Lately…

Bunch of random pictures dumped in one spot.  Because I'm lazy like that.

Adelyn has been begging to haul out her Easy Bake Oven and cook with it.  I haven't bought packets for it so we googled some recipes.  Much better.  She wanted to make cookies for her birthday party :)  When I snuck three of them, she cried.  Literally.  I promised her I wouldn't take any more.

"I want to sweep, Momma, so you don't have to do all the chores."  I need to better remember these moments when I'm tempted to be frustrated with her for something silly.  Love her.  ...and love Joelle's face in the background.

 We have been LOVING our Wikki Stix.  An awesome creation invented by someone.  Mold-able "stixs" that you can create into almost anything.  They stick to each other as well.  Adelyn saw me making letters and quizzing B and J so she made her name.

And asked to take a picture with my phone.

 Can't forget B-diddy.  Styling in some doll glasses.

Adelyn put this set together all by herself.  She plays with it all the time.  I suggested taking it apart and rebuilding it.  An idea I thought she would protest loudly at.  "What a great idea, Momma!"  Then her light turned green (we have special clocks for the kids) and she was mad she didn't finish the castle.  I never told her she HAD to come out of her bedroom..

We ventured to get some paint one day.  The roads were slightly treacherous and this happened.  Poor baby was zonked in the car.  Yes, my almost 5-year-old is in a 5 point harness.  It will stay that way until she is too tall for the 5 point harness.  #safetyfirst

Homemade Bread

My dear friend Krista taught me how to make for real sourdough bread.  She gave me some of her starter and lessons.  I took full page front and back lined notes.  She also ground all my wheat berries with her amazing Vitamix.  The thought of making (real) bread was super intimidating to me.  Only because I didn't know what to do.  I only texted her about 56 times the day I made it...but I made it.  The idea of making your own starter and making the bread over the course of the day is that the fermenting also decreases the amount of gluten in the flour.  With my fancy new low-gluten flour and the fermentation process this bread doesn't bother me at all.  After you make the 850g levain and let it rise for 4 hours, you are supposed to do the float test.  Take a small piece of levain and see if it floats in a bowl of water.  If it (mostly) floats you are good to go.  If not, continue to let it rise.

It floated!

After the float test you have to add the rest of the flour, water, salt and honey (which is optional and I have since removed).  You are supposed to use your hands to mix everything.  The bacteria off your hands is good for the dough.  Tasty thought, eh?

After you mix all the ingredients you have to do a series of rises and turns, 3-4 times.  Letting it rise for 45 minutes and turning the dough 6 times, letting it rise for 45 minutes etc.

Not doing a whole lot..

Still not doing a whole lot..

And here's when I wised up and tossed it in the oven with the light on.  With this terrible weather, the house has been extra cold and it just wasn't rising/bubbling like it should.  You can see in this picture it's looking more elasticy and bubbly.

I let it go one extra turn since it didn't get too much action out of the first 2 turns.

All set to proof for the final hour before it goes in the oven!  After it proofs for an hour you have to take this lumpy bowl of heavily floured bread and somehow, magically turn it into a screaming hot pre-heated 475 degree dutch oven.  That was stressful, to say the least.

You have to let it bake for 30 minutes with the cover on.

And 30 minutes with the cover off to get it to brown up.  When I pulled out the thermometer to get the temperature of the bread Eric was astonished.  He said after all that I really have to get a temp read on it?!  Yes sir.  190 degrees.

This is the finished product, first time around.  There were a couple things I would do differently next time but nothing major.  I am quite proud.  It took about 10 hours start to finish.  The whole loaf lasted about 9 days.  I cut it in quarters and froze them until I needed them.

I have made it one more time since then.  My plan is to make it once every 7-10 days.  We all loved the taste of the bread.  It was much less stressful making it the second time and it turned out just as well.  YUM.

bUmPdate::16 weeks

Highlights::

How far along:: 16 weeks
Heartbeat:: Upper 140's-the lowest any of our babies has been!

Clothes::  All non-maternity.  My jeans are slowly becoming uncomfortable.  Sad.   
Weight Gain: 3 pounds

Movement:: Oh yes.  Quite frequently over the past five or so days.  We were watching a movie in bed on Sunday and I felt the baby on the outside.  Later I felt it two more times, on the outside, so I had Eric put his hand on my belly.  Of course s/he stopped moving.
Symptoms:: Cold.  I'm sure this has nothing to do with the North Pole weather.
Just for my own memory.  In the past 6 weeks I have had a UTI, a reaction to my meds from my UTI resulting in more meds, self-diagnosed Gluten and Dairy intolerance, food poisoning, kidney stones and my token once-a-pregnancy impetigo.  How fun.
What I miss: Gluten
Cravings:: Pop-tarts.  Oh wait.  I can't eat those.

Best moments this week:: Feeling the baby move-on the outside!

What I am looking forward to:: Our US in !!4!! weeks.  To find out or not to find out.  That is the question.

Names:: Aanndd our "favorite" boy name got axed.  It was too feminine.  So 3 boy names.  2 girl names.  We really loathe the naming process.
Funny Moments:: Joelle is convinced she has a baby in her tummy.  But just a pretend one.  I asked her how her baby was going to come out.  "Through my tummy!  Just like yours."  Ha. Ha. Ha.  Adelyn has many talks with God about the baby being a girl.  We tell her it might be a boy.  "Oh no.  I talked to God.  He said He's sending a girl."  Uh-oh.

bUmPdate::14 weeks

Second trimester!  Woohoo!!
The shadow on this picture is driving my eyeballs batty.  I will be switching it.

Highlights::

How far along:: 14 weeks
Heartbeat:: Chugging along at 150bpm at the doc's office

Clothes::  All non-maternity.   
Weight Gain: -1.5 lbs-due to a recent bout of food poisoning.  The doc's office had me down 7lbs from the last time.  To say the least, they were not thrilled.  I said you shouldn't have weighed me after lunch (last time), I went gluten free and I just had food poisoning.  She informed me my mission for next time is to gain weight.  Duly noted.  Pass the apples.

Movement:: Yes!  Not a ton but I haven't been having near the gas issues I had been having before so I can really tell if it's the baby moving...or gas.  I had coffee the other night and could feel it move and had an ice pack on my back yesterday and was feeling it move.
Symptoms:: Tired.  Cold.  I'd forgotten to mention that one.  I.am.cold.all.the.time.  So odd.
What I miss: My energy level.
Cravings:: Nothing.  Anything I crave generally makes me feel sick.  I ate some of my favorite gummi's last week.  And felt terrible.

Best moments this week:: Feeling the baby move!

What I am looking forward to:: Having a REAL belly.

Names:: 4 boy names-leaning towards one.  2 girls names-leaning towards one. 
Funny Moments:: "How is the baby going to come out?"  That's a popular question.  For now, my response is "God will make a way."  That's been enough to satisfy.  For a not so funny moment, Adelyn has become convinced that when I go to the hospital to have the baby I am going to die.  I heard her tell my mom that, when we announced, and she hasn't talked about it since.  Today, when I told her I had an appt at the hospital, she said she didn't want me to go because I was going to die when I had the baby.  I said "I'm not going to die, why do you think I'm going to die?"  She said "All your bones are going to fall out!"  Umm, not exactly bones per-se...  I assured her my bones were not going to fall out and I would come home with the baby...in July  She was satisfied, for now.

Gluten Free/Dairy Free

Since this is our last baby, my body has decided to go out with a bang.  I've been SUPER nauseous the whole time.  Throwing up hasn't been terrible-I only have twice.  Just feeling disgusting in general has seemed much worse.  And being tired.  Oh my word.  I didn't remember feeling like this with my other two and Eric kept telling me the same thing.  "Isn't this much worse than before?"  Constipation was beyond terrible.  Beyond.  (I wasn't going to put that but decided I discuss my children's poop so I better open it up and discuss mine.)  I know all these things can be normal with pregnancy but they just weren't adding up with MY typical pregnancies.  I did notice a huge correlation with milk and the way I felt.  I've always been somewhat lactose intolerant but it seemed to go to another level being pregnant.  It doesn't seem to bother me as much with other dairy products but any milk/heavy cream type product does me in.  Since realizing this I've also noticed a huge correlation with my lower back pain and consuming dairy.  The only thing that ever sounds good to me, in the first trimester, is carbs.  So consuming them I was.  One night, after feeling particularly yucky, all I had for supper/throughout the night was 3 pieces of toast.  That night I had some of the worst chest/abdomen gas-like pains.  Like so bad I was in tears.  It wasn't (ahem) producing anything.  Just awful pains.  I started googling gluten intolerance in pregnancy and turns out things like that can happen.  The next day we went to my parents for lunch and my dad had a huge fish fry.  He uses pancake mix for the batter.  That afternoon I felt terrible.  Starting to notice a correlation?  I decided to cut out gluten.  Eric thought I was off my rocker.  We were at my parents all day, staying for supper.  Ribs, cheesy potatoes (with corn flakes), cheesy bread and white jello were all on the menu.  I had some ribs, cheesy potatoes (picking the topping off) and white jello.  That night was the first night I didn't feel terrible my whole pregnancy.  I have officially been gluten-free since last Thursday.  Over the past weekend I stopped at the health food store and picked up a couple things.  Then I wanted to cry.  Talk about not a lot of options.  And the options they do have are super-expensive.  I ended up picking up a box of rice macaroni, rice pasta and GF oats.  For $20.  I ate the whole box of macaroni in one sitting.  And paid dearly for the couple tablespoons of milk I added to it.  *Sigh*  I asked a friend what her favorite GF flour blend was.  I don't have a blender capable of blending nuts fine enough for flour so I wanted something I could buy.  I don't care about mixing flours but also don't want to pay $20 for 2lbs. {Health food store prices}  I ended up ordering some Better Batter from Vitacost (rice flour but all pre-blended with xantham gum and things necessary to make it cooperate).  I ordered a whole bunch of GF oats.  Which are HALF the price of the health food store.  Krista responded back with what they are using now.  Einkorn flour is an super old grain....that hasn't been hybridized throughout the years.  Here's a great article explaining it much better.  She offered to give me a bag to try because I was super hesitant to order a whole bunch of it (from Tuscany!) if it didn't work.  I got that baggie of flour and, let me tell you, I couldn't have been more excited.  She also enclosed a hunk of her {SUPER YUMMY} homemade bread.  I promptly ate 2 pieces and Eric had one.  We both loved it.  I had zero reactions. 

I made pancakes for breakfast the next day, finished the hunk of bread for lunch and made pizza crust for supper.  We all loved everything.

Based on all I consumed that day I should have been keeled over.  I made it through the day, and night, and didn't have any reactions.  I ordered a boatload. 
 I know this is just a trial I need to go through.  I love food.  Food doesn't have to be my answer for everything.  Eliminating gluten and lots of dairy products has been incredibly hard for me.  I ate ONE pretzel and felt sick in the past week and a half of not consuming any gluten. Over the past week of not consuming any gluten I've been wishing July would hurry up and get here because I hate not being able to eat what I want.  That's a feeling I did NOT want to have, ever, this pregnancy.  I know it's my last and I want to cherish every {aching and painful} moment.  I have loved being pregnant, before, and I have not loved the past 12 weeks.  Since not eating gluten or dairy I haven't taken a nap, I've stayed up late, my appetite for anything has returned, I have felt insanely better {have been pooping normal-thanks for asking} and I know the baby is receiving loads of healthy nutrients...instead of loads of not so healthy nutrients.  And July can, officially, take it's time getting here :)  We are hoping and praying this is something that is strictly pregnancy related.  Hoping and praying it doesn't mean this baby is going to have crazy allergies.  Hoping and praying I don't break down, if I don't receive my daily pop-tart.  Kidding.  Kind of.

Tub Fun

We have been so sick of being holed up inside the house, and not being able to go outside, that we decided to bring the snow to us.  I put it in the bathtub, gave them some things and off they went.

Three cuties (out) of the tub.

He's so handsome.

I don't think she was a fan of the cold snow..

And, this, my friends is why we did not do snow scream or any other snow eating activity.  This is what I woke up to the next day when I went to take a shower.  I had just cleaned my tub before I let the kids play in it.  So I can promise you that it was not dirty before.  Gross.

They loved that I brought the snow inside and have been asking for it since:)

The First Snowmageddon

Pictures from our first snowmageddon.  Because there has definitely been more than one.  I'm still working on snagging a couple from our second (large) snowmageddon.  I took this picture to send to my brother.  In balmy NC.  Where they are currently in a state of emergency because they got an inch of snow.  I can't make this up.

Adelyn and her snow ball.  With the (laughably-now) snow banks behind her.

Adelyn and Brecken smiling.  Joelle "did not want to be in the picture."  We were loving the "warmer" days and SUN.  Now if only those would come back..