Hi!

This week has been a total whirlwind for me as I am sure it has been for many of you guys too. Last Sunday was my day for finishing up the monster paint project that we have been working on for over a year now (thank God that's over!), Monday was meal planning/grocery day for our upcoming family feast, Tuesday was meal prep and house cleaning for turkey day, Wednesday was Clayton's birthday and more house cleaning, Thursday was Thanksgiving Day and Friday through today was our mini vacation away from the kiddos. The intended parents are flying in tonight and we are going out to dinner once they arrive. Tomorrow will be an early morning OB appt./glucose test for us and then the 3/D-4/D ultrasound is scheduled for 11am. Sheesh, I have been going non-stop for a solid week now. I am tired...

Here's a quick recap of highlights from this past week:

Wednesday, November 26th-Clayton's Birthday
I had already given him his big present a couple of weeks ago (a kegerator) and today he got 4 new shirts from Gap. My other present for him was our weekend get-away to Fort Collins.

Thursday, November 27th-Thanksgiving Day
I hosted a delicious meal for my Sister-in-law Stephanie, her man Tom and my Mother-in-law Christie. Everything turned out yummy with the exception of the cold mashed potatoes, lol. We had a wonderful time hanging out with the fam.

Friday, November 28th-Day 1 of our mini vacay
Clayton and I took off before lunch to Fort Collins. We stayed in the most awesome hotel, The Armstrong Hotel. It is perfectly located in the middle of Old Town and is within walking distance to everything. The rooms are very cool. You can choose either vintage or modern decor. I chose the modern themed honeymoon suite for us. I have some pics to share with ya'll but I don't have time to upload them now. I will do that later this week.

We spent a few hours at the mall before we could check in. We browsed and took our dear sweet time (something that you can never do with 2 small boys, lol). Even though it was Black Friday the mall really wasn't too crowded. I checked out Victoria's Secret for some new bras and had one of the ladies measure me. Much to my surprise I have gone up 2 cup sizes since I became pregnant. Holy cow, I am so not used to having this much boobage, lol. TMI, I know, I know...

We checked in at the hotel and then headed to Odell, a local brewing company. Clayton enjoys their beer so he tried a 6 beer sampler and we hung out there for a little bit before dinnertime. We then went to dinner at Beau Jo's. It is a Colorado-based pizza parlor that specializes in Mountain Pies. Their pizzas are made with the freshest stuff and their doughy crust is HUGE. Some of our crust was a bit undercooked but it still got a thumbs up from us. While we ate 2 reindeer walked by. Someone was walking them on leads through the town. They caused quite a stir and crowds began to accumulate outside of our window. I wanted to see them but they walked on before we finished dinner. Luckily they were in the middle of the town square when we left so I did get to see them up close. They were such beautiful creatures.

As we walked around the square, we came across a store that had millions of things in it that my MIL and her hubby would love. They had the neatest stuff so we ended up purchasing a gift before we left. As we exited, we walked out into snowfall. It was so pretty and serene. Now it really does feel like Christmas around here.

Saturday, November 29th-Day 2 of our mini vacay
We got up early and walked a few blocks to a wonderful little place called Lucile's. It's a quaint restaurant inside of an old home. We got beignets that were to die for, homemade Chai, awesome French toast, biscuits and grits. Mmmmm, it was so yummy.

We headed out to do some shopping after that and ended up in Loveland so that Clayton could use his Gap gift card from his Mom. He bought a sweater and some khakis while I ended up buying myself 3 sweaters, 4 shirts, a scarf and a hat. It's too bad that I can't wear any of it until next year though, lol.

Clayton wanted to check out Left Hand Brewing Co. in Longmont so we headed that direction after shopping. In my opinion, he likes this company simply because he is left handed and he thinks that is cool. :P

I got incredibly sick and had a roaring headache throughout much of this day so I struggled to keep up. I fell asleep in the car on the way back to Fort Collins and went straight to bed for a while. That evening, Clayton decided that I might feel better after eating something so we went out to The Rustic Oven. Their food was really good but it didn't seem to help much with my headache. It just figures that I wouldn't feel good during the weekend that I had planned out so many months ago as a surprise for hubby. Sigh...

We went back to the room and rested for a little while and then I decided that I could muster up the energy to go downstairs to The Chocolate Cafe. We had been there before so I knew it would be good. After hearing awesome reviews on their homemade dark hot chocolate we both decided to try it. My gosh, it was delectable! I have never had such good stuff before. I used to love Starbucks' Chantico when they had it and it was similar but wayyyy better. Just before finishing our drinks we realized that it was beginning to hurt our stomachs. I don't know why that is but everytime we make hot chocolate at home we both have tummy aches afterward. Maybe we are lactose intolerant or some crap like that? Hmmmm... Anyhoo, we both ended up going to bed early after that and neither one of us felt good at all. It was a terrible way to end the night, that's for sure, lol.

Sunday, November 30th-Day 3 of our mini vacay
We went downstairs to Mugs Coffee Lounge for a quick bite to eat this morning and then we headed back home. We had a lovely time staying in the hotel but we were ready to be home again. The weather wasn't looking very good so we figured that the earlier that my MIL could leave for Wyoming, the better (her trip is 6 hours north of us). Unfortunately she had to turn around before getting to the WY border because the highway had been blocked off due to a winter weather advisory. She did leave again a little while later though since the advisory got lifted.

We have spent the afternoon eating Thanksgiving leftovers and lounging with the kiddos. Tonight we are heading out to have dinner with my IPs. Their flight got delayed so we have no idea how late dinner may be at this point. We are looking forward to visiting with them and I can't wait for them to see how big I have gotten. Their baby sure has grown!

***Tomorrow is the big gender reveal and I can't wait to draw a winner in the Starbucks free drink card giveaway. If you haven't already entered for your chance to win, click HERE. All you have to do is leave a comment there and guess what the baby is. I will be drawing from all the correct guesses. Go ahead and enter. Who couldn't use a free coffee?

***I know that several of you have left comments or dropped me an email about the recipes. I will get to them sometime this week. I haven't forgotten any of ya. ;)

Holiday Prep + Want Some Recipes?

Today I spent most of my time prepping all of my Thanksgiving dishes. I host a huge meal every year and this one is no different. I can't wait to eat everything on Thursday. We are having a 23 pound turkey with all the trimmings-gravy, chive & onion cream cheese mashed potatoes, stuffing, homemade macaroni and cheese, green bean casserole, apple/cranberry casserole, sweet potato souffle, Hawaiian rolls, Clayton's fruit salad, broccoli casserole, pumpkin pie and pecan pie. It is going to be so yummy!

I am almost finished with my 2008 recipe cards and if you would like a copy of the files, leave me a comment and I will email them to you. They are in MS Word format for 4x6 index cards. I have 10 great recipes to share this year. If you would also like the 5 recipes from 2006 and/or the 10 recipes from 2007, let me know and I will share those files also. If you have no idea why I do these cards, check out the recipe card boxes that I altered for my family back in 2006. I vowed to add recipes to their collection every year and this will make my 3rd Christmas of doing so. :)

A Day Late and A Dollar Short, lol

Hayden's Kindergarten Pic

Emerson's Pre-K 3's Class Pic (I swear he usually smiles better than that for the camera!)

Yesterday I meant to get on here and post some pics but I ended up shopping for Clayton's birthday instead. My trip ended abruptly after getting a call from Hayden's teacher because his tummy was upset. Needless to say, I had to go pick him up shortly afterward. Anyhoo, Clayton's birthday falls on the day before Thanksgiving this year and I am looking forward to all the fun I have planned. I did already give him an early present. I got him a kegerator (a fancy fridge built especially for holding kegs and has a tap handle system on top) so that he can easily dispense his homebrewed kegs. Right now he has an Odell IPA keg in the extra fridge in the garage and a homebrew keg inside the kegerator in our house. He has a tap on both so he can choose whichever to drink and he is one happy hubby, lol.

To really celebrate my man's special day, I have reservations for us at a cool hotel in Fort Collins. We are going for the whole weekend after Thanksgiving and my Mother-in-law will be watching the boys for us. It's going to be great! We got the honeymoon suite and it is so pretty. :)

Have you guys ever tried Amish Friendship Bread? It's this wonderful stuff that you make with a starter. Most people acquire the starter from someone else (thus the name "Friendship") but I made the icky starter myself. I have made 4 loaves of bread with it so far and we have been happy with the yummy results. One of the first 2 loaves was taken to the scrapbooking retreat in Estes and I never even got a piece. I sat it down and went to get an hour-long massage. When I returned, it had all disappeared. That spoke volumes, lol. Seriously, the bread is that good. If you are interested in making this stuff yourself, you can find the recipe for Amish Friendship Bread Starter HERE. The bread recipe that I have been using is HERE. The bread recipe is so easy to manipulate into a million different types of bread just by changing the applesauce to pumpkin or changing the flavor of pudding in it. I personally left out the raisins and dates because we don't like them. It didn't seem to make a difference. Yummy!

Well, I have got to run. I have some things to do while Clayton took the boys out for a movie. ;)

Sorry for the delay...

I have been so busy. The blog has been on the backburner lately and I apologize. I have some school pics to upload of both of the kiddos but I won't get to that until this afternoon. Be back soon...

By the way, the contest for the free drink on me from Starbucks is still going on. All you have to do to participate is guess the gender of the kiddo that I am carrying. The winner will be chosen from those participants that guess the correct gender. All you have to do is post a comment to the blog entry that I started for the giveaway (it is located just below this entry). The winner will be announced on the evening of December 1st after the intended parents see the gender for themselves at our 3D/4D ultrasound. I can't wait to reveal the answer and determine a winner!

E's 4th Birthday~~Free Starbucks Drink Giveaway~~Surro Baby News

Saturday was Emerson's 4th birthday but we celebrated it on Sunday. I was away for the weekend at a scrapbooking retreat in Estes so that complicated things. My Sister-in-law and her man were able to join us on Sunday so it worked out great in the end. Clayton took the boys on Saturday to spend all of E's birthday money that he got from our extended families. Hayden had $10 burning a hole in his pocket too so they had a fun day buying new toys.

On Sunday, we let E open his gifts and then we all headed to a bowling alley in Greeley. It was alot of fun but man we suck, lol. Emerson chose to go out to dinner at Rock Bottom Brewery afterward. We go there quite a bit and the kiddos like the food. We took his Kung Fu Panda cake with us so that we could have it for dessert. I believe that Emerson had a wonderful birthday this year.

Tom, Steph and Hayden

I went to the big ultrasound yesterday and I now know the gender of the baby. First let me say that everything looked perfect and the baby is doing very well. The weight is estimated to be around 14 oz. Now on to the stinker, I cannot reveal what I know, lol. Once my IPs know and tell their families, I can then blurt it out. Some of their family members read here and I don't want them to find out that way. In the meantime, I want to have a little fun with this. If you comment here and can guess the correct gender, I will put your name in for a drawing to win a free Starbucks drink (it will be in the form of a $5 gift card). Good luck and hopefully it won't be too long before I can share my knowledge. ;)

I got an email from someone the other day telling me who the wehatecrunchies people are and that group is all in fun. I am so relieved to know it isn't some group dissing me, lol. I now know that a friend of mine is in that group and she was sharing a link to my blog to show how I organized my kitchen. K, if you are reading this, I cannot email you back. My home email doesn't work any more. I can read received messages (I *think* that I receive them all) but replies never go out for some reason. This has been going on since August (I only became aware of it recently-ugh!) so I am sure you are missing some emails from me. Sorry about that! I will try to email you later from a gmail account.

Who are you "wehatecrunchies" people?

OK, I am about to go nutso because I keep seeing alot of people checking out the kitchen organizing part of my blog. They are all from a message board by the name of "wehatecrunchies". What the heck? I am a little worried that people are talking smack about me on the net and I want to know who you people are. Can someone comment and let me know what the deal is? I read up on "crunchies" and they are moms who homeschool, do attachment parenting, have homebirths and live naturally. I don't fit that genre AT ALL. Why am I the subject of discussion? Please ease my fears and tell me it is all good, lol. I hope that I don't have to make my blog private again.

BTW-I am on my way out the door to a scrapbooking retreat in Estes Park. I won't be back until Sunday. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

20 week belly bump and another reason for it, lol

Here I am at 20 weeks along with my second surrogate pregnancy. Sorry for the lack of a head but I had to take the photo using a bathroom mirror and that can be so difficult. It is a little bit blurry but oh well. At least I posted! My appetite has definitely picked up since my last belly photo at the pumpkin patch hence the reason I have grown so much. I like to blame it on the baby but it really has everything to do with foods like this:

I have been on a kick lately where I try a new recipe at least a few times a week. I made this yummy pumpkin turtle pie last night and it was a huge hit. I found it in the latest Kraft Foods magazine. It has pumpkin, Cool Whip, cinnamon, nutmeg, caramel and pecans. How can you go wrong with all those yummy ingredients?? It was super simple and no baking was required. It's a cold pie. I don't have time right now to post the recipe but I will try to do that next week. ;)

I have to pack up for a scrapbooking retreat in Estes and I will be gone all weekend. Emerson's 4th birthday is on Saturday so I feel a little bit guilty missing his day but I will be back on Sunday to celebrate it. We plan to take him bowling and I got him a cute Kung Fu Panda cake to eat that night. Hopefully Aunt Steph will be able to join us too.