26 Weeks

Of course John wanted his picture taken too!

Pregnancy has had it's lots of pros and lots of cons but it is a wonderful experience getting to grow this precious baby inside of me. She enjoys kicking, dance parties, boxing, and swimming and occasionally waking her mother up during the middle of the night to do it! I can't wait until she's a teenager. At least right now she is contained within a small container named a uterus. 

Last week I had a baby shower with all of my friends. It turned out absolutely adorable! A few of my very closest friends planned it. Ashley did most of it with the help of Amberlyn, Christina, and Katie. I got tons of wonderful and cute things. I don't understand why little things are so CUTE but they are! Instead of playing games we had an activity where everyone could chat, eat, and make baby girl bows for me and my baby girl! I have never heard of that idea and I absolutely LOVED it!

One of the cute signs I got to keep. Any ideas on what I could do with it?

Left to Right: Katie, Ashley, me, Christina, Amberlyn, Alison

Rub the belly for luck! 

Husbandless

My wonderful sister in-law Kyrsten has had quite the emotional week. Her little 1 year old boy, Jimmy, came down with a fever so they took him into the hospital. They found a tumor attached to his kidney. Needless to say he is doing fine and will go into surgery this next Wednesday to get it removed. I don't know very much about the whole situation but my overall feeling of the is that everyone feels very peaceful among these trying times. I'm so grateful for our understand of the gospel that helps to put everything into perspective. But regardless of perspective this situation is an emotional and trying time for the families that surround Jimmy. Please keep Jimmy and everyone else in your prayers.

John's parents flew him out to Missouri to help his Kyrst and Rob out with their other two boys, Ty and Robbie. So I lost my husband to a better cause. I miss him dearly but know he is where he is needed most. He was so willing and ready to go in the blink of an eye. He flew out on Thursday morning out to Missouri to help out with the kids and with the house and with whatever was needed. I'm sure Robbie and Ty have loved having Uncle Johnny around to play with. I hope he has helped to give some relief to the Haas family.

I miss Johnny loads and loads! He is my very best friend and I am so glad I chose to marry him. It has turned out to be one of the best and most rewarding decisions I have ever made. He helps me to be a better person and still loves me when I'm not. I can't express my gratitude for the person he is and for the husband he is to me. I'm a lucky women! I wish everyone could be as happy and in love with their spouse as I feel and am!

Here are a few random pictures and reasons for why I am so in love with my Johnny!

He lets me kiss him almost anytime I want

He is absolutely hilarious and yes he thinks of these crazy silly random things to do like take a picture under the huge elephant statue's foot and pretend he is getting squished!

Yes, we are going to the Zoo and look at that face so determined to get there on time! 

He loves sea animals and fish almost more than he loves me!

His favorite pair of sunglasses aren't the $100 ones he gave to his brother but the $5 ones from Walmart.

He surprised me and was an excellent shot!

He is so handsome!

Treats and Good Eats

For those of you who don't know I love to cook but I still have so much to learn but here are a few of our experiments so far.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Trifle

Delicious, looks amazing and it's so easy to make

Pizza Crust

Delicious, still pretty easy but it takes some time, also I lost the recipe so as delicious as this was and looks we won't ever have it again! PS both these recipes, the crust and the triffle, I got off of pinterest. That is my number one favorite use of pinterest. Finding fun new recipes!

Valentines Day Steak

This was my first endeavor at making stake before and it turned out AWESOME! I surprised Mr. Man with a candlelit dinner, with an all american meal. Steak, mashed potatoes, broccoli, rolls, and of course some of his favorite chocolate candies. 

John loved the steak! All I did was punch a bunch of holes in both sides with a fork, marinated it in soy sauce, Worcestershire, garlic powder, and some seasoning salt overnight. First I turned the oven to 400 degrees then I used my cephalon pan and got the pan hot on the stove then seared each side of the steak for about 90 seconds. After both were seared I placed my whole cephalon pan (oven safe by the way) into the oven. John's was in there for about 7 and mine for about 9 minutes. He likes his a little more colorful if you know what I mean. 

Banana Bread

I've tried about 5 different recipes of banana bread over the past few years and this has been my favorite by far. Sadly I didn't take a picture of my own banana bread but here is the picture from the website I got the recipe from. 

Oh and the recipe of course!

• 1/2 cup of butter, softened
• 3/4 cup of brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 1/3 cups of mashed overripe bananas (I used 4)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups of flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp fresh nutmeg, grated

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees then coat a 9x5 loaf pan with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until creamy. Add the eggs, bananas, and vanilla then continue beating until well combined.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, and fresh nutmeg together, mix well.

Add the flour mixture into the banana mixture and stir until just combined. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan.

Bake for 55-60 minutes or until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the bread cool in pan for 10 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack. Slice and slather with butter. Enjoy!

Egg Dropping

We went on a double date with Mike and his girlfriend Taeler to the dollar store. Where we had no more than $5 to spend on whatever we wanted to keep an egg safe from breaking when dropped from off our third story balcony.

Mine and John's Materials

Mike and Taeler's Materials which included Humphrey

The sad sad losers

The oh so humble winners! Minus Chelsie because I definitely helped with that design!

Mike and Taeler stuffed there egg inside of Humphrey, the stuffed fish, who failed them miserably. John and used the plastic bag as a parachute and it didn't really work but no worries it still didn't break! Props to my Mr. Man for the fun date idea.

Baby Time!

Pretty sure that everyone who reads this blog already knows but I'M PREGNANT! 24 weeks along already. I am due August 21! We are so excited to have this little bundle of joy come into our home and lives for forever! She, oh yeah it's a GIRL, is going to be so loved by both me and John. We are scared out of our minds but so excited all at the same time. Being pregnant has been a bit of a roller coaster taking all kinds of new turns. 

Car Seat Cover

I've already started making things because I am so excited. Like I made sewed a car seat cover except I don't even have a car seat yet.  I love the fabric I found! Also I made a little blanket and soon to be made is a nursing cover!