Let's revisit Love Potion #31

3 years ago, almost to the day, I posted this blog about my love for Baskin Robbins' annual Valentine's Day ice cream, Love Potion #31. Each year I look forward to the middle of January because it means that I can make my way to B&R and score some of this yumminess.

Photo

White chocolate and raspberry ice cream, swirled with a raspberry ribbon, with dark chocolate pieces, and dark chocolate hearts filled with raspberry. I know, right?! It sounds much richer than it is. And the funny thing is, I don't even really like fruit and chocolate mixed together, but this stuff just so. dang. good!

I attribute my large weight gain while I was pregnant with Jax to this ice cream. And wouldn't ya know, I'm pregnant during Valentine's Day again, 3 years later. I am trying very hard to pace myself, but it is calling to me from my freezer. Oh yeah, did I mention that we bought a quart and brought it home? No? Well, we did. Yeah, I'm addicted. I'm actually quite thankful that it only comes around once a year because if it were available all the time, I'm certain I would weigh far more, pregnant or not!

The B-I-B-L-E

For some reason this video won't play on here, it's linking to YouTube. But it's still cute :)

Randoms

We sold Ryan's car yesterday morning! So now we are a one-car family. The plan is to buy Ryan a car in California, but it probably won't be right away. However, I don't want to be stuck at home all the time, so it will definitely be as soon as possible!

We spent the afternoon and evening hanging out, watching football, and grilling some burgers. A friend of Ryan's came over and brought elk burgers. I've never had elk before but it was pretty good. A little more game-y than I would prefer, but not bad. He also brought appetizers... Small pieces of duck breast with a slice of jalapeño wrapped in bacon. I'd never had duck before either (that I can remember), but they were so good! And I failed to get any pictures. Boo me!

I do, however, have some other pictures for you guys.

Here is my little belly from my angle... I already can't see my toes. What?!



We went to the kids museum on Wednesday and Jax was having fun playing with the construction stuff. He kept putting the goggles right on top of his eyes.



We took him to Beauty and the Beast a few nights ago and he sat through the whole thing! He had such a blast eating popcorn and M&Ms, and wearing the cool 3d glasses.



He has always been a snuggler!



Ryan has wanted to learn guitar for years so he finally bought one. Jax is pretty enthralled by it!



I have a cute video of Jax singing that isn't uploading for some reason, but I will try to get that up as soon as possible. It's pretty darn cute!

Show Us Your Life- Military Families

I'm linking up with Kelly today for her Show Us Your Life series. Today's topic is Military Families, and I figured that it was a good time to finally link up with her.

Here is our story-
My husband and I have known each other our whole lives. Our parents went to college together and we grew up hanging out with each other. His sister is my age, so he was always the annoying older brother! Fast forward some years, he joined the Army in 2004, then deployed to Iraq in August 2006. His mom emailed me and said that I should get in touch with him so that we could be pen pals while he was overseas. Well, one thing led to another and soon we fell in love... across the world from each other! He came home for leave at Christmas and we got engaged, then he headed back to Iraq until October. We got married 2 months later on New Year's Eve.

Iraq homecoming

Our wedding day

As for our military life, we have been at Fort Bragg in North Carolina for the last 4.5 years. His job has allowed us to stay in one place, which has been such a blessing!. We've been through a few short deployments to Haiti and Thailand, and another long one to Afghanistan.

Afghanistan deployment day

Homecoming

For those who already read my blog, you know that we are getting out of the Army in a few weeks. However, these last 5 years of military life have changed me, in the best possible way. The sisterhood of military wives, learning how to be a single mom when duty calls, turning friends into family, figuring out how to be strong when you have nothing left. These are just a few of the things that I take with me as we step out into the civilian world. 

Wish us luck!

15 weeks!

I'm settling into my second trimester and feeling pretty good. Only 25 weeks to go! Ha... that sounds like a lot.

I'm certain that I've felt a few baby movements this week. I think that I can feel it more easily since I've been through this before and I can identify what I'm feeling. I know I've said this, but I just can't wait until I feel this baby moving all the time!

He or she is about 4 inches from crown to rump and weighs about 2.5 ounces... approximately the size of an apple. However, I've never understood the fruit comparison because there are apples that are tiny and apples that are huge. I also don't understand how one week the baby can be compared to something short and squat (like an apple), then the next week it can be compared to something long and skinny (like a banana). But I digress...

Here is my picture this week....

Here is the comparison from when I was pregnant with Jax...

Don't I look so much bigger with this one this week? Eek! I gained a lot of weight with Jax, so I'm super paranoid this time around!

And we can't forget my little man...

We're in the middle of selling one of our cars, doing job interviews and trying to find a place to live in California... so I'm off to go be a grown up!

These are a few of my favorite...

Pins!

Please sing the title to the tune of "Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music, because that's what I did.

I really wish Pinterest had been around when I was planning Jax's nursery. It would have made my life so much easier because I am not very crafty, creative or decorator-y. Ignore my made up word. So now that Pinterest IS around, I've been taking full advantage of all the ideas for nurseries, newborn photos, birthday parties (never mind that Jax's is still 5 months away), yummy food, and fun ideas for toddlers.

I thought I would share a few of my favorites with you guys. Mind you, I haven't actually done any of them yet except for the Finger paints, which were a smashing success!

For the nursery-
Love the soft colors and the picture arrangement
(Link here)




I am totally making this for the baby! Just not these colors...
(Link here)




Great wall decor!
(Link here)




One of my favorite verses!
(Link here)




For my tummy-
I cannot wait to be able to drink a margarita again.... Only 6ish months. Ha!
(Link here)




Red velvet brownies. Yum.
(Link here)





Oreo brownies. Yum.
(Link here)




For my house-
I always scribble my menu plan on a post-it on the fridge. This is a much cuter idea!
(Link here)




Love this idea
(Link here)




I love picture arrangements, and this one is just awesome!
(Link here)




For Jax-
I would love to do this in his room or playroom someday!
(Link here)





A "calm down" jar... Shake it and wait until the glitter settles. Such a great idea!
(Link here)




Homemade rock candy!
(Link here)




For the baby-
So cute!
(Link here)





I'm definitely doing this once I get a little bigger!
(Link here)




Precious!
(Link here)





I. Could. Die.
(Link here)





You can follow me on Pinterest here.

And if you have some great pins, leave me a comment with your Pinterest link so that I can follow you!

Randoms

Well I am typing this from my brand new iPad! We decided to spend a little bit of our savings to buy ourselves an iPad before we hit the road back to California. Partially so that Jax can watch movies on it during the drive, but also just because it is fun/useful for us to have :) I haven't posted pictures from my phone recently, so I thought it would be good to show you some recent goings-on around here! Showing off his blue Icee tongue at Monkey Joe's


Sharing a beater with Mojo


This kid loves tepanyaki!


Snuggling with Mojo by the warm fire


Waiting for Daddy at the dentist. I forgot to charge the DVD player ahead of time... Oops!


Riding in the fire truck with Bert and Ernie


Trying on the pregnant belly at Motherhood Maternity


We cleaned out our shed in preparation for moving and Jax was so excited to play with a bunch of his old baby stuff


And here he is enjoying our new toy... He was especially excited about "BIG angry birds!"


This week is going to be filled with lots of phone calls to figure out living arrangements, getting some extra stuff sold, and transferring my medical coverage. We're less than a month away from hitting the road!

Guest Post- Our Little Almanac

Today I have a guest post for you guys! It's from Kendra at Our Little Almanac. Enjoy!

Hello fellow friends of Jenna's. Isn't Jenna lovely? She and I have known each other since high school and it has been fun to keep up with each other's lives thereafter via the blogosphere.

I could introduce myself by stating my name and where I'm from, but let's make it a bit more of an introduction, shall we? Here's a bit about me: I hate the crust on bread, I can eat a rittersport in about 1 minute and if practicing patience maybe it'll last two, I'm self conscious of my hips, I'm an organizational nutcase, I am a Sprinkles Cupcake fanatic, I have 4 ongoing journals to document all the thoughts that fill up my brain, my husband and I have a secret language, I am super frugal but don't like to sacrifice sophistication for tacky and I am a mother to the most beautiful baby girl, Evelyn. Sadly she turns one in a month and I can't call her a "baby" anymore so I'm throwing that word out there as long as I can! I love to write about my experiences as a new mother, our travels far and wide, things I cook, things that I think make me artsy and a whole lot of in-between stuff. And my name is Kendra but my siblings call me Hen.

Jenna asked if I would write something about my new year resolutions. I blogged some of my fun trivial ones here the other day, although they are very serious in my eyes :) However, if there is one thing this life has taught me it is to take advantage of every little moment. The title of my blog is "Our Little Almanac." I thought it was rather fitting because within it's "pages," if you will, is a small chronicling of our happenings each year - some are huge momentous occassions and others are small things that at the time seem insignificant when in fact those became the things that mattered most. This year it is my resolution to be more grateful. I have made it a goal to write down 5 things every day that humble me. Whether it be toothpaste for my teeth, a man holding a door open for me or an email from a friend, I know that God works in small ways to brings us the greatest amount of happiness. So I guess that is my thought for you. To be more grateful.

"Let a spirit of Thanksgiving guide and bless your days and nights. Work at it. You will find it will yield wonderful results." 

- Gordon B. Hinckley 

May 2012 be a blessed year for you all! And please feel welcome to stop by here and say hello!

14 Weeks

I'm a day behind! Agh! Yesterday turned out to be a rough day. Jax had a yucky cold and he was a hot mess yesterday morning. I tried to take a shower and he completely lost it. So I ended up putting him in the shower with me, and he cried the whole time. The water was in his eyes and he was cold, but he didn't want me to hold him up closer to the water. He was just a wreck. Sooo.... instead of putting myself together, taking a 14 week picture and heading to the store (which was my original plan), I ended up throwing my wet hair into a pony, snuggling on the couch, and watching movies with my boy. Thankfully he settled down and we even managed to head around the corner to munch on some Mexican food for lunch. Mmmmm..... chips and queso!

Pregnancy-related, this week has been boring. The baby is about 3.5 inches and can make lots of facial expressions, which is fun. It's boy parts/girl parts are fully developed so I can't wait to get our ultrasound in 3 weeks! I mostly don't feel pregnant still. It's really such a strange thing. I forget about it most of the time. However, I think that I've started to feel a few baby movements. It's hard to tell for sure, but I'm pretty sure that the little twitches and pokes are the baby. It won't be long until I'm feeling them all the time!

Here is my picture this week...

Not too much different, huh?

Here is a comparison from when I was pregnant with Jax...

I feel like they are similar, but this time it's more round overall. By the way, excuse the unbuttoned pants... Geez!

And of course, here is Jax's picture this week...

His shirt stayed down this time :)

I have a guest post coming from a friend of mine, so come back on Monday to check that out!

Look what I did!

First, I figured out how to make a picture collage! Thanks to Jenna for doing a recap of 2011 and reminding me of her tutorial for picture collages. I used picnik to make this collage. It's free and super easy! 

As you can see, I also made Jax some finger paints! I found the recipe on Pinterest (follow me here). They were really easy to make and only took a few minutes. I made green, red and yellow because those were the colors of food coloring that I had on hand. I put Jax in the tub and let him paint away. As you can see, he wanted to use a paintbrush. He still managed to make a big mess :) And he loved it! I'll definitely be making more again soon.

Helpful hint- keep them in the fridge because they will mold after a few days. I obviously learned this the hard way. Boo!