Baby Henry

  We had a baby! President's Day was our last 24 hours as a family of two and by 9:49 am on Tuesday, the 21st, we had a beautiful baby boy. Weighing in at just 6 lbs. 5 oz. and measuring at 18 inches (although at the pediatrician's office a few days later he's actually 19 1/2…) we love him to pieces and I can't imagine our family without him.

I'll do a birth story later (which I'm almost afraid to do since his birth was pretty ideal) but for now I'm enjoying this little guy, hanging out with my mom, and watching aggregeous amounts of Netflix and web-surfing. We had our first visitors last night, our neighbors the Cannons, and we're due to have more in the next few days and weeks. In my unbiased opinion he's the cutest thing ever and I don't mind if I do show him off--a few sprits of hand sanitizer and an oath that you are not sick in the slightest and you're good to go!

He's stirring in his bouncer now, so here are a few pictures to stare at (and proof that his grandma was here) and I'm off to feed him his lunch.

                             

great friends.

from our "leaf-peeper experience seen here

Happy President's Day weekend!

Ryan and I both have today off but before we run off to Ikea I thought I'd write a quick post about our friends.

We had Julie and Oliver over last night and I made this tortellini soup and she brought over some white chocolate chip coconut cookies and amazing hot chocolate that we dined on while playing a game called Loaded Questions. I finished making the soup right before they came over so we ate and chatted and while we played the game, and even before, Julie helped clear the table, heated the HoCho and even warmed up her cookies in the oven.

I'm still fairly mobile these days, but a lot of times, like when we play games, I don't lean forward a ton, and since we have a futon for a couch and a long coffee table as a "table", Ryan, or a friend, usually moves my game pieces or draws a card for me. Not only did everyone help me out while playing the game, but Julie took care of the whole dessert, found what she needed to heat the HoCho and cookies and was totally amazing in helping ease my stress and moving around levels.

We have the best friends ever. Seriously. Good friends make everything better.

Chicken Parm

disclaimer: I'm not sure if I've written a post with this recipe in it or not, but I saw this in my drafts and wanted to make sure my awesome readers knew about this version. I've made this and a healthier version from Skinny Taste, both of which are pretty fantastic. This one takes a bit more work but I think it's more like the real deal, so I love it.

We made the best Chicken Parm this summer while in DC and I took pictures but then forgot about it and even forgot where I got the recipe, until now. It was actually during the week that Ken was in town so he tried it too (and can testify that it was daang good). Also, I know that sometimes I write "we" and it's really just me, but this time Ryan totally helped out (it was hard doing in on my own, this one is totally a team recipe), I couldn't have done it without him.

Without further adeau, the best Chicken Parm ever.

vday dinner

[taken last summer while mini-golfing in provo]

For Valentine's day this year we kept it low key. Actually, I think we keep it low key every year. We're cool like that. I gave Ryan a booklet of 14 dates to keep Vday alive throughout the year, with ideas for both at-home dates and going-out dates and Ryan wrote me adorable little notes, one for each room and how each room reminds him of me, for one reason or another. He's cute like that.

I let him pick the main dish and he picked the confetti rice dish from Mel's Kitchen Cafe. He loves that dish and I do too. It's a cinch to put together. I usually mostly let the rice cool down (sometimes I stick it in the freezer when I'm running behind) and don't let the flavors meld because I make it for dinner and I don't have two hours to just hang out, but it tastes great right after throwing all the ingredients together, and great days after as well.

I also made these awesome peanut crunch brownies from One Lovely Life. Spectacular. After eating amazing sweets it's seriously so baffling to me that I don't make them more often. However, my waistline is grateful, since I probably eat too many calories from cheese than I should anyhow…

Also, on an unrelated, but kindof related pregnancy note, I've decided that even though a pregnant woman gains weight at the end because the babe is gaining the most weight, really, you gain weight because there are all these Braxton-Hicks fake contractions going on and all you want to eat is trader Joe's Ultra Chocolate ice cream for dinner. Or maybe it's just me?

Health.

*A fitting post the day after Valentine's day, right? Don't you worry, we ate plenty of artery-unfriendliness yesterday, the menu of which I'll post tomorrow.*

I watched "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" this weekend and absolutely loved it. There is something about seeing people change their habits, making better choices now because the want to be happy in the future, that makes me ridiculously happy. I watched it through Netflix-instant, but if you can find it through Redbox or wherever, I highly recommend it.

I typed up a few of my favorite quotes while listening and just wanted to put in my two cents.

1. "You don't get permanently better unless you permanently change."
Definitely words of wisdom right there. Just think of how society perceives the word "diet". We think of fads, or no calories, of restriction. Another definition for diet? "The kinds of food that a person, animal, or community habitually eats." Our diet is what we eat everyday. It's not a one time, two week experiment. It's our lifestyle.

2. 61% of an American's diet is of processed foods. Oil, Flour, Sugar…only 5% is fruits and vegetables…
This one's just depressing. Although I didn't leave the house until 5:30 that night, this made me count how many fruits and veggies I had eaten that day and throughout my week. I did pretty good, but some days are harder than others and I want to make sure that more and more of my diet consists of nature's first fast food: fruits and vegetables.

3. "We're becoming a medically crippled society."
We depend on medicine to keep us alive. Instead of ourselves. I constantly think about my behavior health class and discussing what makes people change, what makes people want to become responsible for the things they've done and make their lives better on their own, without depending on others, whether it be for wealth, health, happiness, etc. I'm all for modern medicine, and  there are times in our lives where we do all that we can and still have to take pills for various reasons, but I want to take the least amount of pills as possible.

4. "Fasting…not just Christians, but those of other faiths as well…I recon they're onto something."
I love that fasting is not only a part of my religion. If anything it shows self-control, a contributing factor to weight gain.

5. 70% of our diseases are caused by lifestyle choices.
Lifestyle, lifestyle, lifestyle.

I love when you love a movie enough that you need to write down notes when you watch it. Or maybe I'm the only one?

Progress.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

I went to the Dr. this morning and although the screening for group b streptococcus wasn't exactly Disneyland, good news came. She checked the heartbeat and said all was well and checked my progress and said that I was 1cm and 50% effaced. And doesn't our little coconut look the cutest?!

Now, I know that those numbers don't really say a lot. I mean, they don't say, "You're baby will come on this date at this time..." which would be really nice, but at least there's some progress. I called my mom and she was all excited and talked to Ryan and he was pretty pumped too. The head is down, contractions have begun (not regular contractions, just the "I'm practicing for the big day" contractions) and it looks like there's going to be a watermelon baby here in the next few weeks.

taylor swift, heatlamps, photography, and more.

1. Our house has heatlamps. It's nice to have a lot of light since we're a basement apartment, but really, they give me headaches and make my hair hot if I'm standing underneath one for just 5 minutes. Really, they're floodlamps, but floodlamps and 8 foot ceilings just don't go together.

2. I was thinking yesterday about how if I actually bought all the songs I loved, I'd have a lot more songs on my itunes. But who wants to pay .99 when I can listen to the songs on youtube/radio for free? Also, I wish I was Ludacris and said my name everytime I started rapping in someone else's song. Random, but true.

3. I've been going through my photography portfolio, making a "best of" and trying to figure out how to start up a business here in Boston. So. much. to. do. (ps. If anyone is interested in doing couple's pictures, hit me up. I'm focussing on couples/family shoots and would love to give you a discount/free shoot)

4. I bring in way too many groceries into the house at once. I'm super surprised that I haven't induced labor already by carrying way too much weight at once.

5. The checkout guy at Trader Joe's asked me if I was excited for parenthood as I was checking out today. I've been complaining to Ry a bit each day about this and that, and doing research on things to get before he arrives, but sometimes I forget to pause and remember the awesomeness that is inside me. Heck yes, I'm excited for parenthood!

6. Some friends of ours recently announced they're pregnant, after years of infertility/miscarriages. I am excited for them beyond belief and know they will most definitely be amazing parents.

7. I miss Provo. I miss Macey's soft serve. And BYU's Graham Canyon ice cream. And our spacious two bedroom that we paid less than half than what we paid for now. I don't care that it was cinderblock. I would like to transpose that apartment here, thank-you-very-much. And all our awesome friends.

8. I love my job. I love that I'm using my degree. And working with crazy kids. I was in an 8th grade health class and when a boy asked me if I was having a girl or boy, after I answered boy he gave a loud, yeaeaaaaah. Crazy kid. I'm pretty sure the same kid, as I was saying a little "about me" spiel  and said that I was from Texas, said a "hyeahh" like he was riding a horse. Oh, this kids know so little about the outside world. But it's entertaining nonetheless.

9. Julie is hosting a baby shower for me this weekend and I'm thrilled. Well, I'm upset that Boston's first snowstorm is that day, but hopefully it'll die down by that afternoon/evening. I've met some awesome ladies here and I'm so grateful they're so kind to me.

10. Oh and what does all this have to do with my awesome parents? First of all, my mom will be here in less than a month, which is super awesome. And my dad's even going to try and come up for a weekend. And then both sets will be up for the blessing. And then what if Ryan gets the Columbus internship? I try not to think about it so much because I know he's a long shot, but I can't help it. My family is rad. I wish everyone loved their family as much as I love mine. For real.

Baby-prepping.

Ryan put together the crib last weekend and I took the carseat out of the box. The final preparations are finally coming together. We've been slacking in the baby bump documenting as of late, though. Well, I've taken some pictures here and there, but nothing like the first few weeks I started showing. So for your viewing pleasure (and mostly for my family, aka Kaylea) here are a few from this week.

In related news, stretch marks arrived sometime last week or so and Braxton Hicks contractions arrived in full swing today around lunch time and were pretty much all day. I understand that my body would like to practice a bit before the big day, but really, I don't think it's necessary. On the upside, I love this little one more and more everyday and am super glad that I get to experience all of this. With all the random things that are happening to my body, I can't help but always say "good!" when someone asks how I'm doing. Because really, this is pretty dang awesome.

Oh law school.

Ryan has been sick since late Sunday. At first we thought it was the dreaded stomach flu that's been going around Boston like wildfire. Ugh. But now we think it was more like the 24 hour stomach bug or just a bad reaction to fasting all day and then eating large amounts of party food (aka Superbowl food). I'm thinking it's the former and Ry is really hoping it's the latter so that he won't get me sick.

Either way, Ry is feeling better today but still a little weak. Healthy enough that he can eat a bowl of cereal but sick enough that he can't read his textbooks and concentrate.

The statement below shows just how sick he is and how cute my law-loving husband really is.

Ryan:  busy doing nothing...

me:  nice 

Ryan:  ahh, I can't believe I'd rather be studying/stressing in law school right now!

 

Those are definitely words that never came out of my mouth when I was an undergrad... I had to marry up in the educational world, that's for sure.

Camera photos.

 As of late: cutest rompers ever, a failed attempt to retrieve a package, zac efron + HSM2, Stephen's hot chocolate, my favorite little BYU onesie, christmas decorations that are still up today, homemade refried beans, smoothies for lunch, bunker hill + the freedom trail, my desk (aka my second crafting area)

We're off to Costco and then a youth activity (we're playing human fooseball, I'm pretty pumped). 

Have a great weekend!

                 

 

Sounding the alarm.

I got home today to find that our apartment building's fire alarm was going off. It's not the same fire alarm we've heard before, and this time it was coming from right outside our door. It was this high-pitched, annoying sound that I thought I'd record to give you guys an idea of what exactly I heard from 2:30-7 pm tonight. No joke, it was on the entire time. I even put earplugs we had from when Ryan took his finals and I could STILL hear that high-pitched noise. I tried Dixie Chicks, Law and Order, but nothing worked.

Boy am I glad it's finally off.