let it snow, let it snow, let it snow....

Growing Boy!

Well, I'm a month late on one and a day late on the other. My baby is growing. He is the best little thing that has ever come into my life.  Kam being the best big thing. I love being a momma. So far, here's some of the random things I've learned... 

1. Appreciate your own parents. (especially your mom)

2. Going to the Dr. because your paranoid is ok.

3. Accept what you cannot control.

4. Saline mist is a life save. (thanks again Jo)

5. Mornings are happy, evenings are grumpy.

6. Sleep is good, but 3:00am snuggles and smiles are good too.

7. Laugh at yourself and what your putting yourself through. (especially the breast pump)

8. Don't live 6+ hours from your friends and family and have a baby. (if you do, you will miss them more than ever)

9. I'm jealous of stay at home moms.

10. He's changing and growing so fast, savor every cuddle, cry and smile.

If this doesn't make you puke from cuteness...

then I don't know what will!

So I wanted to try my hand at the adorable new born photos you see all the time.  So last week I did a little research to get some tips on shooting said photos and I learned something. Those pictures are taken before the baby is 10 days old when they are still in their sleepy new born phase.  Hazen was, oh, 20 some days old. So I really didn't think I would get him to pose at all.  This was as close as I could get, good enough for me.  I have quite a few more pictures that I took, but I'm only sharing this one for now.  Don't you just want to smooch those cheeks? More to come...

Happy Halloween!

October 14th forever changed my life.

A little over 2 weeks have passed. I finally feel like I have things back in order and life as 3 is now casual and everyday.  Our sweet baby boy finally joined our lives, after 3 long days of labor and waiting, in the early hours of October 14th, at 1:43 am. After all that speculating that he would be a 10+ pound baby, he weighed 8lbs 7oz, which I was so happy about. He was 21 inches long and had a head circumference of 14". He was and is absolutely perfect. We named him Hazen.

Hazen was a week late. I wanted more than anything in the world to have my baby completely natural, no epidural or pitocin, without an IV shunt in my arm or anything strapped around my belly tying me to that bed. At one point during my pregnancy I got a little rude and bitchy with my doctor about it.  But of course, its the "policy" of my OB office not let moms go more than 10 days overdue, so on my last appointment before my due date I was scheduled for an induction on October 16th. If he came in the days leading up to that date, great, if not, then my 9 months of planning and metal prep were for nothing. To me, the idea of having a needle in my arm forcing my baby to be born and one in my back making me unable to feel what my body was doing made me sick to think about. It would be like going to a concert and getting stuck in the elevator.  You can sort of hear the show, but totally missed the experience.  My doctor didn't even want to let me go the 10 days because he was going to be such a "big" baby. But she wasn't going to fight it, probably just figured I'd learn my lesson when he got stuck and she was moving me to the OR for a C-Section.  I had to get my labor started, and I had just over 10 days to do it.

To make the long story short, and skipping the details no one wants to hear... Thursday, the 11th, I started having all sorts or random weird contractions that came and went with the day.  Friday was more of the same, only with a little more frequency. I was pretty frustrated by Friday night when we weren't in active labor yet and was feeling that Tuesday deadline looking over my shoulder.  Saturday morning I woke up early and went and sat with my mom and talked to her about the whole thing.  I was upset and decided to go snuggle back in bed with Kam.  Thats when it happened.  I cried.  For a good 10 minutes.  And as soon as I stopped, my contractions started coming 10 minutes apart.  I had tried every home brewed method to get labor started, my mom and I had walked about 10 miles over those 2 days, and the icing on the cake was a good ol cry. I had read somewhere that if your labor stalls at any point, try and cry to release more endorphins and labor may resume progress.  Worked for me! So that was 7am on Saturday, we headed for the hospital at 7:30pm and I was 7cm dilated, and Hazen joined our lives at 1:43am on Sunday. All drug free.

So that's a brief birth story on one of my now 3 favorite days! Mine and Kam's birthday, our wedding day, and now the day our sweet Hazen filled our hearts.  Now I get to overload this blog with pictures of my little boy.

The last fruity adventure...

We did it.  We went to every fruit picking season.  Strawberries, Cherries, Peaches and Apples.  It was deliciously fun!  Now I have a few pictures from each that shows the progression of the growth of this belly.  Today, I am 4 days overdue.  I have a feeling my sweet little boy will show his face soon.  Maybe tomorrow.  Then his birthday will be 10-11-12, which if I were being induced on that day I would find totally tacky, but I'm not, so it would be pretty neat birthday for the little fella!  So think positive thoughts for us over here in Spokane, we are ready to meet our baby!

MIA again.

Hi. So I had a lapse in blogging again.  What can I say, I've been a little distracted.  Lately I've been doing massive cooking and craft projects.  But we did get new furniture and I think we are basically ready for our new family member to arrive.  Our freezer is stocked with pre-made meals, crib is set up and diapers are bought.  One week from tomorrow he's due to arrive! Doctor thinks he should be here right around the due date, but first timer's baby, we will see. Anyway, here are a few pics of the going ons in our simple life these days.

I do have a few more little things to share...I better get to it! 

Fridays are like Peach Pie!

At least this Friday is.  I found out yesterday at the end of the day that I got today off.  I love my tiny little office!  Nothing like getting random paid days off.  Especially kicking off a long weekend.  Speaking of said long weekend...it's our anniversary weekend!  And we took 2 extra days off!  So we are headed home to Montesano and are going to build a fence around my parents property, which is also where we got married last year, and also the property we will be buying hopefully sooner than later.  So enjoy this peach pie of a Friday and have a happy long weekend!

Peaches anyone?

We went, we picked, we had fun, we ate.  You can fill in the other details.

 

 

 

 

 

Weekends are great!

Hello again.  It's Monday evening and Kam is watching the Mariners game so I thought I would share a few pics from our weekend.  Saturday morning we went out to breakfast at this little place I've been dying to go to, for breakfast that is.  We went there last year for our birthday dinner.  It was featured on Diners, Drive Ins and Dives a while back, so I thought it would be fun to check it out (again) for breakfast. The bird cage light was hanging in the bathroom.  The decor in the place is super cute vintage cottage vibe, the light kind of gives you an idea of the quirky cuteness of the place.  

Last week my new food processor arrived, so the first thing I had to make was peanut butter!  I didn't read any recipes, I just went for it.  I tried to copy Peanut Butter Companies Cinnamon Raisin.  It tastes really good, but its still a little more crumbly than smooth.  I was afraid how far I could push the food processor.  I didn't want to burn it up on the first use.  

Just Dex being Dex.  That nasty brown carpet underneath his goofy face is no longer brown, but back to its proper dingy shade of gray.  We shampooed carpets.  Well, I mostly supervised and held the cord out of the way while Kam did most of the work.  Thanks darlin'!

Annnndddddd...we finally picked our peaches!  I just love all these fruit festivals.  I have more to share on that later. 

Have a good week.  One day down!

Party Animal!

This post is a week over due.  Sorry.  Last weekend we had our second baby shower, and it turned out really wonderful. My mom and our dear friend Lee Anne threw a beautiful party for our little guy at Lee Anne's house on the Satsop river.  One thing I have learned about myself in the course of these two baby parties, if I am not there to strictly take pictures, then I'm not going to have much to show after its all over.  Just like our first party, I failed to get pictures of the wonderful ladies that made this party happen.  I just get so busy talking, you know!  The weather in the area had been in the 80's and 90's for probably a week and was supposed to remain that way for about another week, so we had no worries for our outdoor, along the peaceful river shower. Right, thank you Grays Harbor!  It rained.  So most of the cute detials had to be moved inside before they were ruined.  But all in all, I think everyone had a nice time.  

1) The guess the birth weight 50/50 raffle was really fun.  I can't wait to send the winner their half of the loot!  2) Cute toys were everywhere through out the shower 3) My mom bought the baby an apple tree for our property.  I was SOOO excited! 4) You may remember my 31 week shadow pic.  My mom blew it up and everyone at the shower signed it.  Pretty awesome idea!  It surprised me.  I guess when she took it in to print it, the people told her it was a professional photo and they couldn't blow it up. Ha! I took it with my phone.

The bottom pic is Lee Anne's daughter Shannon.  She is about 5 weeks behind me.  Had to get the silly belly to belly shot.  Shannon is the best! And yes I'm wearing the same dress that as the other baby party.  I bought it at the beginning of this adventure for a wedding and the two baby showers.  It will probably pop up again too! 

Thank you to everyone who made the two showers happen and to every one who came.  This is going to be one loved little boy.  We are getting excited to meet him and introduce him to the world.  Much love to everyone!

Fortune Friday

Happy Friday boys and girls!!!!  Kam and I had chinese this last week, and for all of you that know our future plans, we got really excited over this fortune.  Not only for this weekend, but for long (hopefully short) term plans too.  We have another baby party this weekend, so we are headed home after work today.  Home meaning Grays Harbor, which lucky for us isn't so gray right now!  Hope everyone has fun plans for the weekend!    I'll share shower pictures next week!

You win some you lose some.

Hiya friends.  We're back to Monday again.  I mentioned on Friday our plans to go visit our favorite camp site and then pick peaches on Sunday...well nothing seemed to go right for us.  We got to our spot and someone was already there.  It takes about 2 hours to get there, so we were pretty bummed.  Then Dexter puked in the car about 15 minutes later.  Double bummer.  The reason I was so looking forward to this visit was to retake some photos that we have taken every trip we have gone.  Each time these pictures were taken, we were at very different phases of our lives, so right now with my 7 month belly it would have been a nice addition.  You can see the previous two years here.  Then when we got to Green Bluff on Sunday to pick peaches, we were too late for early season and too early for late season.  But we can go back in 2 weeks and pick so thats not so bad.  Oh a happy note, I did sell the armoire, which was great great great!  

So my pictures from the weekend are lame.  But I figured I would share anyways.  

Our little Habanero turned 20,000.  

That bottle of wine blew my mind.  My family had a 1) golden retriever 2) named rascal 3) who has been gone for maybe 5 or 6 years now. What are the odds?  

I only cooked one thing this weekend, but it turned out amazing.  I've never even attempted to make something with tomatillos, so I took a stab and making chili verde.  All I can say is you have to try it for yourself. Its goooood (and easy!). I used this recipe.  It was a little spicy, I would probably use half the jalapeno next time.

Last night I had my feet in Dex's pool to cool off a bit, and I noticed that my dress was the exact same color as the pool.  I felt silly, so why not take a picture. 

So anyways, I don't have too much planned this week for posts.  We'll see if I come up with something.  Big plans for next weekend though!  Can't wait! 

Love me a Friday!

Hi.  It's Friday.  That makes me happy.  These 6am walks make me a sleepy preggers by the end of the week.  What are you all doing this weekend?  We are going on a little drive up to our favorite camp spot to spend the afternoon.  It could and will probably be the last time we ever go there.  It has special memories, I'll share next week.  Then, if all goes as planned, we are going to pick peaches out in Green Bluff.  Can't wait to have so many peaches that I have to just keep eating them so they won't go bad.  I'm pretty sure my baby is going to be a shade of purple when he is born from all the fruit I have eaten during this pregnancy.

Anyways, Kam pointed something out to me a while back and I just remembered to share it.  Of all the days that google could have decided to update the satellite image of my parents house, they chose the day after our wedding.  I can narrow it down to sometime before noonish.  It's the little things, right?  (I do secretly wish it was the day before though, that would have been crazy cool)

Have a peachy weekend!

Haven't given up yet!

I took another stab at sewing a few weeks ago.  Thought I'd share the results with you today. Honestly, I really love it and just picked up some fabric to make a 3rd one.  What do you think?

 

See me wearing it here.

Week 31 Shadow

and still lots more to grow...

Take'n it easy...

Well, how was your weekends?  Ours was fantastically lazy.  I read and cooked, Kam lounged and watched baseball and the Olympics and Dex pouted waiting for his next walk.  Remember I mentioned something on Friday about possibly going to the peach festival?  Yep, didn't do that.  But I did manage to get over to Joann's Fabric and take advantage of their sale.  I got some $20 dollar-a-yard upholstery fabric for about $6 per yard.  Score!

Friday night I made a really yummy pasta salad and Saturday was pizza on the bbq.  I thought I'd share the main components that went into each, because they were both really good!

Ham and Honey Mustard Pasta Salad:
Cubed ham
Carrots, celery, red and green pepper
Graded cheddar
Honey mustard salad dressing combined with a little light mayo and low fat greek yogurt (and a few spices)
Served my favorite way for any pasta salad: on a bed of greens.  Usually I just use spinach, but this time I had my all time fav on hand... ARUGLA! So good.

Peach Prosciutto Pizza:
Pizza Crust
Red Sauce
Prosciutto
Mozzarella
walnuts
Fresh Peaches
topped with fresh basil and arugula

Hope you all have a good week planned.  We are going tonight to get locking gas caps because some butt nuggets keep syphoning gas from our neighborhood.  I know we've been hit at least twice.  On a better note, we sold our little floral love seat on craigslist last night!  Woop!  I thought I was going to have to give it away, but nope, cash in my pocket.  Have a great week everyone!

A Baby Party!

Happy friday friends.  Last weekend was our first of two baby showers.  This one was hosted by Kam's mom and sister.  They put a lot of thought and effort into the details and the shower was beautiful and fun.  Thank you two so much.  I was too busy chatting with all our family and friends that I didn't take too many photos.  These are the best that I have of the details.  You can see more over here on Lizzie's blog.  She did a better job at taking photos than I did.

The shower was co-ed and I was so thankful it was.  It was so funny trying to open gifts and keep up with tear-and-throw Kam.  Thank you everyone who came and for all your generosity.  We appreciate everything!

So what's the plan for the weekend?  We are clearing out my recycled pallet armoire.  I love that thing, but we just don't have room for it anymore, so onto craigslist it goes.  We are also thinking about going to the peach festival, but may put that off until next weekend.  I also need to do a little fabric shopping for a few projects I need to start.  Just little stuff.  Anyways, enjoy your Friday and your weekend!

Wedding Invites

Hi all.  I haven't posted in a few days, don't want you to think I've bailed out again.  I have a few things to share here soon, I have just had some busy days and haven't had a chance to look at my photos.  In the mean time, I thought I'd share a wedding invitation and logo I designed for my cousin's wedding a few weeks ago.  They turned out pretty cute and the wedding was beautiful.  Congrats again Kim and Andrew!

These little word cards were sprinkled all over the reception.  There were about 20 different cards total.  The bride came up with all the words that related to marriage.  It was a really cute idea.  I just wish I had some photos to share of what they look liked on the tables.  I don't think they'd probably appreciate my snatching photos from the wedding album for my blog either.  We also turned the logo into a sticker that they placed onto the favors (little packets of coffee and teas.)  At the time of the wedding I guess I wasn't thinking of a future blog post.  Lame.  I know.

Congrats again Kim and Andrew.  I hope you two have a wonderful life together.