Delicious AND Healthy!

I love the pregnancy diet - eat as much healthy, nutritious stuff as you can. Plain and simple. I love eating a big salad, feeling good about all the veggies I'm getting and not worrying about the fact that the cheese and dressing is totally killing any weight-loss attempts.

However, I'm not a huge veggie lover and I was worrying about whether or not my little peanut was getting all her nutritional needs met. So I decided to start making fruit and veggie smoothies for breakfast. And I'd like to officially declare my first attempt a smashing success. Here's what was in it:

1 C. lowfat organic vanilla yogurt
1/2 C. frozen mixed berries
1/2 of a medium-sized banana
10 baby carrots
1/2 C. frozen chopped spinach

I blended all of that together until it was really, really liquidy (I did NOT want to find a chunk of spinach in my smoothie). Then I poured the mixture into ice cube trays and froze. Once the smoothie cubes were solid, I popped them out of the tray into a freezer bag.

This morning before work, I put half the cubes into my smoothie cup that attaches to my blender (brillant invention by the way), added 4 oz. of Mott's fruit and vegetable juice and blended until smooth.

It tasted so good! Very sweet, and not at all like a spinach smoothie. Definitely a great way to add some fruits and veggies to my diet! And freezing the cubes beforehand meant I only spent a minute making breakfast this morning (because - let's be honest - I would not have woken up early enough this morning to chop produce). I highly recommend giving this a try.

Isn't She Lovely

I'm so excited and distracted today I'm just blogging from work. No actual work was getting done anyway. Why am I so giddily unfocused? Because we found out today...

We're having a baby girl!!!!!!

Isn't she beautiful? I can't stop looking at her. And I can't stop smiling!

*P.S. I published a new post today, but dated it 3/12/2011. It's a new picture and I wanted it to be posted on the day I took it. So make sure to go back and check it out.

Can You Hear See Me Now?

The littlest Hotalen would like to know:

"Can you see me now?"

I certainly can! What do you think? Do you see a big difference from 3 weeks ago?

Worth Sharing

I do not know this family or their whole story. I do know that due to lack of space in the local childrens homes, their children were living in an adult prison in Uganda. This is their homecoming.

7 Days

7 days until our next ultrasound.

7 days until we get to see this baby again.

7 days until we find out if we have a son or daughter.

7 days that cannot go by fast enough!

So Glad He Gets It

Phone call with Jamie as he heads home from the gym:

Jamie: What's wrong?
Me: Nothing. I'm just in a really bad mood.
Jamie: I'm sorry. Do you want me to pick you up anything from the store?
Me: We have ice cream and cookies here from this weekend so I think I've got all my bad mood food covered.
Jamie: Ok, well stuff yourself.
Me: I'm almost done the first sleeve of Thin Mints.
Jamie: Well, start on the second. Remember, you're eating for two bad moods now.

Do You See It?

I was told twice last week that I'm getting a belly. I don't really see it. Although, I have invested in and gotten good use out of a belly band. To be fair, I think it has a lot more to do with the gallon of water my doctor is insisting I drink daily than the itty bitty baby I'm growing.

But still, I thought I better start documenting before I really start showing.

So what do you think? Do you see anything?

By the way, this picture requires a lot of explanation. I look like that because I was about to clean my house and decided I'd rather waste time playing with my camera than clean. I'm pasty and pale because it's winter and I'm fair. That's the breaks. I'm standing in the middle of an open room instead of in front of a wall or something that would give you some perspective because it was the only place I could find to set my camera up and do a decent timer shot. Jamie was at work so he couldn't help. This was in the afternoon - 2 meals, 2 snacks and 1/2 gallon of water into the day. So I admit, when I wake up in the morning the belly that might be there in this shot is not present.

Maybe there's no actual baby bump yet, but when I post another picture in a few weeks, you'll be able to look back at this one and say, "NOW I see it!"

And now I'm going to take my poor neglected puppy for a walk in this gorgeous 70 degree weather. That way when I start getting a for real bump, I'll know it's not just the extra ice cream I've been eating.