Go Rangers!!!

I was looking through the photos on the computer yesterday and realized that I never posted pictures from a Rangers game we went to back in September. And since the Rangers are this close to winning their first World Series title, I thought it would be an appropriate time to post them!

These were all taken back on September 13th when the Rangers played the Indians, (and won, of course ;) ). We REALLY wanted to go to a World Series game last weekend, but when I looked up tickets the cheapest I could find was for $350 each. For standing room only. I don't know about you, but this pregnant lady can't be standing/jumping around for 4+ hours straight no matter how much I love the Rangers. To sit in the section we normally sit in would have been over $500 a ticket. Not exactly the best way to spend a grand when you've got a baby on the way. So we had to settle for rooting for them from home. Maybe next year. ;)

Anyway, back to pictures!

Us in our Rangers gear! You can so tell this was a regular season game on a hot Tuesday night in September, look at all those empty seats behind us! They did fill in a little within a few minutes of this picture though.

I may be a little partial but I think the Rangers Ballpark in Arlington is beautiful! Don't let the clouds fool you though, it was 105 that night! We had been saving these tickets all summer holding out for cooler weather. The week before it had been absolutely gorgeous and in the 80's and somehow that day it got back up to 107! Naturally two days later it was back down in the 80's. Crazy Texas weather. ;)

Ian Kinsler at bat. I just like that he, (and David Murphy), wear the cropped baseball pants with the tall socks. It just looks more like classic baseball to me and I like it. Leave it to me to pick sports favorites based on clothes. ha!

Speaking of David Murphy... I like this picture just because I finally got a shot where you can see the ball! I spent like an hour trying to take a picture of someone actually hitting the ball, but dang that thing's fast! This was as close and clear as I could get!

The beast that is Mike Napoli. Seriously this guy's headed for World Series MVP. Don't believe me, watch his performance in the second half of game 5 and see if you don't agree! He's awesome!

When Texas scores three things happen simultaneously:

#1 These little chickadees with the Texas flags run around... (They were super busy this night, I think there were 6? home runs)...

#2 The screens all look like this...

and...

#3 FIREWORKS! :)

Love it! There's seriously nothing like a good baseball game live.

Here's to a big WIN tonight!!!

Jennifer

I Learned a New Trick

I've posted a few of my sewing projects I've done since I got a new sewing machine for Christmas last year. Most of the stuff I've done has been lots of straight lines, kind of the same thing over and over again. The fact is I'm very much still a novice at this whole sewing thing, but I enjoy learning new things.

A few years ago I made a few applique onesies and shirts for some friends, but I did the stitching around the applique by hand. They weren't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, and took way longer than they should have.

When we found out we were having a boy, I really wanted to make some boy things. I decided I would attempt to make some appliqued oneies and burp cloths, but do the stitching around the applique on the machine this time.

I honestly did not have high hopes for this project. I thought it would be a lot harder, frustrating, and more time consuming than it acutally turned out being.

Don't get me wrong, not one single completed project was perfect by any means, but I was pleasantly surprised that they didn't look horrible.

I started out with some burp cloths with baby's first initial on them:

See, not perfect, but I was pleasantly surprised that even the back looked like an "h".

After the burp cloths I moved on to some onesies, the first of which matched one of the above burp cloths:

I love the baseball fabric, and it doesn't hurt that the burp cloth just so happens to be Rangers colored. ;)

All 5 of my completed onesies:

A whale, a tent/teepee, a rocket ship, letter h, and a sailboat.

A few of them still need some embellishing. The whale will have a button eye and the tent/teepee one will have stars in the sky above it. I'll try to remember to show a picture of the fully finished products when I'm really done with them.

And finally, one more burp cloth with baby's name on it:

That's right our baby boy will be named Henry!

We're so excited that we can finally call him by name. :) We've had the name Henry picked out for such a long time, (I think since college), we love it so much and we're excited to finally get to use it!

So that's it for today, a few cute things for baby Henry. I'm sure there will be more soon as these really didn't take much time at all, and they were so easy! My stitching got progressively better with each project, so hopefully it'll be close to perfect in no time.

Jennifer

21 Weeks

As of today, I am 21 weeks pregnant with our precious bambino.

I cannot believe it! It seems like the first 6-8 weeks after we found out DRAGGED by, but they've gotten progressively quicker since then. I'm not even sure where the last few weeks went! I simultaneously feel excited that we're only 19 weeks or so away from meeting the bambino, and a little nervous because I feel like we still have SO much to do/buy!

We have started working through that list though, as you'll read below.

Two weeks ago we had our ultrasound to find out the baby's sex, and...

It's a BOY!

This was the first shot we got when my doctor turned on the ultrasound machine:

pretty clearly a boy! With that kind of shot we would have found out the baby's sex whether we wanted to or not! ;) *I apologize if you've already seen this on Facebook, I've been a little bit of a blog slacker and am trying to catch up, I think the rest of the pictures in this post will be new though.*

We're very excited to be having a boy, (we would have been excited it it was a girl too, but I think the husband is a tad more excited about having a son). ;) On Friday night he posted a picture similar to this one on his Facebook:

Next year's opening day outfit for our son!

I think it's cute how excited husband is about everything.

After our appointment we stopped by Target to pick up a few things for the baby since we could finally buy gender specific clothes and such! Even though we actually already have quite a stash of baby clothes...

Call it cheap therapy, or just being absolutely crazy, but for the past couple of years every time I was having a rough day or was incredibly frustrated with the lack of progress with our fertility treatments, I would stop by the baby section at Target and check out the clearance racks for anything good. It may seem stupidly optimistic, (or again flat out crazy), but I just felt like it kept me hopeful that one of these days I would have a baby to wear the cute little things.

I bought boy and girl clothes, and we actually have about the same amount of both. I accumulated some pretty cute stuff and for really cheap prices! I'm excited that in about 4 1/2 months we'll finally get to see the little bambino in some of them!

Here are some of our favorites, but we have lots more.

A few sets of baseball pjs. Noticing a trend here? ;)

And two of our favorite shirts.

We also got our first baby present! Our friends Craig and Jenny brought this guy:

back with them from Germany! He's so cute and soft!

We also cleaned out a spare room, (it's been both an office and guest room since we've lived here, so I don't know which to call it), for the nursery.

It has since had a few things added to it, but you'll have to wait to see all of that. ;) Oh, and the tape on the floor is to mark where the crib is going. I was trying to make sure all of the furniture I had picked out was going to work before I ordered it/moved it into the room.

And finally, here's a picture of me 21 weeks pregnant.

I'm not a fan of taking these pictures, I always feel silly taking them.

I bought this shirt at JCrew outlet this summer and I'm pretty sure it's turned into my absolute favorite thing to wear lately. It's just so comfortable!!! I gathered it up and tucked it into the other side of my leggings so that you could see my belly, but without that it hangs really large. I wish I had shirts like it for every day of the week. ;)

I do think it's about time to do some shopping. My wardrobe has become quite limited in the past few weeks. I wear lots of dresses and tights normally, and the dresses would be great, but I need to find some new tights. The ones I have are just regular sized ones from Target and they were great until last week the wide band on the top of them really started to annoy me. I think this weekend will probably be spent searching for some new tights.

I think that pretty much brings you up to speed! For those who haven't already seen it on Facebook, we'll share the name soon, (probably tomorrow if I get the post written up).

Jennifer

Pumpkin Muffins

Is it just me or is everything getting pumpkin-ized this year? I LOVE me some pumpkin flavored stuff, (hello Pumpkin Spice Latte, I'm looking at you), but it seems like its everywhere this year. I can't decide if I've just been oblivious in past years, or the constant pumpkin overload on Pintrest, but it seems like there's an abundance of pumpkin.

Which is kind of odd considering our news was talking the other day about there actually being a pumpkin shortage this year because of crazy weather, (i.e. droughts in Texas and hurricanes on the east coast).

So, to add to the pumpkin craze, here is my recipe for pumpkin muffins. It's a healthified, (I'm just making up crazy words all over the place today apparently), version of a recipe I found who-knows-where a couple years ago. I have a habit of "tweaking" recipes with whole wheat flour, lowering the sugar, and switching out oil for applesauce, and this one works oh so well with the tweaking.

If you're not interested in my altered lower-fat version, (or just don't have all the ingredients in the pantry), you can substitute another 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour in for the whole wheat flour, and 1/2 cup oil for the applesauce. Whatever way you make them they still taste amazing, kind of like a pumpkin pie preview. ;)

Pumpkin Muffins

Ingredients
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce***
3 eggs
1 can pumpkin puree (NOT pumpkin pie filling!)
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped pecans

In a large mixing bowl beat sugar, applesauce, eggs, pumpkin, and water. Combine flour, baking powder, soda, spices, and salt. Add to pumpkin mixture; blend well. Fold in pecans. Spoon into greased muffin tins, filling 3/4 full. Bake at 400 degrees F for 15-20 minutes, until muffin tops spring back when tapped on or a toothpick inserted comes out clean.


***Did you know that you can substitute unsweetened applesauce for vegetable oil in baking recipes. Just substitute the same amount of applesauce as oil that the recipe called for. Ex: the original recipe called for 1/2 c. vegetable oil and I used 1/2 c. applesauce instead. It drastically reduces the amount of fat & calories in a recipe and doesn't change the taste/texture.***

This is a big ole' recipe that will make 2 dozen regular size muffins, (or a dozen over-filled regular muffins and 2 dozen minis like I did). I waited until they had all cooled off, (well all but like 3 "samples"), and put them in a big ziploc bag in the freezer. Now every morning I just take one, (or 3), out and microwave them for 45 seconds or so until they're piping hot and slather them with butter, serve them up with a big cup of coffee, (or giant glass of milk for my pregnant self), and devour. Repeat as necessary. ;)

Enjoy!

Jennifer