Halloween.2

Some friends invited us to bring the boys by their church for a little Halloween fun.  There were games for the kiddos to play and I gotta say, they really enjoyed themselves! 

This was the first game Ajay played of the evening - and the one he returned to over and over.  If you look closely, sort of under the table, you can see his orange "bullet" in mid-air.   At one point he actually got the suction cup bullet to stick to one of the aluminum cans!

Ready, aim, tongue out, fire!

It's the little guy's turn!

Time to paint a pumpkin!  (He's using paint that is meant for adult crafts, not childrens crafts, and this paint is NOT washable!)

A little face-paint...

A silver and bronze bumble bee!

He wasn't quite sure what to do, even after I explained that he was supposed to take a bite of the donut without using his hands.  In the end, the guy running this game held the string still so the poor kid could take a bite.

Candy-Bar Walk.... Alex won twice.  A full sized Butterfinger and full sized Hershey's with Almonds bar.

Gotta go back to do some more pumpkin painting.

You can see Ajay got his face painted, also - he opted for a green eye mask!

Ronnie explaining the rules to Curtis and Alex - they were running candy from a bowl on one table to a bowl on a second table. 

Playing pool.

Thanks, Angie and Ronnie, for asking us to come along.  What a fun night.

I'm interrupting my Halloween posts to get this post put up - it's not like I can talk about my 15th week while I'm in my 18th week, right??

I'm officially a week into my second trimester.  Yay!  Since most people ask pregnant ladies "How are you feeling?" I'll tell you how I'm feeling.  Little by little the morning (all day) sickness has been wearing off.  A couple of other symptoms are still sticking around.  My nose is still bleeding like crazy once or twice a day and I'm sure that's a mixture of being pregnant on top of the dry weather.  My gag reflex is super sensitive which makes things, uh, fun, to say the least.  This is the first time in all of my pregnancies I've had to run to the bathroom/a sink/a trashcan.  I've been having some crazy headaches but they could be from the slight cold I've got, too.  On a happier note, I'm feeling some little flutters.  Not a lot and not on a regular basis but every once in awhile I think "Hmm, I think that was the baby." 

I've got some photos to share with you.  I thought I could take pics at 15 weeks, 20, 25, 30 weeks and so on.  The closest pic I have of me at 10 weeks would be this pic I took of myself a day or two before 9 weeks.  I went into Photobucket to change the color of my shirt - I figured the brown was a bit too dark to be able to see anything. 

Here are the photos I took today, at 15 weeks.  I've lost track of my feet from this angle.

I was hoping the baby would only grow in my front this time.  Alas, I see my hind-end expanding, as well, just like I did with the boys.  So sad. 

Here is a blurb about the baby (quoted from Babycenter):

15 weeks

How your baby's growing:

Your growing baby now measures about 4 inches long, crown to rump, and weighs in at about 2 1/2 ounces (about the size of an apple). She's busy moving amniotic fluid through her nose and upper respiratory tract, which helps the primitive air sacs in her lungs begin to develop. Her legs are growing longer than her arms now, and she can move all of her joints and limbs. Although her eyelids are still fused shut, she can sense light. If you shine a flashlight at your tummy, for instance, she's likely to move away from the beam. There's not much for your baby to taste at this point, but she is forming taste buds. Finally, if you have an ultrasound this week, you may be able to find out whether your baby's a boy or a girl! (Don't be too disappointed if it remains a mystery, though. Nailing down your baby's sex depends on the clarity of the picture and on your baby's position. He or she may be modestly curled up or turned in such a way as to "hide the goods.")

Halloween.1

What?  This is supposed to be my Thanksgiving Post?  Yeah, well, I'm still trying to catch up on October.  Luckily, November wasn't as busy, so it won't take long to get current.  We had a few different Halloween events so to spare you one huge post, I'll break everything up into smaller bits. 

Ajay had his first ever school concert.  The kids involved in this concert were in kindergarten through second grade, I believe.  And can you believe I forgot the camera??  Good thing we don't live too far from where the concert was held and Biju was able to dash home real quick to get it.  Such a good Daddy.

Our view from the back row.  Lots of kids, lots of family!

Alex had a hard time keeping still during the production.

I tried from all sorts of angles to get the best shot of our clown - this turned out to be a keeper.

And what school concert post would be complete without a video clip or two??  As mentioned before, we were in the back row, so I had to zoom in.  Of course zooming in made any little movement on my part seem big, so I apologize for the shaky quality!  (There is also a baby crying in one of these, but it gets taken out of the room after a bit.)

Fun times.  And we're looking forward to many more concerts - Ajay's, Alex's and the new baby's! 

Recipe Wednesday - Lemon Cranberry Cream

I was feeling the need for some dessert last week and saw we had some Jell-o in our cupboards.  I wanted more than "just" jello, though.  I had a big jar of homemade yogurt and got to thinking "Cottage Cheese and Orange Jell-o goes well together, certainly this should taste good!"  So I tried finding a recipe that called for lemon gelatin and yogurt couldn't find anything.  I did a search for just yogurt and jello and found this, so just sorta used it as a guide. 

In a small saucepan with water, boil 1/2 cup of dried cranberries - it doesn't take long, you're just trying to plump them up a bit.  Drain and set aside. 

Meanwhile, in a small-medium mixing bowl, combine 1.5 cups plain yogurt with one box (3oz) of lemon jello (I did not use the sugar free kind, but you could experiment with this and see if it works just as well).  Fold in about 1 cup of whipped cream.

In the dish you want to serve your dessert in, pour half of the lemon mixture.  Sprinkle on your plumped up cranberries then finish off with the rest of the lemon mixture.  Cover and slide into the fridge until you're ready to serve.  At first I thought this was going to set up firmly, but it's really more of a "spoon into a bowl" dish instead of a "slice and serve" dish.  Still quite tasty! 

Fun in leaves

A few Sundays ago, when we got back from church, our neighbor had raked up a big pile of leaves for his grandson to play in.  Lucky for us, the neighbors love kids and invited the boys to have a jump.  What kid could resist an invitation like that?  And what mother wouldn't immediately run for her camera? 

The dog tried to herd the boys.  I love Alex's face in this photo.

Ajay is in there somewhere - completely covered by the leaves.

The neighbor kept having to rake the leaves back into the pile, so at one point he decided to make the job easier on himself, and got out his blower!  The boys got a big kick out of this power tool!

And now for my favorite photos:

I love this action shot!

I hosted Bunco!

Okay, so I'm almost a month late posting about my hosting preparations - after all, there is going to be another Bunco next week! - but I still wanted to share the fun I had. 

A few months back, when I signed up to host, I started thinking of what I should make for dinner and dessert.  I was leaning towards an Indian theme but I knew there were some ladies who had certain aversions (one doesn't like onions and Indian food is chock full of onions).  I began tossing around a few other ideas but I kept coming back to the Indian food.  I know I enjoy the flavors, I knew a couple other ladies had tasted and enjoyed the spinach dahl, so I thought "what the heck, we'll give it a shot!" 

The menu consisted of:
Chicken Curry (made by Biju)
Spinach Dahl
White Rice
Naan
Samosa Puffs
Gulab Jamuns (think fried donut holes soaked in a sugar syrup) with Vanilla Ice Cream.
(Biju helped a lot with the GJ - frying them all whilst I tied up other loose ends.)

I personally loved the menu and I really hoped that others would enjoy it, also.  Lisa did say she was disappointed I didn't have any biryani.  Funny thing, biryani didn't even cross my mind! 

For the four prizes I made up lotion bars (same ingredients as lip balm, just different measurements so it sets up thicker), bath salts, sugar scrub and, for good measure, I threw in a couple chocolates. 

Getting everything prepped for the prize bags.

In the back, one of the bags all ready to go, with a little turkey ornament.  In the front, what is inside the prize bag:  Lavender Oil Sugar Scrub (with an owl ornament on top), Peppermint Oil Bath Salt, Lindt Chocolates, Recipes for the prizes, Lotion Bar. 

In the end we had to move the Bunco location to Angie's house - the count was getting up to 4 tables and we just can't fit that many people in our small house.  I loaded up all the food and whatnot and headed over to Angie's to get everything set up.  The count wasn't as high as originally anticipated but there were still 10 ladies so I'm glad we were at Angie's for the extra room.   It was a lot of fun and I'm already starting to think about what I'll do next year when I host again :) 

Gender Prediction: Test 2

Time for another gender prediction.  I was intending on posting this a few weeks back but as with all of my October posts, I'm way behind!

I read about a study that was done that placed a correlation between where the baby attaches to the uterus and what the gender is.  Notice I say I read about the study - I tried reading through the study and I went a bit cross-eyed.  To sum up what the idea is, you can make an educated guess as to what the gender is by looking at an early sonogram (7 wks or so).  If the baby/placenta attaches to the left side of the uterus then the baby is a girl, if it is on the right side, it is a boy.  So for any of you out there who had early sonograms, bust out your pics and take a look to see if it was right.  Just remember when you're looking at your sono pics - if the ultrasound was done on your abdomen then it is a reverse image.  Meaning if you see your baby on the left in the picture, then the baby was really attached on the right.  Make sense?  (If your u/s was done via the other method, then the picture remains true - left is left, right is right.)  It is supposed to have 97% accuracy.  I do have to say, though, that the last two pregnancies I tried to "guess" were wrong!  I thought for sure that both Angie and Amy were having girls and the babies are very clearly boys!

So on to my guess about our current baby.  (I didn't have early sonograms with either of the boys, so can't use any of their pics for comparison.)  I started having some issues with this pregnancy that worried me enough to call my OB.  The nurse got me in the next day for a sonogram just to check on the baby.  Turns out everything was fine.  Measurement was spot on (9 weeks, 1 day), heart rate was in the 170's (it is an amazing sight to see that little fluttering heart!) and the baby was attached on my right - so according to this gender prediction method, we're having a BOY. 

I'd love to know if this method was true or not for any of your pregnancies (for those of you to whom this may apply!) - so please feel free to leave some comments!

**Click HERE to find out what baby's gender is**

Recipe Wednesday - Cherry Cranberry Surpreme

With Thanksgiving just a couple of weeks away I wanted to toss this recipe out there for you to consider adding to your menu.  We typically have on our menu at Thanksgiving and sometimes other times of the year, too.  It can be a bit messy to make, so be careful! (The recipe book I got it out of has Jello splatters on the pages!)
*I found this in the Better Homes and Gardens Five Ingredient Recipes cook book years ago.

In a large (yes, large) mixing bowl, dissolve two 3-oz. packages of cherry Jello in two cups of boiling water.  (The original recipe called for black cherry but I don't think that kind is made anymore.)  Using a wire whisk (not very effective, takes forever) or a rotary beater (If you've got a stand mixer, this might work wonderfully.  If you're using a hand held mixer, this is where you need to be very careful not to slop everything all over) beat in one 16-oz can jellied cranberry sauce until smooth.  Add in 8 ounces sour cream (light sour cream works, too) and beat until combined.  Pour into mold/bowl/pan of your choice.  (If desired, you may add 1 c. chopped walnuts or pecans, toasted after the mixture has chilled for 45 min. and is partially set.)  Let the whole thing set for 4 hours.  Unmold, cut into squares, stick a spoon in the bowl, do whatever you want to do to serve this delicious dish up. 

Random October Pics

There are some pics I wanted to share with you that don't really fall under any other post, so I'm just going to chuck them out there and let ya take a look.

Ajay reading a Beatrix Potter book to Alex before bedtime.

Ajay making a snowman out of his Bendarooz... the snowman is standing on snow and there is grass underneath.

I think Alex was working on a big snake.

Alex, eating a waffle, in the laundry basket.

Out on the swing.  I was being scolded for something.

The boys putting a puzzle together on the table.  (Matching a picture of something to the letter the picture begins with.  Like the Umbrella picture got matched up with the U puzzle piece.)

Boys being boys.

I'm not sure what he was doing, specifically, but he's pretty darned proud of himself for getting into that shoe box.

I had to throw this one in - Audrey falling asleep at the table while drinking her bottle. 

A couple of weeks back both boys were going through a "scary monster" and "afraid of the dark despite having a nightlight" phase.  We ended up putting them in the same bed to give each other comfort for awhile. 

The week of Halloween, Ajay's school was having "spirit week."  This day was designated "Crazy Hair Day" so I loaded Ajay's hair up with gel and gave him a little mohawk.  Alex, of course, had to have the same.  Ajay said so many kids had played with his hair that day, it had fallen by lunchtime.  (Which happened to be Lunch with Dad day, and Biju went to school to eat a picnic lunch with his son.) 

 Thanks for swinging by to take a look at our pictures!! 

Belated/Early Birthday Party

Well, we missed throwing my aunt Theresa a big party on her 50th last year.  A few days before her 51st, we threw her a little "belated" party.  My aunt Tina got the ball rolling, sent out the invites and asked everyone to do a "This is Your Life" theme.  This party happened to take place the Sunday afternoon after I wrapped up my girls weekend.  Brandi, Jenna and Ajay picked me up from the B&B and we headed back to my parents farm.  It was great to "reunite" with the boys - turns out Alex was not happy spending the night without either of his parents.  Nana and Papa had their work cut out for them keeping the little guy from throwing a bunch of fits.  Ajay had lots of fun - he went to a hog-roast w/ my older brother and his family.  I don't think he got to bed until midnight Saturday night!  Sometime over the weekend Ajay smeared poke berry juice on the side of the van (which I'd left w/ the family while I was away).  Luckily, the poke berry juice didn't stain the van's paint job.  Aunt Brandi got out her enviro cloth and a bucket of water and put the rascal to work cleaning up his graffiti.

Cousin Jenna acted as foreman to make sure the job got done properly.

Alex took a nap but I ended up waking him a bit early.  We had a schedule to stick to, after all.  As it was we were still about an hour late for Aunt Theresa's party.  She was pretty excited that so many people from her life were there to celebrate with her and remind her of days gone by.  For those who couldn't be there in person, they mailed cards - and she had a lot of cards!!  She is a well-loved woman with a very kind heart.  Slow to anger, too - wish I had more of her qualities!

The party was held at an old pharmacy, I do believe.  The treats were laid out on the bar - lots of goodies made by my mom and Aunt Tina.  Aunt Tina was nice enough to send home a little goody tray.  Yum!!  The boys love her cinnamon bread (as do Biju and I)!  

The boys enjoying their snack (they both insisted on posing this way - putting food into their mouths), then the Birthday Girl with me and the boys (you can see some of the old pharmacy items in the display shelves in the background of the pics): 

Ajay picked up on a theme - Aunt Theresa loves horses - so he grabbed a pen and paper and drew her a picture... of horses. 

Here are the four siblings.  Youngest to oldest, Uncle Eddie, Aunt Theresa, Aunt Tina, Cindy (Mom):

And here is a picture of a picture - Grandma and Grandpa holding Aunt Theresa at her baptism.  See that baptism gown?  That's the same gown I was baptized in and so were Ajay and Alex (among other members of our family).

After the party the boys helped a little with the clean-up.  Here, Alex is helping to wind up the red ribbon.  We couldn't leave until he had finished that ribbon!  We hope you enjoyed your party, Aunt Theresa, it was great getting to visit with you on such a special day.  We wish you many more fabulous birthdays!