Laminin

Have you ever heard about something that you can't quite believe but you think, "If that's true, it's amazing!"??  That's how I felt the first time I read about laminin on Jennie Marie's blog.  I remember reading that post and being awe-struck at the awesome planning of our Creator.  

Being the fairly naive person that I am I simply took what was in Jennie Marie's post as fact.  I assumed that someone couldn't possibly make that up.  And, really, they had a handy diagram and everything, who would go to so much trouble?!?!  But when I mentioned it to some other people they felt like I had gotten my leg pulled.  So I went and googled and looked it up on Wikipedia and as far as I can tell, it's a true phenomenon.  The most basic part of our body is really shaped in the form of a cross.  

Today, Kelly (Harper's Mom) posted a video by Louie Giglio who is an awesome speaker that I've heard before.  Please go check out the video (it also comes up if you just google "laminin") and spend some time thinking about the greatness of God.  That he created our innermost parts to direct us to the cross.

Easter is only a few weeks away and the weeks leading up to Easter are always kind of difficult for me.  Thinking about all that Christ went through for me and for you is hard.  My high school Sunday School teacher always did a lesson on the medical side of the Crucifixion before Easter and the lesson continues to stay with me.  It was no easy thing that Christ did; it wasn't an easy death.  Six Hours One Friday by Max Lucado is another favorite Easter read of mine to put me in the right state of mind for this celebration.  The celebration of Christ paying the price for me.  The celebration of redemption and everlasting love.  The celebration of Christ's overtaking of death and sin.  

I hope that as Easter approaches you'll look at some of these articles and sites and books and think about how much God loves you.  Think about what the cross accomplished for you and for me.  And think about the might and power of a God who came to this earth as a baby but loves us so much that he put signs pointing us to the cross at the most basic layer of our bodies.  How Great is Our God!

Lucky

I realized tonight that I never wrote my post about our dog Lucky who passed away a few weeks ago.  I wanted to share some of my memories and pictures of Lucky with you.  We were very blessed as a family to have Lucky in our lives.

Lucky chose us in the fall of 1998.  I had recently been in a bad car accident and had broken both of my arms.  Lucky showed up on our porch and wouldn't leave for a week.  Mom and Dad contacted the vets and the pound and put up signs trying to find the owner but no one claimed her.  So, as a 14 year old girl with at least splints still on her arms if not more, I begged my Daddy to keep her.  And what Dad in his right mind could turn down a daughter in that situation?!?! Definitely not my sweet Dad!  :)

Lucky and I not long after she found us

We determined that Lucky was abandoned at the wildlife refuge that was sort of close to our house.  At that time my brother was playing pick up baseball games in the lot next to our house a lot so there were always people outside.  I'm sure Lucky just found people who were nice to her and decided to adopt us.  I'm so glad that she did!  

Lucky at Christmas in 2007

I don't remember much about her interaction with Peanut, our Yorkshire Terrier that we got when I was in fourth grade, but there was definitely no roughhousing like Luca and Lucky did.  But there was also no fighting.  Lucky was such a good dog!  She learned to sit very quickly and slept out on the back porch at night.  She was small at that point and would crawl on my lap and lick me.  She always loved to be rubbed!

Over the years we moved houses and learned new things about Lucky.  Like that she wouldn't go up steps inside.  She had no problems with porch steps outside but she wouldn't go upstairs inside the house.  I think she was so grateful that Mom and Dad put the elevator in when they first moved in the house instead of waiting so that she got to be included when everyone was upstairs!

One morning after I had already gone to college Mom opened the back door to find a "surprise" that Lucky had left for her.  Due to the upcoming Easter season I won't reveal what kind of animal she had left for Mom, but let's just say that Lucky was protecting her yard from those evil animals that hop!  As I've heard the story Mom yelled and Dad and Charlie came and laughed, but I wasn't there so I'm not exactly sure what happened.  :)

Lucky loved taking walks even though when we first got her she wouldn't go more than two steps on a leash.  Eventually she grew to love the time that she spent on walks and got so well trained that she was pretty good without a leash.  I say pretty good because during one family gathering over the past few years she got out on the golf course and Jason and Sam had to go chase her down.  She was enjoying herself on the course and wouldn't come back and so Jason had to pick her up and carry her like a baby in his arms all the way back to the house!  Dad would let her out the front at night and she also liked to chase deer if there were any anywhere near the house!

Lucky last summer with Mom, Abby, and Caroline

Lucky and Luca were a sight to be seen.  Lucky was about 8 years older than Luca and Luca is a lot more of a high energy dog.  Every time Luca would see Lucky he would start jumping on her and licking her.  They would end up dancing around in circles with each other.  I think Lucky was trying to find an escape but Luca was enjoying every minute of it.  After Lucky died Jason told me that Lucky was probably in heaven telling Peanut about this crazy new dog that the family has.  I think that's probably true!

Lucky meant a lot to our family and she is very much missed.  We were blessed to have her with our family for so long.  She was energetic and playful and loved to run around and play with you.  But she also loved to just sit at your feet and have you rub her.  Dogs do become a part of your family and it's hard when they leave.  But I think, at least to me, Lucky reminded me that there's always good that comes after a storm and that all you need is a loving family to keep you happy.

Welcome to Twitter!

So I finally jumped on the Twitter bandwagon.  Ok, so far, I have only posted one tweet, but that's a start!  I was confused for a while and thought you could only tweet from your cell phone but turns out you can tweet from the web also so that's nice.  And for those of you who are in the same position I was in, oh say 20 minutes ago, a "tweet" is just a status update.  You can see my tweet's or follow me on twitter by clicking "Follow Me on Twitter" down on my sidebar under my followers.  I'm not sure how often I'll tweet -- I haven't been a huge status update person on facebook -- but I bet it comes in more handy when Charlotte gets here or to update people on the status of Charlotte's arrival.  As if you don't get enough information about me just from my blog! :)

This week went surprisingly fast seeing how it was the first week back from vacation.  I am super glad that it's the weekend though!  Jason's going out with some friends from high school tonight for dinner so I'm on my own.  So what am I planning?? Shopping for Charlotte and for groceries!  Not too exciting but maybe I'll find some fun stuff.  My parents got me an embroidery machine for my birthday so I'm so excited to go to the embroidery store tomorrow and buy thread and all the other "stuff" that I need to start monogramming.  Hopefully I'll have some things to show you soon!

Please continue to keep Stellan and MckMama in your prayers.  Stellan is still in a continuous high heart rate.  Thankfully his body is still surviving but they really need to come up with a way to get his heart back into a normal sinus rhythm soon.  Please pray for healing for Stellan, continued strength for MckMama and her husband, and understanding and comforting for their other children.  MckMama is also on twitter and updates that far more frequently then her blog since the hospital where Stellan is blocks Blogger.  You can see her most recent tweet's on the sidebar of her blog or you can follow her on Twitter.

I'm off to start some shopping!  Have a great weekend!

Recipe Wednesday - Creamy Rotini and Salmon

Sorry for the late post! :)  It's been that kind of day! Please remember to be praying for Stellan and his family.  He needs all the prayers that he can get!

Here's another great recipe from Family Circle.  This one is pretty good for you to with the salmon, enriched pasta, and fat-free half and half!  It's pretty easy too!

Creamy Rotini and Salmon

Makes 6 servings

1/2 pound Salmon Fillet (1 piece)

1 box (14 1/2 oz) omega-3-enriched Rotini Pasta

2 c Fat-Free Half and Half

2 t Cornstarch

1/4 t Salt

1/4 t Ground Nutmeg

1/8 t Cayenne Pepper

1 box (10 oz) Frozen Peas, thawed

1/2 c Parmesan Cheese

1/3 c Toasted Walmuns, coarsley chopped

1. Heat oven to 450 degress.  Coat a small baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.  Add salmon to pan and bake at 450 for 12 minutes or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork.  Keep warm.

2. Meanwhile, cook pasta following package directions.  Drain and return to pot.

3. While pasta is cooking, whisk together half-and-half, cornstarch, salt, nutmeg, and cayenne.  Place in medium-size suacepan and bring to a boil.  Simmer on low for 1 minute until sauce thickens.

4. Add peas and simmer for an additional minute, until peas are heated through.  Remove from heat; stir in 1/4 c of the Parmesan cheese

5. Stir sauce into drained pasta.  

6. Remove skin from salmon and discard.  Flake salmon into bite-size pieces and gently stir into pasta.  Top with remaining 1/4 c cheese and the nuts and serve.

Rosemary Beach

We had such a good time at the beach!  It was sad coming home yesterday and back to the real world.  Jason and I had been looking towards the beach trip as the last big event right before Charlotte gets here and now that it's over we (at least I) are a little overwhelmed that the next big event is our daughter's birth!

Kelly and Tripp rode down with us to Montgomery on Wednesday night.  It was sad watching them leave sweet Caroline on Wednesday but they both did SO GOOD while we were gone!  I know that they missed her but I think, I hope, that they fully enjoyed their time away also.  It helped to leave her in the good hands of Puppy and Granddaddy.  

On Thursday we met up with Charlie mid-afternoon at the beach and went grocery shopping.  That was a definite experience!  :)  I think the guys overestimated how much beer they were going to be drinking but hopefully Dad can enjoy that this week while he and Mom stay at the beach!  We went to The Red Bar Thursday night for a late dinner and it was really good.  Really crowded with all of the spring break-ers but really good.

Friday the guys played golf and the girls went shopping, always a favorite past time of mine at the beach.  We had been saving all of our clothing purchases for the past few months for this trip and I took advantage of it!  After we all got home we went to Chops 30A for a fantastic dinner!  We were able to eat early since we were all exhausted from our exercise (you can't tell me shopping isn't a sport!) and enjoyed the nice, relaxing dinner.  After dinner we played a rousing game of Cranium where the girls proceeded to beat the boys handily even though the guys had been talking trash earlier in the night.  

We spent Saturday at the beach.  It was cooler but there still were no clouds in the sky which made it the perfect beach day.  The guys got a little roughed up diving to catch a football in the water, but we enjoyed the beautiful day.  The sun does zap your energy though so we just stayed at the house and grilled on Saturday night which was so relaxing!  I think we were all about ready to get some sleep by 8 pm! 

It was such a wonderful trip and such a nice break from the everyday.  Thanks Mom and Dad for a fantastic vacation!

Stellan

If you'll remember back last summer/early fall, MckMama was pregnant with her little boy Stellan and the doctor's told her that he wasn't going to live due to very serious heart problems.  However, Stellan was born last fall perfectly healthy which was a huge blessing from God.  Many people were saved through his story and the faith of his parents.

Now, MckMama, Stellan and the rest of their family need our prayers again.  Please click on this link to go and read about Stellan's current heart problems or scroll down and click on the "MckMiracle" button to go to their blog.  Let them know that you are praying for them.  And most of all, please pray.  Pray for a full recovery for Stellan.  Pray for his heart to come out of SVT.  Pray for comfort of Stellan as he is sedated. Pray for MckMama and Prince Charming's strength and faith to be encouraged.  Pray for peace.  Pray for God to be glorified in this situation no matter what the outcome.

On the road again...

We're leaving this afternoon to go down to Rosemary Beach for a few days with my family and with Kelly and Tripp.  We are so excited about the much needed break and getting to spend some time with everyone!  I'm not planning on posting while we're gone but I'll update when we get back on Sunday!

As a small prayer request please keep me in your prayers today, tomorrow, and Sunday.  I've been having some back pain that has been pretty severe when I sit down and am nervous about the long trip to the beach.  Please pray that the physical therapy that I've started helps and my back doesn't get into too much pain.  Or, if it does, pray that the medicine that my OB gave me will work quickly to alleviate the pain.  I don't want anything to interfere with the fun that we're going to have this weekend!

Have a great rest of the week and weekend!

Recipe Wednesday - Beef Fajitas

This recipe from Family Circle makes a lot and is pretty easy.  I served the Fajita's with Spanish Rice and it was a really good meal!

Beef Fajitas

1 pound Flank Steak

3 t Fajita Seasoning Mix (in with regular spices)

1 T Canola Oil

1 medium-sized sweet Red Pepper, Seeded and Thinly Sliced (there were no red peppers at the grocery store so I got a green one instead)

1 medium-sized yellow Pepper, seeded and Thinly sliced

1 large Onion, thinly sliced

1 T lime juice

8 fajita-size flour tortillas, warmed

1. Cut steak across the grain into 1/4 inch wide strips; toss with seasoning.

2. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add peppers and onions; cook for about 4 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3. Add steak and cook 5 minutes or until cooked through.  Stir in lime juice.

4. Serve in tortitalls.

The Nursery!

When I got home from Leigh's Bridesmaids Luncheon on Friday I had a message saying that Charlotte's rocker had come in.  So on Saturday while Mom, Jason, and I were busy with wedding festivities Charlie and my Dad went and got Mom and Dad's chair (they got the same rocker only in a different fabric) and our chair and delivered it to our house! Talk about front door service! It was so much fun to walk in from the wedding and run back to the nursery and see our beautiful chair sitting there!  Thanks Uncle Charlie and Papa G!

Also, on Saturday, I got my shipping notice from Polka Tot Designs saying that Charlotte's bedding had shipped!  It arrived yesterday and I immediately got it out and loved it.  Last night Jason and I put all of the bedding in the crib and, I have to say, it looks fantastic! Just what I wanted!  The paisley print makes it a little whimsical but the stripes and monogram make it very classy and elegant.  Perfect for the little princess that Charlotte already is!  :)

On Sunday I went to work (finally!) on the curtains.  I  had big plans to finish both panels on Sunday but just one panel took MUCH longer than I was planning.  It is lined so it's already making the room so much darker, which should be perfect for when Charlotte has her days and nights mixed up.  Which, judging by the fact that she's super active around 10 pm, has already happened.  I need to finish up the other panel (of, if I'm honest) start on it and then sew the yet to be bought buttons onto the top panel to give it a finished look.  I'm really happy with the way the first one turned out though.

So we're lacking the other curtain panel and I still need to buy lamps.  I also can't wait for Kim's painting to go above the crib!

The adorable pink pillow that I got to break up the brown of the rocker/glider/recliner/most comfortable chair on the face of the planet!

The crib! I just love it!

Leigh and Justin's Wedding

Yesterday my friend Leigh got married.  It was a beautiful wedding that was a perfect picture of their relationship and their love for God.  The wedding was fairly casual (it was at 11 am).  Leigh walked down the aisle to a guitarist which played absolutely beautifully.  The scripture that was read was perfect and talked about God's love for us.  The songs chosen were beautiful and also pointed everyone back to our Savior.  After the ceremony there was a wonderful reception at a neat warehouse downtown that has been turned into an event hall.  The location provided the perfect ambiance for "The Sinatra Guy" who sang.

Overall, it was the perfect wedding and perfect day!  Hopefully Leigh and Justin have made it to their honeymoon location and are enjoying a much deserved vacation.  Congratulations Leigh and Justin!

Leigh and I before the wedding.  Her dress was beautiful and so Leigh!

Jason and I before the wedding

Some of my favorite "getting ready" pictures

Leigh's cake was great! Justin had cupcakes which were divine also!

*As a side note, I used Picnik to make the collages for this post.  I'll provide more info on how to use Picnik, etc in a separate post.

Wedding Bells are ringin'

It's Leigh's wedding weekend!

I couldn't be more excited for Leigh and Justin!  Last night I hosted Leigh's Lingerie Shower at my house and we had such a fun time!  There's just something about some good, old-fashioned girl time that just makes you happy!  We ate some good pasta (recipes coming soon!) and enjoyed the evening.  I didn't make it to the bar/restaurant after the shower due to Charlotte causing me to want to fall asleep about 6 pm every night but they apparently had fun there also!

The beautiful bride!

With her cake

Leigh and her sister, Lyndsey, who has been away since August working overseas! What a great addition to the wedding festivities -- getting to see your sister again!

Leigh and some of the girls at the shower

Then this morning/afternoon we had the bridesmaids luncheon at a cute Bed and Breakfast in a nearby town.  It was  nice to see Leigh's family all excited for her.  

Leigh with her bridesmaids

Leigh with her new mother in law (left) and her mom

Leigh with her two sisters and her mom

I'm about to go take a nap and then head over for the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner.  The wedding is at 11 tomorrow morning so hopefully I'll post some pictures from it tomorrow or Sunday.

On a side note, when I got home from the Bridesmaids Luncheon there was a message saying that Charlotte's chair is in!  Hopefully we'll pick it up tomorrow and I'll have pictures of it to show also!

Happy Friday!

Recipe Wednesday - Pork Tenderloin (or Chops) Marinade

This is a super easy and great marinade for pork.  My aunt Carrie passed this along when I got married as a Pork Tenderloin marinade but I used it for Pork Chops recently and they turned out splendidly!

Pork Marinade

1/2 c Oil

3/4 c Soy Sauce

1/2 c Worcestershire

2 T Mustard

3 t Salt

1 T Pepper

1 1/2 T Dry Parsley

2 Garlic Cloves, minced

1/2 c Lemon Juice

This makes a lot of marinade so, per Carrie's intsructions, I halved the recipe and it made plenty to marinate the pork chops in.

Enjoy!

Charlotte's First Polo's!

In my blogging hiatus I haven't gotten to post yet about Charlotte's most recent gifts, her first Polo outfits!  Memma found some items and figured that Charlotte MUST have them.  I totally agree!  They are just too cute!

Luca's wondering what all this pink is for!

Here's Luca while I was taking pictures -- rolling around on Charlotte's rug.  One of his favorite past times!

Our little girl

Our doctor's appointment went really well this afternoon. We got to see Charlotte! She had her little hand to the side of her head and not in front of her face so we got some good pictures. She didn't even try and run away from the ultrasound device either like I was afraid that she was going to. Her heartbeat was nice and strong (back to 154) and everything looked great. And I'm measuring where I should be now and not two weeks ahead so that made me feel better! :)

Nesting

Yesterday I went and "nested" at Mom and Dad's.  I was horrified last week at all of the junk that I had sitting up in their attic so, once I got our house in working order I was determined that I was going to clean all my stuff up from their house!  I gathered 5 big black trash bags full of trash and feel like I got a lot accomplished!  Two big plastic bins from the attic are now empty!  It was quite funny some of the things I found.  I wish I'd taken my camera over so that I could document but you'll just have to get by with my description.  Here are some random items that I came across:

- My cheerleading pom poms from middle school were in a separate box from my cheerleading pom poms from high school.  I put the ones from middle school into a "dress up" box for Charlotte because I thought she might like them and tossed the high school ones.  The dress up box now includes my Mom's cheerleading uniforms from high school and my middle school pom poms.  As a note, our school colors were very much NOT the same and so if my daughter ever dresses up like a cheerleader in those outfits she will look very much un-color coordinated!

- A poetry booklet that I created for an assignment in 7th grade English.  Let me tell you, they were BAD!!  And they weren't even real poems! One of them was entitled "I Wish" and was a collection of statements that I Wished would come true!  I honestly think that one of the lines was "I wish I could go shopping this afternoon".  What kind of poetry is that??!! :)

- A calendar from middle school in which I misspelled Choir every week when I wrote down that I had "Chior" practice every Wednesday night at church.  Mom, how you must have laughed to yourself when you saw that!  I was dying with laughter yesterday afternoon!

- A collection of People magazines that I apparently deemed important.  Like the one with Brad Pitt on the cover.  I'm not sure why that was so newsworthy but I apparently felt like it was.

And there was the most hilarious thing that I found all afternoon.  When I was little I went to this Young Author's Conference every year.  Yes, I was nerdy in elementary school, I am still nerdy, I've accepted my nerdiness.  I think the conference was even over the summer.  What normal child voluntarily goes back to school in the summer to work on writing?!?! I have no idea, all I know is that I remember loving it.  This couple who wrote and illustrated the best children's books were always there and would always sign their books for us.  I found the signed copies yesterday but left them at Mom and Dad's so that Charlotte can't mess than up any more than Charlie and I already have, but, in case anyone wants a birthday idea, Charlotte would LOVE her own copy of any of the Wood's books.  

Sorry, I'm getting off track.  Anyway, so you had to write your own book to take to the young author's conference and I found mine yesterday.  Let me tell you about some masterpiece's.  I made Jason read them last night since he was making fun of me for going to the young author's conferences and we were literally crying we were laughing so hard.  I was afraid Charlotte might make her appearance last night but thankfully I was able to calm down.  I not only wrote these books, but I illustrated them.  And my illustrations are priceless!  In one there is a tree floating in the air.  I'm laughing just thinking of them.  Here's a picture of their covers:

The best one in all actuality is Felicity Filly.  This book details the dreams of a carousel horse to leave the carousel.  I mean, that's high quality fiction there.  And I was seven when I wrote it.  The saddest books were the two I wrote in third grade.  They weren't even close to the quality of Felicity Filly.  I mean, the name pretty much sums it up.  One of them is called Selifieous the Snail.  Selifieous?!?! Really?!?! At least I have proof that I was an imaginative child!!  Jason told me that my writing skills regressed as I got older.  I prefer to think that I just thought outside of the box more and my writing is above his lowly comprehension.  But, I know I'm just kidding myself.  They were pretty bad!  

So all in all it was a pretty hilarious day.  I apparently motivated Mom to clean out some old things in the attic though and she found the real treasures.  Baby clothes that Charlie and I wore!  Don't worry, not the same things, she found my baby clothes and Charlie's baby clothes.  Some absolutely beautiful Feltman Brothers dresses and these gorgeous blankets.  I can't wait to play dress up with Charlotte in them!  Look at some of the beautiful things that I got to bring home.

Worst Blogger Award

Well, I totally feel like I deserve the worst blogger award due to my lack of posts over the past few weeks.  We haven't really been doing a lot of fun stuff we've just been super busy.  If you look at my planner for the month of March I think you would start to stress out too and that's where I've been the past few days.  Right between overwhelmed and nervous breakdown.  :)

Thankfully today has been SUPER productive and I'm ready to tackle the rest of the month of March.  Jason and I spent the day doing stuff around the house and I'm pleased to say that the study and guest room are now presentable!  I apologize if you've been to my house in the past month and had to see the state of disarray that the rooms were in.  I'm wishing now that I had taken before pictures so that I could take after pictures but I guess I'll just have to revel in the cleanliness and organization in my head.  

We have a really fun, but busy, next few weeks and I'm really looking forward to them.  Last night we had maternity pictures made and it was fun.  Ok, I'm not going to lie, they made me feel like a model telling me how to pose and everything! :)  We'll see how the turn out.  We got the session for free as part of a 4 session plan for Charlotte that we booked so it was just something fun to do.  The photographer is very trendy and I love her shots but I'm a little nervous that Jason and I are going to look like goobers in such trendy photographs.

On Monday we have our 4D ultrasound and I couldn't be more excited.  I can't wait to see Charlotte's precious face!  She's been kicking up a storm lately and woke me up with the hiccups this morning.  The pregnancy is getting so much fun now!  I'm not feeling tooooo big yet and so I'm still enjoying most everything.  I'll post pictures on Monday when we get home.

And then my friend Leigh is getting married next weekend!  The festivities are kicking off Thursday night with a shower at my house that I'm so excited about!  It should be some good girl time.  I can't wait to see Leigh as a bride, she's going to be so beautiful!  I am so happy that she has found someone as great as Justin.  They are going to have a wonderful life together!

We're off to go eat with Kelly and Tripp (Jenni, we'll miss you!).  Since I feel like our house is about as organized as it can get tomorrow I'm going to tackle the masses of childhood stuff at Mom and Dad's.  We were looking for my baby book the other day and I realized how much stuff I have over there!  I never thought I was a pack rat until I saw everything over there.  So, since it's been killing me all week to know that I have so much junk over there, I'm going to go and pull out the things I want for Charlotte's room and the things that I must keep and get rid of the rest of it.  Sadly, I'm really excited about it! :) 

Have a great Saturday!

Recipe Wednesday - Teriyaki Chicken

This is a great, EASY recipe that I got from Stephanie at Happily Ever After.  This recipe is a Crock-Pot recipe so all you really have to do is cut up the chicken.  I served this over brown rice and it was really yummy!  It's working to satisfy my "ethnic" food craving during my pregnancy!  Stephanie puts the chicken over a special rice that she makes and is in her original post.  I didn't take the time to make the rice this time but next time I'm going to try that too!

Teriyaki Chicken

1 pkg Chicken

1/2 bottle KC Masterpiece Honey Teriyaki Marinade

1 large can Pineapple Chunks, drained

Dash of ginger

1. Place chicken in bottom of crock pot.  Pour drained pineapple chunks over chicken.  Pour in 1/2 bottle of marinade.

2. Turn on crock pot and cook until done.  This took me about 2 hours on high.

Go and check out Stephanie's post for more pictures and more detailed instructions.  She and her husband, Travis, are expecting a little girl, Ava, in April so also give her some encouragement as she goes through the last few weeks of her pregnancy!

Jason's Birthday

Last night the Dixon's came over to help celebrate Jason's birthday.  We had a lot of fun are are so glad that they came over.  Jason had decided that he wanted to just stay home and grille steaks for his birthday.  I don't think he was anticipating sub-freezing temperatures while he grilled!  But the steaks turned out so good and we enjoyed seeing Caroline (and her Mom and Dad).  Here are some pictures!

Each year since my sophomore year I've had Jason take a picture with his cake on his birthday.  Once year it had Shrek candies on it!  This cake is a little more traditional.

Look at that cutie!

Her smile is infectious!  And she has the most beautiful blue eyes!

And now, here is the cake.  It took almost four hours to make yesterday but I think we all agreed last night that it was worth it.  I got the recipe from this post of Bakerella's.  I used the 12 layer cake recipe that she used.  I also chose to frost the cake a second time with the dark chocolate buttercream icing.  I'm just so glad that I passed my glucose test last week and don't have gestational diabetes so that I could partake of the cake! :)