Merry Christmas! It has been an awesome year so far and we are really excited for all that the new year will bring.
One of the many blessings we have to look forward to in the next 14-15 weeks is the arrival of our new bundle of joy!
As promised, we're having a....well, not so fast! Scroll/read through already and find out! :-).
First, I want to show off my handy pocket doppler which was purchased when I was pregnant with JOE. At the time, I was having some issues with my pregnancy and really wanted the reassurance that everything was OK. Well, it has really been an awesome investment. I don't use it all the time (perhaps once every week or every couple of weeks) but using it to listen to the baby's heartbeat really does give me some peace of mind.
JOE also loves listening to the baby's heartbeat and often offers to try to find it for me.
I already know JOE is going to be an AWESOME big sister. Check her out here showing me her belly cause as she says "I have baby brother-sister in my belly too momma."
Here are some other pictures from our gender reveal celebration with family last night.
My awesome and beautiful sister in law hosted such a memorable dinner for our family on Christmas eve. Here she is with my niece after a lovely evening.
And now a video of the reveal. It is a little over 4 minutes long so if you're not interested in watching, keep scrolling...
And then of course, the information you've been waiting for...
J, JOE and I are excited to announce that we'll be having...
A baby girl come early April!
Like I have said all along, I have had similar symptoms to the ones I had with JOE and while I thought I was having a boy because I started craving more protein but an ultrasound at 20-weeks confirmed that we are indeed having a baby girl! We're very excited and very much looking forward to meeting our baby come April.
Thank you for all the congratulations and well wishes. They are all very well received and much appreciated. Hope you had/are having a great time with your loved ones.
I promised to post this last month but since I only plan on doing a clay treatment once a month, I couldn't post until now. I just did one yesterday and wanted to share a step by step.
These are the items for my clay treatment.
I purchased this from Amazon.com. It was $10.17 with my prime membership.
This I got from the Organic market not too far from us. It was $4.97
I also purchased this item from Amazon.com for $10.39. It will last me A WHILE because a small amount goes A LONG way.
I got this bottle from Wal-mart. I honestly can't remember how much it cost because I have had it for over 6-months. With Olive oil, a little goes a long way. I use this for both JOE's hair and my hair as well.
I got this from a local beauty supply store. A pack of 8 cost $1.39
Steps:
1. Mix 1/2 cup of clay with 1/8 cup of water, 1/8 cup of organic apple cider vinegar, 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 1 tablespoon of aloe vera gel in a cup. Add more clay if you want it a little thicker or adjust ingredients as needed to get the consistency you want.
2. Using a wand or plastic knife, stir it all until it is smooth
3. Part hair into 4-sections
4. Spray hair with some water. I used my hands to add the water so you don't really need a spray bottle.
5. Add the clay to hair and massage it into your scalp as well as liberally apply it to your hair.
6. Apply a conditioning cap and leave on for about 20-minutes.
7. If you have any leftover clay, you can also use it on your face like I did. Win-Win!
8. After the time has elapsed, step in the shower with your conditioner of choice. You don't need shampoo because that's the job of the clay treatment. I use Aussie conditioner and I get the big bottle from Wal-mart.
9. Rinse out hair thoroughly with luckwarm water. Be sure to massage your scalp to make sure you get any remnants of the clay out. Then apply the conditioner. I let it sit for about 5-minutes while I wash up and then I rinse it out.
10. I use a towel to pat my hair to get rid of excess water. That way, I still keep some moisture in.
Freshly washed hair with no products.
Next, I massage some of my oil mix into my scalp. The base for the oil mix is this Doo Gro oil. I have just always used it. Not sure if it makes a difference but I haven't had any problems with it so I use it. I add some peppermint oil, Jamaican Black Castor Oil, shea oil and olive oil to the bottle. Mix it all up and apply directly to my scalp. I massage it in.
Once done, I apply a small amount of Olive Oil to my hair in sections.
Then I work the eco styler section by section through my hair with my fingers.
And that's it.
Typing this up makes it seem like a really long process but honestly from start to finish, it takes about 45-minutes and that includes my shower.
I hope this helped someone. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.
Yay!!! Christmas week! We had an awesome family weekend! I am so ready for some much needed time off as well as time with family. Anyways, before I go on and on, here are some pictures from our weekend adventures.
Late last week, I came home to this. JOE had piled all of her Doc McStuffins characters including her medical bag on my scale! Not sure of what to make of it but it sure did make me laugh :-D.
On Friday, we decided to take JOE to National Harbor to ride the train. Last year when we stayed over for New Year's the train had already closed so we figured this year, we would make it a point to go there so she could ride the train.
This picture was taken on our way in there. Ummm...who pissed off my child? LOL...I am sure she wanted something and we said no :-).
And here is my little JOE riding the "choo choo train." She really enjoyed it and when the ride was over, I tried to get her and she said "no momma, no thanks!" Too funny. I was going to pay for another ride but then they said we'd have to get back in line. Ummm...NOT! I told her we were going to go see one of the Peeps and that enticed her enough to get off the train.
Video of her riding the train. She had a great time.
We were going to try to get a late lunch/early dinner from Rosa Mexicano because I was craving their guacamole but the wait was too long and we had other plans so we decided to continue on with our planned adventures for the day. View on our way to the restaurant.
The next stop was a visit with Santa and Mrs. Claus. Our former community does this every year. Last year, JOE was TERRIFIED of Santa but that's not the case this year. Here she is with Mrs. Claus.
They also had people making balloon toys for kids. JOE asked for a snow man. Ummm...this looks more like a funny creature made into a sword.
JOE didn't care though. She loved it!
The tree at the Community Center.
And then the moment of truth. Time to take pictures with Santa. At first, she was unsure.
But then we were able to get a smile out of her :-D.
After the visit with Santa, we went outside and they were letting kids play with the bell on the Fire Truck that brought Santa. But instead of ringing the bell, JOE and a couple other kids got to get inside to check it out. She really liked that.
Then we headed home. And even though it was late, I was determined to make cookies for Christmas. I pinned a couple of recipes on Pinterest a couple of months ago.
They turned out DELISH!
Cookie dough, ready to go in the fridge. I often love cookie dough but since this momma is pregnant, I can't have none of that. Oh well...there's always next year!
Peppermint crunch Oreo Cookies
Cake batter chocolate chip cookies
All wrapped up and ready for distribution to my family.
The next day, we went to Church and had a great time. Before we left for Church, JOE wanted to take a picture with her kitty cat. This was one of the gifts she got for her birthday. It actually meows!
After Church, JOE went to her babysitter's while J & I had some much needed adult time. We went to the movies to see The Hobbit :-). It was a good movie and I enjoyed it. However, I think it was more enjoyable because I had seen the previous 2. J hadn't seen them and it was hard for him to follow. Check him out half way through the movie :-). Hopefully, its not the company. Then again, he was also tired after staying up late into the night trying to finish one of JOE's Christmas presents.
After the movie, we picked up JOE and headed home. While J worked on JOE's Christmas present, I finished up the cookies and made dinner. We had fried plantains, sauteed broccoli and bacon wrapped filet mignon. YUM!
I told JOE the cookies needed to cool. Why was she trying to use her napkin to cool them?
And since I can't drink alcohol right now, a glass of Martinelli's was in order :-D.
The original plan was to exchange/open presents on Sunday night but JOE's present wasn't done so we decided to wait until Monday.
On Monday bright and early, JOE said "momma, downstairs, presents NOW!" She hadn't forgotten apparently. So down we went.
This was definitely a hit. It took J over 5-hours to put this thing together but the look on JOE's face when she saw it was priceless!
She immediately went to work playing with everything.
On Monday evening, after J & I had dinner, we decided to open up the rest of our presents. Here is JOE "reading" her Christmas card.
JOE loves Minnie Mouse a.k.a "Mia". When I spent the day with JOE last week, she helped me pick out her stocking stuffers. This was one of the items. Minnie Mouse sneakers.
She loved all the items but she got really excited and started dancing when she saw the piano her Aunt/god mother got her.
My child now thinks she is a real pianist and can play. It is too cute!
Overall, we had a busy but wonderful few days as a family. Next stop, our gender reveal celebration with my family. Can't wait to share the gender of #2 with you. I'll be sure to post about it on Thursday.
But in the meantime, head on over to the poll at the top right corner of this page to vote on if you think baby #2 is a boy or a girl!
