Lately

Food

Here are my most recent guilty pleasures....

French Toast with a twist! I used oat nut bread, and sweetened and flavored the eggs with cinnamon, cinnamon sugar, and vanilla sugar. Instead of syrup, I used honey, sliced up a banana, and topped the whole thing off with a bit of powdered sugar. 

\I made this pie for Easter. really, I just assembled it. I used a pre-made graham crust pie , filled it with banana pudding, and topped it with fruit. Yummy!

At Home

                 

I washed my lovely bear Otto for the first time. I feared for his life. He looked devastated for the first 24 hours or so.

                               

                                    My beautiful girl Marla with the googly eyes :)

                  

                 My grandparents-in law sent me some GORGEOUS roses for my 22nd birthday.

In Labor News...

My mom got here a week ago today. She is visiting from Germany. Considering the fact that Liam has been trying to exit since week 30, I was on bed rest for two months and swallowing all kinds of herbal supplements to keep him  in, we are shocked that my mom made it here before him and that I am now at 41 weeks with no bebe. One week has already gone by. Liam HAS to come sson.

I had eight hours of labor on Saturday, with strong contractions coming three minutes apart and lasting 1.5 minutes, but then it all ended with nothing. Hopefully it has at least helped me dilate. The little rascal is still lying posterior, although I have been going to the chiropractor to try and get him turned. A part of me thinks it's not working because I don't really believe it will. My midwife and the chiropractor both told me to think positively, but I don't have a positive bone left in my body. I am so tired, and so uncomfortable. Every part of my body hurts. I am extremely swollen and have a lot of pitting in my legs.

I am just ready to give birth and meet my son.

Today will be the day. I have to believe that.

Now that you're with me, I'm never alone

I have been stuck in early labor for over a week now. My lamb is not lying in a good position - he's not able to put enough pressure on my cervix to dilate me properly. I am doing my "spinning babies" exercises, and sometimes he turns, but he always goes back very quickly. We've tried every way we know to coax him out, to no avail. 

So I've decided to just sit back and relax and let him do his thing. This is out of my control. I have to wait for him. In the meantime, I will play happy music and dance around the house with him. Just as I will when he is finally in my arms. 

By my midwifes calendar he still has 3 weeks before I need to be induced, but of course we hope it won't come to that. 

Our home is ready for our little lamb. The birth pool is set up, his clothing and diapers are all washed, and his first outfit is picked out - a blue gray footed sleeper with airplanes. 

The rest is up to you, Liam Lamb. 

Pumpkin Banana Bread

Today was a big cooking day for me.

With just a few weeks of pregnancy left, I am finally off modified bed rest and happily walking for hours every day, and bouncing on my exercise ball. I can feel my muscles toning up, and it feels good to get a leg up on my pre-pregnancy shape. This has also reminded me of how poor my diet has become. Dinner yesterday consisted of a pot of velveeta mixed with a jar of salsa and a pound of ground beef over chips. Some call it nachos; it felt like death to me.

I have also been having lots of sugar cravings. I generally try to satisfy them with bonbons or fruit, but today I made this beautiful, sweet, healthy bread.

I got the idea from a DVD I checked out at the library, called "Growing Green Babies". I found a recipe online, which you can find here. I added raisins, but otherwise followed it word for word. Next time, I will reduce the amount of cloves I add. I am not a clove-ish person! 

Overall, it is really good though.... especially with a little bit of butter :)

I linked up at Not JUST a Housewife

Burp cloths from Cloth Diapers

A crafty friend of my mom's showed me some burp cloths that she made from cloth diapers. She is expecting her first granddaughter so she made some girl themed ones for her, and some boy themed ones for me. How sweet of her! They are super cute too.

So I decided to make use of my fabric scraps and jazz up the hand me down burp cloths we had. 

This has to be the easiest project ever and great for a beginner like me. All it takes is a prefolded diaper, which can be purchased cheaply from Walmart, and some cute fabric. You can add ribbons or ric rac as embellishment. I cut my fabric two inches longer and wider than the center panel, folded those inches in, pinned the fabric to the diaper in a few places, and used a small zig zag stitch all around. 

What do you think of the results?

Here I added a small bit of owly ribbon

Can't wait to make more! :)

Ric Rac Baby Blanket :)

I recently made this baby blanket using Alexander Henry fabric and ric ric. It was super easy to make and fun too :) I ended up being unsatisfied with the green backing fabric so I am going to redo it, but over all this project was great.

You can find the tutorial here, at the Prudent Baby website, one of my favorites.

Isn't it cute?? :)

I linked up at Not Just A Housewife, Sugar Bee Crafts, Coastal Charms, Polly Want A Crafter, Alderberry Hill, Claire Justine oxox, Cherished Bliss, Cozy Home Scenes, Creatively Living, Elizabeth & Co, Savvy Southern Styles

Blanket and Banner and Keets :)

I am currently working on a baby quilt, which should have been done last week, but I keep getting distracted by other projects....

This week, I made this banner for Liam's eventual nursery:

You can get a tutorial from Jenny here. It's super easy. 

I also crocheted this baby blanket with am abstract cat pattern. Can you see the kitties? :) They are simply shell and drop stitches. So fast and easy to make. 

The dogs wanted to say hi as well.... Marla and I aren't getting along very well right now, which is why she is giving me the stink eye. Disobedient little thing.

And here's a quick preview of my next project. It's gonna be cute! 

I linked up at Not JUST a Housewife

Thanks for stopping by, and as always.....

No Resolution!

I cannot believe another year has passed. It seems the older you get, the faster time passes. Personally I have an obsession with counting seconds, trying to make sure every single one counts, but I usually fail tremendously at that. I create a lot of drama, tension and anxiety for myself through my clock watching. I am not sure why I do that, but I hope in 2012 I can relax a little. I am done with school now, I don't work, life is wide open and I can do whatever I want! No need for stress.

2012 is going to be vastly different from anything that came before. First the birth of Liam in April, then our official graduation in May, Patrick's commissioning, our trip to Germany this summer, and moving to Florida for Patrick to start flight school. It couldn't get any more different than that!

I love my life. I wouldn't change anything. I have no resolutions, because I don't think I need to help my life change any more than it is already doing by itself. I feel positive.

Happy New Years from the Davey family :)