15 weeks- A quick little update

As I have a huge pile of work to do on my desk I have only an ounce of time to give an update on us lately...
Life, as we know it, has been extremely busy. I have realized I'm not a person who likes this.... it throws me, Asher and Rich into a tizzy of who's where what time.. and only makes for utter confusion!
Here's our schedule this week:

Monday night: A solo/ensemble practice for choir Musical coming up this Sunday

Tuesday night: Normally a bible study night, but out of sheer MUST we are opting to skip and spend this night home together!

Wednesday night: While we don't have choir practice we still have AWANA. 

Thursday night: Dress Rehearsal for said choir musical

Friday night: work during day, volunteer for booth at craft fair... and then home.

Saturday: Family reunion in Rondo, MO. 

I know... mass craziness.
I know that sometimes weeks like this can't be helped... and we'll get through it...
I need to rely on my Lord to get me through this stretching week so I can stay patient and roll with it.
No doubt that we ALL have to be guarded of our family time when life gets a little crazy. I am so thankful that I have a husband who stands firm in that!!

Tonight you will find us at home enjoying each other and most certainly riding bikes, playing baseball, and maybe even having our dinner outside.
I was so blessed by something that Asher thanked God for a few nights ago... He was praying and began to thank God for protecting and loving our hearts. Oh how I thank Him for that too... and especially for my little children. So much can penetrate our hearts and minds if we let it... only the sweet words of a 3 year old will make me realize it.
Pregnancy is good... sleeping is getting better... baby bump is growing....  that's about all for this week!

Why I'm not a good Mama sometimes...

Oh man.... what a night.
We had a good family night dinner complete with a little time at Barnes and Noble to get Asher a "spooky" Berenstein Bears book, plus a couple others that he's obsessed with on the back of the ones he already has.
Home and a lazy time of getting ready for bed... complete with reading all 3 new books. Asher asked me to lay beside him while we listened to his Bible stories and BOTH of us fell asleep. After waking up and my hand was cold and completely dead- not just asleep, I went back into the living room to watch the Office with Rich. After watching a few new shows I was ready to back to sleep so off the t.v. went and back to sleep I went... or at least those were my intentions!
My bed felt as though I might as well have slept on the floor! My hips hurt laying on my side, when you're pregnant you can't sleep on your back, and my belly is poking out just enough to make it really squished laying on my stomach. So, It seemed that I changed positions about every 30 seconds.
Asher and we have been on a bad habit of when he wakes up in the middle of the night we go get him and bring him in bed with us... not a good habit... case in point when we look like the letter "H" with a head in one's back and feet in the other's face!! So the more I move the more I woke him up and made it hard for him to get back to sleep too.  There were a few times that I snapped at him to hurry up and get comfortable. I eventually moved to the foot of the bed in hopes to get a little more wiggle room without bothering him when after a few minutes I realize that he's about to fall off the bed! I grab his head and move it, somewhat harshly, back over on the pillow.  By this point I am about in tears for the frustration of being awake and tossing for about 2 hours.  My movement scared him and he started to cry... he says.. "I'm sorry Mama, be nice to me!"    Talk about a knife in the heart....
After apologizing and telling Asher that Mama needed a timeout and that I was going to go to the living room to get a better attitude, I slunk out of the room feeling like a complete heel. From then on I still tossed and turned and cried knowing how I had let my anger build up until I took it out on my precious baby. He didn't deserve that at all...
I'm not always the fair and trusting Mama that I should be.... I am not always tender and understanding.... I'm a lot of times selfish, I want things to go a certain way and when they don't, I get mad. And I am particularly slave to it when I am sleep deprived.
I just thank God that a new day comes in the morning with his sweet face smiling at me and giving me my morning snuggles. He still loves me despite my many times I disappoint him and me. And I hope he knows how much I love him even when he does things that upset me.. even though I do not show it sometimes.

Rainy weekend and flutters.....

Oh what a glorious weekend.... it was lazy and busy all at the same time!
Friday started out with a much needed date night for my sweet husband and I. Since the beginning of this pregnancy I have not made him a huge priority when it came to him or sleep. I am so sorry for this, but my body was strictly surviving.
We started with some errands to run while we were in town, like buying cat food and dog chews, then went to Target for some running pants for Rich. ( Have I mentioned that he has been running with the dog for the past 2 months EVERY night?... I think he has only missed 2 nights since he started!!! I am so proud of him!)
Then it was dinner time.
After much begging and recommending from our friend, John, we went to Digiacintos. A little hole in the wall Italian place that every one knows about. Many of my friends said that it was amazing so after losing our J. Parrinos we decided to give it a go.
The special was a crab cake dinner, but also offered as an appetizer that evening. I love crab, so I gave the appetizer a try. It was soooo yummy!!! Rich was not as big of a fan and I didn't mind:)
Rich ordered the Veal Parmigiana and I had a Ravioli Trio with 2 cheese, 2 spinach artichoke, and 2 seafood.
They were both very yummy. I could not finish all of mine between the crab cake, salad, bread... so we got to have it for 2 meals!
I did love the feel of the place, but for us.. it was just a little too expensive for what we got. If there were something that the 2 of us could split, it wouldn't be so bad, but Rich and I have completely different tastes for Italian.
Rich is still looking for his Holy Grail of a good Veal. Not that there's was bad, but not what he likes when it comes to that.

Saturday was spent with choir practice in the morning and a very relaxing and soup making afternoon. I love days that all of us are home. It's so cozy and nice. Especially when the majority of the day was pouring rain outside.
Sunday was pretty busy with Rich having an afternoon meeting and I had a friend's baby shower.
That night though Asher and I stayed home and ate leftovers and watched a little more tv than usual. But it's allowed when your snuggled up under a blanket with Mama:)
This week has been fairly normal pregnancy other than feeling a few flutters in there this morning. I was just starting to wake and turn to my other side, when I felt them. I think it was anyways.......
I'll just tell myself it was.

Soup LOVE...

Here's a few of my pinterests that I have been drooling over even though I couldn't eat but 2 bites of them! I'm planning on making my famous Gnocchi soup on Thursday night since it's going to be so chilly! ( I love it!)

Harvest Vegetable Soup

Healing cabbage soup
Lasagna Soup
Gnocchi and Sausage soup... not the same as mine.. I have a copykat recipe from Olive Garden here
Tomato Tortellini.. I can't wait to try this one!
Broccoli Cheddar

There is something wonderful about dipping some hard bakery bread into a cheesy warm soup... have I mentioned that I love fall?..... :)

Cause I'm tired of having boring baby updates....

Today I will give you a baby update, but I want to talk about food.
Even still.... at 13 weeks, I have not completely gained my appetite back... which S.T.I.N.K.S!
Fall, my most favorite season and goodies of all richness and pumpkiny and hearty... and I don't feel like eating.
I can already feel my baby house growing substantially this week. I lay on my back and I see it poking right out there already and feel it expanding when I press on my stomach AND have been having the ligament pain to prove it!
I'm thinking that my stomach and intestines are already being pushed up because, being a majorly short waisted person, they have no where else to go. Thus, it makes the amount of fall yumminess consumed quite a bit less than desired. You know the nasty full feeling you have after you eat Thanksgiving dinner? Yeah.. that's how I feel all the time.After just a few bites. :(
Other than that.. I am feeling great. Waking up quite a bit at night (to change positions.. to pee... you name it)- but still feeling rested of a morning.
I am beginning to have my sciatic nerve problems arise again, so I have to do lots of stretching laying on the floor with my arms on the floor and my rear in the air to take pressure off of my lower back. It's real attractive.....
Had a quick Dr appointment this month but got to hear sweet little baby's heartbeat. Nice and strong at 160bpm. The nurse that helped me I knew... and she recognized me.. but we could NOT figure out how we knew each other! It's still plaguing me!!!!!
I'm still wearing regular clothes but I feel that it won't be for long... pants will soon have to go to maternity. I am not one that enjoys my maternity clothes... they were very stretched out with Asher so I may have to go get a couple new ones that will fit when I am not about to pop. Plus, even when I was about to pop with A, I was constantly pulling them up!!!
OK, so since we are talking about food today I thought I would share an accidental success that I came across last night!
In my attempt to make something hassle free, since we all were not in the mood to eat... I took a recipe adapted from Giada and made a little wrap for myself. ( Rich didn't want to eat, Asher wanted leftover mac and cheese from lunch...) 
Here's the recipe:

Dill Turkey Wrap

1 flour tortilla.... spread cream cheese inside-- as much as you like

sprinkle dill spice or fresh dill over cream cheese... I used a half used package from hidden valley I had already in the cabinet ( told you this was an accident!)

lay 1-2 pieces of turkey deli meat on top

sprinkle shredded cheddar cheese on top

slice an apple..mine were Jonathans.. add a few thin slices of apple

lay a few leaves of baby spinach on top

Fold over the tortilla (as best you can) and pop in the microwave for about 35 seconds OR if you have a toaster oven or grilled would be awesome too!!

Tada!... sweet and herby and licious!

Looking forward to a date night on Friday! It's been SOO long since we were able to get away just the 2 of us! God has blessed us so much with great family time lately though that it has made it a little easier.

Labor Day and 12 weeks

Honestly... for the past 2 months there has been a cloud over our household. Or maybe that's just from one cranky Mama......
Now that I am feeling back to normal, It has been so wonderful. It's almost as if I was asleep and just woke up. I know that the majority was simply surviving and doing the very minimum of anything... but Rich even confessed that I was NOT myself.

This weekend was so nice. Technically, it started on Thursday when Rich said that we needed to get outta town! I was completely needing it, and so off we went on a whim, to Branson. We were gonna do a little shopping and buy a few new fall candles with my Yankee coupon and then eat and play some mini golf.
We first stopped at the Landing and walked around for a little bit... we stopped and played on the kids play area and then ate at Joe's Crab Shack. Asher L.O.V.E.D. the fish and sharks hanging all over. He spent more time looking at things than even eating his "crab"... aka popcorn shrimp. ( Is it bad to lie to your child like that?... I just knew he wasn't going to like crab, but he demanded that's what he wanted.)
After eating.. we went to Yankee and stocked up on our spicy fall candles.  On another note.. isn't funny how even though your house can be a disaster, if you have a really nice scented candle going... it seems fine?

Anyways.... we ended our evening at a mini-golf place that takes you through the steps of becoming a movie star. While it was very catchy and an experience... it was seriously almost 30 bucks for all 3 of us to play!!!! That is 6 times what we normally pay for Fun Acre! I had to breathe through it and realize that we are here for fun and making memories....We finished up at Freddy's for some ice cream and a quick walk through Target. We all had a great time!

This weather we are having is out of this world! Seeing as it has been so blistering HOT this summer, we had many things on our summer to do list that couldn't get done because of it.  We were able to spend lots of time outside and enjoy this gorgeousness that is 70 degrees!!!
We took a nature walk on Labor Day and walked about 2 miles.. all 3 of us!! Asher made it the whole way with NO complaining or asking to be held. He is an outside boy and he loves to run and find rocks and sticks and bugs. We saw caterpillars, wooly worms, snakes (copperheads I might add!), deer (that jumped directly in front of us!), turkeys, birds, and squirrels.  We threw rocks in the lake and looked for minnows... just overall a peaceful and wonderful time together!
Our Labor day ended with a family dinner with all of Rich's mom's family... and boy do we ladies have fun! Rich's sister Kimmie and I are both pregnant and are about 7 weeks apart.  They all agree that they think Kimmie is having a boy and I am having a girl. We were talking about all the wives tales that can determine the gender and I was talking about one I heard of where you pee on some baking soda and if it fizzes it's a boy and if it doesn't it's a girl... so of course, they got out the baking soda and told us to get to it!
Fizz on both accounts... so you just never know!
We love to visit and the kids gets to play and we always have great food.
I'm so blessed to have such a great family.
I leave you with a picture from Branson night and I'll post a few of nature center a little later.