And then there were two

Today we are 19 weeks exactly with our second little boy. He's a tiny miracle in and of himself. He's also in trouble for causing so much stress at his anatomy scan. 

The kid wouldn't cooperate so now we have to go back for round two. He gave so much trouble that even after an hour and a half the poor radiology tech couldn't get clear pictures of his 4 heart chambers and full spine. He has a good, strong heartbeat of 158 though so I'm a tad more relieved. He's also super handsome. We found his big brothers scans and compared them. I make some really handsome boys!

It's all still a shock. All of it. We had been told that more children wouldn't really be in our family picture without a lot of money, advanced medical help, and plenty of prayers. We had finally prepared ourselves to be "one and done" when we got a huge surprise. God definitely had other plans in mind for our family and after almost 2 years of tears we were blessed with our brand new baby fetus. 

It's been an interesting ride with this little one. The pregnancy was so different than before that I, and everyone around me, swore we would be having a little girl. Again, plan and God laughs. We are officially having our second little fella and couldn't be happier. 

He's quite the mover and shaker. He's been flipping and kicking since 9 weeks! That's ridiculous and no one believed me until I told them where they could find him on the ultrasounds or Doppler. What can I say? This kid and I have a connection. 

It's going to be a long, strange, and kinda scary ride towards parenting two. I'm nervous and excited. Let's watch and see what happens next!

The Food is Just for Me

So I have company coming over for dinner tonight. Something about having company makes me want to cook food I wouldn't necessarily make just for myself. 

Today I got super creative. It must be hormones but I was craving something perfectly balanced with a buttery crunch and salt, sweet with a bite. I had devoured these pear crostinis at Bankers Hill many, many months ago and they are delicious amazing is more like it. I can't even describe them accurately. Having this in mind I know I can't make it exactly the same; just similar. So I set out. 

This is what I came up with. Fresh Demi Batard, cut on bias, and crisped on the stove in an equal mixture of olive oil and butter. I took some left over ricotta and drizzled it with a balsamic olive oil I have and then spooned it on the toasts. I salted and peppered liberally and topped it with this slivers of Bosc pears. Lastly, I drizzled it with balsamic vinegar, blackberry balsamic this time but I tried regular and it was good too. It's definitely more of an art than a science with this dish but it's easy. 

I also decided I needed more crunch and I had a bunch of radishes I needed...no, wanted, to use. 

I followed a recipe from Epicurious called Radishes with Burrata from the May 2014 issue. It's simple and amazing. Just google. It's darn good. 

So hit know when you come over, the foods just for me. You're welcome to it but I make it because I love it...and hopefully you will too. 

Just for Karen...

Just One of My Favorite Things

Almost every morning I get to wake up to snuggles with my Bug. It's my favorite part of the morning.  He makes my life infinitly better. Today we got to buy a Teansformers Dino Bot because he is now officially potty trained.  It's one large step towards being grown up and independent.  I'm excited, happy, and proud of him.  I'm also kind of sad that he's growing up. This is a big milestone for him. One day I won't be getting morning cuddles anymore and that will be super sad.  For now I'll be grateful and relish the moments in between wake and sleep when I can hold my baby boy tightly. It's the best part of waking up.

Makers Gonna Make

Tonight was again another awesome craft night.  Same place, same women, same fun to be shared by all crafters. I brought my sisters with me tonight so it was even better: Sisters Craft Night Out!

I have to say how much I love this place.  I have been looking forward to this night and coming back since last week. The Spiffing Jewelry Studio and Warehouse has such a great vibe and is gorgeous.  It's he most perfect office I could ever imagine and I seriously want to work there.   There are so many positive and pretty things I just can't even begin.  Here is just a taste from the bathroom.

I stole my inspiration from this post from a custome silver cuff at Spiffing Jewelry.  I love what is says and what it means.  "Makers Gonna Make".  It is true. It carries over to my life in other ways and boils down to "I'm Gonna Be Me".  Runners gonna run.  Momma's gonna mother. Pollyannas gonna  be positive.  It's a fun little motto to think on.  I really like the cuff. 

Anyways, tonight the crafters crafter.  The makers made custom eye shadows and brown sugar body scrubs.  I smell fantastic and I cannot wait to play with my shadows!

I made a chocolate spice fudge body polish that smells so deep and delectable. It really smells like a dark fudge. The recipe was simple and Pinterest worthy. It was not a fail at all.  The recipe for the body scrub is simple.  It's 2 parts brown sugar to 1 part olive oil.  The sugar should be moist and a little crumbly. Mine was a smudge to oily but I like it that way because I have super dry skin.   After the sugar and oil are mixed you add in essential oils or fragrances. I put in 2/3 tablespoon Ghiradeli chocolate powder, I believe it was Dutch processed, and about 2 teaspoons vanilla extract, maybe a bit more.  I thought I would be done but the scent was still a little flat.  I'll be honest and admit that I meant to grab the vanilla extract but had the great misfortune of dashing pumpkin spice fragrance in my scrub.  I didn't even realize until it was too late.  I'm glad though because it really rounded out the scent and deepened it.  The scrub smells really chocolately and dark with warm notes of spice and a hint of sweet cream.  I got lots of compliments on it. 

We also made custom eyeshadows. The pictures here don't do it justice at all! I made a lovely coppery creamy gold that I've been looking all over to find to no avail. I think I'll call it "Penny, Penny, Penny!" It's got a bright shine to it and photographs well.  The other two are beautiful in person but don't photograph as well; they are kind of subtle. The aqua I am going to call "Aquaholics Annonymous".  I love this color and have it in clothes, shoes, jewelry, accessories, etc.  I really am addicted. I'm not big on colors so this should be fun and the gold undertones and microfine glitter should be gorgeous.  Lastly, the dusky purple is really pretty and intense but hard to film the bright fuchsia microfine mica that really set this off. I'll try to get a better picture of this one. It reminds me of a grown up version of Harold and the Purple Crayon. I think I'll call it "Harry's Purple Pen".   They are all really pretty. So pretty  and were a lot of fun to make.

I'm again thankful for creative outlets, sister time, and the opportunity to meet new people and make new friends.  It's soul enriching and those opportunities can be hard to come by.  If you are lucky to find them you just have to give in and go with it.