Loads of food in Sac

I'm sure it's no surprise that whenever we get together with either side of the family it becomes a smorgasbord of epic proportions. B's mom and aunties like to feed people like nobody's business.

Seriously, if you ever go out with them, make sure not to eat for the 2 days prior.



In our quick trip to Sacramento we had a little family gathering of maybe 50 or so. :)

Some I hadn't seen since the wedding and most I hadn't seen since the pregnancy. Of course, I am notoriously bad at getting pictures. I usually make my rounds snapping pics of the food and then forget about my camera completely. I have to stop doing that. I know that B's mom will have pictures fo every single person that was there.



This lemon dessert was phenomenal. The crust is basically a shortbreadish type crust with pecans in it. Then a layer of a cream cheese cool whip mixture, layer of lemon pudding and cool whip on top.



B's dad made this carrot cake. It was sooo incredibly moist and flavorful and had these gargantuan raisins, the size of grapes. I know that raisins are grapes but these were still the size of grapes even though they were all shriveled.



The mystery of the chocolate chip cookie. B's mom made these and my friend Tina makes these and they use the same recipe (from the package) and they come out perfect. They are a bit cakey and mine always turn out flat. Why is that?

B took one bite and explained that this is what he thinks of when he wants chocolate chip cookies. I suppose I'll have to try again.



So cute!



They were a spice cookie and they were so tasty. Sometimes you get these types of cookies and although they are pretty, they just don't taste that good. These were light and a bit fluffy with the perfect amount of spice. Yes, I ate this. Actually I tried everything.



This is what I would have looked like if you tried to keep me from trying all the food.



One of the few shots I took of actual people. I loved watching the girls having their serious discussion with their feet in the water.

Apparently 2 of the girls had been educated on the birds and the bees recently. The very next day they found out I was pregnant and burst into a fit of giggles. They were a bit giggly around us having known the real story of how this all came to be.

It made me laugh all day.

Of course, even though this was not a baby shower I seemed to end up with an entire borrowed suitcase of baby gifts. Here I am opening things later that night.

We are so unbelievably spoiled. This child will never, ever need anything. It was a really wonderful day and I am so grateful to have married into such a fantastic family.

Just checking in!

Preview of Sacramento get-together

I meant to post today but I got the sudden urge to clean our bathrooms from floor to ceiling. Of course I had to have B disassemble the tub fixtures for a thorough cleaning/ bleaching. Why do apartments use clear plastic fixtures? After that the baseboards looked dirty and needed to be wiped down. Once the baseboards were wiped down I noticed all the scuffs in the craptastically cheap white apartment paint. I swear I leave marks if I brush up against a wall in dark jeans. I tried to magic eraser some of the marks. Oh and the vents got swiffered which really is a fiasco because I can't open them and swiffer the inside. I swear I just kept pulling more dust bunnies out and made the biggest mess on the carpet that was just vacuumed... which is fine because I plan on cleaning the carpets anyhow.

I also managed to make a list about 40 pages long of chores to be done this week. My mom is coming over to help me and B practically has a work schedule after work. Plus, we should have a new vehicle by the weekend. I just need to figure out how to install a car seat. Why do these things come with 25 pages of instructions? Is it just a scare tactic?

Can you tell I'm just a little hopped up right now? It's nearly 10 pm and I'm resisting the urge to nail a few things to the wall because I'm pretty sure my neighbors wouldn't appreciate it. Besides, B has me on lock down with close activity supervision because I fell on Monday and scared off at least 5 years of his life.

It was rainy and I stepped onto a painted curb, slipped off and landed myself in the gutter. He was only about 2 feet ahead of me and I will never forget the look on his face when he turned around. I was literally laying in the gutter. I am fine, the baby is fine and now I apparently cannot be trusted to walk unsupervised. :) I am a bit bruised, including a bruise on my rib and one on the side of my stomach that the baby keeps repeatedly kicking. It's quite annoying to have a bruise kicked from the inside out.

Friday afternoon I'll have a post up about the family get together we had in Sacramento. I knew I wouldn't have time to get a full post together tonight and I didn't want to go days without a post because you might all think that I'd gone into labor.

I have full intentions of keeping you up-to-date on any baby arrivals. The hospital does have free wifi....

Belly Rubs

To touch or not to touch? That is the question.


~34 weeks, nearly 3 weeks ago~

It seems to me that women feel either one extreme or the other. How do I feel?

By all means, rub the belly. I'm serious. I really don't mind at all. I'm sure that doesn't shock you as it's becoming more and more apparent that I have no sense of personal boundaries. I keep it clean on here but you could ask me questions about nearly anything and I wouldn't mind answering. I think it's cute when people ask me if they can touch my belly. I can't imagine their reaction if I would say no.

There is something so magical about a growing belly. I can't help but want to reach out to one when I see it. I have to constantly remind myself not to touch pregnant women when I see them. I can't stop touching my belly myself. It's so odd, this crazy growing self. How can I not rub it? How can I not poke my belly button back in and laugh as it pops back out. I mean, my belly button has turned itself inside out and I've been told it will reverse itself again later. If that's not amazing, well then I don't know what is.

I completely understand how random people (or people you know) touching your stomach would skeeve you out. I get that this kind of contact wouldn't be normal if you weren't pregnant so why make an exception when you are. Oddly enough if someone were to have touched my stomach a year ago when I wasn't pregnant, I would have retreated immediately. I felt an inward cringe when someone would touch my stomach in the first few months of my pregnancy. That was simply because I hadn't really grown anything but extra padding.


Now, on the other hand, I have the hardest abs of my life! I have never had a stomach so smooth and firm! So go ahead and rub my belly because I have a feeling it will never, ever be this firm again.

What is your stance on the belly touching?

Have you seen Babies?

If you haven't seen it then go put it in your Netflix queue. My parents and I watched it over the weekend and loved the movie. It follows four babies from their first breath to their first steps.

The 4 children are from different parts of the world and live in very different cultures. I was amazed at the difference in surrounding and yet the complete similarities of these babies raised in San Francisco, Namibia, Mongolia and Tokyo.

Hve you seen the movie?

Little Pieces

The days are buzzing by and we're in a flurry of preparations. This nesting stuff is serious business. There are lots of little things to get together. There are lots of big things to get together.

Things like buying a vehicle, right now, so that we can bring Peanut home from the hospital. I'm pretty sure the hospital won't let us throw him in the back of the Tacoma, car seat or not.



I just had my baby shower Saturday (which I will share with you) and I've done some shopping this weekend and I'm ready to pull together the nursery.

I love this beeboyjoy picture by Kil.sook. It's even better in person. Her illustrations are unique, sweet and unconventional. Plus, the names of her illustrations make me laugh.

Something about this one reminds me of B. I think it's because he would totally stand there wearing a sock monkey on his head if I asked him to and his stance and expression would be the same.

There are all kinds of cute ones like this and this (which has a cute little saying/poem/tangent underneath it).

B & I are so looking forward to our baby bee boy.



Wise old owl. I've been picking up little things here and there for a long time and unearthing them and putting them on shelves has been fun.

This child is going to have a library of his own soon. There just can't be too many books. They are on shelves, in bins, in the closet, in the cubbies. Oh the books we'll read.



Excuse my absences on your blogs while I rush around to tidy and clean and nap and clean and decorate and buy and organize and wash.

The Braxton Hicks contractions that are happening so often now are a nice reminder that this baby is coming... and soon!

It's all relative

Back at the beginning of August I talked about spending the day in Laguna Beach with our niece and nephew.

B took lots of pictures but I left one out.



I uploaded it to flickr and then decided not to post a bikini shot here on the great interwebs. I mean, feeling comfortable wearing a bikini (while pregnant or otherwise) vs. looking at a picture of yourself in a bikini are two entirely different things. Let's not even get into posting a picture of yourself at 7 months pregnant on the internet. I could dissect that picture a million different ways.

The thing is... this was taken 2 months ago and now I look back at it and think I look quite slim. Isn't that usually the case?

I've decided that one of the great advantages of being very pregnant is not being able to see your thighs. I just avoid the area completely when looking in a full length mirror. I just assume that what I can't see are not chubby thighs and cellulite but actually long Heidi Klum-like legs.

I could be a runway model from the waist down and not.even.know.it.

Oh and the fact that my stomach is stretched so tight it seems to have smoothed out my love handles.

See, pregnancy really does have it's perks.

Bakerella's Cupcake Pops

Most of you are very familiar with the great Bakerella and many of you have already made her cake pops. I never attempted them because I'm lazy when it comes to this type of thing.

My mom was having a party where everything was served on sticks and couldn't figure out what to do for dessert. The situation just screamed cake pops.



I'm not going to give step by step instructions because I had memory card issues and the pictures are on 3 different cards and doesn't that sound exhausting?

Yes, it does. Besides, Bakerella gives step by step instructions here.



They were really cute. I realized in the end that I don't have to make them all perfect because noone cares if they are kinda messy.

I would like to make the cake pops and skip the whole cupcake thing because that's just one less step. Bakerella has some really adorable ideas for different cake pops (like the reindeer) and she has just come out with a cookbook!

I love the pictures on her blog, they are so fresh and clean. Does anyone remember the proposal post?! Oh that was adorable.

I'm hoping to catch her on her tour this month. Have you tried any of her recipes?