so it begins.....

I had a good appointment yesterday so that means we got something for the wee one. Pete and I decided this would be an appropriate first purchase for our little girl:

Don't you just LOVE it?!?!?

Drumroll, please.....

It's a..........




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GIRL!!!!

What's Kickin'?!?!?

forgive the picture quality, Ginnie just took this with my phone

Today's the day!!!





Any guesses?!?!?

The times they are a changin'.....

This weekend we started the big move. Okay, not a big move, but we moved my office furniture out of what will become the nursery and into various new places. My desk is in the guest bedroom, the round and round chair is in our bedroom, and my two bookcases are on the landing upstairs. We finished all the cleaning, sorting, and recycling this evening. The end result is a room ready for our little one:

It's not much, but we think it'll make for a great little nursery :)

Yummmmm!!

I love pumpkin!! I like it in breads, muffins, waffles, pies, and most recently.........cheesecake.

Rachael's mom Joyce made this a few weeks ago and it was fantastic!!! She was kind enough to share the recipe with me and now I will do the same.

I made mine last night, after making dinner, in my kitchen(!!)

Here's a pic of how mine turned out - a bit lumpy, but I think that's because I was too impatient to wait for the cream cheese to be room temperature before I started. Ditto on the cracked top -- too impatient again, I wanted to get it in the fridge so that Pete and I could dig in even sooner.

Hannah definitely approved.

Paula Dean's Pumpkin Cheesecake:

Ingredients

Crust:

1 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs

3 tablespoons light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 stick melted salted butter

Filling:
3 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, at room temperature
1 (15-ounce) can pureed pumpkin
3 eggs plus 1 egg yolk
1/4 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

Joyce's extra tips: I baked this in a water bath (fill a cookie sheet with sides with water and place the springform pan in the cookie sheet). I also let it cool in the oven after I turned it off for an hour or more. This really helps to keep it from getting cracks in it.

For crust:

In medium bowl, combine crumbs, sugar and cinnamon. Add melted butter. Press down flat into a 9-inch springform pan. Set aside.

For filling:

Beat cream cheese until smooth. Add pumpkin puree, eggs, egg yolk, sour cream, sugar and the spices. Add flour and vanilla. Beat together until well combined.

Pour into crust. Spread out evenly and place oven for 1 hour. Remove from the oven and let sit for 15 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 4 hours.

Ta-Da!!!

Our kitchen is finished!! After eight weeks, we finally have a functioning kitchen again -- here it is in all its movie star glory:

here's a better picture, but before the tile was done

The granite and appliances were installed a week and a half ago, and the backsplash tile was finished on Friday. They still have to come back to redo the paint in some places, but for the most part, it's DONE!! Yay! Above you see Pete making some celebratory cookies in our fancy- schmancy oven. We've gone back to gas heat and we love it!

In case you need a reminder of what it used to look like:

I went grocery shopping this afternoon and made dinner tonight, so we are on our way to normalcy again :)

what a great day-

-we've done absolutely nothing!!!

Not actually nothing, but this is the first weekend in almost a month and a half where we haven't had somewhere to be or an event to attend. We've spent the day running errands, doing laundry, grocery shopping, and making dinner. Might not be the most glamorous life, but I love it.

Now I'm going to settle in with my dear hubby and watch the first Harry Potter movie. If the mood strikes us later, we'll heat up some apple cider! Life is good!

wubbanub!!

I had my 16-week appointment today, and everything looked great! A nice strong heartbeat of 159 bmp!! AND we get to go back to have our level II ultrasound in LESS THAN TWO WEEKS!! Whoo-hoo! We'll know if the Wee-est Crawford is a boy or a girl!

Every time we have a good appointment I get a little something for the Crawford-to-be. At my 12-week it was a stuffed animal, this time it was this Wubbanub I have had my eye on for a while. It's darling and cute and I am eager to use it to soothe my sweet babe.

a pregnant woman's dream

A Whole New World!

The granite was installed today. I took the front door when we arrived home so I would get the full effect.

I LOVE THE PENINSULA!

The appliances arrive on Thursday - then all we have left is final trim on the floor and the backsplash tile! Which means we can cook our own food on Thursday!! YIPPEE!!

Typical Holiday Shenanigans