Making Memories

One of the highlights from our trip home was actually being able to attend my niece's birthday party. She is three and I've never been able to be there for her birthday so it was something very special to me. 

We got pizza and breadsticks for dinner and all the Nieces played together and ran around the way kids do. I got to see some old family friends there as well and it was nice just chatting and catching up with everyone. 

My favorite part of the night was when Bella opened her presents. I got to hold her on my lap and help her open her gifts. It was so special! Seeing the look on her face when she opened the present we got her was priceless! It's a memory I'll always look back on and cherish. 

I  am very thankful for the opportunities we had to make new memories with our loved ones over the last week. :) 

xoxo

Flying with baby

I'd be lying if I said the thought of flying with a 3 month old didn't frighten me, but to my surprise my son was an excellent little flyer! :) 

Bubby & I on the plane :)

The flight out to LAX was horrible. We were supposed to just stop in Atlanta to pick up some more passengers, (which is exactly why we selected this flight) however when we landed in Atlanta the flight attendants nonchalantly informed us we had to get off the plane and get on another one. There was also a two and a half hour delay until our next flight would be leaving. Needless to say it made traveling with an infant even more exhausting! 

We settled into our new plane only to end up sitting next to an entire basketball team. Oh how lovely that experience was. They were loud and obnoxious to say the least and I had to resist the urge to backhand them on several occasions. My mama bear instincts were kicking in since they kept waking up Jeremiah with their loud music blasting on their iPods. Some people just have no common sense or courtesy towards others! 

We ended up landing in Los Angeles around 10:30 pm (1:30 am to our bodies which were on east coast time) and it took us three hours to get home! There were a bunch of exits closed for construction and we couldn't even get on the freeway we needed to take. At that point I was so exhausted and could barely stay awake. 

My little munchkin got up bright and early at 7 am on Friday so that was fun! Ok, I'm being sarcastic here if you couldn't tell. ;) But even though getting to California was not an easy task my son did so well! He didn't cry at all and just nursed and slept the whole time. The flight attendant and several passengers commented on how well behaved he was. 

One woman told me "It was so nice not to sit behind a crying baby! I just have to compliment you on your son's behavior." I was such a proud mama. He did just as well on the flight back to Virginia and again we received more compliments. I am so thankful everything went smoothly with him. :) Have you ever flown with a baby?

xoxo 

We're Back!

Hello everyone! We're back from our trip to California and I can't wait to tell you all about it. I have a few posts lined up and lots of pictures to share. :) 

But for now I have a hungry baby to feed, a mountain of laundry to wash and a house to straighten up on this rainy Monday. Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! :) 

xoxo 

New Look

Well lovely readers, I've finally done it. My new design is complete and I am loving the change. ♥

Now that everything has been updated I am excited to share some new posts with you all and have some exciting things coming up. I am headed back home to California for a visit with my family this week and I couldn't be more excited. Expect to see lots of pictures from our trip!

I will also be posting updates on our little munchkin & am currently working on his birth story. It's a piece that's very near and dear to my heart so I hope you all enjoy reading it once I'm finished. Until then, have a lovely day! ♥

BlogLovin'

For those of you looking for an alternative to google reader, check out BlogLovin! It's very simple to export all your blogs and to search for new ones. You can follow me there by clicking the link below. :)

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Happy 3 Months!

Yesterday my baby boy turned 3 months. He is growing up before my eyes and already I've become pretty sentimental about it. I hate to admit it but I've spent the better part of the last two days just admiring him while he nurses, trying to take in all that he is. 

There have been more than a few times when I get an overwhelming sense of sadness at the thought of him growing up so fast, and I cant lie and say I haven't shed a few tears over it. When I look at him my heart feels though it might burst at any moment and I am constantly amazed at my love for this tiny human. 

He is starting to smile more now and the mornings are my favorite. He wakes happy (and hungry of course) and after I nurse him I love to give him kisses and play in our bed for a bit before we get up. I know these days won't last forever, and all too soon they will be gone so I am trying to enjoy them and remember everything I can about my time spent with  my little man. :) 

He has already learned to roll over from his tummy to his back, and we are working with him on "tummy time" so he can strengthen his muscles and learn to sit up and crawl in the next few months. Before we know it he will be moving around and getting into everything! ;) 

But for now I'd like him to stay my baby for just a bit longer...I love you my sweet Jeremiah. ♥ 

Where have you been?

I guess you may be wondering where I've been the last six months or so...I honestly can't even remember the last time I wrote a blog, life has been that crazy. 

As you may remember I was pregnant the last time I posted and that has a lot to do with my absence. The holidays came around and I was so exhausted from carrying an enormous baby around in my belly that I barely had the energy to do much, (so there was really nothing to blog about). 

My inlaws came for a nice Christmas visit and shortly after my mom arrived to stay with us until our son was born. Things didn't end up going according to plan, (then again they never seem to) but ill save that for another post where I share our birth story. :) 

All in all the last few months have been a crazy, exciting, amazing, scary and at times overwhelming period of my life. I feel like I have so much to share with you all and can't wait to begin. It feels good to be back. :)

Getting ready for baby

The last few days have been so busy around here & I've finally been able to get some important things done. Last week I ordered the invitations for our couples baby shower next month & I am so excited with how they turned out! I custom designed them on storkie & they are so adorable! :-) 

Although I'm excited for the shower it's also a little bittersweet because I'm so far from home & don't have that many friends out here in Virginia. I do have a few great friends here & my coworkers from the bank but I am really sad that none of my family will be able to come. I have really been missing my mom & sisters a lot during my pregnancy, even more so lately. 

 

I am just hoping the few friends I do have here are able to come. It was a little tricky choosing a date to have the shower since my husband will be going underway a few times next month & the thanksgiving holiday is coming up. We are doing a couples shower so people can bring their so's and also because I always hated the traditional baby shower. 

 

I was never a fan of passing around the diaper with a melted candy bar inside it and trying to guess what kind of candy it was. Or the oh so fun "who can drink from a bottle the fastest" game. No thank you. ;) I just want to hang out, eat some good food & celebrate the blessing of our baby boy with good friends. I still have quite a bit of planning to do with our lovely hostess Megan, and it should be fun to put the shower together. :-)

I also had the pleasure of taking the dreaded glucose test last week & throwing the whole thing up right in front of my doctor. Fun times...

At least I was able to keep it down for 45 minutes & they still took my blood for the test. Next week I am getting my tdap shot so that should be fun as well.

I also scheduled our 3d/4d ultrasound for next month & I am so excited to finally see some more pictures of our little boy. We haven't had an ultrasound since I was 19 weeks and that was already 10 weeks ago! This one should be interesting as well since we will be able to get a better look at Baby Taylor & hopefully see some of his facial features. ♥ 

Along with the ultrasound I also scheduled our lamaze classes & am anxious to attend them with my husband. Being that this is my first baby, I am really nervous about the whole labor/delivery part & would love to get some tips & information so I can at least feel a little more prepared.

We still have a lot to do in preparation for Baby Taylor but I am beginning to feel a little better since I'm making progress on my to-do list. He's not even here yet & I am already realizing that being a mom is a lot of work but the best job in the world. ♥

Homemade Orange Chicken

Last week my husband and I were at our local Kroger picking up a few items when we came across this Panda Express Orange Sauce. 

We decided to give it a try and make our own orange chicken. I was a little nervous since we didn't have a recipe to follow but we gave it a shot and we were both very pleased with the result.

 It came out delicious! I posted the picture on my instagram and had a few requests for the recipe so I decided to post it here.

This is what you'll need:

-One package chicken breast (about 3 pieces of chicken)

-Panda Express Orange Sauce

-Chicken breading

-mayonaisse

-olive oil

For the chicken breading we use a brand called House Autry but you can use whatever brand they sell at your local grocer. Now lets get started! 

1) First you'll want to cut the chicken into bite sized pieces, kind of like little nuggets. 

2) Next take the chicken and toss it into a large bowl. Pour in a couple table spoons of mayo and evenly coat. 

3) Then coat the pieces with the chicken breading. Once they are coated brush the pieces with olive oil. Coat in the chicken breading one more time. 

4) If you have a deep fryer this is the easiest way to cook the chicken, but if not you can always do it the old fashioned way. I set my fryer to 360 degrees and dropped it in the fryer for about seven minutes. We had enough chicken that we had to do three batches. 

5) Preheat your oven to 360 degrees. Now you'll need a pyrex dish. We used a 13x9 but an 11x7 would work just fine too. Coat the bottom of the dish with olive oil and place the cooked chicken pieces in the dish. 

6) Now you are ready to coat the chicken pieces with the orange sauce. Once you have poured it over the chicken use a spoon to make sure the sauce evenly coats the chicken. 

7) Now pop it into the oven for 7 minutes and voila! Delicious and easy orange chicken. ♥ 

Hopefully you like it as much as we did. 

Baby Bump-date Week 27

Hello Everyone! I hope you're all having a great week so far, I know I am. :) I can't believe I am already 27 weeks along. It seems like we just found out we were being blessed with a child and now we are almost done with this pregnancy. There's only 91 days left until my due date! I know my third trimester is going to fly by with all the holidays fast approaching. Anyway, I am feeling good overall just a few little bumps along the way. 

I have officially switched and already seen my new Doctor and I am so glad I did. I have the dreaded glucose test next week to determine if I have gestational diabetes or not. I am not too worried about it but am not looking forward to having blood drawn again. I had to spend three hours at the doctors last week for my first appointment. That included a urine test, blood work, a flu shot and of course a full exam. Baby Taylor's heartbeat was strong and he seems to be doing great. ♥ 

I love feeling him move and kick, and lately I have been able to feel it a lot more! It's an incredible thing and pretty indescribable. My back and feet have been hurting more frequently now, but other than that I am still able to do most things with no problem. I'll admit getting out of bed and off the couch is a lot harder than it used to be but I know it will all be worth it in the end. I keep joking with my hubby that he needs to invent some sort of device to make these things easier, like a pregnancy cane! Haha. 

I am wearing pretty much all maternity clothes at this stage in my pregnancy and am so glad I invested in some maternity jeans. I have been lucky enough to find some that fit great and aren't too long since I'm pretty short, (Thank you Motherhood!). As for tops Target has seriously been a life saver for me. They carry extra small tops and have such a cute selection. I just got a few new sweaters yesterday at our brand new Target here in Virginia Beach ♥. 

I have been cooking and baking a lot more now that I am staying home and it has been so nice to have time to do these things for my hubby. As far as cravings go, my love for Mexican food has returned and I am craving it all the time! I have also been wanting ice cream after dinner nearly every night, and thank goodness we don't keep it in the house all the time, otherwise I'd probably gain 100 pounds. Other than that nothing too unusual. 

We still have a lot to do to prepare for our little one, like tour our hospital, take a birthing class and register for our baby shower. I am a little behind on all this and it's starting to stress me out but we plan on getting a few of these things done this weekend. Overall I am just looking forward to the next few months and meeting our son! :) 

Here's the info on our little boy this week. It's so interesting to know what's going on in there. ♥ Happy Thursday Lovelies. 

Baby Size

14.5 in

cauliflower

Baby Weight

2 lb

Baby

This week your baby looks like a thinner, redder, more wrinkled version of what he will look like at birth, but in the next few weeks more fat will fill out his appearance. Your baby's immune system is continuing to mature as are your baby's lungs which are still practicing breathing amniotic fluid.

Body

Just when you were getting used to your second trimester, you may find new uncomfortable symptoms beginning during your third trimester. You may notice more leg cramps due to the pressure of your uterus on your veins and nerves running from your torso to your legs. Remember to stretch and move your legs to ease or prevent cramping.

Activities this week

Now is a great time to sign up for a breastfeeding class. If you are a first-time mom and planning to breastfeed your baby, it's a good idea to take a breastfeeding class or sign up with a lactation consultant. Ask your doctor or midwife for a recommendation or call La Leche League who can help you locate breastfeeding resources in your area.