Let's Review: Arla Dofino Cheese

My family usually sticks to the basics when it comes to cheese.  We keep mozzarella and cheddar on hand at all times.  And the little canister of Parmesan to sprinkle on pasta.  That's it.

But I got a coupon to try a free 8 oz package of Arla Dofino cheese from BzzAgent, so I was pretty excited to try something new and different.  I chose the Havarti cheese and made this recipe of mac and cheese, but without the dill weed.  I've made homemade mac and cheese before (but with cheddar) so this wasn't overly difficult.  And it turned out great.

It's much creamier than cheddar mac and cheese, and reminds me a little bit of an alfredo sauce.  It would be really good with added chicken, bacon, spinach, and/or broccoli too.

I loved it, Aaron liked it, and Andrew is happier with the mac and cheese from a box (but he ate this too).  I don't know if we'll be buying it regularly since it's more expensive than our usual cheeses, but it sure was good this time.  (Locals, I have some coupons if you want to try it!)



*I got the product for free with a coupon from BzzAgent, but all opinions are mine!*

It's a...

Baby!

So we had our 20 week ultrasound yesterday. Since we had Andrew with us, they wouldn't let Aaron come into the room until the last few minutes of the scan. The tech tried to tell me the gender before she even called him in, but I was patient and asked them to wait. And...

It's a boy! Andrew is going to have a little brother! We are so excited to add another little boy to our family.  (Poll results: 56% of you guessed correctly!)

We had a bit of a scare when the doctor called yesterday to tell us that the ultrasound had shown low levels of amniotic fluid and they wanted us to go to a specialist for another scan. Low fluid levels can mean a lot of scary things so we spent the evening worrying and googling. Fortunately the specialist was able to get us in today. And also fortunately, there is plenty of fluid around the baby. Copious amounts, actually. So all the worrying was for nothing- presumably the first sonographer just did a bad job. 

So anyway, our second little boy is looking healthy and we couldn't be happier!

Pregnancy Update and Gender Predictions

Well, here we are- more than 19 weeks along in this pregnancy!  In a way it seems like this pregnancy is moving along a lot faster than the last one, maybe because I'm busy with Andrew this time.

This baby is active.  I felt him/her move for the first time on Labor Day (when I was almost 14 weeks along) and Aaron was able to feel the movement a few weeks ago too.  This is WAY earlier than we felt Andrew.  I guess that's normal though for second-time (and more) moms.  At our last two appointments, the doctor even commented on how much the baby was moving around- they had to keep moving the doppler to follow the heartbeat.

Like last time, I thought it would be fun to look at some old wives tales about gender.  They were definitely wrong last time; let's see if they can do better this time around:

• Chinese Gender Predictor:  Based on my age and conception month.  BOY.
• Carrying: If you carry low, it's a boy; high, it's a girl. NOT SURE?  Isn't it too early to know if I'm carrying low or high?  Or maybe I just carry in the middle...
• Heart Rate:  Girl is over 140bpm, boy is under 140bpm.  GIRL. They haven't told us bpm since the dating ultrasound though, so not sure how "accurate" this is.
• Feet Temperature: Boys cause cold feet, girls don't change mom's feet temp. BOY.
• Morning Sickness:   Have it?  Girl.  Not so much?  Boy.  GIRL.
• Cravings:  Craving sweets = girl. Craving salty/sour = boy.  BOY.  I haven't been craving salty/sour foods so much, but I've been pretty anti-sweets since I got pregnant, like last time.  My sweet tooth is starting to come back though.
• Boobs:  Which one is bigger?  Left = girl. Right = boy.  GIRL.
• Sleeping Position:  Preference for the left side means a boy, preference for the right means a girl. BOY.  Though I often switch part of the way through the night, after my potty break.
• Headaches:  Boys cause headaches, girls don't.  GIRL.
• Sympathy Weight:  If the husband gains weight, it's a girl.  If not, a boy.  BOY.
• Opinion of the Mom-to-be:  In a study that asked women with no previous knowledge about their baby's sex, the moms-to-be correctly guessed the gender of their baby 71% of the time. NOT SURE?  Really, no idea.  Sometimes I'm convinced it's a girl, and other times I say "he" when talking about the baby.  (Aaron was convinced Andrew would be a boy, and was right, but this time he won't even make a prediction because he doesn't know.)

So the old wives aren't coming to a consensus this time.  (What do you think?  Vote in the poll above!)

We have our ultrasound early next week, so hopefully baby cooperates and lets us see if he's a boy or she's a girl!

Andrew's Big News

Andrew has been keeping a secret from everyone for a couple months now.

That's right!  He's being promoted to BIG BROTHER!

Honestly, he has no idea what's going on, but we are very excited!  New baby Kimbler is due on March 3, 2015.

I'm almost 14 weeks along now- finally about to be done with the first trimester.  Morning sickness has been pretty awful, exhaustion is real, and none of my clothes fit right.  But baby is worth it (even though I'd still appreciate some relief!).

We had an ultrasound at 8 weeks 6 days, and I heard the heartbeat again on the doppler at my appointment last week.  Everything seems to be perfectly on track.  We're looking forward to seeing him or her again in early October and finding out the gender!

New York Trip

I'm super delayed in writing about this fun trip we took.  Oops.

In July, we took a week long trip up to upstate New York to hang out with Aaron's parents.  We chose that week because Aaron's brother was going to be visiting that week and because the Hill Cumorah Pageant was on then.

We ended up making the drive all in one day (we had allowed for the possibility of splitting it into two days if Andrew was really not enjoying himself) which meant we got to Aaron's parents' house on Sunday evening.  They weren't actually home yet from Palmyra (they were helping out at the Hill Cumorah) so we passed some time eating dinner and playing at a park near their house.

On Monday we just relaxed for a lot of the day since Aaron's parents both had to work at least half the day, but we also went to visit Aaron's grandma at her apartment.  Andrew particularly loved getting to ride around on her walker.

The weather on Tuesday was a bit rainy and wet, so our outing for the day was just over to the mall, where they have a pretty cool carousel and play area.  Turned out that the carousel was free on Tuesdays during the summer, so we got lucky!

On Wednesday we went to a petting zoo.  Oh boy- Andrew was loving it.  He didn't quite know what the animals were, so he followed the goats and sheep around, pointing and shouting "doggie!"

Thursday we drove up to Niagara Falls.  We ate lunch, walked around, and decided to go on the Maid of the Mist.  Andrew looked super cute in his little poncho, and kept saying "wow" as the mist was coming at us.

Brent finally arrived late on Thursday night, so we saw him when we got up on Friday morning.  This was the day we went to the pageant.  It was great, of course, and Andrew sat on my lap the whole time, watching intently and clapping between all the scenes.  I thought he would fall asleep or get restless since it was so late at night (it doesn't start until after 9:00pm) but he loved it.

On Saturday we went to another farm.  The animals weren't out loose like they were at the petting zoo, but this farm had more things to do (a rope maze, sandbox, bouncing bubble thing, slides, etc.).  Unfortunately it started raining while we were there, cutting the trip short, but we still had a great time.

Sunday was a bit of a long day for us.  We had church in the morning, then Aaron's grandma came over for a delicious family lunch.  After that we packed up and drove all the way home.  I thought we'd have to stop somewhere for the night but Andrew was great in the car.  We had to stop several times of course, but it wasn't too bad.

It was such a fun trip, and it was nice to be on vacation for an entire week.  Unfortunately Aaron's brother Steve wasn't able to make it up as planned, and the dog Sandy was kept on his toes by a very loving toddler all week :)

Thanks for a great visit, Kimblers!

Basement Construction Zone

We are hard at work (periodically) finishing our basement!  A few weeks ago we bought a whole bunch of material and my dad helped us get started!  Mostly my dad and Aaron were doing the work, but my mom and I came down when we could and helped too.

We are basically cutting the basement into four rooms, and in that one weekend, we have two rooms framed and drywalled!  I'm excited that this will soon be useable space.

We are making progress!  One more room to go (the fourth is utilities and storage space) and I need to start thinking about finishes- flooring, paint, etc.

Family Time and Getting Caught in the Rain

I'm playing catch-up a little bit here, since I've been neglecting this blog lately.  Oops.

In May, Aaron had a work trip to Atlanta.  He left on Mother's Day (gee, thanks) and got back the day after our anniversary (again, thanks for that).  His trip also happened to fall the same week that my grandmother (Nan) was going to be visiting my parents.  So Andrew and I went to Lake Holiday and spent some time with my family while Aaron was gone.

My Mother's Day present to my mom :)

I was worried that Andrew would be super shy around Nan and his cousins he hasn't seen recently, but he was so friendly and had a great time.  He would chat with Nan and show her around the house, and he chased Archer around the house, laughing at all his cousin's funny faces.

One day while we were there, my dad and I decided to take Andrew and Amelia out for a canoe ride.  The clouds were starting to roll in as we walked down to the dock but we decided to go ahead and take them out for a short ride before the rain started.  Right after we got the canoe off its wheels, we looked up at the sky and realized the rain was coming- right away!  We were all wearing our life jackets already, but the drops were starting to fall so I took the kids and we started running up the hill to the clubhouse while my dad put the wheels back on the canoe and got it ready to bring home.  Suddenly we were drenched- the rain came down like a blanket and Amelia started crying.  Andrew doesn't mind being wet so he was just looking around in awe.  I picked up Andrew and grabbed Amelia's hand and we ran! Andrew kept slipping off my hip since we had our life jackets on but we finally made it to the clubhouse where we were rescued by my mom and sister-in-law.  It was quite the adventure!  Archer was especially proud that he got to be part of the rescue team :)

Andrew and I came home on Friday so we could pick up Aaron from the airport in the morning.  On Saturday we picked Aaron up at BWI and headed right back to my parents' place since this was the day the whole family would be there.  We had a really fun day together and even took some cute photos.  It was a real treat to have Nan with us for a week- we really don't get to see her (or any of our other extended family) very often, and I even got to hear some of her stories from her childhood.

A canoe full of grandkids!

Kookoopa and the boys

Birthday and Easter Weekend

This past weekend was a double feature of special days!  Aaron's birthday was on Friday and then Easter was on Sunday!  Aaron's parents even came down for the weekend, so that was a bonus too!

On Friday, Aaron took the day off.  I got a haircut and then we just had a fun and relaxing day.  Andrew had lots of fun getting reacquainted with his grandparents (he was pretty shy when they first walked in).  We went to PF Chang's for dinner, and then had angel food cake for dessert after Aaron opened some presents.

Saturday started off with a breakfast and Easter egg hunt at church.  Andrew was too little to do the hunt last year, but this year he loved it!  He had no idea that there were goodies inside though, so there was a heavy mom-tax (and dad-tax and grandparent-tax) on the candy.  After his nap, we all headed over to Annapolis for the afternoon.  We went to a maritime museum, did some walking in and around the State House, and went to dinner at a place that serves all local crabs (and other seafood).  We all got crab cakes and it was delicious!  A trip to Coldstone finished out the evening :)

I was excited that we had company over for Easter Sunday.  I had a lot of fun preparing for it.  We had an Easter basket with goodies for each of us, German pancakes for breakfast, and an Easter egg hunt.  The eggs were all over the main floor and contained pieces of a puzzle that we all put together after finding the eggs.  Church was nice (I sang with the choir for 2 numbers) and then we came back to the house for dinner.  I was quite proud of myself for the Easter dinner: Ham, candied sweet potatoes, asparagus with lemon sauce, rolls (shaped like bunnies, of course), hard boiled eggs, and sparkling cranberry raspberry juice.  It turned out great and it was awesome to have people to share it with.  And Andrew looked especially adorable in the suit my mom made for him :)

All in all a wonderful weekend to celebrate Aaron and Christ.