Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas To All From My Family To Yours!

Dear Santa

All I Want For Christmas is....

Dear Santa I've been a VERY good girl this past year and all I want for Christmas is a little bundle of joy that will be delivered in 9-10 months :) This really with the only thing on my list for both Dave and I, but of course we can't put that on a list for other people to buy things for you so I've come up with a few others I wouldn't mind getting either ;)

Muk Luk's, there slippers and boots all in one! I can sit at home while my feet are toasty and warm while being stylish!

This is apparently the baking worlds bible (if you can't tell by the title). It has all sorts of recipes, step by step directions and tips on baking and decorating the perfect cake. I NEED this for just starting baking!

Since I'm obsessed with cupcakes I want to explore the wonderful world of the cutest cupcakes ever made and therefore want a cupcake cookbook with loads of ideas and pictures. I mean seriously how cute is that little ducks butt up in the air....your a cupcake duck and I want to eat you!

All this baking is making my feet ache! Standing on a hardwood floor for hours at a time cooking, baking and decorating is NOT what my feet ordered and are in need of some serious relief asap. This is called a Chef's Mat and is a thick rug made of a gel material that absorbs pressure and takes it off your knees and feet. Expensive for a rug, Yes but with all the baking I'm doing now it will be well worth it!

Of course you can't be a good cook without owning an apron and as of now I still don't! This one is from Target (only sold on-line) is only $20 and comes in black, red, pink, lime green, orange and light blue. I've been wanting an apron that is cute, girly and frilly! Nothing with writing or sayings or pictures. It's so cute and I will even look good while baking up a hot mess!

One More Month

I decided to hold off on starting Clomid until next month....I figured New Year, New Start. Plus if I do experience any of the side affects it will be AFTER the holiday's are over, the family is gone and the stress of the end of the year is done with. That also mines that we have one last month of trying on our own...lets go nature!!

Holiday Spirit

I'm totally in the holiday spirit! This is by far my favorite time of year! Our tree has been up for almost 2 weeks, our outside lights a month (although not turned on until Thanksgiving), I have been listening to Christmas music everyday since 2 days before Thanksgiving, and I spent the ENTIRE day on Sunday channel surfing from Christmas movie to Christmas movie from morning till night.....I'd say I am totally in the Holiday Spirit!

Fertility or Lack There Of

Another failed month to add to all the others....::big sigh followed by a very long silence:: Oh yes, back to last weeks doctor visit. The visit when fairly good. Dave met me there so we could talk to the doctor together. Apparently Dave really has no idea how long a doctor visit should last as he took of the entire afternoon off work....granted our appointment was at 9am! So we meet with the doctor, went over our history, went over both test results from a few weeks ago, did an exam to re-check that all the lady parts are okay, and were told we are now in the category for Unexplained Infertility.....::more silence::

Everything seems to be in working order, it just ain't working together! We were told we could either wait a few more months to see what happens on our own or he would prescribe us Clomid. For anyone who does not know, Clomid stimulates your body to produce a hormone that causes egg production. We took the prescription and decided we would wait and see if we had success this last cycle. Dave would have bet a million dollars it was the month. I have to say I have all the faith at the beginning of each cycle that it's going to happen this month and then as the end of the 2 week wait gets closer I start to lose hope and get more and more scared for what's to come...AF. Oh how I despise you and how you mock me each month, throwing in my face our failure!

So now we have the option to start Clomid this month if we want to. I'm up in the air right now. I've heard some people call it "an evil bitch". As it's most common effects are hot flashes, abdominal fullness/bloating/pain/soreness, breast discomfort, nausea, vomiting, headache, and weight gain oh my! Just what I'm looking foward too! But it's nothing compared to what it could lead to in the long run so I will NOT complain if we start it any of these effects take place. It will so be worth it! So now we must decide within the next few days if I'll start this month or wait till next..... to be conitued...

Technical Difficulties

We are currently having technical difficulties with BOTH our computers and do have Internet access at home. It's killing me, as I'm sure there are so many of you patiently waiting for updates. ;) We have the Geek Squad coming on Monday...that means the whole weekend with no Internet! Ahh! Hopefully we will get things fixed next week. Stay tuned....

Well ain't that a....

We are officially in the category called "Unexplained Fertility". Argh! Just had our appointment with the doctor this week. Will discuss in more detail as soon as our Internet is back up and running.

Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!

I love this time of year....getting together with family and friends, holiday food, holiday decorations, putting up the lights and tree, Christmas music...the only thing I could ever complain about would be the bad weather but I still love the snow! I guess you have to if you live in the Midwest. As a Thanksgiving tradition your suppose to reflect on what your thankful for, so I'm going to make a list...

1. My health
2. The hubby!
3. my wonderful family
4. the health of all our family members
5. being able to cuddling with puppies (as we speak)
6. a beautiful home
7. a job, as this time last year I didn't have one
8. the holiday off work
9. some great friends
10. getting to be an Aunt
11. getting to enjoy a big tasty meal later this afternoon
12. ALL of you, my readers!
13. French Vanilla coffee
14. freedom
15. cable TV
16. having a car, even if it doesn't run well, at least it runs!

I hope you all have a happy and healthy holiday!!

I got Stock - #82 Completed!

I finally have Stock! Now I don't know much about the stock market so I turned to my trusty father who "know his stuff". And I am now putting $ in 3 stocks!! Yeah me!

#72- Capriotti's

Okay so I've been very neglectful of my 101 list....and I have a long ways to go on the list as well. So I just looked over it to see if I have done anything on it the last few month. Over the weekend, while out doing some shopping we stopped at a new sandwich shop called Capriotti's. They have a signature sandwich called the Bobbi that is Thanksgiving all wrapped up on a bun! It comes with turkey, cranberry sauce and stuffing. It looked delicious but I went for the Cheese Steak as there's no place around here you can get a good one and for some reason I crave them at the most random time (mostly while watching Food Network). The Cheese Steak was so good! I added peppers and onions to make it even more fabulous. Dave got the Dole Turkey which included roasted turkey, cheese, cole slaw, mayo and Russian dressing, he said it was awesome. The customer service was phenomenal. Being first timers there they went over the menu and explained how everything works, they checked up on us a few times to see how we likes everything and everyone working stops what their doing when someone walks in or leave and says welcome or thank you. we'll definitely be going back!

The Results Are In...(TMI you've been warned!)

...we're normal!

Earlier this week we finally got all the results back from our initial fertility tests, after having to call my doctors office 4 times!! I spoke to the nurse who informed me all my hormone levels came back normal, the only thing of concern what that my blood sugar levels where high so now I have to get my blood drawn again, and do the whole fasting thing AGAIN! Not looking forward to that. Dave's analysis came back all good as well, grade A quality and high count! Yeah Dave! The only thing of concern for his test was that the liquefaction was too thick but I couldn't get a straight answer from the nurse on what exactly that means or whether it's a bad thing and prohibiting us from getting pregnant.

So here we are ::a big sigh of relief::, there is nothing wrong with either of us from the initial testing, yeah!! Everyone tells me that's a good thing, and it is! But then I think if there's nothing wrong with either one of us, what is keeping up from getting a BFP?!?! And then that short sigh of relief turns back to frustration. We have two options, to currently do nothing thinking about what we want and see what happens or see what's next for us. So of course we're seeing what's next on the list. So far I've been meeting with midwives and nurse practitioners at the office I go to but now we are getting turned over to the doctors who specialize in infertility to see what are options are and what our next step it.

Sliced, Diced and Two Moles Short

Today I went back to my dermatologist to get two of my moles removed. It was my lunch time nip and snip! I went in over my lunch break, it took just under an hour. I had two moles on my torso removed for testing. They injected a local anesthesia many times all around my torso. It was a little uncomfortable because I saw the doctor walk over with a scalpel and scissors, I didn't feel anything but could hear him snipping my skin with the scissors and just kept imaging what was happening! I tried to distract myself but it was hard. I felt some tugging and pulling when he put the stitches in and it definitely didn't help that he was waving his hand over my face while pulling the string or whatever it is they use for stitched! I really wish they would have had a TV in there to distract you from what they are doing! My dermatologist is NOT the best conversationalist, I think of him as socially awkward. So I can't count on him to hold a conversation, his assistant was really nice and but she only talked to me at he beginning and then the end then was MIA during the procedure. I'm a little sore but all bandaged up. It seriously looks like I have 4 nipples from all the bandaging! I call them my two nubans(sp?) like Chandler from Friends! Oh how I love Friends! I get to go back to the derm tomorrow after I get off work to change my dressings and get smaller bandages then wait to hear about the biopsies. Yeah more waiting!!!

Here We Go...

Well I had my consultation with my doctors office last week. Despite what some people keep telling me, "to just be patient". Sometimes patience has nothing to do with it, but I also lost my patience about 6 months ago! Since we are approaching the two year mark, we decided to check to make sure everything is in working order so we're not wasting time. I actually talked with a nurse practitioner who said she would put us in the category for infertility as it's been almost two years of actively trying and no luck. Well I guess not that's not exactly true but being pregnant once is a good sign that it can happen again (which I already knew). So we begin testing...

So as luck would have it I my appointment came at the perfect time as they had me come back the very next day for an u/s to make sure all my lady parts are in working order. Even though there was a mix-up with the scheduling in which I ended up waiting just over an hour and a half for an appointment that seriously only took 15 minutes and I saw the nurse for a mere 2 minutes, everything looks to be normal. There's some good news!

I then went in over the weekend to get my blood drawn to run tests on my hormone levels. For this I had to fast for 10 hours beforehand, no food no drink. I thought this would be no problem since I just fasted all night and then went first thing in the morning. The first lady put the needle in and my vein rolled so another lady came over and moved the needle around to try to make contact with the vein, which I was fine with. However they had no luck finding my vein again so they took the needle out. Now I've never had a problem with needles or giving blood before but for some reason not eating and having low blood sugar must have had an affect on me because after I saw them take the needle out, I started to get light headed and the tunnel vision began. I thought I could fight it but as soon as the lady told me to look up at the light, I was out! My first time ever passing out!! It was such a weird feeling once I woke up! I was only out for a few seconds, they gave me some orange juice and had me lay down on a bed which made me feel better and I was fine after that, plus they made contact with my vein the next try thankfully! So we wait for those results which usually take a week to get back.

Don't worry Dave doesn't get a get out of jail free card for this. He gets to go through an S/A and do it in a cup! ha ha! Gotta make sure we have good swimmers! In the next week we should know more...

Celebrating 28 Years!

My first cake from my in-laws!

My 2nd cake from Dave, continuing the Dexter tradition of the birthday cookie!

Birthday Flowers! I rarely ever get flowers so you'll never hear me complain when I finally do :)

Maddux helping me celebrate

...and now Waveland's turn!

Cake #3!! Made by my lovely mother...look at her talent!

Happy Birthday to me!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

Yes today is my 28th birthday! Holy crap! I just can't believe I'm 28, I don't feel like I'm that old yet. I'm not saying 28 is old, I'm just saying I don't feel like that is how old I am.

My birthday festivities has included:

Friday: Dave and I went to dinner at one of my favorite Mexican restaurants, Los Agavas with our good friends Kelsey and Chad.

Saturday: We met some friends at a local bar to watch the Iowa Hawkeye game and celebrated a win with the end of the game about giving me a heart attack, my heart literally stopped for a few seconds! Then a movie night watching Toy Story 3 (so cute!).

Sunday: Brunch at Village Inn with the in-laws with cake, ice cream and presents at our house.

Today: Work, blah. Tonight dinner with my parents at Olive Garden to celebrate not only my birthday but also my parents Anniversary today!

Later this week: Celebrating with Booze!

Haunted House Cake

I made my first cake! A Haunted House Birthday Cake with graveyard and all. Learn all about it on my baking blog!!

Happy Halloween!!!

Katy Perry & Elmo

Dave picked what he wanted to be all by himself. I told him what I wanted to do and he came up with being Elmo from the whole Katy Perry getting banded from Sesame Street thing. We couldn't find the adult size Elmo anyway this year so we ended up getting the 2T-4T size and cutting it so he could wear it! There were a few people at the Halloween party who didn't know who I was at first, they thought I was promoting my new baking blog and all the cupcakes I've been baking!! It was really funny!

Costume Time

This year I decided I wanted to go as Katy Perry from her "California Gurls" video (shown in my previous post). To make this happen I needed to be a little creative and crafty! The major project was making the cupcake bikini top which I adapted into a cupcake corset.

Outfit includes: Blue wig, corset, jean shorts, California tan in a bottle, and the making of the cupcakes...

Yes I used Boobie Danglers from Spencer gifts as my cupcake base!!! For the frosting I mixed light weight air drying modeling clay (the kind pictured didn't work so I actually I had to go find another kind) with tacky glue and them added pink color paint. It was suppose to turn into a whipped cream substance that I could pipe with a frosting tip and pastry bag but it didn't really work out that way. However I kept working with it and ended up with....

This! The nipples are the cherries :)

I had to let them dry for 24 hours then I added sprinkles and hot glued ribbon around them as the paper cups. I tried to Velcro them to the corset but they were a little too heavy so I added a couple safety pins and it works! The final product to come...

Halloween Inspiration...

Katy Perry - California Gurls

Halloween Prep

It's almost Halloween and our pumpkins are all carved! I wanted to share my "scary" creations. They look so much better all lite up. Happy Almost Halloween!

Fertility Statue BUST

It's been a while since we had the baby talk and I've been asked by quite a few people so I thought we should have an update or more like lack there of since there is no baby update. Yes that means I'm not knocked up, there is no bun in this oven, no eggo that's preggo. Looks like either the fertility status doesn't work or we broke it! I think it's the latter, well we broke the streak anyways. I guess it was bond to happen, I mean you can't seriously believe 10 women all got pregnant in a row the first month they had this thing can you?!? Maybe I did a little, okay I really wanted to believe it worked. Now, that thing just stares at me every morning on my night stand, taunting me! We've gone 2 full months with it and nothing, looks like the luck of the statue just wasn't on our side.

So what now? Well as we inch closer to the 2 year mark (has it really almost been that long?) it seems the odds keep stacking against us. I mean each month that goes by it feels like our odds just keep going down more and more. Every month that goes by is an emotional roller coaster that you relive over and over again but each month is just a little worse than the last, even when you have no expectations of it actually happening that month it's still a disappointment to be reassure that in fact no you are not pregnant. And I thought it was mainly just me going through the roller coaster since I deal with it everyday (basal temp, CM, OPK) but it's just as hard on Dave. He's just as frustrated with the whole thing than I am. He doesn't understand why it seems like every other person we know has a baby or is pregnant, seems like almost every day someone else is announcing their pregnant or on to their second or third! He told me he wants to be a dad more than anything, now how heartbreaking is that!!

So now maybe it's time to call upon the professionals. I wanted to call our doctors office last month to set up an appointment for both us to go through the fertility tests just to make sure everything is good with both of us but Dave wanted to wait one more month. He really thought last month would be our month, but then again we thought that about the previously month before that too. Now that last month was another failure I get my way. However I wish I had called last month because first I have to schedule a consultation, which because my doctors office is so busy takes 3 weeks to get in. At the consultation they talk with you and figure out what all testing should be done and THEN you can schedule an appointment, which I'm sure will be another 3 weeks plus extra time to get all the results back. So really we won't find anything out for another 2 months!! TWO MONTHS! Hey, maybe now that I called and set up an appointment I'll get knocked up! Wouldn't that just be our luck! It did work that way the first time, but if it does this time I'll gladly take it!

Maddux's Birthday!

We had a little celebration yesterday for Maddux's birthday. I was asked today, if we really actually celebrate our dogs birthdays and if Dave is as obsessed with our dogs like me by a co-worker, the answer is YES and an even bigger YES! Hello we don't have any kids! Our furbabies are our babies! And by the way, Dave treats them more like people than I do. Anways, so I attempted to make my first dog birthday cake which the recipe is on my baking blog, it turned out fairly well. My decorating skills have not improved much but it's kind of hard to work with yogurt! Maddux turned the big FOUR! They loved the cake. I gave them a little too big of pieces and they took them and ran! Maddux took his to the living room carpet and Waveland took hers to the kitchen rug, not smart on my part and they made a mess! But pretty entertaining to watch!

More from Carter's Birthday Party

Such a cute birthday sign

Playing ON his gift not with it, haha :) He liked the box better!

So excited to be ONE

Love this little guy

so funny to watch babies eating cake

Carter with his Uncle D

Family Wedding

This is mainly just going to be a picture post from my cousins wedding two weekends ago. We were able to see lots of extended family which was wonderful.

My Grandparents

The girls in our family plus Carter

My aunts have a tradition to all sing this one song at everyone of our family weddings

And of course my hubby and me :)

NAMI

Last weekend I participated in the NAMI walk. For those of you who don't know that NAMI stands for (as I didn't before two weeks ago) it's the National Awareness for Mental Illness walk which takes place all over the country on one day. It was a 3 mile walk which both kids and dogs were welcome, so of course I brought my furbabies! My co-worker made a team for us however there were only a couple of use that participated in it even though it was free but donations were welcome. It was a beautiful day last Saturday, a little chilly in the morning and down around the river but just enough that you can suck it up for good cause! Now goal #97 is in progress as I actually got to partake in the race, (Race for the Cure got rained out and canceled due to lightening). Now that you know the 1st weekend in October with Mental Illness Awareness week, you can look up where your local walk is held and participate next year!

Official Baking Blog!

This past weekend we went to Des Moines for my cousins wedding on Saturday. We drove up early in the morning to meet my college roommate Lindsay and her husband at a bar to watch the Iowa game. It was a great weekend because not only did I get to see Linds, I got to see lots of family and my brother and sister with Carter! He's a little dancing machine!! Okay, so he's not walking yet but he's sure a little booty shaker, it's so cute. I hope to post pictures sometime soon. I even got a video of him crawling around on the floor, pulling himself up and shaking it while holding onto a wall.

Last night I hosted a Lia Sophia jewelry party. One of my co-workers just started selling it and I some how got talked into having a party, not really sure how that happened. But it was fun and most of all I got to bake for it! Which brings me to my new and official baking blog!!! Dave picked out the name for me! Gotta give credit where credit is do. http://mybunsaredonebaking.blogspot.com/ Yep, that's right it's called My Buns Are Done :) I wanted to get some recipes posted up on it before I unveiled it and actually started to get kind of carried away with all the great food I've recently made. I will no longer post recipes on this blog but if I will mostly still mention what I have recently made. So go visit it, try some recipes, request recipes, and YES I'll bake for you if you ask :)

Two babies and a wedding

Earlier I mentioned how I got the baby legs in the mail on Friday, so of course I had to go shopping for an outfit to match. We actually had two babies and a wedding to shop for so we went to Target and found these cute baby things!

12 month dress for baby Ellie

The cutest outfits! Again, I am so in love with these things. I want a baby girl for these :) These are 6 month onesies with the leg warmers for baby Ellie OHHH SO CUTE! For baby girl Tunning who is due in November we got a couple items of their registry. Of course Maddux was checking them out like crazy...

Yup he sniffed each item like crazy, every inch of them it was so funny. I'd move them and he would follow to sniff them more.

1st year "Baby" blanket, burp clothes and cute little onesies

A Dark Chocolate Birthday

Last week was my dad's birthday so I made him a birthday cake. It was a semi-homemade birthday cake. I used a box cake mix for the actual cake and made the frosting. I used a Pillsbury Moist Supreme Dark Chocolate cake mix. This was super moist and delicious. There is a cup of pudding in the cake mix to make it so moist. I bakes the cake in 2 8-inch round cake pans and found this dark chocolate frosting recipe.

One Bowl Chocolate Frosting

• 6 tablespoons butter, softened to room temperature
• 2 & 2/3 cups confectioner’s (powdered) sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa
• 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

In a medium-sized bowl, mix and beat all ingredients using an electric mixer. If icing seems too thick, add a touch more heavy cream until desired consistency is reached, taking care not to over-thin the icing. This recipe is enough to frost the top and center layer of two, stacked, 9-inch cake rounds (but not the sides) or the top of a 13×9x2-inch rectangular cake. If you are looking to frost the sides of the stacked cake rounds as well, consider doubling these amounts

The birthday boy! "D" is for dad!

This was a really good cake and of course is already all gone, oops!

Baby Legs

Earlier this week I posted about the arrival of baby Ellie. So as soon as I heard it was a girl I got to doing some on-line shopping for this sweet baby angel. I've been waiting for one of our friends to have or announce they're having a girl because I've recently fallen in love with baby leg warmers! I like to call them baby legs! They are the cutest thing ever!! So I found this website The Children's Place that had a good deal. They don't have that large of selection but do have some good prices on some cute clothes. Target has leg warmers for $10, I found prices range from $7-12 a pair and some even higher than that. They do come in all different colors and patterns. But I found these ones pictured below at the website I just mentioned for $5 each. So I bought 2 pairs in grey and 2 pairs in hot pink, plus there solid colors so they go with more outfits!

I ordered them on Tuesday, shipping was suppose to be 7-10 days and they arrived Friday! Now that's some fast shipping! When opening the package I accidentally cut open the plastic around one of the bags of the grey warmers, so curious as I am I pulled them out to look at them and I LOVE THEM! It makes me really want to keep the second pair of colors I bought but of course we are not currently pregnant nor certain if we will have a girl in the future. But now I get to go shopping for an outfit to go with the the baby legs! Who doesn't love baby clothes shopping!?!

I mean seriously how cute is this look!!

#92 In Progress

Yesterday I finally was able to give blood! My workplace holds a blood drive twice a year, last time I tried giving blood I was denied because my iron was too low. I'm not a huge fan of giving blood, it makes me nervous. I'm not scared of the needles or of blood but I do find it uncomfortable and every time it makes me a little uneasy. However I look at the bigger picture of why there is a need for people to give blood and that's why I put my fears behind me and suck it up! So yesterday my iron level was great and I was accepted. But apparently I have "lazy blood" (my words not the nurse), when I first got hooked up my blood was flowing but then it came out really slow the rest of the time. Apparently they only have 15 minutes from the time you get start until you fill the bag to what's needed or they can't use your platelets and with my "lazy blood" it was a race to the finish!! From the time I sat down on the bed two people came and finished before me! I was squeezing my ball as much as possible trying to get my blood to pump faster and it was a close call. I mean the nurse was standing there counting down the seconds. And when I say it was a close call I mean it was a close call, I finished with ONE second to spare!! ONE SECOND! At 14:59! My nurse was calling her co-workers over to see how close it was! Luckily they are able to use my blood and it wasn't a bust so it was all worth it! I'm saving lives! :)

Carter's ONE!

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY CARTER!

Today my nephew turns ONE! Can't believe a year has flown by so fast and he is officially one year old. Labor Day weekend we headed up north to Minnesota to celebrate Carter's birthday. They had a really great turn out with lots of family and friends to celebrate. Stephanie did a fantastic job and had some really cute decorations. They had a big blow-up jumper house that all the kids stayed in pretty much the entire day, what a great babysitter!! :) Carter just keeps getting more and more cuter by the minute! He's getting more active every time we seen him, crawling everywhere and standing up all by himself. It was a short trip and we miss him already. We wish you a very happy birthday Carter!!!