Friday's Fab Five

Not too much exciting this week but here are a few (5) exciting happenings:

1. It was SUPER warm here on Monday so after Adah's nap(or her pathetic attempt at one) her and I headed out for ice cream and some fun at the park. We went to a different park this time...but it is one that we have been to several times! It is called Forest of Fun! It is a HUGE fenced in play area surrounded by trees! Of course Adah has no interest in the play structures but absolutely LOVES to chase the squirrels!

Here is Adah on one of her attempts to catch a squirrel!

2. On Tuesday we went to story time again and like before Adah loved to read all the books in the store! I found several cute ones that I want to get her....my most favorite is Tickle Monster and I want the gift set that comes with the tickle monster gloves! Adah's favorite and another one I want to get her is Llama Llama Red Pajamas! This week we read 2 really cute Thanksgiving stories and the kids got to color a picture of a turkey...Adah was so much interested in the coloring as she was taking out all the crayons and playing with them!

3. For the first time since Josh started back to work, he made it home for dinner on Wednesday! He actually came home WAY before dinner...he was home by 3! Since I didn't plan anything for dinner cause I didn't expect him to be home we decided to go out and eat and celebrate our Thanksgiving a night early at Cracker Barrel!

Adah playing with the toys!

She HAD to have the cornbread...even though she has never seen nor had it before! She also tried fried okra for the first time and loved it! She must be a true southern girl at heart!

4. Since we just moved to VA and don't really know many people and I am unable to travel due to the fact that I could have this baby any second....it was just the three of us for Thanksgiving this year! We enjoyed dinner the night before like I mentioned and just spend Thanksgiving hanging out around the house and getting things ready for the new baby! We did take a look at the paper and all the ads....Adah even had to look through most of them....but we didn't see anything worth waking a sleeping baby over to go out with all the crazies!

Adah checking out the Toys R Us ad to see if there was anything she NEEDED!

5. We got most of our Christmas shopping done for Adah today and I got ALL my shopping done for Josh (that includes Anniversary, his Birthday, and Christmas)! We also got the babies bed set up and her room pretty much all together! Now we just need her to decide to come!

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Friday Fab Five

I have decided to copy by BF Rachel because she is just so awesome! No but really she is so good at keeping up with her blog each week and I have decided to strive to be as good as her so therefore I am going to copy her and do a Friday Fab 5 and share 5 FABULOUS things each week! If you haven't yet checked out her blog you should because her son(Adah's boyfriend and future husband) is one CUTE dude! You can check out her blog HERE!

Now on to my FAB 5 for the week:

1) I have been trying some new recipes lately and on Monday I tried this new Taco soup recipe that a friend had on her FB and had gotten of THIS blog! It was SOOO easy and YUMMY and Adah even LOVED it!



2) On Tuesday Adah and I went to the Virginia Beach Aquarium with our new friend Stephanie and her daughter Caitlyn! Caitlyn is about to turn 2 and her mommy Stephanie is due 1 month to the day after me with another little girl...not to mention they are from TEXAS! Stephanie has a membership to the Aquarium so we were able to go for free! The girls LOVED it and followed each other around and would even walk around holding hands! It was the cutest thing EVER! After walking through half of the aquarium we decided that it was time for a picnic lunch! After lunch we loaded the girls up and headed over to a cupcake place were Stephanie had a Groupon for(check out groupon HERE!) and we each got 3 YUMMY cupcakes!

These are my cupcakes: peanut butter chocolate, red velvet, and Vanilla bean

Adah checking out the fish!

3) On Wednesday I had my 34 week OB appointment and finally met the other doctor in the practice and really liked her alot! Adah went with me to the appointment and was a complete ANGEL! Looks like baby girl #2 is measuring a week ahead and completely healthy! I go back on the 1st of December and start going every week after that! We found out that this OB practice does not like for you to go past your due date so at my next appointment they will have a date on the calendar for me to be induced given that the little princess hasn't come by then! I'm hoping that she stays put and they induce around the 20-21st! I am TERRIFIED to go into labor on my own since I was induced with Adah a week early! I am however thankful that I have had little to no swelling and no issues with my blood pressure this pregnancy. The OB here has been running a lot of tests and keeping a close eye on me so that she can catch it early on if I start to have signs of pre eclampsia again! I am even still wearing my wedding rings which is AMAZING since I wasn't even wearing them halfway through my second trimester with Adah! I know people keep asking and think that we may be telling some and not others but believe it or not we do NOT have a name for our little peanut yet! We have a few we keep throwing around and nothing seems right to me yet. Hopefully I will like a name by the time I see her! haha! I want uncommon/not popular names....I hate that there are a MILLION people with mine and Josh's name! If you haveing any good ideas of unique or uncommon girl names feel free to share....

4) Also on Tuesday Adah had her 18mth well baby check up! I wouldn't exactly classify this as a FABULOUS event by any means but it was exciting to find out some more accurate states on her. She is quite the growing girl! We did find out that her stats from last week were off bc she is such a squirmer and HATES the doctor! She is 27lbs (80%) and 32.5 inches tall(95%) and I don't remember the exact measurement of her head but I know she was in the 75%! It was quite the eventful 2 hours at the doctor...like I mentioned she HATES the doctor and to be touched.....she cried all but 15 combined minutes of the entire 2 hours! She even had to have blood drawn from her arm for the first time and it took me and 4 other nurses to pin her down so they could get the blood! The good thing is she no longer has to take a vitamin with iron in it...at her 9mth check up they said she was slightly anemic(sp) and she is no longer so we can stop the iron vitamin! After getting blood drawn she had to get her Hep A shot...but thank God she doesn't have to get anymore shots until she is 4....of course other than the seasonal flu shot each year :(!

Here is her little bandage from getting blood drawn! Poor girl!

5) Thursday and today we have tried to get out and about and enjoy the weather and outdoors! Yesterday we went to toddler story time at Barnes and Nobles! It was our first time to go to anything like that and Adah loved it! She got to color and hear a story and her and I walked around and read books for what seemed like forever to me but she could have sat there all day and never gotten tired of reading! Adah LOVES to read...she plays with her books more than any other toy she has. She even refuses to get in the bath at night because all she wants to do is read....so now we have to read 2 books to her while she is in the bath in order for us to get her in there and for her to let us wash her! Today Adah and I checked out another local park in the are...this one is on a lake and was so pretty! You have to walk down a short trail through the trees to get there but I think that was Adah's favorite part because she loves trees and got to pick up leaves! We can't wait to go back to the park (hopefully this weekend) and show daddy!

Hope you enjoyed our first Fab 5!

A year and a half!

Our sweet little peanut turned 18 mths old today...thats a whole year and a half! I can't believe how much she has grown! I was thinking back to last Thanksgiving that we spent in Tahoe and how little she was and how she wasn't even crawling much less eating solid foods! Now she is running and eating cereal with a spoon and no mess all by herself! She amazes me everyday! Just yesterday Josh mentioned how sad he was because he is actually having to work A LOT lately and goes several days without seeing her and he can't believe how much she had changed in just 2 short days! She is definitely the boss of the house and such a little princess! That girl has her daddy wrapped around his little finger!

Stats and what you are up to now:

• 26lbs
• size 4 diapers
• size 18mth clothes
• size 6 shoe
• LOVE cereal and anytime we ask if you are ready for dinner or lunch you run into the kitchen yelling cereal!
• You can feed yourself with a spoon and fork
• Love to shut doors and can open some
• love to say bye anytime you leave the room....when your food is gone.....when you leave something...you just love to say bye
• you are OBSESSED with Dora the Explorer...but will only watch the parts of the show when there is music playing! You squeal with delight and dance and sing Dora when it comes on
• you HATE shoes and socks and take them off any chance you get
• you are afraid of ALOT...you run and say no and start to cry if there is a large stuffed animal or anything that moves
• you like to say mama and tap where you want me to sit.....you also like to call me "the mama"
• you like to give squeezes
• you dropped your morning nap recently and only take 1 nap a day that is usually 2 hours long
• you got your 4th canine tooth so now all you have left are your 4 two year molars to come in
• you love to chase the cats and will call them both by their names now instead of calling them both ollie
• you like to give your baby sister kisses on mommies belly
• you love the phone and to see videos of yourself
• your most favorite thing to do is read
• you say a lot of words that I can't even begin to name them all....sad, bye, clap, dora, izzy, ollie, mama, dadee, josh, baby, book, dora, boots, map, girl, hi, bye, squeeze, knock knock, nose, eye, bobo(butt), oops I dropped it, uh oh, cereal, please, thank you(you usually say thank you mama to everyone)......

Adah potatah you are growing so fast! I can't believe how much you know and have changed! You make your dadee and me so happy and we just love you to death! God has blessed us with such a sweet and beautiful little girl and we can't wait to watch you grow and learn more! You are going to be such a great big sister next month! We love you peanut!

Here are few pics from my phone...not the best but better than nothing:

Adah noticed today that her toe was peeling and was seriously concerned about it....I swear every time I turned around she was sitting down inspecting her toe! Silly girl!

When Adah and I went to target the other day I found this "painting" book that all you have to do is dip the brush in water and touch the picture on the page and it turns to color!
Adah eating "Cer-al" all by herself....such a big girl!
Adah playing on her Auntie Rachel's computer while we were on a mini vacation with them in DC!
Standing in the back of the car talking into the speakers like they are a megaphone! Haha so funny....where she got that or what made her do it is beyond me! She is so funny!

mmm..mmm...good

Since Josh started back to work this week on a submarine and works A LOT (leaves around 5am and doesn't get home until 8:30pm at the earliest) I have a little bit of time to play on the internet after I clean up from putting Adah down and dinner! I have really been trying to find some new things to cook...I absolutely love to cook but when you have a picky husband and a daughter that is following in his footsteps it makes it hard to find new things...but I found 3 new recipes that I am beyond excited about! I have also been trying to make sure that they are easy to reheat and more importantly good reheated since Adah and I eat before Josh gets home! I made the first one tonight and it was SOOO good! It was a super easy lasagna....I usually make one that you don't have to cook the noodles first but this one has a lot more flavor and some different ingredients! I had to hide from Josh what was in it bc if he knew then he wouldn't even try it! He ate it and LOVED it! I thought I would share the recipe with the ya'll incase you wanted to try it too!

Easy Lasagna

(I found the recipe on this fun blog; click HERE to see!)

Ingredients:

• no cook lasagna noodles
• 28-32 oz jar of spaghetti sauce
• 1 lb of ground turkey
• 1 8oz cream cheese
• 1 cup chicken stalk
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1-2 garlic gloves-minced
• 3 cups mozzarella cheese shredded
• 1 cup parmesan cheese shredded
• 2 tbs red wine (optional)
• 2 tbs white wine (optional)

Preheat oven to 400

lightly grease a baking dish

Brown ground turkey and add in the basil oregano and garlic.

Cook until meat is no longer pink and garlic is fragrant.

Add in spaghetti sauce and let simmer for about 5 min. Add red wine here if you are using it( I didn't and it was amazing but can't wait to try it with). Add salt and pepper to taste.

While meat sauce is simmering, bring chicken stock to a boil and add in the cream cheese.

Reduce heat to low and whisk cream cheese as it starts to melt and it will turn into a liquid/paste. Add white wine if using(again I didn't use it but I'm want to try it). Add salt and pepper to taste.

Put 1/2 of the meat sauce mixture in the baking dish. Sprinkle with 1 cup of mozzarella cheese. Cover with a layer of noodles.

Pour white sauce over noodles. Sprinkle with next cup of mozzarella. Add another layer of noodles over top.

Put remaining meat sauce over noodles and Sprinkle the last cup of mozzarella on top and top with parmesan cheese.

Bake 35 mins until brown and bubbly.

Let sit 10-15 mins.

Hope you enjoy as much as we did!