What's Cookin' Wednesday

Squirrel Stew........that's what's cooking!! No, but seriously, we WILL get this creature. Is that some of our furniture stuffing in it's mouth?? He's hiding it in our back wall!! That's where he hides out too. I've always thought squirrels were kinda cute....until I saw this one. There are two of them that roam around out there and they have really dark fur. I've seen gray squirrels and brown squirrels but never these dark black squirrels. They are creepy and obviously very rude!

Back to serious business. I did this "What's Cookin' Wednesday" series a year or two ago and never got back into it. I haven't cooked a real meal in 3-4 months now (besides when our families were here). This definitely doesn't qualify as a "real" meal either.....and not healthy, at all. Cooking for just myself and two little ones isn't that easy. Especially when some smells still get to me and the girls are pretty picky. Tonight's dinner was a hit though. I wanted to share this simple grilled cheese that I make. It's a little different from your normal grilled cheese.

1) Set oven to 450. Yep, you're oven! You can cook more than one or two sandwiches at a time this way and they come out nice and crispy on the outside and ooey gooey on the inside!
2) Butter one side of each slice of bread, add a little bit of garlic powder or garlic spread to each slice as well. Then sprinkle some basil on top!
3) Add your normal slice of American cheese, but also add some shredded Italian cheese.
4) Bake for 5 minutes or so on each side.
These come out sooooo delish!! We all love it. Served along with some Spaghettio's and a nice dessert of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream. A real treat for our girls! They love ice cream but hardly ever get their own bowl!

MISC

Pregnancy update: starting to feel a little better. I went two days without getting sick and then two days of getting sick and now today seems to be going good so far. I go to the doctor on the 4th. Hopefully we'll get to schedule an ultrasound!! I am still down 7 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight. I just hope baby is okay. I felt the little squirt moving around a lot during the 1st trimester and now I very rarely ever feel anything.

Things kids are saying:
Avery
- "boy baby, Mommy, boy" she always says this out of the blue. The first time I had no idea what she was talking about because she just said "boy". I had to ask her what she meant. Basically, she thinks she's going to have a little brother.
-"Yep" can't go a day without hearing this at least a dozen times.
-"oh man" this is new. I don't know where she got it, but it's pretty darn cute.

Allie
- "we're like a family!" she said this one day when all four of us were holding hands walking into the store.
-She wants a sister. We've explained to her that she already has a sister but she really wants another one. One of the boy names I really like is Hudson. I told her if she had a brother that could possibly be his name. Well, one of her friends has a 6 year old brother named Hudson. They were all playing one day and Allie and Hudson were in the little battery powered car driving. I don't know if Hudson didn't think Allie knew how to do it or what but he was trying to help her and telling her what to do. Next thing you know they are yelling at each other. So Allie really doesn't like Hudson and does not want a brother Hudson!

Derek update: He seems to like his job. He is extremely exhausted all of the time though. He works late when he's not traveling.......and really I think he works late when he's traveling too. He just started this job this month and by the end of the month he will have been on 5 trips!

Weekend: We actually had a fairly busy weekend. First was Allie's school carnival. We didn't stay long. We were all hot and tired and that didn't make for a whole lot of fun. So, to compromise, we came home for naps and went to Dave and Busters for dinner and games that night. Unfortunately, I don't have any pics for proof........except for this balloon that was made at D&B's that was taken the next day.

Other:

The girls play Starfall everyday!

Anyone ever had squirrel stew? Once I catch the squirrel that did this I'll let you know how it tastes.

Too Sweet

This morning, as with every morning, my little Avery climbed into my bed to snuggle. I was still tired so I gave her a kiss and closed my eyes to go back to sleep. I then heard a little whisper, "I love you, Mom". awwwwwww, was all I could think. Then I heard it again, this time a little louder, "I love you, Mom". "I love you too, Avery." My sweet, sweet child.

Derek and I were just talking the other day about how these little girls are just growing up way too fast. And they definitely say the sweetest, cutest, and funniest things. We need to do a better job of documenting these things so that is why I wanted to write down this sweet encounter that we had this morning. Don't get me wrong, both of our girls tell us they love us ALL the time....which we really enjoy. With Avery, at her age, it's usually us telling her we love her first and then she'll usually respond with, " I love you much!" This time she initiated it. All to often I'm talking about how ornery and silly this little munchkin is. She is definitely a sweetheart though.

Now here she is, at my side, with an innocent little grin. She's supposed to be taking a nap. "Hi, Mom! Uh, sumping eat, Mom!?" She's too cute to resist. Love HER!

Laughter

Nothing more healing for a sick mommy to hear.....laughter!

Spring Break

Last week was Allie's spring break. Despite all of our mishaps and sicknesses we still managed to do a few fun things. Mony and Papa were here to visit during the break and, as always, the girls loved playing with them. Just like with Grandma and Grandpa Huber there were lots of hide and seek and coloring. They also enjoyed playing with play-doh, playing in the backyard, in the toy room, and taking walks.

 We tried a couple new restaurants: Pappasitos - really cool atmosphere, food was just okay. Waxy O'Conner's - this place was on the RiverWalk so it was really loud and crowded, especially since it's an Irish Pub and they had just had a St Patty's parade that day. We just split a bunch of appetizers and some ribs. Most of it wasn't that great, BUT the buffalo wings and fries were amazing (we would go back just for those!)

Now for the outings:

RiverWalk 
We decided to take a ride on the river boat tour. The line was sooooo long, but actually moved pretty fast. We were glad we did it! It was pretty neat and relaxing.

We got the best seats.......at the front of the boat.

Lots of tourists around for Spring Break

Playing darts at Waxy O'Conner's.

McKenna Children's Museum

This place was up in New Braunfels. I had purchased a groupon for it in the fall. Allie had been there with Tami, Abby and Kaiya before so she was loving showing us around! We liked it a lot and spent a good chunk of the day there.

Nurse Allie

There was an area where we could do face painting!

Painting a car!

 

Landa Park

After we left the Children's Museum we thought we should find something else to do so we wouldn't get stuck in rush hour traffic. So, we headed down the road to Landa Park.

rode the train around the park

and this exhausted little girl fell asleep

Sat down by the river and fed the ducks the goldfish that we had spilled earlier

  Huge Texas Live Oak

Sea World
Our original plan was to come here on Wednesday. It was supposed to be the coolest day at 82* and cloudy. Plus, with spring break we figured this day might be the least crowded. Well this was the day that we took Avery to the dr and found out she had strep and an ear infection so we held out until Friday. Oh my goodness! This was the busiest I have EVER seen this place in all of the times we have been. We had to get to the shows 30-40 minutes early if we wanted a seat. We were jam packed for every show. It got up to 85* that day and there was no air circulation during the shows.......so after every show I felt like I was going to be sick.

Azul was the favorite show of the day

Playing in the new Bay of Play

Shamu coaster ride

 

When It Rains, It Pours

Why does everything always go wrong at the worst possible times........and why does it always have to be when one thing goes wrong several more things will go wrong? This is what happened this week:

• Car wouldn't start
• Neighbor stops by to tell me our yard is soaking wet. Burst pipe? Something wrong with the sprinkler system?
• Toilet tank won't fill up with water

All of these happened in that order, one day after the other, while Derek was out of town for work. Now today, I find out Avery has strep throat and a double ear infection. My poor baby! Did I mention that I still feel absolutely horrible and it's Spring Break and 85* outside? Poor Allie! And Derek is so overly worked right now that he won't be able to take a look at any of it until Saturday... at least. Thankfully, Mony and Papa are here to keep the girls entertained.

And my trial is set for next week so lots to look forward to. Oh the anxiety!

Beach Week

Last week Allie had 'Beach Week' at school.

Crazy Beach Hat Day. As you can see Avery wanted to wear a hat too.

Beachwear day - no swimsuits so their cover-ups served as cute dresses

Gamma & Gampa Visit

I love how Avery says Grandma and Grandpa. So cute! They are loving having them here. The extra attention is helping me too. Hopefully they've enjoyed their visit. It always seems to go so fast. They've played lots of games (Sequence, Duck, Duck 1-2-3, and My Little Pony Candy Land), put together a puzzle, watched movies, and played lots and lots of hide and seek!

 The girls had a lot of fun helping Grandma make a bunny cake! They really enjoyed giving one to the neighbors....and eating it too. :)

We're Growing!!!

I'm so excited to FINALLY announce that we're expecting another little one!! We are so happy and excited.......and I'm so ready for it to be over with all ready. It's been rough with the morning sickness and all. When it lasts all day and night it really takes a toll on you. Everyone tells me it should be getting better any day now. I hope they are right! Although, I was sick like this with Allie and Avery all the way up to around 20 weeks.....and pretty much miserable the entire time. Yeah, I haven't had the best pregnancies. Needless to say, this will be our last little babe.
I'm still a little confused as to how far along I am. According to my calculations I'm 12 weeks 2 days. I went for a dating ultrasound yesterday and the tech said they would only do an internal if they thought I was under 13 weeks. When he was doing the regular ultrasound he said, "okay we're not going to do the internal." 10 minutes later we were doing an internal ultrasound?? He got what he thought were the right measurements, went and got someone else to check and in the mean time Avery reaches over from Derek's arms and pushes a button that clears the screen! oops. Guess that's why the say NO CHILDREN in the room. He didn't want to redo it. It was hard enough to get anything in the first place because the baby was bouncing around everywhere! Somehow he was able to get to a screen of the last pic took and used that.....and came up with 11 weeks 6 days. So, just a couple days off. Oh, the cutest part was seeing the baby do these shadow boxing type moves. So cute!
I had my first official Dr's appointment today. Couldn't find the heartbeat with the doppler so they did another quick ultrasound and the first comment made was that that baby had to be further along than 12 weeks because he/she is so big already and well developed. But until I have another "official" ultrasound the due date is going to stay at 12 weeks 2 days according to the nurse practitioner. That means the due date will be September 11th.
We're still debating on whether or not to switch over to Tricare Standard so I can be seen off base. I know I'm going to be high risk.......I always am. I think it's pretty ridiculous how hard it is to get an appointment on base. And the drive..........don't get me started on the drive. I gave myself an hour to get there today.....without any traffic it should only take 25 minutes to get there! Traffic was at a standstill on the interstate for I don't know how long. Time was dwindling down. I started going through the radio stations to see if there was an accident. Yep, I410 and military. Awesome. I had 15 minutes until my appointment at this point so I called the office to tell them I might be late. They said well you might as well reschedule it because if you're over 15 minutes late we won't see you. At that point, by some miracle, the traffic started moving and I said well if I have 30 minutes until it has to be rescheduled then I think I can make it because I'm only 5 minutes away and traffic is starting to move now. Then she said, actually we'll have to cancel if you're even a minute late because this is your first appointment and it's 40 minutes long. I was just like well, I'm almost there I'll see if I can make it before it's rescheduled. We pulled into the parking lot with 6 minutes until the appointment. Luckily there was plenty of parking.....wonder why!? I had Allie unbuckle herself and then get Avery while I got the stroller out. Loaded them in the stroller and dashed to the building. (I'm still wheezing from that run and my appointment was over 8 hours ago!) When I got inside I looked at the clock and I still had 4 minutes to get to the OB office. I made it with two minutes to spare!!
Anyway, enough about all of that. Allie and Avery are super excited for their little sister or brother. Allie has a name for a girl picked out already. It's actually pretty cute and starts with an A. Not anything I would have ever thought of.