Back to blogland...

So over the past few weeks months my 3 followers have obviously noticed my absence from the blog world. I was just really having a hard time writing "all about the Bakers", not finding too much interest into what we were doing, thinking "who will actually want to read this", yadda, yadda, yadda. Well in case you missed the new title of the blog... I finally have something that you friends and family near and far might find worth reading... MK+Ted+Bella is having a baby!!!! We couldn't be more excited!

Let's start with giving some background of the past few months...
Nothing too exciting has gone on around these parts besides the dog days of summer. Ted had gone on a few bachelor trips, I have been enjoying the down time at work before the crazy fall gets here and we took a trip to Washington DC. It seems that I always have a trade show every June in a cool city so the past few years Ted has been able to go with me. A little work AND play. Even though our anniversary isn't until July, these also usually doubles over as our anniversary trip. WARNING possible TMI.... I had been on BC for a few months just for my body to get use to it and we had been in the talks of getting ready to start a family. My body adjusted well to being off the pill and I was pretty much in a regular routine. Long story short without getting in all the non necessary details when we returned from our trip to DC, which I had drank wine most every night, eat oysters and anything else you aren't supposed to do while pregnant, I realized that I was a few days behind schedule. I had just happened to have a test so I took it... about 30 secs later, not the 3 minutes it was suppose to take, those 2 little lines showed up loud and clear! I was in shock! A good shock, but I just couldn't believe it!
So needless to say, I needed to go get more! Ted was outside playing with the neighborhood kids (seriously) and I jumped in the car to get some "balsamic vinaigrette" to go with our salad. Why I said that to Ted when I was leaving was beyond me. If I had said to grab a bottle of wine, he would have thought nothing of it. Not to mention I just got back from going to the grocery store. But off I went to CVS. I bought a box of 2 digital ones... not those cheap ones. I need a clear "yes" or "no". Went back home, still not saying anything to Ted as I rushed back in. I took the test, "yes" appeared in no time. About 15 mins later took the second test and a "no" appeared. What? That is crazy... how could these test play with me like this?!?!? Of course me being me, I decided I needed to go back to the store but there wasn't anyway I was going to be able to get past Ted again. Just as I was deciding my "game plan" I heard him come in. I headed to the kitchen to meet him grinning from ear to ear. He was wondering what in the world was going on. I told him to come back her. He followed me to our bedroom and then as I was about to head into the bathroom he said, "you're pregnant, aren't you?" As I explained what I had been doing for the past 30 mins, I told him I needed to go get more. So I headed out and this time went to Publix, I didn't want the CVS peeps to think I was totally nuts! So I went to Publix, hoping no one would see me. I just didn't want everyone to find out quite like that and bought another box of the digital kind again. These actually read out "pregnant" or "not pregnant". AFTER I paid for them the pharmacist noticed that they were expired so I had to trade out for some others and he let me get two boxes of them... not sure why. But I was headed home well equipped with six more tests!

Long night short... they all were positive!

So here we are today... Baby B will be 15 weeks tomorrow! Last Dr. appt at 12 weeks heartbeat was 160. First Dr. appt at 8 weeks 4 days, HB was 171! If we go by the old wives tales... sounds like a girl to me, but we are happy with either or!

So far so good with being pregnant. A little nauseated in the beginning and exhausted beyond comprehension but I think I am getting over the hump now. Not much of of appetite and I actually lost a little between 8 week dr appt and 12 week but this week it seems to be coming back which I am more than ready for! :-)

One fun part of being pregnant is I am not the only one! One BFF from high school is about 24 weeks, Mrs. Smith has little H who is about 4 months old, roommate from college also expecting 1st of January and other roommate from college, Sarah has the EXACT same due date as me! It has been great to have someone to compare to along the way! So fun!

Christmas, Yummy Soup and E-Bay!

So I took a blog vacay but now I am back and ready to roll. Let's back up a week or two and do a little Christmas recap. This was a wonderful Christmas, as it is every year, but it was our 1st White Christmas! Down here in the South that is more than rare so it was really exciting. We were in Cullman for Christmas morning and I just couldn't stop taking pictures. Talk about "magical" as you are watching the snow fall while opening gifts.

And of course, Bella Baby wasn't quite sure what to think!

Our attempt to get a "family" photo. We finally got a decent one.

If this is anything compared to having kids, then we will be in for a treat one day.

(Especially if they take after their daddy! LOL)

We also got to spend Christmas with Ted's side of the family a few weeks earlier. All in all there are 6 kids under the age of 6! (one being only 2 weeks old!)

Of course this makes for one interesting present opening session and my OCD has to go out the window!

We have a wonderful holiday with family and friends!

Really makes you stop and count your blessings.

And what would the holidays be without yummy food! I wanted to share this super simple potato soup recipe I found online a few years ago, back in my "early" days of cooking and I still use it. Anyone who knows me knows I LOVE me some potato soup! I swear I could eat it everyday if I wasn't scare the effect it would have on my physical body. (already gots enough curves)

This is what you will need:

(plus 3 cups water and salt & pepper)

 And this is what you do:

(I think you can read the card)

It will look similar to this:

Top with these:

And you will get something like this:

Yummy to my tummy. Disclaimer: I always think it is better the 2nd day.

And it is great for freezing too!

Enjoy!

And last but not least... my new obsession... E BAY!!!

Oh my goodness where have I been! I have recently bought a purse, flip flops (new of course) and currently bidding on a ring for my mom for Mother's Day or Birthday. More importantly I SOLD my old camera for a great price.

This could get scary fast!

Happy Tuesday! Be back this week to discuss upcoming home projects! Although I love January since it is my birthday month, I wish we could move right on into Spring for cleaning and projects!

Holiday Kickoff...

Thanksgiving, to me, officially kicks off the holiday season and we had a great one last week! I always enjoying visiting my hometown and being with family! Here are a few pictures to share the love...

 Cute Little Mimi getting all ready!

 A Thanksgiving card for MG that turned into a place mat.

 MG was being too quite in my room so I went to go check on her and this was what I found.

 Followed by my discovering she had gotten in gum that wasn't hers and didn't ask so  proceeded to tell her that she needs to ask and this is the response I got...

heart breaking!

 But, Bubba can make it all better!

And whats Thanksgiving without a little manicure to end the night?

Later that night, we did something that no sane person in their right mind would do, well at least not twice.

Wal-Mart. Cullman, AL. Midnight.

Enough Said!

These people are crazy! I don't know if Ted will ever be the same from this experience!

Moving on to Friday and the dreaded Iron Bowl! Alabama came out blazing the 1st half and went down in flames the 2nd half. Oh well, you can't win them all! 

But you can look cute win or lose. This was my outfit when I was her age!

How cute is she?!?!?

Maybe one day I will have little girl of my own to pass the tradition on to!

Roll Tide! We will be back.

Or in MG's words: "Roll Eagle".

She knows how to play her cards right in a divided house!

Coming up:

Decorating, Crafting and Shopping!

Breakfast with Santa...in November?!?!

Okay so in most cases, it is a bit early for a visit to see Santa and I have, up until this year, been a very anti Christmas before Thanksgiving person, but our society is making it harder and harder to be that way.

I have been a member of the Jr. League of Tuscaloosa for the past 3 years. I was one of those members that just signed up for things to get my hours in, and check off my "requirements". This year I decided that I was really going to get involved and meet new people. So for the 2010/2011 year I have the title of Fall Fundraiser Publicity Chair! There are 3 main Fall fundraisers, BBQ Sales, (great for football season!) Breakfast with Santa and then the New Year's Eve Gala. So needless to say, I have been in the talks about Ole St. Nick since September! Being in Tuscaloosa, we have to plan around the football schedule and of course we want to make sure we do it earlier enough for all the parents to get their pretty Christmas Cards ordered! So November 20th it is!

(Disclaimer: yes, I have my tree up but that is only because we are leaving town for Thanksgiving and no one will be back to visit our house before Christmas so I thought I might as well put it up before this weekend so we could get some pictures in front of it. But don't doubt that I still have my pumpkins on the mantel!)

I knew I wanted MG to come down this year since she didn't last year and she is really now getting to the age, 3 and a half, where she is into the whole Christmas thing. Well, of course she wanted to bring her cousin Maci, so we had a great little girls night, plus Ted and Bella Baby, Friday night. We went to Cici's Pizza for dinner... Thank goodness for the salad bar at the place! It is only $4.99 for a reason people! And then went home to enjoy some movies, popcorn and have a "slumber party"!

Bella was really excited about this "slumber" party!

Bathed, popcorn in hand and ready for the movie

The next morning we were up and had some great entertainment from the lit story teller herself, MG. She went on and on and on for about 10 mins about a fox outside, who was up and tree, everyday and every night, yadda, yadda, yadda. Now I understand when my mom would ask me to be quite just for one minute! :-)

At least Maci knew what she was talking about and was entertained!

You can't help but love that wild red hair!

The next little bit, was consumed of us getting ourselves ready plus two little 3 year olds! Wow, what a job! They should really have classes on these types of things!

But we successfully did it and were off to Breakfast with Santa!

We ate, we saw Santa, wrote him a our letters, which by the way, they will get getting one back from him as well, Shhhh...and did some crafts!

Great weekend with the family. (and Santa)

Ramble On...

Love that song by Led Zeppelin and that is exactly what this post will consist of, my brain rambling! :-)

Last time I blogged I was headed to met Mr. Parker Moore for the 1st time. He was perfect in every way! He was so good while Michelle and I visited for the day. Lindsey is the 1st out of our college group of girls to have a baby so us "Aunts" have been filled with excitement since the moment we found out we were expecting our little "panda".  As you can tell from this post here.
(Side note: we call him a panda because that was our sorority's mascot in college, AOII! Dorky, we know!)
He was about 2 weeks old when we met him and all he did was sleep, eat and tinkle! (all over his clothes just like most little boys do!) We even were able to go out to lunch with him.
Michelle and I loved spending the day with Parker and mom and can't wait to do it again!

Look at those sweet lips!

Last weekend was Halloween so we headed up to good ole C-town, Cullman, AL. We figured since we didn't have any kiddos of our own we would go enjoy the holiday with the fam and see little MG.  Of course this also consisted of Bella Baby tagging along for all the fun! She loves her step-sister, Bren,but  am not sure how much Bren loves Bella!

We also did a little pumpkin carving. Every year Ted and I have a little contest to see who's pumpkin is better. Last year we weren't home so we just sent pictures via text. Mine won. This year Ted was thought for sure he would bet me. The judge, MG! We would ask her which one she liked better when she got there and you can't argue with a 3 year old because they always tell the truth. I went a little more artist and did and owl sitting on a tree, with a pattern of course. And I will be honest, it was one of those that you can't really tell until it is night and lit up. So I just knew MG wouldn't know what it was. Ted had a funny looking little face that was pretty cute. Not to mention Ted's was on a big pumpkin and mine was on a smaller one. We all know kids like the "big ones" so I thought for sure Ted had won it this year. A little while later MG came bouncing in the door and Mimi said MG, did you see the pumpkins outside.

MG: yes

Mimi: Well, which one did you like better?

MG: as she is rolling around her little eyes Um...The OWL!!!

She wins me over very time!

MG was Cinderella! She loved getting dressed up and I loved watching!

And in case you noticed in the picture above... I got a new toy! The , other, love of my life... a Canon EOS Rebel T2i WITH an extra lens.

Needless to say I am in LOVE! There is nothing better than a good picture. One thing I love, love, love in houses are photographs everywhere! It is what makes it a home. So I know I will get my money's worth through the years. Now, I just have to convince Ted of that! ;-)

Where are you Fall?!?!?

The first official day of Fall on the calender is this Thursday, Sept 23rd but with the heat we are having, I am having a hard time believing that! Please hurry up and get here!!!

This past weekend I headed to the great small town of Cullman,AL. It is always nice to visit home. I often think that Ted and I would love to move back there one day and raise a family but I think for now it is just too boring slow pace for us!
Where else will you see a street sign reminding people to "Be Polite"? How cute is that?

Nothing says the beginning of Fall to me more than the fair!

Last year I convinced Ted to take me to the Tuscaloosa County Fair and lets just say,

it was no Cullman Fair!

There were no pie contests, livestock exhibits, local company booths, pageants... it just wasn't the same as the one I knew growing up!

The fair is heading into town this week so of course I wanted to attend the fair parade! I was Little Miss Cullman County Fair in 1986!

(I will have to round up a picture of that!)

We took MG and she had a ball!

Aunt "K" with MG

MG and her mama

Did I mention that Cullman is the only city that celebrates a DRY Octoberfest?!?!?

Go Bearcats!!!

She loved all the "princesses"!

(local beauty pageant winners)

And LOVED the horses!

With over 250 entries I would say an hour and 15 min parade is pretty good for small town USA!