Welcome to the 3rd Trimester!

This is my first week of my 3rd trimester! On the home stretch! It feels like I have been pregnant forever! I'm still feeling pretty good. This last week I ran a few times and really felt like I had somewhat routine exercise. I have, however, had horrible sciatica. Basically this is sciatic nerve pain that occurs due to the baby's position. Oh man it hurts! So Saturday and today instead of running I decided to go swimming. It felt amazing! I definitely need to make that more of my week. Lately I have been feeling like I am just ready to be done with pregnancy and I'm anxious to meet and care for my baby girl! I told my midwife this at our appointment on Friday and she told me it was kind of early for that, so ofcourse that made me start balling. Oh the hormones! I feel like I have been even more emotional lately than during any other stage of pregnancy. Poor Colin. People keep telling me to enjoy the pregnancy, but honestly I just don't think I am someone that Loves to be pregnant. I am grateful though, that I have had a very smooth pregnancy, absolutely no complications up to this point. I thank God for this and remind myself that I have nothing to complain about! Here is a picture of baby girl at 27 weeks! She has definitely grown from when we saw her just 7 weeks ago :)

Yummness!!

These totally deserved their very own post. I found a recipe for homemade snickers bars on pinterest and made them one day and had to share. I actually like these better than store bought (and I LOVE Snickers bars!). These have a little peanut butter in them which I think is what really makes them delish. There are several layers and it is a little time consuming to wait for each layer to cool, but if you are home and doing other things in between each layer it really isn't that bad. And it is SO worth it :) makes one 9×13 pan bottom chocolate layer 1 1/4 cups milk chocolate chips 1/4 cup peanut butter Thoroughly grease you baking pan. Melt ingredients together in a saucepan or microwave, then pour into the baking dish and spread until even. Let cool and harden completely. nougat layer 1/4 cup unsalted butter 1 cup granulated sugar 1/4 cup evaporated milk 1 1/2 cups marshmallow fluff 1/4 cup peanut butter 1 1/2 cup salted peanuts chopped, roughly chopped 1 tsp vanilla extract Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add in sugar and milk, stirring until dissolved and bring to a boil. Let cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add in fluff, peanut butter and vanilla, stirring until smooth. Turn off heat and fold in peanuts, then pour over bottom chocolate layer. Let cool completely. caramel layer 1 14-ounce bag of caramels 1/4 cup whipping cream Combine ingredients in a saucepan over low heat. Let melt, stirring occasionally, until smooth – this took about 10 minutes for me. Pour over nougat layer and let cool completely. Top chocolate layer 1 1/4 cups milk chocolate chips 1/4 cup peanut butter Melt ingredients together in a saucepan or microwave, then pour over caramel and spread until even. Let cool and harden completely. Refrigerate for at least one hour before serving, then cut as desired. These can stay at room temperature, but they do get gooey. I like them refrigerated best! Note: for best results, buy one of the half-sheet aluminum cake pans at the grocery store. That way, you can pop the entire square out and cut from there!

East Coast Trip!

Sunday we got home from a 10 day trip to the East Coast! We had so much fun. We got to spend time with family and friends. The first weekend was full of wedding festivites for Colin's cousin Kim, in Pennsylvania. We helped decorate, we got to partake in the fancy rehearsal dinner, had fun at the wedding and a post-wedding brunch! It was all so wonderful. It was great to visit with Colin's family. Most of them I had only ever met at our wedding and it's hard to really get to know people at your own wedding :) Isn't this gorgeous! The wedding ceremony was outside and then the reception was in this old barn (good thing too, because it was about 90 degrees and POURING!) Sunday evening we went home with Colin's cousin Laura to New York!! That night we decided to hit up some of the must-see tourist attractions, like Timesquare, Rockefeller Center and Magnolias cupcakes :) Colin and I have both been to these place (minus the cupcake place, which really is a must!) but it's always fun to go again. It was Memorial Day weekend and Timesquare was packed!! The next morning we all met up with my good friend Lauren and had brunch at a place called the Spotted Pig. It was delish! The we headed up to the Highline which is a park that was made out of old rail road tracks, it's set above the city and is a good place to see everything! Then we walked to Central Park! We came across the Boat House and decided to go for a row. It was fun, but HOT! The weather said 93 degrees/feels like 104. Yes, yes, it felt like 104 degrees and it was humid! For dinner we met up with our friend Ashley and her boyfriend. While eating Alec Baldwin and his girlfriend came to the resturant and looked at the menu! We probably scared them away since we were all staring and looking incredibly look tourists :) They did not have dinner there, but it was still fun to see a celeb! The next day we walked by the Hudson River through Battery Park to Ground Zero. We weren't able to go into the monument since you have to purchase tickets way ahead of time but it was cool to see the new Freedom Tower that is being built. We continued walking and went over the Brooklyn Bridge! We did so much walking during this trip, probably around 10 miles a day. I wasn't sure how my prego body would handle all this but I did just fine. In fact the mornings after the days we walked a ton I did not have any back pain whatsoever! After New York we headed to Philladelphia to spend a few days with Colin's other cousin Michael and his wife Christina. We had a fun day full of American history. We went to Independence Hall, the Consistution Center and the Liberty Bell. After Philly we headed to Colin's cousin Tara's house (he has plenty of cousins!). It was fun spending time with Rich & Tara and their four kids! We played lot's of games and got some time to rest after all the walking we did earlier in the week. Overall we had a great trip! It's crazy to think that this was probably the last trip without a baby!!