Sunday, March 11th, 2012
Hi Scrapbookers and Friends! Thanks for stopping by the blog.

First things first, my secret letter to share with you is M

When you make it all the way through, if you put the letters in correctly, in the right order, you will be entered into the drawing for a Wacom Bamboo Capture tablet! Contest entries must be received by Wednesday at 11:59 PM MST.

After my blog, you are headed to Mandi's:
Mandi Buchanan - www.ryanmandi.blogspot.com


Also as a thank you for stopping by, I wanted to share the following layout template for you. It is currently saved as a quick page, where you can just drop in the picture OR since it is saved as a layered Photoshop file, you can delete the specific papers and such and use it as a template and clip your own choices to it.





You can download the template: here

All of the papers and elements are from the the Spring DHD Collab kit. So you will definitely want to check that out, because the collab kits are alway A.MAZ.ING! I'll be sure to update with a link and more information about how you get it when I get the information.


I also get to give away a $5 DHD Gift Certificate to one of the viewers that stop by my blog. To enter:

- Leave a comment on this blog post. We are currently expecting twins, and I'd love to hear your guess on whether we are having two boys, two girls or one of each. I'd also love to hear your suggestion for names!

- For a second entry, please leave a comment with a link to your post if you use this template for your own page.


I will be closing the drawing entries on Wednesday evening, so be sure to leave your comments before then.

Thanks for stopping by! And Happy Hopping!

Tuesday, March 6th, 2012
Evan came in town this weekend, and we all had the pleasure of celebrating his 8th Birthday with him. I love that sweet little face more than he will ever know! And seeing how when his mom asked what he wanted to do for his birthday, and his immediate response was, "Go to Parkersburg!" I'd say the feeling is pretty mutual :)

Little man loves whales and sea creatures. I can totally see him as a marine biologist some day! When I called to tell him we were on our way over he kept telling me how huge his cake was. He was pretty excited for us to see it.


Poor Michelle. As if giving birth on your birthday isn't enough, she now shares her birthday with her very cute and lovable son. She never seems to mind though. Each year when I call I try to remind her that it's her birthday too!

Considering the twins due date is only about a month after mine, and assuming twins typically come early, I've already said they are NOT allowed to come on September 16th! One, that TOO early. And secondly, I don't even believe in working on my birthday, letting alone pushing two people out of my body. Please take note of this babies :) For your momma's sake, please wait until October!


Once again, I have nothing to say, but poor Michelle! Evan thought if he blew out both of their candles that meant he would get both wishes! The kid is pretty competitive (aka his father's son!) so he made sure that happened.



Evan then opened the gift from his mom and dad. I'm pretty sure this means he liked it, but it's hard to tell from his lack of excitement (wink, wink)



And the celebrating continued!



Happy 8th Birthday Little Man~!

And a big Happy Birthday to Aunt Michelle too! We love you both very much! Best two things John ever did.... :)

Friday, February 24th, 2012
Well, we officially found out today that we are expecting TWINS! The shock is still setting in, but overall we are just overwhelmed with excitement.

Honestly, we should have suspected it. When I went in for my 5 week appointment, we saw to things that looked like gestational sacs, but since they saw the one soooo early, Shockley and the ultrasound tech said they thought it was just a small cyst. Well that small cyst now has a fetal pole and heart beat <3

Our second clue was my hCG levels. They are supposed to double every 48-72 hours. Mine more than trippled every 48.

Nathan said he knew it was twins already. I guess I was in denial since Dr. Shockley seem so sure that it was a singleton.

Baby B was way up in the corner of the sac. I actually had to hold my breath and hold super still just so she could count the heartrate.


Baby A, on the other hand, was out in the middle and easy to see. Maybe we have one shy one and one out-going baby. Knowing Pickens kids though, I can't imagine either of them being shy for long!



Baby A's heartrate was 117
Baby B's heartrate was 106

I am currently at 6 1/2 weeks, but am already measuring 11 weeks!

I've started researching everything that I can about twins - how to keep them healthy and deliver strong babies, what all we need two of, how we prepare to handle two newborns at once! I'm happy to have any and all advice you have on raising twins! I thought I was prepared for one baby, but this has certainly thrown me for a loop!

Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012
Tonight, I made Asian Flank Steak Skewers. You can find the recipe: here

I've also been finding that some times when I link back to the original recipe that they site changes or the links, no longer work, so I will be including the full recipe here as well. But if you want the full step-by-step guide with pictures, you might want to check Skinny Taste for their version.


Asian Flank Steak Skewers
Skinnytaste.com
Servings: 6 • Serving Size: 4 skewers (1/6th) • Old Points: 4 • Points+: 4 pts
Calories: 150 • Fat: 7.1 g • Carb: 2.0 g • Fiber: 0.1 g • Protein: 17.9 g • Sugar: 0.0 g
Sodium: about 400 mg (since most of the marinade is discard, it may be less)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lbs flank steak, sliced thin
1 1/2 cups reduced sodium soy sauce (Use Tamari for Gluten Free)
2 cloves minced garlic
1 tsp fresh ginger
1 tsp sesame oil
1 lime, juice of





Directions:

Soak wooden skewers in water about 30 minutes to prevent burning. Marinate the steak in all the ingredients for about 1 hour or more.

Discard marinade and thread the sliced steak onto the skewers.

Heat your grill or grill pan to high heat; when hot grill a few minutes on each side until browned and cooked though.

Makes about 24 skewers.


My Notes:

Overall, they were pretty good. I made half on the George Foreman and half in the skillet - the skillet onces were much better.

I believe the original writer of the recipe, said she served them at a party, which is why she put them on the skewers, so people could just pick one up as they went by. Serving these for dinner, I would not use the skewers again. Even after I soaked them, the wood ones still wanted to burn. I recently purchased the Barbeque skewers from Pampered Chef, so I may try those next time.

If you've never been to Skinny Taste before, you just check out their website. They have a lot of healthy recipes, and they include all the nutrition facts and even Weight Watcher points information.

Saturday, February 18th, 2012
This is the story of how we told my dad that we were pregnant. One of my dad's new favorite shows is Big Bang Theory. He loves Sheldon! Even more, he loves when Sheldon says, "Bazinga". Bazinga is Sheldon's catch-phrase for when he tricks someone or is basically saying, "Gotcha!" Although, my dad, in theory, understands why Sheldon uses it, he basially thinks it just means a surprise.

For instance, on my husband's birthday, Dad snuck into our house while we were at work and left a plate of cookies, and a note that simply said, "Bazinga!"

I knew that I was going to have to work the Bazinga into the big news for my dad!

I had borrowed a copy of Justin and Heather's ultrasound and printed it along with one of ours. I put them both in frames with the label "Baby August" for Justin and Heather's baby and Baby October for ours. I added the "Bazinga" label to ours of course!



The original plan was just to sneak them in the house and wait for Dad to notice them. At first we put them on the mantle above the fireplace, but despite several attempts to get him to look at the mantle, we gave up and moved them to the cabinet in the kitchen. I even cleared everything else off, so they would be hard not to see. We even purposed sat on the right side of the table for dinner, so he would have to sit in one of the chairs that face the pictures. It took QUITE awhile, but he finally saw them and said, "What's this?"


I think at first he thought they were just different stages of Heather's ultrasounds, but when he thought about the dates they didn't make sense. He looked at them for what felt like forever, almost like you could see the wheelse turning in his head, but he just hadn't got there yet! And then finally he did!



I think he likes his Bazinga! :)