2 Date Nights in One Weekend -- OH YEAH!!

This weekend was pretty much a boring weekend for us. We were suppose to go to the Birmingham Christmas Market, but Mr. Man ended up having to work on Saturday. We were lazy this weekend (for the most part), but hopefully next weekend, we can go to the Christmas market!

On Saturday, Mr. Man went in to work at about 8am. I slept in, then got dressed and went and did some shopping. Seriously, I forgot how crowded it gets around the holidays. Shopping alone for once was very nice and relaxing; however, it was very crowded!! I did not buy much, actually I do not think I bought a single thing. I found some things for Mr. Man, but for every single item, they were either sold out or had a huge line to checkout. I know, that's so horrible of me, but I just could not bring myself to stand in line for 30 minutes for one item. It just was not in me. I ended up walking around, not finding much, and came back home. When I got home, Mr. Man was still at work, so I finished up some school work for this week (it's finals!!) and cleaned up around the house.

As time went on, Mr. Man called me and asked what I had planned to cook for dinner. I told him beef fajitas because it was quick and sounded yummy. He said, "How about we order Chinese?" I almost actually turned down Chinese food until I remembered that I rented us two movies, so we decided on food over the phone and waited for him to get home. By the time he had gotten home, it was almost 6pm so I went and picked up the food and he showered and did small things around the house. Once I got home with the food, we fixed our plates and put in the movie. The movie we watched the first night was Date Night. I had heard people talk about it, but I could not remember if it was good or bad. Mr. Man told me he heard that it was not as good as it was suppose to be, but it was decent. Once again, I failed with the movies!! I always seem to either pick movies Mr. Man has seen or some retarded movie that is not great. Anyway, we put the movie in, and it actually was not a bad movie, but it definitely was not over the top.

After the movie, we played Zelda together on the Wii. We have been playing this game together since the summer-ish when I got it for my birthday. We have logged about 42 hours in to it so far, and still have not beat it. However, I think just a couple more hours and it should be done!! We enjoy playing it, but for me it gets old so we do not play it every day or every week at that. That is date night number 1.

Date night number 2 comes on Sunday. On Sunday, we did our normal. Sunday's are a lazy day, but also a BBQ/Roasting day for the family. It is a small tradition we started a while back. It also gives Mr. Man some time to get some more manly food instead of the things I cook throughout the week. Every week, I let him pick out something to cook. This week he chose a leg of lamb. To be honest, I do sometimes cringe at the things he chooses. But I do have to say that it always comes out so wonderful (most of the time). He marinated the leg of lamb overnight on Saturday, and on Sunday, he roasted it. He also made some mash potatoes and brown gravy and peas. It was really, really good.

Since the lamb had to cook for so long, we went ahead and put in movie #2, which was Eclipse. This movie was more for me, and since I know we normally do not get the opportunity to watch 2 movies in one weekend, I bought me one that I knew he would care less if he saw. And Yes, I know I am behind on watching this movie, but to be honest.... I am so over this Twilight mess. Anyway, we put the movie in and watched over half of it. Then dinner was ready, so we paused it and fixed plates and finished the movie while we ate. By the time we were done eating, the movie was over so we cleaned up the kitchen and played Zelda again. 2 nights back to back is crazy in this household. Really it is! So close to almost beating it! And that is date night number 2.

So you are probably thinking, "Wow, that's it?" Well, yes that is. Our date nights consist of ordering take-out or BBQing and cuddling up on the couch and watching Blu-Ray movies and/or playing the Wii together. The Wii is my games, and I refuse to play with him on PS3 unless it is basketball or Sonic (LOL!). So that is exactly what we did the whole weekend - had two of our famous date nights!

I hope everyone else had a wonderful weekend, too!

Holly Jolly Blog Hop

Kristen at Windy Poplars is hosting (along with two others) an awesome holiday blog hop. Today is Day 1, and it is to post your favorite holiday recipe. To get to the blog hop main page, simply click the handy button down below and join in on the fun. 

I have actually found it really interesting to see the different recipes. I love that this blog hop is smaller than the traditional blog hop. It allows you to get to know the people involved a bit better, and gives you a chance to check out each recipe. As I reading the different recipes, I found that most of the recipes were traditional recipes that I have made and/or seen at a lot of holiday parties; however, they called them something different!

I will stop blabbing now and post the recipe that I chose.

Crab, Artichoke, and Spinach Dip:

Ingredients:

1 (8 ounce) package of cream cheese, room temperature

8 ounces of imitation crab meat, chopped

1 (4 ounce) jar of artichokes, chopped

1 cup of Parmesan cheese, shredded

1 cup of mayonnaise

1 box of frozen spinach, thawed

Directions:

1. 1.Put spinach into colander and press out excess liquid.2.Mix all together into a small crockpot and let bake for at least 1 hour on low.3.Serve with tortilla chips, or bagel chips, or spread on baguettes.

Catching up- More Pictures of Our Pouch:

Since I am way behind on these pictures, I am going to try and catch up right now! These will catch me up to the week I am now, which is 23. I have not uploaded my 23 week picture, so it will be in the next lot of pouch pictures. I hope you enjoy watching our little baby grow!

Week 17

 Week 18

 Week 19

We were so caught up in doing the baby's room for Week 20 that I completely forgot to take a picture! (Oops!)

 Week 21

Week 22

Being the Favorite Rocks!

Yep, I am now officially the favorite parent with Mr. Buttons. I must admit I love it. Usually, he goes towards Mr. Man when he is home; however, lately it has been all about his Mommy and I can not and will not complain! 

To start off, every day that I am home (even when Mr. Man is home), he snuggles up to me, sits in my lap, gives me puppy kisses, and just hangs out. At first, I felt weird about the situation because he loves me more for what's inside of my belly - Not for me. Although I let myself believe it's me, because he is my little protector. From the time I have found out I was pregnant, he has been right in my face and on my stomach or lap constantly. He even began taking my side ALL the time when Mr. Man and I wrestle. Use to, he would go back and forth, one day he would defend me and the next day it would be Mr. Man. 

Now that I am growing and him and the baby play tag (which is the cutest thing ever), he is even more all over me. (Quick explanation of tag: Buttons will lay on my stomach and the baby will kick him. He will then get up really fast look at the baby and put his paw right where the baby kicked. Talk about adorable! And this goes on for several minutes at a time sometimes.) He never wants to leave my side ever. Which leads me to what really made me realize how much of a "favorite" I am right now. Mr. Man works swings - 4pm to midnight. I am generally in bed by the time Mr. Man gets home. Our baby boy will generally go to bed with me, but he will be back downstairs waiting for Mr. Man when the time comes. Our boy always has to be the first person Mr. Man gives his attention to when he gets home. It has always been like that. Well, not any more. Lately, Buttons will come to bed with me and stay in bed with me. Even when Mr. Man gets home. After a couple of days with this happening, Mr. Man has decided to be "bummed" about it. He mentioned it to me for the first time night before last, and sure enough last night I stayed up just to see and Buttons never once left my side. Since Buttons knows Mr. Man's movements and noises when coming in at night, he knows it is him and not a stranger. Because trust me, if it was a stranger, Buttons would go nuts. Like I said, he's our little protector. With this said, it makes me feel special. Not for my own selfish reasons, but because I see him becoming attached to this baby in my pouch. It makes me think about the future, and all I can see is them together as best friends. 

Awww, it makes me want to take the baby out just so Buttons can give him/her some cuddles!

Looking Back: Wales

I never really posted any pictures about our trip to Wales, so I am going to go ahead and do that.

We went to Wales back in October. We took a long weekend, and drove up to Snowdonia National Park. The purpose of our trip was for us to climb Snowdon, which I really, really wanted to do. Since I found out I was pregnant, I knew I was better off doing it pregnant then with a baby in tow. It was a nice little getaway with the family. We even took Mr. Buttons, and yes he climbed to the top with us.

While we were out there, we went and saw their biggest natural waterfall and hiked a couple of woodland trails. We did do some shopping, too! Of course, I shop!

So here are some pictures of our trip:

Catching Up: Anatomy Scan

I am going to catch you all up on what has been going on in our lives. Of course, nothing that much has changed and nothing exciting, but after all the point of this is to document our lives and our journey through life.

I will start off with our 2nd ultrasound that we had done right before we left for Ireland. We did it the Monday before Thanksgiving. On that day, we were also going to be able to decide if we wanted to find out what we are having. When we went in, Mr. Man came with me (of course), and the scan begin. It took over an hour, and it was very interesting. However, when it came time to decide if we wanted to know, we of course said we did. The lady tried multiple times to view those "parts," but never once did the baby uncross his/her legs or open them enough for us to see. We were ok with that UNTIL the lady decided to say, "I'm going to guess that it is a girl." Mr. Man and I was really curious as to why she made that guess, so it had us wondering.

I had my follow-up appointment the Wednesday before we headed out. Everything looked great for the anatomy scan, so it was quick measurement, check heart rate, and get a letter to fly to Ireland. When we walked in, the lady went to check my blood pressure and as I was getting up to get on the table, she said, "Let me guess. You found out you are having a boy." Mr. Man and I both laughed and told the lady that we were unable to tell and the other lady guessed a girl. It was quite funny. We went on about our business. The baby and everything looked great, and the next day we headed to Ireland.

On our trip, we talked about whether or not we wanted to find out what we were having. Because being military, you only get 2 ultrasounds. One to confirm the pregnancy, and two for the anatomy scan. Since we had already had both of those done, the only way to have any more was for us to go off base and pay out of pocket. Initially that was never a consideration, but we also never dreamed that we would have a little stubborn baby (takes after his/her Daddy!). When we got back from our trip, I made a few phone calls to see when the earliest someone off base could even see us to decide if it would be worth it or not. On Monday, we confirmed that we were indeed going to find out what we were having. We scheduled the appointment for a couple of days later, and the rest will be continued!

Until next time....

We are back!

We are back from our trip to Ireland. It was absolutely fantastic. It was a great vacation. It was so relaxing and calm, just what we needed. We enjoyed the Irish setting, history, and food. It snowed the whole time we were there, which made it that much more gorgeous.

Our hotel was amazing. It had a "bar" on one side and a restaurant on the other. In the mornings, we got a full Irish breakfast free. At night, if we were tired and just wanted to go to the room, we knew we could still have an authentic Irish meal with the restaurant right there. The bar was amazing, too. We ate there on our way to check-in at the hotel. It was pretty amazing. I got some hot wings and nachos. Absolutely nothing Irish about those, but I have to say those were the best nachos I have ever had. I am not sure if it was because I am pregnant or if they were really that good, but before we left I had to have them one more time, which I did. We tried a lot of food, and we enjoyed every single bit that we had.

We did the Hop On Hop Off bus tour since we were only there for a few days. We bought a public transportation pass to last us while we were there, and I bought us passes for all of the things we wanted to do in advance. This has worked well for us because we can skip the lines and plan ahead. I am such a planner that all of this is a must for us. It ends up saving you quite a bit of money in the end because you get 10-20% off on the sightseeing and some free for purchasing so many at once. It also allows you discounts to different shops, cafes, pubs, etc.

The first day we kept it simple. Since we flew in that morning and were running off of 4 hours of sleep, we decided to not try and make a big deal of it. We got "lost" in the city and just enjoyed being there. We actually even took a nap and ordered room service for dinner from the restaurant downstairs.

On the second day, We went to some Cathedrals, viewed their treasures and crypts. We went to their Christmas markets. On the same day, we toured the Guinness Factory. We enjoyed all of this. The Guinness Factory took us a while because it is 7 stories, but not only that, we ate there because I could not get the complimentary pint of Guinness, so instead I got a Guinness hamburger and Guinness Chocolates. Mr. Man got his Guinness, which he is not a beer drinker but he enjoyed it. He said it was really smoothed compared to any beer he has ever had. He also said it is much better than the Guinness he has had in the states.

The next day, we went straight to the Jameson Whiskey Factory. We were there at 9am. Leave it to the people from Louisiana to get their drink on bright and early in the morning.... :o) I must say that I am so glad we did this because they pick 8 people in the group to do some official whiskey taste testing. They choose 4 boys and 4 girls. There were 5 girls in the group, with me being the 5th. There were exactly 4 men in the group, so everyone got to do the taste testing. But everyone got a complimentary glass of whiskey. You could choose to have it with cranberry juice, coke, ginger ale, or straight. Of course, I just took lots of pictures and sat back and watched all the Americans down lots of whiskey. Yes, our group was almost all Americans. There was one girl from Germany, and that was it. We got to the end of tour and all the taste testers got their complimentary whiskey and 3 other shots of different whiskeys with one being Jameson, another being an American one, and another being a Scottish one. They went around the table discussing each of the whiskeys, then had to taste each one. At the end, they had to chose which one they enjoyed the most. Now going back to Mr. Man and I not being drinkers at all, Mr. Man has not gotten a taste for any type of alcohol, especially beer and whiskey. So they were both very fresh to him. He had tried some of them before, but he had not had any in an extremely long time. Everyone in the room that taste tested chose Jameson (of course!).  Since they did, they all got a nice certificate with their name stating that they were official whiskey taste testers with Jameson. That was pretty neat. After the tour (for those of you wondering), I asked Mr. Man if he really liked the Jameson better. His reply was similar to the one of the Guinness. That is it was the most smooth and subtle tasting one of them. After that, we went to some museums. One included Dublina and the Viking World, which was the story of the Viking's World. Another one was one of the Irish military, which discussed many different battles and wars. Another one was of the Dublin Castle. That was most of our day there.

To be honest, I am probably forgetting a lot of what we did. Once I look over the pictures again, I will probably think of a whole lot more that we saw and more stories to tell.

I can tell you that it was a great trip, mostly focussed around alcohol since it is a party town. But overall, it was a nice, relaxing visit. We knew it would be for us since we are "pub crawlers." The snow made it much more stunning. The atmosphere was absolutely fabulous. The people were so friendly and welcoming. The history was extremely interesting. Every thing about it was great.

So, I know I say this every time, but I do plan on posting some pictures once I get them uploaded.

I hope everyone else had a wonderful Thanksgiving, too!