Pumpkin Everything

October is by far my favorite month! For starters our anniversary is in October, there's a football game every Friday night, cool crisp weather, beautiful blue skies, pumpkins and oh my gosh the gorgeous mountains with their orange, red and yellow leaf-covered trees. Unfortunately, Fall doesn't really happen at the beach. So for the past month I've been drinking my scalding hot, decaf spiced pumpkin latte while sitting in my car with the AC on full blast, trying to ignore the fact that I'm staring at a palm tree and its currently 94 degrees outside.

Luckily, this past week Fall has finally blown its way into town and the chill has set upon Fort Walton Beach just in time for one last football game and Halloween. Remembering last Halloween's complete disappointment (which I wrote about in one of my earlier blogs) I totally wrote off the idea of any trick or treaters approaching my door this year and didn't even buy a single bag of candy. It helped that Logan had a game Halloween night, so I didn't have to sit on my couch, crying and watching the Great Pumpkin with my dogs.

But on to the important thing- PUMPKINS! Perhaps its the fact that I currently resemble a pumpkin, but this year I have gone pumpkin crazy!! I try not to decorate inappropriately early, so I waited until the end of September (technically it was Fall and I just couldn't hold out any longer) and I bought the most amazingly yummy pumpkin spice candle with a wood wick. I absolutely love the sound of it burning and the smell is fabulous. I overcame my love affair with decaf, non-fat pumpkin spice latte's because they were still a whopping 300 calories for a small and became like a black hole to my bank account, and due to Baskin Robbins never having my beloved Pumpkin Cheesecake Icecream in stock (which by the way is so rude! Don't they know a pregnant lady has certain needs!) I decided it was time to make my own pumpkin flavored goodies!

Logan's aunts came to town which I thought was the PERFECT reason to delight in some baking :-) 

I couldn't decide which yummy recipe I wanted to create, so I made two. 

The first is a banana pumpkin bread with vanilla bean glaze that I made last year and loved! It's a heavy, moist, mild and almost creamy flavored bread. Perfect for breakfast or dessert, or in my case an afternoon snack. The recipe makes two loaves- one for now and one to freeze and enjoy later :-) Last year I made it with the vanilla bean glaze which is out of this world and added a whole extra element to the bread. This year I didn't make the glaze, and wished I had. I found the recipe at addapinch.com. 

The second was a spicier, lighter, more cake like yumminess. I originally wanted to make a pumpkin roll (one of Logan's favorites), but due to my lack of jelly pan, I decided on the pumpkin roll bars instead. I got the recipe from www.sixsistersstuff.com and highly recommend it. Although next time, I might try to double the cream cheese portion just for a little extra something something. 

Then the other night I had a major hankering for something pumpkiny and decided to take a boxed cinnamon muffin mix and use pumpkin puree instead of oil and water. I was a little apprehensive but they turned out pumpkiny, yummy and not overly sweet.

The most fabulous thing about pumpkins is that they aren't just yummy, they're also pretty :-) This year we bought two massive pumpkins and about a week before halloween we carved them. 

I roasted up the seeds after and my house was filled with the most incredible aroma for the rest of the night! The seeds are delicious by the way and will become a halloween tradition in our house. Plus they're super simple and are packed with magnesium, zinc and omega 3 fatty acids! Just pretend there's no butter or brown sugar and you can write them off as healthy :-) I found the recipe on another blogger's site myretrokitchen.blogspot.com

One last pumpkin project to "round out" the month of October. 

Happy Halloween!

Team Walls

We're having a BABY! A baby girl actually! Baby Walls is due January 7, 2015,  which happens to be both of my maternal Great Grandmother's birthday's ( Ruth Evadna Long Simmons 1906 and Phyllis Dare Harner Miller 1907). Given the fact that I'm hugely sentimental about basically everything, I love the fact that our little girl could share a birthday with her Great, Great Grandmothers. Or if she makes it a little early she'll share a birthday with her wonderful Uncle Lance (December 29). Logan's praying she comes in December so we can write her off on taxes. Direct quote- "If she comes on the third of January, it'll be like a thousand dollars a day we could have saved." I'd like to think he's joking, but I'm not quite sure...

I'm very late posting a blog about the pregnancy since I'm currently 7 and a half months pregnant and into my third trimester.  Initially it was intentional to wait to announce our pregnancy, and then once the time came when we announced it, I still wasn't quite certain how much I wanted to share about such a personal event. Writing a blog about a vacation or a yummy meal is one thing, sharing intimate details about health, love and family is another entirely and it's taken me some time to decide where I wanted to draw that line.

I'll share our story in reverse.

At 29 weeks we had a 3D ultrasound which was an absolutely incredible experience. For an hour we watched her stick out her tongue, suck her thumb, yawn and hiccup. The ultrasound technician said she's already pretty big and had her head down low, smooshed up against the uterine wall which made it difficult to see her face. For the first 30 minutes or so, she absolutely refused to cooperate, she had both of her hands up in front of her face. Finally, she decided to give us a little peak- She has chubby cheeks, a little button nose and we think she might even have a little dimple in her chin like Daddy. She has short, fat feet and is already sporting a decent amount of hair (all this heartburn is making so much more sense now!). It was truly the most amazing hour of my life.

At 26 weeks, baby is strong, healthy and constantly kicking. Mommy is gaining weight, and Daddy is impressively losing it (I don't know how, given my daily cravings for a double scoop of pumpkin cheesecake icecream in a waffle cone- Oh Baskin Robbins, I love you!).

At 19 weeks we had an ultrasound and learned we were having a beautiful baby girl and that she was measuring big! Which wasn't a total shock given the fact that Logan and his brothers were over 9 lbs and both of my sisters were in the 10s. I was the smallest at 8lbs 8oz, which in my Father's opinion is the PERFECT size. haha I'm shooting for a solid 8 pounder... We'll see how that turns out in a few months I guess?

At 16 weeks we heard her heartbeat for the very first time-152 bpm. It was simply the most incredible sound I've heard in my entire life.

At 13 weeks we celebrated the fact that we were out of the testy time and announced our pregnancy to the world!

At 6 weeks we had our first ultrasound and saw the strong little flicker of her heartbeat on the ultrasound. It was truly a moment that only God can provide.

At 4 weeks we found out we were pregnant. The over excitement about the possibility and having a slight "off" feeling I tested on a Thursday night. It came back negative and I felt so silly, for being such a hypochondriac.That night we got a call saying our nephew would soon be making his arrival so Friday after work we headed up to Georgia to meet our handsome little nephew! I was queasy while we were in the hospital that weekend, but chalked it up to the fact that I was probably just tired after having driven 6 and a half hours, not to mention I was sitting in a hospital, which tends to kind of have a queasy effect on people anyway.  On the way back home from Georgia, I was car sick the whole time. I even made Logan pull over in the middle of nowhere lower Alabama. I never actually got sick, but just continued feeling car sick. Again, with an already negative test, I just pushed away any possibility of pregnancy. Finally, after never regaining my land legs Monday, I started to get excited again and couldn't contain my curiosity! Sure enough- I was PREGNANT! Any plan I had ever made about a cute way to announce our first pregnancy to Logan immediately went directly out the window. I literally just kind of stumbled over the words- "Logan, we're pregnant!" haha Maybe I'll come up with something cuter for the next one??