3 Things (February)

When I first saw the idea of blogging about three things each month, I thought that it would be simple to do.  Let me tell you, it was much harder than I thought it would be.  I've worked on it all month and still couldn't come up with three things for everyone.  I was only able to come up with three things for Kaitlyn.  Just two for everyone else.  Better luck next month or perhaps in a couple of months.

David
One | This month marks the 10th anniversary of our first date (2-3-2007).  I'm so glad that he sent me that message on match.com and that we decided to meet.  Our first date was dinner at Cheeseburger in Paradise and then games at Dave and Busters.

Two | David works so hard to provide for our family.  It's not uncommon for him to put in a full day of work and then spend the evening working on film stuff.  It really is a full time job.  I don't say it often enough, but I am extremely proud of him.

Hannah
One | I am officially over halfway through this pregnancy.  The first half has gone fairly quickly and I foresee the second half going even faster.

Two | I officially became a SeneGence distributor at that the end of December, but didn't have a launch until the middle of January.  I got my first sales this month after my sister, Jennifer, so graciously offered to come to Kansas City to do a demo.  I'm excited to see where this journey takes me.


Kaitlyn
One |  Kaitlyn was so excited a couple weeks ago when she came home from preschool because she finally zipped her jacket by herself.

Two | She also learned how to buckle the bottom part of her car seat.  She could already buckle the top part, so I consider this a win for Mom.  Unfortunately, she also figured out how to unbuckle the top part.  I'm not quite ready for her to figure out how to unbuckle the bottom one.  Hopefully, it will be a while before she gets that one.

Three | She learned how to swing herself.  This is another thing that she's been working on {forever}.  Another win for Mom.

Madi
One | Madi also learned how to buckle her car seat.  She can do both, but can't unbuckle either one.  This will make it so much easier for me when their brother gets here this summer.

Two | As much as I love nap time, Madi is no longer allowed to take a nap.  I know that she still needs one (she falls asleep in the car), but it is so much easier to get her to go to sleep at night if we skip it.  She thinks she's hot stuff when all of her friends have to take a nap during daycare and she does not.

Brussel Sprout Chips

I was first introduced to Brussels sprouts chip while we were in Los Angeles last month.  They were surprisingly delicious and something that I knew I needed to add to our dinner menu.  They're really easy to make and only require a few simple ingredients.

Ingredients:

1 pound Brussels sprouts 

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F

Cut off the ends and begin peeling off the outer layers of the Brussels sprouts.  Put the leaves in a ziplock bag and add the olive oil, salt, and pepper.  Shake until all leaves are coated and then spread out in an even layer on a cookie sheet.  Bake for 10 -15 minutes, turning at least once.  Allow the chips to cool for at least 10 minutes.  They will become crispier as the cool.

Madi helping to shake the Brussels sprouts.  Seconds later the bag opened and they were all over the floor. 

5 Months Pregnant with Baby K #3

It's the end of February, but it sure doesn't feel like it.  It feels more like the end of March with these warm temperatures.  You'll won't hear any complaints about around here.  We are enjoying every minute of this weather because we all know that here in Missouri (and Kansas), we could have snow next week.  However, this warm weather makes me realize that Baby #3 will be here sooner than we know it and I still have a lot on my to do list.

How Far Along: 23 weeks

Size of Baby: Grapefruit or two poptarts

Gender: Boy! (Confirmed blood test with ultrasound)  We have a name (I think), but haven't shared it on social media yet.

Weight Gain:  14 pounds and I'm definitely feeling it.  My weight gain with Madi was about the same, but I feel much bigger than I did with either girl at 23 weeks.

Food Cravings: None

Food Aversions: None

Movements:  He moves all the time and his kicks are getting stronger.  Kaitlyn really wants to feel him kick, but she's never patient enough.  He almost always kicks right after she moves her hand.  

Sleep:  Ok.  Definitely not great anymore.  At this point I never make it through the night without needing to pee at least once.  Usually twice.  Then I have a terrible time going back to sleep. I am awake for at least an hour or two every night.  I also been needing an extra pillow for my legs, though its not working very well.  I'm trying to resist buying a pregnancy pillow.

Other Pregnancy Symptoms:  

A long patch of hair on both of my arms has fallen out.  It's really bizarre and I don't know anyone else that who has had it happen.  Of course, I googled it.  I found a few people asking about something similar, but there weren't any concrete answers.  I'll definitely be asking the doctor about it in a couple weeks.

What I Miss: Sleeping through the night.  

Best Moment: The 20 week anatomy scan.  Everything looks great!

Looking Forward To: Spring and getting the nursery painted.

Kaitlyn wants a bump picture too.

Happy Heart Day

I'm not sure if it's because I worked at a card store all through high school and college or if it's just too commercialized, but Valentine's Day has never been a big deal to me.  We do celebrate it (David usually does a little more than me), but it's usually very low key.  I typically make some kind of Valentine's dessert and buy a card (though I didn't this), but that's about it.

Valentine's Day 2015

I do, however, love to make it special for my girls and the daycare kiddos.  This year their day started with heart shaped cinnamon rolls.

They had peanut butter and sprinkles sandwiches for lunch

and these yummy treats for snack that Kaitlyn and Madi made last night. 

We also made a Valentine's Day craft and most of the kids brought Valentine's to share with their friends.

I did decorate our house  for the holiday.  Nothing major, just a few simple decorations for our newly painted fireplace, kitchen, and the front door.  All of our decorations are pretty simple and many of them are from my days working at the card store.

Started this last year and finished it this year.

I totally forgot about buying the heart banner last year (Target, of course) and couldn't pass up the XOXO banner when I saw it in the dollar spot this year.  I think they look good together.  

My three Valentine's

DIY Valentine's

It's less than a week until Valentine's Day and even though we don't really do much for it, I always like to make it special for the girls.  I don't remember much about Valentine's Day as a kid except for making Valentine boxes at school and that my dad usually gave us a large heart shaped box of Russel Stovers chocolate.

For the last three years, I have made the girls' Valentine's rather than buying them.  I wish that I could take credit for the cute ideas.  But like many other mama's, I get most of my ideas from Pinterest.  This year I made heart shaped crayons.  I've wanted to make these since I first saw them several years ago, but never could find the silicon molds.  When I saw one at Wal-Mart a couple week ago, I had to buy it.

Here's what you need:

About 60 crayons (unwrapped and broken)

Heart shaped silicon mold

White card stock

Color printer

Hot glue or glue dots

Between the girls and daycare, we had tons of broken crayons that I needed to throw away.  We had just enough for 24 heart crayons.

Preheat oven to 250

Fill each heart with crayons.  I made ours rainbow colors, but almost any color combination would work.  Place mold on a cookie sheet (I didn't use one, but really wish I had.  It was a challenge to get the mild out of the oven without spilling wax.) and place in the oven for 15-20 minutes.  Be very careful removing the mold from the oven.  Let sit until the wax has hardened and then pop the crayons out of the molds.

Anxiously waiting for them to be done.

Once the crayons were done, I needed to make the cards.  There were several printable versions on Pinterest, but I decided to design my own.  I created cards using Lucid Press.  This was my first time using this program.  I much prefer Microsoft Publisher. It is much easier to use and create custom cards, but there is not a free version of it.  

I'm pretty pleased with the finished product.  Most importantly, the girls love them.  Kaitlyn will be handing this out at preschool and in daycare.

Here are a couple Valentines that I have made in 2015.  I guess I forgot to take pictures of the 2016 Valentine's.

Roommates

For the last year, I have been slowly organizing Kaitlyn's room with the thought that one day the girls would share her room.  Last year, I put three totes under her bed.  At the time, that was enough extra storage.  When it came time to move the rest of the toys out of  Madi's room it become obvious that more storage would be needed.  Within the last couple months,  I have added a book shelf, a cube storage  (to the closet), and an extra tote under the in hopes of containing all of their toys.  So far so good.  I even have extra space in their desk for future storage needs.  In the process, I managed to come up with a large trash bag full of stuff to donate and so did the girls.  I am very proud of them for willing giving away some of their things.

For Christmas this year, both of the girls got new sheets for their beds.  They were already exited to be switching beds, but this was the icing on the cake.  Kaitlyn had been wanting to sleep on the top bunk for a months and Madi always wanted to sleep in Kaitlyn's bed (bottoms bunk).

The girls have been sharing a room for a little over a month.  I was a little nervous about how this would go.  I was (an still am) concerned about one keeping the other awake.  For the most part, this hasn't been too big of an issue.  Katilyn is pretty good about staying in bed and now that her naps are being eliminated she of usually falls right to sleep.  Madi used to be good about bedtime, but for some reason it is now a struggle.  There have been several nights where she is still awake when we go to bed.  I know that it's just a phase because Kaitlyn went through something similar when she was the same age.  I'm just hoping that it gets better before our little boy arrives this summer.

As for the room, it didn't really need any changes.  I'm still pretty happy with how it looks and they seem to like it too.  The only big change (other than the toy and closet issues) was the addition of a gallery wall.  This was something that I had been planning for a long time, but never accomplished.  It's finally complete and I'm very happy with how it turned out.