Nothing new :(

We had our doc's visit this am and left with no new news. I was a little disappointed because everything has felt 'in action' lately, but I am totally okay with baby still wanting to be with me! I still feel great and couldn't ask for this whole process to have been any better, so Ill take a little time of no news and count it as good news! We'll keep you updated!

38 weeks and holding our breath!

Wow! Can you believe it? I am really emotional today thinking about the past 8.5 months. Where did they go? Wasn’t it just yesterday that I was praying for just ONE of these? Now its almost time to meet my little tiny baby face to face! I love our Creator! I can’t believe this journey!  His plan is so perfect in every way! He is immeasurable to me! I have been blown away time after time after time as I’ve seen God’s blueprint for this baby’s growth revealed and realized how He intended to change ME in the process…. there is no explanation for life other than GOD IS GOOD AND PERFECT.

This update makes me so excited! Ahh! Baby’s daddy is ready RIGHT NOW. No more waiting needed for him… let’s just do this! He is feeling better and is ready right this minute! I am okay with God letting us know when it’s time! We are having braxton hicks contractions finally! We had them all day Monday! We go back to the doctor tomorrow morning so we’ll see how much we’ve progressed since last week! The anticipation is finally getting to me! Do you think Shim is a boy or a girl?! Who is baby going to look like?! Will it have precious dimples like it’s daddy? Will it have big ole eyes like it’s momma?! We’ll know soon enough I guess!! :)

 

Your pregnancy: 38 weeks

See the big picture

How your baby's growing:

Your baby has really plumped up. She weighs about 6.8 pounds and she's over 19 1/2 inches long (like a leek). She has a firm grasp, which you'll soon be able to test when you hold her hand for the first time! Her organs have matured and are ready for life outside the womb.
Wondering what color your baby's eyes will be? You may not be able to tell right away. If she's born with brown eyes, they'll likely stay brown. If she's born with steel gray or dark blue eyes, they may stay gray or blue or turn green, hazel, or brown by the time she's 9 months old. That's because a child's irises (the colored part of the eye) may gain more pigment in the months after she's born, but they usually won't get "lighter" or more blue. (Green, hazel, and brown eyes have more pigment than gray or blue eyes.)

Chicken Pasta Salad and Pot Soup

I am on a mission for us to eat healthy and save money. (Translation, eat salads and stop spending so much eating out!) We have one chef and one decent cook in our house. No reason to not cook all the time! Plus it’s fun! Here’s what I’ve tried this past week:

Booper’s Chicken Pasta Salad

My 2 cents: You can taste the red wine vinegar in this a lot, but we really liked it! It’s light, for pasta… the sauce isn’t thick and heavy. Powers really liked it and he’s my good food gauge!

Chicken Pasta Salad

Dressing:

1 c. mayonnaise

1/2 c. red wine vinegar

2 T. lemon juice

2 T. dried dillweed (i didn’t have this so I just left it out and it was still good!)

     Whisk together until smooth and set aside.

Salad:

8 oz. fettuccine noodles or tri-color rotini pasta (We used rotini)

3 T. olive oil

2 lbs. or 4 boneless chicken breasts, cooked and chopped into bite-size pieces

1 c. chopped celery

1 c. chopped green pepper/could also add red bell pepper if you like

1/4 c. chopped green onions

4 oz. chopped pimento, drained

2 T. creole seasoning (will make salad pretty spicy, can cut back if you’d like!)

1 c. chopped toasted pecans

*opt. 2 c. fresh broccoli florets (I didn't use this in mine)

     Cook, rinse, and drain pasta.  Toss pasta with 3 T. olive oil.  Chop all veggies and put in a large bowl, add Creole seasoning and stir.  Add drained pasta, chicken, & pecans and toss with all of the dressing.  Would be pretty served on a red lettuce leaf but Taylor and Powers never even made it out of the bowl to a plate.  Must have been good!

 

Next up:

Beth Hamby’s Potato Soup

1- 2lb. bag of Ora Ida hashbrowns (NOT the shredded)- thawed

1 can cream of chicken

1 can cream of celery

1 can chicken broth

1 pint of half and half

1 cup of milk

2-3 T butter (to taste)

garnishes: crispy fried bacon (a must), sliced green onion, and shredded cheddar

mix all your liquid together then put your potatoes in.  Cook until potatoes begin to get mushy and soft and blend in with the liquid to make it very thick! (30 minutes or until desired consistency)

(notes: We left off the cheese… didn’t need it in my opinion but we used a lot of bacon and green onions! It was yummy and really easy! Good for a sick husband!)

Sunburst Baby Shower! And a little update!

The sweet families of Sunburst Financial threw us a baby shower today! It was so fun! I work with the greatest bunch! They are all so family oriented and I love watching them raise children and grandchildren! They are wonderful examples to learn from!

My favorite part of the shower? This…

   

It says “Hello Mommy! Good Bye Tummy!” Ha! Another AWESOME part of the party? BSIL (Best Sister-in-Law) showed up with these! Woo hoo!!

These guys came also and had a blast!

Fun at Dad's office from Taylor Lane on Vimeo.

At the end of the party I found this one sitting at one of our conference room tables reading to one of our advisors! She’s something else!

BBQ Quesadillas

Powers made these BBQ quesadillas the recently. I had flagged them in a Southern Living magazine and wanted to try them, but I was running late getting home, so Powers made them for us. Take note, Im pretty sure Powers didn’t even look at this recipe, but when he told me what he did, it was super similar to the below. This was really quick, easy, and delish!

BBQ Quesadillas

1 lb chopped barbecued pork (without sauce) (We used pork that Powers had smoked the week before)

1 cup barbecue sauce

1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro (more for me please!)

2 green onions, chopped

8 flour tortillas

1 (8 oz) pkg shredded mexican cheese (we substituted with queso cheese, which was really good!)

Toppings: sour cream and green onions

1. In a saucepan over medium heat, stir together bbq pork and next 3 ingredients. Keep warm

2. Place one tortilla in a hot, lightly greased skillet. Put desired amount of cheese on the bottom of the tortilla and spoon 1/3 cup pork mixture onto one half of the tortilla. Cook 2-3 minutes or until cheese melts. Fold tortilla in half over filling and transfer to a serving plate. Repeat until you use all remaining tortillas.

3. Top with desired toppings and enjoy! We served ours with skillet corn which was perfect with it!

Ummmm mmm! We will definitely do this again since it only took a few minutes to throw together!

Clearwater Baby Shower and a bump pic!

My sweet Birmingham girlfriends threw us a baby shower this weekend and to just go ahead and goob it on out.... it was DELIGHTFUL! That is the only word for it! I left that afternoon and was just overwhelmingly delighted! We are so blessed to have such wonderful, beautiful women in our lives! They are all  incredibly encouraging and  mean the world to us. I just loved being in the same room with these women that I hold in such high esteem. They are generous and thoughtful and crafty, and I feel loved around them.I have been on cloud 9 ever since and am eternally grateful to my Lord for the blessings he has given us.... namely 20 women that I would do anything for. Thank you, my wonderful friends!

Here are a few pictures from the soiree. I didn't even get a picture with my hostesses! Or anyone for that matter! I don't know what I was thinking! Check out how adorable the decorations were though! I threw a fit about how cute it was all afternoon!

My amazing friend Katy MADE this diaper cake! Isn't it precious? That's a little cap on top!

And what about THIS?!?! Precious friend Bekah made this tote bag! As in MADE IT.... with a sewing machine and thread! (jaw on floor!) It is reversible and even has different fabric inside the pockets! Yes, I am carrying it today! I could just go on and on and on about how artsy and great these girls are!

 

Adorable.

Big Girl with her table of goodies...

 

We are so thankful that we got lots of these! We have a well stocked diaper closet! Yay! No more nightmares!

Too cute! I can't wait for baby to wear this!

Maybe the softest, sweetest blanket I've ever felt! We loved this!

As you can tell, I am still beaming! I just had a wonderful time and am so excited for this sweet baby to be with us! Thank you, lady friends, for being wonderful people! I adore you all!

Oh, bonus picture... here we are today! Whoot! We are getting huge and I love it! It is just so funny to me! We'll be 37 weeks tomorrow...

 

36 weeks!

Not too much new to post except that we are this big this week! Wowzers.

We are just growing... alot. And momma can't breathe... at all! Baby should be about 18.5 inches long this week and weigh almost 6 pounds! Wow!

Doing great and still plugging along! Momma *says* she is ready when baby is, but that sentiment may change after we are feeding and changing all the time! :) Just kidding! Bring it, kid!!

She's a killer!

The beautiful, gorgeous, smarty pie, Charley Rhea bagged her very first deer this weekend! Woo hoo! Way to go muffin! She killed a nice sized doe (in one shot!) and got initiated with blood on her face! Good times!

 

 I have to make this note. This picture was taken by my brother's best friend, David. He is a crazy person about all things hunting. Barry said David got them to move over until he could get his great big deer in the background into this picture. Oh my. 

Here is Barry with an 8 point he killed earlier this year. Way to go, bro!

Nice! 

Baby Shower and Fun Times in C-Town!

The whole clan packed up and went to columbus this weekend for a full fun packed weekend! My moms friends were throwing us a baby shower, Charley and Barry were packing in some last minute hunting, the Lane's came over for a one day visit and the boys went to the MSU basketball game, visits with PaPa (who is doing so much better and is getting stronger every day! Yay!) and precious two year olds running around like crazy! Bless Booper's heart! We are never going to give her the quiet house I'm sure she dreamed of in her yester-years! Maybe in 20 years when all of our kids are grown.... doubt it, but maybe!

We'll start here...

So cute, these kids! And with my hero of a momma... Booper Rhea

 

 

 

These are from our visit with Papa. Papa has gotten so much stronger! Please keep praying for his strength and determination. We all want him out of this nursing home so badly. I know he is ready to be somewhat self sufficient again. He just doesn't belong in a nursing home so please keep praying that he continues to improve so we can get him home... or someplace more exciting soon! 

 

 

Yes, I cropped myself out of this picture. My grandfather looks precious though, so he gets posted! I however, had too much sodium the day before and have a sinus infection that will not go away and feel terribly bloated... also, I am the blog author, so I can crop myself out if I want to! There!

My mom's sweet friends threw us a great baby shower Saturday afternoon! It was so fun! It made me so excited about baby's pending arrival! My mom has wonderful friends and we appreciate their generosity so much!

Mom gave us a cool pack-n-play before the shower!

 

 

 

 

Our sweet hosts, Mrs. Betty and Mrs. Tammy! Thank you thank you thank you!

These pictures aren't cute, but the gifts were adorable! This outfit had ears! Awww!

Another bad pic/precious outfit that has the softest yellow ducky on the front! Melt me!

Diaper bag from the greatest grandmother, Din Din!

This is the closest I got to a picture with my sweet momma!

The Matriarch and best sister in law in the whole world.... Lauren Rhea

Sunday morning turned into a pretty sad little morning. Tootie Beth woke up with a stomach bug and was sick all morning. It was heartbreaking. She and momma stayed home from church and I secretly think Caden loved having the spotlight all to himself! He talked and talked and talked on the way to church! He was cracking us up! He also is REALLLLLLY into 'big trucks' right now (thank you G-Daddy!) and every once in a while he'll talk in this really deep 'man' voice and say 'Caden's Big Truck' really low! It is so funny! I'll have to catch it on video!

Tootie woke up shortly after church feeling much better. She did ask for 'Alligator' (translation: Gatorade) all day though which was precious!

**This just in! Charley had today off of school today so she and her dad went hunting late yesterday afternoon... She killed a deer! Wooo hooo! She said one of Barry's friends took pictures, so if we can get those from him, Ill post them on here to brag on her! Yay deer slayer!

Thank you, momma and daddy, for another wonderful weekend. You are just the best and we all love you so much! 

35 weeks and back in the kitchen!

Well, Baby's activities have sloooooooowed down! My updates translate more into 'baby's read and waiting and will just spend the next few weeks growing!' That sounds awesome to me! Shim should be about 18 inches long and 5.25 pounds this week! Heavy weight!! It weighs as much as a large honeydew (yummmmm).

Not too much new this week except that I washed our dog over the weekend and being bent over the bathtub royally upset my little resident. It threw a total hissy fit so I laid down and video taped it! I absolutely love the video! It is weird and strange and just awesome. I can't wait to show it to baby when its all growed up!

If you've been following, you know that we were recently, graciously given a deer for food for the winter! Powers butchered and then aged the meat. We have had some wonderful venison/bacon burgers but last night Powers out did himself. Here is how I would explain our meal...

-Coffee and 5 spice crusted tenderloin served with mediterranean yogurt with salt and spice acutriments,  steamed brussel sprouts and tomato basil and farm egg couscous

It was WONDERFUL! I can't believe that I didn't take a picture! This was definitely a repeater meal and I hope some of you are able to enjoy it with us one day! Lucky girl....