Chilean Independence Day Celebration

PE and I have been busy in the kitchen the last week! September 18th was Chilean Independence Day, and we celebrate every year by cooking yummy chilean food. This year we added a few new things, and planned on having lot's of people over on Friday and Saturday to enjoy the food with us. We didn't have as many people come as we had counted on, so we had plenty of leftovers.

Empanadas are a classic that we do every year. We make the classic beef empanadas and we do some cheese empanadas. They are a fair amount of work to make, but are definitely worth it!

We also make completos every year. They are a lot simpler to make. Fry a hot dog, put it in a good bun, add guacamole, tomatoes, mayo w/ lime, and hot sauce. Delicious!

This year we tried making a new dessert called "Torta de Mil Hojas," or a thousand-layer cake. Basically it's layers of pie-like crust stuck together with dulce de leche (basically caramel). Instead of making one big cake that is about 14 layers thick, we made smaller ones that were 4 layers thick. They took a fair amount of time to make, but they were yummy!

We had a few other dishes like repullo, ensalada de papas, and mote, but I didn't get any pictures of those. All in all, it was a very successful chilean day celebration!

Favorite Part

Favorite part of pregnancy: 

Being able to feel (with my hand) a little foot pressing against my belly.

Only a few layers of skin and muscle separate us, can't wait to meet this baby!

Ready for Baby?

I hit 35 weeks yesterday! And are we ready for the baby? Yes, and no...

PE and I are a pretty laid back couple. We have a TON of friends also expecting little ones, and most of them already have their nurseries set up, names picked out, etc. (And many are due months after us!!!) If you come to our apartment and want to see the nursery, we will show you our 2nd bedroom which looks nothing at all like a nursery. There's not even a crib in there yet! And do we have a name picked out? Or at least a small list of names we both like? Nope!

Well, good news is that I finally bought a crib! It will get here sometime in the next 2 weeks. Setting up a crib at week 37 isn't cutting it too close is it?  :)  We're actually not planning on using the crib at first, so it really doesn't matter.

So I think at first glance it doesn't seem like we are prepared at all. I know that we won't have the cutest nursery, but it will be functional. I know that eventually (probably at the hospital) we will finally pick a good name for our baby. Although PE thinks we should just wait until they are old enough to pick a name for themselves...

But I think we are ready in the ways that really matter. I think we have a strong, healthy marriage. I'm glad that we have had the past 4 years to build and strengthen our relationship, and I know that it is the right time for us to add children to our family.

We have no illusions that raising children will be easy. But we are ready for it. I like to say that we are ready to experience the rude awakening of parenthood.

And I hope I don't make it sound like we are dreading it, because we're not. We are really excited for this baby. I'm excited to be a mom, and to see PE be a dad. We just don't have any false illusions of how easy or perfect everything will be. It'll be hard and challenging, but PE and I are always up for a good challenge!

Tut, Tut, Looks Like Rain!

My mother-in-law and sister-in-law threw me a "Winnie the Pooh" baby shower on Saturday.

The food all had "Winnie the Pooh" tie-ins. I think the funniest one was that they called the ham "Piglet."

Sister-in-law and Mother-in-law

My roommate from college was able to come!

Beautiful quilt made by my grandma, the picture doesn't do it justice!

4 Generations! But is the 4th one also a girl???

My mom's side of the family

My dad's side of the family

My side of the family likes to take lots of pictures. PE's side of the family was also there, I promise!

Adorable Mickey Mouse quilt made by my college roommate!

Carseat from my mom, and cover from my Aunt. I feel like there should be a baby in there!!!

This baby is already quite spoiled! We received so much from family, thank you!!! 

A Growing Family...

Meet the 2 newest additions to our family!

Aren't they adorable?

They are super sweet, soft, friendly, curious, and of course adorable! Now if only they didn't poop so much...

Baby #1

We are excited to welcome Baby #1 into our family in October! We found out we were expecting exactly 4 years from the day PE proposed. In March, I went to my first doctor's appointment and I was able to see our baby for the first time. You can't tell much from the picture, but it was neat to see the little heart beating. Based on this ultrasound, my due date was set as October 16.

Baby at Week 9

In March, I also started experiencing the joys of "morning" sickness. About the time I started feeling sick I had to go to a national biological engineering conference in Indianapolis to present my research. The first time I threw up was actually in Indianapolis (fortunately it happened while I was in my hotel room and not while presenting my research). From about week 8 to week 15, I was pretty sick. PE was a saint and took good care of me. There were many days he would come home from a long day at work and find me lying on the couch, too sick to even think about dinner. So he would find or make something for dinner without any help from me. Towards the end of week 15 I started to feel a lot better. I still have some bad days, but it is more manageable now than it was during the first trimester.

PE and I decided that we would wait until people asked if I was pregnant before we told them (with the exception of a few people). My family finally guessed on Mother's Day that we were expecting. The thing that gave us away was the gigantic bruise I had on my arm from where the nurse took a blood sample for the 16 week screening tests. And Mother's Day was during week 18. It actually took 3 weeks for the bruise to disappear. We also told PE's family on Mother's Day since we didn't think it would be fair for one family to know way before the other family.

Yesterday we had our big ultrasound! It was fun to see how much development has occurred since the last ultrasound. We are going to have the gender be a surprise. I actually almost forgot to tell the ultrasound specialist that we didn't want to find out the gender. Good thing that the first thing that showed up on the ultrasound was the baby's face! The measurements from this ultrasound actually showed that I am 4 days further along, so the due date has been moved up to October 12.

Baby's Profile at Week 21

Baby's Foot at Week 21

So far, I would not consider pregnancy a "fun" experience. But we are very grateful and excited to welcome this little baby into our family in a few months!

Tulip Festival

On Friday, PE had the day off work, so we went to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point. It was nice to get out of the house and see the beautiful gardens!