There she is . . .

my beautiful baby girl!

Here's her cute body:

and here's her little bottom:




My dad and my husband were both right about her.
But everyone was having boy dreams and reading the veins in my eyes and even that Indian lady told me it would be a boy.
I was getting myself used to the idea that it might be a boy and that I might just end up living in a house with four males (one of them being a dog), but no!

I've got one more chalked up on my side.
Oh, we're going to have the cutest time.
This house is going to be absolutely taken over by cute and nobody can stop it!



P.S. - our little stinker wouldn't let us see her face for the 3D pictures. she kept her elbows in front of her face and even hid her head behind the umbilical cord so it looked like she had some weird growth on her cheek. naughty baby.

Day Trip.

On Monday the husband and I drove to Tallulah Gorge, which is just a couple of hours away. We've gone there once before, but it was a terribly foggy day and I couldn't see anything but clouds and mist. Oh, yeah, I should mention that we finally have some nice weather this week!

It's sunny and a little bit chilly and breezy, so pretty much it is perfect autumn weather.

Anyway, here are some pictures. I tried to get a few from the car of our "mountains" in the distance. Don't make fun, I know they're nothing compared to what most of you are used to seeing (plus it is really hard to get pictures through the dense forest that is almost constantly surrounding us).





At the gorge there's a lookout area with a cute little tourist shop. We got some bottled RC Cola and Cheerwine and, of course, rock candy (I can't say no to that stuff). I took some pictures of the kooky stuff and wanted to buy all sorts of trinkets. I only got one, but I think I'll be back for more.


We saw a lot of retired folks driving RVs and sightseeing. Husband asked if being retired meant he had to drive me around all the time while I asked him annoying questions all day. (It's a fair accusation, I do ask him all sorts of questions when we go for drives - example: "What would it be like to have OnStar?")
I said I hoped that being retired was exactly like that.

Rain, rain, rain.

Hey Georgia.
Remember how, when we moved here, you were having this big drought and everything? Well, I think you must be bipolar - what's up with this record flooding anyway?

I mean, so far we haven't been washed away but it has been raining almost constantly for over 12 days now (minus one, I think). What's going on? We like the rain but I'm just wondering about this sudden all-or-nothing attitude when it comes to water.

It really doesn't help that you're doing this at the exact time I am craving all kinds of things that I have to go to the store to get.

Also, Judge is bored. He wakes up excited to go outside and when I open the curtains and he sees the rain he just sits and stares. It's very sad.


(That's not the best picture, but that is the face he makes when I tell him he has to go out there to do his business.)

"Homemade" Oreos

Just finished making these yummies - it only took a few minutes!

Check it out:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Mix

1 box Devil's Food cake mix (18 oz),
1 egg,
1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened,
and
2 tbsp water

until all ingredients are mixed well and form a firm dough.

Roll into 2 inch balls and flatten on ungreased cookie sheet (and I love to use parchment paper). Make sure the cookies are somewhat equal in size, since you're pairing them up later and you don't want skiwampus* cookies.

Bake in preheated oven for 10 - 12 minutes, or until done. The recipe makes about 3 dozen cookies, or 18 oreos.

Let cool on wire racks or on parchment paper (they cool really quickly!).

Now the best part!

Match up the cookies in pairs according to size and spread frosting between them. What kind of frosting? If you're like me, you'd definitely use cream cheese frosting. But, if you're also like me and you have a husband that hates cream cheese, you'll use whipped vanilla frosting. It could be mint, it could be cherry - whatever gets you going. It would probably be great with that marshmallow topping stuff, too. MMMMMM.




In other news, an Indian woman predicted the gender of my baby today.
She said, "Oh, the baby!"
and I said, "Yeah . . ."
and she said, "A boy."
(and I thought she was asking, so . . .)
I said, "Oh, I don't know yet."
and she said, "No, it's a boy. In my country we don't get to find out early, so we're really good at guessing. When a woman glows as much as you are, she is having a boy. I know."

We'll find out if she's right in one week (I have a feeling she might be).

Or we both could be wrong.
Or there could be a secret twin and we have both a boy and girl.





* Skiwampus - the word my mom always uses to describe things that are not aligned right.

Why the bed isn't made:

Now I have proof that I tried.









(P.S. - It has been over 30 minutes and he still hasn't finished protecting the bed from the sheets.)

One pound.

It's official - I had an appointment on Wednesday and I really did gain one pound. So why is my stomach so huge? I went with my mother-in-law (Momma) and finally got some maternity jeans . . . in a size smaller than I usually wear. Is that normal? Is it just that they are made out of stretchy material, or do they want us pregnant ladies to feel good about getting so gigantic? Either way, at least my thighs feel skinny (whether it's a trick or not).

Other doctor updates: the baby has a fantastic heartbeat and we're having our anatomy ultrasound on the 30th - I'll be exactly five months on the first of October. I'm already telling this baby to cooperate. We want to start getting adorable gender-appropriate clothing! We've also got to start talking business with names. For some reason I have a really hard time talking about baby names when it could be either Harold or Harriet (neither of which I'm actually considering). On the last day of this month I will be in the waiting room, absolutely full to the brim with liquid so this baby's whatevers can be confirmed.

(This is my belly dance in the maternity shirt my sister sent me in the mail.)

If dreams have their way, it's a boy. Husband has dreamed twice about playing with a little boy, but it might just be that he's dreaming about what he wants. Momma had a dream about a boy, too. In my dream I was holding a baby boy but there was a little girl standing next to me - so what does that mean?

Lately I've been craving ice cream. I know that isn't weird for most women, but normally I'd choose cookies, cake, brownies . . . basically any sweet treat over ice cream. When I go to get groceries now, I can only think about what different kinds of ice cream I want. Good thing they've started making those tiny little ice creams that are only a dollar or so. It's just about right for me. I don't just want ice cream. I want all the ice cream - every flavor. I did get Ben and Jerry's "Everything But The . . ." flavor and it helped (it has vanilla and chocolate ice cream with Heath bar, white chocolate, peanut butter cups and chocolate covered almonds . . . so every flavor to satisfy a craver).




Well, it helped for breakfast and then I wanted Cookies 'n Cream for lunch.
(And Mint Chocolate Chip for dinner.)


Speaking of which, I have an addition to my list.


Utah Foods I'm Craving:

Taco Amigo's Tostadas and Fries
Purple Turtle Shakes
Osaka's Potstickers, Miso Soup, Sukiyaki (okay, everything they serve)
Arctic Circle's Chicken Fingers
Del Taco's Fish Tacos and Giant Cherry Cokes
Nicolitalia's Pizza
Drinks from Hart's (gas stations out here are for beer and lotto tickets)
One of those great smoothies at Los Hermanos
Etc, Etc, ETC.
and latest addition, BYU Creamery's Graham Canyon Ice Cream.



PS - I just found almost half of a Heath bar in my Everything Ice Cream. OH. YES.

Baby stuffs. I'm stuffed!

Last night I felt like I had suddenly doubled in size. I stepped on the scale to see if I had gained any weight (because I haven't so far) and I had gained three pounds! Then I realized I was wearing my bathrobe. I took it off and I lost two of those pounds. So one pound!

I have gained a couple of baby items this past week. My mother-in-law found some great consignment deals on brand name baby stuff and we hooked the trailer up to the Ford Focus and went to get them. Of course, by the time we got there, it was pouring rain. That's the leftovers from the hurricane/storm season sloshing up on us.

Anyway, this is baby's first bed (and baby's first giraffe, hanging out):


We also picked up a beautiful high chair and diaper bag. We're slowly stocking up so that we aren't rushing around when baby is about to come and it's the Christmas shopping season (or immediately after). It helps me, too. Waiting and waiting and stressing and worrying really gets to me, so slowly doing a little at a time really makes me feel better.

We have a couple of other cute things. The other day a little care package came in the mail from my hardware husband's employers. It turns out they have a softer side:



I have some pregnancy journals and other little things like that, and of course I have "What to Expect When You're Expecting."

It's all really happening - I'm even pregnant in all of my dreams (it's probably because I can't ever really get comfortable while I'm sleeping). Last night I whined to husband something like "When am I going to be comfortable again in my life?!" He laughed and said "I think it's gonna be a while." Then he handed me one of his pillows to stuff underneath my lower back because I wouldn't stop complaining that my tailbone hurt.