A Visit with Grammy.

Over the weekend, we took a trip to visit our beloved Grammy because she reached another milestone. It was her half birthday. And, when you are already 100 years old, things like half birthdays are definitely worth celebrating!

We hadn't seen her since her 100th Birthday in October so we were way overdue for a visit.
She lives 3 hours away, but between the holidays, major morning sickness & busy weekends, we FINALLY had a weekend to visit her and it just so happened to be on her half birthday!

The girls were so excited to go visit Grammy.
Claire ran out right out of the car & gave Grammy a big hug.
Visiting Grammy's house is full of vintage goodness, especially in the toy department.
Gotta love old school Little People.

I remember playing with these when I was a little girl.
The girls played with them for what seemed like hours.

Gotta love Vintage Raggedy Ann & Andy.

Grammy then told me about some Cabbage Patch Kids that she had in her closet.

These Cabbage Patch kids were from 1984 & 1985 and were still in the original boxes. One even had the price tag on it still. $33.97 was pricey back in the day!
Grammy's house also have these blue plates hanging up.
Whenever I see blue plates, I think of Grammy :)
Grammy is how I developed my love of Pumpkin Yankee Candles:
Grammy's yard also has beautiful flowers.

The smell of geraniums reminds me of summers at Grammy's house.
Claire loved Grammy's rocker.

Four Generations:

Is there another girl in my belly? Or a boy! We will know in August!

Grammy, my mom & I:

Grammy, my mom & sister Elyse:

We headed to a local cupcake shop to get Grammy a cupcake in honor of her 100 1/2 birthday.
Yum.
Then we headed over to the Dairy to get the girls some ice cream.
I just love in the inside of the dairy.
Anxiously waiting for her ice cream.

Ice cream makes everyone happy!

Sampling each other's ice cream.

Back to Grammy's for dinner & cupcakes.

Happy 1/2 Birthday, Grammy!

Grammy's cute house & her waving good-bye to us.

It was a great visit with Grammy.
I have to admit, I wasn't sure what to expect when we got there since we hadn't seen her in 6 months. I talk on the phone with her regularly & have noticed that her hearing is getting worse, so I wasn't sure what to expect in person.
Well, her hearing is getting bad (what do you expect at 100 years old!)
But, she is still as sharp as a tact & she looks really good!
I was quite relieved on how well she was doing because at her age, you never know.
I am so thankful for my Grammy & so proud of her making it half way to being 101.
Between now & her 101st birthday in October, she will have 3 new great-grandchildren, so she is trying to hang on to meet all of them.
Hoping & Praying she gets the chance!

24 Weeks!

Earlier this week I hit 24 weeks!
I look as tired as I feel in this photo. Yikes.

This pregnancy is actually going by slowly for me. I feel like have been pregnant forever...and I have 16 weeks to go!
How Far Along:
24 Weeks 3 days

Size of baby:
Baby is the length of an ear of corn

Total Weight Gain/Loss:
I have gained 14 lbs
(looks like I am right on track to gain the 50 that I gained with Kate & Claire! Yikes!)

Maternity Clothes:
I wear some regular clothes & some maternity.
(In the photo above, those are normal skinny jeans & normal cardigan, but the black shirt is maternity)

Gender:
Don't know...It's a Surprise!

Movement:
Lots of kicks & rolls. Baby got the hiccups for the first time this week.

Sleep:
I'm sleeping pretty good!

What I miss:
Coffee & Wine.

Cravings:
Steak

Symptoms:
Still have all day sickness & nausea. And, i am tired...so, so, so, tired. I don't remember feeling this exhausted with the girls.

Best Moment this week:
Not throwing up!!!! It's been 10 days since I barfed! YEAH!
I am pretty excited about that, can you tell?
Now, I just hope the all day nausea goes away.
With the girls, it went away at about 26-28 weeks.
I still don't have any "gut" feeling about if it is a boy or a girl.
With the girls, I just *knew* they were girls by 12 weeks, but I don't have a feeling yet on this one.
Anyone want to make any guesses after seeing my belly?

A Summery Weekend

We have had some crazy weather in 2012.
January & February were very mild, not like winter at all. The weather was nice & it didn't rain at all.
Then March & April came and they were colder than the winter months & we got a lot of rain.
Then, all of a sudden, this past weekend was in the 90's. It was bizarre.
My favorite part was that it stayed warm at night, so we ate dinner outside and slept with all the windows open at night. It truly felt like summer.

(Crazy to think that the weekend before we were skiing in Tahoe and then, just 5 days later it was in the 90's and we were swimming in our backyard. Gotta love California!)

Because it felt like summer, I decided to embrace that the whole weekend, including the food we ate. To me, summer is all about fresh fruits, veggies, grilling on the BBQ and eating outside.
And, I am FINALLY getting my appetite back, so this weekend was focused around food!

Fresh Blueberries for Blueberry Pancakes.

Yum.

I have been all about Panini's this pregnancy. Here is my pesto, fresh mozzarella, tomato & avocado panini on sourdough before I grilled it. SO GOOD.

We did our first BBQ of the summer. My appetite is slowly coming back and all I wanted this weekend was steak (along with my tortellini pasta salad)

Summer weather also means sherbet & ice cream cones.

But, for me, I made an ice cream sandwich using my Reece's Peanut Butter Cup Cookies.
SO good.

We also started demo of our 5th bedroom which will now become the guest room/office and the current guest room will become the nursery. Stay tuned for before/after pics. Construction begins later this week!

I also got some beautiful orange tulips to brighten up my kitchen. I just LOVE tulips!!!

Bought my veggies to plant in my garden. I love having a garden...hoping my garden is as good as last year's!

I was also able to do a little photo shoot with my girls. It felt so good to get behind the camera again. I have been slacking with taking pics of them the past 5 months because I haven't felt good. My mom wants new photos of them for Mother's Day, so we did a little photo shoot & I love how the pics came out. Here is a teaser.....

And, finally....here is a Winner from my Giveaway!

Congrats, MS Posh! Leave a comment with your email!

Hope you are having a lovely week. I am so thankful we had a summery weekend, because the forecast calls for rain later this week. This weekend made me SO excited for summer.
Only 7 more weeks of school!!!

Reeses Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

What is your favorite type of chocolate candy?

Mine is Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.
(Actually, the Eggs are my favorite!)
I love all things Peanut Butter Chocolate.
When I saw these at the store a few months ago, I knew I needed to have them.
FYI....I found them in the candy isle.
I put them on vanilla ice cream & it is a perfect ice cream topping.
Aren't they cute?
And, they come unwrapped, so you can just pop a few in your mouth if you want :)

I was thinking how good they would be in cookies, so I made tweaked one of my recipes and they turned out SO good!

Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cups packed brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 package instant vanilla pudding mix (3.4 ounce size)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup Peanut Butter
1 bag Reese's mini Peanut Butter Cups

I made up these last night & they turned out SO good.
I used my favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe as the base, but didn't use chocolate chips, instead I used these mini Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, and I added 1/4 cup of peanut butter to the dough.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Sift together the flour and baking soda, set aside.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter, peanut butter, brown sugar, and white sugar.Beat in the instant pudding mix until blended. Stir in the eggs and vanilla.
Blend in the flour mixture.
Finally, stir in the Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.
I used a spoon to do this part. If you use your mixer, it will mash up your peanut butter cups, so use wooden spoon/spatula.
Drop cookies by rounded spoonfuls onto cookie sheets (lined with parchment paper or a silpa mat!)
I always use a cookie scoop. Makes nice rounded cookies!
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven.
Edges should be golden brown. Don't over cook them!
(I always check them at 8-9 minutes)
If you are a peanut butter fan or a fan of Reese's Peanut Butter cups, you will LOVE these cookies!
They are soft & delicious.
Enjoy!

And, don't forget, my Giveaway ends tonight at Midnight! Enter to win a $25 Target card, a card from my Etsy shop, 25 prints/envelopes, 24 cupcake toppers & 24 favor tags.
Click HERE to enter!