Loving our new camera!

As I shared in our Christmas Card Photo post, we got our Christmas present from my parents early so we could start using it and getting comfortable with it.  I think we'll be required to photograph the holiday :)  We are loving our new micro four thirds (kind of like a hybrid between a point-and-shoot and a DSLR camera).  We felt is a great step up from our Olympus Stylus without being over-whelming like a DSLR :)  After much research of C's part and asking friends and family, we ended up with a Panasonic Lumix GF3.  Here are a few photos we've taken of the dogs (of course,they are our babies until the real baby gets here) so far:    

Max, playing ball:

"Come on!  Throw the ball!"

Lila, relaxing on the couch:

Wearing our invisible fence collars (BTW, training is going well!):

Lila, our pretty girl:

Christmas Card Photos!

'Tis the season for all things holiday and our annual Christmas card!  We (um, I) thought it would be fun to use our new camera (thanks Mom and Dad for the early Christmas gift!) to take a self-timer photo for our holiday card this year.  Lesson learned: it's very hard to get two people and two dogs to all look in the same direction and not be blurry using the self-timer.  Especially since we were on a limited time frame since we had childbirth class to get to.  I imagine next year will be even harder with a baby to consider, we may be going the professional photo route instead.

Here are a few of our (failed) attempts!

Chris, pointing at the camera to get Lila to look:

Lila trying to lick C's face and Max not looking:

 Thank goodness, a usable photo!

 And one of the three of us :)

Meal Planning

It's Monday again...how the weekend seems to fly by!  We were very productive, paint party (round 2) happened on Saturday, we also worked on the nursery, did laundry and cleaned the house and did some holiday shopping.  It's just a regular week here with both of us home and I'm hoping to get in some Christmas baking since we are now 2 weeks away from the holiday.

My 3 favorites in front of Christmas tree!

Monday-Weekend leftovers (yummy Mexican food from last night's Christmas shopping outing)-We've got another childbirth class and don't have much time between work and the class
Tuesday-Oven baked salmon and roasted veggies (broccoli and/or cauliflower and potatoes)
Wednesday-Corn and Ham Chowder-My friend Lea's recipe,  I'll post the recipe after I make it because it's delicious!  Will also be making a test run of a Kale and Brussels sprout salad for Christmas
Thursday-Mexican Quinoa (I add a can of black beans)- per C's request
Friday- We are hanging out at home, maybe left-overs or soup out of the freezer?

Week 30-Childbirth Class

Last night, C and I attending the first of our natural birth class series offered by our hospital.  That's right, the goal is to do this thing with no drugs :).  Good thing I've got a great birthing coach (Chris) to help me through!  We practiced breathing techniques and labor positioning (using the birthing ball, sitting and standing).  It was kind of fun and we really liked our instructor, who is a L&D nurse who's had 4 un-medicated births, and meeting other couples with due dates close to ours.

Chris was practicing one of his roles this morning "Can I get you some ice chips?  How about some water?"  Our instructor really stressed the importance of hydration during labor.  We joked that he should just wear a Camelbak hydration pack like in his Army field training and deployment days.      

(I'm going to throw a disclaimer:  Every birthing experience is different, our goal is to have a natural, un-medicated birthing experience.  We are aware that it's not totally in our control and that things may change.)

Blanket for Colin

In October, I flew to Nashville for a girls weekend and to meet baby Colin!  I made him this modern, striped quilt to welcome him into this world and backed with nice, soft minky fabric.  Colin's Mom Alison told me she was decorating the nursery in green and brown and it took me a while to find fabrics but I loved the way this one turned out.  Hopefully Colin enjoys it for years to come!

Check out the contrast binding, I had bought this fabric to use in the quilt but all the pattern made it way too busy (C and I both got dizzy looking at it) so I swapped it out for cozy white flannel instead:

Meal Planning

Our crib, an early shower gift from my parents and brothers!

We had such a busy but productive weekend!  We painted the foyer/hallway area with my Mom, had a holiday party to attend for C's work, put together the crib, went out to dinner at a wine bar (no wine for me) and did some yard work and did some volunteering.  When it came time to sit down and work on a menu, I didn't have much energy to create one so here's our very basic menu for the week:

Monday-Chicken and black bean quesadillas
Tuesday-Roasted shrimp and broccoli
Wednesday-C is traveling so I'm not cooking
Thursday-Pork Chops with stuffed butternut squash and apples (I will be adapting the recipe to make it easier)
Friday-Burgers with bacon and cheese with sweet potato chips
Saturday-We are Christmas shopping so maybe out or maybe eating at home-we will wing it.

Yesterday I whipped up some brownie bites and a new no-bake energy bite recipe that were delicious (if you like chocolate, peanut butter and coconut, try the recipe!) so we've got a few healthy treats in the house before I start on Christmas cookies in the next week or so.  Now, how do I make primal/paleo holiday goodies????

What's on your menu for the week?

Paint Party!

Over the weekend, we had a little painting party to spruce up our white (and boring) foyer and hallway.    After multiple trips to Ace Hardware (I've been there 4 times in the past 2 weeks), we were ready to go!  My Mom came up to handle all the ladder climbing and high painting.  We used Benjamin Moore's Aura line of paint in Metropolitan and Montpelier.  I love this paint, low VOC's (safe to use while pregnant) and the coverage is great!  We only did one coat of the lighter (top) color but we did two coats of the darker (bottom) color to ensure coverage.  The bottom was a glossy paint underneath (and possibly wallpaper under that...) so two coats took car of any missed spots!

Foyer-before paint

Bottom of stairs-before paint

Top half complete!

Bottom half complete!

Chris-working on the ceiling

We started with the walls but then we realized the ceilings really needed a coat of paint as well so Mom and Chris took care of that on Sunday morning.  All that is left is the trim and the upstairs hall and then we can check this project off the list!

One thing that surprised me was how much the shell light fixture goes with the new paint.  I hated it before but now that we've got some color on the walls, I like it a lot more and wouldn't be opposed to it staying for a while.

Next, I would like to rip the carpet off the stairs and see what we have there but Chris likes it so we are at a standstill.  We did melt a hole in the carpet with our painting spotlight so we will have to address it sooner or later.

What fix-up projects are going on in your home?