White Christmas in Texas?!

I can't believe we got snow here in Wichita Falls, TX!  I sure did not see that one coming!  Well, I definitely wasn't going to waste the opportunity to take some pictures of James' first Christmas with snow!!!  Here is my beautiful little snow angel!

I did it!

I haven't exercised in quite a while and my body isn't exactly where I want it to be.  Plus, I just had a baby a few months ago!  So, I decided to really get into the whole working out and ready right thing.  Let me tell you, it's rough.  I feel like my whole day is nursing James.  :)  I really love that but it doesn't leave much room during the day for anything else.  And now that he's a little older he is sleeping ALL night, which is awesome, but now he's awake ALL day long.  :)  And the little guy needs his attention. And I can't help giving it to him.  :)  I'm a sucker for his cute little smile.

I knew that I  needed something structured.  I decided to try this free 10k app.  If you haven't worked out in a while and you don't enjoy running, like me, then this app is perfect.  It's a 14 week program and you run/walk 3 times a week.  The first week it had me running for 60 second intervals.  I was dying!  I could barely keep going!  Talk about being out of shape!  Well, I'm happy to report that today, after 5 weeks I ran for 22 minutes straight!  22 minutes!!!  I know that may not be a lot for some of you people out there but that is A LOT for me!  I have 9 more weeks to go and I am very excited to be able to actually run a 10k.  

A Long Night

Last night was a little rough.  James has been really good at sleeping during the night.  He usually has a 6 hour stretch and then most the time after he wakes to eat you goes back to sleep for another hour or two.  Last night was not one of those nights.  For some reason he randomly gets really congested and he has a hard time breathing.  I put a humidifier in our room but it only helps so much.  He kept waking up because he would cough when he couldn't breath out of his nose.  I had to bring him into the bathroom with the shower running on hot three times.  The poor little guy just wasn't able to sleep.  It's so hard to see him struggling and you can't do much to fix it besides just cuddling with him and trying to help him feel better. 

After no sleep last night I figured he would be tired today and take a nap in the morning but he was wide awake. lol  We went grocery shopping together and picked up dinner stuff for the missionaries coming over tonight.  James will usually fall asleep in the car ride, but that was not the case.  He just wasn't in a happy mood this morning at all.

However, after we got home and he ate and napped for about 10 minutes he woke up wide eyed and happy.  He just kept smiling and chattering away.  It's times like these that make the hard times worth it.  I'm fine with not sleeping, forgetting to eat, or living in a somewhat messy house because I have an amazing little boy that has blessed my life in so many ways.  Five minutes of his cuteness completely outweighs a hard night.  :)

Here is a video of what completely made my day.  :)

Carving Pumpkins

Today was the day we carved our Halloween pumpkins.  This being James' first Halloween we definitely had to get him a pumpkin to carve.  Well at least watch us carve the pumpkin for him.  :)  Daryl and I went to Walmart to get our pumpkin and of course since we waited until the day before Halloween there wasn't very much to pick from.  We ended up with two 'cute' ones though and we got to work.

James was able to watch while sitting in his bumbo.  That thing is a lifesaver!  He likes to sit in it while he watches me cook or clean in the kitchen.  :) 

We all had a great time as a family getting ready for our trick or treaters tomorrow.  James is going to dress up in his costume again and sit out on the front porch with us while we pass out candy.  Next year he actually gets to go trick or treating.  I'm sure Daryl has already started planning his next costume.

A Blustery Day

What a cold day it was today. It is definitely getting to be winter here in Wichita Falls, Texas. Even with the cold, today is one of my best days of the week. It's Saturday! Saturday means I get to spend the day with Daryl and have fun. It also means that we get to eat whatever we want. We've been on this diet for three weeks now and we've been eating really healthy and not allowing ourselves to eat junk food at all. It's getting easier though to eat healthy the more we do it. I actually felt a little sick today after we ate.
This morning I went for a run. I've been training for a 10k with this free iPhone app and I've been doing rather well at it. I'm excited to get to the end. I just can't imagine myself actually running a 10k.
Tomorrow is Sunday and we have to wake up extra early for church be sure the bishopric wants to talk to Daryl. He's probably going to be getting a new calling. He's been the mission leader for quite a while now and I'm interested to see what he gets next. I'm also excited for church tomorrow. Part of me wants to be able to sleep in and relax (not that I can really do that anyway with a baby lol), but I'm excited to go to my lessons and feel the spirit again.

Blessed

It amazes me sometimes with just how blessed I feel. I'm laying in bed and Daryl and I just finished reading scriptures and have brought the spirit into our home. As i look around i have my husband on my right and my beautiful baby on my left. I am surrounded by my family and it feels amazing. So amazing that it feels almost scary. Scary because i just cant imagine how i would feel if i lost them. I am so thankful for everything that I have been blessed with. I look forward to the future and all the many wonderful things we will do together as a family. Bring on the fun. :)

Baby James Movie Trailer

Ok, so I was playing with my movie software again and thought . . . how cool it would be to create a movie trailer for little baby James.  :)  I know it may be cheesy, but I had such a blast making it!

I am officially in my third trimester and feeling pretty good.  Other than the headaches and backaches, of course.  But, I'll be 10 weeks away in a few days and I just can't believe how close it is getting.  Our little miracle will be here before we know it.  

So, enjoy this cute little trailer!

Sorry for the bad quality of some of the photos... I didn't have such a nice camera back then  :)

And by the way... there's a much bigger version on You Tube for those who want to see it there...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6Lv1w72hbs

19 Week Ultrasound

I have been counting the days since my last appointment... it's bee a long almost 5 weeks..  I can't believe today actually came.  :)

And of course what better way to share our experience with family and friends with a small movie of the ultrasound.

Enjoy!  We love our supportive family and all the loved ones out there that have been just as excited as we have about our little bundle of joy!

(Video was taken on our camera off the television screen by an overly enjoyed new father, so it's a little bouncy)  :)

It's a Monster Party!

I was asked to make up cupcakes and a cake for a child's birthday party.  So excited!  I get to practice!  lol

The theme is MONSTERS!!!  I had a lot of fun with this!  Here are a few photos!

Yumm... Yummm...  Yummmmmm....

Green Toothy Monsters . . . with Pearlie Whites. . . 

Hypnotizing Monsters . . . don't stare too long . . .

and . . . The Smiling Cyclopes. . . so cute :)

Everything Changes in 9 Months! :)

So this morning I took a pregnancy test and I saw a very very faint positive.  It was a Dollar Tree test though so I was trying to convince myself that it was an evaporation line.  So I brought the test with me to work and kept it in my pocket and kept looking at it like every 5 minutes.

So after work I ran over to Walmart real quick to buy some other tests.  And I still hadn't told Daryl anything about it at all because I wasn't absolutely positive yet.  So I made it home and went into the bathroom while Daryl was on the computer and took two more tests, different brands, just to make sure.  And sure enough they were positive.  Light but still positive.

I wanted to tell Daryl in a creative way, so I came up with making a 6-7 minute DVD of pictures of us from our wedding all the way up until now.  It's out 6 year wedding anniversary in 9 days so it would be the perfect present.  But, in addition to the pictures, at the very end of the dvd, I added a surprise that said life would be changing in 9 months.

So we sat down and I put on the DVD, and needless to say, Daryl was very surprised.  So here is the video I thought I would share with all you.

I don't think it's actually hit me yet..  We've been trying for 5 years.. and I still can't believe it!!!!

I'm pregnant!!!!!!!!!!!

Gorgi Gets Spayed :(

So I had the day off today!  Hallelujah!  I needed a day off so that I could take Gorgi to the vet.  It was time for her to get spayed.  I've been kind of worrying about it for a while, since I made the appointment for her almost two weeks ago.  I kept thinking, she's going to be in soo much pain.  The doctor is going to make a wrong incision.  She's going to bleed to death.  I know... drama queen... sheesh... well, she was just fine.

I dropped her off this morning at 8:30.  I had no problem getting her into the car at all. Anytime I open a car door, there she is trying to get in.  She'll even push me out of the way so she can get into the car.  And what about going to vet?  She doesn't care, there are people there, which only means one thing to her, "FRIENDS!!!!".  This dog absolutely LOVES everyone and every animal it comes in contact with.  So much for a guard dog if we ever needed one. . .  LOL  As long as it moves she considers it her best friend. Yes, that includes other animals, sticks, toys. . . leaves . . .  She just wants to make friends and all the time.  She is soooo lovable!

After getting lost going to the vet a bizillion times because I left my GPS at home and the iphone maps just does not cut it at all.  I swear, that gps app on the iphone, just sucks... That's the only time I ever want to throw my iphone out the window.

So when we finally arrived, Gorgi, merrily prances in the door and straight into the arms of anyone who's close enough.  I managed to keep her away from the three miniature Pomeranians, which were the size or her poop. LOL  At that point, the nurse started taking into the back and as soon as she realized that I wasn't going to come with her, she stops. . . dead in her tracks.  I start walking out the front door and she has her legs planted so far into the ground, that no amount of pulling or prodding from the nurse will get her to move.  So as soon as I'm out of her sight and she realizes I'm not there, she happily goes where ever the nurse takes her.  :)

I needed to pick her up at 4:30pm so in preparation of her coming home I cleaned the house.  I wanted to make sure everything was nice before she came home because I knew she would probably be sick from the Anesthesia or groggy or in pain.  So I swept and mopped the floors.  Cleaned her water and food tray and put out food and water for her because she hadn't eaten anything in over 20 hours.  I washed her bedding and made sure it was clean and smelled nice so she would have a soft place to lay down if she needed to.

And as I drive over to the vet's office I'm wondering how I'm going to get her up and into the car if she's half asleep and has stitches.  But, sure enough as I walk in to pick her up and they get her from the back she comes prancing out and is just as hyper as any other day.  That surgery didn't even faze her.  She was like, "Whatever, so I had a major surgery and my parts are missing, who cares, I got to spend ALL day with FRIENDS!!!""   So I managed to get her into the car and home.  She hasn't eaten anything yet but she's resting on her clean bed.  She's got antibiotics and pain killers that I'll give to her before she goes to sleep tonight.

So now I just have to try and keep her away from her stitches so that she can heal.

First Time Fried Turkey

Daryl and I had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  We've been so busy lately and been working so much that we haven't had much of a chance to see each other so it was nice to have a day off on the same day.  :)  We  stayed home this Thanksgiving because I had worked the day before and had to work the day after, but we missed family a lot.

Apparently up here in Texas, frying your turkey is a big thing.  And ever since Daryl's heard of it he's always wanted to try it.  So, this Thanksgiving we decided to buy all the supplies and actually try our hand at turkey frying.  Even though the turkey cooked in a record 42 minutes there was a lot of planning involved before hand.  Which included having to remove the innards from the turkey.  Ewww gross.  I'll cook it but I won't stick my hand inside pulling out parts.  That's just not me.  So Daryl had to do it.  I told him if you didn't there would be no turkey.  So he put on gloves and did the dirty deed.

We bought all the necessary items and set up our turkey fryer in the backyard a good distance from the house.  I was intent on making this turkey frying experience a safe one.  You always see those videos of the terrible fires and exploding turkeys, well, I was determined to let our turkey safely bathe in the boiling oil without exploding.

So, if you ever decided to try to fry a turkey these are the safety tips I recommend.

Always do a 'displacement test'.  Put your turkey in the fry bucket and measure how much water is needed to just cover the turkey.  That way when you slowly lower the poor little bird into the boiling oil it won't overflow and splash out.

Always had a fire extinguisher on hand.  Even if you are super careful you never know what could happen.  So be prepared.

Wrap the hose connector in foil.  In the case that oil does come out of the fryer and lands on your gas hose it won't 'eat through' and cause an explosion.

Keep all animals inside the house.  This was a very hard one because once Gorgi smelled the satisfying, crispy, juicy smell of the turkey she wanted out, and bad.

And stay outside with the turkey fryer the entire time it is one.  Don't leave it unattended.  Obvious.

With our safety precautions in mind, we pulled out a rather juicy looking turkey 42 minutes later.  Now, I've heard from a lot of people that fried turkey is rather dry especially in the breast area.  This was not my experience at all.  This was the juiciest turkey meat I've every had.  Needless to say the fried turkey has won our appeal.  (we bathed the turkey in salt and brown sugar solution for 8 hours before we fried it, so this might have helped)

We baked the usual Thanksgiving things. . . mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, Daryl's sweet potato pie, and we even made homemade rolls, which were amazing.

So all in all it was a wonderful Thanksgiving day . . .

2nd Round of Clomid

* If you think you're waiting for a picture to load, you're not.  That's the picture*  Lol

Please wait . . . .  that is what my life feels like on the baby front.  I saw this caption and just had to add it because it made me laugh.  So I am now on my 2nd Round of Clomid.  As most of you know, we've been trying to start a family for quite some time.  The good thing is... we have great insurance thanks to Daryl.  It's costing us . . . $0, which is absolutely fantastic because last time we tried to go to the doctor for infertility it was going to cost us $3500 a month.

Now I have a fantastic doctor who is really working with us to help us conceive.  The best thing I like about this doctor is he's not the sort of doctor that just tries something and tells me to wait five months to see how it works, if it doesn't work one month he's on to something else.  So after my first visit and tests he put me on 50mg of clomid.  I took this last month and I went in to 'see if it had worked'.  And it did, it helped me ovulate which apparently I wasn't doing on my own.  And we had quite a few 'eggs' last month which gave us the possibility of multiples which Daryl was flipping out about. lol  But, sadly nothing happened last month.  The doctor says that even if everything goes right there is still only a %30 chance of conceiving.  So, I made another appointment this month and started my second round of clomid.  Because we weren't able to get pregnant last month he sent me in for some more blood work to check a few things.  And found out later that I have an abnormally high testosterone level.  yay me.. what does high testosterone cause you ask?  Acne, fun.  Hard time losing weight, even better.  And oh yah, infertility, yep sounds about right.

 So last Thursday I went for my scan to see if this month had worked, and it did, we've got a really nice 'egg'.  Yay!  Now, I get to wait another two weeks to see if this little guy decides to give me two lines on a test.  When that actually happens I'm going to think I'm hallucinating.  I've probably single handedly kept the pregnancy test companies afloat during these rough economic times.  I mean seriously, we've been trying for years, and almost every month I thought I could be pregnant.  And of course even when you take one and it says no, I always think, well it's just to early, so I keep on testing and spending money. lol

I'm just so thankful that Daryl and I are able to go through this and have things that may be able to help us have a baby.  Just finally being in this process gives us hope.  But, if it doesn't end up happening this month, the doctor is going to add some medicine to my routine to help with the high testosterone levels.  Give me all the medicine I can take!  We've waited so long already!  You know those places where you go and you see tons of pregnant ladies and you think, 'it must be in the water.'  Well, believe me I not only say that, I drink it!  Anything to help me have a chance!  lol  

But, if for someone reason Daryl and I don't end up getting pregnant in about another year, we have decided to start the adoption process.  And who knows, maybe this is what God has intended for us all along.  

So here's to another month, another two weeks of waiting, and another thousand tests I'm sure to take.  Cheers. : )  

Keep your fingers crossed for us!

This Girl's Not Paying $90 For A Power Steering Flush!

It's that time of the year when I have to take the car and the truck in for oil changes.  And of course you expect  the mechanics to come out and tell you what is wrong with your car and ALL the services you need to get and ALL the money you need to spend or else your car is going to DIE!  Well, this time I had to agree with them on one thing.  The power steering in the hubby's truck has been making a terrible noise everyday he drove it and especially when he turned.  So when the mechanic showed me what the power steering fluid looked like I wasn't that surprised.  It was black.  Black like the inside of my empty wallet.  Which didn't help matters because the power steering flush was $90.00!  I told him I would try to bring in the truck as soon as possible, all the while thinking where I was going to find 90 extra dollars.

Later that day, I got to thinking.  Why do I have to pay that much money to get it done!  There has to be another way!  I could call up other places and ask their prices but most places would be around the same.  So, then I thought, well I could do it!  And I bet I could do it for way cheaper!  The problem is, I've never done any maintenance on my car except for filling the tires with air and checking fluid levels.  But, not knowing wasn't going to stop me!  So, I decided to research, research, research.  I could learn how to do a power steering fluid flush and save some money.  Yay!  All my problems were solved!

But, wait, not sooo fast . . . I had to think this out.  If I managed to get some hose out of place and not put back in my hubby wasn't going to have a truck to drive.  But, that didn't deter me from my plan.  So, Daryl and I went down to AutoZone and bough two bottles of Power Steering Fluid for $15.00 and went back to the house.  I did need Daryl's help with this, but he's as knowledgeable in car maintenance as I am.  So, pliers in hand and dressed in clothes I could get dirty I approached the truck with caution. . . There were three possible outcomes to this scenario, either I was going to break the truck, the truck was going to break me, or magically it would end with no casualties. 

And what do you know, no casualties!!!  We managed to change the fluid and what's even better. . . the noise that truck was making was gone!  

 A quieter, healthier truck and $75.00 saved. . . not a bad day!

Baby Shower Cake for tomorrow!

I've been practicing!  So I needed 'excuses' to make cakes so that I could get some more practice time in. :) So, I decided to make a baby shower cake for the party I'm going to tomorrow.  The lady in charge of the party was real excited, so hopefully it came out as good as she hoped.  :)   But, I do have to say, for my third cake, it's not too bad.  :)

I made the fondant buttons ahead of time, then made two 10 inch cakes and two 8 inch cakes.  Then filled them with the raspberry filling that everyone loves and iced them with buttercream.  And today I put everything together and decorated.  Icing still takes me WAY too long, but the more I do it, the better I'll get at it.  

So here it is!!!!  What do you think?

Armadillo River Adventure

Daryl had the day off on Labor Day so we decided to go back to the hiking place we went to before at Lucy Park.  We discovered different trails and came across quite a few surprises.  :)   Enjoy the short movie we put together of the day.  :)

*  It is much bigger and has better quality but I am limited to the file size I can download on here.  :(   So unfortunately it's a little hard to see  *

It has music so make sure your speakers are on!

You will see two videos here. . . the top one has great quality the bottom one has the music.  To get the full effect click play on the top one first and as soon as you see it load click on the next video.  I know .  . . confusing, but if You Tube and Blogger weren't so frustrating it would be good . . . 

Greek Food Night! And Final Review of Cake!

I may be Irish, but throwing a little Greek in the mix never hurt . . .  :)

So I decided to try a few new recipes tonight.  I wanted to go Greek!  Let me tell you, they turned out awesome!


The recipes were Chicken Gyros with Cucumber Salsa and Tsatsiki, and Spanakopita.  Yummm. Yumm.


Chicken Gyros: 


Ingredients:  1 Cucumber, a cup of Greek Yogurt, fresh lemon juice, 2 garlic cloves, 1 medium sized tomato, mint, olive oil, 1 tsp oregano, 1 tsp rosemary, pocketless pita rounds, 1/2 roast chicken, chopped lettuce.


Start by pulling off the chicken breast into shredded pieces.

You don't have to use a Rotisserie Chicken but it cuts down on time and effort!  :)  Set that chicken aside and then make the Tsatsiki sauce.

I made this recipe for just two people so I cut down on all the ingredients.  I bought a yogurt cup of Greek Yogurt instead of the big tub.   I grated half a cucumber then squeezed it with my hands to remove the excess water.  Stir together with the yogurt, add a squirt of lemon juice, a clove of minced garlic, a pinch of salt, and some pepper.  Stir it together, and Tada!  Tsatsiki sauce.  It was scared about trying this sauce but it is absolutely delicious on the Chicken Gyros.

Next we'll make the cucumber salsa.  Chop up the remaining cucumber and add to a bowl.

Then chop up one of those medium tomatoes and add to bowl.

Then mix together with another squirt of lemon juice, a dash of mint, a pinch of salt, and some pepper.  Then set aside.

Once those items are made, saute the chicken in oil, with oregano, rosemary, a clove of minced garlic, and 1/4 tsp salt and pepper.

Heat up some pocketless pita rounds on the stop top and add all together!

Talk about delicious!  We enjoyed them very much!

Spanakopita:


Ingredients:  1 Stick of Unsalted Butter, 1 lb baby spinach, 2 cups crumbled feta cheese, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, and some phyllo sheets.

First thing I did was melt some of the butter in a pan and add the 1 lb baby spinach.  It all wouldn't even fit in this big pan at first, but this is what it ended up like!  You want to stir the spinach until wilted and tender, about 4 minutes.

 The it's time to get messy.  Squeeze handfuls of spinach to remove as much liquid as possible.  After that you want to coarsely chop the spinach.  I forgot!  And yes it makes a big difference!
Then transfer to a bowl and stir in feta, nutmeg, and 1/2 tsp salt and pepper.

Preheat oven to 375.  Melt the remaining stick of butter in the microwave, then let it cool.  Next take out your phyllo sheets and make sure you keep them covered with plastic wrap and a moist towel when they are not in use.

Take 1 phyllo sheet from the stack, lay out and brush with some butter.  Then take another phyllo sheet and add it to the top and add some more butter.

Then cut long pieces into the phyllo sheets.  Add about a tsp of the spinach mixture and starting folding it into a triangle.  The trick here. . . fold very loosely.  If you fold them too tight they tend to break when cooking.

Then arrange on your baking sheet and brush top with butter.  I tried big ones and small ones, and I think the small ones turned out better.  These are good, but you can't eat a lot, they are very flavorful and the big ones are just a little much.

Cook in the oven until golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes.

They turned out great!

So that was our adventure into some Greek food for tonight!  We will definitely be adding these recipes to our list.  :)

Daryl also brought the cake I made into work and it went over very well!  He took a picture of the inside of the cake since he cut it at work.  He brought me home a piece though.  :)  It was sooo good.  Look at those beautiful raspberry layers.   So excited to make my next cake!