Dr. Appointment and life

Both of the boys had a checkup last week. The Boys. I have two boys and it's so fun to say the boys. But anyways, they both got to see the pediatrician. Simon passed the quiz from the doctor. It involved:
Question: "What is your name?" Answer: "Stephen Simon Buccambuso" close enough...
Q: "How old are you?" A: "I'm three years old!" He then turned to me and said, "I'm three years old mom!"
Q: "This ones the most important, are you a boy or girl?" Me internally panicking before he answers, please get this one right, please get this one right. A: "I'm a boy." Oh thank goodness!

Simon is 35 inches -5th % for height. 29 lbs- 25th % for weight (this one surprised me, he is so small I was sure his weight would be a much lower percentile than that.) I guess they don't do head circumference anymore, but it still seems a little large for his body. Everything looked good. The dr said she could only understand 50-75% of what he says and at this point people outside the family should understand at least 75% of what he says, I think his speech is normally pretty clear, but he was talking about random bizarre crap while we were there, so I think he confused the pediatrician and that was probably part of her opinion. I'm talking strange like telling her we were going to go to the museum and shoot the animals. Awesome.

Desmond. 12 lbs 8 oz 75th % for weight 23 1/2 inches 75th % for height. Head circumference was 50th %. He is a big boy my little Desi Buck. Gained more than 4 lbs in the past two months. He is such a sweet baby. He is already good at tummy time. Smiles a ton when you talk to him, I can't get over his smiles.

Only tough spots right now are he hates the carseat and being in the car, and he doesn't take a bottle yet, he doesn't get it. So I am currently not working on Thursdays and am going to try to bring him to work on Wednesday, we will see if it works and I can still get a lot done. If not, I don't know what I will have to do, maybe take some time off for a while until we can get him to take a bottle and keep working with him in the meantime. I don't want to quit my job, I love it and my coworkers and Simon loves going to spend two days at his Vovo's house playing with his cousins.

Anyways, I feel like we don't do a whole lot, but I also feel like we are always super busy. We try to go to the Discovery Museum every week with my friend Erin and her daughter, was working 2 days a week, football games (last home game was Saturday, we had season tickets and it was a blast), and holidays. November was the kickoff of nonstop celebrations for our family. We had Simon's birthday, Pie Day, Zane's birthday, then Thanksgiving, and Thanksgiving #2, Tree decorating tonight, Tree decorating tomorrow night and Grandma and Grandpa's, then coming up Relief Society Christmas party, Chorale concert, friends Christmas party, dinner with Erin and family, Ward Christmas party, Family Christmas Eve party, Midnight Mass maybe?, then Christmas day festivities: presents at our house, Steve's parent's house, then to church with Grandparents, then to their house for the rest of the day. Then New Year's and January 1st we are going to be blessing Desi at church, and hopefully my family is coming up for that. Whew just typing the already scheduled things for the rest of the year makes me tired, not to mention everyday life with a three year old and two month old has to fit in there somewhere. Did I mention I only have Steve's Christmas shopping halfway done, the boys almost done- need some stocking stuffers, and none of the rest of the family done yet... I better get busy!

And just for fun a few of my favorite pictures from a photo shoot Mel did for us shortly after Desi was born, there are several more I like a lot but I just picked these because I only feel like doing one set of downloads. My sis Les and her kiddos came to stay, after Desi was born, for a few days . They are adorable.

This one is my very favorite. Steve looks so happy and the lighting and everything are just awesome.

"Macaroni!"
Love!

I had a baby! (Three and a half weeks ago!)

Desmond David Buccambuso
8 lbs 4 oz
19 3/4 inches long
September 26th, 2011
3:53 a.m.

I was planning on typing up the story right now but I am typing one-handed with my laptop perched on my right knee, a sleeping babe in my left arm, and an almost-three year old clinging to my right arm while having a melt down. I think he might have just fallen asleep... Yep he fell asleep, still clinging to my arm with his face shoved into the sofa.

The most important part of my birth story- I DID IT! I had my VBAC, and had amazing support from my husband and all my family that crazily hung out in the waiting room til 4 in the morning just so they could all meet Desi after he was born. And my awesome amazing SIL Mel documented the whole thing with her camera. Here are a couple pictures that she took. (and she took the top one too)

and just for kicks, one my dad took of Mel taking a picture. and yes, she is standing on my bed!

Best Husband Ever

I have the best husband ever! It's true. A couple of weeks ago he turned 30. We had a party to celebrate. There was hot dogs, all the toppings, root beer, and homemade lemonade. It was pretty good. He got spoiled, but that's okay because he deserved it.

Then he came home to this wonderful sentiment from his sis and bro-in-law (they had to miss the party because their little one had been puking his guts out all day, no fun at all.)

The best part about his birthday might have been that it was his first day off of a much needed week and a half vacation. We decided to travel the world during his vacation and with me 36 weeks pregnant at the time! So we tried a few restaurants in town that we hadn't been to, or hadn't been to for a while. We had grand plans of going to several different countries but only made it to Ethiopia (Zagol) and Spain (Fuego). Fuego could possibly be my new favorite place to eat. My favs were the asparagus straws and their hot chocolate and churros. Spanish hot chocolate is amazing. We had to eat it with a spoon, it was basically melted chocolate in a cup. I want to go there every night for dessert nowadays. Steve loved it so much he took his mom there the next day for a special treat. It is seriously heaven.


The majority of the vacation was spent at home having lots of fun as a family. Simon got spoiled because he had a parent home with him who had energy to take him to do fun stuff. We got some of our house ready for the baby, but not all of it, our room still looks like our washing machine threw up all over the place, but at least its all clean!


We also went camping. Steve and I were at Winco grocery shopping and they had coconut covered marshmallows, I told Steve we could only buy them if he promised to take me camping. So in order to fulfill his promise, he took us up to Lassen Volcanic National Park. We spent two nights there, went on a little 3 mile hike, and just kind of bummed around and drove around the area. We didn't want to do anything too strenuous as Steve didn't want me to go into labor so we didn't hike as much as we would have liked, but it was still a fun little trip. My husband is awesome, and took good care of us while we were camping. He did all the cooking and the clean-up, played with Simon so I could take a nap, and even did all the driving even though he hates driving. Like I said, best husband ever! I love my husband and am so grateful to be married to such a fun, kind, amazing, hilarious man.




Steve and Simon on a self-guided trail about the devastation in the area from the most recent volcanic explosion.




Me, our campsite, and my one match fire




Simon and I at Bumpass Hell- this was our 3 mile hike, but it seemed longer than that to me.


me on a pile of rocks, and the mountains. Click on this one to see it bigger- Steve is such a good photographer!

Two more little brags, he got himself all sleep deprived to help his little sis move last weekend, and he also got sleep deprived to go with all his sisters and us to the water park the other day, it was a blast. I didn't go on a single slide, and didn't do much looking back on it, but I had a good time. Mel and Jared were talking about buying season passes next year, and if they do I think we will too. And last night at work he (thankfully) had a slow night and read an entire book about things to do as labor coach, he is going to be the best coach ever, and I am so grateful to have such a supportive partner in labor and in life who is willing to do tons of preparation and studying to try and have the kind of birth experience that we would like to have with this baby. (Which is especially impressive because he hates labor and delivery thanks to nursing school, and an experience he had during school when a woman and her baby almost died during childbirth.) So on that happy note, goodnight!

Disappointment

I had a doctors appointment today. And for the rest of the day was feeling pretty sad. Today was the day my dr wanted to schedule a c-section "just in case" the baby didn't come by it's due date. Turns out he won't even get until his due date, because it's scheduled for September 23rd. My due date is September 24th, a Saturday. I asked if we could schedule it for the following Wednesday because Steve will get three days off and I wanted to stack them with his normal days off so he would get to be home for 5 days if the c-section was to happen. My dr didn't want to do that because she doesn't like when women trying for a VBAC go past their due date. So she suggested the Wednesday before my due date, seriously, not even going to let me go to my due date before she tries to take him out!?
Needless to say, I am pretty pissed. This whole time she has been leading us on giving us all this false hope that we were going to be able to do a VBAC and now it looks like we can try to do a VBAC as long as the baby comes early. What happened to the days when I was pregnant with Simon and your due date was plus or minus two weeks, and a baby wasn't considered overdue until 2 weeks late? What will it hurt to go 4 days past my due date before we try to take the baby by c-section?
I never thought I would be someone who is praying for her baby to be born early, but I am, and if any of you reading want to pray for us, I would appreciate it. Having this baby naturally is so important to me, and to our family. I really hope this baby isn't stubborn and wants to come out early. In the meantime I am researching ways to induce labor naturally, and ripen the cervix, etc.

Child Photographer

Simon has had a huge interest in taking picture with our camera lately. I have been letting him because I think it is fun for him, and interesting for me to see what he finds through the lens that he feels is worthy of documenting. I mean come on, who doesn't want to know what a 2 yr old is fascinated with? One of his favorite things is his feet, and also the camera strap and lens because they tend to fall into view because of the way he holds the camera. Here are a few of my favorites he has taken the past couple of weeks.

P.S.- I have a facebook album of pictures he has taken.
Sad fact: When sorting through these I couldn't always tell which ones he took and which ones I took. Does that mean he is just really good or am I that bad with our camera?

These last 4 were all taken by Simon with his "new" camera this past weekend at Lassen Volcanic National Park. I think that is seriously the best picture I have ever seen of Steve, better than any I have ever tried to get.

two boys

Tonight Steve and I got to babysit our little nephew Phineas. It was a lot of fun and I have to say that having kids two different ages is a lot easier than having two kids the same age. This makes me hopeful for my impending future. Phin turned 1 in March and Simon will be turning 3 in November. Simon did pretty good sharing with his cousin, and even tolerated being sat on and squished by him, even though Phin is almost as big as Simon (and over a year younger), Simon just laid there and let him and wasn't even mean and didn't push him off or anything.

As we were walking to the Food Co-op I realized we looked like a crazy baby making couple, two little boys and a third one on the way, and they all were aged so that they technically could have been ours! I couldn't imagine having my third kid on the way! So as much as I love Phin, and as good as he was for us, I am so glad I am only about to have baby #2 and not baby #3. And I am pretty sure his mom and dad are crazy about him and wouldn't want to give him up anyways.

Today I took a really long lunch and went out for Awful Awful's (Awfully Big and Awfully Good hamburgers with a pound of fries) with Steve, Simon, Mel, Jared, Phin, and Cindy to celebrate "the last day of Steve's youth." By the time I finish typing this my husband will be turning 30! He thinks he is getting old, but I don't think so. (Probably easier for me to say because I just turned 26, and on a tangent realized I never posted about my awesome party with family up at Tahoe, so I will post about that and my FIL's 50th bday soon) Happy Birthday Steve (you will get your own post too)

But anyways back to babysitting. We walked to the Co-op and bought yummy little organic suckers (for the boys and me) and ate them on the way home, and the boys loved them and so did I, and Steve got a yummy fancy Root Beer.

Notice in both of the previous pictures the boys have their suckers in their mouths, and they didn't remove them until they were completely gone and even then it was hard to get the sticks away. Mel and Jared- I am kind of sorry I gave Phin a sucker- but it was organic, and Aunt's and Uncle's can spoil their nephew right? ...Right? Anyways- two boys- FUN, two boys at different stages- even more FUN. Good thing too, I am excited and a little less fearful for my future now.

It was a fantastic evening and I can't wait to do it again, hopefully very soon- hint hint Mel and Jared- go on another date and let me watch your son!

P.S.-I took several pictures and Simon took tons tonight with the camera but they all turned out blurry like a few that I posted anyways. What do you expect with two toddlers- it's nearly impossible to get them to stay still long enough for a picture, so we got some fun, blurry, action shots! and a lot of blurry pictures of random stuff that Simon took.

comments

Is it bad that I am always a little sad when no one comments on my posts even though I am really bad at commenting on other people's posts? My favorite post so far, the letter to the baby had 0 comments. Normally the only to people to comment regularly are my sis who has a broken wrist and my mom, so I really shouldn't be that bummed right, only 2 less than normal... but I am a little bummed, I feel like I have done better with blogging, at least for the past week, let's see if I keep it up. And if there are any lurkers out there, feel free to comment, although I don't half the time, so I totally understand if you don't want to, or don't have time by the time you are done reading. But you really should, because it will make me feel better!

Here- Enjoy some pictures I took on a walk downtown the other night. With it being hot during the day and me being pregnant, our outdoor excursions seem to happen at night when Steve can accompany us and carry Simon if he gets tired.

and this last picture wasn't taken the same time as the others, it was just one day when Simon decided to take a nap on the sofa after burying himself under a bunch of pillows.

Cleaning

Steve and I have been talking for a while about making a chore chart (really more of a division of labor chart) so we finally sat down last week and split up chores and officially who does what. It is nice to have it written down on paper what each of us is primarily responsible for. It's been difficult for me getting into a groove with keeping up with the house. Me becoming a mostly stay-at-home mom coincided with becoming pregnant, so it's hard to know what things are going to be like when I am not pregnant and also have a second kid. I hope I can keep everything balanced and be as good of a mom and homemaker as I want to be.


It is seriously amazing how quickly your house can go from dirty to clean and back again. Our house was a wreck yesterday and my amazing husband was off last night so he was awake and not only did his "chores" but even helped with some of mine, and our house looks fabulous right now! I just gotta keep it that way because we are having our friend Courtney over for dinner tonight, and it's much nicer being in a clean house.


And he let me sleep in until 11 today and got Simon breakfast and played and read with him for a while. (In my defense I was up until 2 watching a movie with Steve, so I really didn't sleep in that late.) Then, when I woke up we went to eat at the Gold 'n Silver Inn and had breakfast/lunch. I love my husband and feel so fortunate to have such a great man in my life. I am currently watching Teen Mom (can you believe I admitted that!) and it makes me grateful for a great husband, son, relationship, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ and belief in eternal families in my life. This post was just supposed to be about cleaning so here is a fun little picture. (I am trying to post more frequently and smaller and with pictures.) Simon was helping me vacuum earlier because he found a spot that needed to be vacuumed so he got it out and plugged it in and turned it on so I let him help me vacuum after I vacuumed everything up (the vacuum was actually on and in use in this picture).

Dear Baby

Dear Baby,


Please stay inside of me 'til close to my due date, but not past my due date. If you don't come by September 24th, the doctors are going to take you out, and I don't want that to happen. I would like you to come out all on your own in an amazing non-medicated, natural birth kind of way. September 16th would be a good day. That is your Grampy's birthday, and even though we don't know what we are going to name you yet, we think your middle name is going to be David after your Grampy. If you came on his birthday that would be awesome, and I think it would make everybody happy. My doctor told me today that she will start encouraging you to come out at 37 weeks. That is in just 4 weeks! (But you do have until Sept. 24 to choose to make your debut on your own.) I can hardly believe you will be here soon, but I am so excited to meet you and I know you have lots of family members that are excited to meet you too.
Love,
Mom

P.S.-Please have a slightly smaller head than your older brother, that will make things much easier for both of us during labor and delivery.

Post

I realized today I am lame. I haven't updated in a really long time. When I do post there are too many words and not enough pictures. A lot of stuff has happened since May. May? Seriously, I haven't posted since May? (shakes head at my self) So sad.

This evening Steve and I went to Walmart. There was a nice summer storm, lightning, and wind, and lots of clouds, during sunset, and a rainbow. It was beautiful. I wish I'd had my camera with me and could have taken pictures. I love storms.

Since May Simon and I went home to Illinois for two weeks, then we came home for a week, and then we went to Utah for almost a week to see my friend Arielle. Steve didn't get go come with us on any of the trips because he couldn't get time off work. He gets 5 paid weeks off a year, but it's nearly impossible to get the time off because he is at the bottom of the ladder and has no seniority. Now we are home, and I don't want to go anywhere else for a long time. I just want to sit around the house and be a lazy bum. Lazy pregnant bum. Who decides to get pregnant in January anyways? Honestly last trimester during July, August, and September... not smart. Here, look at some pictures I like from the last couple months. It took me a long time to narrow these down. Enjoy!

P.S.- My favorite blog is by my Sis-in-law Mel. If you don't read her blog, you should. She writes incredibly well, has good pictures, and updates frequently, her blog is awesome and entertaining!

Simon and I went to So. IL for 2 weeks because my cousin got married. All of my sisters were there. I havent seen of them for 2 years so it was good to see my family. We did some sightseeing in St. Louis, went up in the arch and went to Grants farm where President Grant once lived.After being "home" for two weeks and hanging out and going to Garden of the Gods and Dixon Springs and my cousins wedding and spending time with family Simon and I went back home to Reno. We flew in on the 4th of July, Steve picked us up at the airport we ran home, dropped off stuff and picked up Zane and beach stuff and headed up to Lake Tahoe.After the lake we headed home, got the boys all cleaned up- you would not believe how much sand was in their hair!- and then headed to a park in Sparks to watch fireworks with Steve's sisters, and Endri and Dorina. His parents weren't there because they were on their way to Hawaii!

Mel bought glowstick swords and necklaces for everyone to play with. The boys loved it! (and Dorina too) We had a blast snacking, playing, and watching the fireworks!

Simon and I were back in Reno for about a week, just long enough to do laundry and repack our bags and then we took off to Salt Lake City to go see my friend Arielle for 5 days. We stopped in Elko on the way there and back to see our friends Zach and Kristin and their newest baby Oliver. We had lots of fun on this trip.

With Arielle we went to the zoo, aquarium, and aviary, ate Thai food twice, saw Harry Potter, experienced a real bomb threat at the movie theater, and had dinner with her family who feels like family to me. Also got introduced to my new favorite salad, Margarita Shrimp Salad from Allrecipes.com. If you happen to make it, do it the way Nikkie687 did in the comments, that's the way Arielle made it, and it was incredible! I even requested it for my bday dinner.

Ultrasound results and my feelings on it

I am sure most of you know about this by now, because I am pretty my readership is mostly family, and if you aren't family, we are probably friends on facebook, but we had our ultrasound last week. It was actually supposed to be on May 4th but my ob/gyn office called me that morning because their tech called in "injured" and they had to reschedule their appointments. The next opening they had in their office was 4 weeks later! 4 weeks, they seriously wanted me to wait a whole 'nother month to find out what that little baby is, I think not! So they got me a referral to Imaging at Renown Hospital for the following Wednesday at 8:15 in the morning with an appointment arrival time of 7:45! I am so not a morning person and I couldn't take Simon to the appointment so had to get him to Cindy's before that. Thank goodness I have good family, Mel and Jared came and got Simon on their way to drop off Phin, and took him too, so luckily I didn't have to get up even earlier and drop him off in Spanish Springs before my appointment.

So ultrasound day, I get to appointment a few minutes late (of course, we are late to everything) and they are doing remodelling on the floor where my appointment was, so where I had to go to check in wasn't even on the same floor as the ultrasound itself. Steve was supposed to get off at 8, and rushed over to my appointment, and because of the remodelling had to go on a bit of a wild goose chase to find someone who could take him to where I was, he got there a few minutes after the tech had already started checking things out.
The baby cooperated pretty well for the appointment. Part way through it flipped over though and had it's back facing out, so I commented that it would make it harder to tell what the sex was, then the tech told us he knew already, as soon as he started he did a quick scan over my whole uterus and saw right away what the sex was. He also said he wasn't going to tell us unless he was 100% sure of what it was, if it wasn't definite he didn't want to show us and then be wrong. He was a funny guy though, he joked how bad did we want to know the sex and how much cash we had on us to find out, then proceeded to show us our little boy! Very much a boy, parts were very prominent and definite, no mistaking what they were. The tech did lots of measuring and scanning, making sure things were symmetrical and where they should be, we got to see all 4 chambers of the heart working like they should, cute tiny little toes and hand waving around, it was really cool.
But when he told us boy, Steve and I were both kinda like "huh, really, a boy?" We were both pretty sure it was going to be a girl or at least maybe we were convinced because we wanted one so bad, and so did all of our family, we all thought it was going to be a girl, so boy came as a shock and is taking me some time to adjust to, but I am almost there now. Another boy will be a lot of fun, I love my Simon and they can be buddies and share a room, and no teenage girl drama right? Right? I'll be okay with another boy. I just don't get to go out and buy all those cute girl clothes, no pink and purple, and flowers and ribbons and bows, no cute dresses and tutus. But I guess that also means I don't have to learn to do girl hair and fight with her about combing her hair and girly attitude. I also don't get to spend tons of money to buy all the stuff I had planned for her room, we have a lot of cute stuff at my work that I kept saying, I'm going to buy that for my daughters room, it was going to be cute. Shabby chic owls, and birds, and outdoorsy animal kinds of stuff. Birdcages and antiqued furniture, and a bit Victorian feeling, oh Lucy's room was going to be so cute! I will survive, it was just a little sad at first, but I am already almost over it. Almost.


P.S.- new post below, my super duper yummy awesome fiber-filled waffles.

Kari's Awesome Waffles Recipe

Lately, I have been trying to eat healthy and try new recipes and all that kind of stuff. And with Steve's new iPhone and the crashing of our computers, I have gotten to put new apps on his phone. One of my favorites is Spark recipes (which has a website too), and it is mostly healthy recipes. I used two recipes that I liked to make my own recipe and then made some other adjustments too. The ones I used were Grandma's Awful Waffles and Honey Flaxseed Whole Wheat Applesauce Waffles. I liked the base of the Grandma ones, but I also liked the idea of adding in Flaxseed meal for some extra fiber, and applesauce instead of using butter or oil. And then I added some personal things like extra cinnamon and vanilla! The first time I made it I only measured some things, and then afterwards decided to write a recipe for it, so the next time I made them I followed my recipe amounts exactly to make sure it tasted alright and that my guesses for amounts were okay. Such as the first time after my first waffle I decided it needed sugar, so I just threw in a handful of sugar, not really a good measurement for telling other people how to make it. Anyways, we love it, they are very filling, and they are going to my standard waffle recipe, they aren't boring like other waffles. Here is my recipe.

Kari's Awesome Waffles
Yield 7 waffles (7 being both sides of the waffle iron, or 14 square ones if you want to count it that way)

2 cups whole wheat flour (or any combo of flour you have, last time I ran out of whole wheat and had to use white)
3 tsp baking powder
1/8 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 cup flaxseed meal
2 eggs
1 3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup applesauce
2 tbsp vanilla extract
1 cup blueberries
1 cup chopped walnuts

Mix all dry ingredients (except nuts), make a well in the middle for wet ones to go into. In seperate bowl beat eggs, add milk. Pour into well in dry ingredients and mix well. Stir until smooth, also add the applesauce now. Stir in blueberries and walnuts. Use with waffle iron or as pancakes.

When I made these I used the Del Monte fruit Naturals blueberries that are in little plastic containers in juice in the salad section at the grocery store. I saved the juice from them and used it with mapleine to make fruit syrup. Just use the juice to replace the water in the recipe and follow the direction on the box for the quick method. It was really yummy though I was scared to taste it at first because it smelled like cough syrup!
Another note- it may sound like a lot of cinnamon and vanilla, but we love both of these in our family, and the cinnamon gives it some great flavor, if you are scared to use that much, then don't, you are the one eating, it needs to be to your liking too!

Getting bigger every day

So for some strange reason, I have been really putting off blogging or posting about this on facebook. Why? I'm not really sure, but for some reason I am just being really weird about announcing to people that I am pregnant. We went to the doctor today and got to hear the heartbeat. I had another appointment a month ago and they did an ultrasound and we got to see the little baby in there waving it's arms around, it was so cool. I think maybe it still hasn't sunk in for me. I mean its obvious, I am very much showing, I throw up every morning if I wake up before 10, I've seen an ultrasound and now heard the heartbeat, so why I have been so weird/scared to tell people?

Maybe it's because it was so easy for us. We decided we were going to start trying in Belize, and in Belize it happened! Maybe it's because I know a lot of people who have had miscarriages lately and so part of me thinks, it was so easy, it must be too good to be true, look at all these other people I know who are struggling to get pregnant, it's almost not fair. Maybe it's because I know like a billion other people who are pregnant right now and I feel like I am just another girl who got pregnant. Basically every girl at my old work is pregnant or had gotten pregnant this year. It seems like every day on facebook someone else I know is announcing that they are pregnant, and I don't want to steal anyone's thunder and be like oh me too, I'm pregnant too, "look at me, look at me." (Bonus if you know what movie that quote is from) I really am excited about this pregnancy, don't get me wrong, I am just being weird about it.

I really want a girl, we will find out in a month! My ultrasound is scheduled for May 4th, so stay posted then and hopefully we will be able to find out what the sex is at the ultrasound. I already have all kinds of cute ideas for little Lucy's room, or Lucia as Steve wants her to be, but I will call her Lucy. Man I really want a girl. Either way though, boy or girl, the room is going to involve cute owls and a tree on the wall. The girls room will be a little more shabby chic antique looking and the boys room will be bright colors, but both with owls, birds, foxes, deer, just kind of foresty, I am so excited. We are hoping we will have a house by then. Oh did I forget to mention, my due date is September 24th, or should I say the baby's due date, though I guess I am "due" to go into labor around then. With Simon I had to have an emergency c-section, with this one I am going to try to do a vaginal birth after Cesarean, or VBAC. So hooray for being super huge pregnant through all of the summer, I can't wait! (little sarcasm there) At least I am only working part-time so I plan on taking Simon to the lake a lot this summer and plopping my by then very pregnant self into the very cold waters of Lake Tahoe. So yeah, I'm pregnant!

Mini cheesecakes- Oreo Cookies 'N Cream

So I decided I wanted to make cheesecake and found this post of a recipe from Martha Stewart. But I didn't have sour cream, so I searched for other cupcake cheesecakes, and found these terrific recipes for mini cupcakes.
But they weren't quite what I wanted, so I combined them and made my own recipe. This is what I came up with:

Kari's Oreo Cookies N' Cream Mini Cheesecakes

Ingredients:

2 8 oz packages of cream cheese room temperature (I actually used Neufchatel because it is 1/3 the fat and tastes just as good)
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp lemon juice
12 oreos smashed up (I put them in a sandwich bag and beat them with a Lincoln Log)
1/2 cup? chocolate chips (I didn't actually measure, I just dumped the rest of the ones from my almost bag into the bowl
18 whole oreos for cheesecake bottoms


1. Using hand mixer on medium-high speed mix cream cheese and sugar
2. Add eggs, vanilla and lemon juice- mix some more.
3. Stir in crushed oreos and chocolate chips. (The recipes all specified stirring them in by hand, but honestly, I used my mixer and it turned out fine, just don't tell the recipe people

4.*This is the point when I preheat the oven to 275 degrees because I am a little slow, if you are amazing fast you can do it at the beginning, but I am so slow it preheats and then I am normally still mixing for like 10 minutes after it's hot!
5. Put cupcake liners in muffin pan.
6. Place a whole oreo (filling and all) into the cupcake liner, center if possible.
7. Add cream cheese mixture on top of the oreos- I used an ice cream scoop and it worked perfectly, no drips even, and one scoop was the perfect size to fill each cupcake! Go ahead and fill them almost to the top, the cheesecake actually settles a little while cooking, so it's not going to overflow if you go to the top.

8.Put your pan in the oven, wait about 20 minutes until the filling has set and is no longer jiggly, then remove.

9. Put in fridge for 3-4 hours trust me on this one- you want them to be chilled before you eat them or they DO NOT taste as good!
10. ENJOY!

If you look at that last picture you can see the row in the middle is a lighter color- those were my first batch in the oven that I cooked on 275 for 22 minutes- Different recipes gave different times- the browner ones were done on 375, unfortunately I just found out I burnt the bottoms of these ones, so you could go for the middle and take the advice of the recipe that said 325 for 20 minutes. I just tasted the first batch ones- the pasty whites at 275, and they taste delicious and the middle is a little more moist and gooey- this one is just a matter of preference but I will stick with the 275 when I make them again, that Martha really knows what she is talking about!

One of the recipes also suggested keeping the cheesecakes in the pan while they cooled and then keep them in there to chill, I took mine out so I could use my pan again- I think the main benefits to keeping them in the pan is so they hold their shape slightly better and so you can cover them if you want- important if you need to clean your fridge- but if your fridge is funky-smell free, then covering them shouldn't be necessary.

Video Games

Me and Steve both have a problem. We are video game addicts. Last night I stayed up with him until 4 a.m. playing video games. What is wrong with me? He has to stay up all night to stay on his same schedule on his days off because he work nights. It was really fun to keep him company, and the game we were playing was really fun- Borderlands- but man am I tired today! Steve was so nice, when Simon woke up this morning he was still up and he let me sleep in until noon and he hung out with Simon. What a nice break!
I have the best husband. We have so much fun together, he is my best friend! I wasn't sure how much I would like his new schedule, but I am liking it pretty well. It is nice because we will lay down in bed together for an hour or two so he can take a quick nap before he goes into work, but we end up just laying in bed talking the whole time. I feel like we talk a lot more now. I think before we would text all day long, but since we are on opposite schedules we can't text each other all the time anymore. I really enjoy our "pillow talk" every night.
I just put more pictures from Belize up on facebook- one of these days I should blog about that trip before I forget about everything.

Happy Valentine's Day

Today I am feeling very un-Valentiney. It may be because I am sick with an upper respiratory infection and ear infection. It may be because I haven't had a chance to go shopping for a present for my Valentine (been potty training Simon since Friday and I am a procrastinator so that is when I would have started shopping). It may be because I only saw my Valentine for about 20 minutes today- but he did bring me really pretty roses! It may be because I am not even wearing pink or red. It may be because I didn't decorate my house for Valentine's Day- not a single heart hanging anywhere.
So with that last statement typed, I just decided I will have to cut out some hearts and stuff and hang them up. Me and my Valentine are going to celebrate on Wednesday, so I figure I have a good two days to get really decorated and buy him a present- but I already know what I want to get him and have for a while, so that counts for something right!?
Although I am feeling un-Valentiney, I am very grateful for my husband today. I am so grateful that was able to marry such an amazing man, and then be sealed to him for time and eternity. He is stuck with me forever and I wouldn't have it any other way! In the year we were married before we were sealed I was always so scared that something would happen and one of us would tragically die before we were sealed, I must say that once we went to the temple, I was so relieved. Not to say it wouldn't really suck if one of us died, but now I have the comfort and knowledge that if that did happen, we would only be seperated for a little while and then we would be together forever after this life. What a comfort to be sealed in the House of the Lord.
I am grateful to be married to such an amazing man. He has sacrificed a lot for our family and has had to deal with a lot of stress from school and working and internships, and having a kid before we were planning on it, and all kinds of other stuff, but through it all and all the stress, he has always been good to me, and to our son, and for that I am grateful.
Last night as we were laying in bed for an hour before Steve had to leave for work we got a text message from a friend whose spouse had left them. It was so sad. Almost all of the couples that were at our wedding are now divorced, including some of our LDS friends. And this latest one is a dear friend who was sealed in the temple. It is so sad for me to see people not take that covenant seriously. How can you promise to love someone and be with them forever, and then after a year of marriage leave them. Does marriage mean anything to people anymore? Do people not realize what they are signing up for or something? Are their expectations not realistic? I am also grateful that one of the classes I took at BYU was Preparation for Marriage, it may seem cheesy, but that class was one of the best I ever took. It makes you realize what to expect from yourself, your spouse, and the whole institution of marriage. It was fantastic.
So Happy Valentine's Day everyone and Happy Valentine's to my husband (even though I am going to pretend Valentine's Day isn't until Wednesday for him so I feel like a better wife). I did buy him a really cute gift bag already to put his present in, it has a robot on it holding a heart- so cute!
P.S.- I was going to put a couple of cute pictures of Steve and I in here too, but my computer is having some issues accessing my libraries right now. :(

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! I know I am a little late on this, but New Year's Eve was spent sleeping in the San Francisco Airport. (We did get to see some fireworks though!)And as many of you know, the next two weeks were spent in Belize having an awesome time! (Pictures going on facebook as I type- but only the first batch so far.) So I must say I am looking forward to this year more than any year I have recently. I really feel like things are finally coming together for Steve and I as individuals and as a family. We have a lot of really big things going on this year and this month already! I am just so excited for all of these changes and looking forward to all that the year has in store.
Some of the main things I am excited for this year (in no particular order)
1. We finally went on a trip outside of the country!
2. Steve is a nurse and started at the VA (technically he still has to take the NCLEX)
3. I no longer work at Ashley Furniture.
4. I get to be a stay-at-home mom!
5. I am starting a part-time job at a new store called Graples Home Decor.
6. We are trying to expand the size of our family.
7. We have the potential to start looking for a house later this year.
8. Steve will be home every night for dinner and home from work in time to have breakfast with us!
9. We get to go "home" this summer for my cousins wedding and take Simon to the property.
10. I get to stay home with Simon. I know I said that already, but I am looking forwward to spending so much time with my super sweet Simon-son!
That's all for now, gotta go run some errands.