It's been a long time...

I know I haven't been in here in quite a while...let's just say that it's been a very eventful year! Last time I visited was over a year ago and I was busy in the midst of preparing for baby Chloe. She was born on January 8, 2012, and life has been a whirlwind ever since!

I absolutely love being a mom. We are lucky that we have a very well-behaved, (mostly) easy-going child, so that helps. But even with the constant stream of bottles, baths, and diaper changes, I've found that those little tasks are what make motherhood so fulfilling. It's like I just don't have as much time to think about the things in life that I might have spent time brooding on before, which in turn makes me happier. Does that make sense? Of course, sometimes I miss the endless hours of free time I had to whatever I wanted...or nothing at all. Maybe I'll get that back again some day, but it won't be for a long,  long time, and that's just fine with me right now.

One of the things I've struggled with after baby is a healthy routine. It seemed like I was stuck in pregnancy eating mode long after Chloe was born. Part of it was and continues to be lack of time. Sometimes you just want to do what's easy! I've slowly begun adding workouts back into my routine, which also took a long time to do. Quite honestly, my mind was wrapped up in other things and exercise wasn't a priority to me most days, even though I knew it would be beneficial. Part of the reason I would like to get start blogging more regularly is to hold myself accountable for healthy habits.  Now that I have a baby and she's starting to eat some of the same things we do, it's now more important than ever before to make sure we set good examples and eat nutritious meals, so that is also going to be a focus of my return to blogging.

For now, I'll share my super yummy breakfast smoothie recipe from this morning. It's basically like eating a salad for breakfast, but tastier! All I did was blend 1 cup milk, 1/2 cup of frozen strawberries, 1 very ripe banana, and a 1/2 cup of spinach. It was delicious and made a huge serving! I promise you cannot taste the spinach at all with the berries. This is a great way to sneak in some veggies first thing in the morning.

I will be back, promise!

Erin

A Pregnancy Update

It’s been a while since I’ve posted…but things have been busy! I’m entering into my 22nd week of pregnancy already. Time is going by so quickly!

So far, I’ve gained 11 lbs. according to the doctor’s scale. That is average for this time, but I know I’m just now entering the period of larger gain. Uh oh! I admit that I have been treating myself, but I don’t think I’ve gone too crazy. I’ve also continued to work out, though my trips to the gym have been much more sporadic. I just bought a prenatal workout DVD that I plan to try out tonight. I’m excited, since it has a workout for each stage of pregnancy, including after.

Other than that, we did find out that our precious baby is a girl! It didn’t really sink in at first since the whole time I was thinking boy, boy, boy! I never had a preference one way or the other, anyway. Needless to say, we are thrilled and have really (me) enjoyed doing some girl’s shopping. I even cleared out her new closet and started hanging her little outfits. Too cute!

One of the things I got kind of excited about when I found out I was pregnant was of course…shopping! I’ve found my favorite maternity clothes at Gap. With all of their constant promos and coupons, most of it has been fairly reasonable and really good quality. I definitely see myself re-wearing much of what I’ve purchased with baby #2.

Anyway, now that fall is upon us, I’ve definitely been feeling much more domestic, and in the mood to cook. Watch out for some new cooking adventures and recipes that I’ll be testing out.

Be back soon!

Erin

And I'm back again...with news!

I’ve once again taken a hiatus from my blog. I’ve had a lot of things happen to me from the time of my last posting until now, but my biggest news is, I’m going to be a mommy! Did you read that right? I’m going to be someone’s mother.

Obviously, I’m beyond excited. Now that we’re past the first trimester, I feel like I’m really getting used to the idea and feeling less stressed out about something going wrong. It looks like baby is here to stay!

This morning I was browsing a message board I frequent, where someone posted a picture of an adorable baby bear hat from a posting on Etsy. Since I love to knit and crochet, I decided to find my own pattern so I could recreate the hat myself.

It was during my search that stumbled upon THESE, the most adorable booties of all time:

Pattern for sale by Mon Petit Violon

Needless to say, I will be heading out to buy the materials for this project today. I've been itching to create something for baby, and this project is perfect, considering he or she will arrive in January. I'll post a picture of them when I finish.