More baking!

You may have guessed by now, but I love baking.....mostly because I love the end results. Christmas is the one time a year I can sort of justify mass amounts of homemade sugared goodies in my house! Mmmmm, the smell that goes along with it is almost as good as the taste. I just finished making my second batch of apple cider caramels, and with any luck they will turn out. I kind of botched mixing the ingredients, but I think I was able to sort it out! Lol, the first batch was perfect though, and I am still doing it all with a broken candy thermometer!

This is where my thermometer freezes EVERY time. It never  goes higher than 210˚!

I also tried making an English toffee recipe. This specific recipe didn't want you to use a candy thermometer, so I thought it would be perfect. Well, it didn't turn into the hard break apart toffee it was supposed to, but it was deliciously chewy, and Mike an I still downed the whole batch. Maybe I will try again, because I really love that crunch.
I also tried a new recipe that I found off Pinterest. These were a total hit! Chocolate Turtle Cookies. I took them to a Christmas party and they were thoroughly enjoyed, and the recipe was requested by many. Mike is already asking me to make more because they didn't last long. I doubled the recipe and used some of the extra dough to stick candy cane kisses into. I love the peppermint chocolate combo too!

I also made a delicious Peanut Butter Toblerone no-bake cheesecake. I made it last year and we loved it, so it made it onto this years baking list. I didn't get a picture of the one I made, but you can check out the recipe and what it looks like here.
I may end up baking another batch or two of cookies, and I will probably give that toffee one more shot, but other that that I am nearing the end of my crazy Christmas baking spree.
I hope you all have a fabulous Christmas!! And a Happy New Year!

Third trimester!

So there is a bit of a debate on my dates....nothing serious, as I know a due date is irrelevant.... baby comes when baby comes. But according to my second ultrasound they put my due date at March 3rd, and my doctor is still referring to my dates according to March 8th. So I am somewhere between 27 and 28 weeks. Either way....I have essentially arrived at the third trimester! Leaving it at the latter date, I only have 90 days to go! If I am really lucky it might be less. But more likely it will be more! :) I was late with my others! This one probably won't be any different.....sooooo to update!
- overall I have still been feeling pretty good.
- mild heartburn once in a while, enjoying food a lot again.
- overall weight gain about 8lbs
- only mildly waddling....but I am trying to prevent it! :)
- rolling over in bed is only going to get more difficult from here on out.
- luckily no swelling or weight gain in unwanted places.
- baby is just over 2lbs, and is just going to keep putting on weight.
-we are finally getting closer to choosing a name. We have narrowed things down significantly.
- baby is wiggling lots and starting to push out once in a while and I can feel his head or back or some other hard surface. It hasn't gotten uncomfortable yet though which is nice!
I am excited that I only have about 12 weeks left. I am sure with Christmas and New Years these next few weeks are going to fly by! We are very excited to meet this little guy and so are the kids! Here are some belly shots for this week!

Have to have a little fun! Not too bad for 27-28 weeks!! 

Baking.....

      I am in my groove for Christmas baking! I love this time of year for that! Mmmmmm, homemade goods make me happy. We have done some gingerbread Santas......Mason unfortunately couldn't figure out what they were. Ha ha, his guesses included ninjas and spacemen. Oh we'll, at least they tasted good.

       We also made up some sugar cookies, and I had fun decorating them with a glaze icing that is fun to make cool patterns with. I used this recipe last year and loved it, I still have extra dough and plan on making some more but decorating them differently.

      I should mention that my go to website for recipes these days is ourbestbites.com . I love their website. I have never had a bad recipe off it! The gingerbread cookie recipe can be found here. And the sugar cookie recipe can be found here. They also have lots of different ideas for decorating all your cookies. The glaze/flood icing is also found on their website!
      Though this isn't specifically a Christmas dessert....I made it in the midst of my Christmas baking so it gets entered here. I had a few very over ripe bananas that needed to be used up, and I couldn't resist trying this recipe. The name alone makes it sound irresistible. Caramelized Banana Bread with a Browned Butter Glaze. Ummmm yes, I will take some please! I don't know if you have ever had "browned butter" anything, but it is amazing. I never knew butter could smell so good. This recipe didn't disappoint either. It is nice and moist and rich and the glaze is a perfect extra! The recipe for this can be found here.

I still have lots and lots of recipes that I want to try out. And some favorites from last year. I will for sure be making the Apple Cider caramels that I made last year. And I have a whole stash of recipes on pinterest that I am excited to try! I am sure there will be more posts about it all in the next couple weeks.

Crafting....

So I have been crocheting a lot lately. I have been doing a few other things than hats lately too. But I have been really forgetful/lazy with getting my camera out and I have usually just been taking pictures of things with my iPad. So I will apologize in advance for the poorer quality of photos in this series.The biggest project that I recently finished was the baby quilt for upcoming baby boy!

I have made blankets for my other children, but both of those were denim rag quilts. Without easy access to a fabric store, extra old jeans, and a sewing machine, that blanket was out of the question. But I had lots of yarn, and was happy to do that for now. I would still like to make a rag quilt too, but that can come later.
I tried a new stitch pattern, and really love it. I also tried something new, and not on the pattern, by adding my own border. Overall I am really happy with it.....it took a lot of hours.
I still did a few hats, on specific request. My brother wanted a minion hat for his upcoming baby, and I happened upon some bright yellow yarn for free! Doesn't get any better than that. Once he saw the one he and his wife wanted matching ones too.

Next up mike asked if I could make him a case for his guitar slides. So I whipped this up. It has two pockets, one for his slides, and one for extra strings and his tuner. I loved it so much I decided to alter the dimensions a bit to make a wipes case for the new baby. My last wipes case was really cute, but really girly. This will be cute, but very neutral! I made this pattern up completely, and was really happy with the outcome too, especially since I figured out the button holes. This pattern could very easily be altered for many things.

Though it isn't even started yet, Mason has also requested a new hat. His old one has a much looser stitch and ear flaps, and with the colder weather he has been saying it hasn't been keeping his head warm enough. So that is what is up next on my list!

23 Weeks!

So I thought I would do a quick update on here as to how my pregnancy is going. I am realizing the more kids I have the harder it is going to be to remember the small details of each pregnancy. So some random facts about this pregnancy:
-Other than a bit of nausea at the beginning, luckily with no throwing up, the pregnancy has been pretty good.
-I am over the getting up twice a night to pee......for now....this is probably the best sleep I will be getting for a while.
-I have already had to start dealing with some heartburn, hopefully it doesn't get too much worse....I despise Tums!
-According it my OB/GYN I am a boring patient...but that is a good thing.
-I am 23 weeks now, and according to the Wii (where I normally weigh myself), I have somehow only gained 3 lbs. this is mind boggling to me. I guess this baby is being nice to me and sucking up fat stores from somewhere else!!!! :)
-I haven't had any crazy cravings, usually it will just be one random thing one day, and once I get it I am over it. I have had more food aversions this pregnancy than my other ones. But most of that is over now too.
-I am filling out my maternity clothes, but can still wear a lot of my other clothes, just with elastic bands to help out.
-Doctors appointments are going well and so far everything is looking good!
-Baby is a boy, and he now weighs almost one pound.
And last but not least here is a picture of my growing belly!

23 Weeks

Its a BOY!

So I had my 3rd ultrasound today. It was a long ultrasound compared to the last ones because it was the anatomy scan. And from everything they could see, all is looking well. We were also excited to find out what we were having. We asked the kids that morning what they thought it would be, and in typical fashion, Mason wanted a brother and Aubrey was convinced it was a sister. Even after we left and told her it was a boy, she still insists "no its a GIRL!" We will work on that one!! lol

I should have figured it was a boy, based on how active this baby has been. lol, aren't boys always more busy?? I know Mason was a lot more active in my belly than Aubrey and this little guy is proving to be quite the acrobat too! Now we have the big decision of picking a name.....we can cut out half of them now we know it is a boy. But boy names have always been hard from Mike and I to come up with so we will see how that goes....luckily we still have a few months to figure it out!

 I also plan on keeping some updated photos on here of my belly as it grows. So here is a little recap and  I will add more as the weeks go. We are very excited about the newest addition and are even more excited to meet him now!

Here is me at 12 1/2 weeks. On my birthday. Just starting to show a little.

About 14-15 weeks.

20 weeks

And 20 weeks again....because that is where I am at now! 

Baby # 3!!!!

So as many probably know, we are expecting baby number 3!!!! We are pretty darn excited about this too. This is probably going to feel like the longest pregnancy ever, considering I found out I was pregnant when I was only 3 weeks 2 days(according to my doctors charts). Most don't find out this early. I have had a wonky period for the last year as I talked about in this post.  So trying to decide when to pee on the stick presented a challenge. I could have waited until I missed a period, but I am not a very patient person. So based off my somewhat regular 26 day cycle I took the test a few days early and got a positive reading. My doctor had told me to come in as soon as I found out I was pregnant because it is really difficult to get accepted by OB/GYN's here. If you don't get in before 5-8 weeks, sometimes you're out of luck. My family doctor also sent me for a dating ultrasound because of my irregularity she wanted to be sure on the dates. That's when we found out we were having a frog.....I mean baby, due around March 8th! :)

We had another ultrasound at about 13 weeks to do the nuchal translucency screening to test for downs syndrome. It is a completely optional test, but I was just more excited to see the baby again! Mike said it was jumping and moving around like crazy during the ultrasound which seemed crazy to me because I couldn't feel anything. But everything was looking great and right on track, and we could see that it looked a lot more like a baby this time. Oh they also moved my date up to March 3rd.

I am now 16 1/2 weeks, and into the easy stage of pregnancy, where I really don't feel pregnant just kind of tubby! I am over the morning sickness (thank goodness) which I really shouldn't complain about, I only suffered from nausea this time and no throwing up! I am showing a lot earlier this pregnancy, which I hear happens after your second and third child.  Hopefully baby catches up with my belly soon though! I am also excited and hopeful to start to feel the baby move. I keep telling myself....any day now!

I plan on keeping up with belly pics on here so feel free to check back at my growing belly over the next few months! :)