Little Man Party

Today my very sweet girlfriends threw me an amazing shower. The theme was "Little Man" with bowties, mustaches, "cigars", and blue, white, and red lanterns dangling from ceilings and windows. My friend Molly is freakishly talented at party throwing. Not a single detail goes unnoticed. My words can't do her justice. Let the pics do the talking:

Carrot cupcakes adorned with felt bow ties

The popcorn bags are stamped "Ready to Pop"

Amy's melt in your mouth bow tie rolls. Yummy!

Mason jars painted blue and drilled for striped carnival straws. Such a fun way to enjoy your beverage.

36 weeks and 5 days Prego

My fabulous friends. Molly (just to my left) is the host and creative genius behind most of the decor. Should I mention that she just had a baby 4 weeks ago and still insisted on doing a shower for me! Ah-mazing!

Even Rylan had fun posing with his manly mustache

Catching Up

I have some major catching up to do on my posts, so here it goes. Let me start with Halloween. I went through a phase where I thought Halloween was a totally lame excuse for adults to dress up in inappropriate, scantily clad clothing that would be considered completely unacceptable on any other of the 364 days out of the year, act like fools, and become gluttonous candy eaters. But now that I have a child I have fallen in love with Halloween all over again. This year we celebrated three different times with a preschool Halloween party, Ward Trunk or Treat, and a party on Halloween night. On Halloween we invited a few families over for pizza and salad and then we all headed out into the neighborhood for trick or treating. This was my first time going around in our neighborhood and I was pleasantly surprised at the crowds that walked our streets. It was like straight out of a movie, perfect weather and tons of kids of all ages. This was by far the best Halloween ever. The entire month of October Rylan would talk about the "scaries" (ghosts, skeletons, goblins, etc.) in stores and sprawled across people's lawns. His favorite was turning off the lights, closing the doors with you inside the room with him, and saying "HooHaaHaa" in a deep scary voice. Rylan was secretly terrified but loved playing the part of a scary monster whenever he had the chance. Of course he loved all the candy too. I just love how excited Rylan gets at this age.

November brought some fun and exciting events also, including my birthday, Thanksgiving, and Christmas shopping. I somehow managed to lengthen my birthday over the course of several days by going out to yummy brunch, lunch, and dinner with family and friends. Seriously I ate 4 different birthday meals at my favorite places around town (Adalante, Magnolia Pancake Haus, Pacific Moon, and Salt Grass). I felt totally spoiled and loved! All I want is to be surrounded by family and friends on my birthday and I got exactly that. A little bit of anthropologie money, spin shoes, and a fossil watch helped too:)! Thanks everyone!

For Thanksgiving Ty and Michelle came into town for a week. It was really nice to have them stay with us again and watch Taylor and Rylan interact together. They are at such fun ages and they play so nicely. I think the age gap helps because Taylor could care less if Rylan doesn't feel like sharing his toys. Thanksgiving dinner was the usual Sunday dinner crowd plus Ty and Michelle. All the food was so yummy! We followed up the night with some Black Friday shopping. I hit up Home Depot for my annual $.99 poinsettas (they make great gifts) and then headed out to Anthropologie for their first ever Black Friday sale. All sale items were an additional 50% off. And even though my current figure doesn't make me want to shop for normal clothes, I could not pass up such great deals. I came back with 4 skirts, a sweater, and a shirt and am hopeful that these purchases will fit post baby because I really want to wear them.

Matt and I have also been juggling a series of house projects, a syndrome known as "nesting" that apparently both wife and husband can go through together:) The projects are definitely worthy of their own post so that is yet to come. We're just hoping we can finish it all up before the baby arrives.

Hot Pink Smoothie!

Six years ago my mom faced some health challenges that initiated her interest and later newly found passion for health and nutrition. Through her I've learned a lot and I'm grateful that she has educated me with the knowledge she has gained. This past weekend I had the chance to attend a free seminar given by Green Smoothie Girl with a few of my close girlfriends. She, like my mom, made lifestyle changes after experiencing health issues firsthand. Green Smoothie Girl shared some really interesting stories and studies that prove the importance of incorporating whole/raw foods into your everyday diet. Let me tell you that I have been converted! I am a believer! Maybe I'm just gullible, but it just makes sense. Of course raw, natural foods that come from the earth are going to be healthier than processed, cooked foods. Live enzymes are proven to help the body prevent/fight diseases and maintain the perfect balance that the body needs to live a long, healthy, and disease free life! Total epiphany! PS- did you know that raw kale removes 7 times its weight in toxins from the body??? Way cool! So I came home and unloaded everything that I learned at this seminar onto my husband. He rolled his eyes and had fun playing devil's advocate for a bit, but generally agreed that it makes sense. With a husband who's slightly on board, or at least supportive of me doing it, I have decided to feed my family at least 1 whole/raw food meal per day. The great thing about this is that 1) they are easiest and tastiest in the form of a smoothie. Perfect for a toddler to eat too! and 2) I already have an amazing Vitamix blender (thanks to my mom) that can blend just about anything and 3) I have some friends who are just as excited as I am about this. So let the fun begin! Here is Green Smoothie Girl's Hot Pink Smoothie that's entirely raw and absolutely delicious that I'd like to share:

1 cup 100% coconut water

1/2 cup ice

1 carrot

1/2 beet

1/4 cup chopped dates

1/4 cup raw cashews

1 cup of frozen strawberries

1/2 tsp vanilla

Welcome Fall

Fall is finally here! We started off the season with a little vacation to the East Coast to visit Matt's brother's family in Maryland, and the Spicers and my best friend Jill in Philadelphia. Matt has been extremely busy with work lately (which I am indeed grateful for) so some family time was much needed. It was great to see Rylan explore new things and places with friends and cousins. Matt and I realized that for the next several years vacations will be geared towards the kiddos entertainment more than our own, but that's okay. I love seeing Rylan have fun. We did have an adult night out at the comedy club. Overall it was a fun trip and a great way to introduce the Fall season.

Rylan and Ava at the Boston Aquarium

The kids loved this cool hardwood slide. They ride down on a potato sack. How fun is that!

Hay ride, apple picking, and eating amazing apple cider doughnuts! Now it feels like Fall.

This was by far the best and biggest kids museum I've ever been too. We could have been there all day.

Jill lives in this really cute town just 20 minutes outside Philadelphia called Conchohocken. They had their fall festival when we were there. Rylan loved the bouncy house and the fire trucks.

Valley Forge. Jill was a little more excited about this one then the rest of us, but I will admit that it was beautiful.

Rylan's birthday was the day after we got back. We didn't do much this year since we just had returned from a kid-filled vacation. He did indulge in a cupcake for breakfast (which he would have every morning if it were up to him) and Grandma Jorgensen and Uncle Austin took him to Chuck E Cheese for a few hours. Happy Birthday to my big two year old!

Bump Watch

I love being pregnant. With that said, round two has been quite a different experience than the first. As you can see by the belly picts below I'm tracking about two weeks larger with baby #2. I've come to the conclusion that my age is to blame. If two years since my last pregnancy can make me feel this much more tired, sick, and big/heavy then I can't imagine how I'm going to fare when I'm on baby #3 (or if I'm still sane and willing #4). Believe me when I say that my pregnancies are still easy in comparison to what they could be. I have no reason to complain. And my intention really isn't to complain but to rather point out the mere fact that pregnancy is proving to get harder, or shall I just say more cumbersome, the older I get. So I'm thinking that the best strategy is to: 1) pop out these babies as quickly as I can and 2) embrace and love pregnancy as much as I did the first time around. Because let's face it. Pregnancy is a miracle and all I can really ask for is a healthy baby in the end. So here's to loving pregnancy, the good, the bad, and the fat!

26 years old and 26 weeks pregnant with baby #1

28 years old and 24 weeks pregnant with baby #2

Funny Boy

I love my son's sense of humor. I didn't realize that small children could have a sense of humor, but I'm learning that they definitely do. Rylan loves to be silly, laugh and make others laugh. He has taught me to lighten up and enjoy life a little more. I just love how much you can learn from a child and this is one of my favorites. Life is just more fun with Rylan in it!

Show me the Water!

What's the best way to cool off from the extreme summer heat? Water! I am such a baby when it comes to Texas summers and the only way I can bear the heat is by spending my time in an air conditioned building or by the water. If there is water nearby then I want to be wading, floating, swimming, or sunbathing in it. Now that I am a stay at home mom we are really taking advantage of all the water activities that Texas has the offer. And it's a good thing Rylan is a water baby. I don't know what I'd do with myself if he didn't like the water. So far we have been floating down the Comal River, boating at our friend's lake house, gone to the Sea World water park, and spent nearly half of our days at either the gym or neighborhood pool. We also had our first Schlitterbaun Water Park experience a couple weeks ago. I don't know how Matt and I have gone 5 years without spending a day at the #1 ranked world's best water park, but the time was now. Going to water parks was one of my all time favorite activities when I was younger. We left the kiddo at home and felt like kids again! Matt likes to say, are you ready to "Schlit it up!" That always brings a good laugh. We are hoping to get to one of the nearby beaches this summer too. I guess it's just hard to find motivation to drive between 2.5 and 5 hours to get to a beach when they were so accessible, only 15 minutes to the nearest, from my childhood home. I never knew how much I loved the beach until I didn't have it nearby anymore. Nonetheless, we are still having a great time with or without the beach. Here are a few pics from our summer's water adventures.

Just some pictures that I like

I've always enjoyed taking pictures and would love to enroll in some photography classes to help me become a little more familiar with my camera. Maybe I will actually take the time to do this sometime before baby #2 comes. Oh and if you didn't know that we are pregnant and due on December 24, now you know! Surprise! We are super excited to add another little Jorgensen to the family. So back to the photography. I do have an adorable subject (Rylan) at my disposal almost 24/7, so I should have no problem getting some good practice in. Here are some of my favorite pictures that I've taken since I got my camera. And let me just say that the camera should be given all the credit for these ones because I haven't got a clue what I'm doing.

Rylan pulled the stickers off Matt's birthday card and placed them all over his body, including his foot.

Some fun at Fiesta Farms with some friends. This peacock was beautiful, but no need to tell him. He strutted his stuff for about an hour with his feathers full span.

Soaking in some California sun this last summer.

Bathtime

Cousin Taylor on Valentine's Day

Winter in the Park

Cousin Taylor's Temple sealing

Feeding the ducks with Lily

Just having a snack.

Baby Peyton Morrey's newborn photo shoot.

Rylan and Luke sharing a kiss