Oct 28, 2013

Week 27 Maternity Photos (Part 1)


This week, instead of sharing my normal weekly letter, I decided to just share my Maternity photos!! Partly due to the fact that I had no time to do the letter, but you didn't hear that from me!

I must say, I have one FANTASTIC photographer! She's a woman after my own heart. She's strong, beautiful, creative, hilarious, and most importantly and Aggie!! Her name is Candace Moore and she is the genius behind Minerva House. She is located in Houston, TX, in case you want to give her a holler, but I know she is always happy to travel! I knew choosing Candace would be a decision I'd never regret. She went above and beyond what I imagined...I mean, I knew the images would come out great, but man, I'm just blown away at her ability to capture my vision so perfectly!

I wanted something rustic, timeless, soft, and dramatic. I love sunrise and sunset images, it really is the perfect light for pictures. I wanted it to capture the beauty of Texas in the Fall, especially since I am a Texas gal through and through, born and raised in the country. The weather could not have been better for exactly that! 68 degrees and sunny, thank you Lord!

I won't bore you with all of the details of the day, but I will say the coolest part of the day was having a giant Monarch butterfly land on me! We got some really pretty shots and I'll chalk that up to some good pregnancy luck!

In the end, I walked away with over 300 gorgeous images to remember this wonderful time in our lives. Here are a few lots of faves from my maternity photo shoot! I'm so horrible at picking favorites, I just can't do it. This is part 1 and I'll post part 2 in a few days because they take forever to download! Hopefully, these will inspire your future maternity shoot! Enjoy.


















If this is your first time on the blog feel free to check out some of my previous pregnancy posts! I hope you'll stick around for the long haul!

Previous posts:
Week 26
No Week 25, oops!
Week 24
Week 23
Week 22
Week 21
Week 20


Oct 27, 2013

Graveyard Cream Cheese Toffee Dip


I'm a little late on my Halloween post, but hey, cut me some slack, I'm about to be 7 months pregnant, my mind is not in blogging mode right now!

My office is actually having a dip challenge so I thought this would be a good chance to create something fun and festive for Halloween that I could also share with you here on the blog!

If you've procrastinated your Halloween baking and you have a party this week or weekend this dip will be right up your alley! It's fast, simple and delicious!

I found this recipe over at Our Best Bites and jazzed it up a bit with some fun Halloween touches. Create a free hand spooky cinnamon chip tree, a few cinnamon chip head stones, throw on some extra toffee for grave dirt and green sprinkle for grass and bippity, boppity, boo, you have yourself one spooky and delicious graveyard!


Dip Ingredients:
1 8-oz. package cream cheese (you can use light cream cheese)
3/4 c. brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla (you can add more to taste)
Toffee bits
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. (about a pinch) nutmeg

Dip Directions:
Combine cream cheese, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla with an electric mixer. When ready to serve, stir in about 1/2 a bag of toffee bits with more sprinkled on top. Serve with the homemade Cinnamon Chips and fresh fruit.


Cinnamon Chip Ingredients:
Flour tortillas
Butter
Cinnamon
White Sugar

Cinnamon Chip Directions:
Spread butter liberally over tortillas. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar to taste. I used quite a bit of each because I think more is better in this case! Using a pizza cutter, create small pizza shaped wedges and place on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until edges slightly curl.

Dippers:
Homemade Cinnamon Chips
Granny Smith Apples
Strawberries

For the spooky tree and headstones I used a sharp knife tip and free-handed the shapes. I then took an icing pen and added the details to the headstones. I would suggest waiting till right before you serve before adding these pieces to the dip or they may go to mush before the guest get to see.

And there you have it! Your very own spooky graveyard cream cheese toffee dip, enjoy!




Oct 20, 2013

Letters to Baby K - Week 26


I missed week 25, oops! I guess that's what happens when life gets just a little too busy. I'm sure Peyton won't notice he's missing a week from his book when I put these all together for him. He is a boy after all, that don't notice that kind of detail, right?

Today, I spent some time with one of my best friends, shopping at our local monthly flea market and enjoying the beautiful Fall weather. The walking was much needed since I've fallen off my typical three days a week workout routine. I'm kind of terrified to even attempt to workout, even though I've been given the OK by my Dr. I feel that since I was so sick in the beginning and that now since I am so far along that if I try to start back up that it will somehow be way too stressful on Peyton. Especially after my whole bleeding/ER visit incident. I might just stick to some moderate walking around the block after dinner and some pregnancy stretches that are in my week by week pregnancy book. I haven't gained too much weight, about 18 pounds at the moment, which is right on target for how far along I am, so I'm not really worried about dropping it after the delivery. We shall see though.

I've also come to the realization that I am way more laxed in my preparation slash researching than I thought I would be. I mean, don't get me wrong, I ask my Dr. every time I go in, "what should I be doing now to prepare?" to make sure I haven't missed an important step like signing up for a class, registering at the hospital, getting a shot, whatever...but I just feel like I haven't done as much research as I would have expected myself to do by this point. I like to plan and research, which is strange for me to be so zen, like, whatever happens, happens. I do read my books that have week by week info, so maybe I'm just more prepared than I give myself credit for. I just feel like I may be missing something, you know? What were the best ways you prepared? As a first-time-mom, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

In other exciting news, I took my maternity photos this week and boy howdy, I think they're going to be gorgeous!! I have a WONDERFUL photographer who never ceases to amaze me with her photography/creative genius! Her name is Candace Moore of Minerva House and if you're looking for a Texas photographer be sure to check her out, you'll be glad you did!

We had the most amazing weather and lighting for our shoot...a little chilly, but hey, in Texas, I'd rather be cold at a photo shoot than a dripping puddle mess with my makeup all over the place! We started with two looks in Ft. Worth with the early morning sun. I'm talking I was out of bed at 5:00am getting ready! Just as we were packing up a beautiful Monarch butterfly landed on me and I squealed, "Candace! Look!" She of course, being the amazing photographer she is, jumped to action and started shooting and was able to capture some really great shots! I'd say that has some foreshadowing to a lucky pregnancy, don't you? We finished up later that evening in Dallas at White Rock Lake with two additional looks. I am so jazzed after seeing the sneak peek she posted on Facebook. I absolutely can't wait to see how the rest turn out! Here is the sneak peek below!

Don't they look magical!!? Gah, I can't wait to see the rest!

And finally, a Peyton update! During week 26 Peyton should be about the size of an eggplant. Weighing close to 2 pounds and measuring in at about 14 inches from head to heel. He's just getting so big!!

If this is your first time on the blog feel free to check out some of my previous pregnancy posts! I hope you'll stick around for the long haul!

Previous posts:
No Week 25, oops!
Week 24
Week 23
Week 22
Week 21
Week 20


Oct 6, 2013

Letters to Baby K - Week 24


Another week down, another week closer to meeting my handsome little prince, Peyton! Justin is just over the moon that I love the name Peyton. The reason being because it's his favorite football player's name, Peyton Manning. Yeah I'm that woman. The one who let her husband name their first child after a beloved athlete, haha! But in all fairness, I absolutely loved the name anyways so it was win-win for the both of us!

And speaking of daddy-to-be, I never imagined it, but I actually have to tell him to pump the breaks on shopping for our little fella! Haha! He is just so excited and wants to buy all of the cute little clothes and things he sees, but I know babies grow fast and you don't just want to go nuts buying everything that makes you go, "awwww!" I totally didn't expect that from him, but it is so unbelievably adorable to watch him get so excited. I know he's going to be an amazing dad!

Nesting has begun to kick in and I know it's only going to get worse. Luckily, it's not just me feeling it. Justin has picked up the pace with cleaning and is doing so much to help me out lately since he knows I'm not in my tip top cleaning/heavy lifting shape. I'm so grateful to have a husband who wants to actively participate in everything. Decorating, planning, cleaning, preparing, naming, shopping...he pretty much has his hand in everything. Not many woman can say that, so I count myself among the lucky few.

During my next scheduled visit I have to do the dreaded glucose test, awesome. I don't think it's supposed to be too bad, but I haven't heard raving reviews either! Someone please tell me I'm not going to barf choking down this nasty liquid! We'll also get to see Peyton again! I'm hoping I can convince the sonogram lady to flip it over to the 3D scan for juuussttt a few seconds so I can see sweet little Peyton's face! Justin really isn't interested in paying a hundred something bucks to have a 3D scan and in all honesty, neither am I, but I think it would be fun just to see for a second!

At week 24 Peyton is the size of an ear or corn, measuring around 12.5 inches from head to toe and weighs about 1.25 lbs!

If this is your first time on the blog feel free to check out some of my previous pregnancy posts! I hope you'll stick around for the long haul!

Previous posts:
Week 23
Week 22
Week 21
Week 20