Hello Ryder

I've mentioned him in almost all the posts I've written recently. So let me introduce you to our newest family member.

This is Ryder:


I've learned some things this time around that I didn't learn with Claire. As far as a birth experience, Claire was induced, Ryder was not. Having your water break at home...is a huge mess. When you're 38.5 weeks pregnant and your water breaks as you lay down to go to bed, your will probably think something like, "How in the world do I get to the bathroom and then out of the house without making an even bigger mess?" Then you will have to call your husband on your cell phone (which is hopefully within reach of your bed), because leaving a trail of amniotic fluid everywhere would be gross. Towels, lots of towels, are the answer to most of your problems.

I couldn't actually remember my doctor's instructions about what to do if my water broke. To be honest, I thought I would go way over my due date and end up being induced again. So I called Justin (he was in the basement) and pretty much said, "I need you now, my water just broke". Then as he contemplated how to clean up the mess, I called my mom because she was the one taking me to the hospital. She'd been over earlier that evening, apparently she should've just stayed. Then I got a shower and my mom showed up and we went to the ER (because it was about 11:30pm at that point).

My water broke at 11:00pm...we got checked in around 11:45pm...Ryder was born at 1:53am. Let me tell you how glad I am that we didn't wait any longer to go in. I just barely got an epidural and by the time I did get an epidural, I could barely hold still for it since I was having so many contractions. Which was a bit surprising because I hadn't had a single contraction until at least 15 minutes after my water broke.

So, Ryder was born at 1:53am. He was 8lbs and almost 2 oz. I think he is the most adorable little baby boy in the whole world (but I could be a bit biased). He has reddish hair and dark blue/gray eyes (although they still could change to brown like Claire & Anaya's).

Expect to see lots of this little boy. Especially for the next 6 weeks (well, 4.5 weeks at this point) while I'm home on maternity leave.

Snippets

I'm not sure how Claire ended up as cute as she is, because Justin and I...we're not that cute. But Claire is adorable. She's other things too, like smart...and funny...and stubborn...and fearless. But she was just being particularly cute this day.

On Tuesday, we had another OB appointment and an ultrasound. The baby boy is definitely a baby BOY. I'm measure big again. I have 22 cm of amniotic fluid. The normal range is 5-25 cm, so while I'm still in the normal range, I'm in the upper normal range which means they want to keep an eye on it. I had extra amniotic fluid with Claire too, so I'm pretty sure it's just the way I am when pregnant.

In addition to the freezer cooking extravaganza that I did last weekend, I also have 3 crockpot meals, 4 dozen homemade cookie dough balls, a quart of chili, and 4 other casseroles from times where I split a casserole (frozen half, ate half for dinner) in my freezer. Perhaps I should stop freezing so much food? That's 27 main dishes that I already have frozen to eat sometime between now and March. But I still wanted to freeze a couple of soups (to have for lunches) and waffles (as an easy breakfast) and cinnamon rolls (just because they are delicious).

For reasons that I can't quite explain, I have been watching The OC again. It isn't available on Netflix which is really sad, but The WB has seasons 1 & 5 available to stream. Season 1 was the best season anyways. But their commercials are really obnoxious.

We've finally started painting the kids' rooms in preparation for moving everyone around to make room for the baby. We also ordered carpet, although we haven't set up an installation date yet. But soon, very soon, we will hopefully have all the kids in their new rooms and a nursery yet up for the baby boy. Anaya gets to have a pink & purple room the next time she is here since we painted it Claire's colors, but we're not moving furniture until after the carpet...I'm sure she'll LOVE it...

30 Weeks - Maternity Pictures

When I was looking through pictures of being pregnant with Claire, I realized that I didn't have any really GOOD pictures of me pregnant. Now, admittedly, back in 2008 I was working with a MUCH different camera - a point-and-shoot instead of my current DSLR. But I still wish that I had some better pictures of me pregnant with Claire instead of the only ones being snapshots from some other event or my occasional look how big my belly has gotten pictures. I really wanted to get some good pictures this pregnancy; I wanted some profesional-ish maternity pictures.


But since I am decent with my camera and cheap, I couldn't bring myself to PAY someone else to take maternity pictures of me. I probably could've asked my dad or my mom to help me out, they both know how to work my camera - particularly my dad since he's had his DSLR longer than I've had mine and was big into photography way back when I was little. But I would've felt silly. So I decided I would just take myself, and my camera, and my dad's tripod out to a park and set up a little photo-shot alone.

My camera has a timer, so the hardest part is getting the focus right. My portrait lens (Canon 50mm f/1.8) is a little persnickety about its focus. In fact, I attempted to take some family pictures for our Christmas cards about a week ago and the focus was all over the place. I really need something that I can focus on while I set up the shot and then move when I run into place. But I didn't plan far enough ahead which is why all my best shots ended up with me leaning on something (or near something) that I used for focus (a tree, a bridge, a bench). The one where I'm not leaning on something, I focused on a tree, changed it to manual focus to keep that setting and then counted the steps from my camera to the focus point. Then I turned my camera a different direction and counted the same number of steps to where I stood for the picture.


Now I have some good pictures of me pregnant. And I have a little bit more experience with my lens and getting it to focus where I want it to focus. And some more practice running to get in the picture, which is getting harder and harder the more pregnant I get! The only standard maternity pose that I tried and failed at getting involved sitting cross-legged in the grass...I probably could've done it once I thought of the focusing & counting and then moving the camera, but getting down into a cross-legged position was too hard. Not to mention how hard it was to get back up just to see the results and then having to repeat so that I was sure I would end up with a good one.

Fun with Glucose

Last week, on Monday, I failed my first Gestational Diabetes test - the one hour, where I drank the 50g glucose drink and then got a finger prick after an hour. My glucose level was 155, and I think it had to be below 140 or maybe 130. I forget now.


When they went to schedule the 3 hour test, I told them to go with the first available morning appointment. I didn't care about what day, I just wanted to do it in the morning since I had to fast for 12 hours. Two days later, Wednesday, I was at the lab hanging out for 3 hours while they stabbed me in the arm four times to draw my blood. It was just as exciting as that sounds. I got there about 15 minutes early and they weren't busy so they got me started a little early. First was the fasting blood draw. Then I downed the little bottle of 100 grams of orange flavored glucose in less than 2 minutes. I just wanted to get it over with.

Then I waited and waited and felt like throwing up and waited and got up and walked around (down the hall, outside, went to the bathroom, etc). I attempted to read part of a book during the first hour, but whenever I started reading, I felt even sicker. I really wanted to throw up at one point, then the lovely lab tech guy named Michael reminded me that if I threw up, we'd have to reschedule and start the whole thing over again - and then he told me that I could walk down the hall and go outside if some fresh air would help. Finally after an hour Michael took my blood again - from the other arm, to keep it fair.

After the first hour was up, I started to feel a little better. I sat around the waiting room, watched part of a movie on my phone, read some of my book (James Patterson's Gone), texted with Justin and a couple of friends, etc. Then it was time for ANOTHER blood draw - back to the first arm again.

Somewhere around now is when I got REALLY hungry, but then it went away once my body realized it wasn't getting any food. I could drink a little bit of water, so I did. I saw some interesting people come in to get blood drawn for various things since it appears all Michael does in that office is draw blood. Ended up reading about half of my book.

I had my last blood draw approximately 3 hours & 15 minutes after I got there. Then I hurried on out of there and across the street to McDonald's where I consumed a crispy chicken club and a medium french fry.

I finally got the results on Friday afternoon - no gestational diabetes for me! Woo-Whoo!

Although I'm still eating fairly low carb because I don't want to gain 50 lbs like I did when I was pregnant with Claire. I'm currently fluctuating between 20-25 lbs gained with only 10 more weeks to go! By now with Claire I had gained at least 30-35 lbs. Not that weight is the most important thing, but I'm mostly just trying to eat fewer carbs (particularly sweets) and more vegetables (salad for lunch almost every day).

My actual results were:
Fasting: 79
1 hr: 125
2 hr: 122
3 hr: 112

Happy Anniversary!

Justin & I have now been married for 8 years! EIGHT YEARS!


Our family has grown from us & a 6-yr old to us, a 14-yr old, a 4-yr old and a new addition coming soon! We're about to be out-numbered by the children!

Yes, the picture is blurry, I know. I was having focusing issues. Which just means I get to drag Justin out somewhere again to do another set of family pictures. I'm pretty sure it is his most FAVORITE activity ever! Hopefully next time it won't be so windy. He has also decided that we're not allowed to do fall pictures anymore because it gets too cold...but that's when I need a family picture for Christmas cards!

Things I want to make...

I've been eating low carb for a while now (like two months!). And I have seen a ton of recipes come through Pinterest, or from blogs that I read that I would really like to make...except they are full of carbs and I'm eating low carb. So, just because I feel the need to share, here are links to some things that I really want to make, but I'm not (at least not until I have somewhere else to take it so someone else will eat most of it).

White Chocolate & Nutella Truffles
Homer Simpson Donuts
Cinnamon Roll Cake - my sunday school class is getting this next Sunday when I signed up to bring breakfast
Peanut Butter Cake with Chocolate Icing
Chicken Stock - this one is fine to make w/ my low carb eating, I just haven't done it yet.
Creamy Tomato Soup
Slow Cooker Chicken Enchilada Soup
Emma's Favorite Chocolate Cake

And those are just the ones that looked yummy enough that I actually saved them to look at again later. I know there have been numerous Pumpkin breads/cakes/muffins that all looked delicious. Oh man, I just want to go bake something...but it is late and I shouldn't eat it anyways.

The Penguins! The Penguins!

Saturday morning, Claire & I got up bright and early (seriously, out of the house before 7:45am) to go to the zoo and see the Penguins. I wanted to go to Friends of the Zoo special morning event in hopes of it not being too busy and because there were free donuts! and coffee! and juice! Although we got there and found out it was free Pancakes (Chris Cakes Pancakes) and sausage and juice! I was sad about the lack of free coffee though. Justin & Anaya had no interest in going with us, so it was just Claire and I. Actually, Anaya thought she might go, to see the penguins...until she realized that we were going so early and walking around the entire zoo.


When we went to Boo at the Zoo two weeks ago, we didn't see very many animals. We definitely made up for it this time. And since we were there so early the animals were just coming out and getting fed, so we got to some animals a lot better than normal. Of course, it was also pretty chilly, so quite a few animals were inside. Since this was also the first Saturday after Halloween, they also had their pumpkin smashes going on. We only saw the Chimpanzee pumpkin smash, but that was probably one of the better ones to see. I tried to convince Claire to go see the Elephant one, but she really wanted to go to "Asia" to see the red panda.


We got to see the crocodiles, which Claire always calls alligators. We saw the hippos out of the water for once, usually we only see their eyeballs peeking above the water. We walked all over most of the entire zoo - except for Australia - but we saw most of the Australia animals from the train. We even walked through the Tropics building, which we don't normally do, because Claire wanted to see a Toucan and I figured that was the best place to find one (and we did). Although there were a ton of people in that itty bitty building because they were about to let some of the Tropics' monkeys smash pumpkins.


We had a lot of fun at the zoo. We were there for almost 5 hours, which was about 2 hours longer than I had planned to be there.

October Activities (Part 2)

I posted about some of our early October activities already, and it seems like I just found more and more stuff to go do in the second half of the month! And now that October is over, I'll tell you all about what we did!


On my last October Activities post, I lamented about wanting to go apple picking but not being sure that we would get the chance. Well, we did. I looked at a couple online, and discovered that Cider Hill Family Orchard still had picking, so Claire & I got in the car on Sunday afternoon and went to pick apples! The only issue we had was the Claire was convinced that green apples were BAD and we should only pick red apples...but the only variety that was available were called Gold Rush and they were green. It took me a while to convince her that they were okay.


We went to Enchanted Forest in Lenexa at (the newly renovated) Sar-Ko-Par Trails Park this year. I don't think we went last year, but we did two years ago. Maybe we've gone twice, because it kind of seems like I took Anaya with us there once too. It was sooooo much better this year. The last time there was a HUGE line to get back into the "creepy" area and it just wasn't worth the wait. The park has been renovated and now there is a very nice pond that they set it up around and $3 got your under 12 yr old child unlimited bouncing in the bounce houses, a pumpkin to paint and rides on the hay ride (adults could ride the hay ride for free and I didn't actually see them check for kids wrist bands there at all). They also had puppet shows and magicians and other performers set up around the pond and SureWest provided a free face painter. She could've worn her costume, but I opted to not put her in it since it seemed like a good way to get it dirty and it's going to be really hard to clean anyways.


We've been to Mahaffie Farmstead quite a few times. In fact, since I grew up here, I even remember going there in high school to do a community service project for one of my classes. However, I had never gone to their Trick-or-Treat Off the Street event. It is pretty cheap per person ($3 each) and once you're in, everything is free! Claire wore her costume (which everyone LOVED). Claire was possibly more interested in seeing the farm animals than she was in trick or treating. And they had a hay ride, so of course we had to do that!


Claire was quite insistent that we had to carve pumpkins. She saw an Agent Oso episode about a girl wanting to carve a pumpkin, so then she wanted to carve a pumpkin...or two...or three. So the week before Halloween, we bought two pumpkins (a compromise!) and I told her we would carve them on Sunday. Which meant we had to talk about when Sunday was EVERY SINGLE DAY for the rest of the week. Claire was so excited to carve the pumpkins, until we actually started carving. She picked to face patterns out of a pumpkin carving pattern book we had from a previous year, I cut the tops off the pumpkin - which was the first step according to Oso. Then I tried to convince her to help scoop the insides out and she didn't care much for that and told me so was going to go "Watch Football with Daddy". After I got all the insides scooped out, I had her come back up and we decided which face would go on each pumpkin - but according to Oso only adults can actually carve pumpkins, so she went back to watching football and I carved the pumpkins.

Claire's Class Party

Claire's preschool class had a party. All the kiddos were ADORABLE. I'm not posting a picture because...I don't feel like blurry-ing out all the other kids' faces for their privacy. But Claire had fun and was even okay with me leaving her at school when the party was over. They only had about 15-20 minutes left of their day, but I wanted to run to Target without a 4 yr old...and she is used to riding the bus home.

What I'm Reading

I have quite a few books that I'm in the process of starting to read.



The Fall of Five

I checked this book out from the library, I need to actually READ it soon before I end up paying late fees on another book. This is the latest book (4th I think) in a young adult fiction series, The Lorien Legacies. It is about an alien race, the Garde, that has hidden on Earth after another alien race, the Mogadorians, destroyed their planet. There is also this whole bit about how each member of the Garde has a number and the Mogadorians can only kill them in order - which is kind of goofy, but it works. The first in the series was, I Am Number Four, which was made into a movie that was not nearly as good as the book.

Gone

My mom got this book and after reading it she brought it to me. I haven't been reading much James Patterson recently because some of his books are too gruesome for me right now. But I'll probably get around to reading it eventually.

The Longest Ride

My mom got this book too. I'm not really sure what it is about. Nicholas Sparks books have a habit of making me cry even when I'm not dealing with pregnancy hormones, so we'll see. I'll have to wait until I'm okay with crying. Although I think my mom told me it wasn't as sad as some of his books.

Allegiant

I've really been looking forward to this book. This one is also a young adult fiction. This is the third (and final) book in the Divergent trilogy. I have the first two in the trilogy and bought this one the week it came out. But I just can't get into reading it. I may need to re-read the first two to remember what in the world is going on. This is another dystopian world set in the near-ish future on Earth where society has been divided into groups based on their qualities. I have been trying to avoid the reviews on Amazon (or anywhere else for that matter) since they all seem to contain spoilers that will most likely make me even less inclined to read this book.

*Even though I linked to Amazon, I do not get any money if you click those links. They are just there.

Snippets

Also known as, what goes on in Jenni's head...it's kind of random.

I never did decorate for Halloween. Not at all. The closest we've got are the 5 pumpkins sitting on our front step - which no one can even see because of the "mini" pine trees that are planted right in front of our front step. (I hate those "mini" pine trees). I kept seeing neat ideas on Pinterest and on Eighteen25, but I never actually got around to DOING any of them. Now Halloween is in 5 days and I'm just not going to do anything. Except carve pumpkins, but that's only because Claire REALLY REALLY wants to.

We had 6 pumpkins sitting out there this afternoon. Then I brought one in, roasted it, purée-d it and put it in the fridge because I couldn't decide what to do with the purée. But now my house smells like pumpkin...

I didn't actually intend to get 6 pumpkins this year. But Claire's class went to a pumpkin patch and she got a pumpkin. Then Claire & I went to Deanna Rose Farm's Pumpkin Hollow and we both got a pumpkin (it was included in the price to go out there). Then I bought two Jack-o'-lantern pumpkins because Claire wants to carve a silly face and a happy face. Then we went to the Enchanted Forest and I paid $3 for Claire to do all the kid's activities, one of which was paint a pumpkin. And 1 + 2 + 2 + 1 = 6 pumpkins on my front porch, except then I roasted one so now I have 5 pumpkins.

When Claire isn't getting her way she has taken to stomping her foot (just one foot, not a continuous stomping of both feet) and saying "I'm mad" and making a great big frowny face. It is equal parts obnoxious and cute. Obnoxious because she usually does this to me (not my mom, not Justin, only me). But really it is quite cute and at least she is expressing her feelings instead of crying or sitting down or running away. If she would just not stomp the foot I would be fine with it. She also likes to tell me that she is scared of things when she doesn't want to do something. For example, it is shower time, Claire's response, "I'm scared of pipes". It is bed time, Claire's response, "I'm scared of trains" (she can sometimes hear a train in her room at bed time). And this is the child that is truly not scared of anything at all. My favorite is when I tell her to go to the bathroom in the morning, and the bathroom is dark and she tells me she can't because "I'm scared of dark". Then she insists that I can't turn the light on either and if I do she will proceed to turn it off before going to the bathroom.

We are finally getting things done around the house for the baby. Maybe he'll actually have a bedroom before he is born...or maybe not. But the process is at least started! Now I just have to decide if we should replace the carpet in all three bedrooms before moving furniture around. But did you know that carpet is kind of expensive?!? But you know, we've got about three more months until the little guy is here. That's plenty of time...right?

Pregnancy Journal (from 2008)

Well, I stayed up way too late last night, but I finished up my Blurb book about being pregnant with Claire. Wow, what a trip down memory lane particularly since I'm pregnant again.



Here are a few screen shots of pages in my book. I put this together by going through my pictures from 2008-2009. I had already gathered up most of my belly shot pictures planning to do something with them, but I also included some pictures of baby gifts that we got and of setting up the nursery and as well as some other pictures of me while pregnant that weren't taken specifically because I was pregnant.



The only page I'm not entirely happy with is the cover. I couldn't find a good picture for the front cover. I'm not sure I want a picture of Claire and I don't have any really GOOD pregnancy pictures of me (which is something I'm definitely doing differently this time). Right now the front cover is just gray with the title of my book on it. I might make a cover in photoshop with some kind of generic cartoon-y pregnant lady silhouette. But I haven't done it yet and not sure if I am going to.



Going through my pictures made me realize that I took way fewer pictures in 2008 than I do now and my pictures are way better now than they were back then! Of course, now I'm using a DSLR and in 2008 I was using a little Nikon Coolpix Point-n-Shoot. I still have that camera...I let Claire play with it...



I also had two books, one journal and one pregnancy book, that I filled out and wrote notes in while I was pregnant with Claire. It will be nice to have all of the pictures and information in one place.

My Newest Favorite-est App

Last week...or the week before...I needed Justin to go to the grocery store to pick up just a few things (seriously, less than 5). So I texted him a list. Then I got to thinking, there has be a list app that will share a list between multiple phones. So I started looking and I found Our Groceries. And I seriously love it. Possibly enough that I might pay for the "no ads" version, although I haven't yet.

Not only can I look at my grocery list on my phone. Or put things into the list on my phone and tell Justin to look at it on his phone. I can also add things online which means not having to tap-tap-tap on my cell phone. I can sit at my computer, write up my menu plan while pulling up recipes and then just have another tab open with my grocery list and add things as needed. And checking things off at the grocery store is just a simple tap on my phone. Another awesome feature, things that are checked off are moved to the bottom of the list with a line through it, so you still have your list but it's not cluttered up the checked off items. You can easily scroll down and double check through the checked off items before you go to check out to make sure your pregnancy brain didn't make you click something without actually putting it in the cart!

If I wanted to, I could also create a list of things that Anaya needs and install the app on her phone and share my list with her. Then she could add things instead of trying to remember everything until she is here. AND it doesn't have to just be groceries. You can add anything you want to the list. The lists could be To Do lists, or fun projects lists, or whatever!

There is a recipe section where you can store the ingredients for recipes that you make regularly to easily add all of the ingredients for the recipe to your list. I haven't used that part yet but it sounds awesome.

* In summary, I love this app. The OurGroceries people have no clue who I am, except that I apparently use their app. I just randomly found it in the Google Play Store (because I have an Android phone, but it also available for i-devices).

26 Weeks

I feel so huge. I look at this picture and I don't think I LOOK so huge, but I feel so huge. And pictures where I am not purposefully standing up straight, oh my goodness, there is so much of me (and the little man)! And then I realize that I still have THREE MORE MONTHS and I just want to crawl in a hole and lay down and not have to get up for 3 months.



My back hurts, my belly is all stretched and tight feeling. Sitting isn't pleasant, standing isn't fun, and laying down is only mildly better. I still have 2 weeks until my next doctor's appointment which is when I get to have the super fun glucose test for gestational diabetes. I'm wondering if that is part of why I feel so crappy today because I had eaten so many carbs between Friday and now. Hopefully I don't have GD, but if I do then I'll manage. Until this weekend I had actually been doing really well at sticking to a low-carb diet. Then I ate a ton of pizza and a hamburger and mac & cheese and more pizza and some ruffles chips and tortillas and tortilla chips - over the course of 4 days, not all in one day, if I ate all of that in one day I would explode.

Tonight, Claire & I were sitting on the couch and she was putting stickers in a book and I felt the baby kicking. I asked, "Claire, do you want to feel your little brother kick?" (she has felt it before, so she knew what I meant). She got up right next to me and put her hand on my belly and I moved it to where he'd been kicking and he kicked her hand! To which she said, "I felt baby brother!" and her eyes got all big and she leaned in real close and said, "Hi Baby!" to my belly. Later, we were sitting at the dining room table and I got couple pictures of her feeling and talking to my belly. At first he wasn't moving much, and she kept looking at the camera because she knows that what I usually want her to do, but then he did eventually do something.



I found this really fun Maternity Halloween shirt of a skeleton with a skeleton baby that goes over your belly. But I can't bring myself to spend $25 on a shirt that I will truly only wear once (or maybe twice).

The Mog

I've been told my Goodbye 2012 post was mildly depressing. There's probably a reason for that. So instead of everyone having to read that, here's one of my mother-in-law's cats. He should totally be a LOLCat, but I'm not funny enough to come up with a caption.

Thankful for...

So...lots of people were posting their thankfuls every day on Twitter or Facebook. But I just wrote mine all down on a piece of paper.

1. A healthy baby for my brother & sister-in-law.
2. Our house - even if it's not what I want, it is still awesome that we have a house, a house that is technically big enough for all of us & our stuff.
3. Claire is talking more - We've been carrying on entire conversations!
4. Sleeping in, even just a little big (like until 8am)
5. My job, even on Mondays when I don't really WANT to go, I still have a really good job!
6. The right to vote.
7. Hot water for showers on cold mornings
8. Not just one car, but two cars that work and don't cause me to worry about us getting from point A to point B.
9. My family living so close to me - my parents & brother/sister-in-law all live within 4 miles of each other.
10. Seasons - I love it when the seasons change & the leaves turn & fall. When I was in San Diego for 4 years, one of the things that I really missed about Kansas was the seasons.
11. God & Church & the community there.
12. My husband - we've made it 7 years so far!
13. Claire - she is such an awesome little person. I can't even remember what I used to do with my life before she was in it.
14. My camera - I love taking pictures. I love capturing moments that I would otherwise probably forget.
15. Toddler Board Games. I couldn't decide if I was really thankful for these, or if I wished they didn't exist. But Claire loves Candy Land & Memory & Cooties so much that I decided to be thankful that we have something "fun" to do together even when it is dark & cool outside.
16. Starbucks & their Cinnamon Dolce Latte because I love it so so much.
17. Olathe and it's lovely little parks with nice little playgrounds for Claire to play on.
18. My parents - they are so awesome and help us out so much with Claire & with household stuff & just being there to talk to whenever.
19. Amazon - the stuff Christmas is made of this year. I may not be getting the BEST deals, but there is no price on the sanity I am saving by not getting out & fighting with the crowds.
20. My cellphone. It's expensive, and not necessary to life, but it keeps me connected with my family & friends as well as hours of entertainment when I am waiting.
21. Project Life - it is getting pictures off of my computer & into a pretty book.
22. Turkey! Family! Food! Parades! Life!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving (Turkey Time as Claire is calling it). And gets to spend it with their family/friends/loved ones/someone.

Fall Family Pictures

Back on October 20th, I finally did something that I have been trying to organize my family enough to do. We took family pictures. A couple of these pictures are proof that if you hand a teenager a nice camera with a fairly good lens on it, you will actually end up with acceptable pictures. (Any that include me but not Anaya are ones that she took.) Ones that include all of us were taken using the timer or a remote depending on if the remote was working at any given time.

I ended up with a total of 91 pictures after deleting the ones that were completely blurry or otherwise unacceptable. When I use the timer, it takes 5 pictures, so some of those are duplicates. I ended up getting a pretty good picture of all the different groupings that I was hoping for.



Now, while this experience was fine. There are definitely things that I learned to make it easier the next time I decide to do this.

1. Definitely have a list of the poses/groupings that you want. I did do this and it helped so much. Particularly since my husband was NOT really into the idea of family pictures anyways.
2. Plan for longer than you think it will take. By the time we were done, we were out of sun light. I have a beautiful picture of the sunset that I took as we were driving out of the park. I would've liked to try one more pose, but it was just too dark.
3. Scope out the location before hand. This is common sense, but I didn't really do it. I knew that there were multiple shelters are this particular park, but I didn't really know which one we would use (we ended up in my first choice area). And even though I had been there multiple times with Claire & Anaya to play at the park, I hadn't ever really looked at the area with the idea of a photo shoot.
4. If you are including a toddler, possibly have another person along to help corral the toddler so that you can take pictures of just the adults. My husband didn't drive over there with us because he was still getting ready, so I had Claire & Anaya there for the first half. Which means the pictures of just Anaya involved me holding Claire with one hand and the camera with the other. The one of Justin & I is one that Anaya took while holding Claire's hand as she was trying to run away.

These pictures were taken using a Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens. I actually borrowed it from my co-worker but now I have my own. It is an nice portrait lens. Definitely not the BEST one, but good cost/quality ratio. Particularly since mine is purely for me & my friends & family (I'm not a professional, nor do I want to be).

Pumpkin Hollow

On Saturday morning, when it was somewhere around 40-45 degrees and the sun was NOT shining, Claire & I went to Deanna Rose Farmstead to go to Pumpkin Hollow. Because I am super intelligent, we were the ones running around in sweatshirts instead of coats & hats & gloves. But just because you're cold doesn't mean you can't have a good time!



Claire LOVED the hay bale slide, she went down it at least 20 times. They also had some little games set up that she could play (bean bag toss, (plastic) egg rolling, etc). Since it was cold so we only stayed for about an hour. Then we got our pumpkins and rode the hay wagon back to the farmstead. I did think ahead enough to know that I didn't want to be hauling a purse around with me and just took things that I would need & would fit in my pockets (phone, keys, money, tissues) and my camera (obviously). Which was good because by the time I was walking out of there, I had two pumpkins, a bag of stuff from Children's Mercy (they were a sponsor) and a bag of kettle corn (that was lunch).



Also, the picture of Claire & me was taken using my brand new wireless shutter remote. It's a little obvious in the picture that it is in my hand if you are looking for it, but I think it'll be useful. Better than sitting it somewhere and then having to wait for the timer to go off.

Apple Picking

A few weeks ago...back on September 9th...the girls and I went out to an Apple Orchard way far away from here. It seriously took about 45 minutes to get there. And 35 minutes to get to a Starbucks after leaving there. But we had a good time. We picked about a 1/2 bushel of apples. That's why there were so many apple recipes happening last month, because we had a LOT of apples.



I had almost planned to go on a weekend when Anaya wasn't with us, and I'm glad that I didn't for two reasons. 1) Anaya told me that this is one of her favorite fall activities. 2) I wouldn't have picked anywhere close to a 1/2 bushel if I'd been there with just Claire. Evidently having a teenager along can be helpful.



We went to Alldredge Orchards, although I have since found out there is one a little bit closer that I would've liked to try - Cider Hill Family Orchard.

Right now....

Following Ali Edwards' Around Here prompt



Looking forward some fall activities I have planned for next month. I see lots of pumpkins in our future.

Getting "caught up" on my Project Life album - expect two Project Life posts per week for a while. This is week 39 and the last week that I worked on was week 35!

Enjoying our backyard in the cooler evenings. Claire & I have been racing from the back patio to different places around the yard. I ask her where we are racing to and she'll usually tell me, then she counts to 3 and says GO. And we run. Sometimes I have to watch wear she's running to figure out our goal. Usually it is the slide, fence, tree or trampoline.

Listening to Claire sing songs she learns in Preschool and being able to figure out some of the words!

Planning out the rest of the year - Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas.

Drinking lots of coffee and water and diet coke.

Wishing for a new car, not because I need one, just want something else, something bigger.

Amazed at how much Claire has changed in the past year.

Listening/Watching Doc McStuffins since it is Claire's favorite show.

Thinking about meal planning and the new recipes that I have been wanting to try.

Reading LOTS of books from the library. Currently working through Susan Mallery's Fool's Gold series (romance) and trying to read the Steve Jobs biography.

Deciding which shows to invest time in this fall. Elementary looks interesting. I would like to continue watching Once Upon a Time, but I need to watch the last few episodes from last season still.

Getting Fit

I've decided that I need to do something about getting fit. I've been asked twice in the past month about my pregnancy (I'm not pregnant).

Truthfully, I'm not fat and I'm not teeny tiny, but I'm within the healthy range for my height. I just carry most of my weight on my belly - seriously I've always been that way, it's genetics and after being pregnant with Claire it just got worse. And as I told my mom, I either need to gain about 30 lbs so I am obviously over weight or lose about 5-10 and tone up my belly so it's less noticeable. I'm actually halfway inclined to just gain the weight because I know me and maintaining anything less than what I weigh now is VERY hard.

However, since I have a few health/exercise related goals on my 31 before I'm 31 list, I will probably attempt to lose the weight. I just need to make a manageable plan. And a system of accountability. But I am not doing weight watchers again. That works well for me until I get within 5-10 lbs of my goal weight, then I lose all motivation which means starting now I would be without motivation in the first place.

My Plan

Part 1: Eating habits
I have already made quite a few changes regarding what I eat. If I snack between lunch & dinner, I usually eat fruit. After dinner is harder because the kids want something sweet and we end up with ice cream, s'mores, cookies, etc. I'm a big fan of anything in moderation, which means having the sweets with the kids is okay...once or twice a week.

Part 2: Exercise
I don't really exercise right now. I was doing Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred DVD earlier this year. But I hated it. Then I tried to start running again, but I can only run either early in the morning (which I hate) or late in the evening (when it's dark). Plus it is so hot right now. And exercising inside doesn't work because it is really warm inside too. I need to figure something out, but I'm not sure what just yet.

I could join a gym again, but it's expensive and I'm not sure when I would be able to go since mornings & evenings aren't good for me, that mostly leaves over my lunch break at work. I used to go to a gym over my lunch break and it was okay. I managed to go around 3 times per week, but I felt so rushed to get there and change and exercise and shower and change and drive back in a hour that I would end up cutting my workout short to make sure I wasn't late getting back.

As I said, still trying to figure out a plan.