My thoughts so far...

My thoughts on pregnancy thus far: (14 weeks, 6 days):

~ I was nauseous for about a month. Everyday. In the evenings. All evening. Fortunately it was like a switch, as soon as I hit 12 weeks, my nausea was gone. Some evenings I still feel a little puny, but not as bad as it was.

~ I am exhausted! I have once again enjoyed napping in the afternoons and learning when I need to take a break. I have been more forgiving of myself for not having all the dishes cleaned, the laundry washed and put away, etc.

~ I am enjoying watching my belly grow and change. I'm constantly rubbing and resting my hand on my stomach, hoping to feel some movement and just connecting with our little one. I get little pangs and soreness in my stomach, which I've read is growing and stretching of muscles; things moving around and trying to jostle for position.

~ I am constantly writing down names and trying to find the right combination for our child. There is such pressure to have a good name! There are endless options! Fortunately, Chris and I talk about it and cross some names off the list and keep some on there. And we even come up with some random names that just crack us up! {any suggestions?}

~ I feel so privileged that I have been able to get pregnant and carry this child. I know that we still have months to go until we meet this little peanut, but I just feel so lucky for every step we have taken (even the nausea is worth it).

~ One of the reasons I fell in love with Chris was how he treated his young cousins. I knew from the get-go that he would be a good dad. Seeing him with our niece (11 weeks old) and just this last week with our friend's grandson (5 weeks old), I know that will be the case. He is so caring, loving, and patient with little ones.

~ I am a worrier...always have been and probably always will be. I am trying to keep the worries away and just enjoy the moment. {Sometimes easier said than done, but I'm working on it} No matter how this child comes out: ten toes or five, white, green or yellow, boy or girl, it really doesn't matter. We already love it and are excited to get to know our child.

~ I feel so incredibly blessed by the outpouring of love we have received. The congratulations and well wishes really make me smile and helped the nausea fade a little. There is no doubt that our child will be well loved!

~ I really want to start buying baby items, but I'm holding myself back {at least until we find out if it's a boy or girl, hopefully within the next month or so}. There are so many cute items out there!

* I'm sure there is much more I can share, but I'm tired and this baby has sapped my brain function a bit. :-)

Final Christmas post

Well...the holiday is over and I'm ready to have our house back. I have been feeling that our house is stuffed and messy and disorganized. I'm ready to clean, clear and de-clutter!

I realized I didn't share our decorations with you, so here is a final Christmas post before we pack up our decor and fine tune the inside of our home.

My Willow Tree Nativity. Mom and Dad gave me a piece every year and last year {I think} I got the last piece. This is on the entryway table so that it is one of the first things you see when coming inside. I like changing the arrangement every year.  

Mom always has special touches throughout their house and this year I followed her lead. This is our little Nativity set that I placed in our guest bathroom.

These houses were always put up in Nana and Pawpaw's front window and now they have a special place on our mantle.

I can't remember if Pawpaw made this little wooden reindeer or not, but it always reminds me of their house and the cloth reindeer had a new place to perch every year in our home.

Our colorful Christmas tree.

Each year we get an ornament that represents something that happened that year. This year we got one of Santa climbing up the Empire State Building to represent our trip to NYC. We have everything from an ambulance (for when we met working as EMT's) to a camel luggage tag with our wedding date that my Aunt Julie made us, to Giants and Dodgers baseballs and much more.

I hope that you had a wonderful holiday, no matter how it was spent. Hopefully I'll have some fresh decor to share soon!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from all of the Crosbys!

We hope you have the most festive of holidays!

Chris, Mallory, Jack {our little reindeer}, Brick {our own Santa}, and our little peanut!

Isn't it beautiful?!?!

Look at how beautiful our house is!

Yes, yes it looks lovely with the Christmas lights up...

But if you look a little closer you might see...

GRASS!!!

We now have a front yard full of beautiful sod!

Of course it was finished just as night fell, but I am so excited and it is SOOO beautiful!

{Will share pictures in the daytime soon!} 

Christmas Tradition

We have a few Christmas traditions in our family: Me setting up the manger at Mom and Dad's, usually celebrating Christmas on some day other than Dec. 25th (due to our crazy work schedules and celebrating with in-laws), and making red chocolate crinkle cookies along lots of other goodies.   

Today I will share with you the story of the red chocolate crinkles. {recipe at the bottom}

I loved baking and cooking with my Nana {Mom's Mom}. She was the ultimate housewife (after retiring from nursing): constantly cooking, cleaning, gardening, dusting, and always putting her family before herself. While it deeply saddens me that she passed away before we could have adult conversations and I could learn more from her, I keep close to my heart our accidental tradition of red chocolate crinkles.

A long time ago {I was probably eight or nine} we started our holiday baking and the ingredients were brought out.

First you start out melting the chocolate in a sauce pan or double boiler.

And eventually you'll need to add some vanilla.

Funny thing about the vanilla though...this bottle looks a lot like

This bottle of red food coloring!

I remember us measuring out the "vanilla" and it coming out red for some reason. I don't remember what we said, but we just went with it and kept making the cookies. Only later did it dawn on us that the "vanilla" we used was actually food coloring!

A new tradition was born!

If we find time to do little else during the holidays, Mom and I always make time to bake our favorite red chocolate crinkles, reminiscing about Nana all the while.

 

Do you have any fun, accidental traditions?

Betty Crocker's Chocolate Crinkles:

1/2 cup vegetable oil

4 oz unsweetened baking chocolate, melted, cooled
2 cups granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs
2 cups Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup powdered sugar
{red food coloring optional}

In large bowl, mix oil, chocolate, granulated sugar and vanilla {and red food coloring}. Stir in eggs, one at a time. Stir in flour, baking powder and salt. Cover; refrigerate at least 3 hours.


Heat oven to 350°F. Grease cookie sheet with shortening or cooking spray.
Drop dough by teaspoonfuls into powdered sugar; roll around to coat and shape into balls. Place about 2 inches apart on cookie sheets.

Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until almost no imprint remains when touched lightly in center. Immediately remove from cookie sheets to cooling racks.

Savings

Clothes.

Candles.

Earrings.

Perfume.

Some of the things that I would save for special occasions to wear, bring out and enjoy.

Then, my candle cupboard began to fill; my special earrings were left sitting in my jewelry box, glittering in our bathroom light; I outgrew/disliked clothes that I never got to wear; and perfume fermented {is that even possible?} on the shelf waiting to be sprayed free.  

NO MORE I decided!

No more waiting for a "special occasion" to enjoy these things...

How easily we forget that today is special.

Today is important.

Right now is all that we have.

If I always wait for a special occasion to enjoy what I have, I will be forever missing out on the special occasion of today.

My goal is to remember what I have, who I have in my life, and how absolutely blessed I am. 

{Thanks to Hallmark for the reminder, I knew there was a reason I liked them!} 

Right now...

I've seen this on many other blogs, so I decided to join in.

Right now I am: At work. {fortunately it's been a pretty quiet day, especially with the rain}

Watching: We have Anchorman on TV right now. I'm sad The Amazing Race ended last night, that's probably my favorite show. I used to love The Office, but I'm not a fan of the new boss and recent story lines.

Eating: Carrots, hummus, and brown rice. I had orange chicken for lunch, but I dropped the Tupperware right after I took the lid off and it spilled all over the floor.

Drinking: Apple juice. For some reason, it always tastes better in the small Martinelli's apple-shaped bottle.

Wearing: My after-hours work uniform: an official fire sweatshirt and sweatpants.

Avoiding: Putting on my day work uniform. My pants have become a little tight and I didn't feel like getting out of my sweats...I'm waiting to see how long I can make it before the supervisor notices.

Feeling: Good! My nausea seems to be fading, hopefully now that I have passed the 12 week mark, my nausea will subside completely. I'm still pretty tired throughout the day, but taking naps on my breaks has been helping.  

Missing: Spending time with good friends, making home-cooked meals often, a clean house,

Thankful: For more than I can ever list. I have been so blessed in my life and I know that I have much more than I will ever need. Today I am thankful for love, family, a good job, a roof over our head, and the little one growing inside of me.

Weather: It's a rainy day, it's a rainy day! Making it feel much more like the Christmas season with the fog, clouds, and rain. While i absolutely love the sunshine, I am enjoying the cool weather, warm jackets, jeans, and snuggling up with my love.

Praying: For friends that are struggling, for everyone out on the roads to travel safe, for health, saying words of thankfulness and asking for forgiveness.

Needing: A nap, more time with my family and friends, and maybe some ice cream.

Thinking: Of some last minute gifts to get to finish our Christmas shopping, hopefully tomorrow we will be done.

Loving: My life. We are so lucky to have all that we do and be where we are at this point in our lives.

That's about it. I'd love to read what you're up to right now!

SB Zoo

Last weekend we stayed the night in Santa Barbara because Chris' work had a holiday party. We had a great time and after staying out until about 3am, we decided to have a lazy day. Getting breakfast with some friends and then heading to the Santa Barbara Zoo.

We thought that the zoo would be crowded because we saw that a cruise ship was docked in the harbor, but thankfully, the zoo was pretty empty. The weather was just gorgeous and we had a wonderful time wandering around.

This Cockatoo was off by himself enjoying the sunshine.

The snow leopard kept pacing at the front of the cage, a larger one was sleeping on a big rock at the back of the enclosure.  

 

There is a neat walk-in aviary filled with many different types of birds. Most hid when we came in, but this duck was just finishing up a bath.

The duck on the left was very colorful! {hard to get a closer picture}

Duck buddies!

We stood in the aviary for a while, Chris was taking inspiration to build a big pond in our backyard.

These Goeldi's Monkeys cracked us up, look at their white mustaches!

Don't they know Movember is over?

Across the water were these Gibbon monkeys on their own island

Looks like a ghost!

While the flamingo's are interesting to look at, they sure smell!

But the three babies were cute to look at, they start out grey and then turn pink as they age.

One of my favorites, the penguins. They have a neat enclosure where you can watch them from above or below the water.

One of their penguins, Lucky, was even on the Today show this morning. He has a special shoe to help him walk.

These two were enjoying eating some pumpkins!

There were many woodpeckers flying around freely as we walked through the zoo. We came upon a tree that had some holes with nuts in it.

The giraffe's were being fed and one got pretty close to us.

They have a nice view of the ocean, just on the other side of the road.

This one just gave birth to a baby boy, he was pretty shy though.

For some reason I always look forward to the Meerkats. This one was like a statue, just sitting...possibly contemplating freedom just over the wall.

They have two bald eagles and they always remind me of my Pawpaw.

These small otters were so funny! We were there at feeding time and they sure screech and growl at each other! They move as a group and then scatter when searching for food. They even got one of their favorite treats, earth worms!

We enjoyed our lazy day at the zoo! If you need somewhere to get away for a few hours, I'd definitely recommend the SB Zoo! {It was even one of the places we considered having our wedding!}

I'll admit it...I'm a failure!

I have been completely slacking on my blogging lately.

You would think that I have a lot to post about right now, but I have been feeling pretty nauseous from around 2 or 3 in the afternoons until I go to bed.

So, we have been spending our mornings running errands, doing chores, and trying to tackle the never-ending laundry. And spending anywhere from 48-80 hours a week at work.

In the evenings, I spend laying on the couch, trying not to throw up all over our furniture (fortunately, it's just nausea at this point)...tmi? Sorry!

Before we made our pregnancy announcement, I couldn't find anything to blog about, because all I wanted to blog about was our baby-to-be, and now I don't have the energy to take pictures or venture too far from the den.

Now, I have missed a happy Sunday post and only have one post waiting in my drafts folder {one that even has pictures!}. Hopefully this week will find me with the energy to get outside, take pictures of our holiday decorations, and find more to share with you.

For now, I will sit here {at work}, eating my york peppermint patty, and waiting until 1am when I can go to bed. And hoping that you will all stick with me through my blogging slump.

I will leave you with a picture...

This is a card my parents sent to us after we told them the news. Aren't they awesome??!!