The bump

 I've missed a few weeks due to the holidays and well, laziness. But there is little difference from week to week so, meh. Anyhow, here is 21 weeks. 

And fast forward to 28 weeks today! she's a growin!

Sarah Bernhardt Cakes

For holiday cheer and good company time, my dear friend and I made "Sarah Bernhardt Cakes". Apparently they are an Icelandic holiday tradition after the famous french actress Sarah Bernhardt. A friend shared the recipe with me from this blog (also my new favorite food blog)

In general, it's an almond meringue base, with an espresso/coffee chocolate cream filling, covered in dark chocolate. and they are *divine* and perfect for storing in the freezer for when you have guests, or for placing in mason jars and giving as Christmas gifts to neighbors and friends! 

Jonathan was in charge of documenting part of this baking process :) Side note: my friend just bought this old beautiful gigantic home in ONSL and this is her amazing stove... 

Hope you try the recipe sometime

Happy baking!

Cora's nursey (thus far)

As all furniture in our home, it is subject to change. SO this is little baby's nursery thus far. The nursery is somewhat "ship-themed" not to be confused with nautical (sea-shells and the star fish, yuck) although some nautical things are allowed like anchors perhaps...I'm picky, I know :)

We found this changing table at one of my favorite thrift stores, and our collection of cloth diapers is slowly growing. (Thanks to Erin, baby's Auntie, and black friday sales :) PS: as you see there, we expect baby C to be accepted to Hogwarts, although we are unsure which house she will be admitted to. (please forgive this nerdy confession) 

Like I said before, things are subject to change. I will be moving pieces in and out and around I'm sure. For example, its difficult for Jonathan and I to get by easily to the basement with a load of laundry with the cradle in the middle of the room so that will probably change. But it's not a big deal really. 

This quilt was made with love by baby's sweet Nana. It looks so nice on display in her cradle right now, we love to glance upon it from time to time.  

 So cute!

We will probably place the cradle/crib up against this wall (if we decide not to co-sleep) and then find another place for her bookshelf..

 And there you have it, a small and humble nursery in the making of our teeny tiny 900 sq ft apartment. 

If you know of anyone who has or would be willing to sell an old accordion style wooden baby gate, let me know! Until then, it is my shopportunity and excuse to go estate sale-ing ;)

Pizza with friends

Last night, we bundled up to take our good friend out for his birthday. So we met up at Dewey's and filled up on delicious pizza. 

Then we retired to their place for a game of HP clue (one of our nerdy favs) On our way home we finally got snow, which always makes it feel more like winter (& reminds us of home where they have already been dumped loads of powder) I'm sure family back home is already tired of winter :) but I was happy to walk out into a gentle shower of snowflakes.

Happy winter!

Advent supper with prayer group

 So I have been very busy growing this little one inside me. She continuously reminds me that she is there, kicking away (which I love) I feel so stretched and I still have roughly 3 months to go! Yikes. It's hard to think that I will be stretching even more than this!

One thing I want to teach our little one even in the womb is the art and love of furniture. So to do this, I take her to thrift stores, estate sales, flea markets, whatever. We recently stumbled upon this 3 piece set. 

 The hutch and buffet were in great shape but the dining room table was extremely worn and not worth considering really. At first they wouldn't let me split up the set, so I waited a week and went back to haggle with the store owner. The nice one. (Thanks to my friend who works for the thrift store, she gives me insider info on the staff). So I offered a price for the hutch and buffet only, and after talking with his supervisor they said OK and split the set for me. Yay!

It was perfect timing too because we were just about to host our prayer group for an Advent/Christmas get together/meal. And I wanted to use the new buffet for serving our guests.  

 So we hauled the furniture home and cleaned it up. 

 Our fellowship was rich, the food was delicious, and the furniture was happy to be used I think. We love the people in our prayer group very much. 

We've shared our hearts together, young and old, for nearly 2 1/2 years. Each one of us has carried the burdens and joys of the others to the Lord in prayer. We've seen many prayers answered, we have mourned over sorrows together, and we have rejoiced in triumphs together.  What a gift it is to share life together!

Go Utes!!

Game #2 with Jonathan's folks. 

Game #3 now with my mother and sisters :) 

Jonathan never fails to make the time spent together so much more enjoyable. My sisters absolutely love him and I loved getting to see them have so much fun at the game.  

Here they are dancing to the Ute theme song in an attempt to get on the big screen. Didn't happen, but maybe next time :)

Go utes!

Thanksgiving 2012

We got to go to three Utah Ute men's basketball games while we were in town. Yay! They won all three games I might add :) 

Sophia, Emma, and baby Mazey hanging out, getting ready for some thanksgiving supper.  

My mother and her brother. Uncle Leonard was helping out with the cooking, or rather busy making sangria and didn't want to splash wine on his nice white shirt :)

Four generations! My grandmother in the middle with my Aunt Debbie, my cousin Precia and then her little one, Mazey. Cute!

My uncle David and Jonathan watching the game in the "Man Cave". 

Mom and Pa :) 

More family!  

 

Notice the wine still somehow make it on his white shirt so he had to change. sad.

Baby M playing peek-a-boo. Don't mind the Queen music video blaring in the background. That's how my family rolls. What would Thanksgiving be without a little Bohemian Rhapsody? 

I got to meet my other cousins daughter for the first time too! Little Riley. 

Riley and mom, so cute!

Speaking of cute! This is my cousin Precia and me THEN

 and us NOW :)

After Thanksgiving at my parents house, we went to Thanksgiving with Jonathan's parents to celebrate.   We ate lots of turkey and pie this year :)

We also met up with some old college friends!! The Snows!! We missed them so much and it was great to catch up. 

We are also due on the SAME DAY in March! Olivia is French and so their baby will be the cutest little bilingual girl there EVER was :)

Hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving!

My Sisters Wedding!!

So my lovely baby sister Amber tied the knot November 18, 2012 to her longtime boyfriend and best friend Anthony. Hooray!! Jonathan and I got to spend a whopping 10 days back home in Salt Lake City to celebrate their union and to stay for Thanksgiving! 

They live in Scottsdale, AZ and we both flew in the friday before the wedding to have some pre-wedding celebrations, ie bridal shower! Viewer discretion advised? Sorry for the slightly inappropriate information here I just thought they were so cute with their little "Mrs. Garcia" and all, and its not like we've never seen a thong before. 

We got to meet our cousins' two little ones for the first time. So cute!!

 Eli, my cousins oldest. He was adorable. 

These three were inseparable. 

My mother and her best friend from childhood, Chimene. She came to town from California to visit. 

My Auntie D did all our hair and make-up for the wedding. She does hair for a living and she did the same for my wedding as well. She is wonderful! 

A waterfall braid for Amber... 

Here are my parents and the beautiful bride and her groom. Don't mind my cute father, he looks like he belongs to the mafia or something. He does pack some heat. Not sure if he did this night.  

And here are my other three sisters!  

All of us together, finishing up group photos.  So just so happens that even though it was my sisters wedding day and therefore she gets center stage, I sort of stole that moment just for a bit. For one of the group pictures, the entire bridal party lined up the escalator for a photo. The security guard temporarily stopped the escalator for us to stand on it for the photo. So all the groomsmen up top, bride and groom in the middle, and then bridesmaids going down from them. 

Well I was at the very end and all of a sudden I felt weird and sweaty and the room went fuzzy then black and I passed out! I tumbled all the way to the bottom of the escalator stairs until the security guard rushed over to help me. He said I was probably locking my knees. Who knows but it was *scary*. A family friend and nurse rushed to me with my mother and once she saw I was okay, mentioned that back in the day, that's how they diagnosed if someone was pregnant, when they fainted. 

I got scratched and bruised, quite badly, but miraculously I never fell on my belly (Baby is OKAY! has been kicking like crazy ever since!) and nothing happened to the dress, phew! I'll heal. I'm just glad cause it could've been worse. News of me fainting spread like wildfire throughout all of the family and friends, so for the next 30 minutes I had to reassure everyone I ran into that I really was OK :)

After that storm passed, all eyes were on these two again. Yay! & dinner was amazing!! We had delicious tomato basil soup with dinner rolls, then tender short ribs (the yummiest I've ever had!) on asiago polenta with tasty green beans.  Mmm. 

Husband and me at dinner

Emma and Jonathan. She is growing into such a lovely young lady. I remember changing her diapers. It goes by too fast...but I do love to see her bloom.  

& there is mother going crazy on the dance floor :) They had a good time. The open bar helped ;) 

Jonathan danced the night away with my sisters, especially Sophia.  

After a little grooving, I met up with my uncles (and Maria, my uncle Leonards' new wife) 

My father and my Uncle Leonard. Lookin' sharp! 

 It was good to be home again.