Easy Peasy Sunday Dinner and Dessert

I'm taking a break from baby blogging for a minute to share our easy and delicious dinner tonight. We had white bean chicken chili (forgot where I found the recipe), Jiffy corn muffins and a delicious peach "dump cake" for dessert. Anything that resembles cobbler in the middle of winter is fine by me!

White Bean Chicken Chili
Four ingredients. A crock pot. This recipe could not be any easier.

Four cans of white beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups of salsa (I used some peach mango salsa I already had)
8 oz. cheddar jack cheese, cubed
1 package of chicken tenderloins
Combine all ingredients in a crock pot, covering up the chicken. Cook for six to eight hours, shredding chicken when cooked through. Serve garnished with sour cream. You can really add anything you want to this chili - additional spices, green peppers, different kinds of beans... chili is really versatile.

Jiffy Corn Muffins
These are a old stand by and SO easy to make. Find Jiffy mix in the baking aisle of your grocery store for about 50 cents. Sometimes I add cheese or jalapenos to spice it up a little.

Peach "Dump Cake"
Named a "dump cake" because you just dump the ingredients in a dish and bake! You don't even have to stir anything! From my friend Bakerella's blog.
24.5 oz jar of sliced peaches in light syrup
1 package yellow cake mix
1 stick butter (1/2 cup), cut into 16 pieces
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Layer ingredients in a 13 X 9 dish, in order starting with the peaches.
Bake for about 40 minutes.
I served it warm with ice cream.

* I realize there are no vegetables or anything resembling vegetables in this dinner and dessert. (Unless you count salsa. Or maybe canned peaches) Forgive me. It's winter. It's cold. I'm pregnant and crave comfort foods. I'll eat salads in the spring ;)

Beach Ball Belly

I also went to pregnancy water aerobics yesterday, which was quite enjoyable. I will spare you photographic evidence, because an eight month pregnant lady in her old non-maternity tankini is NOT something you want to see. Trust me. I looked like I swallowed a beach ball.

There's an App for That

According to my iPregnancy app, I am exactly eight months pregnant today, with eight weeks left to go! I like nice, round numbers like that. I can't believe there are less than ten weeks left - or less! A friend of mine remarked that ten months seemed longer than normal and I had to explain that that whole nine months thing is a HUGE LIE! I don't know where the nine months rumor started, but pregnancy is measured in 40 weeks, which equals ten months. Sneaking in that extra month was pretty cruel!

The iPregnancy app is pretty useful - it measures how far along you are, gives you little facts about the baby's growth and development each week and has drawings and 3D ultrasound images to illustrate how big the baby is. It even has a name picker that picks a random name if you shake your phone, which is pretty entertaining. Here, I'll shake it and tell you the first random name it picks. Destinee. The 616th most popular girl name last year. I don't think we'll be choosing that name, no offense to all the Destinees out there.

Today Scott and I were crazy errand runners: we picked up our twin bed mattress, went to the grocery store, got dinner started in the crock pot, ate lunch, went to Target and now Scott is off to replace his car battery ... all before 3:00! I think my body is adjusting to waking up early because I can't seem to sleep past 8:00 on the weekends. I KNOW, I KNOW... that's "late" when you have a baby, but cut me some slack! I'M ENJOYING THESE "LATE" MORNINGS FOR AS LONG AS POSSIBLE! Now, if there was only an app that prepared you for a baby....

31 Week Checkup

I had another doctor's appointment today. It was just the normal checkup, but it's always reassuring to hear the baby's heartbeat. Everything looks good, sounds good and measures correctly. I can't believe there are only about nine weeks left! That seems like not a lot of time at all and I am sure the weeks will fly by with all of the appointments, classes, showers and other baby-related activities coming up.

Today I realized that I scheduled our newborn care class on the same night as the Lost season premiere. This was one of those things that really made me realize that my priorities are about to get turned upside down! A few years ago, I was planning parties and theme food around Lost finales and today I was debating on whether or not I should DVR the show and watch it later or reschedule the class! I know! Bad mom! These are the dilemmas that I am now faced with - ha ha!

"I'm the Baby!"

OK, just one more. I was going up to bed, walked by the nursery and turned on the light to peek in (I do this every time I walk by. I can't help it!) and look who I found "keep the chair warm" AGAIN! He's like, "Hi guys! Don't mind me!"

Relaxing After a Great Weekend

Here's a picture of O'Malley napping on our beautiful brand new custom rocking chair cushion that we received as a shower gift this weekend. Of course, he had to be the first one to try it out and quickly claimed it as his new favorite spot. He loves the nursery and is constantly going in there to check it out. It's so cute! (Unless our baby is allergic to cat hair. Then it will be very NOT CUTE.)

I'm about to take a cue from the cat and curl up and go to sleep, but I thought I would just mention what an amazing weekend I had! My friends Julie and Carrie threw me the sweetest, cutest, girliest baby shower this weekend and I had so much fun! I feel so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends and there is nothing quite like sharing in the excitement of a new baby. I think baby showers might even top wedding showers in excitement and anticipation! And honestly... teeny tiny pink outfits are SO much cuter than blenders and china!

Baby Girl will feel well taken care of with all of her new gear. She will be the cutest kid ever with all of the adorable outfits, bibs, socks, bonnets, toys and other tiny pink things she received this weekend. And with all of the baby necessities and basics she got, she will also be the cleanest, healthiest and most well groomed baby around, too! I think I received enough baby wash to make it until kindergarten! I also received some special family toys, gifts and pictures that I can't wait to pass along to my daughter.

MY DAUGHTER. Whoa. The baby shower makes it so real that a little person is about to be joining our household in just nine short weeks. I can't believe it. We can't wait!

Nursery Video

If you don't feel like reading the manifesto below, my video savvy husband takes you on an exciting video tour of our baby's nursery. When I married him eight years ago, I never thought I would one day listen to him going into great detail about "cute" Barbie art and Boppys, but here we are. Hmm.... I think Baby Girl is going to be quite the daddy's girl. I love it so much!

Feathering the Nest Only Took 1,000,000 Feathers

Warning: long, boring, decor-related post ahead!

It only took two trips to Ikea, two trips to Home Depot, hours and hours of manpower and maybe a take out pizza or two, but we finally got most of the nursery finished this weekend! Yay! Above are some blurry pictures - I'll take some better ones when I have more light. The last one is of Scott installing the Hunter "Five Minute Fan." I don't know what they are referring to - five minutes to read the directions? Five minutes to open the box? Five minutes to screw in the light bulbs? Because it took A LOT longer than five minutes.

Yesterday, Scott assembled the dresser and nightstand from Ikea while I framed artwork for the walls. The furniture is the "Hemnes" series, which we have in our bedroom (in dark brown) and it is surprisingly sturdy for inexpensive flat pack furniture. If it's good enough for us, it's good enough for the baby! I replaced the knobs with vintage looking crystal knobs to give it a more custom look. The artwork on the wall is Robert Best Barbie prints framed in Ikea "Ribba" frames. The large picture is a limited edition "Barbie 50th Anniversary" print and the smaller vintage fashion prints were taken from a disassembled calendar. I love them so much! I think they turned out very cute, and they were inexpensive so I won't be too sad if Baby Girl grows up to be a tomboy and wants to take them all down. Well... I'll be a little sad! On the dresser is a framed invitation for my baby shower and a picture of my grandmother as a young girl. She's sitting on a pony named Sally. I don't know if it was her pony or not; I will have to find out the story behind it. I already had the mini lamp nightlight and just replaced the shade with one I found at Tuesday Morning. It's covered in a cute, old-fashioned looking fabric depicting "Teddy Bears' Picnic."

The rocking chair is from Scott's grandmother's house and the I actually knitted the blanket hanging over the back of it myself! I did it a few years ago when I was in my knitting phase. I think I made it for someone else and never got around to giving it to them. I rediscovered it in the back of our linen closet a few weeks ago and decided to keep it for my own baby because I'm not sure if I'll get into another knitting phase anytime soon! The little table is from TJ Maxx - I think it was only around $15. I've read it's good to have a little table near where you will be nursing, so you can have water, a book, the phone or anything else you need at arm's reach.

The only thing I have left to add is the twin bed, which is one that has been kicking around our family for forever. It belonged to my great grandmother and I used it growing up. The bed is a Jenny Lind spindle-style bed, just like the crib. The quilt that will go on the bed served as my inspiration and color palette and will tie the entire room together. It features yellows, aquas and corals - bright, cheerful and girly without being too pink! My mother in law is generously having a cushion made for the rocking chair in the same fabric. It will be so cute!

My friends are throwing me a baby shower this weekend and I can't wait for everyone to come over and see the room. Decorating it has been one of the most enjoyable parts of my pregnancy. It's not every day that you get to create a room from scratch and it's been so much fun planning, shopping and picking up things here and there. I loved hunting down bargains and mixing old and new, vintage and modern. It's so much more fun than just getting the generic crib set in a bag! To see everything finally come together has been very rewarding. Now... we just need the baby to put in there!

Feathering the Nest

I also had a doctor's appointment today. It was pretty uneventful, which I guess is good because it means I have thankfully had a very normal and uncomplicated pregnancy. They just took my vitals, measured my belly, listened for the heartbeat (the most fun part of the appointment) and answered any questions I had. I'll go back every two weeks for the next two months and then every week for the final month. It's very exciting that the due date is getting so close, but the anticipation is killing me! Maybe that's why the "nesting" phase kicks in now ... moms-to-be need something to distract themselves as they count down the final weeks. For me, I've felt an urgent need to comparison shop, stock up on baby items and supplies, and ferret out the best bargains I can find. It's as if I think I will never be able to make a trip to Target again once the baby get here!

Sniffing Out a Good Deal

Can I just talk for a minute about the good deals I got today? When I first got pregnant, everyone told me to sign up for grocery store baby clubs, diaper manufacturer mailing lists, etc. so I could get coupons in the mail. A few weeks ago, I got a pack of coupons from the Publix Baby Club and today I went to use the bulk of them before they expired. I got a TON of good deals - most things were buy one, get one free and some things were just FREE! I was able to stock up on a lot of necessities for not a lot of money. I love, love, LOVE to shop for bargains and this trip was one of my best bargain shopping trips ever. (Although the person behind me in line was probably not very happy when I had a coupon for every single item in my basket.)

As you can see, O'Malley is very impressed with our savings. Oh, and we NEVER let him on the counters. I have NO IDEA what he's doing up there. He's really VERY well behaved 99.9% of the time ;)

Hospital ... Or Fancy Hotel?

Here is Scott pretending to warm his hands in the fireplace in the lobby of the women's center at Dekalb Medical. We had our hospital tour today and wow... that place is really nice! I am looking forward to delivering there. The tour was more of a "virtual" tour due to the flu season - they wanted to keep visitors to an absolute minimum in the actual labor, delivery and recovery areas, so we just got to see a presentation with pictures and maps of all of the areas. We also filled out preregistration paperwork and learned where to park, check in, etc. when the big day comes.

Even though we didn't get to see the actual rooms, judging from the lobby and the pictures they showed us, the entire facility looks really nice! I think the building is less than three years old and the lobby looks like a hotel - stacked stone fireplaces, marble floors, a bistro and even a grand piano! It reminded me of a ski lodge. The warm decor definitely makes you feel good about the whole experience and doesn't make you feel like you're going to a scary hospital. For someone like me, who's never stayed in a hospital for anything (having my wisdom teeth out is about as serious a medical procedure as I have ever had) it makes me feel a lot better about the big day. I'll just pretend I'm checking into a fancy hotel and I get a free baby with two-night minimum stay!

Snow Day

My doctor's office was closed today so I wasn't able to go to my appointment this morning. Hopefully I can reschedule for Monday! But in the meantime, would you look at that BLIZZARD!

A Quick Recap

I've been keeping a paper journal, documenting the pregnancy so our daughter can read it one day. It's written to her and includes important dates, milestones and mementos from the pregnancy. I've decided to look back through it and recap some milestone dates here.

July 23, 2009 (4 weeks) - A positive pregnancy test! This was a pretty exciting day!

July 31, 2009 (5 weeks) - I dance in my dance studio's student show, praying that I don't get nauseous or start showing! It is now January and I'm still going to dance class once or twice a week, although trying to dance and accommodate my giant belly is getting pretty comical. I might not be able to do everything perfectly, but the stretching feels so good!

August 15, 2009 (7 weeks) - Paul McCartney at Piedmont Park. My Baby Girl has already been to some pretty great concerts! So far, I've been feeling a little nauseous, but nothing too terrible. I sleep ALL THE TIME.

August 26, 2009 (9 weeks) - Flaming Lips at Chastain Park. We're trying to fit in as many things as possible because we know our life will change forever once the baby comes.

September 3, 2009 (10 weeks) - We start to tell family members and friends the good news.

September 10, 2009 (11 weeks) - First ultrasound appointment. Very cool to see Baby Girl "in person!"

September 12, 2009 (11 weeks) - Baby Girl's first Georgia game. I worry about how I will survive the football season, but I make it through OK thanks to a comfy tailgating chair with a footrest, copious amounts of food and marathon naps on Sundays. The next few weeks are not very eventful, baby wise - we just enjoy our last football season as a childless couple. Night games were not my friend.

November 8, 2009 (20 weeks) - Halfway mark!

November 16, 2009 (21 weeks) - Felt Baby Girl kick for the first time! Nothing too exciting has been happening over the past 10 weeks - just growing bigger!

Tuesday, November 17, 2009 (21 weeks) - Second ultrasound appointment. Find out that we're having a Baby Girl!

Thursday, November 26, 2009 (22 weeks) - Thanksgiving day. We're thankful for our baby. Scott runs in a half marathon that he's been training for all fall (see above re: "trying to do as many things as possible now.")

Friday, November 27, 2009 (22 weeks) - My 31st birthday. Scott surprises me with tickets to the Fox Theatre to see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. I get a little emotional over seeing all the little girls their in their frilly Christmas dresses. Great kick off to the holiday season.

December 26, 2009 (26 weeks) - Enjoyed relaxing over the holidays, now it's time to focus on baby things as the third trimester begins. We spend our week off of work after Christmas getting the nursery ready and taking care of other projects.

January 1, 2010 (27 weeks) - We ring in the New Year with a movie, sparkling cider and lounging around in our PJs. A far cry from previous New Years, where we have always traveled for a bowl game/blow out vacation.

January 3, 2010 (28 weeks) - Seven month mark - we're in the home stretch!

January 7, 2010 (28 weeks) - Tomorrow I have my seven month doctor's appointment. This is the final monthly appointment before I switch to appointments every two weeks and then every week in the final month. It really hits home how fast the due date is approaching!

The Nursery Gets a Vintage Modern Update

The nursery is coming together nicely. We were both off for about a week over the holidays, which gave us a lot of time to paint, organize and get things ready. Previously, we had just been using the room for storage, so we moved the boxes to the attic, painted the walls and got it ready to fill with furniture and baby things.

I agonized forever over picking the paint color for the walls. I wanted the perfect shade of aqua blue - not too green and not too "boy" blue. I ended up finding the paint color at Lowe's and had it matched at our local Sherwin Williams store. I am really happy with how it turned out. The Sherwin Williams "Duration Home" brand of paint is great and the customer service at our local store was outstanding. We got it done in one coat and didn't even have to prime, despite multiple paint sample patches painted all over all four walls! (I told you I agonized over it. Of course, very inexpensive paint samples don't help... I just kept going back for more!) We touched up the baseboard as well - there was a very weird phone line that ran almost all the way around the room's baseboard and has been painted over previously. When we pulled it up, it pulled off the baseboard paint, exposing all of the many colors the baseboards have been over the years. And thanks to the tree falling on our house a few years ago, the room has a nice new window so at least Baby Girl won't suffer in a drafty room!

Another day off was dedicated to crib assembly and other projects. Scott was pleased with how easily the crib assembled, thanks to it not having drop sides, which are becoming pretty unpopular because of recalls. We went with the Million Dollar Baby Jenny Lind crib and we purchased it from New Baby Products, a local baby store here in Atlanta. I was not really interested in having a convertible crib because we will have a twin bed in the nursery that will eventually be the baby's "big girl" bed. I just wanted a classic, vintage looking crib and the Jenny Lind fit the bill.

While Scott assembled the crib, I put a fresh coat of paint on a rocking chair that we got from Mimi's house (Scott's late grandmother). I was happy to find something useful to repurpose and I love having things with a "history" in our home. See that piece of fabric hanging over the side of the crib? That fabric pattern will be used to make a new cushion for the rocker and it will also be used for a quilt on the twin bed. I just love the aqua, coral and yellow color scheme, especially set against the bright white of the furniture and trim. I think it will look girly, but without using the ubiquitous PINK. I was sort of adamant about the nursery not being too pink - personally, I think it's way too overused and cutesy!

This weekend we will tackle installing the blinds and looking for a new light fixture. After installing blinds in the rest of our house, we are old pros at it. Hopefully the new light fixture installation will go smoothly. We attempted to install a new ceiling fan in our previous house, thinking it would be an easy job, only to have it morph into a huge project! Oh, the joys of living in mid-century homes! But despite the questionable wiring, drafty windows and peeling baseboards, I would not trade it for a brand new home. We love our "soft contemporary" and look forward to raising our Baby Girl in such a great old neighborhood filled with nice trees (at least... the ones that don't fall on our house), friendly neighbors and split level homes. It feels like The Brady Bunch. Or maybe Mad Men, but with less smoking, drinking and bored housewives.

Ultrasound Pictures

I have been very blessed to have an easy pregnancy so far and feel very fortunate that I have not had to endure too many discomforts or difficulties. I keep joking that it probably means I will have the labor and delivery from hell as payback, but let's hope that will not be the case!


This is an ultrasound picture of our baby at around 11 weeks. I thought we would just see a little blob, and was amazed that we could already see so much detail. She (well... "it" at the time) was rocking back and forth, moving her little arms and wiggling all around. This was a very exciting appointment and I think it really became real to us that we were having a baby! You're not really showing at 11 weeks and you can't feel the baby move yet, so seeing that tiny little thing on the screen made it a lot more real. It was a very exciting day!


This is an ultrasound picture of our baby at around 22 weeks. This is from the appointment when we found out the gender. The ultrasound technician does quite a good job at building up the suspense. First, she measured the head, limbs, etc. and checked the vital organs and then she was like... "Are you ready?!" It was a very exciting moment and of course I got a little teary eyed over it. We would have been happy with a boy or a girl. I know it sounds cliche, but you really do just want a healthy baby! However, I think Scott and I were both secretly wishing for/predicting a girl. Scott says it's because with girls you can do both - play with dolls AND play soccer. He's already making big plans for her sports career and if her womb kicking is any indication, we might just have a female David Beckham or the first female collegiate football kicker in there because WOW does she kick up a storm sometimes!

Welcome!

I thought it was about time to join the rest of the modern world and start a blog! This will be a place where family and friends can stay updated on our baby journey and hopefully we will be diligent about updating it with photographs and videos. Enjoy!