Harvest time

Things have been great around here! We laid low for awhile, during Chris's 30th birthday, as Owen had a cold:(. When he felt up to it we went to the county fair... for an hour, ha! Chris and O went on a few rides and we took down some kettle corn (we call it KC around here).

Chris had some time off and we were able to go to Sand Mountain dunes as well as a tahoe babymoon (aka no Owen!). We went on 2 hikes and saw 3 movies in the theater.

Baby #2 baby girl Arabelle Mae (pretty sure on the name) is cooking just right. I just had my 6 month appointment this week and all is groovy. She is quite a little mover, and my belly is out! No mistaking there is a kid in there. Weight gain is good and had a little swelling last week but seems to have gotten better this week. Energy has been high, second trimester is sure nice:). Also even though my weight gain is normal for pregnancy I attribute some to all the cooking I've been doing! Lots of baked bread, roasted anything, you name it I cook it!

Baby will get here soon, time just keeps speeding up. We need to rearrange our house a little as the spoiled doggies have their own room right now. They are getting the boot to make room for little miss!

Work has been booming for me at the doctors office, and I have 2 other small job commitments: private practice nutrition, and contract work with another local company. It keeps me hopping, feel like I'm always emailing during naptimes/bedtime. Love my line of work though.

Even though we didn't do the big garden this year everything else is thriving... Tons of cherries and plums to pick, and I'm getting lots of cherry tomatoes daily.

Just a quick update on our world lately.

Cherries!

Been pitting tart cherries for days... They are very yummy and I've made 2 cobblers so far. Have harvested about 15 cups so far (up from 4 cups last year!)

Ties or Tutus Party revisited with Photog's pics

Ok here is an insane amount of photos from our photographer/babysitter/starbucks drink maker Savannah Hayes. She is moving to Santa Cruz next month (sad...) so her services in the area will be limited. She has been wonderful for our family to have for Owen care and memory preserving.

 Cousins playing in the dirt

 Lemon/limeade

 Sweet Elise

 Zero-waste drinks (pepsi crate has canning jars with chalkboard paint on them for parties to reuse). Glass containers used for most drinks.

 Uncle Brian trying to tie a tie

 My sissies both wore ties

 Lotsa tutus to choose from

 The sweet Aubin 5

 The ominous envelope hanging on the deck

 Yup. My dad in a tutu drinking a beer. AWESOME!

 We were voting tutu all the way!

 From my previous post I mentioned cooking as soon as the oven was plugged in.. around 12... dinner at 5... Made barefoot contessa foolproof barbecue sauce and ribs, barefoot contessa angelhair with basil and tomatoes, and cupcakes. Everything turned out well and I'm glad I baked some old food first to get the new oven smell out of the house and food.

 Bow- tie cupcakes

 Owen voted tutu as well!

 What a great evening

 Court did a really cute game involving old wives tales and pregnancy. The old wives tally and random questions and tests pointed to tutu as well!

 The different old wives tales from my intuition to Chris gaining weight were discussed. (he hasn't gained weight since he was 15 btw!)

 Moment of truth!

 Getting so excited

 Anticipation

 Envelope within an envelope

 We can see the results

 Wahoo!

 GIRL!

 STOKED and SHOCKED!

 All so excited

 So much fun!

 Niece Zoey chilling excited to meet her BFF in October

What a fun way to ring in another kiddo and show off our kitchen. We are thrilled this baby is healthy and even though I felt strongly it was a girl I am so used to a boy! My nieces have been my girls so now I get one of my own. I am kind of a tomboy and have been resistant to all the pink, purple, etc. But there are some pretty cute things out there...I saw some red cowgirl boots on tv last night and thought "I must have those." this could be dangerous...

One last shoutout to our genetic counsellor Johanna (whose services we don't need anymore, yay!) for making our gender reveal envelope and experience so wonderful! The sweet "It's a Girl" card is going in a frame soon.

Kitchen Progression--Almost Almost Done! 98%

Things left to go...
Seal backsplash and floor tile
Install and connect plugs on backsplash and island
Mount sprayer nozzle
Continue to cook like a crazy person
Move in final 2 boxes into kitchen from garage (Do we really need 20 plates? 3 strainers? No.)

Chris and his dad seriously finished the kitchen at 430 on Sunday with Ties and Tutus to begin at 5. The range was installed and heating (to clear the fumes out) at 12. My menu was ribs and pasta and cupcakes so I needed the range for sure!

 Keep in mind the faucet was the LAST big thing to go in. Party at 5, faucet at 3pm. Seriously, I was going a little crazy.

 Pre-counter tops kitch sitch.

 Mother's day morn breakfast... Have I blogged this?! Butcher block counter top delivered just in time to set up the griddle and extension cord.

 Sweet boy on my butcher block island.

 My honey grouting the tile.

 Getting crafty making aunt Jac's quilt for Zoey on my awesome work surface.

 The (almost) finished product!

 Loveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

So Proud of Chris, his dad, and my patience, ha! It took ~2 months and a few hiccups but we are pretty much done!! Come on over for something good, I'm a cooking fool these days! And I don't have to wash my hands in the bathroom sink! Ha!

Ties or Tutus?

Since I wanted to wait to find out the sex of baby #2 and Chris wanted to find out I wanted to find out in a fun and creative way. Also with all the stress with Owen's 19 week ultrasound it gave me something to plan for and distract me from the stress over this kiddo's ultrasound. Thankfully the heart and other organs looked great and the envelope was brought home and hidden (from Chris) with the gender results inside.

So the "in" thing to do these days is a gender reveal party. I have never been to one. It is basically a reason to have a party and all celebrate a healthy baby and find out the sex at the same time. I really just wanted to see my dad wear a tutu. Ha! And I did! Most of our family was able to be there and we tried to keep it small. Immediate family is close to 20, we are so blessed!

Owen's babysitter Savannah is also a photographer and she worked that night for us so I didn't need to have a camera in hand the whole time. I did take a few photos so here are some of mine until I can get my hands on hers.

 I made little ties and tutus for random toys of Owen's.

 Chris's sister Amanda is quite a baker and made two cakes pink and blue on the inside as well with homemade fondant....MMMM!

 Homemade tutus for adults to wear! Green envelope (sealed) hanging from the tree! Oh the temptation!

 Tried to find wines that went along with a baby theme: Middle sister, Naked, Barefoot.

 Owen impatiently waiting the results!

Girl! A very fun and successful party and we have a healthy girl cooking! This pregnancy has been different so it made sense to me that the baby was a different gender. Chris, Owen, and I wore tutus and the guests were exactly split down the middle half thinking ties and half voting tutus.

Here's to a continued healthy pregnancy and baby Due October 17th. 21 weeks pregnant today! Feeling pretty good, especially since the kitchen is pretty much done!