Belly Update - 40 Weeks

Well, folks, guess what today is?

It's officially Peanut's due date.  As in, she's due to come out today.  Guess who missed the memo?

Instead of harping on the negatives, I decided to make a list of things that I love about being pregnant.

• The belly: I seriously love it.  I thought I would have a hard time adjusting to the extra weight, but I love the big, tight belly!  I think it looks cute.  Although many women can't stand other people touching their bellies when pregnant, I love it!  I welcome all hands on my big round front hump and get excited for everyone to feel the baby kick or move.
• Healthy eating: I've always been on the healthy side, but being pregnant made me very aware of what I was consuming.  That doesn't mean that I don't indulge in Big Macs and hot dogs, but generally, I've been eating really well and feeling great because of it.
• Feeling great: I know this isn't something that many women feel when pregnant and I'll probably be stabbed by a few of you for this one, but I feel great.  Before the pregnancy I had a lot of digestive issues and since I got pregnant, it all went away!  I've been able to eat so many things I couldn't eat before (including ice cream!).  I'm also incredibly lucky for never getting morning sickness or a lot of other issues that go hand-in-hand with pregnancy.
• Extra care and attention: mostly from my husband, but others as well!  Jon's been such a doting daddy-to-be.  He has really picked up on extra chores around the house and haven't complained (much) about the extra duties.  He's also become even more attentive and protective, which I find wicked cute.  Even strangers seem to treat you differently when you're pregnant - I've never had so many doors held open or admiring looks from strangers.

Are you loving the slippers?

What do you love or miss about being pregnant?

Bloggy Bake Sale for Charity

As you may have read in my Call to Arms post, my New Year's resolution is to support a charity that's very close to my heart: Kisses From Katie (click the links to catch up).

Well, my friend Kari didn't stop at just running - she's also hosting a virtual Bake Sale.  Read on for the details and information from her post or read the original one here. 

Here's the basic idea:

• Volunteers from blog land and anyone else we can wrangle into it volunteer to make a certain baked good
• I will post the list of items on a designated day that I'll announce well in advance
• Bidders have 24 hours to email in their bids in a sort of silent auction (highest bids will periodically be posted)
• At the end of the day winners will be announced
• Winners will have 24 hours to submit their donations or the next highest bidder will be contacted
• Bakers will have 3 days to send out their goods
• All donations would go to Kisses from Katie

To get more publicity, all bloggers who are offering up a baked good can briefly post about their participation on the selected day (and I'll link back to you on the auction post) and link back to the auction. I'm thinking about hosting the auction on my birthday, Saturday Feb 5. What do you think? Is anyone interested in participating (both on the baking or bidding end)? Bakers, please sign up here. You don't have to commit to anything right now, I'm just looking to gauge interest. I'll send a full email with rules, etc. to those who want to bake in a week or so. Those interested in bidding, just leave a comment so I can see what kind of interest we have! Thanks!! I'll even participate myself and bake a loaf of my fantastically awesome, incredibly delicious banana bread!

Christmas gift review - Telephoto Zoom Lens

For Christmas I got a new lens for my Canon Rebel Xsi: Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4.0-5.6 Telephoto Zoom lens.

To test it out, Jon and I went outside to throw the ball to Cailey.

 

It's her absolute favorite activity.

She could fetch for hours.

But we try to keep it to about 20 minutes.  Anything more usually makes her legs wicked stiff and she ends up falling over.  It's pretty funny.  But also mean.  That's why we don't do it (anymore).


A little about the lens:

It is amazing! Obviously I'd prefer to be able to afford the EF 70-200mm f/2.8, but for the dollar, this one's pretty darn great.  It has the capability to take action shots that my EF-S 18-55 f/3-5.6 lens couldn't even imagine doing.  The zoom is also pretty ridiculous, allowing me to capture my little family running all over our yard from the safe comfort of my front steps.  The shots come out sharp regardless of the action or distance of the object.

Some things that aren't great is...I don't know yet.  I'm still learning but I think for someone starting out in photography that wants a little more than the starter lens, this is a great purchase.  I'm very happy.

As always, this review is not sponsored by anyone.  I just like to brag share about my gifts.

Grinch attack

We had about 2 feet of snow here in Connecticut.  Personally, I love the snow - but that's easy to say when you're wicked pregnant and get to stay home and look out the window.  I guess it's probably a little less fun for those who actually have to get out there and shovel the snow.

The dogs love the snow too.  They run around, chasing each other.  They eat mouthfuls of snow (hopefully none of it yellow).  

Here they are, enjoying life, unsuspecting.

Then they realize the Grinch creeping up behind them. Bubba tries to bolt

but his short little legs are no match for the Grinch in his snow gear.

The Gremlin has to get over her fear of being burried in the snow and decides to run after Bubba' dog-napper.

As you can see, the snow is way taller than then pups.

But it's no match for the Gremlin.  She fearlessly trudged through 2 feet of snow to get to her brother to save him.

Even when it meant that she was in over her head.

Finally reaching her brother, the Gremlin cleared the path (as much as her little 15 lb body could do) for them to escape.

Freedom's never tasted so good.

And by freedom, I mean snow.

Good job, fearless Gremlin.

I love snow storms