And for those who have been asking...

The belly picture. This one was taken on Abby's birthday so I am about 8 months preggers here. Honestly, I still look about the same now at 39 and 1/2 weeks. And yes, I cut my hair. Yes, I hate it. The girl didn't quite understand what I was asking for and she just kept cutting it shorter and shorter. Oh well, my hair grows fast and I figure this way I can grow it out for a few months after the baby is born and then get it cut how I REALLY wanted. I will try to get Jason to take another picture of me before we go to the hospital. Most likely in that one though, I will be wearing sweats! I'm not one of those women who takes the time to look good when I am in labor :)

Birthday Fun!

Well, I am a little behind on my posts but here are the pics from Abby's birthday! I had a little party for her and she had a BLAST! I noticed thought that I have to find some girls for this little one to hang out with. All of her buddies are boys. I still can't believe my little baby is 2!!! How did these last 2 years go by so FAST???Here she is waiting for the party to begin with the two boys I was watching, Justin and Kyle. She has really been missing them now that I don't watch them anymore.
Abby didn't quite get the hang of how to use her party horn. She would hold it to her mouth and then make a humming noise!

Umm.. Yeah... We had some technical difficulties and don't have any pictures of her blowing out her candle. But, she did love her cupcake!

It was a pretty good party.. As you can see, she may have had a little TOO much excitement!

(RE)discovering the joy of cooking.

Once upon a time, I LOVED to cook. And then I became a stay at home mom. I started to get into a rut, making the same meals and getting very BORED!! Then I discovered something here called the Bountiful Basket. (Sorry most of my readers, I don't think they have this where you live). It has been one of the best things that has happened for our kitchen. Once a week you pay $15 and you get a variety of fresh fruit and vegetables! (I usually can't help but order the extras they have too). Well, it has done two things for us. Number one: we are eating way more produce. Number two: It has sparked my creativity. You don't have control over what you get so it is a challenge to come up with recipes to use what we get.

For example, one day, instead of the same old PB&J for lunch, I was able to whip up this!

It is Linguine with Roasted Vegetables, recipe courtesy of my fabulous neighbor with some variation using what we had!

Well, at least Abby loved the noodles but at least the vegetables were there for her to try!
It really is fun to try new recipes using what we get!

"I PRETTY"

Can I just say how much I love that Abby's "girliness" is starting to come through? Where once she hated me doing her hair, now she sits patiently (somewhat) and once I am done she says "Oooh, I pretty!" She also loves dresses. With all the illness we have had lately she hasn't been to church but she will still get a dress and some church shoes every so often and want to put them on. I LOVE IT! It reminds me that I need to take some time myself too to get "pretty".
Here is the stinker with one of her favorite things, a balloon!

I think she may also be our little dancer. She just loves music and as soon as she hears some, she just starts dancing around! Also LOVE IT! This year we are planning on doing swimming lessons but I think next year will definitely be dance lessons.

And her first pedicure. She also loved it. Let's just say it was a miracle that I was able to reach her toes let alone reach mine!

Easy Valentines Decorations

Someday I have a goal of having decorations for every holiday. I even want a little sideboard type table that will go next to our front door where I can rotate some of these decorations but I haven't found the perfect table yet and I only have decorations for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Well the other day, while shopping at Hobby Lobby, I picked up some their free inspiration pamphlets (I am super uncreative but if you give me an idea or a project, I can usually get it done!) One of the projects totally inspired me to do two projects. The big one I am working on will go with the collage I am going to do on our dining room walls, but I thought "Hey, I can do this for Valentine's as well!" Truth be told, the following two projects only cost me $5 plus a lot of scrounging through my scrapbooking stuff! I had to alter my original plan a little but this is what I came up with! I thought I would share if anyone else was looking for easy Valentines decorations to make! The original project called for a shadow box but seeing as how shadow boxes can cost from $10 to $25, I decided I would use one for my big project but not for the Valentine's one. Instead, I bought a $3 frame from WalMart. Next, I cut the petals off of a fake rose ($2, also at WalMart) and glued them to the backing inside the frame. After doing this, I realized that I probably could have just cut some cute scrapbook paper to fit but I really like the textured look of the petals, which this picture does not do justice too. Lastly, my original plan was to write LOVE in big letters with rub ons but that changed. I bought one pack of letters for both projects and I needed the same size letters for both projects. It was only after I opened the package that I realized that there was only one of each letter in the size I needed and I needed an L for both projects. I then remembered that a few years back, I had bought some clear stickers with black lettering for a different valentine's project for Jason. All of the stickers had quotes about love. So off I went, digging through my scrapbook stuff and what you see above is the finished product! Not counting the time it took me to rummage through my giant box of scrapbook items (oh how I wish I had a room where I could have the space I need to organize it all) the whole project took me all of 10 minutes!

After that, I decided I needed one more item (at least) to go with it when I came up with this which I actually already had everything for!
I had this red votive candle is with all of my Christmas decorations but didn't really have a place to put it. I decided to keep it though because it might be useful later. While looking through all of my scrapbook supplies, I found a book rub on doodles and there was actually a whole strip that I thought would look perfect on the candle! Total time to make, less than 3 minutes!

And here are the two together. Maybe next year I will add to it but seeing as how I only have 8 weeks left to finish everything for the girl's room, this will have to be good enough for now.

Other happenings!

Abby loves the snow! Well, at least one person in our family does. I had a hard time getting her to come back in the house!
Finally, in from the cold! Can I just say that I had no idea how much hair this kid actually has until I saw this picture!

Abby is going through this phase right now where she loves all her "babies". Here she is watching a Winnie the Pooh movie and she had to have a good majority of her babies gathered around her! It's like this at bedtime, she has about 5 stuffed animals that she HAS to sleep with! (Let me tell you how FUN it is to try to carry her PLUS all 5 stuffed animals to bed!)

Christmas Morning!

Oh.. Christmas morning! Gotta love it! Abby was totally oblivious to the fact that this was not just any other day. First thing she wanted to do was put on a bib and eat some yogurt! Jason started laughing at me because probably the one and only time in her life I actually said "Abby, don't worry about the yogurt, eat the treats!" And she did, luckily one Santa put fruit leather in her stocking but another Santa put chocolate in their too so she had an interesting breakfast! Present unwrapping took a while because after she opened each one, she wanted to sit and play with what ever it was, or even with the wrapping paper and boxes!

Nothing like break time for an impromptu horsey ride while eating a chocolate Santa!

Abby loves her new fishing hat. I think before she wears it in public though I will have to put her hair in ponytails since she still has such a mullet and it is accentuated even more by hats!

Abby got so many presents! This kid is unbelievably spoiled (and loved!) She loves everything she got! We truly had a wonderful Christmas!