Kitty loves Christmas

30 Weeks

Merry Christmas!!!

26 Weeks

This week the baby weighs 1.75 pounds and is 13 inches from head to toe or about the length and weight of this huge piece of pie!

New Printer's Row Park

Saturday morning was the opening of a new park just down the block from our apartment. It was a beautiful day and the "ribbon" cutting ceremony utilized yarn from Loopy Yarns, a great knitting store down the street.



This park was 10 years in the making and 6 months ago looked like a sad little parking lot! The space is well done and is completed by benches that mimic moveable type. So fun!


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Construction

After 2 weeks of having this huge contraption in our living room, we have a beautiful new patch in our ceiling and roof! We tried to cover as much of our stuff with plastic and sheets to protect it from the dust and debris, but there was a lot of dust. I've spent the last few days washing the floors (this had to be done 3 times!), windows, and walls - pretty much every surface in our house! I even vacuumed the brick walls. I'm starting to really feel like a crazed pregnant lady "nesting", but honestly it all had to be cleaned. We are just thankful that all this construction work was done before the baby arrived and with plenty of time to take care of the mess!

Now I'm off to give India a bath - please notice that she is of course in the middle of this construction picture. She could often be found rolling around in the dust - such a gross little kitty!

23 Weeks

So this is a little bit late in being posted, but more on that later!

This week Lil' Lewlew weighs just over a pound, the same as a mango!
Brad has been able to feel the baby move for a couple weeks, which makes it all seem more real!!
He or she is much more active, especially in the evening. it looks like we have a little night owl on our hands.

Hanging with the Kirklands & Felix!

20 weeks

We are half-way through the pregnancy!
The baby is the length of a banana.
Last week I was having some serious heartburn,
but this week is much better!

18 Weeks!

THIS WEEK'S NOTABLE EVENTS:
I felt the baby move last Monday
Baby grew to the size of a bell pepper
I was crazy hungry, still am in fact....

Lemon Cottage Cheese Cheesecake

So this seems to be a little bit healthier version of cheesecake and the texture comes out a little lighter.

Ingredients
1 1/2 c. crushed graham crackers or cookies
1 1/2 c. sugar, divided
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 c. butter, melted
3 c. cottage cheese
1/4 c. flour
4 eggs
1/2 c sour cream or plain yogurt
1/2 c half-and-half
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. grated lemon peel

Mix crumbs, 1/2 cup of sugar, cinnamon & butter; reserve 3/4 cup for topping.

Press remaining crumb mixture onto bottom and 1 1/2 inches up the side of 9-inch spring form pan.

Bake @ 325 for 10 minutes.

Place cottage cheese, remaining 1 cup sugar and flour in blender or food processor container; cover. Blend until smooth. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing well after each addition. Blend in remaining ingredients; pour into crust. Sprinkle with reserved crumb mixture.

Bake 1 hour. Run small knife or metal spatula around rim of pan to loosen cake;
cool before removing rim of pan. Refrigerate several hours or until chilled.

Baby News

Many of you already know our big news, but I thought it was about time to put some pictures on the blog and share our news with the world! Hopefully I can keep this thing updated!?!

We had our first positive pregnancy test on June 21st, Father's Day and the baby's due date is February 25th. We are so excited!

India is ecstatic about the upcoming baby!

July 10th: 7 weeks
Baby LewLew as a little blob

At our high school reunion - July 25th: Erika is 28 weeks and me at 9 weeks.

August 7th: 11 Weeks
When I went in for my appointment to hear the heartbeat, the doctor could not hear it, so we had an ultrasound. It was amazing to see how much the baby was moving around and how much it had changed in just 4 weeks!

September 4th: 15 weeks
My mom was in town for this doctor's appointment and we all got to hear
the heartbeat for the first time. It was amazing!

Yummy Pork!

I don't know about you, but I love my crockpot! I use it at least twice a week. One of my favorite things to use the crockpot for is to cook a big piece of meat and then use the soft, succulent meat in meals for the rest of the week. Since pork is a favorite of my husband, I'm always looking out for new recipes to use it in - here are a few I tried this week:

Place pork roast, 1 onion, sliced, 1 bay leaf, 2 Tbsp soy sauce & 1 Tbsp garlic powder in crockpot.
Cook on High 1 hour, then on Low 6 hours (I'm sure this could cook on Low for the entire day)

1st Recipe: Pork Tacos

These pork tacos were really tasty! I used about a quarter of the crockpot pork and mixed in some Penzey Adobo (similar to taco seasoning), sliced red cabbage & onions with a little rice vinegar drizzeled, sliced up an avocado and topped it with our 5-finger home made salsa.

5-finger Salsa: This recipe got its name because it only has 5 ingredients!
Saute 1/2 a red onion & 2 cloves of garlic in some olive oil, Let cool.
Meanwhile, in a blender combine a can of Mexican Tomatoes, juice of 1 lime, and a handful of cilantro.
Add the onion and garlic mixture to blender and give it a whirl.

2nd Recipe: Jamie Oliver's Pizza with Slow Roasted
Shredded Pork with Thyme and Lemon Dressed Rocket

California Dreamin'

We spent a whole week in California! The weather was beautiful and we got to spend time with old friends!

Nate & Sarah's Beautiful Wedding

After a few days in San Diego, we drove with Matt & Erika to San Francisco. We spent a lot of time just wandering the city, which we all like to do together, eating & just talking!

Golden Gate Bridge - Just the perfect amount of fog!

Downtown San Francisco

Making our way towards Alcatraz

So happy to spend time together!

Matt & Erika

Tea time with Banana Cream Pie!

We took Highway 1 back to San Diego. The drive was so beautiful and took about 15 hours! Matt was an awesome driver!

When we got to LA we searched out Kogi, a kimchi taco truck that changes locations every two hours and posts it's location on Twitter. Kimchi & tacos may seems like a weird combo, but they were perfect together!

Brad & I spent a day at the beach and searched out this crazy house!

While in California, we celebrated our 7 year wedding anniversary.
I am so thankful for the wonderful & caring man that God gave me to marry!

On our way home.

Trip to Kansas

Two weeks ago we took a trip back to Kansas for Brian's (Brad's brother) graduation from KU! It was wonderful to spend some time in KC & Lawrence with Brad's brothers and old friends!

Walking down the Hill

My really bad attempt to take a self-portrait of us at Sylas & Maddy's. This was one of our many stops on Mass Street - we ate small portions at all our favorite places, except for the ice cream - we each got our own cone here!

After a couple of lovely days in Eastern KS, we headed down to Wichita to visit both of our families! We were able to see so many people and I now realize that I took almost no pictures - too bad!

Luke, our nephew, loves the frosting part of a cupcake more so than the cake!

Hendrix Visit

Being Parents is Hard Work!

India and Jack get reacquainted

Pallet Guest Bed

It took many coats of Poly and a lot of sanding, but we finally
got a nice, smooth finish on these pressed wood pallets

There are a total of 4 pallets; in this picture they are stacked onto one another.

This bed can be made into a twin or a king size bed. When we have more than one person we can unstack the pallets and the mattresses - We wanted it to be very functional!

Homemade Granola

We really enjoy eating oatmeal in the mornings and this winter I've been making large batches of steal cut oats in the crock pot. With summer fast approaching, I find that warm oatmeal doesn't sound as appealing, so this week I made a batch of granola that seems to be both delicious and healthy!


Recipe for Simple Granola
From Too Many Cooks: Kitchen Adventures with 1 Mom, 4 Kids, and 102 Recipes

Note: measure oil first – this way the honey will slide out easily and make for simple clean-up.
3/4 cup canola oil
3/4 cup honey
Big splash vanilla extract
1 teaspoon brown sugar
5 1/2 cups rolled oats (not the quick cooking ones)
3 cups bran bud (Grape Nuts or something similar)
+/- handfuls of dried fruit (golden and brown raisins, cranberries, blueberries, chopped
apricots, dates, etc.)
+/- Fruit for layering if making parfait – bananas, apples, grapes, cantaloupe, honeydew

Oven to 300. Heat oil, honey, sugar, and vanilla for about 1 minute in microwave or two minutes on stovetop. In large bowl, mix warm ingredients and add in dry (except for dried fruit). Stir gently until combined.

Pour onto parchment-lined cookie sheet and spread into one layer. Bake for 25ish minutes, shifting/mixing granola a few times. If you need to leave, turn off the oven and it will be fine. If you’re home, take it out.

LET COOL completely before testing or doing anything else to it. The crunch comes only upon cool down. Once cool, add dried fruit if desired or mix into plain yogurt for a healthy lunch. Feel free to add toasted almonds or sunflower seeds if you like.

Guest Bathroom: B&A

Before

So this isn't a true before picture because I had already painted the
cabinet doors dark grey, but you get the idea.

Before the cabinets were a yellowing white & had white plastic 3" handles

Prepping for the paint

Painting completed! Now on to the red flower stencil. The red spray paint was a little tricky - I was cleaning up red dust for a week after.

After
Completed spray paint flower

What a difference some paint & new hardware make!