23 weeks

check out these crazy acrobatics.....blaire has her leg up over her head!  she was sure moving around a lot during this ultrasound, and managed to have both her kneecap and her fist both right up by her face at the same time......good thing those little limbs are made of rubber as of now!

my cervix measurement was exactly the same as it was at my last ultrasound, so both doc and i breathed a sigh of relief (for now anyways), and other than scheduling another ultrasound for in another three weeks, there is no other action needed.  looks like the cerclage will be unnecessary!  hooray ;)  there is still talk of progesterone shots, but we will revisit that based on what we find next time.

as for baby blaire; she is about the size of a mango, and with both her sense of hearing keenly picking up and her developing sense of movement, she can appreciate all these dance parties that hendrix and i have been having!  i will be curious to see if she responds to the intro music to all of hendrix's favorite tv shows after she is born. lol

by the way, hendrix's dance moves are becoming more varied everyday.....when i picked him up from my friend's house the other afternoon, he was doing ballerina twirls in their living room.   ;)

we are busy making plans for our vacation next week, and can't wait to spend some much needed time relaxing with our little family of three!  can't believe we are going to be saying farewell to the second trimester soon......

blueberries!

i had my first experience blueberry picking last weekend, and we had so much fun and have been enjoying the most delicious blueberries ever since!

(please excuse the following low-quality phone photos, but it was looking like rain and i didn't want to drag around my nice camera at the berry patch; though after i got there and saw the awesome photo op it would have been, i wish i would have brought it......maybe next time!)

it didn't take long at all for hendrix to catch on that the berries were yummy, and that it was more fun to eat them than it was to put them in the bucket!

he also thought it was fun to hide in the bushes, and flirt with other berry pickers.

we brought home a whole ice cream bucket full of delicious berries!  and the bucket only cost 8 bucks. ;) it was definitely an experience worth repeating, and we will be sure to head to the berry patch farm for other kinds of berries throughout the season.  

after we got home, i turned to pinterest to find inspiration for new berry recipes and was very intrigued by this yogurt cake.  While i love blueberry pie (in small doses), it tends to be too rich and too sweet for me, and i wanted something a little bit lighter for this hot summer weather we have been having. 

 

it wasn't a long list of ingredients, and you just dump them all together, stirring the berries gently a the end.  i did add more berries than the recipe called for (mostly because i had soooo many, but also because it just looked right!)

the batter was yummy (or at least that is what the boys told me.....), so i was hopeful!

after it cooled, i sprinkled a little powdered sugar on it, and served it warm for dessert!

not only did my hubby and i like it, but hendrix greedily gobbled up his piece so i consider the recipe a huge success!  

i would say that the consistency resembled muffins more than it did cake, though maybe it would best be likened to a coffee cake.  hubby thinks it would make yummy pancake batter as well, so i guess it is a versatile recipe!

  

wordless wednesday {22 months}

  

linking up with:

jenni from the blog, bree: his honey & her mommy, 

the naptime momtog,  my organized chaos, 

tots and me & project alicia

22 weeks

baby girl is growing and growing.  

at 11 inches long and weighing in at roughly 1 pound, she is about the size of a spaghetti squash.  which actually sounds, kind of yummy right now........everything sounds yummy to me right now.  my appetite is massive.  i actually sometimes eat 5 square meals a day.  really. truly.

can you tell from this belly?!?

i did my first pinterest project for ME, after pinteresting for both hendrix and blaire at my last two pinterest nights, and am proud to show of this cute top that i transformed.  

i got my inspiration from this pin, and i picked up a couple oversized tank tops from good will to try it out.  i needed to buy a couple sizes larger than i normally wear, so that the shirts would be plenty long (i have found that even some of my maternity tops don't seem to be long enough....) which did require me to take in some extra fabric under the arm holes, but that was pretty simple.  

overall i am pleased with how cute and easy this project was for the investment of $1.49 per shirt. ;)

if this hot weather continues (90+ degrees) than tank tops and shorts are all i will need in my wardrobe this summer!  

playroom art gallery

i finally finished up my last project for the playroom.  it has been something that i have been developing for a while, thanks to some inspiration from pinterest, but it just kept getting pushed to the back burner.

after hendrix's fabulous finger painting artwork the other day, i decided that we needed to make displaying his creations more of a priority and i just got the supplies and set off to work (with my little helper of course)

the frames are a random collection acquired from a combination of garage sales, good will, and one that i got from the 80% off clearance section at hobby lobby.  i wanted to have varying sizes and styles of frames to make it interesting.  i also picked up the ART letters for 99 cents each.

i did have to pick up one extra paint color, and i chose a spray paint can because i wanted something that would stick well to this frame that is made of some sort of plastic, not wood.  the other two colors i used were leftover from our previous projects in the playroom which i thought would help tie the whole project together. ;)

my helper really wanted to get messy and use the brush to help mommy.  

he was actually a pretty good helper, and he sure made the project more fun.  i thought it was fitting that he wanted to be involved.

i learned that painting on the grass is not probably the best route....as the grass got stuck on the frames, and i had to do extra coats to make it all nice and even.  and there are some big blue patches of grass in my yard now.  oopsies....

hubby was impressed when he came home to these sitting in our yard......i had talked about doing this project, but i don't think he knew how it would turn out.  he loves it!  

as soon as it dried he helped me hang it in our playroom.  and i was so excited to sift through the piles of artwork that i had filed away to find the perfect piece for each frame.  i love that the use of the alligator clips is going to make it so easy to change out the artwork regularly and keep it fresh and current!

it is great way to utilize a big wall and make it bright, colorful and personal!

i love that the playroom now finally looks complete.  

linking up with:

      

artist in the making

hendrix loves making artwork.  

he has been using crayons and markers both for quite a while now;  i think he might have gotten his first set for christmas, and ever since then he has gone crazy with his desire to create.  

up until today his preference has always been markers (because they make him feel more like a big boy, i think) but i wonder if finger paints may now be in the running as a new favorite! 

we picked these up at hobby lobby today while i was getting a few necessities for my most recent craft project, and i decided to set him up in the backyard to enjoy the mess outside.  

he started off surprisingly conservative.....just sticking those two pointer fingers in and staying really clean.....

but it wasn't long before he was shouting at me that he needed "this one" opened also, and then we were painting with all 4 colors.  that makes the whole endeavor much messier by default.  lol

he was concentrating really hard on his masterpiece.

   

before we knew it, he had colored three pictures.  he was telling me about the colors he was using, and even making up stories about his picture......this one he told me was a chicken.  

interesting.

it was a perfect summer afternoon activity, and i wonder how long it will be before he is begging to 'paint' again.  ;)

next up, hendrix's new art gallery wall.......we have to have a fabulous place to display all these wonderful paintings!