36 Weeks

ow Far along are you: 36 weeks

Weight Gain:  Ugh 30 lbs.  Time to stop eating sweets and eating out so much. 

Maternity Clothes: Maternity tops.  Wearing more dresses and skirts.

Food Craving:  Back on my strawberry, yogurt and granola kick.

Food Aversion:  Obviously not!

How Are You Feeling:  Overall pretty good.  Busy toddler makes me slightly tired. 

How Are You Sleeping: Sleeping well.  Only waking up once during the night to use the bathroom. 

Miss Anything:  Nope.

Any Discomforts:  I do have a bruised rib or something on my right side.  Bothers me if I sleep on my right side, cough or sneeze.

Any Movement: She's still a busy one, but movements are starting to slow down bc of lack of room I think.

Symptoms:  Still my nose bleeds in the morning and occasional Braxton Hicks contractions.

Labor Signs:  No

Gender:  Girl!

Mood:  Happy 

Excited For Anything:  I have another ultrasound on Tuesday to check my amniotic fluids and Wednesday I see the Dr for routine prenatal care.  We finally got Joanna's crib setup and B's parents are picking up her dresser tomorrow from Myrtle Beach.  Her room is starting to come together. 

Strawberry Muffins

This morning, I whipped up a batch of strawberry muffins for breakfast.  Best breakfast decision by far!  I personally liked them better than blueberry muffins, Vivian would say she prefers blueberry.  More for this preggo lady!

This recipe is so simple, like the strawberry cobbler I made last night.

Instead of using All-Purpose Flour, I used Self-Rising Flour.  Self-rising already has the baking powder and salt in it so you can omit that.  Just a quick shortcut in baking :)  I did use semi-chocolate chips in the batter, but didn't drizzle any chocolate on top.  They were sweet enough.

    

Strawberry Muffins from here.

Ingredients:

MUFFINS

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

If using self-rising flour, omit the baking powder and salt

1 large egg
1 cup granulated sugar
4 Tablespoon (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 and 1/4 cups sour cream (I used light sour cream - regular or nonfat would work too)
1 cup chopped fresh strawberries (thawed frozen would work too)
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

CHOCOLATE DRIZZLE
3 Tablespoons semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 Tablespoon butter

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 425F. Line 12-cup muffin tin with liners or spray with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl until combined.

 In a separate bowl, whisk the egg until the yolk & white are combined and light-colored. Add the sugar and stir until the mixture is thick. Add the melted butter in 2 or 3 additions, whisking slowly to combine after each addition. Add the sour cream and whisk until JUST combined. Do not overmix.

Add the strawberries and chocolate chips to the dry ingredients. Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients in 2 or 3 additions, carefully folding after each addition. Stir until the batter comes together, but try not to over mix. The batter will be very, very thick.

Spoon the batter into prepared muffin tins. Fill the tins all the way to the top. Not 2/3 or halfway filled, ALL the way to the brim. Bake at 425F for 5 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350F and continue to bake for 20-22 more minutes. Allow to cool for 5 minutes.

While the muffins are cooling, prepare the chocolate drizzle by melting the chocolate chips and butter in a shallow bowl. Stir, then drizzle chocolate over cooled muffins.

Makes 12-14 muffins. Muffins taste best served the same day. Muffins remain fresh up to 4 days, covered, at room temperature. Muffins may be frozen. Drizzle with chocolate right before serving

Fresh Strawberry Cobbler

I took Vivian to Lewis Farms to pick strawberries today and it was so much fun.  This was the first time going, which is crazy, since we've been in Wilmington for over 7 years.  Better late than never I guess.  Definitely more fun going with your child than by yourself anyway.   Worth the wait, that's for sure!!

Vivian loved putting the strawberries in her bucket.  She looked so cute!  She wore a little outfit that her Nana made her and she rocked pigtails for the first time. Such a cutie pie!! 

Picking your own strawberries is cheaper than buying them in the grocery store I think.  It helps cutting out the middle man :) An almost full bucket only cost $8.25...not too shabby...vs paying $5 for a small container at the store.

After picking strawberries, we got an ice cream treat.  A cup of strawberry ice cream for Vivy and a strawberry milkshake for me.  However, after Vivian polished off her ice cream, she went to town on my milkshake.  Good thing I love her!     

With all the strawberries we couldn't possibly eat alone, I had to do a little Pinterest search for recipes.  I found a cobbler and a muffin recipe that looked delicious.  I decided to make the cobbler first and make the muffins tomorrow.  I will still have plenty left over to eat alone or make smoothies with. You can't go wrong with strawberries!

Disclaimer:  I may or may not have ate half this cobbler tonight.  I'm sure it will all be gone by tomorrow :)  I blame the pregnancy! 

Here are a few pics before sharing this amazing recipe.

  

Fresh Strawberry Cobbler, recipe from here 

Ingredients

3 cups fresh strawberries, diced
½-3/4 cup sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup sugar
1 cup milk
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 stick butter, melted

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375.

In a medium bowl, add strawberries and ¾ cup sugar.

Stir to coat strawberries in sugar and set aside.

In a large bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.

Add in milk, vanilla extract and melted butter.
Stir until combined. A few lumps are ok.

Grease a 9-inch casserole dish.

Pour batter evenly into dish.

Spoon strawberries evenly on top of batter. Do NOT stir.

Baked for 35-40 minutes or until golden.

Serve warm or cold. In my opinion, warm cobbler is the way to go!! 

Enjoy!

22 Months Old

Happy 22 months to this cutie pie!!  Girlfriend, I cannot believe you are 2 months away from turning 2 years old!!  Hard to believe.

You are the busiest little girl!  You are so independent outside the home.  Shopping, walking anywhere, parks.  But at home, you are attached to me like a leech.  You are rarely in a separate room from me.  Only way I can get away is letting you play on the Kindle...aka, peppa.  Mommy has to do what she has to do!

You FINALLY learned how to climb onto the couch without assistance.  You love jumping on the couch, chair, bed, crib.  

You had a big month of moving into your new house.  You finally adjusted and say, "home" when we pull into the driveway.

You still love swinging, balls, bubbles, riding your push car and being outside.  One of your new favorite things is playing in the front seat of the car.

You won't lay down to take a nap.  Mommy has to drive you in order to get you to sleep.  You nap for only an hour.  Once in a blue moon you'll go longer.  

Your not big to eating lunch and dinner.  Thankfully, you do eat breakfast.  We mostly snack throughout the day.  Your beverage of choice is still water.  Such a good girl and you absolutely love apples.  That is definitely our favorite fruit right now.

Your favorite song is "If Your Happy and You Know It."  Absolutely melts my heart watching you clap your hands, dance around and say, "Hooray!"  

You know how to throw a good tantrum.  There have been many times we leave a store with you kicking and screaming.  Mommy has to carry you out like a sack of potatoes.  

You loved being held at the most inconvience times for mommy, like cooking.  I know you just want to see what mommy is doing. 

I know your going to be an AMAZING big sister next month.  I cannot wait to see how you love baby Joanna.  It will be the sweetest I know!

We love you so much baby girl and I could not imagine life without you.  We love you love bug!!

Life Lately

We have been busy bee's around here since closing on our house on April 2nd.  With moving, cleaning, decorating, getting Vivian use to her new home and everything else, we are finally starting to slow down a bit.  

So happy the inside of the house is almost done.  Brian just has to work on getting the yard together.

Miss Vivian even has her own shelf in the pantry.  She can grab her snacks anytime she wants something.

My Mom and niece came over for a week after a few days we moved in to help paint the upstairs...aka, the girls area.  3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms were completed in 2 days.  The first day was a slow start, only tackled Vivian's room and half of her bathroom.  Day 2 we knocked out Joanna's room, bathroom and their playroom.  We even had a little set back when my Mom accidentally painted the top of the trim the wrong paint color and we had already taken the ceiling tape off.  Slight delay, but my Mom knocked it out!  She also finished making these alphabet letters which took a little time.  I think they turned out great!  I also love the paint colors I chose.  

The girls room and bathrooms, I decided on Behr paint color Pewter Vase.  For the paint color in the playroom, we did Behr's Silver Setting.  That color was actually our bedroom color at the other house.

  

After all the painting was done, we managed to get to the beach a few times.  Audrey couldn't come all this way and not go to the beach!

We also went to the Cole Bros Circus.  This was both Vivian's and Audrey's first circus.  Vivian was interested at first, but as the show went on, she wanted to walk up and down the aisles and hang on the back of people's chairs.  

After they returned home, we've been hanging outside as much as possible.  The weather has been wacky.  Cold one day and warm the next.

Now that we are settling down, its time to prepare for Miss Joanna Grace's arrival.  I managed to wash some of Vivian's baby clothes and a few other things to have ready.  We picked her crib up yesterday and her dresser will arrive Monday, which B's parents will get for us since its in Myrtle Beach and we had to rent a truck to get the crib.  We just need to put the crib together.  So ready to have her room finished. Can't believe we will be a family of 5, with Mr. Brody included, next month!  I'm a little scared and excited at the same time :)  

Easter Weekend

On Good Friday, our church held an Easter Egg hunt at Hugh McRae Park.  This was Vivian's first Easter egg hunt, which started at 10 am, we arrived at 10:15 am and it was over.  Thankfully, they had extra eggs for late comers.  Vivian collected 3 and it was adorable watching her grab the egg and place in her basket.  

Our friend Tara and her daughter Julia met us their and the girls couldn't be any cuter.

Not a single tear!!

She wasn't ready to leave

On Easter morning, Vivian woke up to her Easter basket.  It was so cute when she saw her basket and she goes, "ooohhh!!"

^^ The Yookidoo bath spout is awesome!  Vivian loved it...highly recommend this for your little one^^

After opening her Easter basket we got dressed for 8:45 church service.

After church, we stopped by the old house and then ate lunch at K-38 Mexican.

After lunch, we went back home and Vivian took a little nap.  After nap we had an Easter egg hunt in the backyard.  Again, she had a ball!

We couldn't have asked for a better Easter.  Holidays are really starting to get fun with this little lady.