Jamison's Baby Shower (2-19-12)

Just a couple photos to share from the shower... I don't think anyone got photos of the gifts, they were mostly just clothes and diapers ;)

My cousin, Danielle, made Jamison''s banner herself - I love the style she used!!

Here's the one photo I was able to capture of Madilyn playing with her soon-to-be 1 yr old cousins, Levi & Liliana. She LOVES seeing them, and now that they are old enough to play with, she has a blast with them!

Meet Jamison Anthony!

What did you do on President's Day? Have the day off? Get to leave work early? Host/attend a BBQ? Well, I had an AWESOME President's Day! Our son, Jamison, arrived on Monday evening after about 12 hours of labor. Surprisingly, my contractions were pretty mellow for the first 10 hours, so mellow that I was barely in pain and mainly just bored and sleepy since we arrived at the hospital at 4am that morning. He arrived very smoothly and very quickly.

Be prepared to see much less of me for the next couple months ;)

Jamison Anthony / 2-20-12 6:18pm / 7lbs 4oz / 21"

2-20-12

2-21-12

2-22-12

2-23-12

Pregnancy Update: 37 weeks ~ 9 1/4 months

I'm super late on posting my 37th week update, but I wanted to post my belly photos before I hit the 38th week mark.

Still not much to report on, other than feeling HUGE and having a solid mass in way all the time, lol, but that's a given fact!
Lately I've been able to see Jamison's little kicks right through my skin! It's crazy! I can see him poking his feet out and stretching, he must not have a lot of room in there!

Oh, last week I had a prenatal appointment, weighed in at 208 again, so I haven't been gaining any weight at all. My new OB is really nice and very informative and she doesn't give me crap about not gaining weight, she says it's fine because all my tests are coming back with great results.

From now on there will be an appointment every week, and this afternoon I have another one. If he doesn't arrive by next week, I have another appointment on Friday plus an ultrasound to measure him and estimate how big he is. This isn't a requirement, more like piece of mind. My belly is about twice the size of when I was pregnant with Madilyn, so we just want to make sure he's not too big, the last thing we want is to have a C section.

Ok, well, I'm off to slowly get ready for the appointment today and get Madilyn packed up. I'm hoping we can take her to the park afterwards for a bit, so she can have some outdoor time (I'm not able to take her out during the day because I can't be bending down to chase after her and stuff).
Oh, and there's a baby shower for Jamison on Sunday, so I'll try to get photos of that :)

Valentine's Day

Last week Michael came home with a little surprise. He had exchanged a duplicate Pandora charm that I received on Christmas for a new charm that he picked out himself. He chose the Silver Rose in honor of Valentine's Day! How sweet, huh? Ya, I was very surprised and touched!!

So, I assumed that was my Valentine's Day gift for this year, but to my surprise he had 2 dozen, colorful roses delivered to the house yesterday, included with a super cute purple vase and a box of milk and dark chocolate truffles! I smiled so much my cheeks began to feel sore :D
(when I get new roses, I always remove the outer 2-3 petals so the flowers open and breathe - they also last much longer. I usually collect the petals in a glass bowl to use as an air freshener, so now our house smells like flowers!)

Of course, Madilyn had to sport her Valentine's Day outfit, a pink and white striped shirt with the word LOVE on it, along with a sparkly, sequined heart. I paired some hot pink legging capris with her khaki skirt. In the morning she wore some pink, heart printed leg warmers, but when it warmed up later on in the day, I removed the leg warmers and let her wear her light pink socks instead. Oh, and I was able to get a pink Velcro barrette to stay in her hair.

Madilyn in January

Laura Chenel's Chevre Pure Goat Milk Cheese - Log

Did you know that I have a major weakness for cheeses? Did you also know that I'm lactose intolerant, so I often sacrifice the comfort of a healthy tummy just for an hour of cheesy, blissful, indulgence? For as long as I can remember, I have always been a cheese addict; my favorite cheeses of ALL time are goat cheeses! Unfortunately, most of the goat cheeses in our stores are unpasteurized, and as some of you know, pregnant ladies can't be eating unpasteurized products.

Well, during Michael's last grocery trip, he came home with a couple surprises for me - one being a Laura Chenel's Chevre Pure Goat Milk Cheese Log! I about died right there in the kitchen! Every time I'm pregnant, the one thing I miss the most is eating goat cheese, so when he found a pasteurized goat cheese in our grocery store - it was like the cheese gods were hearing my cries.

As I was enjoying this cheese with some salami slices, I noticed the packaging says Laura Chenel's Chevre is from Sonoma County, CA - how awesome is that?!

This cheese is so smooth and creamy, if you're not a cheese enthusiast, I would explain this as dryer than your typical cream cheese texture; it simply melts in your mouth. Even Madilyn enjoyed this cheese, not like she has a hard time trying new foods - this girl is her father's daughter, she loves all foods (except avocados, which we just found out she doesn't care for - odd).

If you spot this in your local grocery store, I HIGHLY recommend trying it out - it's too good to handle! Michael had to take it away from me for fear I'd eat the entire thing to myself!

Current Wallpaper: Snowflake Says...

Last week, beauty blogger, Snowflake Says... posted a review Magic Mushroom, a limited edition Valentine's Day bubble bar from LUSH. This photo was the first photo on your blog post and I literally fell in love with it instantly! I ended up saving the image to my computer and it's been my awesome desktop wallpaper ever since! I even emailed it to my cell so I could make it my wallpaper on there too! :)

This is the cutest photo ever and I think LUSH should buy it from her! LOL

Check out Snowflake Says... HERE: http://xoxosnowflake.blogspot.com

Cakes By Alexandra: Red Velvet Cupcake with Cream Cheese

Recently I had two cupcakes sent home to me from Michael's work, but the first one (a carrot cupcake) I ate too quickly and didn't bother to photograph - so, this second one I intentionally photographed it while I scarfed it down ;)
(Madilyn got a hold of the little box the cupcake arrived in, so it got a little beaten up before the photo shoot)

Alexandra had made some Red Velvet cupcakes with Cream Cheese topping. Aw, it was so delicious! I shared a little of it with Madilyn, who totally loved the cream cheese!

Cakes By Alexandra on Facebook

Meals on 2/3/12

Since we finally did some grocery shopping, I was so excited to have some variety in my meals lately!

For breakfast I enjoyed some Kellogg's Frosted Mini-Wheats Touch of Fruit in the Middle Mixed Berry. So good! Usually I don't like sweet cereals, but I love love LOVE shredded wheat cereals! Madilyn and I also shared an organic orange - super juicy!

For lunch, Madilyn and I had some pulled pork sandwiches, Lloyd's BBQ Pork in Original BBQ Sauce - yumyumyum! :)

Madilyn's December & January Compilation

With packing, moving and unpacking, I didn't get many clips of her AWESOMENESS! :)

Here's some shots from Christmas and early in January

Michael's Steak Salad

Sunday night Michael put together this delicious steak salad, so I thought I'd share his recipe with you all :)

Ingredients:

London Broil

Worcester Sauce

Spicy Brown Mustard

Salt

Black Pepper

Ginger Powder

Olive Oil

Salad - your choice - we used a basic romaine salad and added shredded mozzarella cheese

In a large freezer bag, pour Worcester Sauce (no definite measurement, just enough to have the steak "swimming" in the sauce when you put it in the bag), add about 3 tablespoons of Spicy Brown Mustard - close the bag and mix up the contents.

Tenderize the meat to your liking, then add the steak to the bag of sauce you just mixed. Close up the bag and massage the sauce into the meat (just squish it around in your hands). Put the bag of meat in the fridge for about 4hrs.

Pull out the meat, let it sit on a counter for 2hrs to reach room temperature.

In a large skillet, on medium high - brown the meat, dust some salt, black pepper and ginger powder on both sides. Sear the meat until it starts to blacken a little on both sides. (Preheat oven to 325' between searing each side) Add the remainder of the sauce to the skillet along with about 2 tablespoons of olive oil.

Once both sides are blackened, put the skillet in the oven, uncovered, for about 10 mins, then flip the meat and do another 10 mins

Once it's done, remove the steak, place it on a tray or platter with all it's juices and sauce, let it cool for about half an hour - chop it up and throw it into your desired salad.

For salad dressing we combined balsamic dressing with the remainder of the Worcester/mustard sauce.

That's it! It's tangy and juicy and oh-so-delicious!

In Memory of E. August - Year 2

Tonight will mark the second year since my beloved Grampa's passing.

He was/is the most important person in my life, most inspirational, the only father figure I had growing up and the only person who made me feel loved every day of my life.

He was there for me through so much, he supported me and encouraged me to succeed at everything I had dreamed of.

I have a vat of memories with him, memories that I hold so dear; from watching basketball games on cable tv in the back room of his house, to sneaking late night dessert treats like Rocky Road ice cream in a cone, to taking walks from his house to the closest park just so we could play on the swings because I LOVED the swings so much, to family trips in the Cadillac to Lake Tahoe every year when I was little.

My Grampa was the first real loss I've ever experienced, and to make it even more traumatic for me - I was there at his house the night he passed away. Every so often I have memories of seeing him lifeless and those are the toughest days to get through. Also, a month after he passed away, Michael and I found out that we were pregnant with Madilyn. I later calculated that while Madilyn's little heart was beating for the first times, my Grampa's heart was beating for the very last times. When Madilyn was born I was extra emotional because I knew how important she would be to him and having a room full of family and not seeing him there made it a very tearful moment for me. Now, when I look at Madilyn, I'm always reminded of my Grampa and all the love he had for me. I know that if he was here with us, he would love her so much!!!

Alright

That's about all I can handle for now

<3

Fruit & Yogurt Breakfast

We finally went grocery shopping, well, I didn't, but Michael was a doll and did all the grocery shopping for us. (side note, we saved about $80 in groceries, came home with about $200 worth of food - so I'm SUPER happy!!) I'm so tired of eating eggs and meat for breakfast, so this Sunday I thought it'd be a nice change to have a lighter breakfast. We got some fruit and yogurt on sale at the grocery store, so I decided to dice up some fresh strawberries and grapes for breakfast. Madilyn won't allow us to spoon feed her anymore (which is great! We're working on using a fork and spoon now), so I have to be conscious of what we eat as a family - it has to be food that she can eat with her fingers.

After dicing up the fruit, I made two separate dishes for Michael and I and split a cup of Yoplait yogurt in Cherry Orchard - I mixed the yogurt into the fruit for a parfait type breakfast. Madilyn had a little yogurt too, but I had to share mine with her because she doesn't understand using a spoon yet.

I also made Michael and I some cinnamon mochas for a fun beverage :)