Low Key Weekend...and New Ultrasound Shots!

Everyone in the house has had waffles for breakfast (including canines) - Check.
Dishwasher is running - Check.
Laundry has been started - Check.

On Sundays (sometimes we switch it up and make it Saturdays) we try to always have homemade waffles or pancakes. Today was no exception, and because in 19 1/2 weeks I possibly won't have the time to make so many homemade goodies yesterday was a  baking and cooking extravaganza. We had pecan waffles with fresh strawberry sauce today...I needed to use some sorry looking strawberries in my fridge before they went bad, and making the sauce is super easy (I've also made it with blueberries and a blueberry-strawberry combo). I clean and cut up the strawberries, then throw them in a pan with some water and some sugar. Simmer on low-medium, and ta-da it's done,

Yesterday I really over did it, because my back was killing me last night, and I had to climb into bed (even the couch sounded uncomfortable) with a book (we have no TV in the bedroom) a little before 9pm. I started out the morning by making egg salad, eggs and hash for Bjorn, and prepping dinner. The dinner prep included cutting chicken breasts into small pieces and putting them in a homemade marinade of lime juice, orange juice, and spices to make garlic lime fajitas.

 I usually forget the exact directions for boiling eggs, so my 1968 Better Homes and Gardens cook book always comes in handy!

 Marinating chicken...I forgot to take an after picture of the prepared dinner, but it looked a lot better than this.
 
We ran some errands, which included stopping at Home Depot so Bjorn could get some closet organization stuff. We live in a house that was built before walk in closets were a standard, so we have what I guess I would consider just normal size closets. The closet in our bedroom is exclusively mine, Bjorn didn't have a chance of fitting one article of clothing or a pair of shoes into it! So he took up a closet in one of the two extra bedrooms. Well the one he chose for his closet is now becoming a nursery. So he had to move his closet to the other extra bedroom. So basically now we have three double decker closets. Basically every closet has white wire shelving that you can also hang clothing on, on top and bottom, so it doubles the hanging space. Bjorn actually has more space now in the other closet.

After we got home I decided to make bread and cookies. Fully knowing that I would have to make dinner too. So after about 5 hours straight in the kitchen we had...oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, herb bread (a basic white bread that I added Italian herbs and spices too), garlic lime fajitas, and cilantro rice (fresh cilantro is the best!). And this is when I could hardly stand anymore and the nerve in my lower back started getting pinched again...which means that not only did my back hurt, but because of the nerve being pinched my hips were killing me and both my upper legs on the outer sides. Lucky it's feeling much better today, and I plan on taking it a bit easier. Especially since during the pregnancy I can't take ibuprofen or my doctor prescribed muscle relaxer.

Both the cookies and bread actually turned out excellent. I feel like the last few times I made cookies and bread there was something not right, so I was really happy this time around. Oh and thank you who ever invented the Kitchen-Aid stand mixer!

 Vesper and Tater hanging out in the kitchen waiting for me to drop some cookie dough on the floor.

On Friday we had our 20 week medical ultrasound. And the good news is, everything looks great, Tatiana has a good spine, all four chambers in her heart, etc... I'm really glad we did the non-medical ultrasound though because during this ultrasound she had her head slightly turned towards my back and she had her hands over her eyes. None the less, we still love the shots we got from the ultrasound.

Covering her eyes.

Side profile

Little legs and feet...I love this one. :)

Hands up near her face.

Also on Friday the glass bottles I ordered from Coddlelife arrived. I have picked up glass bottles made by other companies and they always seemed quite heavy, but these ones are not heavy at all! And they are super adorable. You order the glass bottle and silicon covers separately. The cover colors are really pretty. I can't recommend them based on whether or not my baby liked them, but I can recommend based on the fact that they are a very high quality product, and they looked even better in person then in photos on Coddlelife's website.

Alright well I'm off to do laundry (eww) and later watch the Oscars!!...Can't wait. :)

Cuteness and Eye Candy

Picture post!...

Last night I started and finished hand embroidering Tatiana's name on a little onesie. I decided this morning that if I was going to take a photo of the onesie I might as well throw in some photos of some other adorable baby stuff. Then the dogs got in the way... they are pretty much velcro dogs, especially Tater. You can't even go to the bathroom alone, because Tater will stand outside the door crying and whining. So now I'm just at the point that I usher him in with me and he sits or lays at my feet in the bathroom. Vesper is a bit more independent, and although she's usually the more photogenic one, for some reason Tater really outshone her in these photos. Probably partially because Vesper kept wanting to bark out the window, while Tater was totally content on doing whatever I said ("sit" "stay!") to make me give him the sweet cooing words of "good boy!" Anyway...here we go!

I hand embroidered the baby's name on a onesie in my handwriting and the skull is just an iron on patch.

 

Oh where do I begin...See the big shoe? That's my shoe...I fell in love with that shoe 2 years ago and so did my best friend, who owns them in yellow. Imagine my sheer joy when I noticed these little green shoes of joy at Baby Gap one day. I saw them and did somersaults in my head, but at the time we didn't know if Baby 'O' was a boy or girl, so I skipped them. After finding out Baby 'O' was indeed a girl I stopped into Baby Gap again and this time they were on clearance, and the last pair. Sweet victory!

A romper for my summer baby! You can't tell from this photo but there's some really cute shiny little buttons underneath the arm holes.

Oh diaper bag, I love how you don't scream "DIAPER BAG"...but merely whisper, "Am I diaper bag? Am I? Or maybe I'm a purse..." I saw this bag in black at a store when I was out shopping with my mother in law. The next day I looked it up online to see if I could get a better deal (which, I couldn't find ANYWHERE, the price was set in stone), and I ended up discovering it came in grey polka dots with silver metallic details. I put it in my shopping cart on Amazon.com and stared at my online shopping cart for about 3 days. Then my mother in law called me and told me she was out shopping and had found the diaper bag I liked, but it was grey with polka dots and not black. I nearly had a heart attack and told her that was the exact bag I wanted, so being the awesome mother in law she is, she picked it up for me, and I was in sheer joy. I love it!

The blanket in the below photos is a lil baby blanket I made a couple months ago...and now that I know we are having a girl it will be her blanket.

Hair Bows! Hair Bows! Hair Bows!

It didn't take long (hmmm....less then 24 hours) after finding out that we were expecting a girl for me to begin scouring etsy.com for adorable bows, clips, and headbands for my unborn daughter :) ...I guess this is what Bjorn meant when he said the other day, in regards to it being a girl, "....this is gonna be expensive!"

First of all I LOVE etsy...If you haven't checked it out yet, you really should! http://www.etsy.com/
Etsy is a site where you can buy or sell handmade items...anything and everything you could possibly think of....jewelry, wedding veils, decore', fine art, baby clothes, etc... And best of all you can score some really great deals all while supporting creative individuals (as opposed to a big corporation, such as Target...don't get me wrong, I LOVE my Target, but I also love supporting artists). My favorite Etsy purchase to date is called a 'feltie'...basically a little minature animal hand made out of wool. I found a woman on Etsy who made these and noticed she had a papillon dog feltie. I have a papillon! But this papillon didn't look like mine so I asked if she could make one to look like my papillon, Vesper. I sent her pictures of Vesper from all different angles, and within days she had created this beautiful little miniature of my beloved canine daughter and shipped it out to me. She didn't even charge me extra for making it custom, and it came all wrapped in cute packaging with ribbons. Check out her shop!: Lisa's Felted Friends

So anyway, back to bows... I am awaiting the arrival of some awfully cute little bows... :)

Cupcake bows available at the following Etsy shop: Sprinkles on Top Bows

Bows like this (that come with a headband) are available at: Oh La La Baby

I've also just entered a fabulous giveaway for some bows from another Etsy seller, Little Lesiw Hair Accessories . You too can enter the giveaway by going to the following blog and following the rules to enter: hair bow giveaway at As the Forest[e] Grows  Plus, it's a fun blog to read, the author is a young mommy of an adorable little girl.

The bows I'm hoping to win!

There's also a second giveaway at the same blog: second hair bow giveaway at As the Forest[e] Grows . These bows and clips (such as the dragonfly one at right)  are from Bailey's Blossoms.

What's in a name?....Oh yeah...IT'S A GIRL!

After three ultrasounds, we were finally able to receive a definitive answer to the question of Baby O's gender...IT'S A GIRL! The first one at 17 weeks 5 days was pretty much unsuccessful because they baby's umbilical cord was between its legs the entire time. We did get some great video and shots (in 4d and 2d) of the baby though. We went back one week later, 18 weeks 4 days and it looked fairly certain it was a girl, but the tech wanted us to come back one more time. So we went back last night at 19 weeks 5 days. This time it took the tech about 2 minutes to find a good view, the baby cooperated, and immediately the tech said, "oh yeah, this is a girl"....and then of course he pointed out all her little girl parts and what not.

While I would have been equally happy to have a little man in our life, I have to admit I am totally over the moon. I have always dreamed of having a little girl. I always thought because I wanted a girl that God would give us a boy. I have visions of hair bows, headbands, and maryjane shoes dancing around in my head. :)

Now comes the part where everyone likes to make faces and give their divine opinions. And the name is .... *drum roll*....Tatiana Antoinette. Bjorn and I had this name picked out long before we were pregnant (as well as a boy name). When I mentioned it to Bjorn I was shocked that he liked it so much, and any other girl name I came up with just wasn't good enough for him. We definitely want something unique, but still traditional (although this name may not seem traditional to many, but I will explain that below) since we have one of the most common last names in the area of the U.S. where we live. My mom is still trying to talk us out of this name, and she says it's too big of a name for a little baby...I really doubt that's going to matter once she arrives.

So what is in a name?....

Lets start by explaining the inspiration for both the first and middle name. I have a really big interest and overall fascination with the history of European monarchy (you know, kings, queens, etc...). It's such a foreign concept to me to think that just because you were born to a specific set of parents that you would rule a country. I read a lot of non-fiction as well as historical fiction related to this topic. Two of my favorite royals are, Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna Romanov of Russia (1897-1918) and Queen Marie Antoinette Josèphe Jeanne of France (1755-1793).

Grand Duchess Tatiana

Grand Duchess Tatiana was on of the last Grand Duchesses of Russia. Her parents were Tsar Nicholas and Tsarina Alexandra (and her maternal great grandmother was Queen Victoria of England). Unfortunately for Tatiana, she was born during a time of political upheaval in Russia, her father was not a very strong leader, and her mother was disliked because she was German. Alas, the Russian revolution began and Tatiana, along with her three sisters, brother, and parents were taken into captivity by the Bolsheviks (do the names Lenin and Stalin sound familiar at all?...or we'll just make it clear cut, communism!) for over a year. At the age of 21 Tatiana, along with her entire family were lined up and shot execution style. Why? Because the Bolsheviks feared people who supported the royal family would somehow see them back to power, so getting rid of the royal family permanently seemed like the best solution. Tatiana (and her older sister, Olga) was named by her mother after a character from Alexander Pushkin's novel, Eugene Onegin.

 

Tatiana, center back row, with her Mother and sisters, Olga, Marie, and Anastasia.

A young Tatiana (second from right) with her three sisters.

The name Tatiana goes back much further than that though. One of the first records of the name Tatiana is from 235 A.D. in Rome. Saint Tatiana, was a deaconess of the early Christian church, and basically to make a long story short, the Romans threw her to the lions. The lion that was supposed to end her life did not touch her and layed at her feet. This infuriated the Romans and so she was tortured and then beheaded. She now has a feast day, January 12th, that is celebrated in some eastern European countries.

Marie Antoinette

I won't go in to too much detail about Marie Antoinette, because she is better known. She was an Austrian princess who married a French prince, and together they became the last King and Queen of France. She was known for being extravagant (but honestly, who at the French court was not? The entire French court itself was all about splendor and grandiosity) and she had a little pug who she called 'Mops.' She gave birth to four children, and along with her children and husband became victims of the French Revolution. She was executed by a guillotine in 1793 at the age of 37. I first really became interested in her after seeing the 2006 movie, Marie Antoinette. It's one of my favorite movies, and it's just exploding with ruffles, cupcakes, big hair, and shoes.

Kirsten Dunst as Marie Antoinette in the 2006 film.

Okay well thanks for letting me force a history lesson upon you today! And I will end this post with a cell phone picture of my belly at 19 weeks, 6 days.

Busy Weekend

I love busy weekends.

Friday night started out by celebrating a friends birthday with dinner and bowling. It was fun because a lot of our friends actually came out for the celebration. By 10:45 Bjorn and I had to bow out though, because I could NOT stop yawning. I was so tired, and exhausted and felt sad to leave early. But honestly, now that I am pregnant and constantly tired, I treasure getting into bed and reading a book before falling asleep earlier than midnight.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Saturday was my homemaker day. Hmmm...lets see, I scrubbed the entire kitchen floor on my hands and knees, but not before Bjorn tried to take away the bottle of cleaner I was going to use. I wore a mask to prevent inhaling the stuff. I now still have a very sore back, but dang it, my kitchen floor looks amazing (well as amazing as it can, considering it's linoleum from probably the 90's...oh how I dream of new kitchen floors). I did some laundry, worked on some sewing projects, made a pineapple upside down cake, and dinner. Then Bjorn and I went to see Shutter Island that evening. I'd give a 4 out of 5...it had this creepy loud music in parts that sounded like it was right out of a 1950's thriller movie, which I totally loved. There were some twists I didn't manage to guess, but ever since I saw the previews for this movie months ago I knew who patient "67" was going to be. In the movie Leonardo Dicaprio's characters wife (played by Michelle Williams) wears the cutest c. 1950 dress and locket, so adorable. It made me want to dig out my old locket from childhood and wear it, but alas I could not find it!....

Michelle Williams as Dolores Chanal in Shutter Island

On Sunday I had a lunch date with Sara and Alissa. We went to one of our favorite places, Pizza Luce', which has something for everyone (vegan, vegetarian, and meat lover). I got a pizza to go for Bjorn, his favorite, baked potato pizza...a pizza whose crust is topped with garlic mashed potatoes, cheese, bacon, tomatoes, and broccoli, accompanied with a side of sour cream. Afterward it was so nice out that we decided to window shop along Grand Avenue afterwards. Then we went back to my house where Alissa gave Sara and I hot stone massages. It was awesome! Alissa is also a doula, so hopefully she will be able to attend the birth of Baby 'O' and provide her wisdom and support! Then Bjorn and I spent the evening at his parents house for dinner. With our dogs in tow, that night it made a total of 5 dogs in the house. Tater got kind of sassy to a big male dog he had never met before, he obviously wasn't aware that the other dog could gobble him up in 2 bites.

 

So now the wait until Wednesday night begins when we get another ultrasound....tick tock. I will pass the time tonight by watching the mindless train-wreck of a show, The Bachelor. Who else is going to watch tonight?

<-- Friday night, 19 weeks and 1 day.

Recipe Time

Quesadilla Casserole

I made this for dinner this past Sunday after my mother in law made it a couple weeks ago. It was delicious, and even Bjorn likes it and eats every bit of it (for those of you who don't know, he won't touch vegetables and beans, and this has corn and black beans in it). If you want you could add some jalapenos or crushed red pepper to add some spice. I added lots of fresh cilantro to mine.

Ingredients:
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp minced garlic (I used fresh garlic that I smashed in my garlic press)
1/2 tsp oregano
1lb ground beef
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 cans (8oz each) tomato sauce
1 can (15oz) black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can (8 3/4 oz) whole kernel corn, undrained
1 can (4 1/2 oz) chopped green chiles, undrained
6 flour tortillas
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (I used 4, and it was definitely not too cheesey)

Brown beef and onion in large skillet, drain.
Add tomato sauce, beans, corn, and green chiles; mix well.
Stir in all of the spices, and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat to low; simmer 5 minutes.
Spread 1/2 cup of the beef mixture on bottom of a 13x9-inch baking dish sprayed with no-stick cooking spray.
Top with 3 of the tortillas, overlapping as needed.
Layer with 1/2 of the remaining beef mixture and 1/2 of the cheese.
Repeat with remaining tortillas, beef mixture, and cheese.
Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 15 minutes.

I made chocolate cupcakes for dessert....I had high expectations for them because the cupcake and frosting recipe came out of a cook book I have that is exclusively full of cupcake recipes. Well I didn't think they were all that great. They looked better then they tasted.

The Olson Family

   
I've decided to start a blog to chronicle our first pregnancy!

A little background information on us...

Bjorn and I met when I was a senior in high school and he was in college. We both worked at the same grocery store. After I went away to college we kept in touch via instant messenger and Bjorn visited me at school as well. Bjorn from the very beginning had always been ready to be more than friends, and I wasn't.... finally after a year and a half I ended up asking out Bjorn (after he had asked me several times and I had said no). We dated for 4 years and then Bjorn asked me to marrying him on December 12th 2008, we got married the following year in May. Now today...after 5 months of marriage we decided (yes it was a decision, not an accident, for those who like to speculate!) we wanted to have a baby. I think we were okay with it being so early in our marriage because we had dated for so long and had already owned and lived in our house together for a full year. Now we are 19 weeks pregnant and due July 22nd.

We've had several ultrasounds already (lucky, lucky us!)...so far we've had them at: 6 weeks, 7 weeks, 12 weeks, 17 weeks, and 18 weeks. After the last two ultrasounds it looks like it's going to be a girl, but there are no certain guarantees yet. Next week we have a non-medical ultrasound on Wednesday and a medical one on Friday, so we are hoping that will seal the deal. We are happy either way with a girl or boy, we just want to know so we can start embracing the idea now. Although I'm not gonna lie, I definitely shopped the baby girl section at Baby Gap yesterday!

Baby 'O' at 12 weeks, 4 days.

Baby 'O' at 17 weeks, 5 days...already showing signs of inheriting Dad's long arms and legs.

Baby 'O' at 17 weeks, 5 days...the baby is sucking on its thumb.

Baby 'O' at 17 weeks, days....all cuddled up.

The bump at 19 weeks...I know it doesn't look that big to other people, but it feels HUGE to me. I can't even believe it's got 21 more weeks to grow...I am scared for my poor skin, it's already itchy!