14 Weeks! Hip Hip Hooray!

Anniversary Cake...Yum!

You can see the baby bump.....

This weekend was long and exhausting!  We were busy and on the go all weekend.  Curt went to Prairie Days in Madison to watch his dad pull on Friday night.  I played my first ever Bunco game and won top prize for most Buncos!  It was beginner's luck....but I still had fun playing and winning. 

Saturday, I headed to SF to do some shopping for maternity clothes with Mom.  It was a struggle to find some decent clothes but I did find a few things.  I bought the bella band which I'm loving already!  Hopefully, the stores are transitioning clothes and I can find a few more tops once the fall stuff comes in. I got to go meet Kelsie and Dwight's baby on Saturday.  Baby Chase....he is the perfect baby and hardly cries!  He is so adorable and it was fun to get to hold him and hear about all the stories Kelsie had to tell.  Our niece Allyson moved into the dorms this weekend and she'll be a freshman! 
 
Sunday, my parents came up again to help finish the deck.  What a huge help they have been!  Dad and Curt worked on the deck while Mom and I made a batch of salsa and started bringing office stuff to the basement.  Slowly, but surely the room is getting cleaned out.  As you can tell from the pictures above, it was a long day and we were so exhausted by supper time.  For dessert, we got to have our cake which still tasted as amazing as one year ago today!  Happy 1st Anniversary to my Curty!  Mom got her wish and got to have a piece of the cake too.  They must have planned that, as she has been talking non-stop how she wanted to try the cake again.  Well, since they worked so hard, I figured we could share :)  It was a great weekend and we got quite a bit accomplished which always feels nice.  The guys started sanding the front porch so we'll try and get that stained this week hopefully.

And myself?  Well, I'm still feeling great!  Fell in love with Crab Rangoons last week on my lunch adventure with Heidi!  Not sure how I've been missing out on these amazing things for all these years.  I'm still baffled by it.  I could just eat them for the whole meal and dessert they were that good! 

Curt and I will be going out for supper somewhere tonight to celebrate our special day.  Hard to believe it was one year ago today that we said "I Do" and I walked down the aisle to marry my best friend. 

Yippee!  Not that I've had any complaints with the first trimester but this will be the last week before heading into the 2nd trimester!  The baby bump is starting to stick out and some of my pants are getting a little snug.  I will have to start shopping for some maternity clothes and not looking forward to finding dress pants long enough :(  While the guys were busy sanding last week, I was busy cleaning out closets.  I still have some work to do on them but have made pretty good progress so far.  Still feeling great other than a couple of headaches this week! 

This past weekend, we worked on our deck like maniacs!  Darcy and Travis came over on Saturday to help some and then my parents came up on Sunday to help us stain!  We wouldn't have been able to make the deadline but we had a bunch of guys over during the week working on sanding the deck which was a huge help!  Here are before and after pictures.  Now we just have to get the spindles done, a section on the bottom of the deck and then the front porch!  The natural redwood shines like a beauty now!   

Before

After

Week 12 Here We Come....

Best Moments: We had a doctor's appointment last week Thursday and got to hear the heartbeat for the first time!  Also, Dougie was able to join us for supper every night so that was awesome to spend some time with him. 

Morning Sickness: Still been the same = ZERO SICKNESS!  Hooray!

Sleeping: Before I was so tired and over the weekend, my body must have flipped a switch as I can't seem to get to sleep or stay asleep for the whole night.  I was up late on Friday night and Saturday was up at 6am ready to make the second batch of salsa.  Seems the sleepiness is already wearing off or maybe it is just temporary.

Cravings: No real cravings yet.  I have loved all the sweet corn we have been eating lately as it is just so dang tasty!  We got a bunch of ears from ND thanks to Aunt Kathy and that was some really good corn!  Ice cream has been sounding good but who doesn't love some good FRENCH SILK ice cream!  YUM!  I am missing my coffee every morning.  That is a hard one to quit but I haven't been drinking much caffeine at all.  Every now and then I splurge and have a real cup of coffee instead of some decaf. 

Food Disasters: Happy to report no food disasters.  Wally (Curt's dad) came over for lunch on Saturday and we made hamburgers and I ate it all without any problems.

Exercise: This week's goal is to go walking at least 4 times this week since I haven't been able to do it lately.  I went for a long walk on Sunday which felt great. 

Body:  My belly looks the same as last week.  No changes.  When I wake up every night to go to the bathroom, I can tell I'm more dizzy getting out of bed.  Need to take that a little slower. 

Books: Finished The Hunger Games this weekend and half way through Handle With Care by Jodi Picoult.  Also, pretty much read through the entire book that doctor's gave us and am all caught up on the week by week pregnancy books.  Here I thought I wouldn't have time to get to them and all the sudden I'm zooming through them.  

Projects: Darcy is moving her stuff out this week so my goal is to start cleaning out our closets and getting rid of clothes and storing things away.  Once the closets are cleaned out then we can focus on moving the office to the basement.  I killed off two of my MUM plants again this year.  You'd think I'd learned my lesson from last year but I cut them down too low and now they aren't growing back.  I bought two more yesterday and will need to get those planted this week.  We are also going to re-stain the decks and it is a lot to tackle!  The front deck was easy (I shouldn't say that as Curt is the one that stripped it but it is a lot smaller).  The back deck is a whole other can of worms.  We are still debating on what kind of stain to do and then we will be working on this as well with the other million projects we have to do before baby gets here!  

Future Happenings: I have two friends that are having babies any time now.  Can't wait to meet them and waiting patiently for their arrival.  This weekend we have a wedding on Saturday at Buffalo Ridge Resort in Gary.  Pretty soon it will be our ONE year anniversary coming up.  

Successes:  Made the second batch of salsa and cleaned out my car this weekend which was overdue!  Curt went to a tractor pull on Sunday and pulled twice and got first place both times!  I decided to stay home and not go as it was up in New Ulm and a very long, rainy, cold day. 



Aurora Gala Days



Drove the 1964 John Deere Lawn Mower in the Gala Days Parade



The weekend was a success!  Saturday was Gala Days and Mom came up to Aurora to help set up and work the Norwex booth.  Curt decided to put his lawn mower in the parade and his hard work showed off as the tractor looked awesome!  I had a surprise visit from Dwight and Kelsie which was so fun!  They brought their nieces along and they loved the big blow up bouncy!  Kelsie is due on the 13th and I finally got to see her belly as it's been a long time since we have been able to see each other!  The day was perfect and we had really nice weather....a little windy but overall a gorgeous day! 

Curt helping chop the onions

Sunday we made the first batch of salsa...the ingredients right from our garden!  Thanks to Mom, she brought up a food processor and that made the chopping time so much quicker.  We tried chopping one onion with the food chopper and our eyes were watering so bad so Curt came back in the house with a solution and he was good to go for more chopping!  We had Mexican night last night as Doug and Darcy were both over for supper and Darcy made some mean enchiladas and we enjoyed some of the fresh salsa!  Now we just need to plan round two.  It is an all day process and takes quite a bit of work to make that good tasting snack!

11 Weeks is Here and I'm so Excited! 

Morning Sickness: No morning sickness whatsoever!  I hope this continues as that would make this the best pregnancy ever!
Sleeping: Yes, sleeping hard and having crazy dreams!  Which for those of you that know me, I have crazy dreams to begin with so this is a little scary how even weirder my dreams have been lately.  I've been super tired at night and seem to get tired easily. 
Cravings: No cravings really.  It is hard to decide what I want to eat especially for lunch each day. 
Food Disasters: The only thing I didn't really like was HAMBURGERS and that was around 6 and 7 weeks. I was scared to try them again but so far, I have just resisted besides having one from BK but that turned out alright!
Exercise: I've been trying to exercise.  It was a little easier when I had softball as that seemed to be a good workout for me!  I was good about going walking and now just need to start doing it again.
Body: So far, my body is feeling pretty good.  I have been feeling a little bloated but that seems to be common with pregnancy.  I can tell that my tummy has started to protrude a little bit!  Baby Engels is busy growing :)
Update if Husband is Still Alive: Curt is still breathing....haha.  I haven't actually been very crabby or haven't had any crazy mood swings. 
Books I'm reading: I want to finish the third book of The Hunger Games but started another book called Week By Week Pregnancy.  Thanks to my friend, I've received lots of reading material that will keep me busy for awhile.  Now just to find the time to read!  The Olympics are really messing with my sleeping schedule but they are just so good to watch this year!
Projects: Now that Curt is finally finished with restoring the 1964 John Deere Lawn Mower, I'm excited to start on the baby room.  We have lots to do and lots to organize!  I will share before and after pictures.  First things first, we have to wait for Darcy to move out then we can start putting stuff in the basement! 
Future Happenings: This weekend is Aurora Gala Days and mom will be coming up to help me with my Norwex booth!  Looking forward to some quality bonding time, good food and great weather!  Dad might come too and keep Curt company!

Growing Our Family From 2 to 3

And the fun begins!  Baby Engels is expected to arrive on February 23rd, 2013.  We are so excited and look forward for the next chapter to begin :)