aaaaaaahhhh...

That happy sigh in the title is supposed to indicate how I feel now that the second trimester motivation and energy have finally caught up to me.  Not that I've been [im]patiently waiting since the day I found out I was pregnant...now, I've only been here twice, but it's my favorite.

Additionally, the weather here has been beautiful.  As far as January goes.  60+degrees yesterday?  Yes please.  It was gorgeous, I opened my windows and let the house air out a bit and started in on my spring cleaning.  Ok, not really.  Just the cleaning I got behind on with the first trimester lack of energy and the holidays.  But the house is shaping up, slowly but surely.  Almost ready for company [and will be in February!  I'm talking to you Nikki and Rick...].

With my energy/motivational kick, I've been experimenting in the kitchen again with various odds and ends, from new dinners, delicious home made bread and tonight's adventure, muffins.  Crazy, I know.  Watch out.  I've been working on my grocery list, so we'll see what else I decide I'm in the mood for to randomly want to make.  But anyway, we'll start with bread.  Ever since we've been married, Jesse has...requested...on a regular basis...that I bake bread.  No problem.  I like putting some muscle into my baking when I knead the dough, so I enjoy this.  However, when I bake just a regular loaf of bread, he tends to turn his nose up a little before gobbling it down with me.  What he ideally wants is a nice loaf of 100% whole wheat bread [aka no white, easy to use all-purpose flour], using flour that we ground ourself with our grain mill.  Have you ever tried to bake bread that meets this criteria?  It's borderline impossible unless you want little bricks instead of loaves.  Over the years, I have learned some of the sciences behind baking bread, getting it to rise and why baking with just whole wheat [loaded with good for you brans, fibers and glutens] is difficult.  However, I finally stumbled on this recipe.  I love this lady.  She breaks it down for me and adds an extra step to further break down the gluten for a nice fluffy loaf.  And it turned out fabulously and I'm really excited to bake more!

Now the muffins.  Oh, the muffins.  Divine.  We had a tragedy tonight, and realized that we're out of ice cream.  And by "we," I do mean "I."  So as we were trying to decide on a snack for this evening, Jesse suggested muffins, and I knew just the recipe I had been wanting to try: Morning Glory Muffins.  When you read the recipe, you'll see why I wanted to try it.  Who puts some of this stuff in a muffin?  We do, apparently.  Exactly the type of muffin you would want to eat for breakfast.  Which I probably will tomorrow morning.  

2 1/4 c flour

2 t baking soda

1 t cinnamon

1/2 t salt

1 1/4 c sugar

3 large eggs

8 T butter, melted and cooled

1 t vanilla

4 carrots, peeled and grated (2 cups)

1 (8 oz) can crushed pineapple, drained and pressed dry with a paper towel

1/2 c sweetened shredded coconut

1/2 c raisins

1/2 c walnuts or pecans, coarsely chopped

[see?  weird stuff]

1. Preheat oven to 375degrees and coat a 12 cup muffin tin with oil spray.

2. Whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together in a large bowl.  In a separate bowl, whisk the sugar, eggs, melted butter and vanilla until smooth.  Gently fold the egg mixture into the flour mix with a spatula until just combined.  Fold in the carrots, pineapple, coconut, raisins and nuts.

3. Use a large ice cream scoop or measuring cup to divide the batter evenly among the muffin tins.  Bake 25-30 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

De.lic.ious.  And, since everything tastes better made from scratch and without using a box mix, you know I'm right.

Ok, enough food talk.

Lily is doing great.  She was ridiculous yesterday and took a 4.5 hour nap.  You read that correctly.  I have no idea what is going on with her, I'm hoping it's a growth spurt.  All last week she was super clingy, her naps were much shorter than normal and she had been waking up in the middle and then yesterday, ridiculousness.  She woke up so happy and playful; I think she laughed all evening.  Jesse and I had a blast playing with her and watching her spin in circles and "dancing" to the music one of her bears plays.  And trying to tackle Zeke, stand on him, hug him, etc.  Poor dog.  But she was so much fun!  Probably one of my favorite days so far as a mom.  I've decided she grazes all day [like me] and still wants to eat 3 solid meals.  She has all 4 of her first set of molars, and who knows when she will get any more teeth to fill in between.

walked into the bathroom and found this..just imitating momma!  and the bathroom is done being painted now, as opposed to the nice half white, half green look..

Daddy sat down with a Klondike bar and Lily climbed right up on the couch and sat down next to him with her mouth open.  she knows better than to try and mooch from me...

look familiar, Mom?  we were playing and she climbed up on her chest and laid down.

Bob is...hanging in there.  Not too much to report with that one.  I'm feeling movement much more regularly now and that's about all you can know until I go to the midwife and she says that "yup, everything looks good!"  I will be able to post pictures of him/her in February when we go for the next ultrasound!

18 wks, 1 day.  either I'm bigger than I thought I was or it's the angle of the camera and how I'm standing.  *shrug* please disregard the wall paper, we haven't gotten to redoing that part of the house yet.