Happy 2nd Birthday Hadley!

It's our little girl's 2nd birthday! Two years ago on March 19th at 8:07pm our sweet baby was born and we've been loving every day with her since then! :)
We celebrated on Saturday at the Mall of America and today at the Minnesota Zoo. I hope she had as much fun as we did.
Also want to wish our sisters Peggy and Mackenzie a very happy birthday!!

Foodie Friday Southwest Sweet Potato

This week I decided to make our version of The Biggest Loser's South of the Border Loaded Sweet Potato. It's basically your favorite taco toppings plus super low fat ground turkey on a baked sweet potato. I changed it up just a bit by adding to the toppings sautéed chopped veggie mix (from Trader Joe's prepped to cook produce).

Here's the original recipe:
http://www.biggestloser.com/nutrition/recipes/south-border-loaded-sweet-potato

I also added sriracha hot sauce ;)

Happy birthday to my mom today!

23 Weeks

How far along? 23 weeks (17 weeks to go!)

Total weight gain/loss: Up 8 pounds

Maternity clothes? Yes but I'm still mixing in a lot of my regular clothes also. I love my lululemon and Target long and lean tanks that I regularly wear because they are still working. ;)

Stretch marks? No new ones yet.

Symptoms:  Feeling good except for a little cold. ;)

Sleep:  Some nights I am too exhausted to toss and turn but other nights I'm constantly waking up.

Best moment this week: We hosted a baby shower for my friend Crystal last Saturday. I had been anticipating giving her a shower since last August when we found out that they were expecting so it's great that it went so well!

Have you told family and friends: Yes

Miss Anything? Beer, wine, {raw}sushi

Movement: Lots of kicks/punches, rolls and hiccups

Food cravings: Oreo Cheesecake Blizzard from DQ

Anything making you queasy or sick: Raw meat

Have you started to show yet: Yes

Baby is a: Girl

Belly Button in or out? In

Wedding rings on or off? On

Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy

Looking forward to: Tonight there is a big sale called Just Between Friends in Eagan and I am going to buy.buy.buy for baby M because it's always such awesome deals.

I'm also looking forward to celebrating sweet Hadley's birthday next Tuesday... my baby will be TWO YEARS OLD! Oh goodness, time really flies. My mom's birthday is this Friday, then Peggy, Mackenzie AND Hadley share 3.19 as their birthday plus Parker's birthday is the 3.22 so we have a lot of birthdays to celebrate in the next week.

Crystal's Baby Shower

The baby shower that we hosted on Saturday was so fun! Here are the pictures that I took... I didn't get any back from any of the ladies yet so once I get one that we are all in I will add it to the bottom. I promise I was there (it was at our house!) but I was just behind the camera in these. ;)

This is the appetizer and desserts table. Thanks to my co-hostess Niki for cooking so much of the food! Baking the cake, the hot pepper jelly with cream cheese app and krispie treat making was my contribution.

Here are the treat bags. They were homemade carmel corn in bags that said "About to Pop" which was so funny!

Some of the ladies chatting and then playing games.

Everyone brought a book for the baby and we put them in my vintage baby carriage. My mom bought the carriage for us for Hadley's baby shower. :)

The ombre cake~ loved it.

Foodie Friday Ombré Cake

More details to come but I baked a SEVEN LAYER blue ombré cake for the shower tomorrow. It's about 10 inches tall!

I used this tutorial to bake the cake layers but I obviously did blue instead of pink. ttp://www.eddieross.com/eddie_ross/2012/02/pink-ombre-cake.html

Can't wait to cut into it! Shower photos and details to come after the event.
Have a great weekend everyone!

Here's how it looked when we cut into it! I made sure to put the cut tops together when stacking the layers to reduce the brown "seams" from making too big of an impact on the colors. I think it turned out great and it tasted amazing. Every lady at the shower had a slice which in a group of ladies is quite a feat! This was a yummy idea that I definitely recommend for any celebration.

22 Weeks

How far along? 22 weeks

Total weight gain/loss: Up 7.5 pounds per my Monday check-up

Maternity clothes? Yes, but today I'm wearing my regular jeans with a Bella Band. My Seven jeans are just SO.MUCH.NICER. and more comfortable than old navy maternity jeans! :)

Stretch marks? No new ones yet.

Symptoms:  Feeling great but getting tired earlier in the evenings.

Sleep:  Some nights I am too exhausted to toss and turn but other nights I'm constantly waking up.

Best moment this week: Last Saturday, Jim and my father-in-law and I took a gun safety course and went to the shooting range. It was really fun!

Have you told family and friends: Yes

Miss Anything? Some nights (after long, busy toddler days) I would love a glass of wine :)

Movement: Lots of kicks/punches and daily hiccups! Hiccups are my favorite right now.

Food cravings: Oreo Cheesecake Blizzard from DQ

Anything making you queasy or sick: Raw meat (still)

Have you started to show yet: Yes

Baby is a: Girl

Belly Button in or out? In

Wedding rings on or off? On

Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy

Looking forward to: On Saturday we will be hosting a baby shower for my very sweet friend Crystal. Hadley is spending Saturday night with my in-laws so that we can host the baby shower and then go to a potluck for one of Jim's broomball teams. It will be a fun, long day!

Foodie Friday: Banana Cornmeal Muffins

This week I wanted to bake something simple and satisfying so I came up with my own twist on cornbread. When I think cornbread, I always rely on my old friend Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix since I grew up on that stuff. Some foodies have a serious dislike of Jiffy mix but I'm a busy mom to a toddler so using a simple mix in my recipes is something that I really appreciate.

Banana Cornmeal Muffins

Ingredients & Tools:
1 box Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix
Egg
Banana
1/3 cup Greek yogurt
1 tablespoon water
Non-stick spray or Misto with olive oil
Muffin pan

12 muffin liners

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. Mix egg, yogurt and banana, mashing banana into the mixture.

3. Add Jiffy mix and if the batter is thicker than pancake mix, add the tablespoon of water.

4. Spray 12 muffin liners in pan (I use my Misto sprayer to use olive oil on the liners.

5. Add one heaping spoon of mixture to each muffin; divide any excess among muffins.

6. Bake for 14-20 minutes or until tops are golden brown.

ENJOY!

My little taste tester accepted a bite from me and proceeded to grab the muffin out of my hand! I put her in her high chair and let her devour the rest of it. She has been a little bit choosy about her food recently so I'm glad she loves these!