Progress in The World of Caroline

Caroline, Caroline, Caroline. My sweet little girl is getting closer and closer to being here. It's hard to believe that in "95 days" our little love bug should have arrived. We have been beyond excited, now, I feel like I'm behind! According to all the books and articles that we have read, we are right on track with timing and the things that need to be done, but I still have the anxious feeling that she is going to get here and we are going to be running around like crazy people trying to finalize everything. (I hear this is a normal feeling)

My sweet mother-in-law has started an addiction in me, which I am not complaining about. I am obsessed and I can't help it. While Joseph's parents were visiting this past weekend, us girls made a trip to the TJ Maxx Home Goods Store. I was a first timer. I have never seen so many things that I've wanted to purchase and with such wonderfully reasonable prices.

This week I made a trip back there and spent much more money than I should have. (oops) I'm reasoning with myself, "we needed all of this eventually." Some things were for Ace (his toy basket was overflowing, meaning one thing: he needed a bigger basket), some things were for this season's fall home decorations (it's our first house to decorate together, we must be festive), and of course, some things for little Caroline's nursery (we have to have it completely done in the next 3 months anyway, might as well make little purchases here and there now). I'm excited about the things I bought for her. I'm ready to start making larger purchases that start filling out her room!!!

Ready for some more exciting news? My baby shower invitations came in! (Yay! [Super Happy Voice]) I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful mother who is throwing me a shower. I'm overjoyed. It's months away but I am so ready to be back in Niceville for those couple days, seeing everyone, enjoying family time and celebrating Caroline's  arrival. #countingdown .. I know my mom has great ideas so I can't wait to see what she has planned!

We were blessed with Joseph having a day off... During The Week.!! For most people that's not a big deal and most people prefer to have all their off days fall on a weekend, so I guess this makes us rare. We were stoked that it was midweek! Having a completely open day during the week gives the opportunity to get things done that you can't do on the weekends: appointments, banking and other things of that nature. We were able to get appointments done early enough in the day to have the rest of it to do whatever it is we pleased! It was grand.

We spent our afternoon:

• eating lunch together at Longhorn Steakhouse (I'm in love with their amazingly fresh tasting salads)
• doing a little bit of shopping
• buying & selling on Ebay
• prepping Caroline's room for painting

And then, my wonderful Joseph painted her nursery.
He's adorable. Brush in hand, Earphones in, Standing on Caroline's dresser, singing loudly along with Imagine Dragons & Dave Matthews. That is what I'm going to remember from this. Not to mention, Ace running back and forth between the nursery to me seeming extremely concerned for his daddy. It was cute and so funny at the same time. Such sweet boys that I have.

 

Grey walls, Pink & White dresser/changing table & hamper. Ready to start putting things in her room now and organizing her drawers! So much to do. #nestingtime Caroline is going to love her pretty nursery.

We're getting things done, one day at a time.

Recipes Galore For The Slow Cooking Kind

As I've mentioned previously, I am becoming a pro at the whole slow cooker meal making strategy. & I love that it doesn't take much effort. This contraption amazes me. It's among the Gods of kitchen appliances without a doubt.

Joseph asks everyday what's for dinner and I'm loving that I have a new response everyday. Everyday is a new experiment. A new journey for me to take. I try new recipes on the reg.. if we like them, I file them in my "Turner Recipes" box, if we don't (which has yet to happen) then I'll move on and forget it happened.

During this pregnancy, I've loved Chicken (I always have but I feel like I eat it more often than I did pre-pregnancy.) So most of the meals I've been cooking have been of the poultry kind.

In the past 2 weeks, the slow cooker has been used more often than not I think. We are still huge fans of grilling out but, the slow cooker is getting good use lately.

All the recipes are QUICK, EASY and DON'T require much time for prepping or a number of ingredients. You can leave the cooker on while you're at work or while you're doing other things around the house throughout the day. My cooker says "Stay or Go, Stay or Go." Kind of gives me a laugh.

Some of the chicken recipes that I have done in the slow cooker so far have turned out to be phenomenal. If it sounds good to you, give it a shot!

1) Cheesy Chicken on Rice --  (4 servings)
     Ingredients:     6 Chicken Breast Halves
                             2 (11 oz) Cans Cream of Cheddar Soup    
                             1/2 Cup Milk
                             1 TSP Garlic Powder
                             Salt & Pepper (to taste)
                            White Rice
     Directions:     1) Spray slow cooker with cooking spray, add chicken
                            2) Mix soup & milk and pour over the chicken
                            3) Add salt + pepper and garlic powder
                            4) Cook on high for 6 hours-all day, covered
                            5) Make rice as directions say when you're ready to eat
                            6) Serve cheesy chicken on top of rice

2) Chicken & Dumplings -- (4 servings)
     Ingredients:     2 Chicken Breasts
                             1 TBS Butter
                             1 Can Cream Of Chicken
                             1/2 Onion, Finely Diced
                             1 (10 oz) Package Biscuit Dough, Torn
                             Optional: Sprinkles of Cumin & Parsley (These are the
                             spices I added, original recipe does not include them)
     Directions:      1) Place the chicken, butter, soup and onion in slow
                                 cooker
                             2) Fill cooker with enough water to cover ingredients
                             3) Cover & cook on high for 5-6 hours
                             (around 5 hours is when I sprinkled in the spices that I
                             added)
                            4) 30 minutes before serving, place the torn dough on
                             top & cook until the dough is no longer raw

3) Delicious Italian Chicken Pasta -- (5-6 Servings)
     Ingredients:     4 Chicken Breasts
                             1 Package Dry Zesty Italian (You can use any dry Italian,
                              I chose Zesty)
                             1 (8 oz) Package Cream Cheese
                             1-2 Cans Cream of Chicken (I only used 1, it depends
                             on how thick you want it)
                             Bowtie Pasta
     Directions:     1) Place chicken in crock pot & pour dry Italian
                                 powder over it
                            2) Combine cream cheese & soup in small pot
                                 on low heat then pour over chicken
                            3) Cook on low for 4 hours-all day
                            4) Leave chicken whole, cube it or shred it and then stir
                                 into the sauce (I cubed it)
                                (if sauce is too thick, add milk)
                            5) Cook pasta as usual according to box
                            6) Serve chicken over pasta

                                                [Delicious Italian Chicken Pasta]

4) BBQ Pulled Pork
     Ingredients:     6 Chicken Breasts
                             1 (12 oz) Bottle of BBQ Sauce (Of your choice,
                                I used a sweet BBQ)
                             1/2 Cup Italian Dressing (I used Olive Garden's
                               Italian Dressing)
                             1/4 Cup Brown Sugar
                            2 TBS Worcestershire Sauce
     Directions:     1) Place chicken in slow cooker
                            2) Mix BBQ sauce, Italian dressing, brown sugar and
                                 Worcestershire sauce until smooth in mixing bowl and
                                  pour over chicken
                            3) Cook for 3-4 Hours on High or 6-8 Hours on Low

                                       [BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwiches]

The best feeling? Watching Joseph get up to get 2nd's and then eating all the leftovers. It means I'm doing something right. That's how I feel anyway. I think I got the most response from the Delicious Italian Chicken Pasta. You could tell he really enjoyed that one. (Shhh! I think he might have gone back for 3rds)

I'm not a huge fan of BBQ but it is one of Joseph's favorites. Every now and then I give it a shot and I have found some BBQ dishes that I actually really like. Pulled BBQ Pork Sandwiches is definitely one of them. So I gave that recipe a shot! YUM! We ate our sandwiches with baked beans, potato salad and green beans. I think that might have been my favorite meal this week!

I have so many recipes to try. A long list is ahead of me. There are even cookbooks that I haven't gotten to open yet, but you best believe I'm getting there! I'm looking forward to it, Joseph & I (and Caroline too, trust me...she has a strong opinion in all of this) are discovering new favorite foods together.

Next on my list? I'm about to start practicing dishes for our Thanksgiving meal together. This is Our 1st Thanksgiving together and both of our 1st Thanksgiving's away from our families. It'll be just the two of us. So I'm going to combine some of my family Thanksgiving traditional dishes with some of his family's traditional dishes and we will start our own tradition together.

Life and It's Changes

 

It's amazing how life changes. One minute you're graduating high school with dreams of college and future careers and the next you've graduated college, gotten married and are setting life up to have a baby! I did say it's AMAZING how life changes, right? Completely.

I've started a new adventure into the married life just recently, loving every minute of it. Joseph is fantastic, every girl's dream as she's growing up. He's motivated, intelligent, hilarious and I must say, rather handsome. A couple weeks after the wedding we moved from Montgomery, Alabama and are now completely settled down in Lake Mary, Florida. I'm a Florida girl so I'm loving the new surroundings.

Life down here is good. A complete switch from Alabama. Everything is so close to us, and when I say everything, I mean everything: restaurants, shopping, doctors, all the interstates, etc. Before, if we wanted to make a little run to Walmart for a change in our dinner plans or a forgotten ingredient, we had to drive 30 minutes. Or, if we decided to go out to eat and treat ourselves, we better be in the mood for Mexican because that is the only thing close to us! Above all, Joseph no longer works 45 minutes away from home, subtract about 40 minutes and you arrive! It's a blessing.

We have met some of our neighbors and they have all been welcoming. I love that our neighbors directly next door are Florida State fans, I'M NOT ALONE ANYMORE surrounded by Alabama fans! (Don't get me wrong, Alabama is my #2, but I'm a Noles girl first and foremost!) There are a lot of families around us, so I'm really excited to be able to pass out candy for Halloween for the first time, I don't know why but I have always wanted to! (my roommates in college made fun of me for mentioning that and didn't allow it to happen #grownupstuff)

Besides settling in our home, getting our new furniture set up and decorating our first home together, Joseph and I have begun the set up of our little girl's nursery. That's right we are starting our family by making 2 become 3. Caroline Ann Turner will be here at the end of January! I'm currently 26 weeks pregnant! (wow, time has kind of flown by.) We are very excited for our new addition, even Ace is looking forward to meeting his "new sister." I know they'll be besties -- he lays with her now every chance he gets. #precious

I just met my new doctor for the first time this last week. I absolutely LOVE him. I think it's going to be a great experience. He makes me feel comfortable and really informed. He doesn't wait for me to ask questions, it's like he knows what I want to know. #perfection Especially compared to my last doctor who basically ran out of the room to avoid questions.

More changes? I've been working on my cooking skills. I've recently mastered the art of the slow cooker. Talk about the best invention ever made. It makes delicious meals for us and is really easy on me! I've got a long list of recipes to try from the cookbooks that we got for wedding presents, so dinner is planned ahead for a long time! I'm enjoying cooking and my creativity with the recipes are increasing. I'm rather impressed with myself if I might add.

I'm actually trying a new crock pot recipe tonight,. "Delicious Italian Chicken." It sure smells good I can tell you that. If Joseph approves of this one (like he has the last 3 food adventures) then I'll be sure to post some recipes!

Also, with this free time that I have (that won't last long) I've been browsing Pinterest and finding projects for me to do. I've done a BOO sign for Halloween and I'm about to start working on a couple for Thanksgiving, Caroline's nursery and then for Christmas. The list is long and I think the people at Michael's might know me by name within the next couple weeks with my frequent trips to them. Fine by me, I'm becoming a crafty momma! I'm excited to watch the creativity flow.

Oh! & I'm pretty excited that I finally sent out our baby announcements. Better late than never! So people should actually start receiving them any day now. Plus the baby shower date has been set!

How far along? 26 weeks (14 to go!)
Total weight gain/loss: 18 lbs
Maternity Clothes? Mostly! Some shirts are, some shirts are pre-pregnancy. I can still wear my Nike Tempo shorts (that's a plus, right?!)
Stretch Marks? Not yet, so far so good! Lather up with lotions everyday
Sleep: I sleep really well, solid. I have crazy, extreme dreams EVERY night though.
Best moment(s) this week: Feeling Caroline's kicks get stronger, watching my belly move and seeing how active she gets when Joseph plays with her
Miss anything?: I've been craving Ahi Tuna and it seems like it's everywhere: on menu's in conversations, every every everywhere! & wine of course
Movement: she gets stronger by the day it seems. She is really active after Ice cream and when Joseph and I watch Scandal. (I guess she loves it as much as we do)
Food cravings: I could eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with a big glass of milk all day. Or cheeto's or string cheese.

Labor Signs: no, no, no

Belly Button in or out? Innie

What I am looking forward to: my next appointment, I get an ultrasound with my new doctor AND my mom gets to see Caroline for the first time. I'm so happy that she gets to share the experience with me!

Weekly Wisdom: Say yes to coffee, it helps you to get through the day