Baby's First Pictures

Our Christmas came two days early this year! On December 23rd we got to see our little growing baby for the first time.  We were both very excited to see the baby and hear it's tiny heart beating!!  It was an incredible sound and brought a huge smile to our faces!  They said the age was a little younger than they originally calculated.. so the ultrasound says 11w2d, but at this point it was actually 9w3d.  So the due date has changed to July 27th, 2011.  We were happily surprised to find out my doctor has an ultrasound machine that does both the regular and 3D ultrasound, so they can switch back and forth  (makes it much easier to SEE the baby!).

3D Ultrasound of Baby Richmond - 9w3d

Ultrasound of Baby Richmond - 9w3d

The rest of our Christmas was wonderful as well!  We spent a lot of time with all of our family and friends, got some very nice gifts and had fun giving our gifts to everyone.  Feeling very lucky right to have such wonderful people in our lives.

We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and have a safe and Happy New Years!

Thanksgiving Surprise!!

This July we are expecting our first baby!!  We are so excited to share this news with everyone.  From what we have seen and heard, it is going to turn our world upside down, and we are looking forward to every minute of it!

Last Thursday I took a test and it came up positive but I thought it was too good to be true, so I took another one later that day.. and within 30 seconds it also came up positive!  We were pretty convinced they were true, so I made an appointment for Monday and took a third test over the weekend just to make sure.  When I was at the doctor on Monday, there was a tornado siren going off in St. Charles, which sent everyone to the basement and I thought I was going to have to wait even longer for confirmation! Luckily, they were still able to fit me in before the doctor left for the day.  It was confirmed with a due date of July 12, 2011.. then they took a bunch of blood.

The next step was sharing the great news with our family, and what a better time then Thanksgiving?!

I made these onesies for all of our siblings and parents to tell them.. over the holiday weekend we gave them to our family at various times when we saw them all.  At Thanksgiving dinner that we had at our house, I rolled the onesie up inside the dinner napkin and made place markers for everyone.  When they went to open their napkin to eat turkey dinner, they saw it!  It turned out great and everyone is excited, needless to say!

 

I am currently 7 weeks and 5 days pregnant and my doctor's office does not do an ultra sound until 12 weeks, so we have to wait until December 23rd to see this little blueberry!  Just in time for Christmas!!

While we are still in disbelief, the symptoms have definitley hit me but I am adjusting my diet to help ease the morning sickness (which by the way, is NOT just in the morning!).  It's all worth it when I think about what is causing me to feel crumby! 

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with their family! 

Yummy Dinner!

Just had to post a picture of what was on the menu for tonight.  It was so tasty and super easy!  We will be making this again soon for sure.

Balsamic Chicken and Mushrooms with Baked Potatoes and Steamed Broccoli

Rating 7

Dinner Makeover!

About a month ago Jeff came home with an idea.  A co-worker of his told him about an online program that you subscribe to and they send you a menu and shopping list every week for dinners.  Since I started going back to school and working later, I haven't had time to think about making a weekly menu like I used to.. so we thought we would give it a shot!

Four weeks in and we're hooked!  They make the menus based on what is going on sale for that week, at the store we picked.  Not only is it really nice to have a shopping list for the whole week organized for you by departments, it's great for the budget!  The average week is about $40, but we buy the expensive items in bulk when they go on sale (like meats, rice and pasta, etc.) so it's usually less than that! 

I have all the menus and shopping lists saved so we can make them again any time we want.  So far everything we have made has been really easy and tasty (not bland though!). 

We used to dread coming up with something for dinner, since we didn't have a plan.. now I look forward to coming home from work and cooking dinner for us!

Here is what was on the menu tonight:

Stuffed Chicken Breasts (stuffing, roasted peppers and spinach) with Brown Rice and Green Beans

Rating: 8

If you would like the recipe, e-mail me! 



Happy Halloween!!

This morning I took the dogs for a walk around the surrounding neighborhoods and we saw all the homes decorated for Halloween.  It reminded me of living in Oregon going Trick-or-Treating as a child.  Walking up the decorated pathways to front doors filled with fake cobwebs and creepy sounding recordings.  Crunching on fallen leaves on the pathway, ducking under big trees with bats and cobwebs hanging from them. 


Since we don't have kids to take Trick-or-Treating yet, and chocolate isn't good for dogs, we will just be handing out candy tonight for all the neighborhood kids!  Griff will be dressed up as a K9 Cop!  (He is not thrilled, but we will post pictures of his costume that I made.)  After that, the plan is to watch Hocus Pocus (a Halloween classic!) and drink hot chocolate. 


Hope everyone has a safe, spooky and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!




The Richmond's