28 Weeks

This week I am 28 weeks, which officially puts me in the third trimester. Luckily, I am still feeling good and Scoop and I are still enjoying getting out for walks three or four times a week. Thanks to the generosity of the very-excited grandparents, the baby's room now has a changing table and a crib. The room is not entirely put together, but maybe we'll have some pictures for the next update! The co-sleeper has also been acquired and set up in our room, which has forced Scoop's bed to the exact opposite side of the room and she has adjusted very well, which was a relief. Chris has been really great about touching up paint and putting things together and even taking care of the yard on top of everything else. We still have a lot to do before Miss G arrives, but it's so nice to see everything coming together. This week we started our childbirth classes, and at the end of class last night we toured the hospital and picked up our registration paperwork. It's all becoming so much more real and exciting (and, after watching a childbirth video, a little frightening, too). At my doctor's appointment today I found out my total weight gain (from my first appointment at 8 weeks) has been 20 pounds, which they tell me is good. And in other good news, after a three-hour lab appointment and four blood draws yesterday, I found out today I do not have gestational diabetes and can enjoy a one of the leftover Easter cupcakes that has been taunting me all week without guilt or worry. Hooray! Baby has been kicking even more and the kicks are getting stronger, but not yet in an uncomfortable way and I love feeling her move around. We are just so grateful at how great this experience has been so far and thankful for all the love you all have shown us!

P.S. Scoop and I are doing the March of Dimes March for Babies on Saturday. We're super close to our fundraising goal, and every dollar helps!

Easter

Did everyone have a lovely Easter? Chris, Scoop and I headed over to Erin & Sandor's for Easter brunch with friends. (This is the first Easter Chris and I have spent together since we've been married because of baseball, so that was a treat).

After seeing them online somewhere, I made Cadbury Creme Egg Cupcakes for the occasion. Pretty easy - mini Cadbury eggs + yellow cake batter. They tasted pretty good, I thought.

There was quite the spread of yummy food - egg strata and coffee cake and fruit and muffins and all kinds of deliciousness. The dogs all got to come, too, so Scoop had fun playing with six of her best buddies.

I neglected to take any pictures of people. Whoopsie. We had a fun time eating and visiting. I hope you had a nice Easter, too!

Yuma friends, Reno friends

We were very excited this week that Andrea and Jeremy came to visit Nevada during Andrea's spring break. Our Yuma buddies (who now live in SoCal) are going to be moving to D.C. soon, so this was likely our last visit with them before their big move. We are lucky to be living in their home state so that we got to see them on their trip home, and it was great to see them three afternoons in a row before they headed to Elko. (Jeremy's family is in Reno, Dre's is in Elko). Highlights included lunch at J.J.'s Pie Co (a tradition when Andrea is here), and spending some time shopping at Target with Dre, just like when we were roomies :-)

On their last day here, we went to the Aces game. Chris took the afternoon off from covering the game so that he could hang out with the rest of us in the stands.

After we left the game, we Skyped with the V-Team - something that has become a tradition every time we see the Nevins since Benny and Michelle moved to Okinawa.

Now, Benny, Michelle and Olivia are in Maryland, so I have a feeling the next time we have one of these Skype conferences it will be Chris and I on one end and the Volkmanns and Nevins on the other. I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little bit jealous that they will be living so close to each other and my sister. I think a visit to the East Coast will be in our future once little miss is big enough!

Frosting can fix anything

Tuesday was Erin's birthday, and I wanted to make her a Rainbow Cake, which I had seen on many a blog and thought it looked pretty. She threw a barbecue on Sunday for pretty much everyone she knows who has an April birthday, so I made the cake for the occasion.

Because I thought it might be a little time intensive (especially since I only have two round cake pans) I decided to go with a boxed lemon cake mix instead of from scratch (one less layer to color!) I mixed one box, measured it to a little more than four cups and decided to use one cup per layer, making cupcakes with the remaining batter from the second box.

Red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple batter.

The yellow layer was the first one I tried to take out of the pan, and this is what happened. I was a little worried, but a little frosting and all was right again. (I did a much better job getting the other layers out of the pan.)

Cooling cake

Frosting, frosting, frosting

Done!

And, the reveal!

Pretty and yummy!

Happy Birthday, Erin!

Aceball is Back

On Friday, the Reno Aces had their home opener. Of course, Chris was there to cover the game, so I went with our friends Chris and Tyler and we ran into many other friends throughout the evening.
One of the new menu items this year is The Big Cheese. It's a garlic cheese focaccia, and it's huge. And delicious. (Don't worry, even though I'm eating for two, I split this with Chris and Tyler.)
It was a little cold and windy, but it's great for baseball to be back in season in Reno. The Aces won the game, and fireworks followed! I'm looking forward to many more games before baby arrives.

Housaversary

Can you believe it's been a year this week since we moved into our house? What a year it's been! Our guest room has seen a variety of friends and family members, we celebrated Chris' 30th birthday and my graduation. We saw our first trick-or-treaters and hosted our first Christmas. We've put personal touches on the house (although there's still a ways to go). We found out our family is expanding. Most recently ...

We've added patio furniture to our backyard, and look forward to enjoying summer evenings sitting around the fire pit.

We've seen the tree that we planted in the backyard last fall begin to bloom.

And we've been moving things out of what was the craft room to transform it into the baby's room. (Last weekend, Chris installed the fan/light for the baby).

We already have made some wonderful memories in this house that over the last year has become our home, and we look forward to the many more memories we will make as our family grows.

Mellow

For Friday night, I won Chris a ticket to Beer Fest, a fundraiser for the Nevada Young Alumni Association, and I joined him and some of our friends out for the evening. I could be spotted as the only one drinking ginger ale ...

The rest of our weekend was really quite mellow. After snowing on Thursday and Friday, it warmed up into the 50s (heat wave!) on Saturday and the sun came out so we went for a family walk.

Chris and I spent the rest of the afternoon running errands to places all married couples are familiar with, like Home Depot. And, we stopped at a new, self-serve fro-yo place which was awesome. We have to go back at least 15 more times so I can try all the creations I've invented in my head.
Sunday was spent just doing things around the house. We really are a boring old married couple! But it was a nice weekend being home together. The Aces have their home opener this weekend and will be home the next three, so these kinds of weekends will be rare in the coming months.

P.S. How cute are Chris and Scoop? This picture makes me think how amazing it will be to see Chris with our daughter. I could cry just thinking about it.

Little things

A few weeks ago, Kat visited home in North Carolina and blogged that she brought back some of her old baby clothes for her own baby. This made me a little jealous, because I don't think anyone has any of my old clothes around, and me and Mena had some pretty rad outfits. But I do have a couple of my favorite things that I am excited to share with little Miss G, so that makes up for it I think ...

The Littlest Angel was my favorite book when I was little. It was a gift from my Dad, and I've kept it with me ever since I moved away from home. I still like to read it every now and then and look forward to having someone to read it to. I don't remember how old I was when I got Goofy here, but it's safe to say he was my favorite stuffed animal (because he's also my favorite Disney character) and obviously he's still with me. I hope the baby loves him, too!

This weekend when I was going through boxes (I'm in purge mode, trying to clear up some space) I found this little silver bracelet, as well as a tiny little gold ring, that were given to me when I was a baby. My mom gave them to me a couple years ago, and I'm not sure who they are originally from, but I could just cry at how tiny and adorable they are. I am so excited to have some of my things to share with the baby!

This week I am 25 weeks. My doctor's appointment went well last week, and we are just so grateful :-)