Where did August Go?

Well, August flew by and I have no idea where it went.  We had an extremely busy month and I am lookikng forward to "relaxing" these next eight weeks as much as possible.  In the last four weeks, I had my Glen Ellyn baby shower, we went to the lake for a few days, we celebrated my birthday, we went to Galena for a few days to celebrate Cory's brother wedding, and had my Kansas City baby shower.  And to top off the month, on Monday, I rolled my foot right off my shoe and sprained my ankle.  Now I am a pregnant lady on crutches!    It's only been a few days and I am already way over these crutches.

We are now 32 weeks pregnant and the countdown is on.  Our crib and bedding is all set up and the chair we ordered is coming in on Tuesday.  The last piece of the nursery is the dresser and we are patiently waiting for it to arrive.  I think the next few weeks will be filled putting together the baby room, assembling baby stuff, and attending a few baby classes.  And of course, HAWKEYE football!  We now have 3 baby hawkeye outfits so this kid is all set for the 2011 football season!

Now that you know we are alive and haven't abandoned the blog, get prepared for a few back logged blogs coming your way!

Baby Shower!

This past weekend I made a quick trip to Glen Ellyn for my baby shower!  I can't believe the time has come already for a baby shower.  It was a short trip home, but I managed to pack in a lot.  I had breakfast with a great friend from high school, celebrated my aunt's birthday with a surprise party and got to eat at Portillo's AND Sante Fe.

The shower was hosted by Claire and Kate Wild, the twins I started babysitting for when they were three weeks old.  And now they are twelve and all grown up!  It was a great group of people who attended and we ate some amazing food....including Portillo's chocolate cake.

Our Amazing Hosts!

Baby Face Cupcakes that Heidi made...and they were pink and blue inside!

Half the crowd...getting ready to begin gift opening!

And now prepare yourself for some adorable teeny tiny baby things :)

I had a great time and baby Finley received a ton of amazing gifts!  Only 11 weeks to go!



A Busy July

I have been a slacker these last few weeks and I am not sure where the month of July went!  Cory was in Canada for a week and then back in Chicago for a long weekend for his brothers bachelor party.  I have been working a ton and the only weekends we saw each other this month were the Fourth of July and this past weekend.

July in review:

(1) My friend Jessica and I took a camera class in the hopes of learning to use our fancy cameras.  Maybe over the next few months, you'll be able to see the improvement in my pics.

(2) We bought our crib, set it up and are now in the processing of shuffling furniture thru out our house.  The futon from the office is now in the basement.  The bookshelves from the guest room are now in the office and the baby's dresser and rocker chair have been ordered.

(3) It has been 800 million degrees in KC everyday, all summer long.  Thankfully, I have able to go swimming a few times to try and cool off.

(4)  And the most important thing of the month, I was finally able to get my new love:

My Iphone!!!

I have also done a little bit of cooking this month.  One of my go-to meals, that is really easy and delicious, has a deceiving name.  It is called Barbecue Beef Cups.

Before it heads into the oven, you brown ground beef and then mix it with a little brown sugar and barbecue sauce.  You fill the muffin tins with a biscuit, some beef and top with shredded cheddar.

Out of the oven yummyness!

Last night, we had a perfect summer grilled dinner...grilled corn, veggies and burgers!

Mmmmm....

So usually when I have these:

I make this:

I LOVE banana bread and it is a staple in our house.

Today I decided to switch up my use for brown bananas (because I still have banana bread in the fridge).  I have been hanging onto a recipe for Banana Walnut Chocolate Chip Cookies.  Not only were they really easy to make, I got almost 4 dozen cookies from just one batch of the batter.

The batter coming together.  How much do I love my KitchenAid?

The finished product.

Its been a delicious day, with lasagna on the menu for dinner.  As I am sitting here, the weatherman just informed me tomorrow will be the coolest day of the next week, coming in at chilly 94.  KC summer is in full swing and cooking us all to death.

Not to much else is new around here.  I'm on an organizing kick, trying to get the baby's room somewhat assembled.  We have our crib, which is sitting in its box in the living room and yesterday I packed up 3 boxes of books to store in the attic.  Pictures to come when it looks better in there!

bUmPDATE

24 weeks and 3 days!  It's looking more like a watermelon everyday.  And if you look closely, you can see my belly button sticking out.  This was taken yesterday before my friend Jen's baby shower.

The nugette is doing well and moving a ton!  It has become quite a little kicker and likes to hang out only at the bottom of my belly.

Our Fourth of July Weekend

Amazingly, not only did we both have the fourth of july off, we had a three day weekend and we were both IN TOWN!  Madness!

Our good friend Jon was in town for the first part of the weekend to celebrate his 30th birthday!  I think the boys had fun even though it was less eventful than Cory's 30th a few weeks ago.  We spent Saturday wandering around the River Market Antique Mall and eating out since it was about 100 degrees.  Indoor activities were a must.

Sunday we headed over to Lawrence, KS to our friends Jessica & Mike's house.  The plan was to spend the afternoon at the Clinton Lake beach with her family and then a rib dinner at their house later.  Jessica is the handy woman in their house and is putting new treads on their stairs.  She needed help cutting them down, so Cory brought along his pride and joy to help her out: his table saw!

Jessica is a braver woman than I am.  She watched Cory do the first few, then she took over the rest.



What needed to be cut...

Our spot for the day, a tent, chairs and lots of coolers with drinks and fresh fruit!

It ended up a being a beautiful afternoon after a rainy morning!

Cubs vs. Royals

This past Saturday, Cory and I went to the Cubs/Royals game with our good friends Jessica and Mike.  It was a 6:10 game and the weather was calling for a 30% chance of severe storms.  Well that didn't happen...it was a typical KC Saturday in June.  Hot and sunny and we were all sticky and gross!

We tailgated for a few hours beforehand...I had cream soda in glass bottles so that I could have the full tailgating effect, without the beer :(  I have to say, tailgating now has much better food than it did in college.  We had cookies, watermelon, cherries, orzo salad, brats and chips and guacamole.  Delicious!

The view from our seats...they were great and even better once the sun went down

Amazingly, it was a sold out game.  And there may have been more Cubs fans than Royals fans. Seriously.



As the game went on, it was gorgeous out...

To finish out the game, Joakim Soria was brought in.

All we needed was one more out...

And we did it!

Royals Win!

To top off our weekend, we spent Sunday registering at Babies R Us and trying to find a dresser we like for the baby's room.  It was exhausting.  Cory swears that wedding registering was just as tiring, but I think this was worse.  We were beat by Sunday evening.  It called for couch naps and leftovers for dinner!