Creative Girly Projects

Having a girl is a lot of fun because you get to dress them up in cute frilly things.

For Gabriella's birthday I wanted to make her a tutu so I looked up on youtube several different videos and found one that I really liked because it's super easy.

And here is Gabriella in her tutu

The next thing I wanted to learn how to make was a boutique style hair bow. I was super intimidated by these because the first time I tired I used a hot glue gun and it was a hot mess! This video showed a much easier way to do it.

(I don't have a "gator bite" I just used the little alligator clips and that worked just fine)

And Gabriella wearing her new bow:

The next thing is a fleece blanket. Jordan's co-worker made one of these for one of the families in the program they work with. He thought it would be a great gift for his nephew and made this all by himself. Go here for instructions.

We also made him swaddling blankets. When I had Jayden a good friend of mine passed down some swaddling blankets someone had given her. They are so easy to make! All you need is 1 yard of flannel material and a sewing machine. We just hemmed the edges using our sewing machine. If you have a serger it would save you a lot of time and energy, but honestly how many people actually have one?! (I had never even heard of a serger until my sister told me about them. Her in laws have one and so she used it on Gabriella's swaddle blankets.)

I couldn't find a picture of Gabriella's blankets.... oh well. They also make great cover-ups for nursing.

I am needing something to pass the time this winter so if you have any suggestions for creative projects please, please, please tell me!!!!

The Beloved Second Trimester

I blogged a little bit ago about my lack of desire to do pretty much anything, except watch TV. Thankfully, I've entered my second trimester of pregnancy and everything is back to normal.

I woke up yesterday and after I showered I actually put on real pants, not sweats, but actual pants! And.. I wore them ALL day! Not only that, but I cleaned my kitchen, did laundry, picked up clutter and vacuumed! And not because I was having someone over, but because it needed to be done! It felt great to just clean my house and not sit on the couch all day wishing I could fall asleep.

I read that in the first trimester of pregnancy many women feel exhausted and fatigued because the body is creating the placenta and that's a lot of work... whatever.. I don't know exactly why, but I'm just glad by the time the second trimester rolls around, I'm starting to feel really good again!

I still haven't felt the baby kick, but I have a feeling it will be happening soon. With Jayden I was 19 or 20 weeks the first time I felt him kick on the outside of my belly and with Gabriella I was 16 weeks. I thought maybe because this is my 3rd baby I would have felt it kick a lot sooner, but I haven't. Oh well!

I have a doctor's appointment on Friday and I'm anxious to hear the sweet heartbeat again! Then in another 4 weeks I will have the "BIG ultrasound".. where they spend a long time measuring all the body parts and making sure the baby is developing properly. It's also the ultrasound where you can find out the gender of the baby, however we have decided to wait until the baby is born, so let's just hope we can have enough will power to close our eyes when the ultrasound technician is looking "below the belt". :)

Some people keep asking if we have a "feeling" about if the baby is a boy or a girl and honestly at this point I have no clue! The morning sickness I had was nothing like when I was pregnant with Jayden and Gabriella, so who knows! I also carried both my kids very similar so I don't know if I'll be able to tell the bigger I get.

18 Weeks with Jayden

4 Months with Gabriella

(I don't remember what week I was here)

I'd like to do a better job of taking belly pictures with this baby, but so far I've only taken two. This stage I feel like I just look a bit chubby and not pregnant, so it's not very flattering! ha!

Transition

We are in a bit of transition right now. Gabriella is beginning to go from two naps to one nap... the dreaded time has come!!!! :(

And as we prepare for baby #3 (ahhh!!) we are looking into bunk beds for the two older kids. We won't set them up as bunk beds at first, just as two twin beds in the same room. Moving both the kids into one room is a little frightening for me. I'm not sure how they'll adjust to being roommates. We're going to be completely rearranging the bedroom situation. The office will become the kids' new bedroom and then either Gabri or Jayden's old bedroom will become the new baby's room and the other one will be the new office. It gives me a headache to think about it already. We need to decide on paint colors, re-paint the bedrooms, move all the stuff, buy new furniture, etc.

Over the weekend we went to Ross so Jordan could buy some new pants since it's been at least a year since he bought a new pair. While we were there I found a twin comforter for Jayden's bed for $10!! It has animals and footprints on it, so he thinks it's really cool. (He's really into footprints right now, thanks to Diego!)

Another thing I really want to do is transition most of the toys from the living room to the kids' bedroom. After seeing how organized my neighbor's kids' rooms are I really want to do the same. I've already started organizing Jayden's closet (I still have a long way to go, including figuring out where to store my wedding dress since it takes up about 1/4 of Jayden's closet!).

This year is going to be full of change as we welcome another member into our family, but I'm so excited about the things that are to come!

New Meal Ideas

So I'm always on the lookout for new meal ideas and I like to know what other people eat, so I thought I'd share some of the new meals we've had this past week.

TLC recently started a new show call "Kitchen Boss". The host of "Cake Boss", Buddy Valastro, is also the host of Kitchen Boss. I watched the first week and found tons of new recipes I wanted to try.

The first recipe I tried was Chicken Sorrentino Fusilli, I didn't do it exactly like this recipe called for.... actually I don't think I can even call it by name because it wasn't anything like what Buddy made on the show!!! I used canned spaghetti sauce and I didn't add the chicken or bacon. This is the first time I made breaded/fried/eggplant.. whatever you want to call it. And it was delicious!! I also made the baked asparagus. I've NEVER made asparagus in my life and I was really surprised how well it turned out.

The next recipe we tried was a Calzone. Again we didn't really follow this recipe, it was more of using the idea and making it our own. I used a different pizza dough than the one Buddy used. If you want to check it out go here. Then we sautéed green bell peppers and onions, browned Italian sausage, mozzarella and parmesan cheese and made a tomato sauce (diced tomatoes, garlic and dried basil). These calzones were SOOOOO good!!! And the best part is that you can stuff them however you want! The dough was perfect and the flavor of the stuff inside was incredible. If you're looking for something new to make for dinner try calzones!

Today I'm baking these soft chocolate cookies. I'll let you know how they turn out.

Lastly, if you have any meal ideas you'd like to share, please leave me a comment!!

Losing My Grip

Lately I feel like I'm losing my grip on things. It might be that I'm pregnant and I have a two year old and a one year old, but I feel like I've been REALLY lazy lately.

Last year I did so good at never eating fast food, cutting out a ton of processed food from our diet, cooking stuff from scratch, only letting the kids watch an hour of TV a day and keeping up with the laundry and house work.

This year I think I have failed at all those things and we're only one month into the year! I really hate fast food, being a vegetarian the only options besides their lettuce, a grape tomato and a few grated carrots, is french fries and a maybe a baked potato (at Wendy's). It never tastes as good as I hope it will, I never feel good after eating it, yet it always sounds good when I'm "starving" and driving somewhere.

I've also become a huge TV junkie!! I could seriously sit and watch TV all day. Reading and being online gave me a headache during the first trimester of my pregnancy, so the only entertainment I had was TV.

I don't even want to get started on house work.... That is really the one thing I have absolutely NO motivation to do!!!!

The worst part is, all this laziness has crept into my relationship with God and I've been lazy when it comes to reading the Bible and praying...

It's time to snap out of this funk and get back in the game. I'm hoping that since I'm in my 2nd trimester everything will get back to normal. I really need the energy to keep up with my growing family.

Pearl Alliance

Human trafficking has always seemed incredibly overwhelming to me. The idea that it's happening in the United States freaks me out even more. I always felt helpless when I thought about all the women and children who are forced into being sex slaves. It really breaks my heart.

When I was 15 years old I said I wanted to go to Brazil and open a house for former prostitutes so they could get out of the sex industry. I'm not exactly sure where I got this idea, maybe God spoke it to me? The more I learn about it, the more I feel helpless because there are SO many who need to be helped.

Last Sunday at church a lady approached me about baking something for the fundraiser our church is doing to raise money to send to Pearl Alliance. At first I just agreed to it for the sake of agreeing, but after watching the video I realized this may be a small way I can help these people. It might not be much for me just to bake a batch of cookies but it's something.

Please, watch this video. I can't help crying every time I see the faces of the young girls selling themselves on the street.

Pearl Alliance from Messenger International on Vimeo.

The Young Mom

A few weeks ago I took the kids to story time at the library. We were sitting next to a dad and his son, who was about the same age as Jayden. I mentioned that I grew up in Broomfield and he asked if I graduated Broomfield High school because he graduated BHS in 1994, I said, "Yes, I graduated in 2005."......... Never before have I realized how young I am compared to so many of the parents I meet.

I always feel like I go through an identity crisis whenever I go shopping because I don't know if I'm too old to shop in the juniors section or at stores like Forever 21, Pac Sun, etc. but whenever I wander over to the "ladies" section I REALLY feel out of place. The thing I like about being pregnant is that at Target the maternity clothes are really cute and I pretty much like everything they have.

I was 20 years old when I found out I was pregnant with Jayden and 21 when I had him. I don't know many people where I live that had their first child when they were 21. However, I went to CFNI with lots of girls who had kids that young. It really makes me wish those ladies lived closer. It's nice to have people that can relate to you as a young twenty something and as a mom. Thank God for Facebook because I can still keep in touch with those ladies and find out how they're handling life as a young mother.

While we were in Texas I was talking with a good friend of mine who recently gave birth to her first baby. We were laughing about how we weren't able to wear our wedding rings when we were pregnant and we didn't want people to think that we were some teenage girl who got knocked up by her boyfriend. I told her about how I had a coffee mug with my wedding picture on it and I used to carry that on the bus so people would know I was actually married since I wasn't able to wear my ring.

I am blessed to have my next door neighbor who will be 22 next month and is pregnant with her 2nd baby... we just really need to speak the same language. I highly doubt she knows this, but she's an inspiration to me. Her house is always clean, her dishes are always done and she is always making some kind of a home cooked meal. I love going over there! :)

I don't ever regret having children young. I'm actually really thankful we did it this way. I just wish other young women would do the same.. ha ha! :)