On Sunday we celebrated Nonna's birthday. The girls had fun eating (and making a mess of) cake and ice cream. Every time Abigail sees this picture of Sarah she gets a big laugh. Sarah didn't want me snapping pictures at the time.
And here is Abigail.
So here we are at 24 weeks with Baby #3. Not much has changed. I've felt plenty of kicks. Now that our little girl is bigger Jonathan and even Abigail have had the chance to feel her move.
Sleeping is starting to get more uncomfortable. I'm at that point where I have to sit up straight if I want to turn over.
Here's another belly shot, just because:
I've tried a number of new recipes that I fully intended to document, but they were pretty big failures for one reason or another, so I didn't want to bother. But I'm all about being honest and up front. So, without further ado, here is the What's Cooking Hall of Shame Volume I.
Crazy Curly Broccoli Bake (Kid-Friendly)
Not all the recipes I find on AllRecipes.com are a success. A recipe I found for Crazy Curly Broccoli was not a success (in my opinion). As I was making this recipe I got really excited. This was going to be a easy and healthy recipe that smelled just like Panera's broccoli cheddar soup (my favorite). I couldn't wait to eat it. Then I did. It seriously lacked flavor. Though, I have to admit that the girls picked through the broccoli to eat the pasta, so no one left the table hungry.
Chicken Puffs
Yet another AllRecipes.com pick. This one was a failure though because I decided to get all fancy and make a few changes to it. This recipe for Chicken Puffs got rave reviews. I thought I'd be all "healthy" and add a few vegetables to make it more like an individual pot pie. Then I stuffed the croissants more than the recipe called for. Finally, they were nice and brown, but still doughy in the middle. The girls were not impressed, and neither was I (but I do not blame the recipe, I blame my changes).
Creamed Asparagus Soup
You probably just read this title and thought, "what was she thinking?" I was thinking I would be able to make a healthy vegetable soup that the girls would actually eat. I was wrong. I found this recipe while paging through a food magazine. The recipe is available here. I thought it looked good, and it was! The girls didn't agree. Sarah used her soup as organic finger paints shortly after her first taste. I had to do a lot of encouraging and commanding to get Abigail to take a taste. They each took one bite and then that was that. Oh well.
I hope you enjoyed our first installment of the What's Cooking Hall of Shame. I'm hoping it takes a while before I have three more recipes that fit this category.
Another quick update on the happenings with Baby #3. We are at 22 weeks now. This little girl is starting to take up more and more space. She does plenty of moving and kicking during the quiet evening hours when her sisters are sleeping. These updates are sounding an awful lot alike.
Thanks to you who voted on our little girl's potential name. Keep voting! So far the top voted-for names are Lily Grace, Leah Rebekah, and Naomi Grace. We still haven't made a decision, but when we do we'll let you know!
We've been talking to Abigail lately about names for her baby sister. Abigail isn't the greatest with names. When at Build-A-Bear we ask her what she wants to name her bear/kitty/etc. More often than not she will want to call it bear/kitty/etc. The fish she got for her birthday still doesn't really have a name. We just call it "fish". I was surprised, though, when Abigail actually had an opinion about her baby sister's name. I've given her the top three names and she always prefers Naomi. The funny thing is that she can't quite say it right though and says it different every time :-)
Stay tuned, hopefully I won't have to keep referring to her as Baby #3.
This Saturday I decided that I needed to be thorough in our vacuuming of the living room. We moved tables, the couch, everything. While we were busy deep cleaning Jonathan suggested rearranging the furniture. I was all for it. We had had the same basic set-up since we were married almost six years ago.
This set off a nesting kick for me. I then moved to the girls room where I thought I would do some organizing and consolidating to make room for our third girl. The girls' room has a huge closet that, unfortunately, was filled with a lot of Mommy and Daddy's stuff. So, I moved a lot of things into our room (which still needs to be gone through and put away). I then emptied a cabinet we had in the closet and moved it into the room. I am now using this for the girls clothes instead of the rubber-maid-type drawers under the beds. Now the drawers are holding craft items in the closet (I did all this because we're getting bunk beds in the fall and there won't be room for much under bed storage for clothes). So, are you all glad for that long-winded explanation?
My Mom asked how we were decorating the girls' room. I hadn't really thought about it, so her question ended up inspiring me. She bought the girls pink "coverlets" and is making them afghans with blues, purples, and the same pink. I'm excited to see how everything turns out. On the girls' bedroom door we have two foam flowers Abigail and I made a while back. We decided we needed to make another one for her baby sister, which is what we did this afternoon. You can find all sorts of free craft patterns and directions online, which is where we found this pattern for "Retro Window Watchers".
Part of the reason I wanted to find out if we were having a boy or a girl was so we could get started on picking out a name. I knew this would not be an easy decision to make. With Abigail it was a piece of cake-we had her name picked out long before we ever got pregnant. With Sarah it took a bit more time, but we were able to agree pretty quickly. With Baby #3 it is a different story.
Jonathan and I decided to come up with three name possibilities each. Then we would share our lists with each other and voila, we would magically agree on our baby girls name. Well, we shared our names with each other and now have six names to choose from instead of three.
I won't tell you who picked which name, or which one is my favorite, but we are sharing our options with you. Please click here to vote on your favorite (or click on the button to the right of this post).
On another note, I had a second anatomy ultrasound Friday because our baby girl wasn't in the best position for heart pictures. I loved my Ultrasound Tech, because she was so friendly and because she printed out eight new pictures for us to take home. My favorite one is below-look at that crazy leg and that cute profile!
Sarah playing dress-up. She had me cracking up!
We had a pretty busy weekend celebrating the Fourth.
On Saturday we went to the beach - which was a blast. On Sunday we had what I call Red, White, and Blue Scones (I added blueberries as well as strawberries). Check out this recipe from FamilyFun. They were really good!
We then went to church and then headed to Nonna and Papa's for a cookout. We enjoyed all sorts of grilled meat thanks to Uncle Nick. After lunch we decided to set up the sprinkler for the girls. The sprinkler didn't work though, so Nonna had to do things the old fashioned way.
We then headed to North Andover to my Great-Aunt's house for dinner and fireworks. Unfortunately the town postponed the show due to rain. I'm still glad we went though, and the girls found ways to entertain themselves. Papa also provided some entertainment with his guitar.
Sunday night into Monday morning was rough. Sarah woke up around 1:00 AM pretty upset. Jonathan went in for the rescue and managed to get her back to sleep. A few minutes later, though, she woke up upset again. A little water, Tylenol, and 1 1/2 hours later she fell asleep right smack dab in the middle of our bed. Jonathan went to the couch and I stayed with Sarah.
The girls slept in a little, but not what we were hoping for. We had a pretty lazy Monday morning. Jonathan and I thought the girls would have fun going to the pool in our complex. That turned out to not be such a great idea. There was a lot of whining because the girls weren't getting what they wanted (which was mostly pool toys that belonged to OTHER kids). We quickly left the pool, had lunch, and then all four of us had a much-needed afternoon nap.
We nixed our Monday night plans to go out to see local fireworks. I was planning on waking Abigail up to see the Boston fireworks on TV. Instead, when I found out that the fireworks in DC were on PBS I let the girls stay up for the fireworks we would have seen if we were down in Virginia. It wasn't quite the same as actually being there, but we still had a lot of fun with it, and the girls went to bed pretty smoothly afterwards.
Abigail took this picture...
She did not want to stop. And, I have to add that Abigail has not stopped talking about her bike and needing/wanting to ride it.
And here is Abigail.
Not all the recipes I find on AllRecipes.com are a success. A recipe I found for Crazy Curly Broccoli was not a success (in my opinion). As I was making this recipe I got really excited. This was going to be a easy and healthy recipe that smelled just like Panera's broccoli cheddar soup (my favorite). I couldn't wait to eat it. Then I did. It seriously lacked flavor. Though, I have to admit that the girls picked through the broccoli to eat the pasta, so no one left the table hungry.
Yet another AllRecipes.com pick. This one was a failure though because I decided to get all fancy and make a few changes to it. This recipe for Chicken Puffs got rave reviews. I thought I'd be all "healthy" and add a few vegetables to make it more like an individual pot pie. Then I stuffed the croissants more than the recipe called for. Finally, they were nice and brown, but still doughy in the middle. The girls were not impressed, and neither was I (but I do not blame the recipe, I blame my changes).
You probably just read this title and thought, "what was she thinking?" I was thinking I would be able to make a healthy vegetable soup that the girls would actually eat. I was wrong. I found this recipe while paging through a food magazine. The recipe is available here. I thought it looked good, and it was! The girls didn't agree. Sarah used her soup as organic finger paints shortly after her first taste. I had to do a lot of encouraging and commanding to get Abigail to take a taste. They each took one bite and then that was that. Oh well.
I hope you enjoyed our first installment of the What's Cooking Hall of Shame. I'm hoping it takes a while before I have three more recipes that fit this category.
I loved it too because Immanuel Church also had a program for Moms. We did lessons similar to what our kids were learning, watched a few parenting talks on DVD, and the best part-had fellowship with other adults! Oh wait, maybe the best part was that child care was provided for those under 3. I have to say that this Mom's program was such a blessing!
We had a great time seeing family and watching the band. This was the perfect way to top off the weekend!
Thanks to you who voted on our little girl's potential name. Keep voting! So far the top voted-for names are Lily Grace, Leah Rebekah, and Naomi Grace. We still haven't made a decision, but when we do we'll let you know!
My Mom asked how we were decorating the girls' room. I hadn't really thought about it, so her question ended up inspiring me. She bought the girls pink "coverlets" and is making them afghans with blues, purples, and the same pink. I'm excited to see how everything turns out. On the girls' bedroom door we have two foam flowers Abigail and I made a while back. We decided we needed to make another one for her baby sister, which is what we did this afternoon. You can find all sorts of free craft patterns and directions online, which is where we found this pattern for "Retro Window Watchers".
We then went to church and then headed to Nonna and Papa's for a cookout. We enjoyed all sorts of grilled meat thanks to Uncle Nick. After lunch we decided to set up the sprinkler for the girls. The sprinkler didn't work though, so Nonna had to do things the old fashioned way.
We then headed to North Andover to my Great-Aunt's house for dinner and fireworks. Unfortunately the town postponed the show due to rain. I'm still glad we went though, and the girls found ways to entertain themselves. Papa also provided some entertainment with his guitar.
Sunday night into Monday morning was rough. Sarah woke up around 1:00 AM pretty upset. Jonathan went in for the rescue and managed to get her back to sleep. A few minutes later, though, she woke up upset again. A little water, Tylenol, and 1 1/2 hours later she fell asleep right smack dab in the middle of our bed. Jonathan went to the couch and I stayed with Sarah. 
Abigail took this picture...
After setting up our spot we brought the girls closer to the water so they could play in the sand. It took Sarah a bit of time to get used to the feel of the sand on her feet and hands. By the end of the day she had sand everywhere.
While we were building castles Abigail decided that she needed to get some water. This made for a nice transition to splashing in the frigid Atlantic. Abigail would run toward the waves, then give a little girl scream and run away from oncoming waves. I got a really good shot of her expression as she ran away from one. Sarah mostly hung out with Daddy and occasionally let go to walk around and splash. It didn't take long though for the shivering to set in-so we decided to get back to our spot for a break.
The girls played in the sand some more, then we had a nice picnic lunch. After a bit more playing in the sand we attempted to fly a kite, but failed at it (I blame it on the kite ;-) After a solid three hours we decided to call it a beach day. The girls were worn out (you know, Abigail, Sarah and Mommy).
We had a great time. So great, in fact, that I think it would be pretty easy to convince Jonathan to do another beach trip in the near future!
