Grandparents & Great Grandparents

My maternal grandma is 96 and just had surgery on a blocked intestine. I guess it's a pretty simple procedure and she was in and out in no time and is recuperating in a full-time care center. I'm really hoping she can hang on until after this baby is born so we can see her this summer. I'm in no shape now to go up there if she passed away and I'll need at least 2-3 weeks after the c-section before I could even think of traveling. She's doing ok so far so I'm hoping she'll last a little longer. She is definitely one tough bird and isn't ready quite yet to give up on life even though she has demetia and doesn't always know what is going on.

My parents had to move her from the assisted living place that she was living in to this full-care center which will be great for my mom as she's the only biological child of my grandma's (she has step siblings) and most of the care has fallen on her shoulders. Grandma isn't too happy to have been moved and now has to have a roommate which currently is a 99 year old lady who loves living there. She'll have great care though and hopefully she'll adjust soon to her new digs.

Anyways, about 6 weeks after having Matthew we went to Utah to see family and both of my paternal grandparents were alive then and so I got some pics of 4 generations on my mom and dad's side. Little did we know that it would be one of the last pictures of my paternal grandma taken as she passed away suddenly that September and my Grandpa followed 6 weeks later with cancer unbeknowst to anyone (they were both in their 90's).

I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to know my grandparents so well since my Grandma was always with us for major holidays and my dad's parents were mainly with us as well at all the family get togethers. We used to always go see my Grandma in Myton in the summers and she had this cute little house that was fun to play at. My dad's parents had a huge backyard full of fruit trees and an amazing garden. We would often end up there in the summers to pick fruit from the trees and vege's from their gardens. My dad's mom always had Nutter Butters in her cookie jar which were my favorite. I have some really great memories of the fun times at both of their houses.

Even though Matthew won't get to know his great grandparents I know that he is building memories and has a lot of fun with his grandparents (my parents) when we visit there and they come here. They are coming right before the baby is born and Matthew is going to have so much fun with them. He calls my dad "papa" which no other grandchild has and I find it so endearing and sweet. Jordan's parents are still tied down most of the time because of my MIL's job so someday they'll get to come and visit more often.

I'm so thankful for my heritage and the pioneer stock that I come from. I'm so blessed to come from a geneology that made the decisions they did to get me here today with my family. I'm equally grateful always that Jordan's dad joined the church and that his mom was a strong member under the circumstances she had growing up. I don't think we'll ever comprehend the sacrificies that all of our heritage made and one day we'll get to thank them on the other side.

Also, Matthew is the first born of a first born (Jordan), of a first born (his mom)...going way back. Cool huh!

4 generations on each side.

Krispy Kreme Adventures

Ahh...the smell of that place just makes you want to gain weight!

I've been craving their doughnuts for about 2 months but the closest one we thought was in Mesa-too far for a measly box of doughnuts. We have discovered since that there is one in Chandler not too far from my work. Anyways, I really needed to fill this craving lately and so last night we had a great time hanging out at Krispy Kreme. Maybe longer than we expected but the goodness there-so yummy!

We went to dinner with Ray & EmmaLee in Mesa at Red Robin and next door HAPPENED to be Krispy Kreme. Well, maybe we planned it that way since they knew I wanted to get some. After dinner we headed over and made our delicious selections and walked back to the car where they discovered that they had locked all of their keys in their van. We didn't have the kids with us as EmmaLee's little sister offered to babysit so we ended up back at Krispy Kreme to track down a locksmith and hang out until he came.

I think we ate more doughnuts than we originally planned while waiting, but their deliciousness filled me with happiness. A little bit of an adventure and we got home later than expected but now we have a great story. We picked up a hat for Matthew and he wore it for about an hour while we hung out at their house. Matthew loved his "bagel" treat-ha!

I do make a mean doughnut, but once the night is over they are no good. I think my fresh ones will rival crispy creme any day. They may not look as round and beautiful but their tastiness is almost the same. And no I don't want to make a batch while pregnant, I would rather be lazy and buy myself some that come in a pretty container.

Just a reminder that yesterday was Friday the 13th so it's no coincidence that this happened and to Ray & EmmaLee who seem to have worse luck than anyone I know.

Nothing beats a hot doughnut right off the conveyor belt. Melt in your mouth ooey gooeyness!

See practically fat free!

4 weeks to go

4 weeks today and around this time she should have already been here for a few hours. We are pretty close to being ready. I've completed her album, am almost done with my bosses wedding album, and we just have a few things to wrap up like our HUGE project of cleaning out the craft room and turning it into a guest room. We're tackling that tomorrow-I'm really hoping we can finish that project tomorrow and not have it drag on for a few more weeks. My brother-in-law is coming down in 2 weeks to go to Spring Training games with Jordan so it definitely needs to be done by then.

I need to get the baby announcement designed and ready to drop in her pic and all the envelopes ready to be mailed out and then a couple of additional things purchased and we'll be ready to go. I've already picked a couple of outfits and bows to choose from for her to come home in, have blankets and burp cloths ready to go. I just need to figure out the things that I am going to need for myself at the hospital. At least this time I have a better idea of what I'll need. I'm getting anxious to meet this little one and just hope I can remember how to do everything that I did 3 years ago.

I was working in the other room just a bit ago and saw Matthew putting all of these things together. At least he put his crackers in a box instead of putting them on the floor. So funny!


He has 2 green chairs from Ikea that go with a little table that he eats at, his squishy ball, favorite cardboard tubes that something I bought came in, and this little Christmas box that he got in nursery that he loves to put things in. What a great way to watch Little Einsteins.


He thinks it's really fun to come and look at the pics of himself after I take them and got his pillow to lay by me. It's hard capturing real smiles of his as he does his silly squinty eye cheese grin at me all the time.



He got a little silly and climbed onto the couch and then onto our coffee table that we use as a side table for now. He jumped from that into our rocking chair (his 2nd favorite place to be) and I caught the action. Also, see said silly squinty eye cheese grin. He does lay like this across the rocking chair quite often to watch his shows. How that is comfortable is beyond me. I guess little bodies are more malleable than us old parents!


He loves this little push cart that has two storage places and you never know what you'll find in there. He loves to run around the house pushing this everywhere. He stopped for a moment to keep watching Little Einsteins.

Like Mommy, Like Son

I came home from work early yesterday to take a nap since I'm still not feeling well and wanted to take advantage of having our babysitter still here to watch Matthew.

Anyways, I thought Matthew looked a little weird and fat when I came home, but he was sitting down and I couldn't tell what was going on. He jumped up to hug me and that's when I noticed his big belly full of his newest squishy ball. My babysitter told me that he was being like Mommy and had baby sister in his tummy. He had kept the ball in his shirt for over an hour. He looked pretty good and similar to me! I was laughing so hard and had to get some pics of his big tummy.

This boy cracks us up daily. His latest thing is calling us "Hey Guys" and then proceeds with his sentence. My favorite is "Hey Guys, I love you!" So cute! He's really into his blocks lately and is always building and re-building "super swords" and making monsters, dinosaurs, and today rockets. His creativity amazes me on a daily basis. He has a really good imagination which I love.


Great side view-looks pretty much just like me and no, I am not a proud pregnant woman and do not look good while pregnant so you will not be seeing any pics of me or my belly on here anytime soon. Only just over 4 weeks to go and then hopefully this water retention will subside quickly and I can start feeling more normal as much as someone with a newborn can feel normal. Please oh please let this little girl be a good sleeper.




He was so proud of being just like Mommy.

Company Party

Today was our (Karin) Spring/Summer work party. To be honest I don't think I would have gone if I wasn't on the events team. I'm finally catching the crap that Matthew/Jordan had and am not feeling 100%. I knew though that Matthew would have a great time. We went to Kiwanis Park (in Tempe) where we had rented an area and played games, ate, and the park has an indoor wave pool so mostly everyone else went there for the rest of the day. I was not about to be a beached whale at the pool so we went and ran errands and then hung out at friends afterwards. All in all a really fun day!

Just a few pics of Matthew at the party. I had fun actually taking the time to play with our new camera. Jordan gave me a GC to take a photo class after the baby comes so I'm looking forward to doing that while on maternity leave (hopefully) or this fall if I don't squeeze it in. My friend Kris is going to take the class with me - RIGHT?!


His sword-This kept him entertained for awhile. We had a face painter clown and balloon maker clown. This was Matthew's 3rd balloon because they kept randomly popping. This one eventually popped too and then he got a fish! Who knows where it ended up at.


One of my favorite pics from the day.


We went down to the volleyball area and hung out there for awhile. I took out the camera and snapped a ton of pics. Most of the ones we got for the day were taken there.




Matthew wearing Jordan's shoes and walking around. Taken with the telephoto lens.


Tied with the other pic as my fav of the day.


This was my friend Danyell son's car and Matthew loved pushing it around.


My friend Danyell and her son. They are so cute!

Our lime tree

We planted a lime tree last Spring and Jordan took a really great picture of it the other day. He thought it was a regular lime tree when he bought it and only after getting it home did he realize that it was a key lime tree. All I know is once it starts sprouting real limes we can use I need an automatic juicer as those limes are teeny tiny.

We are quite surprised that it has thrived given our little knowledge of gardening. We are going to attempt to plant a small garden this spring in a raised box planter garden. We're hoping to at least do a few items like cilantro, tomatoes, and some jalapeno peppers. We are working on our research now on what will work here in the heat.

Anyways, just a quick layout I did today of our cute lime tree. It was quite easy working with a really great pic. I love our new camera!

I also am so close to finishing my baby book so I'll be sharing that too. My favorite scrapbook store that I haven't been to in ages since I mostly do digital gives me 20% off my whole purchase one time in my birthday month. I've been too busy this whole month and so finally squeezed in a visit late on Saturday night (just like me to wait until the last possible moment). My good friend Kris went too and helped urge my spending. :) I found some really cute papers and the album turned out really well. So excited to finally get it done. Hoping to finish this weekend. I just need to find some acetate that is buried somewhere in my scrapbook room to finish it off.

I also am going to make my boss a wedding album. She's getting married the day after my scheduled c-section. I really wanted to try and make her wedding but the date I picked for my c-section was the best one to work with my parents schedule, the Dr's schedule, and Jordan's work schedule. I know she understands.

Paninis

If you've never had a panini it's better than sliced bread!

We were introduced to them while in London and Jordan LOVED them. A couple of years ago I got him a panini maker for his birthday. One of the best gifts I've ever given him. We use it all the time and I thought I'd share our favorite panini recipe (that we made up). It may be a little out there for some of you so I thought I'd let you know that a regular PB&J sandwich or turkey sandwich is also super yummy in the panini maker too.

In case you don't know what a panini maker I've put a picture below. I'm pretty sure this is a picture of the one we bought. It basically squishes your sandwich and grills on both sides. You could also use a grill pan with something heavy on top like a foil wrapped brick.


Yummiest panini ever:
Ciabatta Roll (we like the little square ones from Costco)
1 Red pepper that's been grilled and the skin taken off
1 Portabello mushroom that's been salt/peppered and grilled on both sides
Mozzarella cheese
Fresh basil (optional)
Pesto (or we've done olive oil too)

Brush the cut sides of the Ciabatta Roll with either olive oil or pesto. Layer the Red Pepper (it needs to lay flat so cut up one side), Portabello mushroom, Basil (optional), mozzarella cheese.

Quick trick for the red pepper. Once you've grilled it and it's pretty black on all sides put in a plastic bag right off the grill and seal it up for 10 min. The steam will make the skin come off super easy. I usually slit up one side, take out the insides and stem and then flip over and take off the skin. Works really well and grilled red peppers are really delicious. They can be expensive so we usually split one between the 2 of us or they were on sale the other day so we each ate one.

Put this in the panini maker until it's crisp. The flavors of the pesto, red pepper, mushroom and cheese blend perfectly together to make one yummy sandwich. We ate this the other day with a simple pasta salad that used up leftover vege's from the fridge. Super easy dinner and really filling. The most suprising part is that we've learned that Matthew likes mushrooms, at least Portabello ones. He surprises me all the time with what he'll actually eat.