Happy Halloween 2006

From our family to yours!

(left to right): Peekachu (sp?), Capt. Flirt, Glenda the Good Witch (more like the resident Gypsy) and Superman.

Bam-Bam's Present

One of my favorite knotties in the whole wide world, Wan-naBe, and her daughter got involved with a wonderful, charitable organization and joined "CHOC" to walk for the children of Southern California. CHOC Walk 2006 took place on October 8, 2006 and it's mission is to nuture, advance and protect the health and well-being of our chilren.

Little Bam-Bam gave a small donation to help sponsor Wan's daughter's effort and in return Auntie Wan sent him his first ever Mickey ears. Thank you so much, I can't wait to see the little guy in it!

Bam-Bam's first Mouse ears!








Here's the special Thank You message.




Hopefully we'll be able to join you guys next year!

O-KAY! It's a boy.

Today was our 6 month check up and everything went well. The baby is moving around a lot and has a very strong heart beat. My blood pressure is a little elevated but the doctor said that a little pressure is needed to be able to pump blood to the baby. I have gained 5 pounds, to mine and the doctor's surprise, and no word on the weight of the baby at this point. There may be a change in the EDD (estimate due date)to February 10th, but we're just going to stick with the thought of this baby being our Valentine's Day 2007 present.

Now, on to the ultrasound.

So I've been fighting the fact that all of the medical professionals that I've seen so far have advised us that we're having a boy. My only reason for not believing in their diagnosis (well I actually have 2) is that I truly believe that I'm having a girl. I did have a mis-diagnosis before, and I also have 3 friends that ran out and purchased items only to be completely surprised in the delivery room, now you can understand the reason for my doubt. *sigh*

Well again today the doctor, who will be delivering this bundle of joy, told us that we were DEFINITELY having a boy. This time Clif was present and he even had the nerve to say he "SAW" it. Whatever!... I'll believe 'em when I'm holding the little guy.

yeah I know... what are you looking at? Well first click on the picture and if you can see that small, white "+" sign (look up towards the middle of the picture) our little guys' 'private part' is immediately to the right of that. The round, whitish area above and a little to the left of the "+" sign is he bottom of left foot!

Supercuts SCHMOOPER-CUTS

Let me just start off by saying that I TOTALLY LOVE MY HUSBAND. He's such a good sport.

Ok, so Tuesday night is 'Hair Night' in our household. It's the night that I wash/braid my daugther's hair before she goes back over to their dad's house for a week. Well, last night Raye asked Clif if he could 'line him up.' Without blinking Clif said "sure" and off Raye went to the bathroom to get all the tools he needed. Before long Raye was combing out Clif's hair, parting and referring to the look he was stylin' as 'Elivs-like' and at one point he told him that he looked like George Washington (I wish I had a pick of that style). This went on for about 30-40 minutes. Long enough for me to get finished with Ryann's hair, whip out the digi and take a few flicks.

I'm just happy they decided to do this before I was further along, I may have gone into early labor seeing what was taking place before my eyes.

First here's Ryann..

Now, here's Clif with hair combed out..

Raye is putting on the finishing touches..

Finally.. here's the GLAM SQUAD and their victim (I mean client)..

6 years later

My little man has made it to his 6th birthday. We celebrated at Chuck E. Cheese, on Saturday, with some close family and friends. Raye was able to take some pictures with Mr. Cheese himself and had a blast with all of his friends. Today (on his actual birthday) we'll hang out at Toys-R-Us with Papa, enjoy Raye's favorite meal, play Avatar on XBox and just have a great time (with the family) being a kid. Happy Birthday Raye, we love you!

Who told you that tasted good?

So I know that everyone is entitled to their own opinons about the food they eat. All taste buds are different, blah blah blah. Take my friend Brenda. When I first met this crazy bride-to-be all I ever saw her eat were ice cubes. My other friend Kristen (nicknamed 'Spokane') can do wanders with salsa poured over cream cheese and tortilla chips. Now aside from me liking ketchup and hot sauce on my pizza/spaghetti or mixing peanut butter and jelly in a bowl and then eating it (like it was caviar or something) with Club crackers, my taste buds are pretty normal (I'll deny anything different). But there are some people that like to eat things that are just down right NASTY, there's no other way to put it. Example:

• Boiled hot dogs on a regular slice of bread with grape jelly (my mom)
  

• Peanut butter and sweet relish sandwich (my cousin)

• Blue cheese stuffed olives (my husband)
  

...excuse me while I go into the bathroom and call my uncle Earl.

5 Reasons NOT to piss off a pregnant woman.

1. She will remember EXACTLY what you did to make her mad the entire pregnancy.

2. Your name will not be among the millions considered for the baby.(nor will any variations of your name)

3. Pregnant women have been known to SNAP in a heartbeat, and usually the wrath is deadly.

4. You will not be able to hold, visit, or inquire about the baby once it arrives.

5. No matter how expensive or cute your baby shower gift is, IT WILL BE RETURNED TO THE STORE.

Food - Schmood!

I know, I know. This blog is full of food right? Right! I mean what did you think you were going to get with a preggers?

Anyhoot, today I tried out one of "30 Minute Meal" Diva Rachael Ray's dessert recipe, a mini mudpie. Let me just say that it's great.... .... and it works with any kind of ice cream. I've tried it out with (4) different flavors from Ben & Jerry. The trick is you have get a small plate and on one side fill it up with small, bite size graham crackers and like 6-8 scoops of any flavored ice cream will do (altough it recommends coffee flavored for the full 'mudpie' effect. Now I'm just waiting for Clif to come home to try out the Chubby Hubby flavored one. It's vanilla ice cream with fudge covered, peanut butter filled pretzels. YUM! I may have to sneak it into his veggies tonight for dinner, but he will try this doggone ice cream.

New favorite smoothie

So I am not very hungry these days. Sometimes I go the entire day without really wanting anything to eat or drink. Well the other morning, after dropping the kids off to school, I decided to head to the local Robek's so I wouldn't have to cook a breakfast when I got home. Unlike Jamba Juice they don't have a Strawberry Tsunami to quench my thirst so I had to try something new. Well, I have to say that the Lemon Breeze is a great alternate. It's made with raspberry lemonade and pineapple sherbet, you have to try it. It's delish!

Cupcake Madness

Cupcakes, cupcakes and more cupcakes.

OK so yesterday I woke up with this brilliant idea that I was going to make a kitchend filled with different flavored cupcakes. I thought about all the different ones I could make with just the ingredients we already had in the house. Some of the flavors I came up with were:
Lemon cake with mixed berries (rasberries, blueberries & blackberries), white cake with coconut flavoring and chunks of pineapples on top; chocolate cake with marshmellows inside and butter cake with Jamaican Rum cream. Yea, I know, I was wrong for doing the last one. I know I'm not suppose to drink while I'm pregnant, which is why I didn't drink, I simply tasted the batter that I was creating which just so happened to have 5 dropper-fills of Jamaican Rum Cream inside of it. Do I even need to tell you what that tasted like?

Aside from making my own cupcakes I also made some plain (or just not as creative) batch for a friend of mine baby shower that was taking place on Saturday. They were received well and after returning home from the shower I remembered visiting a blog page, Cupcake Queen, and reading about one of her creations. (See her blog under 'my favorite blogs'). I then decided to make my own batch of cupcakes with pieces of Milky Way on the inside. BOY WERE THOSE GOOD! The way the candy melts on the inside... .... ... simply heaven! Clifton loves them and he wants to know what will I think of next.

Hmmm, I think Skors, 3 Musketeers, or Mounds sounds good right about now. :)

21 week check-up update

So today was our 21 week check-up. Everything is going good. We got the results from our blood test and all is well. No signs of any problems and my blood pressure is under control. The next doctor visit isn't until the 6 month mark. For those who aren't math savvy, that's in just another 3 weeks. Stay tuned for more updates.

Daddy is a culinary genius!

Wow... what a treat.

Clif called yesterday from work to tell me that he'd be preparing dinner for us. He was all excited, he already knew what he wanted to prepare. Now I know I shouldn't have been thinking what I was thinking but one of the last times he decided to venture into the unknown area of dinner preparation, it didn't turn out so well. Breakfast is a different story... ... my baby has skills with (1) loaf of bread and (10)sun-dried tomato eggs for two(um, um, yum!)

So when we hung up the phone and I immediately began to think about how this meal would turn out. Ohh, I forgot to tell you what was on the menu:
chicken marsala,
potato samosas,
with jasmine and cilantro rice. Sounds great huh? Sounds like the Iron Chef of Torrance, right? Funny how my first thought was... why does he do this every time? Why can't he just make something simple. Baked chicken, mashed potatoes and/or rice. Simple. Would have gotten the same effect and everything. Oh, but no! He has to add lime and seasoning to the chicken, experiment with Trader Joes Marsala sauce, chop up cilantro that he has no idea what it is going to taste like with already jasmine flavored rice. Damn this could turn out bad.

Ok, so he arrives home at around 8 or so, with a big bag from the store. He comes in with a big smile on his face and 'are you ready to eat some good food' on his lips? "Yup, I'm ready!" He's off to the kitchen. I hear the sounds of the dishes being washed, and opening/closing of the refrigerator door. Boy... he's really working his stuff in there. Then comes the question I was waiting for, "Baby, how long does it take to make chicken?" I knew it.

Well, he finished up the dishes, made the dinner he said he was going to and then walked out of the kitchen like a defeated bull fighter. "Or you ok baby?" I asked. "Yeah, dinner took longer to make than I expected" he said. He went back into the kitchen, plated us up some grub and guess what.... ... IT WAS GREAT! The chicken was tender, juicy and very spicy, with just a hint of lime juice. The rice (although very sticky) was also seasoned perfectly with poetic sprinkles of cilantro throughout. Even the samosas' were flaky (although a little soft) and a nice addition to the meal. At approximately 10:30pm Clif was able to declare himself to be a threat in the kitchen.
Long live Iron Chef Clifton!

A Poem for the Mommy-to-Be

Our good friend, and fellow blogger, Tonya wrote a poem just for me and my sudden cravings for food and sweets. Check it out here. I think I would buy a book of her creations.

I want pizza!

Well last night before going to bed I told Clifton that I wanted some 'New York style' pizza. He looked at me like I was crazy of course because we were already in bed and there was no way we were making a run to Westwood to get my favorite pizza. All night long I tried to go to sleep; tossing and turning to the thoughts of pepperoni, italian sausage, thin crusted pizza. I'm still feeling under the weather, but as my mother use to say to me it takes a lot to take away my hunger.

Today, after lying around in bed not being able to watch cable (Time Warner had some 'technical difficulties' for 2 hours) I took a shower to try and clear my stuffy nose. Fresh from the shower I decided to pay some bills online, and then it hit me. PIZZA! So, I got up, got dressed hopped in the "X" and off to the pizza place I go. To my surprise my favorite pizza place was closed observing Yom Kippur (sp?) DRAT! My plan was foiled... ... or was it. A little ways down the street there's a Frankie & Johnnie's Pizza that I am also very fond of.

Geez, I have to find places closer to Torrance to eat at. Two trips to BH is getting to be insane. OH Yeah, also while I was out I picked up a new sweater for Creme Puff.... doesn't she look adorable?