Baby Budha Belly

(Can you tell that I've finally fixed the problem I had transferring my pix from my camera to my computer!?) ;)

I decided when I first became pregnant that I wanted to get a henna tattoo on my belly later on in the pregnancy when I was all round and swollen; I thought it looked really cool. So, I contacted Krysteen at Mehndi Madness(www.mehndimadness.com) and set up my appointment. In addition to henna, which is a reddish-brown stain on your skin, she also does jagua, which turns out being a bluish stain on your skin. So I did the jagua because I thought it would show up better.

It took me almost 2hrs. of driving in traffic to get to her home studio in Edmonds but it was worth it. Krysteen is a totally cool, laid back person. I picked out a mixture of 2 designs and we talked about our kids while she worked. First she puts the paste on.


After she finished, I drove home (only took me 1 hr. because there wasn't any traffic this time), and waited about 2 hrs. until it dried. After that, I could gently peel the paste off. Here's what it looks like half way.


The crazy thing about jagua is that after you peel the paste off, it is virtually invisible underneath. It takes about 2 days for it to fully oxidize and the color will show up. Here's after I took the paste off.

And here's the final result. Not as dark as the actual paste but much darker than henna would have been. It's really pretty. I love to look at my belly now.

What we've been doing this Summer........

Making Strawberry Jam


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Going to the Lake



Visiting Cousins


Malina's Ballet/Tap/Little Gym


Going to the Park

Pregnant List Update

Let me tell you, I sure have been busy. I have been cooking up a storm. Buying food in bulk and the opening of our farmer's market has been a good motivator. Here is my revised list.

1. Get a deep freezer **Done**
2. Buy a bed for baby and I to rest/nurse/sleep on **Done**
3. 21 dinners pre-made in the deep freezer **Done**
4. 7 servings of pancakes in the freezer **Done**
5. 2 family sized servings of 4 different soups frozen in freezer (Artichoke, broccoli,_______, ________.)
6. 30 activity kits for the girls--hands on projects they can do without me, while I breast feed, etc.
7. organize the girls' closet
8. organzie the bookshelves in our room--get rid of unused books
9. sell the quad

It makes me feel better to have a good stash of dinners in the freezer. There's not much diversity, but there sure is alot of it.(lasagna meat, burritos, spaghetti sauce, and pork chops.) I also found some delicious recipes for pancakes, instead of just the plain kind. There is: Rasp. white choc. chip, blueberry, strawberry, and banana. They smelt REALLY good while I was making them; it made it very hard not to eat a couple!! :)

My next task is the soups. I'm waiting until our Farmer's Market has broccoli and leeks that have come in and then I can make my big batches. My sister Sara also gave me a delicious recipe for Chicken Tortilla soup that I can't wait to try!

On my Prego list, I did delete the muffins to make. We don't really eat muffins and so I would rather spend my precious pre-baby time on something else.

28 Weeks Later

Is this gonna be a story about how after 28 weeks of "infection", I turn into a human-eating zombie? Well....kinda. I'm in the final leg of my pregnancy. The baby is getting bigger and I am getting bigger. So I'm not sleeping very well, and it makes me kinda cranky (*hence the human-eating zombie, although the "eating" is just a metaphor; I just bite your head off for no reason over stupid little things).

I just had my visit to my wonderful midwife Peggy and she says that I am doing fine and so is the baby. I am weighing more this pregnancy than with either of the two girls; I just hit the 170 lbs. mark, so I'm wondering if this baby is gonna be bigger. Peggy says 'no' but I have my doubts. The most I weighed pregnant at any given point, up until now, was 172 lbs, and that was the day I went into labor. I also haven't gotten very large during this pregnancy, I think my legs are actually more toned than before. So I am hoping my extra weight gain is muscle and not baby. (knock on wood).

Being so busy with 2 littles, working, family time, husband time, etc. this pregnancy has really gone by fast, a little too fast. There are 74 days left until the baby gets here and now I am a little freaked because I haven't gotten even half my list done. I guess it's turbo-nesting time. :) Here's my list of everything I would like to get done:

1. Get a deep freezer **Done**
2. Buy a bed for baby and I to rest/nurse/sleep on **Done**
3. 21 dinners pre-made in the deep freezer
4. 7 servings of pancakes in the freezer (56 total)
5. find a good muffin recipe
6. 7 servings of muffins in the freezer (28 total)
7. 2 family sized servings of 4 different soups frozen in freezer (Artichoke, broccoli,_______, ________.)
8. 30 activity kits for the girls--hands on projects they can do without me, while I breast feed, etc.
9. organize the girls' closet
10. organzie the bookshelves in our room--get rid of unused books
11. sell the quad

I know it seems like alot of food but I remember after each of the girls were born I had no energy at all and I was hungry; hungry and thirsty all the time. (because of breast feeding I'm sure) Plus, this will be the first time I have more kids than I have hands to hold each of them (literally a juggling act) and I want to get into a routine as seamless as possible! Not having to cook, at first, will be a BIG help. :)

Farmer's Market

Hooray! It's officially spring and the Farmer's Market is open in Puyallup!! For those of you who have never been to puyallup, it's very flat, pretty sunny, and right at the edge of a volcanoe. This means that there are farms, farms and more farms!! Which equals local, delicious, fresh fruits and veggies for us! Viva la Farmer's Market!! :)

(un)HAPPY MOTHER"S DAY!

Mother's Day this year, was a little different. Oh, my gorgeous little girls made me a beautiful poster, and little baby Howard kicked and punched away joyfully (his own unique way of saying 'love you mom') but I also had my car window smashed and my GPS taken out of my car. Happy Mother's Day.

Honestly the only thing that I wanted for Mother's Day was to spend it with my family, all of us doing something together. So, after picking up most of the big pieces off the seats/carseats, we all drove to the car wash to vacum all the window glass out of the car; one big happy family, cleaning up someone else's crime! Not exactly what I had in mind. Dave was more upset about it than I was. Mostly, I think it's because he's the one who got me the GPS. I was just glad no one was hurt. It's kinda sad when you feel safer in the ghetto.But really, my window was fixed the next day and now you can't even tell there was anything wrong with it.

And to celebrate Mother's Day in my own way, here are 5 things I LOVE about being a mom.

1. Every since they were born, I always got butterflies in my stomache when I see them sleep.
2. Anytime they WANT to hold my hand.
3. Knowing exactly where they are the most ticklish. (Malina: side of her ribs, Ella: inside of her leg)
4. Teaching them new songs--even though I can't sing, they don't care!
5. When I come home and they rush the door-- "Mom! Mom!" and tell me all about what they are doing.

***Being a full-time mother is one of the highest salaried jobs in my field, since the payment is pure love. ~Mildred B. Vermont***


5.

Spring Break = Spring Fever

It is Spring Break!.....for my babysitter. She is out of town this week which means I don't have anyone to watch the kids so I can go to work. Yep. Home, ALL WEEK. I'm just teasing. I do like to be home, prefer it to any other place, honestly. But I am in my full blown nesting phase and I am doing all that I can to stay busy. That's the funny thing about hormones, you can be dead on your feet, and somehow be able to muster energy to cook and clean. Not only that but actually REALLY WANT TO! (Which is ironic because I have to sit down every hour or so, or I feel faintish.) But I suppose it's those same crazy hormones that enable you to take care of your newborn, other children, and the house on only 2 hours of sleep.

One of my newfound favorite things to do is can food. Unfortunately,it is just the beginning of Spring (you can have snow in the Spring, right?) and there is no fresh farm picked produce just yet. Since, I live in Puyallup, we have access to some FANTASTIC u-pick farms, and organic farms but nothing good really comes until June-July.

But just the other day I had an "aha!" moment. Dave and I were watching some cooking show (those that can't do, watch) and seen a recipe that looked really good but it called for orange marmalade. Turns out Dave LOVES organge marmalade! I have known the man for 6 1/2 yrs. and I NEVER knew that he LOVES orange marmalade. Oranges are on sale right now at almost every store, so I decided I had to make orange marmalade.

(Insert picture here; stupid camera) My result is 7 beautiful golden jars filled with sticky, sweet oranges. I plan on making some more this week also. I have to go to work on Sun. morning but I have 2 1/2 more days to nest, er..... I mean can. ;)