christmas. It was great to get to spend some time with them. I can't believe how the years go by. It seems like they were just babies not too long ago. Andrew has grown into quite a great big brother. He really looks out for and takes care of his little brother. Bryan is a very caring little boy. He played with Nicholas and comforted him when he woke up with a nightmare (after Mandi was barking like a fool). They are both so well behaved it was easy having them here for the weekend.

Mike spent a lot of time in the pool with the boys. We got them out long enough to eat hot dogs and hang out with Nana and Grandpa for a little bit. They swam most of the day Saturday and after taking them out for ice cream they were back at it. They even got Mike and I to play pool tag with them. After an unsuccessful attempt at using our telescope in the backyard, they passed out watching The Rookie with Mike.

They were sleepyheads Sunday morning. Sleeping until I woke them at 9:30. Mike took them to pick up donuts. Then they headed back in the pool with Mike. We went to Peter Piper Pizza for lunch with Nana and Grandpa and they played a bunch of games. They used some of their tickets they won to get Nicholas a couple of toys. I thought that was sweet!

After lunch it was time to end our fun weekend so Grandpa could take them back up to their mom's house. We probably won't get to see them again until Chirstmas, when they will have another cousin.

I'm blogging!

Well it's a official, I'm a blogger now. I guess it's about time I jumped into this blogging thing!