An Observation

This song came out last summer and I LOVED it! Still do. I played it over and over again when I first heard it. When I saw the video, I thought the guy was cute & hadn't heard of him before.

Warning: the second video is a bit scandalous.

Then this song came out. I saw the video and thought he was NASTY! What the heck?

I decided it was because my type of guy is: athletic, happy, laughs & smiles a lot, funny, and carefree.

NOT: pouty, whiney, girly (referring to the obviously straightened/styled tresses), and depressed.  

Case & point: Matt mountain biking last weekend.

That's my kinda guy :) 

Sometimes

Being a queen is really hard work.

Melts My Heart

Seeing my baby girl laugh at her Daddy...

trust him wholeheartedly...

and smile at him with complete adoration...

...just melts my heart.

Sometimes the thankful tears come when I watch them together.

I am so grateful for such a gentle, caring man to be the father of our children.

To play with them, protect them, hug them, teach them, and lead them.

Such precious little lives we are given charge of!

My Loves

I love this picture of Matt carrying Ada in the Baby Bjorn.

He pronounces it Bah-Jorn. :)

Matt's 25th Birthday!

It's that wonderful time of year when my husband and I are the same age! He can't call me grandma until I turn 26 in April :)

Matt wanted chili for his birthday. The boy loves my chili. (It is SO easy and SO good!) My father-in-law, Marc, has been quoted as saying, "I think this is the best chili I've ever had." Matt is the same way, so sweet and complimentary no matter what I make!

He woke me up Friday morning before he left for work to make sure I was making chili for his birthday dinner that night. His co-worker told me it's all he talked about all day. He called and checked up on me just to see what I was doing, even stopped by the house once and smelled it cooking in the crock pot. He is so funny!

Here it is after simmering all day and making the whole neighborhood smell fabulous!

I was surprised at the reaction I got regarding the plastic liners I use when I uploaded these pics to facebook! They are a lifesaver. You don't have to lift your heavy ceramic part into the sink to soak or scrub off any stuck-on goodness! Just throw that plastic liner away. Heaven!

Here's the recipe:

2 lbs. ground beef

2 cups diced onions

2 (15 1/2 oz) cans pinto beans

1 (15 1/2 oz) can pink kidney beans

1 (15 1/4 oz) can whole kernel corn, drained

1 (14 1/2 oz) can Mexican-style stewed tomatoes

1 (14 1/2 oz) can diced tomatoes

1 (14 1/2 oz) can tomatoes with chiles

2 (4 1/2 oz) cans diced green chiles

1 (4.6 oz) can sliced black olives, drained and rinsed (optional)

1 (1 1/4 oz) package taco seasoning mix

1 (1 oz) package ranch salad dressing mix

For Garnish:

Corn Chips

Sour Cream/Ranch Dressing

Grated Cheese

Green Onions (optional)

Brown ground beef and onions in a large skillet; drain excess fat, then transfer browned beef and onions to a large slow cooker or a stockpot. Add the beans, corn, tomatoes, green chilies, black olives, taco seasoning, & ranch dressing mix, and cook in a slow cooker on low for 6-9 hours. Or simmer over low heat for about 1 hour in a pot on the stove. To serve, place a few corn chips in each bowl and ladle soup over them. Top with garnishes of choice and enjoy!

Here I am baking some cornbread muffins...with some honey and butter on top...YUM!

Matt got this picture of Sandy and it is my favorite. She has the best wrinkles!

Please note the candle in his muffin...it totally melted because the muffins had just come out of the oven. Oops!

My bowl, a la ranch

Matt's - a la sour cream

We watched the movie The Proposal after dinner and laughed so hard, it's a funny one! Makes us want to visit Alaska, too.

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Sunday evening we had Matt's birthday celebration at Nana's! She made a delicious ham dinner with cheesy potatoes, green salad, broccoli, and her fabulous bread. She's the best!

Here's Matt getting ready to open his gifts!

He puts up with me shoving the camera in his face all the time. I think he's excited for Ada to get here so I have another subject to focus on :)

I made a chocolate peanut butter pie and Bobba made his famous apple pie!

The recipe is here. It's amazing! Seriously, you have to try it. I made it the night before and popped it in the freezer until we headed over to Nana's. It sat out while we had dinner and opened gifts and was perfect by the time we ate it. Chocolate and peanut butter...two of my favorite things together!

Matt thinks he looks creepy in this pic, but I think he looks adorable. A little excited for some yummy pie!

Happy Birthday Babe! You're the best and I love you more and more every year :)

Updates

We finished our childbirth class! Matt got to play doctor during one class, I was his assistant. Good times. He had a freak out moment where he had the mask on and needed it off immediately, it was so funny!

We had our tour of the hospital and it made the reality of everything sink in! We are going to have a BABY! Seeing those tiny little newborn diapers and hats they put on them was crazy.

The nursery is coming along nicely! Here is Matt installing the ceiling fan. I'll do a separate post once the touch-up paint is done and frames are hung on the walls :) It's my favorite room! Love my little handyman.

We went to the LA Temple yesterday for our Ward Temple Day. It was a beautiful day! We took a picture under the wedding tree, here I am at 35 weeks 5 days.

I had to post this picture of Bobba! He forgot his glasses at lunch and had to wear Mommy's. Isn't he stylin? Haha!

I've cut back on subbing, I'm only doing half days here and there. I worked a full day last week and it was too much! I came home and crashed, not to mention the hugeness of my feet after being on them all day...hello swelling!
That's about it for now, I'll do a post tomorrow for my 36 week mark!

FRANKENTOE!

Matt has had a pretty bad ingrown toenail for some time now. I kept telling him to go to Dr. Fillerup and get it taken care of, but he put it off until his big toe was the size of a golfball. (Today he said, "Why didn't I get this done sooner?" Gee, I don't know! We had a good laugh about that one.)
Anyway, when he came home from Pete's office, his toe looked like Shrek! Upon further examination, I realized it REALLY looked like Frankenstein because of the squareness of it. How appropriate for the season! I begged him to let me decorate it, and he obliged. Ladies and gentleman...my masterpiece....FRANKENTOE!!!!!
Before:

And after:

He's ALIVE!

Standard.

Matt climbing a tree in SLO to get an orange.

Yep, this guy is going to be a dad in 6 months. :)

For The Sake of Documentation...

Here are pictures of me at 3 months 4 days pregnant. Saturday was a beautiful, sunny, warm day here in Santa Maria. We ordered sandwiches at Spencer's then headed to Waller Park to eat and relax. After a rough morning that prevented us from driving to Los Angeles for our Ward's Temple Day, I needed some fresh air!

Lindsay cut my hair while she was in town, I love it! She always does such a great job. I'm getting closer to all my natural color now!

There's a baby in there!

It felt strange posing like this...I don't feel like I'm showing enough yet! It just looks like I had a big meal. I'm still wearing my normal clothes; I wonder how long that will last. Haha!

My sweet hubs. He has been so wonderful during these past months! He's done the dishes, cleaned out the fridge, gone without home-cooked meals, made midnight runs to the grocery store, brought me anything I need, and been my number one supporter and friend throughout everything. What a guy :)

True Love.

Matt picked out the Skittles I don't like and left the good ones in the bag for me :)
It's the little things, right?

Matt @ Guad

On Matt's day off we went to Guadalupe for a photo shoot. I don't like the crazy waves & riptides there...so I offered to take pictures with Brandin's awesome zoom lens (thanks buddy)!
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Snowy Plover...LUNCH!

The waves slam you into the sand here...Matt is cracking up because I captured it!

Such a stud! I was pretending he was a pro surfer and I was a pro photog at the competition. He said, "How did I do?" I replied, "Oh, you won the title."

I just LOVE that wetsuit butt!


He's up! Big waves...why I wasn't in my wetsuit that day!

Serious business.

Favorite shot of the day...thinking about blowing it up huge...or sending it to Billabong ;)

Love this cutie!

It's not a trip out to Guad unless you get stuck behind a tractor!

Beach Time!

We went surfing at Pismo yesterday. It was FREEZING! I could see my breath while in the water. Matt said I went up 100 cool points for getting in the water that day. Ha! It wasn't so bad -- it was just getting out of my huge eskimo jacket and into my damp wetsuit. Brrrrr. It was really fun though! I found my own little place and named it Kara's Break in true Marc Miller fashion ;) I'm getting better (and less sore) each time I go.
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Frost on the windshield...


Full moon!

Want the best clam chowder in the world? Go here!

Perfect...

Did not want to take off the jacket at this point!

Slowly warming up...

Breakfast!

Surfing!

Matt & I met up with his dad at Pismo on Sat. morning. So early. I fought getting out of my warm cozy bed...but it was such a good day out in the water! Definitely worth it :)

P.S. I just got some booties and they are AWESOME! I'm such a ninja in them.

Love

While in Vegas, I sent this to Matt with the message, "Love from Vegas!"

He responded with this picture and the message, "Love from work."