24 weeks

This kitty has been very needy since we returned from Kansas City, little does he know we will be leaving him again soon and for a longer period. 

Trees

The many trees of the weekend. 

We went back to Kansas City for a few days to see family.  It was a good time and tiring.  And this baby is already spoiled by all the gifts we received over Christmas. 

For all photos from the weekend, check out the my photos link on the right side of the page. 

Merry Christmas!

Heath was in the holiday season the other night and decided to pose in front of the tree.  So Merry Christmas! Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

23 weeks

So 23 weeks, one week away from viability.  I am starting to feel really large and clumsy.  I constantly drop things and this includes food on my ever expanding stomach.  I realized today that my hip bones that use to be visible are now not so visible.  I will miss you hip bones, hope to see you in about four months.  I also feel like I am gaining weight rapidly, but that could just be me feeling large.  Since my jeans do still fit.  And my normal shirts fit, they just aren't long enough.  I am also really glad I do not own a scale, I feel like I would be obsessing too much if I did.  Once a month weigh-in is plenty.

I can still barely wear my jeans, I think this too will be going away very soon.  I have to wear maternity shirts all the time though, my regular shirts don't really cover the stomach enough anymore.  
Movement is starting to become more consistent, like when I wake up in the middle of the night, the baby always seems to be moving.  I feel like this is a bad sign since sleep patterns start developing now.

I guess that is all for this week.  I felt the Christmas tree was a good addition this week, since it is only a few days until Christmas.  Hope everyone has a good holiday!

Pumpkin Muffins

Pumpkin Cinnamon Streusel Muffins, taken from TwoPeasandTheirPod
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 tablespoon cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons nutmeg
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1/3 cup water
1 cup canned pumpkin
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Brown Sugar Cinnamon Filling:
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Streusel Topping:
1 1/4 cup oats
1 tablespoon flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Dash of nutmeg
6 tablespoons cold butter, cut into chunks
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two muffin tins with paper liners or spray with cooking spray. Set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, oil, water, pumpkin, eggs, and vanilla extract. Whisk until smooth and combined.
4. Slowly stir in the flour mixture. Mix until ingredients are combined.
5. For the brown sugar cinnamon filling: in a small bowl, mix the brown sugar and cinnamon together. Set aside.
6. For the streusel topping: in a small bowl mix together the oats, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Mix in the butter with your hands until the mixture is crumbly.
7. Fill muffin cups half way full with the pumpkin batter. Sprinkle the brown sugar cinnamon filling over each half filled muffin cup. Fill the muffins cups with the remaining batter. Top each muffin with streusel topping.
8. Bake for 17-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove pans from oven and cool on a wire rack. Remove muffins from tins and enjoy.
Makes about 24 muffins

These muffins are amazing, not much else to say about them.

22 weeks

Had an appointment on Monday, everything is still going good.  The midwife measured my uterus and it is measuring right on track.  The heart beat was 140.  And so far I have gained 10 pounds total.  Kind of crazy to think how much more I have to gain.  I think the next time I go, seeing the weight on the scale will be crazy because it will be the heaviest I have ever been.  But it is good knowing that it is mainly baby or baby related.  I am gaining weight steadily as I should and not too much which is nice.  I can still wear my regular jeans but definitely having to wear maternity shirts or long shirts to fit over the bump. 

On a side note, Christmas is around the corner!  I am completely done with all gifts and wrapping now.  But Denver has been way too warm, it is very odd.  It still has yet to really snow.  Every once in a while we get a bit but then it melts immediately.  I am really tired of the warm weather, I wish it would just snow.  And I made some awesome muffins tonight that I will soon post a recipe for. 

Crib

So we got our crib at the beginning of this week, and put it together on Friday night.  It ended up being a different one that I had originally planned to get because Target was out of that one and didn't know when they would get it in, so they canceled my order.  A little annoying but now that we have this crib and it is put together and I really love it, so it all worked out.  I found this crib on Amazon and the great thing about Amazon is that many of their items have free shipping.  So I think this crib ended up being cheaper than the other one.  And after reading many, many reviews this one reviewed the best among the cribs I was looking at. 
I was having such a hard time deciding on what crib to buy because I would find one that had good reviews overall but reading the low reviews would turn me off.  But this crib did not have the low review that turned me off, the low reviews consisted of people saying is scratched easily.  It seems like every crib I looked at this was a common complaint to I easily stopped caring about that aspect, because it is for a kid, it will get scratched to matter what. 

21 weeks

Overall not much has changed in a week.  Still getting use to the belly.  We have another appointment Monday.  I am curious to see how much weight I have gained, it feels like I have gained a lot, but then again, I am not use to the belly.  I still can't really believe I am this far along either.  Time is really going by way too fast.

Now when the baby is kicking, if I am paying attention I can watch my stomach move as I feel the kicks.  It is fun to watch my stomach move. 

Still able to wear my regular jeans, but I now have a larger collection of maternity shirt that I rotate with my lengthier regular shirts and sweaters.  They have to be able to fit over the bump and still cover the top of my jeans.  

The crib arrived yesterday and I am very excited to put it together this weekend, when it is put together I will have to post some pictures.  Now I really need to start collecting some cloth diapers, I am behind on that.  

Turkey Chili

So this is really late.  I am been kind of lazy with posts lately, especially in the food department.  Partially because I feel like I haven't made anything worth while.  But this was delicious.  We had a lot of left over turkey from Thanksgiving because the people we did Thanksgiving with didn't like dark meat.  I really don't understand that, so we got all the left over dark meat and made turkey chili with it.  I also need to post a recipe to some amazing pumpkin bread I made over the weekend. 

And I don't have a picture because I don't feel like connecting the camera to the computer.  

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp. olive oil

1.5 punds of breast or leg meat

1 yellow onion, diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 rib celery, diced

1 carrot, diced

1 green pepper, diced

1 red pepper, diced

2 tsp. ground cumin

2 Tbsp. chili powder

salt and pepper to taste

4 cups cooked white beans

3 cups chicken stock

sour cream  and cheddar cheese for topping

1. Heat cast iron dish over medium heat.  Add oil and onion, garlic, celery, and carrot to pan and cook for 5-6 minutes.  Add in peppers, cumin and chili powder.  Season with salt and pepper, and continue to cook for 10 minutes until veggies are soft.

2. Add turkey to the pan and add the white beans.  Pour in the chicken stock and stir to mix well.  Simmer over low heat for 30 minutes. 

3. Serve with sour cream and cheese.

Serves 6-8

20 weeks

So we have reached the halfway point!  It is exciting that we are already this far into the pregnancy.  I still cannot believe how fast time has gone and how much more I need to do in the next 20 weeks.  Still craving meat, meat and more meat and salads.  Still having occasional heartburn.  I am beginning to feel more regular movement from the baby, especially in the morning when I am eating breakfast and at night when I am laying down to go to sleep.  I feel movement all throughout the day but during these two times there is a lot of movement.  My belly seems really large now, it is sticking out more than my boobs now.  It is now more obvious that I am pregnant.  I can still fit into my regular clothes, which is nice.  I did buy some Old Navy maternity clothes that were on sale recently, but those are all tops which will be nice to start wearing.