Here's the other photo. pretty goofy grin on my face...

a slightly better tummy shot.

Tummy Update

view from the top....this is what I'm seeing...yeah.

So I had a better shot of the tummy that makes it a little easier to see but it keeps being really retarded so I'm giving up on it. Anyway, here's a tummy shot update. This is me at 5 1/2 months prego (and a little bit). I have a dr's appointment on Friday this week so that's exciting. Marks another month gone by. But I really am getting bigger...my friend Jenna (who is moving back from NJ!!) and who is only a week behind me is even barely starting to show so there. I'm not so bad. The ladies at work all gave me slaps on the back for not being huge--hahaha it was pretty funny. Usually I get people all mad and disbelieving the fact that I'm pregnant. Kind of a nice change from defending myself to eeeevil nurses and the like.

There you have it. And Taffee, I'm freaking out for you!! I'm soooooo excited for the next two weeks to go by. Baby Nielson's a'comin!! I'm just glad that I get to hold a baby but not actually have to give birth to it yet. I'm still coming to grips with my due date in April. :) Woo-wooooo!

Recipes for Steph

My friend Stephanie at work wanted these recipes so for those of you who already have them, you can ignore this. Or not. Either way, they're tasty!

Candy Cane cookes

3/4 Cup Butter and 1/4 cup shortening
1 cup sifted confectioners sugar
1 egg
1-1/2 tsp almond flavoring
1 tsp vanilla
2-1/2 cups sifted flour
1 tsp salt
red food coloring

heat oven to 375. Mix well: shortening and butter, sugar, egg, and flavorings. Mix flour and salt and stir in. Divide dough in half, color one half red. Roll two ropes of each color and roll together. (I divide up evenly each color of dough so I know that I'll have equal amounts of both. Also, try to get all the ropes the same size so your cookies end up being the same) Put on ungreased cookie sheet. Curve tops to form the cane shapes. (I sprinkle them now and kinda pat the sprinkles in so they stick) Bake about 9 minutes (mine went longer) until just barely browned. If you make smaller cookies, you'll get more than 12 but I always do them big so that's all I get.

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Honey and Spice Cranberry Sauce

1 (12oz) bag of cranberries
1-3/4 cup apple juice
3/4 cup honey
2 cinnamon sticks (I just sprinkled in a little ground cinnamon)
1 TBS grated orange peel
6 whole cloves
1 bay Leaf
pinch of salt

Combine all ingredients in a heavy sauce pan. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat and simmer until berries burst and sauce thickens, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes. (I think mine took a little longer but the sauce does thicken). Remove cinnamon sticks, cloves (oo these are fun to fish out!!) and bay leaf. Refrigerate sauce until cold.

makes about 2.5 cups

the lights are up!!

I put up our Christmas lights the other day...which is pretty easy since we only have four bushes out front. But apparently the fuses in one of the strands were a little shaky so they only worked for one night and then wouldn't turn on again. I was pretty bummed because last year I put them up and the socket didn't work at all...but maybe it was the lights then too...But then my awesome hubby thought about switching the fuses and WALLAH!!! They work like champs. My neighbors even commented on them. And Kolt was a little embarrassed because I was the first one on the block to put up lights. So what, they're Thanksgiving lights. Then they can be Christmas lights after Thursday. :)

Frosting cookies with mom

I stopped by my mom's house today and she had several dozen cookies to frost. So I stayed and helped. We tried earlier in the week to find a Thanksgiving-ish cookie cutter but found nothing. So Mike and I got creative and figured out a way to make what she already had into festive things...so a flower became a turkey!! It was awesome. And we frosted them and they are super fun! And the other two are just the left over gobbler-frosting being used up. :)

The Nursery is born

the green was on two walls, this being one of them so it's not super over-powering.

don't mind all the stuff piled in there...

I got the paint on the walls yesterday! I absolutely love the green--its a nice change from the minty-pale yuckiness it was before. Go big or go home....eh? :) No, it wasn't so bad before but its waaaay cooler now!! The green is called "Emerald Isle" or something like that....and the white is, well, just an off-white. My new favorite thing is No-VOC paint (for all those who aren't glued to HGTV that stands for No-Volatile Organic Compounds) so it doesn't smell and its not toxic to the person painting the walls. Baby D appreciated it, I'm sure. It was great and my house didn't reek with that paint smell you usually get. The guy at the paint store said that the only down-side is that the coverage is a bit less but it didn't seem like a huge difference to me. It was even cheaper than the paint we usually get too, but I think it was just because the brand was cheaper. But it's awesome. And I love it. And Kolt is being persuaded to love it too! :) (I may have chosen the green with very little input from him...)

Happy Birthday Kobe!!

Nick-nack, patty wack.....

New vs. Old

Saturday was Kobe's first birthday!! We bought him a new doggie toy and some chewies because he's been chewing on anything he can find thats different... i.e. my glasses, pens, and pretty much anything he can reach on the coffee table. It's like having a dang two year old. Kolt always says it's good practice, but that's until Kobe finds something of his to chew on....then Kobe is the dumb dog. Anyway, Kobe was really excited to get his new red dog--I put them both down side by side and he ran over, smelled the new one, smelled the old one, and paused....and grabbed the new one and ran off! :) hehehe I guess he likes it.