Fireplace Mantel

We finally stained our fireplace mantel! Wahoo!! We had our house builders put in a "blonde wood" mantel because they would have charged us an additional $3,000 to stain it the same as our cabinets. Yeah right! Stain costs like $10!!! So, we lived with a mis-matched fireplace for a couple weeks and it finally drove me crazy enough to actually crack open the stain & paint it. (Ok well Jared did most of the staining because it strongly advised against pregnant women breathing the fumes) A couple days and $20-ish dollars (dropped stain can, remember?) a whole new matching mantel! Eat that $3,000!! Haha =>

(& the only pic I have of the new mantel is with some Christmas decorations. Maybe later I will get one of the plain mantel)

Grocery Budget

Budgeting is not my forte, it is something I am constantly evaluating and trying to perfect. I saw this link on a friends website, its an ebook about how to keep a grocery budget, for a family of 4, to $250. Seeing how I am feeding 2.5 people on a higher amount, I would LOVE to be that low! I'l let ya know if I can follow this books principles and succeed in saving more money! Fingers crossed. =>

20 weeks

So I am 20.5 weeks along and this is the first "bump" picture of the pregnancy. Needless to say I am not as vigilant about it as I was last time. Haha

Different Things about this pregnancy:
- I am carrying in my back, which presents a whole new set of experiences
- I still get morning sickness, although not as consistently as the first trimester
- I have very specific cravings, & not necessarily just of tastes but of textures
- I got a body pillow, BEST THING EVER!! I don't know how I made it they Paige's pregnancy without one! =>
- This pregnancy still hasn't fully "sunk in", Jared & I have to remind ourselves that I actually am pregnant & not just having all these weird symptoms. (we don't forget I'm pregnant, it's just not really real. Does that make any sense?)

Things I crave:
- zupas summer chicken salad
- MEAT (this baby is definitely a carnivorous child)
- shaved ice (no flavor, just texture)
- smoothies (mainly piña colada)
- and more meat => (& not hot dogs, like steak, roast,..... Real meat. Haha)

First Ice Cream Cone

The other day my aunt Lindsey & I went to Ikea. That's always a fun store to explore, and our girls did great! After , we rewarded ourselves with some of their ice cream cones. I was brave and decided to get Paige her own, but had them only fill it slightly. She LOVED it! It was pretty funny watching her eat it. The only pics I got were at the beginning of the process. Thinking back on it I should have got a pic of the ice cream covered mess before I bathed her. Haha. But what a cute little ice cream eater! Now there are 3 things she will eat without a doubt: chocolate, ice cream, marshmallows. Haha =>

Not so great good thing

Today has not been a very good day. No particular reason. Just the hard parts of pregnancy, life with a toddler, & just feeling down all in one day. But the day must go on, & things must get done. So Paige & I went out & ran errands, one of which was picking up stain for our fireplace mantel. I took a little longer picking out stain because there was no exact match to my cabinets. I finally picked a combination out & we headed home. (mind u we are now late for Paige's nap. Tired cranky baby & mommy). We pull into our garage & I'm unbuckling Paige & somehow the can of stain falls out of the car and SPLATTERS all over our garage floor!!! What a great way to end a great errand run. NOT!! I utterly broke down & called Jared just bawling. He reassured me he can fix it, & I didn't ruin our house & he still loves me. What a great man to put up with my dramas =>. So now, after I have sufficiently stuffed myself with chocolate & the baby is down I go out & get the rest of the stuff from errands out of the car & I realize something. The stain isn't even the right color to match my cabinets. So, maybe in some far future I will see this as a blessing & tender mercy because I didn't put all that time & effort into painting my mantel just to find its the wrong color. As for now, I just need ice cream & more chocolate.