24 weeks viability!

I haven't done a chalk board pic since 20 weeks. Slacking! I can't believe how quick this is going, but the last 3 weeks seem to be dragging. I feel good and still no complaints.

I ran through my first trimester but only sporadic in the second. Not because I didn't feel well, but because I was tired, busy, lazy, yada yada. I'm up 10lb so far. I need to get going again. Hoping to run until 30 weeks and then switch to the elliptical. My only complaint with running so far is my boobs. They are big and in the way. I hold my hand on the top of my stomach when I run to keep those suckers from bouncing too hard. My speed has slowed and that's hard to watch. Mostly walking with a few minutes of running here and there. I try for 5 and 6 minutes at a clip and then walk for a few. So today I decided to pick up where I left off. 30 minutes on the treadmill 2.2 miles. Hope to get another 2 in tomorrow and 10 for the week. Ahh, it's baby steps but adds up. So here are two pics. One is from the beginning of Oct, right around week 18 and 20. The second is from today 24 weeks. I felt so stuffed today, the side view pic shows it.

My first destination wedding!

My friend bridge got married in Daytona beach this past weekend. Since we could only afford the trip if we didn't go as a couple, my other college roommate Amanda and I made it a girl trip. Amanda's mother is bridge's aunt and she joined us too. This was my first ever destination wedding.

We boarded the plane out of Newark and headed south. Once in Fl we rented a sweet mustang convertible. After that it was off to find the hotel and a place to eat. We were all pretty beat, so we didn't last long that night. Dinner was at a place called down the hatch. The food was good and the atmosphere was even better. We sat on a Pier, listened to a band, and had dinner.

Saturday was the wedding. After goofing of that afternoon we headed to the beach for the ceremony. It was beautiful and perfect. Dinner was held at the Chart house, in Daytona Beach at a marina. The food was excellent! I'm so excited for Bridgette and her groom.

30 blows!

30 blows was the theme for my husband's 30th birthday party. I found some inspiration via Pinterest and went to town. Originally I wanted to do a southern BBQ food menu with a pig roast, some bails of hay for seating, and adorable food markers. Well things changed quickly and I decided to have a food truck. How awesome right??

We kept the menu BBQ theme. The party started with apps. I made bacon, apple, onion custinis, which I saw on Rachel Ray. I made the mistake of cooking it in a crock pot, which in turn, made it less crispy for the toast, but the toast off set it. Kind of like a bruschetta. I made a buffalo chicken dip, always a super delicious no fail. And we also served veggies, dip, crackers, and cheese.

On to the food truck menu. Plan b-stro did the catering. They pulled into our driveway and set up shop. The food was amazing. They served pulled pork sliders or buffalo chicken fried chicken, with sides of Asian coleslaw, horseradish potatoes, and baked beans. I am so thankful for my genius idea. Honestly though, when we were wedding planning a knottie bride had one at her rehearsal dinner and I thought fab idea. Magically a year later two food trucks came to town in port. Seriously we never had one and now we have two. Had they not come to town I would have been cooking. Ha.

So dessert. I thought since we were doing BBQ why not have a pig blowing out a candle on an apple. Except I do not bake. Also I found adorable pig faced cake pops but w everything going on didn't have the time to give that a whirl. We hired the woman who did the bee cake last week for the pig cake. She did an amazing job. It was red velvet with buttercream and fondant. I had a Wife fail and forgot to buy candles. But we had sparklers, left over from the wedding. I stuck a sparkler in the pig and we sang happy birthday.

Decor: so back to the theme. I made centerpiece a with blow pops and cut a piece of card stock w the cricket that read 30 blows. Then I made a 30 blows banner. I had a hard time running a theme through it, but they got the idea. It's not like you can go BSC for a 30 year old guy the way you can for a child's party so mom brought balloons for something extra. The best part of the party was the food truck. I tried to keep it a secret from Matt, but ya know I couldn't contain myself and told him anyway.

Married one year

Ya know, I thought I had this all typed out and just had to had pics...nope I was wrong. So now I kind of feel like a bad wife. But without further delay, lets talk our first anniversary. We had two, well three, dates to celebrate our anniversary. I mean, who doesn't like to celebrate multiple times. Kind of like the birthday week concept. Anyway we went to the Melting Pot in Hoboken, which was my date to him. Neither one of us had been there and it was a treat. So we ordered a cheese fondue appetizer and with that they gave fruit, crackers, and bread for dipping. Need I say more?? Dinner was several different meats in a Merlot wine and Dessert...Dessert was honestly the best part and I'm not typically a dessert person . We had a sample of rice crispy,  fruit, cheese cake, yummy marshmallows covered in graham cracker crust and I should have wrote this sooner, because there was plenty of deliciousness but I'm forgetting. After dinner we walked off some, yea right, and looked at the city from the Jersey side.

On to date number two. Matt found this adorable restaurant in the town of Goshen, but apparently the town of Goshen is closed on Monday night, so he found another restaurant, even more adorable. We ended up at II Tosero. A small Italian family run place right in town. The food was amazing. Matt had chicken parm, like there is another option, and I had pasta with....god I can't remember. Lets blame my memory loss on being pregnant. Anyway what I do remember the food was phenomenal and the waiter was super kind. He couldn't have been much older than 16, that kid new his menu and his food. He even brought us out salads because the dinner was going to take longer than expected. Not that either one of us noticed or were in a hurry. Well babe, thanks for the date and for missing Monday night football. I do remember we went on a Monday. Thanks to shift work, its highly unlikely that we will ever celebrate anything on the actual day.

And finally date number three. Surprise Surprise we had dinner again.  This time at Friday's on Matt's parents. I think we were super busy running around Middletown and decided to do dinner out. Fridays was like any other, but I thought it was funny that Matt wanted to order a beer. He got carded but didn't have his wallet. Apparently Eli enjoys leather and decided to munch on it after taking it off the counter. Sorry love, you didn't get a beer. But you did get a new wallet after what 15 years?? We could have worked a scheme if we thought ahead of time and I could have ordered your drink. Despite turning 30 this year, they still carded you. xoxo

The great thing about celebrating our anniversary this year was that we did it three times. Most of the time we don't get to eat dinner together or even have the same days off. So to do it three times for a special event was priceless. Next year we are taking a vacation! 

Up next: Matt's 30 blows birthday party. Which we already had but I am playing catch up. I'd like to pat myself on the back for my menu. My plan was to keep it a surprise but I suck at that. More to come, hopefully before November!

Half baked.

20 weeks and counting. We had a gender reveal party this past weekend. It was such a good time. My mom came up with a bee theme from Amy Atlas's book and Pinterest and we went to town with it. On Thursday we went for an elective ultrasound, because we originally thought that Matt would miss both the doctor appt and the party. Turns out he was able to make the party but not the appt.

Anywho, 2 days early we knew were were team blue. We both had a feeling it would be a boy. It was so hard not to tell anyone until that night...well we did tell 2 people. My sister and Matt's best friend. Neither of which would be there or see anyone between now and then. So it was safe.

In keeping with the bee theme, I made a banner from her cricket machine. Which to my surprise wasn't nearly as complicated as I thought. The banner said, "what will it bee?" Mom did yellow favor bags w honey cough drops, Yankee candle wax tarts and homemade honey.

We did a photo booth with a yellow fabric for a background and guest picked a prop to take a picture of their guess. Lips or a mustache.

I found two bakers. One did a bee cupcake and the baker filled the cupcake with blue filling. A local friend of my mom's made the bee theme cake. We served Tennessee honey cocktails and for a non alcoholic drink it was honey pomegranate iced tea. Matt and I counted to three and they bit in. My cousin Brooke ripped into it and shouted "I knew it was a boy!" My poor dad was just eating the top of the cupcake, despite explaining it to him, and he was all, "wait how do you know?" Poor dad. Mom was shocked too. Two grandsons! I know she was rooting for a girl, maybe next time mom. Matt's mom cried, happy tears of course...I think : ) I'm really happy we had the gender reveal party to share with our family. Matt and I thank everyone for the love and support. So baby smith will bee Team Blue!