So Blessed

Welcome to Our World

Wanted to take a few minutes and share a few pics of our precious baby girl - sorry it's taken so long, but we've been kinda busy :-) !

Say hello to Baby Cameron - she made a quick (very!) entrance into the world last Wednesday evening @ 10:46 - she was 7 lbs 6 oz and 19.5 inches.

At first Walker wasn't 100% sure about the baby, but he's warming up to her.

So tiny in her carrier.





Had to share one more of Big Brother Walk-man too!

Love this new little baby girl - such a gift from God! Thanks so much for sharing in our joy and blessing!

Progress at Last!

I went in Tuesday for my weekly dr's visit - and not surprising at all, nothing much had happened since I was there last week. 40 weeks & 5 days and baby girl's arrival didn't look any more promising than before! So, we talked over the options and I reluctantly scheduled an induction for Monday, the 26th. Walker was 9 days over when he was induced, and this would put baby girl @ 11 days over...anything past that and I'd have to start going in for daily testing that would be both costly & extremely time consuming. As much as I have longed for this pregnancy to have a natural start to labor, I also don't want to selfishly wait for that and put baby girl in any danger! All in all, I was happy with the plan.

Enter today - this morning did a few things around the house, went to the Y and exercised, grabbed lunch & then headed to Wal-Mart. While talking to a friend we ran into, I realized I wasn't feeling so great...my back had started to ache a bit, and I just felt a little bit funky. A little while later, I had a pain that almost stopped me in my tracks...it was at that moment that I realized I might be having contractions. WOW!

When I got to the hospital when Walker was induced, they told me I was having contractions, but I couldn't feel them at all. Day by day, it's been a bit nervewracking to know that while this is my 2nd pregnancy, I've never experienced labor starting naturally...and to constantly wonder if I would "get it" or not or if I would even get that option.

As the next couple of hours progressed, it became quite evident that labor had indeed commenced...contractions are roughly 10 mins apart, and they have been growing in intensity...so for now, we're just waiting...watching the clock...timing contractions...working through the pain...awaiting the arrival of our precious baby girl!

Tuesday Tidbits

In an effort to keep my 2009 goals in front of me & stay on track with them, I thought I'd share a few tidbits along the way that are helping keep me focused! I won't necessarily post on this subject every week, but just as things come to mind on my journey!


In honor of my exercise & eat more healthfully goal - keep & maintain a fruit bowl! So many of us always saw a bowl of fruit sitting on our grandmothers' counters growing up - we've started doing the same. If the fruit gets into the fridge (at our house at least), it will come out weeks later, not eaten & now not worth eating! We've started being more diligent about buying fruit and keeping it out in plain sight - where it's an easy snack to pick up and eat at home and also easy to grab heading out the door.

Right now we're really in to navel oranges & Fuji apples - both found at Sam's and both super delicious! We also buy bananas from time to time, but they seem to turn brown almost within a day of entering our doors, regardless of how green they were when we bought them. I'd love to hear any tricks any of you have on keeping bananas around longer!

How about you - any tidbits you can share that are helping you keep on track for your 2009 goals?

Playing the Waiting Game

Four days in - just watching & waiting!

What's a girl to do?

Not surprisingly, baby girl still has yet to make her entrance into the world...so what's a girl (and hubby) to do? Work on those goals, I say!

Cooking & cleaning are unfortunately not two of my fortes...after an impromptu breakfast at the new Einstein Bagels near our house this morning, Brad and I decided to give our bathroom a detail cleaning. We systematically took the bathroom apart and made it sparkle. Woo hoo!

This past week, in trying to further prepare for baby girl's arrival, we made a meal list and bought the ingredients we didn't have on hand to carry it out. We'd hoped to get some cooking done during the week and just never found the time - so this afternoon we headed into the kitchen for a marathon cooking session.


We're not big on leftovers, so we made the decision to cook several different meals, divide them into smaller batches and stock up our freezer. We've long talked about cooking in this fashion, but have never taken the time to do it. I have to say, it was a great experience! We started out boiling chicken breasts (for chicken & dumplings) and then moved on to making a beautiful homemade sauce for lasagna. After putting the lasagna together, we had some leftover sauce that Brad turned into a baked spaghetti. Then we put together some chicken & stuffing casseroles. All told we ended up with:

• chicken & dumplings - 2 meals
• lasagna - 3 meals
• baked spaghetti - 1 meal
• chicken & stuffing - 3 meals

Our freezer is now well stocked, and working together went so well that I can almost guarantee we'll do this again! It definitely felt great to make some further forward progress as we continue on with baby watch!

How about you - have you ever tried any batch cooking? What recipes have you found that freeze well? We'd love to know!

Sweet Time with Mimi

Last night we took Walker over to spend the night with Mimi & Pop - he & Alexa were both eager to climb up in Mimi's lap to hear one of their favorite books, Llama, Llama Red Pajama.

The Big Day?!? Maybe, Maybe Not...

Could today be the big day? maybe, maybe not...I have to confess, I'm not holding my breath! I'm a procrastinator by nature, and seems like my body just falls right in line when it's time to have babies!


This is me with newly born Walker back in 2006 - let me tell you, that boy was stubborn! He was 9 days overdue, at which point I was induced...not my first choice, but as a first-time mom, I also didn't want to do anything that might compromise his health & well-being, so I caved @ 9. We showed up at the hospital around 5:30 or so that morning and they got everything started...he was born after 9 PM - I told you he was stubborn (I know...just like his Mama)!

Today will definitely be given to lots of thought about all-things-baby! It is so amazing to know that I have this miracle inside of me and that sometime in the next days we will be able to hold her and revel in the miracle that she is! I am so excited to see how God orchestrates everything in the coming days. With Walker's birth, there was no question at all that He was behind everything...from the doctors on down to the nurses, I simply had the perfect ones!

So today (and until...), I'm not going to drag around waiting, waiting, waiting...I'm going to continue to try to be diligent in taking care of my family, crossing a few more things off my never-ending list - enjoying some time one-on-one with Walker & Brad too, and just continue to prepare for our little sweetheart! We'll keep you posted! And if you'd like to keep up "real-time", feel free to follow me on Twitter...as long as we get decent phone reception @ the hospital, we'll probably tweet some updates along the way!

Edited to add - you can also follow my sis on Twitter @alchristopher as she'll definitely be giving updates too! :)

Enjoy your day!

Yummy Yummy Meatballs

My Aunt Marian introduced all of us to this ultra easy, super delicious recipe awhile back and I couldn't resist passing it along! I'll include the recipe for the meatballs themselves, though I have to confess that I keep a bag of frozen meatballs (italian style) at the ready in my freezer at all times - have I mentioned that Sam's is one of my favorite places to shop? I can say that I did make the meatballs from scratch once and it is a very yummy recipe....it's just by the time you cover them with all of this sauce goodness, I don't think you can tell much of a difference with the premade ones...and for me, the beauty of this recipe is the ability to throw it together in no time flat!


Meatballs - mix together and roll into small balls:

• 1 c bread crumbs
• 2 1/2 lbs ground beef
• 3 eggs
• 1 pkg. dry onion soup mix

Sauce:

• 1 can whole cranberry sauce (not the gel stuff!)
• 1 (15-20oz) can sauerkraut
• 1 bottle chili sauce (condiment aisle near the ketchup & cocktail sauce)
  
• 1 empty chili bottle of water
• 1/2 c brown sugar

When mixing the sauce, I find it easiest to start with the chili sauce, water & brown sugar - mix til dissolved. Then add the cranberry sauce, mix it in thoroughly. I use a whisk up until this point. Mix the sauerkraut in last - you don't have to follow this order, but I find it makes it much easier to get the sauce truly homogenized!


Spread meatballs (I use them frozen, straight from the freezer) to cover lasagna pan - I think it's a 10x14.


Cover with the sauce. Bake at 350 degress for 2-2 1/2 hours. You can also use a crockpot, but I find the oven to be much nicer. It makes a much thicker, richer sauce.

So when you need a quick, go-to recipe - give this one a try! Even if sauerkraut or cranberries aren't your thing...try it anyway - once the sauce comes together, you really can't distinguish any of the individual ingredients. Goes great with mashed potatoes! Enjoy!

Looking Forward at 2009

Photo by coxy

New Year's has come and gone and many resolutions have already been forgotten. I've never been super-big into resolutions...mostly because they're so easy to make & so easy to break! I think oftentimes we come off of the high of Christmas, throw out some lofty goals & never give them much thought again. I decided to go about it a little differently this year.

If I had to pick a word to describe 2008 for me, it would have been intention. I really sought to live with intention last year and it produced some really great results in my life. I am a procrastinating, clutter-bug by nature and let far too many things sit undone for far too long. I really began to work on changing all that last year. Granted - I still have a long way to go, but at least progress is being made!

For 2009, in lieu of "resolutions", instead I want to focus on goals for the year and not lose sight of them by the time February or March rolls around. I've taken the last 2 weeks to really think & reflect on what I want 2009 to accomplish in my life and am finally ready to share...

1. Read more - I have been an avid reader for years and years and have really just let that fall by the wayside since W was born. I am determined to read 18 books (mostly non-fiction) in 2009. I'll be tracking that progress in my sidebar.
2. Continue to focus on living with intention, especially in regard to our home...continue to use the 2 minute rule, work on touching things only once (I tend to be bad about moving things around and not dealing with them for far too long), putting things away as soon as I'm finished with them and in general keeping our house a lot neater. I'll be posting some pics of both my failures and successes throughout the year in order to help keep myself motivated!
   
3. Continue to focus on exercise (3-4 times per week) and extend that focus to healthier eating both personally and for the whole family. This means I have to be more and more diligent about cooking...something that I tend to struggle with! I may try posting some menus at some point...not quite sure about that yet. Several months back, I started to track my weekly exercise in my sidebar and it has made a huge difference for me. I truly believe that this pregnancy has gone even more smoothly than the last largely in part to my increased exercise. I'm especially excited about the prospect of being able to further tone & define my muscles once baby girl is born - just think, I might actually like what I look like in a bathing suit this summer!
4. Be more diligent about reading my Bible & growing my relationship with Jesus - some days I do really well and others, I let the disruptions of the day get in my way. I want to be more consistent & see continual growth. I may use some journaling to help track my progress...not 100% sure yet on that one.
5. Be more diligent about tracking our family finances - we budget and pretty much live accordingly, but don't always do a great job of visibly tracking that on paper. I'd like to change that this year!
   

I'm sure I'll come up with a few other goals as the year progresses, but for now, this is where my focus lies. I know our world is getting ready to turn upside-down, temporarily, with the birth of baby girl & the adjustment to a baby & toddler in the house, but I'm truly excited about what 2009 has in store for us! I love knowing that I can continue to grow & better myself and believe that great things are just around the bend!

How about you - what are you doing to hang on to your 2009 goals?

Walker - 2007

Looking back @ Walker from Jodi on Vimeo.

In trying to get ready for baby girl's arrival, we were downloading video from our camcorder, and ran across this sweet clip. Unfortunately, the video looks a little crazy at times - not sure what the deal is there, but still wanted to share our little cutie with you! This was taken on our 2007 beach trip just before he turned one! Oh how the time flies!

Taking it day by day

I can hardly believe that we're already 7 days into the New Year and I've yet to do a post...just goes to show how busy we've been! I hope your family had a wonderful Christmas season - I know we did! Between Christmas, then trying to get everything with the business ready to close out 2008 and then trying to work on getting ready for baby girl, we've been quite busy!

As of tomorrow, I'm officially 39 weeks...not that I'm counting! ;) We were able to get the nursery painted over the holidays - a rich brown color..."mocha syrup" to be exact. It turned out even better than I had hoped and is a great match to the nursery fabric! We still haven't done much on the walls, but I'm all about a low-stress life these days, so I'm not putting too much pressure on myself to have a 100% complete nursery before baby girl is born...far more important to just enjoy this time, is my theory!

We've had some great family time...enjoyed Walker immensely - his language acquisition is absolutely amazing and we're loving every minute of it! He even calls the baby by name, which is so much fun! All-in-all there are a few more things I'd like to cross off my list before the birth, got several marked off today, in fact! Other than that, we're just taking life as it comes, one day at a time, and enjoying each other as a family! We'll keep you posted!