Well, I'm gonna have to wait to give my review of the copycat Panera sandwiches we had for dinner. Allergies strike again and have left me with zero sense of taste and smell. Not too great for trying out new recipes. I'll go ahead and post the recipe here though in case anyone is interested. No telling how long this bout of allergies will last. YUCK! What's the fun in eating if you can't taste it?! Hmm...could be a new form of weight loss for after I have the baby? If I can't taste it I'll surely eat less. :)

Chipotle Mayonnaise

1/2 cup mayo (I used Hellman's light)
2 chipotle peppers, chopped and seeds removed
2 teaspoons adobo sauce
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
1/8 teaspoon oregano

Blend all ingredients in blender until smooth.

Note: I had a hard time finding the can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce I needed for this recipe. I finally found them at Walmart in the Latin foods section on the very bottom row of the shelf. Also, I may not have been able to taste but I could sure tell this was S-P-I-C-Y! My mouth was burning but I couldn't taste what made it burn. Weird. Anyway, use this mayo sparingly if you don't like spicy stuff.

***Update***My allergies have let up some today because of all the rain we've had. I made turkey sandwiches with this chipotle mayo for lunch and WOW! YUM! They were really good! Spicy but good. You should try it.

Lately I am in LOVE with Panera bread. I can't get enough. I haven't had any unusual cravings during this pregnancy but I guess you could say I do now. I love their Sierra Turkey sandwich. I usually get that and broccoli cheese soup. DELICIOUS! Well, I decided I could totally make that same sandwich at home if only I knew how to make chipotle mayonnaise. I googled "Panera chipotle mayonnaise" and came up with quite a few recipes. I'm going to try to make a fat free mayo version and see how that tastes. I'm hoping the chipotle peppers liven things up and at least somewhat make up for the fact that I'm using fat free mayo. We'll see. Verdict and recipe tomorrow after I try out one of the many versions I found online.

One of my favorite websites has 10 more giveaways! Go check out Now What Baby for some great giveaways, product reviews and more!

Easton,
Happy birthday, little man! You are officially a year and a half old today. We got you a little sister to celebrate. Haha. Well, really, we got you a wagon. We probably won't be getting you a gift every year on your 1/2 birthday but thought that since your birthday is in cold weather, we might just save the wagons, tricycles, bikes, and other warm-weather stuff for a surprise once in a while on your half birthday. You love your wagon. You call it your "car" and want to go for a walk every day and that's fine with me! :)

We've started making a list of all the words you can say. So far we're up to 138 and that list grows by at least one or two words a day. You beat the "average" 18 month old by about 128 words but I already knew you were far from average my sweet boy.

Right now you are lying in your crib talking to yourself/fussing about being put down for a nap. You're tired but are keeping yourself awake by saying just about every single word you know. You have 5 teeth now. Two on top and three very crooked ones on the bottom. Boy oh boy, your mama and daddy sure did give you the crooked teeth genes, son. Sorry! But you are still as adorable as ever, don't worry. Maybe even more so.

We've taken your ball pit out of the living room and turned it back into a wading pool. It lives on the deck and you want to go "mimming" every day in your "poo". Good thing mama knows you mean the POOL.

Right now we're just doing a lot of walking and a lot of swimming in the pool and not much of anything else. I am really trying to savor these last few days with you as my only child. I am very, very excited and happy about your sister's arrival soon but I'm trying very hard to soak up as much one on one time with you as I possibly can. It will be a tough time for a little bit, my sweet boy, when your sister comes. We'll have our carefully planned routine thrown out of the window for a while and this will be rough on us all. But I cannot wait to meet your sister and I especially can't wait to see your reaction to her. You love babies and are such a social little guy that I can't imagine there being too much of a problem. We'll see. Just so you know, I won't love you any less just because there's a new baby in the house, I promise!

I love you, my sweet, handsome boy!

Love,
Mama

It's official! Baby 2 has a name. Her name is Audrey Grace and holy cow! She'll be here in 30 days! Can't wait to meet you, Miss Audrey!

I read somewhere recently that the average 18 month old can say 10 words. That got me thinking about how many words Easton can say and I decided to make a list. So far we're up to 135. It is unbelievable how quickly he picks up on new words! I talk to him all day long and he loves to read books so I guess I shouldn't be surprised but I had no idea it was THAT many!

We had a great weekend. Jason's birthday was Friday. (Happy 31st birthday, honey!) He didn't want anything too fancy so we just cooked out. We made hamburgers, brats, hot dogs, baked beans and asparagus. I also made a chocolate cake and we had 2 kinds of ice cream to choose from. With all this food, you'd think we were feeding an army but nope...just us and one friend. We really do it up at our house for birthdays! :)

Saturday we just hung out around the house. Jason worked outside for a bit. He's refinishing my great-grandma Lizzy's wardrobe and has really had to put quite a bit of work into it - rebuilding drawers, gluing and bracing pieces, replacing the entire back of the piece. While he was doing that, my friend Katy and I went to Target to buy Easton a wagon. Jason put that together for us Saturday evening so we could use it the next day.

Sunday we got up, made a big breakfast and then took Easton for his first ride in his little red wagon. (I did end up paying full price for it by the way. I couldn't wait to get to use it!) Easton LOVED the wagon. He calls it his "car". After the wagon ride, we came back to the house and got ready for the first swim of the year. The water was still cold but Easton loved playing in it anyway. He wouldn't sit down in it because it was freezing but he didn't want to get out either. He settled for standing in it and bending over to splash his hands in it and play with his toys. He got pretty mad the few times he lost his balance and fell face first into the water but even then he did not want to get out. :) Stubborn boy! (Hmm...wonder where he gets that from?)

Right now, we're about to get ready for another swim. He loved it so much yesterday that I think we'll try to do it every day when the weather is nice enough. It's a fun time for him and I get to relax with my feet in the pool, a drink by my side and a book in my hand. Can't get much better than that! :)

I'm so happy the weather is finally warming up! It's supposed to be 86 on Saturday and I can't wait! Easton and I might get out and go for a walk around our neighborhood. I sure wish we had a wagon I could take with us for when he gets tired of walking! Jason and I have talked about buying one (and we still might) but I hate to pay full price for one. I tried asking at the consignment shop I use to see if they ever got any in but they said they don't stock them on a regular basis because they take up too much room in their store. It's a really tiny place that's crammed to the max with rows and rows of clothes, toys, games and other kid gear. I'm hoping one day I'll get lucky and run across one at a garage sale or something but I sure wish we had one right now! I'm usually pretty good about being able to wait for a sale before I buy something but I'm running out of time to go for walks for a while! I know once the baby's here I'll be out of commission for a while for some recovery time so I want to make the most of the days I have until then. Who knows...maybe we'll just break down and pay full price. YUCK!

Happy Earth Day! I'm celebrating by starting some herb seeds in recycled egg cartons and making banana bread with some over-the-hill bananas. Not very ambitious but it's better than nothing, right? :)

I had a check up today and everything looks great. I go back in two more weeks and then after that it's every week. I did not gain ANY weight this week and I'm still swearing up and down that there is NO WAY I gained 5 pounds at my last visit. Must have been the heavy shoes and sweater, right? :)

In other news, why is it that I can think of like 15 names I like for Miss Baby 2 but my hubby can't even suggest ONE?! (Sorry, honey. I'm telling on ya!) OK, ok that might sound harsh but seriously, I have a list of like 15 names I like for the first name and 4 for the middle name and can come up with millions of different combinations that I love. But every time I talk to J about it he says he has to think about it. It is driving me crazy! In his defense though he HAS been really busy at work and home both so I guess I should cut him a little slack.

But I've got STUFF to do once we pick this name! I want to put her name up in her room, personalize some stuff, etc. I know I have all of her life to do this stuff but I want to settle on a name so I can finally have an answer for everyone who's been asking.

We'll take a vote here...these are just some of the names I like:
Audrey or Audra
Ashlynn
Brooke
Cameron
Carly or Carlie
Grace
Jaci or Jacey
Jayla
Jaelynn or Jalynn
Jaysa (can't figure out the spelling for sure on this one)
Kendall
Lauren
Paige
Taylor
Tyler

Middle names:
Grace
Lee or Leigh
Michelle or Michele
Paige

Anybody have one they like more than the others? Have one you like that's not on the list? I'm really stuck on Audrey Grace but really like some of the others too. We'll see.

(Jason, please don't get mad at me for posting this...just wanted to get some others opinions! Love you!)

The Crafty Lil Devil's been at it again. The story of what very well might be my last craft project for a while.

I decided since I couldn't find a mobile I liked for Baby 2's room, I'd find one online. Then when I found this one online at The Modern Baby Company:



and my budget wouldn't allow me to spend a whopping $48 (!!!) on ONE mobile for the room. I got to looking at the product description and realized it says this:
material
die cut foam, monofilament thread, hand shaped wire

I thought um...I can do that! I've got a circle punch and can get some foam sheets for CHEAP! That way I can pick out my own colors and do exactly what I want and it will be WAY cheaper than $48. Oh yeah, baby! I LOVE copying an expensive product that I love for a fraction of the cost.

I bought sheets of foam in chocolate brown, yellow, orange, green, blue, pink and white for $1 a sheet at Michael's. Then I went home and tried to fit the sheets of foam in my circle punch. Uh nope! Won't fit. DARN! Just when I thought I had it all figured out. Oh well, I'm not easily discouraged. Ask my husband. When I get an idea in my head, it is gonna happen if there is any way possible! (Some would call that stubborn but I prefer to think of it as determined.)

So I painstakingly cut out what felt like a MILLION circles in three different sizes. I wasn't sure how many I'd use so I cut out WAY too many. Then I got some fishing line and had Jason cut a wire coat hanger (I cannot cannot CANNOT say that phrase without thinking of Mommy Dearest) into pieces for me. The rest was EASY! I just tied a knot in the bottom, poked a tiny hole in the middle of the circle with a straight pin, threaded it onto the fishing line and then voila! A mobile for C-H-E-A-P! I love the way it turned out and when Easton saw it he said "Wow!" so I had to make him one too.
Here's the one in Baby 2's room:




Don't look too close because some of my circles are a little wonky and uneven but I figured it would be up close to the ceiling so you wouldn't notice it too much. I am pretty happy with the results though. I saved a lot of money and made it the way I wanted it. Hopefully Baby 2 likes it too. I know Easton likes his. He says "Wow!" every time he sees it.

I've got the stuff to make tons more mobiles if you know of anyone who would like one. :)

Oh what a beautiful day! We've got the windows open, Pat Green on the radio, dinner on the grill and a sweet, happy boy, fresh-and-clean from the bath, toddeling around on the deck helping Daddy cook. This is the life! Can't wait for more days like this one with the weather getting warmer! This is a typical weekend for us at the Crafty household. Wish you were here! :)

The weather is gorgeous today and Easton was less cranky so we decided to try out his new harness/leash. (It feels so mean to call it a leash but that's kind of what it is I guess.) He LOVED it! We walked all the way down to the end of our street and back which is a long way for a little guy! He really liked being able to explore the "wass" (grass) by himself and pick up rocks he found. I liked that too until he decided to see what the rocks tasted like. Good thing I was paying attention! No more rocks, Easton! GROSS! :)







I guess he was worn out after all that walking because I tried feeding him lunch right after we got back and he took two bites and he was done. Nap time!
We will definitely be taking more walks with his backpack. It's great for me too because it's a handy place for me to put my cell phone and keys instead of weighing down my pockets.

If anyone is interested, the backpack we got is called the SafeFit Grow-with-Me Backpack with Harness. We got it at ToysRus for $14.99. I'd say it was worth every penny. When he gets bigger and no longer needs the "tether" (leash), we can unhook it and it's just a regular backpack. Pretty cool.

Well, we didn't get to go for our walk today. Easton's teething and was running a low fever so I gave him some Motrin before naptime and he slept for almost 5 hours! And he still went to bed at his normal time. He's working on getting 4 new teeth, all at the same time. I think I'd be cranky and need more sleep too. Poor guy! He's drooling like crazy and chewing on everything. I'll be glad when they're through the gums and hopefully not hurting him as much.

Everything is gorgeous and blooming here and I love it but it sure does make my allergies flare up. I spent part of last night propped up in the corner of our super-uncomfortable couch just trying to breathe. YUCK! No fun! Now I've got an awful cough and each time I cough, Easton gets this worried look on his face and kinda looks all freaked out. I'll be glad when summer gets here...for more than one reason!

FINALLY! The sun's out after two days straight of nothing but rain. I think I might have to take Easton for a walk after he wakes up from his nap to celebrate the good weather. We got him a backpack/harness/leash thing so that he can walk without having to hold onto mom or dad's hand. We'll see how that goes. I'm interested to see if he actually walks with it on or if it annoys him to the point of having to put him in the stroller. I'll let ya know.

Photos of Baby 2's room.
Before:






After:











Finally finished! Now all we've got to do is get the crib mattress from Jason's work, get some curtains to replace the tan temporary ones we put up in these pictures and we're done! Woohoo! Boy, that feels good!

Easter pictures:

Daddy and Easton find the first egg

Hey, mom! Look what I found!

He really loved putting them all in his basket.

Mama and Easton spot another egg.

Daddy helps Easton see what the Easter bunny brought.

We had a fun, relaxed kind of day. Easton got a card and $10 in the mail from Nanny and Papaw Kyle, a cool cow figurine and a book from Nana and an ABC book, a bath book and some Elmo socks from the Easter bunny. He really had a fun time with those eggs and spent quite a bit of time opening them all up. Too bad the Easter bunny didn't put anything in them though! Maybe next year.

Pictures of E's new shorter 'do.

Before:

After:

Ms. Angie from Family Hair and Easton:

You can't tell much of a change from these pictures. All she did was trim the very back of his hair. At least now we won't accidentally get his curls caught in his bib when we're fastening it. :)

(Sorry, Nanny! I know you loved those curls and wanted to see them in person!)

Did you ever have one of those days where you just couldn't manage to get anything done? That was my day yesterday. I got half a dozen little projects started but none of them finished. I hate that! I did have a pretty productive weekend overall though. I got three paintings done to hang in baby 2's room. Jason sprayed the clear coat on them yesterday and I thought they'd be dry enough to hang last night but no such luck.

I was going to take some pictures of the baby's room but want to get it all done before I do that. If I can find the picture hangers today and get them on the paintings, I should be able to do that today. I really hope so anyway. I've still got lots of things to put up on the walls but don't want to do any of that until I see for sure where I want those paintings. I am not usually a painter but I saw this cute little graphic online somewhere and decided to try my hand at painting some cartoon-looking birds sitting in a tree. Usually I shy away from painting things. Sure, I can paint a picture frame or put polka dots on something but that's pretty much the extent of my artistic abilities. Still, it was a fun project and I'm pretty happy with the results overall.

Since I don't have pictures of the baby's room like I promised, here's a family picture that my mom took while she was here. Hmmm...our first picture as a family of four. :)

Today my sweet hubby said those three magical words to me. The ones I most want to hear on a rainy Saturday morning. He said "Want Cracker Barrel?" Yes, oh yes I do! I love to cook but there's something luxurious and lazy about not having to cook breakfast that just puts me in a great mood. Plus, I love their fried apples. Supposedly I ordered them for Easton but to be honest I knew darned well he couldn't eat all of them. YUM!

Now Easton's down for a nap, Jason is out working in the garage and I am killing time on the computer til my hair appointment at 12:30. Too bad the Easter egg hunt we had planned to go to got rained out today. Oh well...we'll hide eggs for our little Easton bunny tomorrow. I'll be sure to get some pictures. Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Whew! What a day! Well, two days actually. Yesterday and today I have literally shopped til I dropped looking for stuff for our sweet little girl's room and for Jason for his birthday. We got a little unexpected money and decided to spend it. We normally are in save, save, save mode so this was a rare treat.
Yesterday I went to:

• The bank - important first stop if I'm gonna be doing any shopping
• Lowe's - to check the price of garage door opener systems. I didn't buy one there but I did buy Easton a rug with a town and roads on it so he can practice making car noises with his daddy.
• Target #1 - to check to see if they had the curtains I wanted for the baby's room. They didn't.
• Walmart - I found some good deals on clearance though. Some bins for the organizer shelf we bought for baby 2's room.
• Bath and Body Works - to use some coupons I had.
• Chick-fil-a - LUNCH!!
• Gymboree - to see if I could find any good deals on clothes for my kiddos. I bought E one pair of pants.
• Motherhood Maternity - fun fun. Bought two nursing bras. Super exciting, huh?
• Sears - bought a garage door opener with 2 year parts plan and installation.

And that was just yesterday! Today I went to:

• Kohl's - looking for a bedspread to put on the guest bed in baby 2's room. I found a super cute one that hopefully Miss 2 will like when she gets bigger and can use as her "big girl bed". On sale. Plus 15% off. I love that place! I also got some earrings to replace the ones my dad bought me for Christmas last year. (I lost one and was REALLY upset because I LOVED those earrings.) They're going to be from Easton for Mother's Day so I'll pretend I'm surprised. :)
• Sears - to return the garage door opener. There wasn't anything wrong with it at all but we got it home and decided we should wait til around Father's Day to see if they go on sale. For his birthday, we're paying to have his '69 Camaro hauled here from Perry...FINALLY!
• Gymboree - to return the pants I bought in the wrong size yesterday. Grr!! I hate when I do that! I just flat wasn't paying attention and grabbed 12-18 months instead of 2T. Thankfully, the return was no big deal.
• Panera Bread - LUNCH!!! I usually go somewhere cheap and that is certainly NOT Panera but I decided to treat myself today and man I was glad I did! Delicious!
• Michael's - to use a 40% off coupon I had to get a picture frame for the baby's room. And some sheets of colored foam. I'm going to attempt to make a mobile to hang above the crib but we'll see how that goes.
• Target #2 - to see if they had the curtains I need. Nope. But they did have a double stroller. I said forget it to trying to find one that will work with our current car seat and just went ahead and bought the stroller and a new infant carseat. Hooray! Finally the stroller fiasco is FINISHED!!! I also bought a rug, some art, some mirrors, a lamp and a piggy bank for little 2's room. I went a little over our budget but boy that room is CUTE!!! And it is just as "done" as Easton's room is and that is what I was trying to do. I didn't want any hard feelings once little Miss 2 gets old enough to compare bedrooms. E's room was totally decked out and done up so it was only fair that we do the same for her. And it was F-U-N! This is also where a very rude woman in the Easter basket aisle took one look at my big belly and one look at cute little Easton and said "yeah. Good luck with that! We spaced ours out and they're still a hand full." What the heck? Lady, mind your own business! HOW RUDE!!!

Now I'm exhausted but I'm looking forward to getting all of the new bedding washed and put in the room and all the new things put away. Now I say "let's be done!"

P.S. Pictures as soon as everything is put together. Should be soon...I hope!

P.P.S. And HOW could I forget?! Easton had his first haircut today! He didn't need a cut all over but just in back. Yep. Mean mama cut off all his adorable little curls. I loved those curls. But they kept getting caught in his bib when we weren't careful enough and Easton really hated that. So I did him a favor and took him in for a trim. Ms. Angie at Family Cuts in the mall did a great job. I took pictures but after that all-day-shopping marathon I'm too tired to get up and find my camera. Check back by Sunday and hopefully I will have them here.

Sniff, sniff! My baby got his first haircut today! Guess that means he's officially a big boy. Man, oh man...the time sure flies!

I had a checkup yesterday and it was pretty uneventful. Except the part where they told me I gained FIVE pounds in two weeks!!! Holy COW!!! When I asked my doctor about it he could tell I was shocked and embarrassed but he said it was OK. Last time I weighed in I hadn't gained any so it must have taken this long to catch up with me. Plus I had on heavy shoes. Really. I did! I haven't gained an enormous amount of weight with this baby so it was OK if that happened a time or two. Uh NO. That will only be happening once, thank you! No wonder I've been feeling more "waddle-y" these days! YUCK!

When Easton helps:

Easton helps with the groceries. SQUISH!!!

Easton cooks duck for dinner. In the crockpot.

<

I couldn't get a picture of the cardinal this morning but Jason took these from the window last weekend.

Things I'm grateful for this morning:
Cinnamon pancakes
The bird feeder outside my dining room window
The cardinal and other pretty little birds that decided to visit
Easton's happy little voice saying "ceweeoh" (cereal) for the 1st time
That the smell of Jason's coffee no longer makes me want to hurl
This new little one kicking me to say hello

If you know someone who is expecting a new addition to their family, you should go over to Now What Baby to take a chance at their giveaway. It would make a great shower gift! :)
http://nowwhatbaby.blogspot.com/2009/04/welcome-little-one-150-giveaway.html

Actually, Now What Baby has LOTS of great stuff in addition to this giveaway. Remember the necklace I won around my birthday last year? That was from one of their giveaways.
Go to http://nowwhatbaby.blogspot.com/ and check it out. I love their product reviews...such cute stuff!

It's a rainy, gloomy day here. Just the perfect kind of day for making a pot of stew and some homemade bread. Think I'll do just that. Plus, I've got some homework and laundry that needs to be done. YUCK! But at least I can get that stuff done and reward myself with watching a movie later today when Easton goes down for a nap. Hooray!

So close!!! I thought I had found a great deal on a double stroller. Not one exactly like I'd been looking for but it WAS a double and it was only $75 so I thought maybe it was time to rethink my priorities a bit. I found this one at a consignment shop and asked the owner if she'd hold it for me. I talked to Jason about it and he said if it was what I wanted to go ahead and get it. I went home, got our infant seat and went back the very same day to see if our seat would fit on the stroller. No dice. It seems our infant seat won't fit on just any type of stroller. Wouldn't that just figure?

Now it's back to thinking about what to do about a stroller. When I told J the used one wouldn't work, he said "I wonder if we'll have that problem with other brands of strollers too? Should we just get a whole new car seat and double stroller at the same time to make sure they work together?" Oh man! I don't want to give up my Eddie Bauer travel system! I love it! Certainly not because it's Eddie Bauer but because it is easy to maneuver and a cinch to put the seat onto the stroller. Plus it's brown and blue, two of my favorite colors. I know that is a silly reason not to want to give up my stroller but it really is just exactly what I wanted.

I'll be so glad to have this stroller thing figured out. I'm tired of thinking about it.

It is 4:19 pm and I am still in my pajamas. I guess now that the day is 3/4 of the way done there's no real reason for me to put on real clothes is there? Some days are just like that. I got busy today and just didn't get around to getting ready for the day. I've been cleaning out the closet in Baby 2's room. Boy, did I have a lot of craft stuff to get organized! I guess since I used to be the "Crafty Lil Devil" that would make sense, right? I kind of miss those days sometimes but my days lately are filled with much better "projects"...like reading books to my sweetie boy, playing ball and cars and watching the "deet-deets" from my dining room window. (That's Easton-speak for "bird". I'm pretty sure he's trying to say tweet-tweet but it sure is cute! )

Right now all my crafty ablilities are going to trying to get some projects done around the house before baby 2 makes her debut. I'm hoping to get a chalkboard painted to hang by my new desk/work area, sand and stain two memory boxes for the kiddos special things, and finish decorating the nursery. I guess the "Crafty Lil Devil" still is crafting just not necessarily taking time to blog about it. So if anyone is reading this and wondering where in the world the name came from...that's it. Someone saw one of my craft projects I'd finished and said "Well, aren't you a crafty little devil?"

Has anyone done a craft project lately they want to tell me about?