Playin' catch up

Talk about being gone for a while....

You know it's been a while when your last post was about Halloween and your next one is about Thanksgiving and Christmas.

The good news is that I'm finally getting my energy back. When I was pregnant with Kate, I came home everyday after work and took a good two-hour nap before M to the Izz-A got home. The commonly asked question of, "What did we do with ourselves before we had kids?!" can easily be answered with one word: sleep. Now with a two-year old, the word nap is unheard of... so I've had to suck it up and take the first trimester exhaustion like a champ. Well, I wouldn't say I've taken it like a champ, but I've taken it.

Like a big cry baby.

But I do feel like I'm back, for the most part. And every time I say that, whether it be just in my head or to someone else, I always end up singing that part of an old Eminem song...'guess who's back? Back a-gain.' Then I get a lil' embarrassed with myself, even though no one could hear me singing it in my head. How do you get embarrassed in front of yourself?!

One part about being pregnant that I love is that I can finally grow fingernails. I've never had good fingernails. They've always been thin and broke before getting even decent looking. And my cuticles? Well, they've got a rougher history than my poor nails. But thanks to the prenatal vitamins, my nails and cuticles are seeing better days. I actually have to trim my nails now to keep them at a workable length. I don't really like myself with long nails, just long enough to reach the end of my finger. I prefer short and neat, especially when I wear dark nail polish...and speaking of nail polish, my three favorite nail polishes of the moment are pretty dark: Pat on the Black, Chocolate Truffle, and No Shrinking Violet. I'd love to have the job of naming polishes and lipsticks. Sometimes just the name of a polish will make me wanna buy it. I'm a tough sale, huh?

Speaking of dark, I've decided against going dark with my hair this winter. I usually do, but over the past couple of years, I've skipped that mistake in my life. Plus, everyone always says not to do anything drastic with your hair while you're pregnant, your hormones will somehow make you hate it. Not that this has to do with color, but I remember getting my hair cut to my shoulders right after having Kate and someone at church greeted me with, "Aw, your hair looks cute...you went ahead and got yourself a mom haircut huh?" Never again.

Can you tell that I'm not even really sure what to write about in this post?? It's pretty random...and pretty lame if you ask me. I apologize for that. I'm just trying to catch up...

We put up our Christmas lights last night on the outside of our house and tonight we're supposed to decorate our tree. I'm hoping everyone will help to the very end. Last year, M to the Izz-A and Kate went to bed and I did most of it myself, which was just as well, because Matt would hang every ornament on one limb if he could.

I made a new holiday treat yesterday that I wanted to share with you all. It's super easy and there's no 'real' baking involved. It's just putting together a few things.

Ingregredients:

1 box of Ritz crackers

1 package of white almond bark (vanilla - but it tastes like white chocolate to me)

peanut butter

1 large bag of Reeses Pieces

wax paper

-Spread peanut butter in between Ritz crackers (like sandwiches) and make as many as you'd like. I used two sleeves of crackers. Set aside on wax paper.

- Crush a large bag of Reeses Pieces and set aside. This part was the most tedious...because I used one of my drinking glasses and just started banging away. I'm thinking there's a better way. Food processor?? Hello!

-Melt the almond bark (Candi-Quik)

-Dip your Ritz cracker peanut butter 'cookies' into the melted almond bark and make sure they're completely coated on all sides. Return to wax paper.

-Now, you can either pour the Reeses Pieces into the melted almond bark before dipping the crackers in or wait to sprinkle them on at the end. I think it's better to wait and sprinkle them on the top. But make sure you do it as you go, so that the almond bark doesn't dry before you add the Reeses. You want them to stick! And I say 'sprinkle', but it's more like I dump a fat handful on top.... the more the better. And the colors of the Reeses Pieces are perfect for the Thanksgiving holiday!

They turn out delicious. I took them to our weekly Sunday gathering at my cousin Ben's last night and left with an empty tray. But I also ate a few before leaving for church....

I'm off work all this week and couldn't be happier about it. I love being able to stay at home with Kate.

It just feels so right.

I love it when she smiles that big smile.