Made it to 12 weeks!

Today we had our long awaited 12 week doctor's appointment. It has been a long anxious month waiting to finish the 1st trimester, but we made it. :) Thankfully the rate of miscarriage after 12 weeks drops significantly so we can relax for a while! I posted an official announcement on Facebook today, and then proceeded to sit on my couch and cry. It was a happy / relieved cry. Also I'm blaming it on having double the hormones. :)

The nice thing about twin pregnancies is that at least at our doctor's office, their dopplar machine thing that they use to listen to the heartbeat with a singleton pregnancy, doesn't work well with a twin pregnancy. I think the babies are too close together early on to tell a difference in each heartbeat, so instead, every 4 weeks I get another ultrasound! This means I get to see the babies every month which is awesome.

Today's ultrasound was especially exciting because they are now big enough that I have graduated to a tummy ultrasound. (for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, you don't want to know / TMI) :) This was good also because my doctor isn't great at working the ultrasound machine, and he forgot to turn on the printer that prints out the ultrasound pictures, so at the end of the appointment, there were no pictures. :*( Fortunately he is a smart man who probably didn't want to see me cry / scream, so he quickly did another ultrasound and snapped this adorable picture:




In other news, we went to Eagles Mere for Memorial Day Weekend and had a great time with my brother and sister-in-law. Since I am now forbidden from being around paint fumes, they awesomely finished the nursery!! And it looks amazing. Here is a progression of the project:

The wallpaper in the nursery used to be really cute - it was white with stars and had cute little sheep in the border at the top of the wall. Unfortunately, while the wallpaper lasted a really long time, it was about 30 years old and was falling off the wall in several places. It was time for a change!

Before:


After I tore the wallpaper down (it came down in literally 10 minutes - it was put up well!!)


After painting the walls - half blue and half green. (you'll see why soon!)


And after adding the wallpaper border (Thank you Mike & Sara!)




Doesn't it look amazing? I'm so proud of how great it turned out. Thanks to everyone who helped!

Sorry there was no mention of food in this post!! I'll get it together and post something from this week's meals. I think tomorrow we are having lemon chicken. Yum! :)

I still have 10 fingers

So this week's Fresh 20 menu has been exciting! I sometimes have some trouble with some of the Fresh 20 recipes - they are not always worked through ahead of time - sometimes the cooking times are off or the spice / salt is way wrong. However, they always keep our dinners exciting and unusual!

Ok I guess the first item on the menu this week wasn't that unusual - Roast Chicken! However, for anyone who knows me as a cook, I HATE cooking chicken and am pretty terrified of roasting a WHOLE chicken. But, the Fresh 20 menu told me to, so I roasted not one, but two chickens this week. The roasting itself went pretty well, before work I was able to clean and rub the chickens with some olive oil and spices, and put them in 2 gal ziploc bags so they would be ready to put in the oven as soon as I got home. The recipe had us first roasting the chickens at 500 degrees. 500 DEGREES!! I have never set my oven that high to cook anything! Now it was only for like 20 minutes or so... but our house definitely filled with smoke - not from the chickens, probably from whatever else is stuck in the bottom of the oven! Thankfully we turned the oven down for the remainder of the roasting time. The recipe had warned me not to be scared of the 500 degrees, that it would turn the chicken golden brown and seal in the juices - and it did just that! The chicken turned out delicious and was a perfect dinner with a side of greens.


Disclaimer: I did not eat all of that chicken! Even if I am having twins! Matt definitely had to help me finish. :)


We obviously did not eat 2 whole chickens for dinner that night, so this morning I took out the rest of the chicken to cut up for sandwiches and a future meal where we need shredded chicken. And this is where I almost lost my finger! This almost happened to me the last time I was pregnant and cutting up a turkey my mom and I had roasted. I think maybe I should not cut up roasted poultry while pregnant. I think what happens is that I try to get all of the meat off the bones with my knife because I don't want to waste any, but then the chicken / turkey is slippery and so the knife or my hand slips and runs into my left hand. OW. This morning I was so scared that I had seriously cut myself that I immediately rinsed the cut off and grabbed a paper towel to wrap around my finger to stop the bleeding. I held it on my finger for a few minutes and went to find Matt to tell him we might have to go get stitches... but when I removed the paper towel, there were seriously only like 2 drops of blood on it. So thankfully my finger is fine and apparently I am a big baby. (An addition to this story is that at lunch today I was making a chicken sandwich and I wanted the chicken to be thinner to go into the sandwich better... can you guess what happened? Yes I cut the SAME FINGER AGAIN. I now have two bandaids on my left index finger....sigh.)

Another exciting less dangerous meal that we had yesterday was crab-avacado boats. It sounds strange - but they were awesome. You take crab meat (canned is OK) and make almost a tuna salad with them with lemon, yogurt, celery, spices (cumin and cayenne pepper). You cut an avacado in half, making little "boats" and put the crab salad inside. It is an amazingly delicious and light dinner that is still filling due to all of the protein and fat (the good fats!) Plus it was so easy and took almost no time at all. I forgot to take a picture of the cute little boats. Sorry. We ate them too fast! :)

And tonight, I made my own hummus mixed with feta cheese that we ate with warmed tortillas and fresh cut veggies. YUM. See what I mean about unusual this week? The Fresh 20 is bringing their A-game this week.

Here is a picture of my delicious homemade hummus. Ellen even helped by pushing the buttons on the blender.


I am 10 weeks pregnant this week (less than 2 weeks till the 12 week drs appointment, not that I'm counting or anything!) I have definitely grown a little since last week - last week I could button my nice black pants I wear to work, this week not so much. Thank goodness for cute belly bands!

10 weeks!

Philly Cheese Steaks?

So tonight's Fresh 20 dinner was Philly Cheese Steaks! When I first read this I thought - awesome! Cheesesteaks! I LOVE cheesesteaks! Especially being pregnant I have been craving red meat big time. However, I should have looked a little closer at the title of the recipe. Philly Cheese Steaks. With a space between Cheese and Steaks. Meaning that this was not a recipe for anything close to my favorite cheesesteak ever from Renato's. (yummmmm)

It turned out pretty good, but it did in no way resemble a cheesesteak. :)
I should have taken a picture, sorry, I'll try to paint a word picture. First I took potatoes and cut them up to make some nice thick fries. I then tossed the fries with spices, oil, and garlic, and baked them in the oven for about 30 minutes till they were nice and crispy. Meanwhile Matt sliced up some skirt steak pretty thinly, and cooked the steak in a pan with onions and peppers. After the steak was finished cooking, we put the steak/pepper/onion mixture on top of the fries, and shredded some white cheddar cheese on top. (what no cheese whiz?!?) This whole mixture was put back into the oven for the cheese to melt for about 3 minutes. It ended up quite delicious, especially the garlic fries. The steak was a bit chewy for my taste, nothing like the melt in your mouth meat in a cheesesteak. Ah well, I'll just have to make sure I get a real cheesesteak at Renato's the next time I visit my parents!

We are still doing the fresh 20 (www.thefresh20.com) this has got to be at least 2 months now! And while some of the recipes are kind of kooky, I still really love it. I love that someone else is doing the meal planning for me. Especially now that I'm pregnant I've gotten so picky about what I want to eat, its nice to have someone else deciding for me strangely. I think when I was pregnant with Ellen we mostly ate Central Market takeout (A fancy Texas grocery store, like Wegmans) And while that would be nice this time around... we just don't have the money and Wegmans is too far from our house. We have broken down and ordered thai food a few times, and we even found a pizza place here in State College that delivers gluten free pizza! (Corrinado's)

Speaking of the pregnancy, as far as we know I am still pregnant with twins - today marks 9 weeks!! Only 3 more weeks until we are in the 2nd trimester! (and we get to see the babies again at our 12 week appointment!) I swear my belly grew today - my jeans that fit this morning were super tight by the end of the day. Go babies go!!

Here is a picture of me at 9 weeks, my belly is starting to poke out! Hello EARLY!! I know it is ridiculous to start posting pictures so early. But at least I can look back and see how skinny I was when I am enourmous. :)

TWINS!!!!

WE ARE HAVING TWINS!!!! Oh my gosh I'm so excited / shocked!!! We have known we were pregnant for a while (since March 30th) but I haven't been ready to share with many people because of our miscarriage the last time that happened right after we told pretty much everyone. I was planning to wait another month before announcing it to anyone besides immediate family, but then TODAY happened....

So today was our 8 week ultrasound. I didn't have any early ultrasounds for this pregnancy, it was my first doctor appointment plus an informal first ultrasound to get an idea of how far along we were. I already knew how far we were since this pregnancy was uber planned (I bought a 50 pack of ovulation tests and took one or two a day until it finally turned positive) plus I had been taking my temperature every morning so I knew exactly when conception happened. (sorry if that's TMI for anyone reading. :)) I was really anxious about this appointment because this was the exact week and ultrasound that we found out that we had lost the baby last time. Basically I've been counting down the days / hours until our appointment this morning.

I was lying on the table and the doctor starts the ultrasound and I'm thinking / praying: please let there be a heartbeat, please please. And then she says - "You are having twins!" And that is where I don't remember very much. Matt says I didn't believe her, I remember crying and the doctor telling me to breathe... (happy / overwhelmed crying!)

After this she told us about 100 facts about having twins, none of which I remember now. I wish they had some sort of a brochure. The title could be "So you're having Twins!" lol.

She also got the ultrasound techs to squeeze us in for a formal ultrasound to measure everything and get better pictures!! :) We waited a while and then we had our formal ultrasound and it was amazing. Baby A and Baby B as they are now called measured at 8 weeks and 5 days (bigger than they are supposed to be by my calculations, hopefully that is good?) They are fraternal twins, meaning that they have two egg sacs, two placentas, two of everything!! This is much more low risk than identical twins that share a placenta, so this is a very good thing!! The ultrasound tech was even able to see that both eggs came from my right ovary - I guess my right side decided to have a big month. I wonder if this is how fraternal twins usually happen? Are the eggs usually from one ovary? I'll have to do some internet research. :)

Here is a picture of the little babies:


Everyone who sees this picture says: OMG there are TWO of them! And yes. Yes there are!

 Here is Baby A:


And here is Baby B:


We are so excited and also a little scared. Mostly I'm scared now because there are so many more risks with a twin pregnancy. I'm going to try to not focus on these though, and just focus on being healthy and calm, and growing these babies!! :) What a miracle. Hopefully these little miracles will be arriving sometime around Thanksgiving! So we at least have some time to get used to it!!

Herb Garden

I'm so proud of us - we planted an herb garden today!!! This is big for me because in general I hate plants. I always manage to kill them. I can never figure out how much or little to water them, and where they should be for the best sun. Basically every single plant I have ever had has died. I have a huge brown thumb. So, its big that we are attempting an herb garden!!

The reason I decided I wanted one is that with the Fresh 20 meal plan we've been doing (this is our 5th week - woohoo!) they require a lot of fresh herbs in their recipes. And somehow I never use all of the herbs that I buy - I always end up with a HUGE thing of parsley left in our fridge and then feel so wasteful. With a herb garden though, I can just go outside, grab a few leaves, and be ready to cook! :) With no waste!

Matt was awesome and cleared away this nice little space in our backyard that is raised so that I can stand on these railroad ties and garden. I don't even have to get all dirty kneeling in the ground. Not that that's bad, but its very convenient for me to come check on them / water them. We planted basil, cilantro, thyme, and parsley. In addition to herbs we also planted two tomato plants and two pepper plants. I'm hoping that we can get some awesome tomatoes and peppers this summer. If the deer/bunnies/groundhogs/racoons don't eat them... and to keep that from happening I bought this "guaranteed" pest repellent spray!! This stuff is POTENT. It is OK to use on edible plants, and nothing poisonous is in it, but it sure is smelly! The guy at Home Depot claimed that it has fox urine in it? Gross. I did not see that on the ingredients label, just a lot of garlic, so I'm hoping that its just the strong garlic smell that I'm smelling when I spray it, and NOT fox urine. Matt offered to just go out and do his business on them every night if that would help. I told him absolutely no. Boys and their wanting to pee on everything. (Did anyone have little brothers? Mine used to regularly pee on our backyard shed / have pee competitions for whose could be the highest / longest) (Sorry to my brothers for this embarrassing story!!)

Anyway, enough talking about pee, I forgot to take any herb garden pictures today, I'll add some to the next post. Here is a cute one of Ellen playing in her turtle sandbox! The weather has been super nice out and Ellen loves being outside. She just ran around doing who knows what while Matt and I did yard-work this afternoon for about 2 hours. It was great, this summer is going to be awesome.


p.s. yes she IS wearing butterfly pants. :)

Ellen's Eats

I'm always writing posts about what I am cooking for Matt and me to eat, so I thought I'd do a post on what I make for Ellen!

Ellen is now 18 months old, and so she can eat pretty much anything. Also thankfully she is not allergic to anything, so I don't have to worry about that when preparing her foods. She is mostly a good eater and will try most foods, but has trouble with chewy foods like meats (chicken, turkey), and crunchy veggies.

Here are a few meals that I'll make for Ellen on a regular basis:

Main dishes:
Buitoni pastas: whole wheat cheese ravioli, mushroom ravioli, cheese & chicken ravioli (found in the refrigerated section at your grocery store)
While this pasta is not super cheap, it is delicious and I tell myself mostly healthy for her. And one package lasts at least 4-5 meals worth of dinners, so at $5 a package that's not so bad! I also like that she happily eats the mushroom, and chicken filling, so at least she's getting some good protein from something that's not cheese or peanut butter!

Tacos:
Corn taco with refried beans, sweet potato, salsa, and cheese on top. Generally she won't eat the corn taco, but she picks the toppings off.

Spaghetti with meat sauce or meatballs: Ellen loves eating noodles, and I can sometimes sneak some extra veggies into the sauce that she'll eat

Home-made pizza: Ellen ate my latest gluten free pizza that I made the other night with leeks, red peppers, and peperoni. She was not a fan of the peperoni, I think it was too chewy for her, but she happily ate the rest of the pizza.

String cheese! Nothing rounds out a good meal like string cheese! Ellen loves string cheese and so if I am having trouble getting a complete meal for her, I know I can always throw in a string cheese and that will do the trick.

Veggies:
Sweet potatoes
Cooked carrots and peas
Gerber baby food veggies (peas, green beans, garden veggies)

Because Ellen really won't eat very many vegetables, I often just give her a container of Gerber veggies that she will happily eat with a spoon. I figure at least she is getting the vegetable, and eventually she'll like the veggies b/c she will like the taste. Hopefully! :) I never liked cooked carrots as a child and still abhor them as an adult, so if she decides to hate a vegetable or two I will understand! :)

Fruits:
Bananas
Apples (without the skin, it makes her choke / throw up - not pretty)
Apple sauce - she calls it "sauce" and loves to eat with a spoon
Dole Fruit cups - these are the best - tiny fruit cups with chopped pears, peaches, oranges, pineapples, or mixed. Ellen LOVES these, they are usually her dessert and she gets so excited and shoves the fruit pieces in her mouth. Once I put the whole container of oranges on her tray and thought I had bought myself at least a few minutes to do the dishes, but literally 30 seconds later I turned around and all of the oranges were gone and she was yelling for more!

And of course I always try to give her a little of what I made for Matt and me. This can be difficult because Ellen usually eats her dinner over at her friend Emma's house while she is being babysat or I am babysitting her. Basically we are never home for Ellen's dinner time Monday - Thursday. This means I need to pack her dinner at lunch-time before we go to Emma's house, and there is no way that I have made dinner by lunch-time!! So, Ellen often will get leftovers from the day before. Last week she actually ate this tofu-kale dish that I even didn't like, and at least for one day this week she liked my black bean salad that I made yesterday. Today apparently she just threw the beans into her chair. Sigh. That's another thing about trying to feed a toddler, one day a certain food like pasta will be their favorite. And the next day they will refuse to even touch it. Are they forgetting that they enjoyed it just the day before? Or are they just demanding a more exciting diet? :) (in ellen's head) "You gave me pasta yesterday woman - today I want steak!" Though really I think Ellen would not like steak - too chewy!

For breakfasts and lunches we usually have the same thing everyday - Ellen likes her routine! For breakfast she has cereal with milk (usually chex & cheerios) and sometimes a banana. For lunch she has a pb&j sandwich, yogurt, and fruit. Today after she finished her sandwich she started pointing where I usually put her yogurt on her tray and said "Yogurt! Yogurt!" That little girl knows what's next!

We don't typically give her a lot of desserts, she LOVES chocolate so if it is a special occasion, a holiday or birthday of course we give her sweets. For example on Easter I think she ate 2 mini twix and 2 reese peanut butter eggs. She was just a bit covered in chocolate but oh so happy. I hope that because we don't give her chocolate regularly she won't come to expect it or demand it in the grocery store! On Easter after she had had 4 chocolates we told her she couldn't have anymore, and any egg that she found that had chocolate, she brought it to us but we didn't open it for her. I had thought that there might be some protest, but she actually didn't seem upset at all and just accepted that there was no more chocolate to eat. She still enjoyed finding the eggs though! Next year I'll have to find some little toys to put inside as well.

I think that's about it! When Ellen was a baby I used to make all of her baby food using our blender (which I destroyed blending up a batch of carrots I think - anyone have any suggestions for a better baby food maker?) and while I kind of miss those days of getting frozen cubes of food out of the freezer for her to eat, (SO easy!) I'm also enjoying her learning to feed herself and watching her try new foods!

Happy Easter! (and best pesto-pasta EVER)

This week was another good one from the Fresh20 with possibly the best pesto I have ever had in my life. It might also have been because I have never made pesto before and was so proud about making it that made it taste so good. :)

This pesto was made with fresh basil,(totally destroyed our poor basil plant to get enough basil for the recipe) walnuts (instead of pine nuts - and much cheaper!), olive oil, garlic, parmesan cheese, and salt & pepper. All you do is put the ingredients into the blender (or probably better to make in a food processor, which I really need to get) and then blend into a delicious paste!! Toss with pasta and you have got an amazing meal.

Another night I was totally craving a burger, but unfortunately we had no frozen burgers already made, and it was too late for Matt to run to the store to get ingredients. I was about to give up hope when I realized that one of the menu items for the fresh20 last week was turkey burgers! Now a turkey burger definitely does not replace a real burger... but it was close enough. :) These turkey burgers turned out quite delicious, if anyone has watched Parks & Recreation - meat is always better - but they did the trick.

Friday we had possibly the largest salad I have ever eaten, but it was amazing. It included: spinach greens, regular greens, avocado, bell pepper, onions, and garbanzo beans. It was delicious and quite filling!!

Here is the amazing pesto dish: (with tomato salad!)


And here is the ginormous salad:


We had a great relaxing Easter - we decided to stay in town for once and I'm glad we did. This morning we woke up and went for a nice walk as a family. It was a bit chilly since it was early so Ellen was wearing a hat and mittens. She unfortunately dropped one of her mittens at the turn-around point in our walk. We didn't realize we had lost the mitten until we were almost done. So poor Matt had to essentially do the entire walk twice. Good exercise to offset all of the chocolate we have eaten! :)

For lunch some good friends of ours came over with their almost 1yr old daughter and we had a fun Easter Egg hunt! Ellen was really excited to discover that all of the eggs contained chocolate and she ate quite a few pieces and was covered in chocolate. Adorable. Easter is one of those days where it is ok to be covered in chocolate I think.

Then, we dyed Easter Eggs! Matt and I were realizing that once you have kids you get to do all of these fun things like have Easter egg hunts and dye Easter eggs. Not that we let Ellen help, we decided it would have been wayyy too messy. She can help next year. She was much more interested in playing with her plastic eggs from the easter egg hunt anyway (chocolate removed, we are not that bad of parents)

Here are a few pictures from today:
Yummy!!


Playing in the sand-box


Found an egg in her swing:


There's chocolate in here!!


Found more chocolate


Dying Eggs:


We used as many stickers as possible:


Happy Easter everyone!