Memorial Day BBQ

I LOVE long weekends. Especially when they involve 3.5 days off, getting many items crossed off my to do list, and also including time to relax with friends. If any of you remember 7 years ago the Eids and Jovle's wanted to start a tradition. It was decided that every Memorial Day going forward we would spend at least part of it together. The host could decide what to do and if they wanted to include anyone else. This year it was the Eid's turn. They decided it'd be fun to spend the afternoon/evening at Cleary Lake Park and also invited 3 other couples/kids/fetuses. What a perfect evening it was too! The weather couldn't have been better and we found a picnic bench in the shade that had enough room for ladder ball. Another successful year!

Sidenote: I don't think I ever blogged it, but we did decide to replace my camera that broke when I was in Dallas. Today was one of the first times using it and I have to say I was very impressed. At the end of the day when we tried to get a good pic of the 3 kids sitting together, it was very fast and captured it all. Watch the progression.

New camera: Fuji Finepix Z


The BBQ
Jeff, Jenny, Mallory, Kristen, & Brent


Cran, Cari, Kristen & Ellie


Kiddos

Future Ballerina?

Last night I attended my alma mater, Woodbury Dance Studio's recital. It's something that I do every year because it's fun to see how my old dance line improves and how big that studio is getting. As I sat through the performances last night I felt Baby Girl going crazy in there...and she continued to move throughout the whole 2 hour show! I think we've got a future dancer on our hands. She's already liking the music. :)

(clearly a stolen photo; from google images)

Great Day

My 2 favorites shows are released today!

Sex and the City Movie 2 premiers



So You Think You Can Dance starts tonight. Woo hoo!!



Unfortunately I will not be seeing either of them today but hopefully soon!

28 Weeks

Updated belly pic. All I can say is it's def getting big!



Facts about the baby now:
She's 14.8 inches long (about??)
She weights 2.25 lbs
Her eyes have lashes and she can blink her eye lids.
She moves around a lot and has started giving hard kicks.
Her heartbeat was strong at 141.

Also good news is I passed my gestational diabetes test! Very glad to hear that since I couldn't imagine cutting the sweets. Of course this didn't happen without a little drama. After I drank the drink they give you I started to not feel well. I thought it was from the fizz and having to drink it so fast, but then I started to get really dizzy. Ended up almost passing out. The nurse had me lie down and put ice packs on my neck and forehead. I laid that way for the reminder of the appointment. I swear I have never heard of anyone else having this problem but everyone there reassured me it happens to lots of women. Still felt a little silly but nothing I could really do. Just glad I passed and baby is healthy!

Homemade Pop Tarts

I made these over the weekend...(too lazy to take my own pics so that one is stolen) All I can say is wow! They are super flaky and delish! I tried 3 different filling options: Nutella, brown sugar and cinnamon, and raspberry jam. Since the recipe ended up making 12 poptarts, I froze half of them unbaked hoping it'll work to thaw them and bake them up. It was a bit putzy to do but well worth it. I'm sure it'd be easier with just 1 filling. Next time I'm trying them gluten and diary free so Justin can enjoy them too. We'll see how that compares!

Cooking Club IV

This past weekend Justin and I hosted the 4th edition of Cooking Club. We chose to do a Thai theme. Between Justin and Cran we have quite a few food allergies to deal with and Thai turned out to be great for gluten and diary free! No substitutions needed. It might become a new staple in Justin and my meals.

We started the night with a Thai drink of Iced Watermelon. It's literally just ice and watermelon blended together and was so so delicious. Might've been my favorite part of the night. It'd be very refreshing on a hot summer day.


The appetizer course tasted a lot better than this picture shows. It consisted of rice cakes with 2 sauces: a spicy dipping sauce and a prawn and coconut dip. The spicy sauce I didn't care for. All I could taste was the shrimp paste and I didn't think it was spicy at all. The coconut dip was great though. The 2nd appetizer was egg rolls. Not the traditional kind but actual cooked eggs rolled up. Served with a lime soy sauce. Quite tasty.


The second course was a hot and sour noodle salad. Really good. I'd definitely make again and easy to make.


The main course was thick beef curry in sweet peanut sauce served over coconut rice and sided with stir-fried pineapple with ginger. Again all of it was great!


The dessert course was steamed custard in nectarines. It was ok. Very easy to make but not sure I'd do it again. I accidentally over-cleaned before we served the dessert and threw away the garnishes. oops!


More pics of the night plus some others from the weekend.

Painting Part II

My other half of the painting project was Baby Girls room. So far I've got the wall color done. Remember the bedding? I still want to do some kind of accent circles to match but I'm not sure what exactly what or where.

Room view starting from the doorway and each picture is the next wall to the left.








Still a lot more to do with decorating and assembling the furniture (it's in our possession in boxes) but we're getting there.

Garage Sale Goodies

Last Friday was the annual Woodbury garage sales. Every year that I'm able to, I go out with Mom & Cari. We all get beyond excited for it. I usually don't even find much but I still love looking for the bargains. This year I did very well. I was mostly looking for baby things and crafting stuff. In the back of my head was also a snow blower and sturdy wooden table for the basement craft room but I didn't have high hopes of finding either. Goes to show you just never know! Come early afternoon Ron found a hardly used Northstar snowblower. I knew Justin wanted a big one and that was about it. From that description it fit. Ron called him up with the specs, negotiated with the guy and next thing I know they were loading it into my truck as I was writing a check. Sweet!!!

We can finally put away the shovels and rest our backs next year.


My favorite find of the day was the bouncy seat I had on my registry. This one was is great condition and we negotiated it down to $10!! Such a steal


Otherwise I got a bunch of board books, few toys, a yoga mat carrier (brand new!) and a stamp set.


All in all a success! Makes me want to go find more sales...

Painting Part I

I've completed half of my projects that I've been working on. As many of you know I started painting Baby Girl's bedroom and bathroom. The bathroom is officially done for now! A HUGE thanks to Cari for helping me paint. She actually did most of it as she was instructed by mom to keep me out if the smell got too strong (which it did quite a bit).

Here's the bathroom before




In progress - Cari working hard.


And finished!!




The color is called Sunflower but Cari and I determined that it's really Vikings gold. Too bad I couldn't find purple towels to match! The room still needs decorations and the rest of the accessories that go with the set but that will all come soon enough. I'm just excited we have color!

Busy Busy

Justin and I have been very busy working on all of our house/yard projects. We're not used to having all of these deadlines! The basement project is coming along really well and J thinks we're still on track to have it done before the baby comes. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Here's the latest progress.

Bedroom


View from the patio doors


Main area


Craft Area and store room


It's looking like rooms! I think the bathroom is up next and then taping and mudding. Stay tuned to see the project that I have been working on...

A little rain/snow won't stop me

I have been counting down the days for my local Farmers Market (in Prior Lake) to open up. It's not a very big one, and I know it won't have very many veggies this time of year, but it's located next to my FAVORITE little pastry shop. And there's also a guy that sells buffalo burgers that are perfect for grilling this time of year. Even though they are predicting snow tonight and tomorrow will be cold I still plan on going tomorrow am for the first day. I'll just have to make sure my coffee is extra hot to make up for it.

Dallas

Justin and I spent the past weekend in Dallas visiting my Dad and my step-mom Deb. It was quite the overdue visit as we haven’t seen them in over 2 years.  I was told to take lots of pictures and was determined to do so…that was until I pulled my camera out and saw this.

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That’s the screen on my camera – smashed. Doh!!! I was not very happy. At least it wasn’t our new nice camera but I still used this one when I wanted something small. Needless to say not many pictures were taken.

We spent most of our weekend just spending time with Dad and Deb. The one place we did go tour was the Cowboys new stadium. When they say everything’s bigger in Texas, it sure applies to this stadium!! I attempted to use my camera and take pics in the stadium even though I had no idea what they were of. They turned out surprisingly well!

View from the press box
 

Closer up view of that ginormous screen. It was ridic. I think that screen itself cost a little under 40 Million. It was amazing how clear the picture was too. I thought it was a little too big and made me dizzy watching the plays on it.

Locker-room. Each locker was made of this special wood from Africa and was worth 10,000/locker! Again ridic…

Since we had the VIP tour pass they took our picture on the star on the field. I know all you Cowboy fans are jealous!