Chick Fil A Cow Appreciation Day!

Today is COW APPRECIATION DAY at Chick Fil A restaurants. If you dress head to toe as a cow, you get a free combo meal of your choice! So some friends and I dressed everyone up and off we went! As you can see, it was tons of fun!

Summertime Smoothies!

My kids are on a smoothie kick lately, we make them pretty much every day for breakfast or a snack. In fact, Evan had one with breakfast today AND with his dinner LOL. I can't say no when they are so healthy! To make them, I use:

1) Some kind of frozen fruit, either store bought (I love the mixed tropical fruit from ALDI) or frozen yourself. ~ To freeze fruits such as strawberries, blueberries, peaches or bananas, I slice them up if necessary, layer them on a cookie sheet and freeze them. Once they are solid, I seal them in Ziploc bags. This allows each piece to freeze individually instead of in one big clump. You can add fresh fruit as well, but having some frozen gives the smoothie the correct consistency. If you use all fresh fruit instead of frozen, no worries! Just add some crushed ice from the fridge dispenser.

2) Yogurt ~ I buy the big cartons of vanilla or in a pinch will grab a single serve flavor from the fridge such as strawberry or peach.

3) Milk or Orange Juice, or both, depending on the flavor I want.

First I add the yogurt to the blender, followed by the fruit and lastly the milk or OJ. Once I start blending I can see how much more liquid I need to add to achieve the right consistency. We like our smoothies pretty thick, barely thin enough to use a straw.

Here are a few favorite combos:

Peaches, strawberries, Vanilla Yogurt and OJ
Blueberries, Bananas, Vanilla Yogurt, and Milk
Tropical Mixed Fruit, Vanilla Yogurt, and OJ
And for a special treat:
Bananas, Vanilla Yogurt or ice cream :), Chocolate Syrup, and Peanut Butter

20 Week Belly Pics!

Half-way there!!!

Our little secret

We are very happy to have been able to reveal the sex of the baby to our closest friends at a cookout we held in our backyard on Saturday. To make it more fun, I baked a layer cake, which I frosted white on the outside but told everyone that the middle layer of frosting would be either pink or blue, depending on whether baby is a girl or a boy.




After dinner, I had Chris cut the cake to reveal BLUE for a baby boy!





It was a great party with great people and the kids had an absolute blast: "roasting" hot dogs over the fire on sticks (LOL), and firing off Pop-Its and Sparklers.







And by the looks of this (adorable) face, the cake was pretty good too!

It's a BOY!!

We had our anatomy ultrasound done on June 18th and are thrilled to announce that we are expecting a baby BOY! I have had an overwhelming feeling all along that it is a boy and was not surprised at all when they told me! The kids really enjoyed coming to the ultrasound with us, I love that they are older now and can be so much more a part of things. Here are a few of the full profile pics.

The fruits of our labor

We planted a small (12 X 6 foot) raised bed garden about a month ago or so. We figured we'd start small and see how we do LOL. The kids chose green beans, summer squash, carrots, cucumbers, and lettuce as the seeds. Today we picked the very first crop of organic baby lettuce leaves!! It was enough to fill a large Gladware container. The girls brought it in, washed it up, and promptly ate most of it...they are both like rabbits they eat so much salad LOL. Hopefully we will have much more veggies to pick very soon!

9 More Days!!

I just had a quick doctor's appointment (weight, bp, heartbeat, pee in a cup LOL) and was able to schedule my *big* ultrasound where we will find out the gender. It is going to be next Thursday, June 18th!! YAY, just 9 more days! The kids are so excited, they will all be coming with us when we find out. So keep those predictions coming, I love to hear 'em!!

16 Week Belly Pics!

Long overdue but it's not like I *want* to post photos of my expanding waistline for the world to see LOL! At the request of some....er...friends (you know who you are!)...here are a few belly pics from week 16 :) The shirt makes me look HUGE!! I am carrying high and all in front, so my guess is boy. We'll find out in a few weeks. I have only gained 4 lbs which is great for me, as I gained 50 lbs with each of my pregnancies, so 4 lbs at 16weeks is remarkably low in my book LOL.

Spring

Is there anything more beautiful than the blooms on our Kwanzan cherry tree to welcome spring? And shaped like a heart no less!? Signs of life are everywhere around our yard. This year is one of new beginnings, new life. We will be welcoming a new baby in November and it still feels so surreal. After a miscarriage last summer, I have doubts and fears. Sights like this give me new hope. God knows what He is doing :)