Sam's 1st birthday

So in my absence from the blogging world, we've been up to a few things! First and foremost we celebrated Sam's 1st birthday!! It was a very exciting day and we spoiled him rotten!

with the largest rope toy ever- and his current fav!

everybody around here gets the birthday hat! 

 It was so fun that he was exhausted and fell asleep in dad's chair pretty early! Looks like it was tiring for everyone around here! 

pumpkin chocolate chip bread

I ran across this recipe on a blog I read, Our Best Bites, and it is amazing! I followed the recipe word for word and it was wonderful so I had to pass it along! It would be perfect for Thanksgiving- either as breakfast or dessert- take your pick!

Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour (spooned into measuring cup and leveled)
1 cup whole wheat flour (again, don’t scoop!)
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoons nutmeg
1/4 teaspoons ground cloves
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon table salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cup white sugar
6 ounce container vanilla yogurt
3 eggs, slightly beaten
15 ounce can pumpkin puree
1/2 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips (plus a few extra for the top of loaves)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray 2 9×5 (or similar sized) loaf pans with nonstick spray and set aside.

Combine flours (after you put your flour in the bowl, just grab a teaspoon or two of it and toss with chocolate chips to keep them from sinking to the bottom), cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  Whisk gently to combine and set aside.

In a separate mixing bowl combine brown sugar and white sugar and whisk to combine, breaking up any clumps of brown sugar.  Add yogurt, eggs, pumpkin, oil, and vanilla extract and whisk until smooth.

Slowly add dry ingredients to wet and mix together, being careful to not over mix.  When combined, gently stir in chocolate chips.   Divide batter between loaf pans and sprinkle a few extra chocolate chips on top.  Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a skewer comes out with a few crumbs attached.  All ovens are different, I would set your timer for about 45 minutes and keep an eye on it after that.  Don’t overbake!

Let cool for 10 minutes and then run a sharp knife around edge of pan and remove loaves from pan.

All info and pic from Our Best Bites- YUM is all I have to say! I would even make this without the chocolate- that's how yummy the flavor is! 

Nursery sneak peak

So I told you last week that you didn't get to see the nursery until it was totally done but that just seems cruel since I get to look at it 70% complete every day :)

So for now I will give you a small sneak peak! We aren't really doing a "theme" so to speak as just using colors and patterns I love and adding some fun and whimsical touches! The room has pops of navy, grass green, grey and white! Boyish but not too baby boyish because lets face it, if I did a baby theme I'd have to redo it in 2 years (who knows maybe even less) and I just don't think I could possibly love it nearly as much. 

Without further adieu. . . 

sorry for the iphone pic but you can still see LOTS of aspects of the room here so it will have to do for now ;)

Bump alert!

At the request of a few- okay one- here is a bump shot! I guess its good to keep to remember how the belly changes through out the pregnancy! 

@19 weeks

@ 22 weeks! 

I'll try to be better about taking some pics as we go along- the bump is definitely growing bigger and bigger each day as my second trimester comes to a close! I think baby boy has had a growth spurt in the  last two weeks! 

Baby M is . . .

a boy!!! We are so excited and have been feverishly planning the nursery. I do have to admit- I am a horrible blogger. . . we found out this news at the end of September and I am just now telling you!  Sorry folks-life's been busy!

We found out on a Tuesday and told my family on Friday night! It was crazy hard to keep the secret but so fun to have surprise everyone together! We weren't going to do any big reveal but last minute decided it would be fun to do a piñata! Thanks P for the idea- which the next week I saw three times on Pinterest. . . and I thought we were being unique!

It was a very fun reveal, especially for the kids, but we added some adult friendly blue items as well, that we then had fun with. . . 

ps- no babies ingested any alcohol for the making of this picture! 

And I am so excited to eventually show you the nursery. I thought about adding pics as we got different parts done but I think its more fun to just see the before and after! So you'll have to wait a little longer as we finish off the big pieces and then add all the fun little details!