4 years ago today I married my best friend!

After over 9 years together, I can't even begin to think of how to sum up my relationship with Nick.  I'll try to do a super short version for you all!

We met back in 2002.  (This was from Halloween 2003, none of my older pics are digital and this is a picture of a picture!)

We built a house together in 2005.  Home Sweet Home!  (This is from the year we moved in...our landscaping is so tiny...that tree on the left covers our bedroom window upstairs now!)

We got engaged in 2006 (on the beach)!  Nick proposed during an evening walk on the beach in Fort Myers, FL (one of our fav vacation spots) with a LIGHT-UP ring box.  Perfect?  yes!

We got married in 2008.

We found out we were pregnant in 2011.

We had our first son in 2012.  Welcome to the world, Carson!!

 A lot has happened over the past 9+ years, but the one thing that is the same is that I keep falling more and more in love with him!  (Mushy sappy, I know!)

I'm so happy to have found my best friend and even happier that we get to spend the rest of our days together.  Nick, you make me so happy and I feel so lucky to call you MINE!

Tasty Tuesday!

I know we're past Valentine's Day and on to (and even past) Presidents' Day BUT I wanted to give a quick recap becaues I have a few recipes to share for Tasty Tuesday!
Valentine's Day fell on conference week for me so we weren't really able to go out to dinner during the week.  I worked 12 hours Monday and 10 Wednesday so Tuesday I wanted to RELAX!  Since I didn't have to work late Tuesday I made one of Nick's favorite dinners: Spaghetti Pie.  This is one of the easiest recipes and can be customized in so many ways:

Spaghetti Pie
-2 cups (approximately) cooked spaghetti (I like using angel hair)
-1 jar of sauce
-1/2 - 1 cup cubed chicken, cooked (you can buy the refrigerated bag or cook it quickly in the skillet)
-1/2 cup cubed cheese (you can use anything...Velveeta, cheddar, mozzarella, etc.)
-1 tbsp. parmasan cheese

• Preheat oven to 375
• Combine all ingredients in gallon sized ziplock bag and smash/mix together until everything is well blended. 
• Pour ingredients into a 9" glass pie dish
• Stick in the oven for about 15 minutes
• Remove from the oven and sprinkle with parmasan cheese
• Serve with garlic bread and wine!  (or in my case, sparkling grape juice!)

I also made Nick a dessert.  Every year for Valentine's Day, I try to do a love-y dessert.  I'm not super creative so that usually ends up being something red/pink or something in the shape of a heart.  Last year, I made Red Velvet Whoopie Pies and he loved them so I figured since it had been a year, I'd go with those again.  Seriously, these are SO easy and so delicious!

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies
1 box Red Velvet Cake Mix
1/3 cup oil
2 eggs (I always use Egg Beaters...)
Flour
1 can vanilla frosting, whipped

• Preheat oven to 375
• Mix cake mix, oil, and eggs until well blended.  (The batter will be STICKY)
• Using a cookie scoop, place dough about 2" apart on ungreased cookie sheet
• Using a glass dipped in flour, flatten the cookies to about 1/2" thickness
• Stick in the oven for 6-8 minutes
• Allow the cookies to cool completely
• Ice the bottom of a cookie and press another on top like a sandwich....voila, whoopie pies!

I like serving mine chilled :)

In the process of flattening with a flour-dipped glass....

After baking - nice and fluffy!

The final product....oh so tasty!

Wondering what I got for Valentine's Day?  We don't really exchange gifts but I got a super adorable homemade card (heart melts!) and a bouquet of flowers!  Nick knows I love flowers especially in the winter when our garden is bare and ugly!  He picked stargazer lilies (our wedding flowers) and dutch iris (a flower we planted in our garden this past fall)...so thoughtful!

I got Nick a waffle iron because he has been wanting one FOREVER.  I have to admit, it's a pretty smart gift considering I got waffles in bed the next day!   You might wonder what type of waffles my lovely husband made for me........chocolate chip, of course!  Delish!

And just for a bonus, here is a bump picture Nick took over the weekend.  We went out to eat where my sister serves and this is after a big dinner!  :)

26w2d

Weekend Update!

I hope everyone had a good weekend!  We had a productive weekend and made a lot of progress on our "Carson To-Do" list!  We signed him up for daycare (I can't believe I already wrote his first tuition check), painted his nursery, ordered his crib, and ordered his curtains!  I love his daycare.  We visited a few and this one was my favorite for sure so I'm glad they'll have a spot for him in August!  Also, his nursery is finally starting to come together and I'm so excited!  Once we get the crib (expected to arrive this week), I'll put up some before and after pics!

This past week I came home to a "just because" gift from the hubby - a beautiful orchid!  Nick has really been awesome lately.  I have NO idea why he bought this for me, but I love it (and I'm scared of killing it).  He also mopped our kitchen and vacuumed our family room over the weekend which says a lot if you know him!  ;)  I didn't even ask him, he just took it upon himself.  Back to the orchid.  The directions say to feed her 3 ice cubes per week.  Weird, right?  Anyone have an orchid that would like to give me some advice so I don't kill mine?!

Also, I received another blog award!  You all make me feel so loved!  This time my award came from the lovely Sara at Smiling in Second Grade. 

I'm going to nominate Allie at Table for More for this award.  She always leaves me the sweetest comments and I'm SUPER sad she moved away from my hometown - booo!!!  Come back, Allie!  If you haven't yet, check out both of these awesome blogs!

P is for Pomegranate

Baby Carson is now the size of a pomegranate!  Up until last week, he was "scheduled" to be a papaya until about week 26-27 (I believe) but just recently, the Bump upgraded their fruit comparisons!  I checked out the pomegranates at the store a few days ago and to be honest, they looked similar in size to the "large" naval oranges.  Carson was supposed to be the size of an orange at week 15!  Nevermimd the accuracy, the fruit comparisons are still fun!

The Bump tells me that Baby Carson is 10.5-11.8" long and weighs between 12.7 and 20.8 oz.  I would love to have an ultrasound to see how accurate these estimates are but I just have to hope he's right on track in there!

How far along? 23 weeks!

Total weight gain: Probably hasn't changed...I'm guessing I'm still somewhere in the 5-6.  Maybe I'll say 7 to be safe. :)

Maternity clothes? Yes, finally!  I went shopping with my friend Kelli and got some work pants (and a bunch of cute stuff for Carson)!  I also made Nick go to Target and Old Navy with me to use up some gift cards.  I picked up some clearance jeans at Target and a few tops at Old Navy.  I feel like I look so much more pregnant in maternity clothes....check out my new bump pic below!

Stretch marks? no

Sleep: Sleeping pretty good but I get cold easily.  I miss my heated blanket!

Best moment this week: Wearing my new maternity pants to work.  They're actually really cute and look a lot like my old pants and OMG they are COMFY!

Miss Anything? I'm still missing my Starbucks and like I said above, my heated blanket!

Movement: Carson is constantly moving around in there getting cozy and I LOVE it!

Food cravings: Salty and sweet snacks.  Also, randomly oranges.  I ate one last night and it was amazing!

Anything making you queasy or sick: Nope!

Gender: Baby BOY Carson!

Labor Signs: No

Symptoms: Nothing this week!

Belly Button in or out? innie...starting to get shallow....!

Wedding rings on or off? on still...very loose this week again due to the COLD weather!

Happy or Moody most of the time: Super happy still! I can't help but smile when I feel Carson moving around in there!

Looking forward to: Getting started on the nursery.  We finally chose our paint color last weekend.  I prepped the walls and we bought the paint so I'm thinking we might be doing that this weekend (hopefully)!

Here is me yesterday at 22w6d.  The first pic is normal and the 2nd is me pushing out trying to have more of a bump.  I'm about ready for people at work to stop asking "WHEN are you going to have a real bump?!"

Maternity pants, regular shirt....

Pushing out to make an actual bump! :)

P.S. Yesterday Nick & I celebrated 9 years of being "official"!  Ok, we didn't celebrate at all, but I always remember the date.  We met back in 2002 and finally made it official January 25th, 2003.  Time flies!  For your viewing pleasure, here is a pic from my prom:

Happy 30th to my Hubby!

Nick and I have birthdays a week apart from each other....my birthday is July 14th, his is July 21st.  I already posted about a few things we did for my birthday here.  We had a wedding that we were both a part of in between our birthdays (you can read more about that wedding here) so we were a little busy for any crazy celebrations.  Either way, I wanted to make this birthday memorable for my hubby because it was his 30th!  Yep, hubby is 30 now.  I'm officially married to an old man!  ;)   I honestly don't tease him too much because I know he'll give it right back to me when my time comes!

Nick is really hard to buy for (aren't all guys?!) so I had a hard time coming up with ideas.  I finally settled on a pruner (believe it or not, he wanted this!) and a Keurig Coffee Maker.  He LOVES the Keurig.  He set it up immediately and already ordered a bunch of new flavors!  Do you have any favorite flavors to recommend?

Lucky for my hubby, his birthday fell during Columbus Restaurant Week this year!  We ended up going to Hyde Park and it was delicious....great service, too!  Here is a pic before we left for dinner:

I also made him some peanut butter brownies.  I used this recipe for peanut butter filling and swirled it into some box brownie mix and it tasted like Reese's brownies.  YUM!

On Friday night we went to a local bar to celebrate with some friends.  Sadly, I didn't take a single picture.  FAIL.

Saturday I set up a surprise day date for us.  We went to The Wilds in Cumberland, Ohio.  It was about 1.5 hours away from Columbus.  We've been there before for one of their safari tours, but this time we went to try out their new zipline course.  Nick was totally surprised and super excited when he found out what I had planned!  I would definitely recommend making this trip if you live within a few hours!  They have lodging if you're interested in staying overnight, too.  However, our guides did tell us that Hocking Hills Canopy Tours are just as good (minus all the animals) and much cheaper.  (Both courses were designed/built by the same company.)  I guess if you're on a budget, maybe try Hocking Hills.  We might do that during our trip down this fall!

Fashionable helmets! :)

40-50ft. up on one of the platforms.

1st zip of the day!  I did NOT volunteer to go first, haha!