Corn Cob Lane! 24 weeks!

Feeling good.. a friend has saved me with a back brace that is making a WORLD of difference on an aching crick in my back :( Otherwise feeling great!

We can now see baby kick, which is so fun! I love this kid in here! Every once in a while when shim starts kicking hard, I can pull up my shirt and see a little protrusion from my belly! It is hilarious!

Sorry for the so short quick update, but it's just a short post kind of day! Love you all!

Bubble Fun

I tried to post this yesterday but it took forever to load! Here are Caden and Elizabeth playing with Serenity's new bubble gun. Check out Caden trying to eat them! Cuties! Also take a gander at their new winter coats! They just graduated from their 0-6 month coats! 0-6 MONTHS!!! They are 2 1/2 years old!! Tiny little things!


Bubbles from Taylor Lane on Vimeo.

Weekend In Review

I knew our weekend was off to a good start when I came home from work Friday and Renny and Powers were at our neighbors house playing a friendly game of baseball! I love our new house and neighbors! We have GREAT neighborhood kids that we are so thankful for!
This was the first of quite a few kid games that hubbers took part in and made all the kido's mad because he would 'bend' the rules to his advantage! i.e. If i can touch the base with a long stick while Im running, technically I'm 'touching' base, so that should count! We wonder where Ren gets all her 'games with a zillion rules' from?!?!

Exciting news first!!!
We have harvested the last (and first) of our summer harvest!! Please don't be discouraged at our BOUNTY for all you first time farmers.... our bumper crop is just new house luck Im sure you will be as fortunate as we were this year next year! Are you ready for all our goodies?!

Hold your breath...

Behold....

That's right, folks! We have successfully harvested ahhhh lemon (as in ONE!) Here's another shot of our beauty... She's a looker!

We're proud parents! We actually ARE since we brutally murdered our last lemon tree! :) Poor lemonjello! (That was it's name and we talked to it all the time!) Ok, gloating aside, here is the rest of our weekend!

Charley spent the night with us Saturday night and we all fell asleep on her! Poor thing! We can't stay awake past 9:00 so she was left watching movies by herself :(
We watched the movie 'Imagine That' with Eddie Murphy and it was really cute! Powers and I are trying to weed out movies that aren't portraying positive messages so this was a good, fun watch!

Two thumbs up from the Lane clan! Eddie Murphy is hilarious anyway, so anything he does is sure to get a few laughs!

Then, we made homemade caramel apples! Fun!!! Powers made the caramel from scratch! (How lucky am i?!?! Who else is married to a man that knows how to make homemade caramel?!) We made a totally mess and didn't eat much because it proved to be harder than eating fair apples, but we had a blast trying! Here are our apples and a little of Charley's food art!

Powers made me a beautiful caramel flower, too! He got hubbs of the night award, for sure!

Steak Balsamico with Spring Greens Salad

I have been trying to get in the kitchen more so we will quit eating so junky. Blah. A friend and I were having the 'it's just so hard to cook as much as we'd like to' conversation last night and I remembered this meal!

Powers and I made this recently and it was great, affordable, super quick and healthy! If you multitask, you can throw this whole thing together in 20 minutes easily! I've added our cooks notes at the bottom of each recipe for your interest! We served this with a loaf of french bread for dinner. Enjoy!

Steak Balsamico with Mushrooms - serves 4

4 (6 oz.) flat-iron steaks, about 1-1/4 in. thick

1-1/4 t. salt, divided

3/4 t. black pepper, divided

2 T. olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

8 oz. pkg. sliced fresh mushrooms

1/2 c. balsamic vinegar

Rub steaks with 1 t. salt and 1/2 t. pepper.  Cook in hot oil in a large skillet over med-high heat 4-5 minutes on each side (or more for us) or to desired degree of doneness.  Transfer to a serving platter and cover with foil to keep warm.

Add garlic to skillet; saute 30 seconds, stirring constantly.  Add mushrooms and remaining 1/4 t. salt and 1/4 t pepper to skillet; saute 3 mintues.  Stir in vinegar; cook, stirring frequently, 3-5 minutes or until mushrooms ar tender.  Spoon mushroom mixture over steaks,and serve immediately.  You only mess up one skillet to do this dinner.

 *Can substitute 2 lb. pork tenderloin, cut into 1/2 inch thick slices, for steaks.

*Note: This was good, but the balsamic sauce is really strong. I would either serve on the side as a dipping sauce or just cook the mushrooms in the sauce and serve only the mushrooms (sans sauce) over the steaks.

Spring Greens Salad with Beets and Goat Cheese

2/3 c pecan halves

3 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar, divided

1 Tbsp. water

1 Tbsp. sugar (or brown sugar)

¼ c olive oil

2 Tbsp maple syrup

1 tsp whole grain mustard

1/8 tsp salt

1 pkg (5 oz) spring mix salad greens

1 can (14.5 oz) sliced beets, drained

1 cup crumbled goat cheese

In a medium skillet, cook the pecans, 1 Tbsp vinegar and water over medium heat until the nuts are toasted, about 4 minutes. Sprinkle with sugar. Cook and stir for 2-4 minutes or until sugar is melted. Spread on foil to cool.

In a small bowl, combine the oil, syrup, mustard, salt, and remaining vinegar. Refrigerate until serving.

In a large bowl, combine salad greens and dressing; toss to coat (do not need all of the dressing). Divide among 8 salad plates and top with beets, goat cheese and glazed pecans.

*our notes: we LOVED the pecans so if you are serving 8, you may want to use a few more pecans! We also roasted fresh beets, which were wonderful, but my mom said canned beets work great!

Thankful for todays lunch break....

because THIS is who I got to hang out with!!

And we practiced doing this...

And i have a great long video of them singing Jesus Loves Me and making faces but I videoed it sideways and it gives you a crick in your neck watching because I dont know how to rotate it! Ill see what I can do.

I. LOVE. MY. NEICES. AND. NEPHEW. (make sure you add Charley to this list. Just because she's not pictured, I dont want anyone leaving her precious to me self out!) THEY ARE SO GREAT!

Mango Lane!

We are 23 weeks this week! And the size of a mango? I went from carrot to mango. im not sure I understand this sizing system, but Im no expert, so Ill just pass along what they are telling me! I wrote the family that it's a good thing I went to a rock concert this weekend because baby can now feel momma dancing, so my email encouraged cuttin' a rug! Woo! Fun baby! Still feeling great and loving being pregersaurus! (Roar!!)

Relaxing by the fire....

Here is a great picture powers took while enjoying our backyard Tuesday night. He made this fire for guys night while I was at a friends shower and when I came home he and allie were all laid back relaxing by the fire!

Lane Harvest: Giant Cucumbers and a girls trip!

Powers and Renny were able to go down to their family camp house this past weekend. They spent alot of time outdoors and finished harvesting the last of the Lane bounty! Here are a few pictures from their finds! Check out that Cuc! Their dog, Sally, thought it was a toy and ran around playing with it until it finally tore it up!

While the Lane's were farming, I ran off on a super quick girls trip with my best friend Tara! We went to Nashville for the night to go to a concert then spend the next day just browsing around. We had the best time! Tara used to be my road trip rocker friend but it has been YEARS since we've been able to get away! I texted her and asked what exactly a preganant girl wears to a rock concert and she said I wear a shirt that says, 'My baby loves to ROCK OUT!' If only I had one! It would have been perfect!

This is the 100 foot guy that stood in front of me at the concert. I am almost certain that you have to be of a certain height to live in Nashville. Tara is a tiny thing and we had at least 15 people standing in front of us that had to be taller than 6'6". That's really not exaggerating either!  Needless to say, we didn't see much! :)

Since we couldn't see much, I quickly refocused my attention to this .... Can you tell who it is? Look at the guy in the hoodie...You know I'm entirely star struck by all famous people and lose all rational thinking on how to act normal...

That's right ABC fans, its TY PENNINGTON IN THE FLESH! Whoot! You know Ty, from extreme home make over?!?! He was standing 10 feet away from us! We didn't speak (not because I would have made a blubbering idiot of myself if we did) but because he was there with a friend just having a good time, but I was so excited to see a famous person!
The next day we took in a little shopping and with it being so cold, we absolutley took advantage of my new found medical condition. Close parking!!! (I am ashamed of myself for you mothers who actually NEED close parking, but it WAS a good photo opp!)

Sign reads: 'Please keep this space reserved for  mothers-to-be and parents with infants'.

22 weeks and I've still got it right?! (Insert dying laugh here.)

who's to blame for a spoiled dog?

Tonight was an all around great night! I had a baby shower for my girlfriend smooch and powers had guys night at the house.
When I came home, powers and allie ballie were sitting by the bond fire, feet propped up. I joined them for a bit to catch up and as powers and I were talking, our dog barked. The 'I want in the house' bark. Totally pathetic! Were all enjoying the outdoors and our wild animal is the one who wants inside the comfort of our house. Where do we go so wrong?!

ballpark/church pictures

Here are a few cute pictures of the kid-o's from Charley's softball game this past Sunday... the one where she hit a triple!!! (Go Girl!!!) There are a few video's at the end that I FINALLY uploaded! Powers has some great video's of all sorts of cool things, but I can't get them off his camera! We have GOT to find his connection chord!

baseball game from Taylor Lane on Vimeo.

Just playing a really fun game! Oh to be young again!

Kid Games from Taylor Lane on Vimeo.

Here are a few pictures Powers took at church...

Here are the actors in our last Kids Club House skit. They did a bit on Superhero's. Apparently someone doesn't much like superhero's... Caden covered his face with our prayer request card the whole time they were on the stage!

Our chickens are addicts...

Our chickens are really funny! I don't know how we think we are ever going to kill and eat one. And by we, I mean Powers. Ill partake in the eatin' but not the killin'!
Here were a few funny pics Powers took of them last week. They are like addicts to a bag of cracked corn we bought them as a treat. They will CHASE you around the yard everytime we walk out of the front door and they are normally waiting by the back door to attack us when we come out! I finally gave in the other day (because I couldn't lose them) and one of the chickens was pecking my toes while I was getting food for them! Ahhhh! Here they are waiting for treats.

 This is the wall separating our carport from the yard. They hop up here and wait on Pow pow... They are taking over! Help!!!

Taylor's at Work, Belly's at Booper's

If I stand at my desk and face westward, I'm pretty sure that puts my big ole enormo belly somewhere around Booper's house in Mississippi! Holy Moly! Mom, tell my baby I said hello because I can't even see the poor thing today!

Time to pick up a few more spin classes! (I say that as I sit here eating lunch.... pathetic!!)

We had our very last sonogram visit yesterday! It was great! I didn't TOTALLY lose it like I have in past sonograms because Baby Lane was D-E-A-D asleep! The lady was shaking me like crazy trying to get Shim to wake up! I did semi-fall off my rocker when she showed us an up close picture of it's little heart... pumping like crazy and you could actually see all 4 chambers of it's heart. I was speachless. We did leave with a whole handful of 4-D pictures, which i could do without all together. Just give me the good old traditional black and whites... that helps me out when trying to decide if  I'm going to birth a human or alien! We are just not okay with this new form of pictures! They also burned a video of baby's sonogram but we can't figure out how to open it! I'll work on that and post it as soon as I can!

Lizzy and Caden moved into their big boy/big girl bed this week! They are so grown up! I think nap #1 was pretty rough because they were all keyed up about the change, but night #1 went well because they were exhausted! Lauren said Caden LOVES that the bed is bouncy and he jumps and jumps and jumps on it! If I understand the story right, Lauren said she went in the other day and caden was stradling Elizabeth jumping up and down! He's about to aggrevate the stew out of poor Liz because she wants some sleep! He just wants to jump!! How fun! Here they are waking up from a nap yesterday...

Barry said they put them to bed on opposite sides of the bed and when they go in to check on them, they are all smushed together! I love these kidos! They are so fun!

Charley has been working on a really cool biology cell project for school this week! She is making a sugar model of all the parts of the cell that sounds really inventive! She's doing something totally different than all her classmates, so I am really proud of her for trying something new! I asked her to document while she's making it so I can post about it! I can't wait to see how it turns out! She is one smart little cookie, guys... Not only is she beautiful, she got it going on in the smarts department!

Charley also has started fall ball (softball). I have some cute pictures and videos to post of her game Sunday but will probably get to that tomorrow. Charley did, however, play AWESOME! She knocked one ball right into dead man's land in the outfield and got to third base! It was GREAT! She was so cute... she started jumping up and down with her hands in the air after the play was over! We were cracking up!

Lastly, here's a video of the baby's saying funny stuff! They have started wearing backpacks, or as toot's says, Pap Pap! They are melt me adorable!

Pap Pap from Taylor Lane on Vimeo.

Home Sweet Home

Husband is home! Ahhhhhhhh. I don't feel like I even need to say more! Just a deep breath of relief and joy that the sweet Lord decided to bring him back to me!

Things I missed so much:
1. His face.... especially his furless face!!! Woo hoo! I LOVE it! He is so beautiful!
2. His amazing warm hands-on-belly (which is growing by the minute!) He gave me a bare belly hold on the way home and Baby started kicking like crazy! It was awesome! Baby knew Daddy's touch instantly! :)
3. The sound of his voice in person
4. Surprisingly, getting my toes and fingers smashed!
5. His stories! He's never short on them, and I loved hearing them!
6. Having to turn on the air conditioning because there were two people in the bed again! Yay! I haven't turned it on in 10 days!
6. Just everything about his sweet self! It was so nice to have my man back and it made my day that he missed me! Yay!
7. I did, however, hate leaving this am :(

Here are the cute McKay kids welcoming their Daddy home!

Just a cute coincidence that these kids all had on light blue shirts with navy collars! They were watching for their Dad's plane to land!

21 weeks and rather orange!

We're over half way there! Baby is a size of a carrot this week and weighs 3/4 of a pound! Wow! Mom has gained much more than 3/4 of a pound! We are still feeling great! This whole experience has just been so much more rewarding than I ever could have dreamed! I have loved every minute of it! My update says that in the coming weeks I may start to notice a pattern in our baby's movements! How fun! I'd love to know when Shim is sleeping or wide awake! I just love those little kicks so much!!

We have our very last sonogram next Tuesday morning and will thus put the nail in the coffin on finding out the gender of our munchkin! Im still ok with nails!!! Im sorry guys! ehem, sorry Katy Mc!! :) I am looking forward to hearing the doctor say, 'congratulations on your baby _____!' so much! I can't wait to be surprised!

So, to my dear gender neutral baby.... I love you so much! I even love your little girl parts or boy parts and don't care a bit which one they are!! :)

Love you all! Have a great day! It's BEAUTIFUL here! So good to see the sun!!

HOOOOOOORAY!!

POWERS COMES HOME TOMORROW!!!!!(My feelings exactly!!)

ps. I have no idea who to credit for this picture, so please don't arrest me! It is not mine (as we don't like cats!) but it was all over the www so please be merciful and forgive me if this is your picture!

Home Renovations.. thus far!

Here is the baby's room when we moved in... I'm terribly sorry to be mean, but yuuuuuuk. This was our worst room and we had to take immediate action! That is winny the pooh on the walls... and yes, you are seeing that right. Pepto-Bismol pink walls. Ugh. Plus, popcorn ceilings.

Progress being made... Booper hard at work!
The final product! I love it! The picture frame was the inspiration for the room. We still have two big pillows that need cases, a bedside table, crib, and changing table, but that's all to come! Isn't it a great improvement! I. Just. Love. It!
Smoooooooooth ceilings! Yay!
Ahh! So much better!

Our living room pre-work. Book shelves were so ugo! Color, not bad, but we decided to change it to white to cover up imperfections in the walls where the foundation has moved. Plus, the owner told us there were beautiful hardwood floors underneath, so we trusted them and Powers yanked the carpet on up (with Taylor biting fingernails the whole way through!) Again, popcorn ceiling.

After! Pretty good, huh?!?! The rooms are pretty WHITE right now, so were working on bringing some color into the room to warm it up, but I was so excited! The floors look amazing! We need to wax them and get them healthy again, but this looks like a different house! Way to go, hubbers!
I'll post more as we accomplish things! Renovation is really so much fun for anyone looking to conquer a project! We have loved working on the house and seeing the fruit of our labor! Next up, dining room and guest bath...