We have a DUE DATE!!

Yay!  Ok, so this morning's ultrasound went great!

It has been confirmed, only one!  :)  I got to listen to the heartbeat again (167), and they even did that cool new 3D thing!  The ultrasound tech said that we are 11 weeks and 1 day, which means...

We're due on June 19th!!!

Little Peanut

I am so stinkin' excited!!  My next appointment is Friday, December 30th and I'll get to meet with my Primary Dr.  They let me know that I'll be meeting with her for the next few appointments, but that they'll schedule some appointments with the other doctors in the practice so that I can meet them and get to know them a little just in case they happen to be the on-call doctor when I deliver.  I thought that was really cool, since Dru was delivered by a doctor I'd never met before.  Once you're in that moment you just want the baby out, so it didn't really matter.  I just think it's nice that they do this so it isn't some stranger walking in to deliver your kid.  :)

Whelp, it's time for lunch, and if there's one thing I learned from my first pregnancy, it is that you DO NOT wait to eat once you get hungry... you just eat!  Now I have to decide what I want... that always seems to be the hard part.

Until next time...

Warmest Wishes,
Tiffany

First Appointment

Alright everyone, I know there are several people waiting anxiously for news on my Dr appointment this morning... so here's what we know so far!

They guess that I'm about 12 weeks along, and have scheduled an ultrasound for tomorrow morning (so you'll be getting the official due date tomorrow).  I got to listen to the heartbeat and it sounds like only one, so those hoping for twins, sorry to disappoint!  Haha.  I also got my flu shot (yay!) and had to give 4 vials of blood.  I was pretty exhausted since I didn't prepare for having blood drawn (good thing I grabbed a water bottle before heading out the door!).

All the nurses LOVED little Dru, and she had so much fun playing with them.  They gave her stickers, and horsey rides, and pretty much spoiled her the whole time we were there.

Tomorrow's appointment will call for a babysitter though, so I'm sure several of the nurses will be sad.  Haha.  Until tomorrow!

Warmest Wishes,
Tiffany

F is for FOOD!

If you've been following along, you'll know that one of my recent obsessions is food.  Now, I have been horrible and not done our grocery shopping yet, so tonight's dinner I had to get creative because I didn't have time to go to the store.  I thought about the canned tuna in the pantry for Tuna Casserole, but we didn't have any Cream of Mushroom soup... Then I saw the canned chicken!  I had bought it to make homemade Chicken Noodle soup, but I knew that this evening was not a soup evening.  Then I saw the Refried Beans and remembered the Crescent Rolls in the fridge and BAM!  I knew what I was gonna make!

Grab the following list of ingredients and come with me as I walk you through my version of TJ's mom's Taco Ring.

Cookie Sheet          Crescent Rolls              Refried Beans
Foil                         Canned Chicken           Cheese
PAM                       Taco Seasoning            Your favorite taco toppings

1.  First I put some foil on a cookie sheet and sprayed it with good ol' PAM.  This makes it so much easier to remove sections of your finished taco ring for eating.

2. Next I preheated the oven up to 375 degrees.  Just like the tube of Crescent Rolls calls for...

3.  I opened and drained 2 cans of chunk chicken and mixed in about half a packet of Taco Seasoning.  Honestly though, I only needed one of the cans of chicken.  I had a TON left over... I'll have to come up with something yummy to use it in.

4.  I opened and whipped up a can of refried beans.  I had a lot of this leftover too, I'm thinkin' quesadillas... if only we had tortillas...  haha :)

5.  Next I made this cool looking sun shape with the rolls and smooshed the middle together.  Most of the online videos or recipes call for 2 cans of crescents, but I only had one, so I made a smaller "sun".  Don't worry if the points hang over the edge of the pan, you're going to be rolling them into the middle.

6. I spread out a layer of the beans onto the smooshed part of the rolls.  I made sure to keep the middle of the center circle uncovered so that when I roll the points over I have something to smoosh them into.

7.  Top the beans with the taco chicken.

8.  Top the chicken with cheese.

9.  And then you take each of the sun points and roll it up and over your layers, and smoosh each of them into the middle of the center circle.  I just love how there are gaps between them all.  I think it looks so cool!

10.  Pop that baby in your 375 oven for about 11-13 minutes (like the crescent rolls call for) or until golden brown.  Mine was done at 11 minutes.

11.  Voila!  Now you can use a knife (or a pizza cutter like me!) to slice a section of the ring to enjoy with your favorite taco toppings.  You could make it look real fancy and put a bunch of toppings in the middle like a bowl, but I knew we weren't going to eat the whole thing in one sitting, so... no fancy bowl.

12.  Now, like I said when I started, I had to get creative, and since we only had enough salsa for one serving (how can this house be out of salsa already?) I saved it for TJ and used a hot sauce packet from a previous Fast Food run on the top of my dollop of sour cream.  I put some leftover salad on the side and topped that with cheese. If I had had some preparation for this one, I would have loved to add some olives, more tomatoes, maybe some green chili... yum!

13.  TJ just had plain salad (he did add ranch after the photo) and topped his taco ring section with more cheese (Thorntons LOVE cheese), the salsa and his own dollop of sour cream.


TJ was so surprised to come home and have dinner ready.  He probably figured we'd either have to eat out or go to the store.  Haha.  He's not always a big fan of me experimenting, because let's face it, my experiments don't always work out.  BUT he really enjoyed this, I think because it reminded him a lot of his mom's.  And good thing too, 'cause she was my inspiration!

Let me know what you've done in a pinch.  Was it a success?  A complete failure? 

Until next time...

Warmest Wishes,
Tiffany

Scrappy Adventures!

Alright, for those of you waiting for my first ever scrapbook (digital or otherwise), here ya go!!

I had so much fun!  This was all created by me!  No templates, no quick pages, this is completely from scratch!!  I am so proud of myself... hahaha!  I may still end up going back and tweaking it... who knows!  I'm just proud and had to share!

((Used MyMemories digital scrapbook software and The Sweetness design pack))

Warmest Wishes,
Tiffany

Tender Mercies

Alright, I couldn't just ignore what has transpired today.  I have to write this down now before I forget.


Today during Fast and Testimony meeting a brother, who our family has gotten to know pretty well, got up and began his testimony taking about Chapter 20 of Mosiah, where the daughters of the Lamanites where taken by the priests of Noah.  The Lamanites thought it was the people of Limhi so they gathered to war against them.  He quoted verse 11:

"And it came to pass that the people of Limhi began to drive the Lamanites before them; yet they were not half so numerous as the Lamanites. But they fought for their lives, and for their wives, and for their children; therefore they exerted themselves and like dragons did they fight."

He then commented about how, for a mythical creature that isn't supposed to exist, there sure were a lot of them at church today.  He bore testimony about how so many of the men in our ward were fighting for their families and how the Lord was with them.  He then talked about how at work he likes to listen to the Mormon Channel app on his phone because with how many hours most people work around here it is hard to really study the scriptures for a couple hours.  He told of an experience he had one morning where he learned that he wasn't the only member of the church at work.  How the missionary opportunities that he'd been praying for stumbled in his lap.  He was comforted to know that he wasn't alone anymore.  Then a talk came onto his Mormon Channel speaking about exactly what just happened to him, and reminded him of how the Lord knows us, He knows what we're going through, and He takes every opportunity that He can to show us how much He loves us.


The spirit was so strong and my testimony grew.


Church continued and I had a BLAST in Primary.  We were without a piano player, and I knew that I didn't want to start teaching our kids Christmas songs without someone to play for us.  So I literally threw together an idea.  I gave each child a quarter sheet of paper and had them write their name with a crayon.  They were all confused when I told them to crumple it up in a ball.  Senior Primary gave me the weirdest looks!  I wish I had had a camera...  Then I asked if anyone knew what was going on outside.  They all said, "Uh, it's snowing..."  I then opened my hands with my crumpled paper and asked what I had.  They all caught on and said, "A snowball!"  I then counted to 3 and let them all throw their "snowballs" at me!  They LOVED that!!  I then picked snowballs off the floor and we sang those children's favorite Primary songs.  I went great, and our Primary Secretary even grabbed a piece of paper during Senior Primary so that she could do it too.  Haha.


After all of our meetings were finished we arrived home and TJ asked if he could take a nap before going out with the missionaries because he had a headache.  I said sure, that Dru would be getting sleepy soon anyway, and I might be able to join him.  She didn't get sleepy as soon as I had hoped, but after almost finishing her bottle she was pretty drowsy.  I placed her in her crib and she immediately started crying.  Now, for all of you who may not know, Dru HATES sleeping in her crib.  And I've been crippling her by going and getting her and rocking her back to sleep.  Of course I'd have to sit there for about an hour (sometimes longer) because she'd have to be completely OUT before I could lay her in the crib.  She has some sixth sense and can tell when I'm laying her down in it.  She's just fine with being laid down on OUR bed, but not hers... go figure.  Anyway, last night I said NO MORE.  I vowed to myself that I needed to be strong and resist, for her sake.  So this afternoon, once she started crying, I told her I loved her, that she was a big girl and could go to sleep on her own, and left the room.  I hate hearing her cry, so I knew that I needed to actively distract myself and not lay down to try and take a nap myself.  So I turned on the computer and loaded Pandora to listen to church music while playing with my new digital scrapbook software (that's right, they were having a great deal and I couldn't pass it up! Future posts with finished projects to come!).  Anyway, guess what the first song was that Pandora decided to play for me?  The PERFECT song for my current situation.  Hilary Weeks - Who You Are.  I sat here at the computer and cried along with Dru, but for a totally different reason.  My Father in Heaven knows me!!  He loves me, and I was reminded of the brother's testimony this morning.


Dru just woke up, but I wanted to post the lyrics to the song.  I couldn't find them anywhere online except for another blogger's site, so thank you for taking the time to share these lyrics!

I know you wonder if you'll ever have a day
When the kids stay calm, the laundry's done, and the dishes are put away.
And sometimes you feel like your days are spent and gone
And the question running through your mind is what have I gotten done?
And when you finally have a moment to slow down at the end of you day
I know Father would say:

Believe in what you're doing
Believe in who you are
Hold tight to the truth that you're a daughter of God
Believe in who you're becoming
Believe in who you are

It may seem simple - all the little things you do
But the lives you touch matter so much. And there's no one else like you.
And Father needs you to stand tall and faithful to be all you can be.
Oh, if you could see what he sees.
When it's hard to believe in yourself and you feel like you're beginning to doubt
Remember:

He believes in what you're doing
He believes in who you are
Don't lose sight of the truth that you're a daughter of God
That he believes in who you're becoming
He believes in who you are

I believe in what I'm doing.  I believe in who I am.  I believe in who I'm becoming.  I know that I am a daughter of God.


I know that we are ALL sons and daughters of a Father in Heaven who loves us, and if we're paying attention, He will tell us so.

Warmest Wishes,
Tiffany