of popsicles. I know, random right? It’s something I constantly crave and have been for weeks. Months even maybe, I don’t know, I really don’t remember how long. Our freezer is overflowing with boxes of various flavors of popsicles though. Today is for sure a day when they are greatly appreciated. It reached about 80 degrees here and inside our house it’s been real toasty.

What else have I been craving….root beer floats lately! I’ve only given in a couple times to those so far though. And water, lots and lots of ice cold water.

So I am 28 weeks today. Wow. I remember reaching 8 weeks and being so excited for making it that long. It’s funny though cause I’ll wake up in the morning and find myself lying on my back as usual, and I’ll feel completely normal and for a few seconds a wave of panic overcomes me as I reach down and feel my tummy. Whew! Ok the bump is still there, yes I am still pregnant! haha. Odd how I can so quickly forget the 4 or 5 times I was up during the night to pee. Oh pregnancy joys.

Speaking of pregnancy joys, I get a whole slew of weekly emails from various sites that update me on how my pregnancy is or should be progressing. Today I was informed my baby is the size of a rutabega. Really? A rutabega? Could they not use something else that might be more common to visualize the size of?

Last week I opened an email that said “Welcome to this next week of your pregnancy! There are exciting things to come for you and your baby!” Then the next line said:

“In this issue:

- Heartburn

- Bleeding Gums

- Leg Cramps”

Oh EXCITING!!!! Woo! Thanks for the heads up! ….blah

And none of those were news to me since I’ve had all of them for the last month already. Loads of fun.

Otherwise though I have nothing to complain about. Starting to feel more tired again like I did in the first trimester but that could also be because I’m getting up real early again.

I am loving my big recliner that’s in the nursery so much. I try to sit in it whenever I can but then all 3 dogs want to sit with me too. Zoey often beats me to the chair every time so I have to scoot her over. A couple nights ago Norman the pig was in here with us and he eventually got bored wandering around the room and jumped right into the chair – with me and the 3 dogs!! I had to get up fast since his little hooves are quite sharp and he was basically sitting in my lap.

so then Moose gets down and Norman realizes he has room to lie down.

So much for getting to sit in my big chair. *sigh*

Today they all tried again to sit with me, so I then tossed my Boppy pillow and my preggle pillow into the crib (which is right beside the chair) and I plunked them all into the crib. Turns out they just wanted to be in the room with me as they were perfectly happy lounging on the pillows in the crib. Too funny.

As funny and cute as this is, this will not be a regular occurrence. I need to get them all used to sleeping on the floor of the nursery or in one of their own beds or we are going to have real problems once little Ava gets here!

Trimester that is!!! 3rd trimester already, O.M.G.

So I truly suck at blogging. My first excuse was going to be that I’ve been busy, but come on, the baby isn’t even here yet! If I’m busy now, then what’s it going to be like once she’s born?
Honestly though, yes things have been busy. I was sick with an ongoing cold of some sort for almost 2 months. Nasty. But I’m now feeling a lot better, just super tired as I don’t sleep well anymore. I wake up at all hours in the night and either just lie there or turn the tv on and watch re-runs of Big Bang Theory that we have on the DVR. Fun times. Then when it’s time to get up in the morning, I end up dozing off and begging for just another few minutes to sleep. *sigh*

Baby world news: still feeling pretty good pregnancy wise. The sleep issue aside, other things are going well. No weird cravings, no nausea. Still sleeping on my back some of the time and my stomach at other times, so I guess my tummy isn’t that enormous yet! haha. I feel her moving all around in there all the time now, it’s so amazing. She weighs about 2 pounds now and is over 14 inches long. CRAZY to think there is something that big moving all around inside me, cause her movements so far are still pretty slight. We are excited though, and we are pretty much ready. We have the nursery almost done (just have to get some pictures on the wall), and all the baby gear is here. Her clothes are all put in the dresser and hung in the closet, books in the bookshelf, etc. Now we just need the baby :)

I’ll get some proper photos of her nursery up as soon as it’s totally complete but for now here are a few little peeks.

I think she officially has more shoes than I do already! And this is just part of her shoe collection for the 0-3 month age! I have a whole drawer full for following months!

Angus asleep on the carpet. The dogs all love the baby’s room!

My favorite spot in the whole house. We have this huge rocker/recliner in the corner of her room and already I spend most of my free time sitting/ reclining in it. It’s one of the only places I can sit that doesn’t hurt my back right now. However, it seems not only to be my favorite spot but the dogs spot of choice as well. I rarely get to have the whole chair to myself, it only takes the dogs a few minutes to find me and then all 3 of them are sitting in it with me.

Animal news: We have some new members of our family including a pair of ducklings!

This is Bruce (dark duck) and Sami (blonde). They came from the same farm that we got Norman (pig) from.

We have 56 animals now so just their everyday care takes a lot of time. This is another reason we are so busy all the time. Animal shows are going well and also keeping us very busy. Animal Quest

Some of our crew:

Trixie, one of our Flemish Giant Rabbits, she weighs about 22 pounds.

Norman playing with Angus

Moosie

Zoey checking out Howard the tortoise

Angus watching Howard take off across the yard

On a hot day, Trixie preferred to be in the house where she could lie on the cold kitchen floor.

Kiwi enjoying some sun

Nugget the Gold Tegu

Fred the Bearded Dragon

Buffy the ferret

Jabba the Cane Toad

Shelldon the Sulcatta Tortoise

Our largest snake: Jig the Albino Burmese Python

Trixie with the other 2 bunnies: Munroe (the white & gray), a baby Flemish giant, and Hank (brown): a full grown Rex

Mikka the ferret

Here is a sad story from a couple weeks ago:

This is our newest little Hairless Dumbo Rat, Remi. We just got him back in February and he was the sweetest little guy with the best personality. All of a sudden he went from fine one day to having severe breathing problems the next. I found him almost heaving his breathing was so hard and I knew right away it was pneumonia and I could hear it in his lungs. I had a guinea pig die like this several years ago and it hits these little guys fast and hard. We have a great exotic vet who looks after our whole menagerie and I called him and left him a message and by the time he called me back not even 45 minutes later, Remi had already died :(  I knew he was dying though so I just held him and he seemed to just want to be with me and snuggled into me, minutes later he died in my hand. R.I.P Remi, we miss you.

Other news:

My parents came to visit a couple weeks ago! This was their first time seeing our house. My Dad and Steve assembled all the baby furniture and set it up in the nursery, then my mum and I went in and rearranged it all. Lol.

We had a great time with them, and the next time we’ll see them, Ava will be here!

the guys setting the crib up.

With Sami the duckling :)

Oh and these will probably be the only 2 photos I will post of myself pregnant! haha

Norman is getting so big!! He’s close to 25 pounds now.

A funny pic of Norman when he just woke up. He buries himself in numerous blankets in his crate at night.

Scrapbooking/ Crafts  News:

National Scrapbooking Day is coming up on May 5th! Have you been to the website recently?  Hurry on over there cause there is an AMAZING contest going on!!!

Look at the awesome prizes!!!!

Also be sure to check out Homeketeers on a regular basis for their fabulous contests, giveaways, articles and tutorials on everything from crafts, scrapbooking, home decor, baking and family!

I just did a tutorial today on how to make cloth baby wipes. We’ll be cloth diapering little Ava and I really wanted to make some cloth wipes to use along side the diapers. It was so easy and I love how they turned out!

Check out the tutorial here

Well that’s all my news for now. Hope everyone is having a wonderful Spring so far! :)

I just wanted to post up links to the first week of tutorials over at Homeketeers. There will be a new tutorial up every day for the entire month! Also don’t forget they are giving away a cricut machine each week as well so be sure to enter!

Here are all the tutorials that have been posted so far:

I’m so excited to be a part of an awesome new site called Homeketeers. It combines everything I love in one place: scrapbooking, paper crafts, home decor, fabric crafts, cooking, baking, and other crafts/sewing/quilting!

To celebrate National Craft Month, Homeketeers is featuring a different tutorial every day for the entire month! PLUS, there is a huge contest going on with FABULOUS prizes: FOUR Cricuts machines!!!!  Yes I said FOUR.  Three Cricut Mini’s and one Cricut Expression.  Each week there will be a winner. How cool is that? I have a cricut and it’s amazing, so if you don’t have one, jump on over to Homeketeers for your chance to win one :)

I’m also excited to announce that I’m teaching again at a local store: Craft Fancy

This store is awesome, I love it! Everyone I’ve met there is so nice and the store is so organized and welcoming. This month I’m teaching 2 different technique classes as well as a fun paper bag mini album

Stuff I’ve been loving this week:

Shamrock Shakes at McDonalds are back! It’s been YEARS since I’ve had one, so I just had to get one. It was so yummy!

Barnes and Noble sells the vintage Fisher Price toys!! So cool! They are exactly like the ones I had as a little kid :)

Angus chillin’ in the dogs bean bag chair. I love how his leg is up on the arm rest :)

Norman eating the veggies I spilled all over the floor. He’s even better than a vacuum cleaner.

My newest favorite meal! Chicken avocado chow mein. Recipe below.

I could seriously eat this every night, it is so delicious! I made it by fluke almost as I was trying to use up some left overs and this is what I created.

Chicken Avocado Chow Mein

- Cooked chicken breast cut into small cubes (approx 1 cup)

- sun dried tomatoes (I love the ones from trader joes) (approx 1/4 cup)

- 6 fresh garlic cloves

- 1 avocado (I get the organic ones from Trader Joes – love their organic produce)

- 1 cup cooked chow mein noodles

- coconut oil cooking spray (I found a great one at Whole Foods)

Peel all garlic cloves and slice them into thin slices. Pan fry garlic until lightly browned in a frying pan sprayed with oil. Mix the chicken and sun dried tomatoes and stir, reduce heat. Add noodles and sea salt, stir. Turn heat off and add avocado cut into pieces. Mix well, but leave some avocado in chunks.

To quote the very awesome Ferris Bueller (oh how I still love that movie!) “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it.” How true Ferris, you are so wise.

Obviously since I have not updated my blog in quite awhile (shame on me, I know), I have not been online as often as I used to be. Stuff keeps coming up, time is passing so fast, and in a blink another month has gone by. I am finally just now seeing the end to this cold I have had for almost a month. It was really bad for a couple weeks, and there were at least a couple days I couldn’t even drag myself out of bed.

I cannot believe I am at the half way point already in my pregnancy! Seems so strange sometimes because the only real symptom I am having is my expanding waist line. I’m still not feeling pregnant, and I haven’t yet felt this little one moving inside of me. We did get to see her moving all around on the ultrasound and that was really cool. Yes, HER, we’re having a little girl :)

So I’ll do a quick re-cap on the last couple months. In January, I got to go back to Canada to visit my family and friends. First time in a year and a half! It was great to be back, I spent most of the time in Victoria but I did get to go over to Vancouver for a couple days too. I got to spend a lot of time with my parents, with good friends, and I ate a heck of a lot of fabulous food! I had really forgotten how great the food is back home, both at my parents house (they made sure to make all my favorite things while I was home!) and at my favorite restaurants. My dad made all my favorite dinners: Hungarian Chicken Paprika, perogies, roasted cauliflower, Langos (also called elephant ears at some places), cucumber salad….. and my mom made all my favorite desserts: trifle, cream cheese pear pudding, and shortbread.

The Alex Fraser bridge in Vancouver. It’s funny how I forgot how much I hate driving here because of all the bridges. I’ll take driving in Chicago or Los Angeles any day over driving in Vancouver!

I got to visit lots with one of my most best friends and her adorable 2 year old twins!

The cake my parents had at their party: since it was my first time home in so long, it was to celebrate both our wedding last May and the baby :)

Once I got back to Chicago, things got really busy, and within a week I got really sick. I did want to continue on with my 12 on the 12th, so I did it but it was all stuff around the house. In other words, not too thrilling.

1. What I usually had on my bedside table while I was sick: a box of kleenex and some hot tea.

2. Baby books: there is actually a stack of them on Steve’s bedside table. He’s been reading one to the baby every night :)

3. Angus, my little cutie.

4. Moose, just being Moose. Notice the pile of dog toys in the background? He still drags out like 20 toys everyday.

5. Zoey in her usual spot: on my pillow.

6. Ocho, our macaw, doing a little dance for me.

7. Baby clothes already in the closet.

8. Our backyard with the new fallen snow.

9. Trader Joe’s bag from a recent shopping trip.

10. Remy, our newest little rat. He’s a hairless dumbo rat and he’s such a sweetheart.

11. A cute little elephant toy that I brought back with me from Canada.

12. Norman, our pig, lying in our bed sound asleep. Note that he is lying on Steve’s chest, under the blanket even. Hehe

Happy Birthday to our little Moose. I can’t believe our baby puppy is a year old today, and what a year it’s been for him.

At only 8 weeks old, he had Parvo Virus which is usually fatal for such young dogs. Thankfully he made it through as we caught it early and we were able to quarantine him at home. Sadly, some of his siblings didn’t make it :(

Then he was in our wedding, made the move (his first road trip) across the country from Los Angeles to Chicago, lived in an apartment for the first 7 months and then moved to a house with a big yard. He acquired a pig as a new brother and playmate, then another road trip to Indiana for Christmas. He’s also made several appearances and stared in many of our animal shows. What a busy pup he is.

Happy Birthday Moosie, my little black shadow. I miss you lots and can’t wait to see you in a few days :) xxoo

I thought it might be fun to participate in this challenge: 12 photos on the 12th of each month. I really wanted to do the 365 days of photos but I’m so not very good at remembering to take at least one photo a day.

So here are my 12 photos that I took on the 12th. A couple days late as I’ve been sick and it’s been really hard to even get out of bed :(

Sorry for the blurriness of some of the photos, they were all taken with my phone and I didn’t have the best light for some.

1. We woke up to find a lot of snow on the ground. Boo

2. A couple of our favorite things in our kitchen: mine is the Mickey hand oven glove and can you guess Steve’s favorite? Yep the storm trooper spatula!

3. My 3 babies sitting in a row. (and hoping for a treat)

4. A very cold pig out in the snow. Norman does NOT like the cold.

5. We went to a thrift store and Steve was thrilled to find this gem: Star Wars Monopoly. All pieces are there too!

6. While I was trying to take a picture of Zoey on my pillow, Moosie had to sneak in there to be part of the photo.

7. Picked up some of these while we were at the grocery store! One of my weaknesses is definitely orange tic tacs! But only the orange ones.

8. Vanilla Steamed milk. A new favorite of both mine and Steve’s. I recently tried one while at Starbucks because a friend of mine always gets them. YUM!!! I came home and made one for Steve to try and we’re hooked. We’ve been making them every night.

9. Mac n Cheese. I had an odd craving (I’ll blame this on the pregnancy) for this. I can’t even remember the last time I made mac n cheese. Years…..  Thankfully it was a quick craving and over right after I ate the stuff. Hopefully it will be years before I crave this again.

10. Stanley our dumbo rat out for a little play. He’s such a cutie and so affectionate.

11. Steve begged me to play Monopoly after dinner. He just loves it cause it’s Star Wars themed. So we played and I lost. Of course. I hate Monopoly. haha

12. We ended our Thursday night with our favorite show: Big Bang Theory.

WeScrap’s new kit was just revealed: Astoria, and it’s gorgeous!!

I made a layout and a fun exploding box album with this great kit. Be sure to check the kit out here

2011: what a year!  I can say for sure that it is the most memorable and best year of my life so far :)

here are my top 10 most memorable moments of the year:

1. Marrying my best friend

2.  Our graduation from the Exotic Animal Training and Management Program in California

3. Getting to work with some amazing animals

4. Our fabulous Disney World Honeymoon

5. Moving from California to Chicago (and the super long drive to get there!)

6. Adding Moose and Norman to our family

7. Starting our own business (and getting lots more animals in the process)

8. Spending great quality time with family

9. Buying our 1st house together

10. Finding out that 2012 is going to bring us the biggest joy of all. :)

Well, its already December 11th therefore we are on the 11th day of 12 Days of Christmas over at WeScrap. Today I’m showcasing some awesome paper star tutorials that I found around the web. These are so cool and fun to make too!

First up are these pretty hanging stars:

Find the tutorial here

I just love these cute 3D stars!

Find the tutorial here

And finally we have this gorgeous star that I am dying to try!

Find the tutorial on how to create this lovely here