The cravings are in full force

One of my favorite things about being home with Taya is I have a little more time to bake. Baking has always been something I enjoy (probably because I like to eat the goods). Well, the pregnancy cravings have been hitting frequently the past few weeks. To be honest, most of them are reasonable...a salty snack (chips and salsa, yum), fresh fruit and vegetables (yeah, crazy I know), breakfast foods (that's what I craved with Taya), and the most recent one has been CHEESECAKE! I have been wanting Cheesecake Factory but both of the ones in town are pretty far away and with the recent heat and humidity (94% humidity anyone?), we didn't think the cheesecake would hold up very well. So Ethan told me to make my own. I have only made a few cheesecakes in my life and I know they are very time consuming but I decided to try out a strawberry swirl recipe and it's delicious. It even turned out pretty so I wanted to post the pictures. Notice I didn't post any pics of me devouring my piece. Oh, and Taya loved it too :).

Strawberry Swirl Cheesecake

Our little Taya-bear has been sleeping off a growth spurt this week. She is getting really long and is now more comfortable in size 2T but still squeezing into some 24 month clothes. It seems I'm making more piles of her clothes to put in totes the past few weeks. Anyway, she usualy takes a one hour nap around 10:30 or 11:00 a.m. and another one hour nap from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. The other afternoon she woke up from her afternoon nap and fell back asleep in the chair for another hour and a half! I think she's so adorable when she sleeps so I snapped a few pics.

While I was taking the pictures of the cheesecake last night I could hear Taya saying "cheese" so I took her picture during supper.

We had a wonderful Sunday as a family. I made a breakfast casserole so we munched on that after Mass. After Taya's morning nap we went to the indoor pool at OSU (with Ethan's membership our family can go for free on the weekends). Taya had a blast and is getting pretty brave in the water...so much that she tries to squirm out of our arms which makes me nervous. They offer kids swim lessons there so we're going to look into lessons again. I was able to swim some laps in the lap pool which felt so good. Then we had our yummy supper and dessert, took Nima for a walk and watched "The Jungle Book". It was just nice to relax a little and commune.

Have a wonderful week everyone. God Bless!

OB stats--week 17 or 18

Baby Mann 2 at 17 or 18 weeks. The discrepancy comes from me knowing when I conceived vs. the date of my last period...I was closer to being right with Taya than the midwives estimated, so I'm saying I'm 18 weeks :).
We made the drive to Delaware, Ohio this afternoon to meet with a different physician who was recommended by both a doula and a Bradley instructor in this area. Dr. Hammett and the hospital in Delaware (Grady Memorial Hospital) are both covered by our insurance and are very supportive of natural childbirth. After my second thoughts about the midwife I saw a few weeks ago we decided it was worth a try. I am so happy we went! He was on board with all of our wishes! I'm trying to imagine being in labor and traveling that far (with Taya it was 5 minutes) but it will be worth it.

Today--
Wt=131 lbs
BP=110/60
Fetal heartrate=144-154 bpm. Baby Mann 2 was very active during the doppler. I have been feeling him/her quite often lately which is comforting. Taya was always very active in utero and has been since!

Our ultrasound is scheduled for July 21. I am excited to see "pictures" of the baby :).

More Father's Day

I snapped a few additional pictures of our special dad on Father's Day. He finally took some time to relax in our oasis.

Taya really enjoyed having her dad-o play with her outside. As you can see, he enjoyed himself also :)

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to my wondeful husband and the many fathers that I know. We have spent some time outside in our little backyard oasis. I took a few pictures today that I wanted to share.

Taya and her daddy

Ethan is trying to gear up with as many Husker items as possible. Taya got him a grill cover for Father's Day.

Taya has been getting my shoes to wear around.

Enjoying some sunshine, well, shade with SPF 75! Ha ha.

Welcome to the Mann's--excuse the mess

View from the street
Entering the front door...Nima will always greet you!

To the left of the entry is the laundry room which leads to the garage and the basement. It is a heavily used room.

To the right is the guest bathroom (well, actually it's Taya's bathroom that guests will be able to use) :)

Facing Taya's bathroom if you turn right you go into her room. Grammy and Ethan painted it a very light pink. Her dresser is on the wall opposite from her crib. Her toy box still serves as Nima's window seat, just like it did in Omaha.

The entry opens into the living room. You can see the door for our bedroom...

Our bedroom, very unfinished. The hideous fan and green curtains are still up. The fan is really quiet though, so we'll probably leave it, but the curtains have to go once I pick a color scheme for the room...

There is a master bathroom (yay) and walk in closet (yay).

Coming out of our bedroom you enter the living room...notice my sleeping beauty on the floor.

Another look of the living room. The warm taupe color around the TV is the color we'll (Ethan will) paint most of the living space.

A view of the kitchen from in front of the TV. Nice and open...we've really enjoyed the open floor plan. Grammy and Ethan painted around the cabinets a deep red color. It looks really nice and I can't wait to see it with the taupe.

A view out the back door. Ethan cut down the tree in the back so once the fence is done we'll get a stump grinder to finish that off. Ethan will put up the 6' fence in the back once he's done with the sides. We like our neighbors but it will be nice to have the added privacy.

A view of the back of the house from the back fence. Doesn't it look like a fun place to play?

A view once you enter the back door. Nima will greet you no matter what door you enter :).

I didn't post a picture of the guest room because it's, well, kind of a catch-all at this moment but it's also right inside the front door to the right, just past the guest bath. Maybe it will make a different post. ??

I had aspirations of posting very dramatic before and after pictures but I don't really know when the true after pictures will be done. I guess to see you'll have to come visit! We really are ready for visitors and miss our friends and family! I think a house is always a work in progress though, isn't it? It's beginning to feel like a home, not just a house. Wishing you many blessings from our home to yours.

16 weeks and some days

I used the automatic timer to take another picture of myself today. I'm 16 weeks and some days (with Taya I new exactly how many days but not with this one!). Notice mini-me on the left. She thought the automatic timer was pretty cool.
I tried to get another picture of Taya this morning. She's wearing a pair of cousin Jayden's hand-me-down shorts that are really cute. BUT she didn't want mom to take a picture, she wanted it to be automatic!

**Taking suggestions for this hair of mine!!! UGH! Most days it's in a ponytail.

Pictures

It has been a rather uneventful week here. It rained off and on most of the week so that cut into our outside time. We found a library with toddler storytime so we ventured up there last Tuesday. We met new friends (a mom and son) and have plans to meet them there this week plus brunch afterward at a local French bakery near the library. I'm looking forward to it!

We got our basement reorganized...somewhat out of necessity. I couldn't find my maternity clothes and I have been wanting the pants so I can quit wearing sweatpants when we run around town (at Ethan's request) :). We looked through every tote. I ended up getting out all of the baby clothes and sorted them a little better than they were. I am planning to wash up all of the blankets, burp rags, and newborn size clothes (even though I'm not sure if it will be a girl). I am surprised at how many unisex onesies I have and I actually have some blue blankets so if it's a boy we'll be ok for a few days, ha ha. I also found a few newborn diapers and they are so tiny! I remember them being a little big on Taya when we brought her home. Oh boy, what am I going to do with a new baby????? At that point I still hadn't found the maternity clothes so Ethan looked through some other totes again and found them buried amongst all of my breastfeeding accessories. I'm so glad he found them!

I did take a few pictures last week.
Taya wanted to wear my bra around one day. She was moving around too fast for me to get a good shot from the front but it was pretty cute.
Once in a while Taya will grab my phone and say "hello mammy" (which is how she says Grammy). So I took a picture of her talking one day. Mostly she just listens then hangs up.

One nicer afternoon we spent time outside in the pool. It was pretty warm that day. I got sunburned but I had put tons of sunscreen on Taya so she was ok.

She even got a sucker! And she wanted to share with Nima.

Of course she swam.

Summer fun and daddy's helper

Hello!
We have had a fun week in Ohio. It's amazing how many more pictures I take now that I am home with Taya. I just leave my camera sitting around and snap shots whenever I want! When Taya sees the camera she says "Cheeeeeese" and wants her picture taken.

We are working on potty training although it's nothing intense. Once in a while Taya will actually potty (both #1 and #2) but mostly she likes to sit on the potty and read books. She is starting to know some of her favorite books and I will recognize certain pages that she's "reading". I love it!

Her vocabulary is really growing as well. When we were in Connecticut a month ago she said her first sentence "I see big moon". She loves to spot the moon and airplanes. Anyway, we got home from the store yesterday and she said plain as day "Turn on my show, please". How could I say no to that? She has been saying "I love you" or when we say "I love you" to her she says "I love you too". She also likes to pray before we eat. She does the sign of the cross and after we pray we bless people. This week she has really liked to bless her cousins Beau and Jayden (without us prompting her). It is so adorable!

Taya has been daddy's helper this week also. We got a new dishwasher because the one in the house was leaving rust on all of our glasses and not cleaning the dishes. We have also been working hard on the fence so she wants to help with that too. *I would just like to mention that I have even been helping daddy outside. I moved out a bunch of pavers from the front flower bed and have been putting slats in the fence. It does feel good to be outside doing some manual labor and breaking a sweat but I am very sore.

One day Taya sat in her chair and said "cheese" so I asked if she wanted her picture taken and she said "yes. So here it is!
We like to watch Wheel of Fortune.

One moment Taya is on her step wanting to help me in the kitchen...

The next minute it was way too quiet and this is what I found. Taya and Nima sleeping on the couch.

SO BIG

Taya likes to wear daddy's socks around.

There was a dying tree in the back yard so Ethan cut it down on Sunday morning. He was excited for an excuse to run a chainsaw.

Dishwasher installation.

Taya spotting an airplane.

Using the tapemeasure.

I've been trying to encourage Taya to wear a hat when she's outside and I figured it would be a good example if I wore one too. There is quite the glow coming off our white hats!

About a week ago we went on a walk and there was this sandbox and an old Little Tykes kitchen sitting by the curb. We asked the family there if they were giving them away. They had actually called bulk pick-up to come take them to the dump but said we could have them if we wanted. Besides being faded there wasn't anything wrong with either item so we took them! Now Taya has lots of fun outside toys. We even got pink sand for her sandbox.