Weekend Recap

We went to Buffalo over the weekend for our last organized trip there before baby comes. We may end up going sometime again in June, but with the due date only 4 weeks away now, I'm a little paranoid about being an hour and 20mins away from the hospital. So I think if we go again, it might just be for a day trip and not for the whole weekend like usual.

Friday we got in there a little late, had dinner at my Mom's and just relaxed.

Saturday, my friend Megan and I went to Excuria Salon and Spa to treat ourselves to a pedicure. It was wonderful! I haven't had one done since the wedding and my tootsies needed some lovin'! Being pregnant, they've gotten a bit swollen so it felt really good this time. After the pedicure, Gabe and I went over their house to see little Noah since we haven't seen him since our hospital visit. He's very cute and very good! Later, we met my Dad at Rizzo's for dinner. I used to work there a few years ago and haven't been in awhile. It was very good-we ate too much though! After dinner, we just went back to my Mom's and relaxed a bit before bed.

Today we went to a new restaurant called Crazy Jake's for lunch. My Mom's cousin Gail was in town from VA and we haven't seen her since our wedding so we all went out for a lunch today. The food was very good and it's a very nice place. Gabe and I headed home right after lunch. I dropped him off at his Dad's so they could do some running around and wood cutting. I came home and unpacked and went grocery shopping. Now I'm just relaxing a bit before deciding what to tackle (if anything) next. Back to work tomorrow!

A Piece of Me is Missing

WARNING: Bare belly pics ahead! Don't say I didn't warn you!

A part of me is missing and has been since yesterday afternoon. I finally broke down and removed it. What you ask? My belly button ring. (sheds tear)

Why is this such a big deal? I have no idea. But it was so much harder than I thought. I got it pierced in 1998-yes, 11 years ago! I was 18 at the time (almost 19) and it was my "rebellious" thing I did I guess you could say. The funny thing? I remember when I got it thinking "I'll take it out by the time I'm 21-I'll be too old to have one by then." Flash forward 11 years when I'm 30 and I still had it in! Funny how that happens.

A few times over the years, it got infected. Nothing serious, but enough where I was in tears over the thought of having to remove it. It never got that bad thankfully and I always kept it in.

I don't know why I care so much about it-it's not like I show it off or anything-I never bare my stomach-even a bikini is pushing it at times-but it has become a part of me I guess. Over the years you just get used to having it there and being aware of it and feeling it.

When I found out I was pregnant, I knew it may have to come out. I've heard that leaving it in as long as you can helps not stretch the scar out or make it worse than it is. I was hoping I could keep it in until the end. My doctor didn't say much about it in the beginning, but at my appt. 2 weeks ago mentioned it would need to be out "soon". I had an appt yesterday so decided that before I went in, I would take it out.

I haven't seen my belly completely bare in 11 years and it feels weird. All day today when I would rub my stomach or put my hand there to feel the baby, I would notice something was missing. Not that I used to play with the ring or anything, but like I said, you're just aware of it there. And now it's not. So now I'm aware of that. It's a little sad to me-like the title says, a piece of me feels like it's gone. Will I put it back in? I don't know. Are Moms "trashy" if they have one?! I'm anxious to see if the hole closes up at all. I would think it would be like an earring and not close, but who knows. I guess I'll find out eventually.

Oh, and the other thing I'm losing? My belly button-my nice innie I have is slowly turning inside out. Another reason the ring had to come out I think.

So, in honor of losing a piece of me, I decided to take a few pics of my newly bare belly...and hopefully it stays stretch mark free as it is now!

End of the Long Weekend

It's Monday night-back to work tomorrow! My weekend was pretty productive. I went to the gym both Saturday and Sunday (yes I'm still going!). I got all of the baby laundry done and all of the clothes, bedding, towels put away. I found a home for all of the diapers and wipes and got part of the changing station set up. I organized all of the books we got and put the "young" books (0-12 mos) in a basket in the nursery. We went to Lowe's and picked out new blinds and found some shelves that we'll put up once the crib arrives. Today I put our stroller together and set up the diaper pail. Out of all of the gifts, I'd say I have about 1/3 left to put away. But some of it is stuff for the crib, which we're waiting on. The rest of it?! Well, it's stuff I just don't know what to do with at the moment. Most of it is stuff we either won't use right away (potty chair, hook on chair for restaurants) or is stuff we'll use right away, but not everyday (baby tub, baby bjorn carrier, etc.). I'm finding that we don't have a ton of storage room so I'm just stuck at the moment as to where to put that stuff. I'm sure the stuff we won't need right away will make its way to the attic eventually. The stuff we'll use but not everyday? Hmmm....have to think about that for a bit! Once we get the crib and glider in the room, then I'll see what the space is like in there and get things settled in the room. But for now it'll just stay where it's been since the showers-in the dining room!

Besides baby stuff, I did the usual grocery shopping and we also went to my in-laws for a cookout today (and to Lugia's for ice cream after-YUM!). This weekend was just so nice out-the weather couldn't have been better! Gotta love long weekends!!

A Very Busy, But Good Day!

Yesterday I took the day off of work like I mentioned. I wanted to get crackin' on baby stuff so I got up and started digging through my shower things to find anything that needed to be washed-blankets, burp cloths, wash cloths, towels, and clothes. After that I spent about a half hour starting to cut the tags off of everything-my God did that take WAY longer than expected!

I had to interrupt my progress to go to Gabe's workplace-they threw us and another couple a baby shower yesterday! There were maybe 10 people there and they had cheese and crackers and Carvel cake (Gabe's fave) for us. In addition, we got some lovely gifts-an exer-saucer, a pack of diapers, sippy cups, disposable bibs, a 3 pack of sleepers, a halo sleep sack, and a gift card to Wegman's! It was very generous and thoughtful of them. When I got home from the shower, I cut more tags off of things and got a few loads of baby laundry started-mostly sheets, towels, wash cloths, and blankets.

Gabe had a shortened day at work so he was home by 4pm. When he got home, we went to look at a swing. To backtrack, I registered for a swing which shortly after got discontinued. I really wanted this swing because it plugs in instead of using batteries (you can use batteries with it too). The model they replaced it with does not plug in and there are very few, if any swings that plug in, which makes no sense to me. Anyways, we didn't get the swing at either of our showers so I decided for the heck of it to check on craigslist. I found someone on there selling it and asking $100 for it. I emailed her and offered her $75 and she accepted (yay for getting something half price!)! So, when Gabe got home we stopped at his parents house to pick up their larger vehicle then went to check out the swing. It looked pretty much like new so we bought it! I'm so excited!!

After that, we went to Babies R Us to look at a glider and we liked the one that was on sale for 25% off so we ordered that! And we had enough in gift cards from our shower to cover the cost which is great! We also picked up some diapers and onesies while we were there too.

After that, we hit up Target and Sam's club to get some stuff we needed there. Then off to home to unload everything. After unloading, back to his parents house to swap cars again. By this time it was after 8pm and neither of us had really eaten since his baby shower at work! So we were pretty tired and pretty hungry. So off to The Distillery we went for a quick bite. I came home and folded some laundry from the afternoon and we pretty much just relaxed the rest of the night. Hopefully the rest of the weekend will be this productive!

35 Weeks

Today I'm at 35 weeks! Only 5 more to go-yes, I can count the weeks on one hand now! Hard to believe! I'm starting to get anxious now-more because there's a lot left to do to prepare for baby's arrival. I took today off of work and this weekend is pretty much baby weekend for me-I'm going to try to get a lot accomplished if I can! We'll see how it goes!!

I'm still feeling pretty good. My back bothers me here and there if I stand or sit for too long. Still getting out of breath very easily and with the warmer weather, I've been sweating like crazy! Haha! I'm usually cold all of the time so I guess I can't complain about that. Other than that, doing well and hangin' in there!

Peanut Butter & Chocolate Chip Rice Krispy Bars

I found this recipe a few months ago while looking through a magazine at work. I'm a peanut butter freak, so anything with peanut butter in it I have to consider making! When I first got the recipe, I had some of the ingredients, but not the exact ingredients. I decided to "wing" it and try them out....well, they could have been better. They turned out very dry (not enough marshmallows) and crumbly, but tasted ok. So, I went out and bought the exact ingredients and decided to make them last night for real this time. This time? They're a keeper! I took them to work today and everyone loved them!

Peanut Butter & Chocolate Chip Rice Krispy Bars

16 large marshmallows
1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
2 cups rice krispies
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips
2 Heath bars (1.4 oz each) (note-I bought the heath bar pieces in the baking aisle-it was cheaper that way and I used roughly 1/3 of a cup of them)

1. Crush Heath bars into small pieces
2. In saucepan, heat marshmallows and peanut butter over low heat (Key here-LOW heat) until melted, then remove from heat.
3. Stir in rice krispies until coated
4. Add chocolate chips and heath bar-stir until mixed in
5. Pour and press into 8"x8" (or 9"x9") pan
(note-the magazine recipe says to coat your hands in oil and form them into balls. I chose the pan method instead)

The only thing I have to master here is melting the marshmallows and peanut butter. I think I let it melt too long because they were a little hard to cut when they cooled. Next time, I won't heat them as long-I think the key is to have a few pieces of marshmallow intact when you turn off the heat.

10 Months!

Car Seats....Check!

Yesterday, Gabe and I took our cars to the Gates Ambulance to get our car seats installed. His sister was very nice and is letting us use her infant car seat along with the 2 car seat bases. One less thing for us to purchase which is great! Since we never installed car seats before, we decided to have the pros do it! We had an appt at 130 in the afternoon and they were done with both cars in under 20 minutes! We each watched them install it in the cars and it was pretty easy! Which is good to know in case we need to take them out for any reason (which I really don't anticipate). So they are officially installed in our cars now! I keep forgetting I have it in there and every time I walk up to my car it catches the corner of my eye and I have that "what is that?" moment, then realize it's the car seat! It'll take awhile to get used to it in there!

Rochester Baby Shower

Today was my baby shower in Rochester. It was thrown by my Mother-In-Law and my Sister-In-Law. They had it at the Staybridge Suites which is a new hotel in the area. We were in the Rapids Room which had a door that you could walk out onto a veranda and be right next to the river. It was a very nice location.

Here is a picture showing the table set up-both pink and blue napkins of course!


This is a picture of each place setting. Each person had a small white box with a onesie cut-out on it and their name (place cards). Inside the box were mixed nuts and York peppermint patties. Each person also received a cut-out cookie as a favor.


These are the three cookie shapes they made-a onesie, a baby carriage, and feet. They were all so cute! My Aunt and a few cousins baked the cookies, then my in-laws frosted and decorated them.


This is a shot of some of the food-the fruit display and french toast. The food was very good. We had a quiche with mushrooms, broccoli and peppers. There were small roasted potatoes, chicken french, the fruit, french toast with almonds topping it (VERY yummy) and a basket full of pastries. They also got dessert trays from Orien's bakery (our fave gelato place) which were delicious!


Here are some pics of me opening gifts. We got a lot of wonderful things. My Mother-In-Law had everyone bring a baby book so we received a ton of good books to read. And no duplicates!! We also received our high chair, baby gate, a mobile, lots of cute outfits, some diapers, stuffed animals, etc. Everyone was very generous and the baby is going to be all set! It was a very lovely shower.

Too Stinkin' Cute!

I just have to show off how darn cute my cat is! She doesn't sleep on our laps as much as she used to. Part of it is her blanket obsesssion so now that it's warmer out, we don't use blankets to cover ourselves. We keep one out on the couch for her, so that's where you'll usually find her curled up. Every once in awhile, she jumps on our laps (mostly Gabe's) and takes a snooze which is the cutest. On this day, she slept on Gabe's lap for close to two hours! Just look at that little face!

Season Finales

Tis the season for the season finales of our favorite TV shows. An exciting time to see what happens with your shows, but depressing because you know that television in the next few weeks or months is going to stink!

My first big finale was The Amazing Race on Sunday night. The last 3 teams were the former cheerleaders (Cara and Jamie), the brother and sister who are lawyers (Victor and Tammy) and the mother who has a son who is deaf (Margie and Luke). This season, I really didn't LOVE any one team. Usually there's one I like from the get-go and am rooting for, but not this year. No one really impressed me that much. My only thing was that I did NOT want the cheerleaders to win. They drove me crazy. They were very rude to people (especially cab drivers) and just obnoxious. So I didn't want them to win. In the final episode, it looked like Luke and Margie had it in the bag....until they got to the roadblock where Luke had to remember every country/city they had been and what they did there. He got stuck, really stuck...and frustrated, which in the end, made them come in last place! The winners? Tammy and Victor. Go figure, the ones who roll in the dough with their jobs win the 1 million dollars! But, it wasn't the cheerleaders so I was happy!!

My other season finale for this week was The Biggest Loser that was on last night (for THREE hours! Unreal!). The three finalists were Helen, Tara, and Mike (Mike got voted in on the finale by America's votes). Out of the three, I was rooting for Mike. He's only 18 years old and lost a TON of weight and looked great. I wasn't a huge fan of Tara-yes, she had "girl power" and all that, but to be honest, I got sick of her winning stuff so I didn't really want her to win the big prize in the end either. I thought someone else should have the chance to win something. They brought back all of the players that were voted off for the at-home prize. The winner there was Jerry, the 64 year old guy. He lost 54% of his original weight! They all looked great though. So who ended up being the Biggest Loser? Helen! I was shocked-Mike lost by only 4lbs! I was a little bummed, but glad that Tara didn't "take it all".

Happy Mother's Day!

My Mom came in from Buffalo last night-we had my in-laws over for dinner and made some yummy steaks! Mom stayed overnight so we could all go to brunch today to celebrate Mother's Day.

Gabe's family typically does brunch every Mother's Day. The past few years we've gone to Shadow Lake which was nice. This year when his Dad called for reservations, they were all booked! So we ended up going to the Hyatt instead. And boy, was it nice!! I thought the selection of food and quality of food was much better than Shadow Lake.

This is how the room was set up (the tables all had pink napkins with a nice begonia in the center of the table):


This was an ice sculpture they had along the buffet:


They had so much food there! They had a really nice salad station with dried cranberries, sunflower seeds, candied walnuts, goat cheese, etc. along with a bunch of pasta salads. They had a decent display of fruits. For hot items they had scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, breakfast potatoes, cheese blintzes (SO GOOD!), cheese tortollini in pesto sauce, several seafood dishes and chicken in sherry sauce. They also had an omelet station which I didn't even go to. They had a waffle station with all sorts of toppings (maple syrup, strawberries, strawberry sauce, whipped cream, walnuts) and tons of pastries and bagels with flavored butters (chocolate, orange, etc.). They had a carving station with prime rib and turkey with all the fixins-stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn bread, gravy.

Then there was dessert-holy cow! I could have eaten just that and been full! They had all sorts of mini desserts like cannolis, cream puffs, profiterols, cookies, mini pies. I had something I wish I took a picture of. It was a cup made out of chocolate that was brown, pink and white. It was filled with chocolate mousse and shaved chocolate and had fruit on the plate around it. Very good and very pretty. I didn't think of taking a photo of it! The best part?! An ice cream buffet! Chocolate, vanilla, strawberry ice creams with tons of toppings-caramel or chocolate sauce, crushed oreos, heath bars, M&M's, butterfinger, sprinkles, whipped cream and warmed nuts....so yummy!

Needless to say, we were all sick by the time we left from eating so much! You just want to try everything but your stomach just can't hold all of that food (especially mine with a baby pushing on it!). I think the Hyatt was a winner and we'll definitely go back! I also should mention they had a children's room with kid friendly foods and a clown there making balloon animals and doing face painting. It was very cute! And each Mother got a pretty pink rose as well. I felt a little funny celebrating since baby's not in my arms yet, but everyone was wishing me a happy Mother's Day anyways!!

Here's my Mom and I:


Our niece Bianca (I have no clue why it turned out sideways-it's facing the right way on my computer, but uploaded it gets rotated? Odd):


Molly, Camille, and Gabe:


Happy Mother's Day to all of you Moms out there! Enjoy!

33 Weeks

Today I'm 33 weeks along-only 7 more to go! Overall I'm feeling pretty well. My back has started to bother me more recently. If I stand for 5-10 minutes it gets uncomfortable and I need to sit down. I'm also getting out of breath pretty easily-it's kind of humorous at times. Who would think one flight of stairs would make you winded?! I've been sleeping ok-have had a few nights here and there where I'm up for a few hours in the middle of the night and can't sleep. I've been getting hot while I sleep too-kicking covers off, ceiling fan on, etc. Comfortwise, I've been ok sleeping so that's good. I go to the doctors on Monday so we'll see how things go!

Childbirth Class #4

Tonight was our 4th and final childbirthing class. We started with a tour of the labor and delivery area of the hospital-we got to see the birthing rooms and the postpartum rooms. They are all a decent size and look the same really. The one really nice thing is that they are all private rooms! That makes me happy! I know some hospitals have some private rooms and some shared rooms, which, let's be honest, would not be fun. So I'm very happy that they are all private and we'll be all alone taking care of the baby.

After the tour, the last class focused on things after birth-the apgar score, what they do with the baby right after it's born, and what newborns look like the first few days. They went a little into after care-breastfeeding, how they sleep, how to soothe them, etc. It wasn't too bad.

So we are officially done with our classes now! Did we learn anything? I'd say for me it was a refresher-most of the stuff I had already known from reading some books and having friends go through all of this already. For Gabe, it might have been a little more eye opening since it's not them pushing the baby out and carrying it for 10 months! We'll see how helpful it is when it's show time!

Egg Salad Junkie

Lately, I've been really into egg salad. I don't know why, but whenever I think of it recently, it sounds SO yummy! Now as a kid, anything with mayo did NOT appeal to me-egg salad, chicken salad, etc. Luckily I grew out of that phase and can eat those things now. I usually prefer chicken salad over egg salad, but I think to make it yourself, egg salad is much easier. The past few weeks whenever I need a hard boiled egg for something, I make extras so I can make egg salad for my lunch. And it is very, very good! I don't have a set recipe per se-I have my standard things I put in, but I've never measured it out.

Here's what I use:

-hard boiled eggs (I usually do 3 of them or so-enough for 2 sandwiches or so I'm guessing)
-Mayo (not a lot-I don't like to be overwhelmed by the taste of mayo-I maybe put in 1-2 tablespoons-enough to coat the egg mixture)
-pickles cut into very small pieces-either dill or bread and butter ones
-salt and pepper to taste
-a small squirt of mustard (a condiment I can't stand on its own)
-a pinch of paprika

That's it-mix it all up and slap it on some bread-YUMMY!! Guess what I'm having for lunch tomorrow?!

Welcome Baby Noah!

Yesterday, my girlfriend Megan and her husband Todd welcomed their son, Noah Matthew! He was born at 5:55am and weighed in at 7lbs. 13oz and 21" long. The poor thing went through quite the process to have him. She was due April 25th and went in Thursday night to get induced. Friday around 5pm she was still only 1cm dilated so they gave her an option-go home and come back next week to try again, or go through the induction again Friday night. As she was deciding what to do, her water broke! So her decision was made for her. They gave her more inducing drugs Friday overnight and still being at only 1cm, they gave her an epidural. She finally was fully dilated and pushed for an hour only to have the baby get stuck on her pelvic bones! So she ended up having a c-section Saturday morning. So in 2 nights she had about 2 hours of sleep total. She had to be exhausted! Gabe and I stopped up to see them in the hospital and everyone was doing well! Little Noah is a cutie and we can't wait for our baby to meet him!!

This is me holding Noah:




Close up of Noah:




Megan, Todd and Noah:

Taylor's First Communion

Today my cousin Taylor made her First Communion. Gabe and I went to Buffalo Friday night and stayed over. The Communion was early Saturday morning at St. Christopher's Church with a brunch following at the Holiday Inn on Grand Island. The service was very nice and Taylor looked so cute! She wore the same dress that she wore in our wedding as our flower girl and it still fits her perfectly! The brunch was very good-it was a breakfast buffet, which is one of my favorites!

Here is her cake:


The cake table:


Taylor and her cake:




Rachel, Eddie, Taylor and Eddie: