lots of pictures to make up for my lack of blogging!

I am so very sorry for being such a crappy blogger. I suck, I know.

I won't even try to make excuses for myself because I know if I typed it out -- it would just look like a bunch of poor-poor-pitiful-me bullcrap. And I plan on doing plenty of that later on this week and would hate to subject y'all to it twice... =)

So. Wanna know what I've been up to for the past week!?!?

***Hanging out with Jeff, Mel, and Baby Tatelyn. They came over last Saturday evening and had dinner with us. I made ritz chicken, green bean rolls, and dirt cake. I realize all these recipes can be found on the Kelly's Kitchen blog, but the only one I actually got from there was the dirt cake -- the other two I already knew. OH.MY.GOSH. was the dirt cake ever good!!!! On a scale from 1-10, Stephen gives it a 16.3! I'll post the recipe for it at the end of this blog, or just click on Kelly's link and get it straight from her!

***Getting a pedicure AND a full-body massage. Ahhhhh. Lovely and so so SO relaxing. Unfortunately, my back (sciatic nerve especially) is just killing me right now, and the massage didn't help it too much, but it was still wonderfully relaxing.

***Having a 3-day weekend (which I kicked off with the pedicure) that I enjoyed immensely. I pampered myself Friday & had a small baby shower at Walmart thrown for me by wonderful friends and coworkers Tabatha and Mel. Saturday I spent the day with my brother and sister-in-law, who are some of my favorite people to be with. Sunday -- I lounged around the house all day doing nothing, thankyouverymuch.

***Working, working, working -- followed by sleeping, sleeping, sleeping. I have been so tired. I guess it's the heat combined with normal third trimester hormones and weariness.

***Spending some quality time with my puppy-babies. I think Baxter senses that change is a-coming...

Has anybody tried these Bertoli's frozen dinners? Oh my gosh -- talk about a quick & easy dinner! We absolutely love these -- and I am not a fan of frozen dinners, even these skillet/casserole ones that you make in the oven. Anyway -- these are SO YUMMY. They are made to feed two people, so Stephen and I usually just heat up some garlic toast to eat with these and finish it off, but you could throw together a salad and maybe some vegetables to stretch it out and get some leftovers out of it. They're so good though, I'm not sure that even salad, veggies, and bread could keep me from getting seconds of the pasta! Our favorites are the Cheese Ravioli, Shells in Scampi, and Fettuccine Alfredo. MMM.

This week your baby weighs a little over 4 pounds (heft a pineapple) and has passed the 17-inch mark. He's rapidly losing that wrinkled, alien look and his skeleton is hardening. The bones in his skull aren't fused together, which allows them to move and slightly overlap, thus making it easier for him to fit through the birth canal. (The pressure on the head during birth is so intense that many babies are born with a conehead-like appearance.) These bones don't entirely fuse until early adulthood, so they can grow as his brain and other tissue expands during infancy and childhood.

Tomorrow I have a 33 1/2 week check-up! Thirty-four weeks on Friday! Of course, Stephen and I both think (hope) that I am a little bit further along than they are saying. I realize that I only have *6.5* weeks left until my due date, but seriously -- August 14th seems like an eternity away to me right now, and I'm not sure how much more my stomach can stretch. I'll try to post a tummy picture in a few days, along with lots of fun stories about how rude and inconsiderate people can be to women who are in their third trimester and miserable!

DIRT CAKE RECIPE
make this -- you're gonna LOVE IT!

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
2 (3.5 ounce) packages instant vanilla pudding mix
3 1/2 cups milk
1 (12 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
32 ounces chocolate sandwich cookies with creme filling

DIRECTIONS
Chop cookies very fine in food processor. Set aside.
In a medium-sized bowl, mix together butter, cream cheese, and sugar.
In a large bowl, mix milk, pudding and whipped topping together.
Fold together pudding mixture and cream mixture.
Layer in flower pot or trifle bowl, starting with cookies then cream mixture. Repeat layers.
Chill until ready to serve.

a cutie patootie in the making!

SOOOOO.....

today was my 4d ultrasound, and I must say the pictures ARE AWESOME! I am so glad we decided to have this done!!! We have had three 2d ultrasounds, but none of them have been very detailed - I have one that looks like a string bean, one that shows he's a boy, (not a girl!) and one semi-decent one of half his face! So I'm really really really happy with these results, because I've seen some 4d ultrasounds that didn't really turn out that well, or the baby wasn't cooperative and all you can see is legs and hands. I am THIRTY-TWO WEEKS TOMORROW!!!! Not much longer! =) I'm getting so excited, especially after seeing these beautiful pictures AND running into Baby Tatelyn this afternoon! Here are a few of my favorite pictures!!

do you hear those crickets?

I've been trying to think of something fun and exciting to blog about all week long...


*crickets chriping*


Nothin.



I'm tired, hot, cranky, and sick of working. I just want to sit at home under the fan watching Gilmore Girls, Desperate Housewives, and Food Network. Instead, I work 8/9 hour days on my feet in a HOT HOT HOT WalMart helping gripey customers and peeing in the nasty public bathroom once an hour... then I come home, take off my sweaty work clothes, and prop up my swollen feet for a few hours. Three or four times a week, I go for a 2-mile walk with my Momma, which wears me out even MORE, but I enjoy the exercise and I know I will appreciate it come pushin' time!

This week I do have some exciting stuff going on -- we're having the windows in the second bedroom (nursery) replaced, which means we will finally be able to start PAINTING! My mom is making the crib bedding and it's gonna be SO FREAKING ADORABLE!!! So, within the next two or three weeks we should have the room painted, bedding up, and most of the decorations in place. I'm super excited about it and will be relieved to have it finished.

See, I'm starting to ramble, and I just hate rambling on my blog.

I'm 31 weeks now, which means it could be anywhere from 6-9 weeks until Christopher makes his appearance. We're having a 4D ultrasound Thursday, so I'll definitely have to share those pictures -- I can't wait to see his little face!

I'm off to bed... work tomorrow... blah.

the stork visited my friends last night!

So, I've had total writers bloggers block this past week. Nothing exciting has happened, nothing new. UNTIL.....

this precious little girl was born this morning!!!!!

Our friends Jeff and Mel called us at 10:20 last night to let us know Mel's water had broken and they were headed to the hospital. Stephen, Tabatha (another friend from work) and I all headed up to the hospital around 11, planning to stay just a few hours, depending on how quickly Mel was progressing. Well she progressed QUICKLY! In just a few hours she went from 3.5 to 5.5 to 8.5 to "time to push!" Tatelyn Michelle Wood entered the world at 2:27 am, just 4 hours after Mel's water broke! She weighed in at 7 pounds, 9 ounces, and measured 20 inches long. We stayed until she was born, but came home and went to bed right afterwards then went and visited this morning. Tatelyn is just PRECIOUS! Absolutely adorable and perfect. I held her for awhile this morning and it just got me all anxious for Christopher to get here so that I can be holding him. I can't wait! Mel was just 8 weeks further along than -- which means that I really don't have that much longer until I'm the one in the hospital giving birth! Scary but oh so exciting!

Here I am with Tatelyn (and my preggers belly pokin out!)

One other exciting thing happened last night, but it's not nearly as exciting (or pretty) as Baby Tatelyn, so I'm gonna save it for tomorrow's post!