Sweet Treats!

I decided to break out the cake decorating kit and tap into my creative side today for Jon's 19th birthday. It has been a while since I have made and decorated a real cake (I don't count the ones I throw together at the last minute). I am pretty satisfied by how the iPod cake came out. It makes me want to practice my decorating skills more (if only I would have paid attention to my mom making those thousands of cakes throughout my childhood.) This cake would have looked better had I have followed through with my original plan to cover it in marshmallow fondant (easy to make and tastes great!), but I got lazy and decided to just go with the buttercream.
Here is the final product (click to enlarge):

The icing and piping are all buttercream; the white screen and wheel are made of white chocolate that I poured into molds (i.e. tupperware lids), and the ear buds are made of Twizzlers and mini marshmallows)

26 down, 14 to go!

I can't believe that we have really made it this far! I am days away from entering my third trimester, and this whole thing still seems surreal. It is hard to believe that we will have a baby in this house in a mere three months!
We have started our weekly childbirth prep classes and will continue those until our final class on March 31st. (It is a twelve week class) We really like our teacher and hope to get to know the other five couples in the class.
Chris and I have been busy busy around the house. We will hopefully have some pictures to post of the changes in the next few weeks (including the baby's room!)
Here is a picture of the belly at 26 weeks: (sorry I always look crappy in these; we always remember to take them when I am either already in bed or just out of the shower)

Hello 2009!

Oh 2008! How I will miss you...we had some good times! Alas, a new year is upon us and promises to offer even more exciting things! Chris and I have been enjoying our holiday time together, and I am sad to see him go back to work on Monday, but hey, someone has to pay the bills around here.
We enjoyed being able to spend time with our families and also enjoyed the time we had to work on house projects. We welcomed the new year with a visit to our midwife on January 2nd. Everything is looking peachy; baby is moving around well, and I am measuring right on track. My weight gain is right on track now (12 pounds total) so that is good. It was nice to hear the little one's heart beating away with the doppler again!! Here are some more belly shots from the last few weeks. I am posting these more frequently because I am seriously growing bigger every single day!


On another note, Chris and I are celebrating our 4 year anniversary today (January 3rd). I can't believe that 4 years ago we walked into the Brazos county courthouse in Bryan, Texas wearing jeans and flip-flops and said "I Do!" in front of a Justice of the Peace and her secretary! (We didn't even have wedding bands to exchange!) It was more perfect than anything I could have imagined; we really needed nothing else to make us happy! This morning Chris surprised me with breakfast in bed complete with fresh flowers, homemade blueberry waffles, fresh strawberries, and a McDonald's iced coffee (my favorite secret indulgence...I only allow myself one every month or so)
Here is my beautiful spread:

Hope everyone has a wonderful start to 2009! Ciao :)

Best Present Ever!!

I have to dedicate this post to my first X-mas present of the season...tonight, due to some very speedy shipping, I got one of my Christmas presents early!! My fabulous brother-in-law, Jon, had rice pudding overnighted to me from New York City! :)
Here is the background story; Chris, Jon, and I went to visit New York in the spring of 2006. While there we walked down to Lombardi's one day to stuff our faces with amazing pizza. On the way back, we ran into the coolest looking restaurant/shop that we recognized from a food network show; it was called Rice to Riches. Inside we found a contemporary, new-age cafe with one item on the menu: rice pudding. Now usually I am not that big of a rice pudding fan, but after reading their flavors, I was sold. We each indulged in a bowl of deliciousness. It was served in these cool plastic reusable bowl tupperware things with futuristic looking spoons! For the last 2 years I have reminisced about our trip to this rice pudding mecca, and this year for Christmas, Jon brought Rice to Riches to me! I have a large bowl of my very own "Sex, Drugs, and Rocky Road" chillin in my refrigerator!! That tub of sweetness was like crack to this pregnant lady!! Here is a pic of the goods:

On a side note, here is the latest belly picture (22 weeks) taken of course after stuffing myself with rice pudding :)

When Hell, uh I mean Texas, freezes over!!

People, I am not playing around when I say that it was full-blown snowing last night in Houston!! I am not talking the usual lame snow flurries that we get every few years; we had serious snow on the ground! I had to drive through pretty heavy snowfall so that I could pick up Chris at the airport. He had to jump on an earlier delayed flight because everything coming into IAH was delayed about 2.5 hours. It was so exciting! When we got home we immediately got to work constructing a snowman in the backyard. The pups were so happy; they kept running around eating the small snowballs that Chris was dropping. Fun times! Here are some pictures of the shenanigans:

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Party Time

Here is our picture from the annual Devon Christmas party. It was Saturday night at The Corinthian downtown; it was a really nice venue, and it was fun to see all the Devon peeps again. At least we know we can get dressed up once a year! There was no denying my preggers-state in this dress, especially after stuffing my face at the dessert buffet! Chris was so funny; I wish I had a picture of him from the party last year because he is wearing the exact same outfit (to his credit, he did change the tie!) We were trying to guess how many of the men at the party were also wearing their designated 'dress-up suit' that gets recycled year after year. Guys have it so easy!!

Seeing Pink!!

Well folks, the day has come...we are expecting a baby GIRL!! The fetal anatomy scan this morning went very well; we saw a perfect little baby girl whose measurements were all on track. It took the ultrasound tech forever to get her to move some so that we could see the sex; apparently we have a very modest little girl. She was keeping her legs very close together! We are so excited :)
I am measuring right on track as well; my belly is really popping out these days. I finally broke down and bought a pair of maternity jeans today. Here is the latest belly picture (20 weeks 1 day).

Yay for Christmas!

We made it through Thanksgiving, and Christmas is finally here!! Chris and I started decorating the house last weekend, and after an extensive search we were also able to find a Christmas tree. We decided that we needed to take full advantage of our vaulted ceilings and find the biggest tree out there. We found the most perfect 12-foot noble fir! It is quite a monster, and I am glad that the neighbor was home to help Chris get it into the stand and then into the house. Here are some pictures of the decorating fun! The outside looks so cute, Chris is complaining that the electric bill is going to be outrageous because of the giant ground lights lining the walkway :)

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Jambalaya, Crawfish Pie, File' Gumbo!

This post is a little late, but we have been busy the last few weeks. Last weekend (before Thanksgiving), I flew to New Orleans where I met Chris for the weekend. Chris had been working in Morgan City, so he just drove up to get me and on Sunday we rode back to Houston together. We had a WONDERFUL weekend! Friday night we perused the art galleries and antique stores before enjoying a yummy dinner at Ralph & Kacoo's. Saturday we went to the aquarium, rode the Algiers ferry, saw a movie being filmed in Algiers, ate shrimp and oyster po-boys for lunch, strolled around and shopped in the French Market, ate a ton of fresh pralines, freshened up at the hotel, then went out for a fantastic dinner at Mr. B's Bistro (one of the Brennan's gajillion upscale restaurants!) We slept in a little on Sunday before making the obligatory trip to Cafe Du Monde where we sipped cafe' au laits and got covered in a fine layer of powdered sugar! This weekend trip was an excellent way to celebrate the end of Chris' field rotation. He is officially back in Houston for good!

Oh, I almost forgot, this weekend was also exciting because Chris got to feel the baby move for the first time when we were laying around in the hotel on Saturday night watching the OU-Tech game! So exciting!!

Somebody Loves Me!

After the ear/sinus infection from hell, I am finally starting to feel better! Although I still can't hear anything in my left ear...odd! Today I was feeling pretty malaise and wanted to just go back to bed after going to yoga this morning when all of the sudden I heard the doorbell ring! I opened the door to a beautiful flower arrangement and a very sweet note from Mom and Jim hoping that I feel better soon! Thanks guys! I love you bunches! :)

On another note, can you believe that Thanksgiving is only a week from tomorrow. I am so very excited! I do not play around when it comes to hosting Thanksgiving dinner, so I have been diligently coupon-clipping and shopping for about 2 weeks now. Chris was making fun of my 'Thanksgiving 2008' Excel workbook complete with shopping list, guest list, menu, gameplan, etc... What? Doesn't everyone make an Excel workbook for events that they are hosting?