Getting to know you...

Here's a little post to encourage some posting...copy and paste the questions below. Then, fill in your own answers and pick a handful or two of your friends that live furthest away to do the same...



1.) What are some things you usually do everyday? get up, pee (I'm pregnant :), make the bed, brush teeth, wash hands, eat bran flakes, shower, get dressed, put on makeup (b/c I feel like I desperately need it!), workout (I need that too!), clean, cook, read, play with kids, change diapers, go on drives with the kids (go out somewhere--like grocery shopping, park, mall or target), pray, clean more (pick up legos, cars and kids' books about 2-3 times everyday), do dishes at least once everyday, have dinner as a family, put the kids to bed, spend time with Tom hopefully, etc.



2.) What would be your dream vacation? Tom and I are hoping to celebrate our tenth anniversary by taking a trip to Italy...but, I'd also just love to be at a beach preferably in Hawaii with my whole family about right now!



3.) What is your favorite meal to cook? (feel free to share the recipe if you'd like) I love italian food so I love to make my own healthier version of pasta with cream sauce and lots of grilled veggies...recipe? (I sort of throw this together) to make the sauce you put in 1-2 tbsp. of olive oil and a large clove or two of garlic in a sauce pan and heat on medium heat for about a minute. Then add about 4 ounces of cream cheese and blend (a silicone whisk is a great tool for this) until smooth, add about 1 cup of milk and 1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese, keep stirring so that it continues to be smooth, add 1/4 cup parmesean cheese if you have it, some garlic powder, garlic salt and italian seasonings (add a little at a time until you get a taste that you like). Sometimes I like to add lots of fresh basil if I have it to make it a pesto cream sauce...Let the sauce simmer and stir every couple of minutes while you grill veggies and prepare the pasta...I love to slice and grill onions, mushrooms (we are BIG mushroom fans in our house!), yellow squash, zucchini, tomatoes, red bell peppers and anything else I may have on hand at the time and we (Tom and I) love Barilla whole wheat angel hair pasta....just thinking of this makes me want to make this really soon!



4.) What should you be doing more of? right now I am supposed to be studying for a fitness certification I have coming up in just about 10 days!!! I should be spending more Q.T. time with my family...I always feel like there's never enough of that and that moments shouldn't be taken for granted...I always feel like I need to do better at this!



5.) Any OCD habits you can't kick? (or maybe you don't want to) (Oh, this could be a funny question for some people!) I feel like I can't go to bed with dirty dishes, and the dishes have to be divided into their own section in the dishwasher...if there are spoons and forks in the same compartment in the silverware holder (obviously placed there by someone else)-I have to fix it! the bed HAS to be made, when I mop the floors it has to be done twice and if I see a person leaving the bathroom without washing their hands, I can't get it off my mind for a couple hours...yeah, yeah, I know! CRAZY thinking! Oh, yeah, when I cook; I wash my hands constantly...if I crack eggs I wash my hands after each egg, I have big issues with raw meat and fish...



6.) Have any unfinished projects? I have three hats (one for each kiddo including the one who hasn't been born yet) that I've crocheted almost to completion, but I've forgotten how to 'finish' them, so they're all in their separate bag attached to the loom waiting for me to go to my friend's so she can show me how to finish them...one nursing cover...and a couple photobooks on Shutterfly that I need to finish...I have a feeling if we lived in a house, this list would be much bigger...



7.) What are your hobbies and interests? (anything you like to do in your sparetime?) I love to go on dates with Tom, spend time with my family, hike, Pilates, Yoga, lately I've been doing lots of aerobics, read, cook, run 5ks and other races (when I'm not so pregnant), crafts-make jewelry, cards, sew (even though I am REALLY bad and slow at it!), learn/read about health and fitness,

8.) What are your three favorite movies and who are your favorite actors/actresses? funny thing...I fall asleep during about 90% of the movies we watch...I get bored really quickly and would usually rather be sleeping! I really like You've Got Mail, the Road Home...I can't think of another favorite right now...maybe Sliding Doors? I love Tom Hanks, Will Smith, Bill Cosby, Meg Ryan, Reese Witherspoon, Gwyneth Peltrow, Jennifer Aniston. I love good movies with english accents! Netflix is sending us Love Happens today...hopefully it's good!



Spread the interview and pick a few friends: Okay, I'll be checking your blogs soon to see if you've done this so please don't let me down! Here are some friends (that blog) that live furthest away: Julie, Sue, Laurel, Addie, Wendy, Tawsha, Steph, Sarah, Emily, Rikki, Coty, Brooktynn, Megan, Holli and Misti--it's hard to just pick a few! I didn't pick any CO friends b/c it said just who lives far away...but, I hope you'll do it too!

I.will.not.waddle...a little update on the pregnancy...

Does anyone else feel like Humpty Dumpty when you're pregnant?! That's who I compare myself to each time! It's really not that pleasant of a feeling to feel comparable to Humpty Dumpty either! I am holding the baby higher so I just feel like a big, round, egg shaped blob with two legs (one of which is covered in varicose veins) sticking out "trying" not to waddle around! ;-)

I officially have 10 weeks left! I'm just over 29 weeks, but the doctor and I have decided to induce me again (unless I start naturally on my own which would be preferable) but with complications that I've had since Taylor, we both like to try to ensure that she (my doctor) is present when I deliver. So, we haven't officially picked the day but it will probably either be March 30th or 31st...10 weeks away! I can finally see a light at the end of the tunnel! ;-) My nausea has come back...not as bad as the beginning but enough to just want to go to bed at 8 p.m. every night. It's interesting with this pregnancy, I could feel the baby so early (like around 15 weeks) and now it feels like he/she is doing disco dancing several times a day! Sometimes I feel like I'm bruised on the inside of my belly from all the hopping around!

I'm still teaching my Pilates classes and am hoping to be able to as long as I can. I had one lady ask me a few months ago if the class was going to turn into a prenatal class; so I am trying hard to show her and everyone it's no prenatal class and still make it just as challenging as before. There are a few things I skip and just talk everyone through, but I enjoy still getting to teach. I'm also working out at home and at the gym on the treadmill. I really want to run a half marathon this year (the year I turn 30) so I'm trying to keep my body in as good of shape as I can...working out doesn't seem to prevent my rapid weight gain though (like I wish it would)...that's still seems to occur on a daily and sometimes 4 times a day basis! ;-) I'm REALLY just hoping NOT to weigh as much as Tom does by the end of this pregnancy...but, it's looking likely! I guess at least he's not a football lineman! ;-)

We're excited to not know the gender of this baby...we have no idea what it will be, but not knowing causes us to spend a LOT of time thinking and discussing what to name the baby (well, every time I ask Tom what names he likes he says things like: Harold) We have a couple girl names we will probably choose between so that's easier (which means this baby's probably a boy right?) so I've spent hours trying to think about boy names! Any suggestions? And, please don't say you like the name Harold! ;-)

Not knowing what we're having is also a bit more time consuming then if we knew....we spent about 5 hours Monday going through Max's and Taylor's clothes and rearranging them by sizes and pulling out newborn stuff so we'd have an idea of what we have...we did this ultimately because I was coming home from Old Navy and Target with things "on sale" for either "the boy-or the girl" and since I have up to 90 days to return it; well I'll just take back things for the gender we don't end up having! Sounds logical to me, but, I think Tom wanted us to go through all of our baby stuff so I'd know exactly what we had and quit bringing home more! Don't tell him, but I saw a cute sleeper on sale for $1.50 yesterday and bought it! Oops! ;-)

signing off for now,

Humpty Dumpty

Christmas and New Years' 2009!

We had such a great Christmas vacation! I just felt so abundantly blessed to get to be with my little family and to have a nice home, and meals and gifts for my kids and husband! Tom got two weeks off of work, which was so nice, went by so fast and was very needed because he'd had meetings every evening for the longest time! Anyway, we definitely had a lot of fun together....I know I put up way too many pictures on all of my posts...sorry! I'm just a picture taker and I'm afraid it'll just get worse when the next kiddo is here! ;-)notice the passenger in the backseat...this is on our way to Zio's for lunch for our Christmas eve Italian food tradition.Taylor and her beloved friend "Puppy" who often accompanies us out and about...Taylor's photography skills...she's pretty good! ;-) the fam on Christmas eve...Taylor and Tom made these cookies...they made about 100 cookies so I made them take them to some of our neighbors to get rid of most of them! ;-)

Tom and the kiddos bundled up to deliver cookies to our neighbors... our tree and present on Christmas eve...I have to say that Tom got the kids these HUGE candy bars and the candy canes filled with kisses...who ate them? We did...not the kids! After the kids had like 5 pieces of candy on Christmas and went C R A Z Y!!! I hid all their candy and I plan on giving them even less next year...our poor kids, but I'm just not a fan of kids hyped up on candy!!!

our lovebird stockings...Tom's stocking growing up was always full of chocolate, candy and more candy and mine was filled with toiletries and presents and some candy...so our first year we were married Tom filled my stocking with candy (and nothing else--I was a little sad) and I filled his with hair gel (which I think he still has!), shampoo, etc. and a minimal amount of candy (and he felt totally jipped!). So, now his stocking is always loaded with treats (including a giant candy bar) and mine had haircare and bracelets and hardly ANY candy! ;-) letters to and from Santa on Christmas morning...we ate breakfast (biscuits and gravy--a once or twice a year for us southern tradition) before we opened any presents...

We didn't want to spend much so most of the presents for our kids I purchased off of craigslist and I got a couple things from our sister in law (thanks Colleen!!!). We "tried" to keep it minimal!!! We will have to try even harder next year! But, it was really so fun to watch the kids be so excited about having Santa come and opening their presents.

We got this little crib from my sister in law...I don't think it has gone 5 minutes without a "baby" sleeping in it since!

Taylor asked Max for a dress for Christmas so he and I got this one from the Children's Place for $4! She was so excited about her dress from her little brother...she wanted to make him a blanket for his present so she picked out a navy blue fleece with cars on it and her and Tom tied it and wrapped it.

I got this matchbox car set off of craigslist...I LOVE craigslist! I got the blocks off it too and probably saved at least 50 bucks.

downtown trip to the "miniature city":

this place is amazing! It's just this big miniature city...we went on the Tuesday morning after Christmas so we had the place to ourselves.

walking around...Taylor has to push Max all the time lately and when people are coming she stops about 50 feet away and "waits" for them to pass! ;-) so funny!

Taylor's photography skills again!

Children's Museum...Wed. December 30th:

this place was SO much fun!!! We had a BOGO free coupon so it cost us 13 bucks and the kids played and played for 3 hours. We loved it!

isn't this the cutest place?! It was incredible!

Max doing laundry!

fishing...

New Years' eve...we set family goals (I'm a little obsessed with goal setting! ;-), played games and drank "frappes" (sprite and sorbet--a tradition). The kids got to stay up till 9!