Home {Sweet} Home

Day 30

Letting Go

 Today, I am filled with excitement, nerves and sadness. It is the last day in our home. This is why I haven't been blogging the last few weeks. Between packing, potty training and a 2 month old I have had next to no time for anything extra.

 

 

 

 

When we put our home up for sale, it was a quick and easy decision. We knew we wanted more open space and a bigger backyard now that our family was growing. What I didn't expect were the emotions that would come with selling our home and that it was possible to sell so fast we barely got a chance to realize what selling this house meant to us.

 

 

 

This was our first house that over the last 3 years we built into a home. We had our first child here and watched him learn to walk and talk. We got married here and grew our family for four here. We put a lot of time and love into updating this home making it ours. There were many laughs shared and many tears shed. SO many memories were made in this home that will never be forgotten.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now it is time to let go. It is time for us to move onto a new chapter in our family's life, time for us to grow and enjoy what will come in the future. It is time for us to build a new house into our home. Into a place where we find comfort in at the end of a long day and into a place to make many new memories in. As my husband says: It's time to move onto bigger and better things.

 

 

I will always love and cherish our first home and I will embrace every moment we have left in it. I will say goodbye, shed a tear {or 2}, let go, and look toward a new life...in our new home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



My Summer List [Link Up]

Today i'm {Linking up} with Whitney @BlackLittleButton and made a summer list. My list isn't all that long even though there are so many things I would love to do. When you have a 10 week old and a 2 1/2 year old it makes a lot of things difficult! So I made my list of things that we HAVE to do this summer and who knows, I may be able to do a few extra things that I didn't include on the list!


~ Head to the Chicago area to celebrate our 1st anniversary!! (Hhhheelllllooooo Ikea!!!!!)

~ Attend a Brewer's game & tailgate (it's a summer must in WI)

~ Go on a winery tour.  Earlier this year we attended a benefit for an adorable little baby boy and ended up winning a winery tour in a raffle! I'm excited to go because I have never been to a winery! {link}

~ Visit the Milwaukee Zoo with my boys {link}

~ Go golfing for the first time with the Hubby

~ Paint our front door turquoise!!!!!

~ Start running and do a 5K

Recipes: Caramel Macchiato Angel Food Cake

 

 

Who doesn't love a quick and easy recipe?! I know I do! 

 

 

One of my absolute all time favorite cakes is angel food. The light and airy texture of the sweet cake is to die for. There is nothing better on a warm day then angel food cake so when my friend Jane mentioned she wanted to make something with angel food cake I immediately started looking for a quick easy recipe for a spruced up version. Unfortunately, my search for a quick & easy recipe only lead me to only homemade recipes. As much as I love cakes that are made from scratch, angel food required more work then what I was searching for.

 

 

My inspiration was from one recipe I found for a homemade Caramel Macchiato cake. I decided to make, what I like to call, a "semi"-homemade version. It has the perfect amount of coffee flavor and sweetness and the light whipped topping and caramel drizzle is the perfect pairing.

 

 

 

Caramel Macchiato Angel Food Cake

 

 

 

1 Box Angel Food Cake Mix

1 1/4 cup STRONGLY brewed caramel(optional) coffee, chilled

Whipped Topping

Caramel Sauce (We used store bought)

 

 

 

1. Make the cake as directed on the box except instead of using water use 1 1/4 cup strongly brewed coffee.

 

2. After cake has cooled, slice and top with whipped topping and caramel sauce.

 

3. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Favorite Photo

Jenni at Story Of My Life created a challenge to blog everyday this month. I haven't been doing it because I have been so crazy busy with everything going on in my life that I barely have time to blog at all!! At the end of the month you will find out what has been going on to make everything so crazy around here.

 

 

 

Today is Day 17- Choose a favorite photo of yourself.

These photos are both from my bump shoot and they are my absolute favorites!! Shannon at PeoplePaperPrints does amazing work; She did our wedding, my bump shoot and a family shoot with just me and my mom on our birthday. I adore her and I adore her photography.

 

 

 

Being pregnant can be hard and I know for me I never felt very pretty with either of my pregnancies. I just felt huge and awkward. Looking at these photos made me realize just how beautiful ALL women are when they're pregnant, no matter what shape or size they are.

 

 

Little C: Birth Day

One subject I have been wanting to write about is pregnancy and labor. Being prego was always something I looked forward to and I knew I definitely wanted at least 2 children. My mom always told me how much she loved being pregnant and how easy her pregnancies and labors were.  My pregnancies were both very similar to each other yet very different from my mother's. I had been told that just because you have family that has it easy doesn't mean your's will be. Each pregnancy and each person are different...it has nothing to do with genetics. I do agree with this to a point and after my first pregnancy & delivery I totally agreed. However, while my second pregnancy was pretty much the same as my first, my labor was completely different.


My labor with Little A was what I would call a normal "first" child labor, 16 hours long; Little C was one that I had only heard of in stories I read on blogs and pregnancy forums. It was one to be envious of and I never in a million years thought I would ever have an experience like it. I, of course, was in denial. I was in labor for just a litte over 1 hour, thats it...1 HOUR! I still can't believe it.

Here is my story.

Our (Little A & me) monday started as usual. We woke up, turned on Monsters Inc. cartoons, and made breakfast. I was feeling a little sick, which was normal for me at this point and I was so excited to get my 37 week notification on my phone because that meant I was officially full term and baby could come anytime. The weekend before I had started trying a few things to help encourage labor, things like sitting on a big excersize ball and walking the mall. I, by no means, was trying to enduce labor, I was far from ready. I had big plans for the week; I needed to get my hospital bag packed, things still had to be organized around the house, I needed a pedicure and I had planned a date with my Little A before his brother came. After breakfast we cuddled on the couch because instead of feeling better like I usually do, I started feeling worse. Then the thought popped into my head: I have the FLU.

This last year has been horrible for colds & flu's. I had already had 2 colds, my little A had 2, and everyone I knew either had a horrible cold (or 3) or the flu or both. So of course I was upset, I'm 37 weeks prego & miserable, I have a very energetic 2 year old and I have things to do!! There was no time for this. I had texted my mom to tell her what was going on and she told me that maybe I was going into labor (she had heard from a few customers that they had been sick the day they had their kids). I thought she was crazy, there is no way I was in labor, I hadn't even had any braxton-hicks contractions. Unfortunately I just continued to get worse even though I tried everything  I could to feel better.

 

 

At 4, I called my husband asking him to please come home early. By 7, all I wanted to do was feel better. I was tired and sick and crabby. It was also at this point that I all of a sudden felt the urge to pack my hospital bag, I ignored it because, like I said before, was NOT in labor...still no BH contractions or anything.

Bedtime rolled around so I got my son ready for bed and I tried to lay with him which wasn't too successful. I kept him awake because I couldn't get comfortable. Around 11:20pm, I had to get up and get to the bathroom. Half way into our bedroom, I felt a gush...Oh crap...got into the bathroom and sure enough, my water broke!!! I yelled to my hubby that I thought it broke, but I wasn't sure, ok yes I was.

Still NO CONTRACTIONS. I told hubby to call my mom first and if she doesn't answer call my friend, Jane (she lives the closest) to get her here and I was going to shower and pack our hospital bag. Got into the shower and BOOM, contractions hit. They didn't slowly start, they were powerful and right on top of each other. About 15 min after we called Jane, she arrived and we rushed out of the house. We live about 4 blocks from the hospital so it was a quick trip there. By the time we got into our room, they got an IV in and all hooked up to the monitors I was 7 cm dilated. There was no time for anesthesia to get there, the nurses said how fast I was progressing pain medicine wasn't an option! I guess if anyone had to do it all natural FAST was they way to do it!

Around 12:15am, my doctor arrived and 3 contractions later, our newest little man was here.

 

 

 

I told my hubby that if we decide to have a 3rd, he may want to learn how to deliver a baby. It was the craziest and best experience and 2 months later i'm still in denial that those stories I read actually happened to ME.