May Baby

The secret's out! Baby Hamrick is due May 23. We're all very excited. It is ridiculously adorable when Julien talks about the baby and so far he has insisted it's a girl/sister. As far as pregnancy goes, I've had a few differences with this one... I've been way more emotional. I get easily upset and sad or mad over nothing. With Julien I had a hard time eating anything without getting sick, this time I've felt pretty sick no matter what but worse if I don't eat constantly (but can hardly eat anything at a meal). I'm already feeling bad for how much I dislike being pregnant. I love the babies, but pregnancy just does not agree with my body... I'm feeling like the next several months are going to be very long. Fortunately Andrew had been absolutely wonderful and I have gotten lots of naps which does usually make me feel better temporarily.  

I did this little weekly questionnaire with Julien and like being able to look back and remember these things so I'm going to do it again.

How far along? 11 weeks 4 days
Total weight gain/loss: I've already gained. I started showing very quickly this time.
Maternity clothes? I've needed them for a few weeks already but have been wearing my pants unbuttoned because I haven't had a chance to get any.
Best moment this week: I started feeling little flutters this week and the first time was when Julien had has hand resting on my belly. Cute.
Movement: A little
Food cravings: Not a lot. Skittles.
Gender: Obviously we will be just as happy with a boy but I think we're all hoping for a girl. I am mainly hoping for a girl because I don't think I can handle being pregnant again!
Labor Signs: none
Belly Button in or out? in
What I miss: Being able to eat a regular meal and not feeling sick constantly
What I am looking forward to: May
Weekly Wisdom:
Milestones: We had our first officially Dr. appointment last week.

Happy Autumn!

We are so enjoying this cooler weather and family time. After the farmer's market this morning we took off for a picnic...

On Spontaneity

When you become a parent, being spontaneous pretty much goes out the window. It seems so difficult to get it together enough to do anything too spur of the moment. Sometimes we talk about it but most of the time we just end up deciding it's too much trouble. 

Today we left the house with the plan of taking some pictures and doing some Geocaching but decided to take advantage of the beautiful day by going to the lake so we ran home and made it back on the road in under an hour. That's major spontaneity for us!

The weather was perfect. Julien had an awesome time and didn't want to get out of the water the whole time. On the way home we stopped at Big Muskie Bucket and Jules ran around like a crazy man. Overall we had the most fantastic evening.

Sternwheel 2012

Last weekend was Sternwheel Festival. We walked around a bit and went to the car show. Saturday night when we were watching the fireworks, Julien was literally squealing with delight at the sight of them.   

Wall Art Love

I've found that I get easily discouraged when attempting to hang art in my home. I have these ideas of how I want them to look but they rarely end up looking the way I want and I just end up never finishing it... I wasn't going to let it get me this time, though. When we moved, I knew I wanted to create a look that I would want to look at and that was easy to change up/add to. Right away I ran into problems. I had this idea that I would leave the living room fairly free of photos and create my main wall above the dinning room table but (just my luck...) the wall over the table is concrete! So, the living room wall it was and I'm ok with how it turned out, though I'm continuously changing things already...

I think I may enter it in this Wall Art Love contest.

Friday Jules and I decided to head to the playground. Our usual playground was overrun with playgroup moms so we headed to the only playground in town that we've never been to and it was a total hit! 

It rained a bit while we were there but we managed to get through the day without any problems. By evening the sky was getting dark. Andrew got home from work with minutes to spare. The winds picked up and before it even started raining our electricity was out and then the rain came.

Torrential downpour of sheets and sheets of rain and just as quickly as it came on it was over. After a few hours in our smoldering house we decided to take a drive. We had no idea that the storm was so bad until we started driving. Our electricity went out before everyone else's because a tree had fallen on a moving car, taking the power line down with it. There were trees, power lines and almost anything movable blown all over the place. We drove around town, shocked by the aftermath and later found out that we were in a state of emergency and shouldn't have been driving. (oops..)

That was a couple hot nights. And the next day was even hotter, but despite all the craziness going on, it was one of the best days we'd had in a while. We spent time with family, cooked out and spent some time in the car, enjoying the AC. The news stations projected 5-7 days without power, which sent everyone into a panic. There were miles of cars trying to get to Walmart. We nixed that idea quick...

Thankfully we were only without power for a little over a day. There are many still without power, including the in-laws so we've had one of Andrew's sisters staying with us. We've enjoyed having her here. Julien absolutely loves it and I really like being able to use the bathroom alone! (and having her here, too... ) 

In Instagrams

We've finally found a new place but still don't have internet. It's a pretty big disaster right now but it feels fantastic to at least know that in the next couple weeks we'll be able to get back to some level of normalcy.  

Father's Day Gift Roundup

I've already been trying to come up with the perfect gifts for Father's Day for a couple weeks now and thought I'd share a few things that I've come up with...

Completely FREE and completely personalized (or premade) Father's Day card from cardstore and the best part is that it ships to dad completely free too!  Just use the code "LUVDAD2" at check out. 

Love this card from JulieAnnArt. So funny. Find it on ETSY.

and this one from Monkeymindesign is so sweet. Find this one ETSY too.

For the geek dad... I think these are so cool! You can have one made in a lovely design at Colorelish on ETSY.

You could also make your own. I found THIS site and whipped one up pretty easily and there are tons of other sites out there that do the same thing.

I really love these paracord survival bracelets. Stylish and if your guy is an adventurer he'll appreciate that it unravels to be used in emergencies.  This and some other awesome pieces can be found at Jessyfreebird on ETSY. 

If you're crafty you can find a great tutorial to make your own HERE.

I love personalized gifts. This guitar pick with leather pouch from RiverValleyJewelry is perfect for the music making dad. 

Kelly at Local Honey does beautiful family portraits that any dad would love. Lots of other lovely things in her shop too. Check her out.

Hubs has had his eye one some TOMS shades since they started making them and for such a good cause, this would be a great gift!

( 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 )

My guy is a lover of books and movies, so some books and movies coming out just in time for dad's special day...

Also- canvaspeople is offering a free 8x10 (or $50 toward any size) canvas. You just pay shipping, which is around $15.

Photo A Day May

I really enjoyed this and I'm excited for June! (You can find June @FATMUMSLIM on Instagram)

Zucchini Parm Dip

We've been trying to eat healthier lately. Less (to no) meat and other junk and more veggies, fruits and just healthier things. I wont lie, it has definitely been hard. Half of the time I feel like NOTHING is truly healthy and the other half of the time I feel like it's just too expensive to eat healthy. Here's a little recipe that's pretty inexpensive (we usually have most of these things on hand) and pretty healthy. 

1 Zucchini

1/2 Onion

3 Garlic Cloves

1/2 Green Pepper

Oregano

Thyme

Salt

Pepper

Parmesan Cheese

Olive Oil

Heat olive oil in hot iron skillet until shiny. Next, on medium heat, cook onion for 2 minutes then add garlic, oregano, thyme, salt and pepper cook 2-3 minutes. Add green pepper cook another 2 minutes then grate in zucchini and cook until zucchini is soft and ingredients come together (about 3 minutes). Grate parmesan cheese on top and place under broiler until browned.

Serve with crackers, tortillas or toast.  (It's really good on Ritz crackers!)

I'm sure there are a ton of different varieties you can come up with for this dish. I'd love to hear your recipes and see pictures! :)

Remember...

Yesterday as I was leaving for work Julien kept telling me I was pretty. He gave me 2 kisses as I was walking for the door and when we got to the door he pushed me out and closed the door behind me. He cracks me up doing funny things like that all the time and every time I think about how I want to remember it forever.

Today we picnicked at the park. It was beautiful out but HOT. Then we went to Lowes and Julien and I walked around the garden section planning our imaginary garden. 

Things I don't want to remember are how up in the air things still are but days like today make it bearable...  

In Instagrams

We've been moved out for a couple weeks now but we still haven't found a new place. We're kind of in limbo I guess, but we're making the best of it... and instagraming the good parts! I am not ashamed about the fact that I was overly excited about Instagram coming to Andriod. (finally!) It's no secret that I really enjoy taking and having photos... Instagram definitely will not replace my camera, but it's nice to be able to quickly snap 'in the moment' shots that I would miss if I had to get my camera out, which I've done with my phone anyway... but I love all the companies that have taken advantage of the Instagram craze and made products to use them with. I don't know but I do enjoy a good trend... :)

April Fools!

I'm still waiting for someone to say "April Fools!" but I know it's not coming. We haven't told many people but we're in the process of moving. The place we found was large but a 1 bedroom. Tons of character, wood floors, high ceilings and I have been so excited about it. We've spent the last week cleaning and packing and yesterday we took our first official load of stuff. Today we had planned on finishing cleaning and taking another load but this morning Andrew managed to get a pretty gnarly gash on his finger that I'm pretty sure should have had stitches and in trying to bandage him up I got a good look at the blood and got super sick from it (Having a weak stomach is the worst thing ever.) so we ended up not getting much accomplished. And since you're wondering Andrew's manly moving cut was from a potato soup making accident. This evening Andrew's mom call to ask if we'd seen the news, and informed us that the house we've been getting ready to move in to had been the scene of a shooting. There was a birthday party going on in the yard last night when we were moving stuff in and apparently it got out of hand because there was some sort of altercation that resulted in some guy unloading a shot gun but not one was hurt and we are definitely not moving in now so I guess we'll see about finding another place... 

I'd be so happy if I woke up now and this day hadn't happened yet but I'm not holding out for that. Happy April, Ya'll! Hope your day wasn't as big of a joke as mine!

Walks

We've been taking a lot of walks in this beautiful weather. Yesterday I took my camera along and had a mini shoot with the boys as we walked.

He's so rad...

Our walks always include the ducks. Jules LOVES animals. Especially horses and ducks...

Locket

This old locket was my mom's. She gave it to me a while ago and I've planned on getting photos to put in it but haven't gotten around to it. A couple days ago I finally took the time to make a little collage of photos to have printed for it but while I was working on it I had the idea to put scrapbook paper in it. It was one of those "why didn't I think of this sooner" things and I kind of like the way it looks now so I think I'll leave it this way until I get tired of it...

Super easy, super cute!

Gogerk

Jules is speaking so well now. I really love being able to understand what he's asking me for, even if it's a silly baby word.

This morning he asked me for a "gogerk" (Gogurt yogurt) and as I was feeding it to him I accidentally squeezed a little too much into his mouth. With huge eyes and yogurt running down his chin he looked at me and said "big bite!".  I'm pretty sure my heart resembled that mooshy yogurt. He's so funny and completely adorable.

Improvising

I feel like I'm constantly trying to come up with age appropriate activities for Jules and sometimes I just plain can't come up with anything.... I think it's safe to say this will be a go-to activity from now on...

A plate with a bit of water and soap. I used Johnson & Johnson baby wash because J think's it's hilarious to pop the bubbles with his lips and I figured it would be better than regular soap... I also put food coloring in the water but I won't do it again. Like I've said before, it stains too much and just made a mess.

Homemade Paint

My little artist is still at the taste tester stage when it comes to things like this so I was happy to find a quick and easy paint recipe made with (safer) ingredients that I had on hand.  (saw this here & here)

You need:

• 3 tbs sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup corn starch
• 2 cups water
• food coloring

Mix the first 4 ingredients and warm in a small saucepan. Stir until the mixture gets thick. (It will get a little chunky, just keep stirring)  Remove from heat and let sit for a few minutes to cool. Scoop the paint into containers (I used old baby food jars and it worked out perfectly) and add desired colors/amounts of food coloring (all I had was red so I left the others for when I get more colors...) and mix until well blended. 

This made 1 large jar and 3 small jars. 

The only negative I noticed was the food coloring I used kind of stained our hands even though he took a bath right afterward. Oh well... he had a ball so it was worth it. 

Happy Valentine's Day

I wore a beehive and they wore bow ties. We exchanged gifts and went thrifting and had Mexican. It wasn't much different than any other day, but I think it was the best Valentine's Day I've ever had. Happy Valentine's Day!

It's Funny Now

How often do you think "someday we'll laugh about this"? I think that several times a day, but that doesn't always mean I'm not laughing while thinking it...

Sunday Andrew and I made our bets on the Super Bowl outcome (I still haven't told him I'm not sure which team I was for) and I won! A day of momma sleeping in and daddy getting up with J was just what I needed.

Monday morning came and Andrew got up with J. Not 30 seconds after they left the bedroom I heard shattering glass. Before I was even fully awake I was in the kitchen, scooping up my baby, checking for blood and assessing damage. He was fine but a vintage sugar bowl full of fish food was all over the floor. Andrew had walked into the bathroom just long enough for J to feel the need to start the day by himself and I refused to let my sleep in day begin this way... That morning, I did not think it was funny.

Tuesday I had to get up for work. No sleeping in but just after waking up, J and I were having our morning snuggle time when he stuck his little finger up his nose and shoved a booger in my mouth before I even had the chance to tell him not to pick his nose. I laughed a little bit when this happened, but I'm not certain it was because it was funny.

Wednesday came, momma got to sleep in and the two previous mornings seemed a lot funnier.

Now it's Friday and all I can think is how smart my little guy is that he knew that he's going to feed the fish when he wakes up and he's so ornery that he would think to shove a booger in mom's mouth and think it was the funniest thing ever. He's growing and changing so fast that he's smarter everyday and constantly amazing me with the things he does.

And when he's older and I look back on these stories to tell him, we can laugh together...

Weekend

Our mall has a train. It appeared a couple weeks ago and we finally got around to riding it last weekend. J loved it.

All the pictures I took were blurry because the train was shaking so much.