Saturday, July 31, 2010

The Room

I mentioned in an earlier post that we have been cleaning out what was previously our storage room to create a guest bedroom. I should probably also mention that we used to refer to this room as "the scary room". I don't mean to toot my own horn, but I don't think that name is fitting anymore. Here's a look at the before and after...

Way Before
(hate to admit it, but this was taken after we had already taken about half the stuff out of the room)


Before



AFTER!
(no bed in this "bedroom" yet...that will come later)


Tuesday, July 27, 2010

It's a...

GIRL! Can't wait for Olivia to have a little sister! Plus, Jon and I can't agree on any boy names, so it's a good thing. :) So excited!

Monday, July 26, 2010

Learning to use a spoon





Keep scrolling. Four new posts besides this one.

Belly


Oh great, I'm already taking less pictures of baby #2 than I did of baby #1. Here's my first official belly picture. Yes, I know, I am totally showing. And do me a favor. JUST look at my belly. This was taken at the end of a rather long and hot Sunday. Less than flattering.

Curls



I'm so glad you're back. I missed you while we were in the dry Utah air.

Rocking Horse


This is currently Olivia's favorite toy. The other day she rocked so hard she flipped over the front! She was crying, so I held her, until I realized she was crying because she wanted to get back on. 'Atta girl!

Strawberry Freezer Jam


My first time. Making, not tasting.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Niño o niña...

It's that time of the pregnancy to start guessing the gender...In fact, I have an ultrasound on Tuesday, so as long as the little one cooperates, we should know in two days if Olivia will be getting a brother or a sister. Post your guesses in the comments...I would promise prizes for correct guesses, but since you have a 50/50 chance, I don't think I would have enough prizes to go around. ;)

Saturday, July 24, 2010

"Go Blog!"

We are "sprucing up" the former storage room in our basement and making it into a spare spare bedroom (post will be forthcoming, I even remembered to take a "before" picture.) While Jon was finishing taping the ceiling, I couldn't help myself, and I cracked open the can of paint just to see how fabulous it looked on the wall (pretty fabulous). After I painted about four roller strokes (rolls?), Jon turned around, saw what I was doing, and told me to get out of there (apparently pregnant women are not allowed to paint walls). When I protested that I had nothing else to do (which is actually not true...there are plenty of other things I could do) he said, "Go blog!"

Well, he got rid of me. I cannot wait to see what the room looks like when he's done painting!! And I am even more excited to see what it looks like when I am done with it. Although, it may not be completely "done" for several months, because it won't have an actual bed in it until we move our guest bed down from the current guest room when that room becomes nursery #2. But we'll do what we can with it for now.

While I'm on the topic of home repair and improvement, let me just say how proud I am of my awesome (though not always the "handiest") husband.

Here's why.

About a month ago we had a leak in our AC unit, which flooded a corner (kind of a little alcove, actually) of the basement. We moved all my craft stuff (which normally lives there) out of the way, sopped up the water with a few towels, left a fan on it for a couple days, and called it good. But we recently noticed a musty smell coming from that corner, and for fear of mold spores poisoning our family, we decided to call in our carpet guy (what, you don't have a carpet guy?) and have him rip up that section, assess the damage, and replace the carpet pad (the carpet itself doesn't have any mold). When I called, he explained the process of what he would do, and told me it would take two visits. At $125 per visit. "Could be worse", I thought. But we decided to do the first steps ourselves (pull up carpet, cut out bad pad, blow with fan for several days to make sure it was dry) and save $125. Well, when we pulled up the carpet this afternoon, my (not-the-"handiest"-of-husbands) husband said "This doesn't look too bad. We can do this!" After which he went to Home Depot, bought some new carpet pad (for $30) and rented a carpet cleaner (for $18) came home, sprayed the affected area with an ammonia solution, shampooed the carpet, sprinkled baking soda to get rid of the smell, and as soon as it's all dry, will re-install the pad and carpet! And then had me call to cancel on the carpet guy. So on top of the $125 we already saved for doing the first part, we saved an additional $77! So proud! Although I wonder if we owe our carpet guy anything for the detailed description he gave me over the phone of what he planned to do to take care of the problem...I guess I'll wait for him to send me the bill.

At not even 18 weeks, I feel like I'm already nesting. And some how, all these "nesting" projects have left my house an absolute disaster. Good thing we still have 5 months!

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Lemon Garlic Linguine with Shrimp

I was in the mood for something fresh yesterday, and ended up inventing a pasta dish that was absolutely delicious!! I thought I would share...

This is not an actual picture of MY linguine. I didn't take one. But this looks pretty close.

Ingredients:
1/2 lb linguine
1 medium zucchini, grated
1 small onion, grated
1 medium tomato, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 C fresh basil, chopped
12-15 medium shrimp
1/4 C lemon juice
1/4 C water
1/2 stick butter
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Bring a pot of water to a boil and cook linguine until al dente. Meanwhile, melt butter in a large skillet or wok and saute garlic in butter. Add shrimp and saute until pink. Add grated zucchini and onion and cook until tender. Add lemon juice and water, and stir until the liquids form a light sauce. Strain cooked pasta and add to skillet along with chopped tomato and basil. Add salt and pepper to taste and toss. Serve hot, with lemon wedges if desired.

This was seriously the perfect summer pasta! Jon said he likes it even more than my pasta primavera, and that's saying something (since pasta primavera has been his standing favorite since I created it a year ago). You should definitely try this. And if you're not a shrimp person, it would also be a great vegetarian dish. Yum!

Friday, July 16, 2010

Reasons we LOVE Family Reunion-ing...

Bonding Across Four Generations

Pinata!
Partying with 300 of our closest relatives (literally) at the legendary Pratt Reunion

Cousin Bath Time

Tractor Rides

Dominating the Hula-Hoop Competition (must be those Haynie Hips)

Minute-to-win-it Games!

Papa Joe on stilts.

Ample willing babysitters allowing some alone time.

Rocking out at the family talent show.

Kissin' Cousins!
Seeing Ama with ALL of her grandbabies...she couldn't be happier.
The reunions were good to us this year! Here's to Family Reunions 2012!

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Thanks and Thoughts

Thanks to all for the well wishes! We are very excited to add another bundle of joy to our family. In response to the question posed by several people, I have been feeling pretty pukey, but thanks to being on zofran practically from day one, it hasn't been quite as bad as with Olivia. Speaking of Olivia, she is sweet and cries whenever she hears me throwing up. She has also started sticking her fingers down her throat and throwing up herself. Not sure if it's a cry for attention or an effort to experience empathy. Either way, I would love thoughts on how to break her of the nasty habit.

We have been enjoying a week of normalcy between vacations. We fly to Utah on the 4th for family reunions, and I can't wait to see my family and meet my newest (and only) nephew.

I have been SOO tired, but now that I'm in my second trimester, I am starting to feel my energy level pick up. Which is a really good thing, because most everything but the absolute essentials have been neglected the past three months.

Also, I think you should thank me for waiting until my first trimester was over to start blogging about the pregnancy. Think of all the vomit posts you were spared! On the other hand, I really can't promise to not post about vomit at all. I mean, this post has some in it, and I might just have a few more up my sleeve. But still...it could have been worse.

Finally, I just have to say that today is the most glorious day! High 70's, clear skies, sunshine. It seriously doesn't get any better. And we had absolutely no outdoor plans. So we went outside and washed the car, and even vacuumed out the inside (and with my little snacker in the back seat, boy did it need it)! We also watered the grass, which was getting a bit crispy during all the 95 degree days and lack of rain. Maybe it will turn green again. Yay for glorious days, Boo for no fun plans, but Yay for a clean car!

That's all for now.