Macy's first week of life

She's Here!

Macy Noel DeVore

born December 23, 2009

6 lbs 5 oz

19 3/4 inches long

I could make cards all day...

Oh wait, I did. The last two days I made a total of 42 cards. I made it a goal to only use scrap paper. I have so much it doesn't even seem like I made a dent in my scrap supply. I'm pretty happy with the results of the "scrapy cards." It's nice to have a husband that doesn't call me lazy for spending my days doing what I love to do. He even encourages this behavior. Thanks Jonathan!

The Christmas Spirit

A very cute video made to remind us of the meaning of Christmas.

Big Snow Storm in Virginia

It snowed more than 2 feet today! Apparently this doesn't happen very often because pretty much the whole town shuts down. One mall was completely closed and the other mall by us had a lot of stores closed. The roads don't get plowed very well nor does salt get put on the ground. Utah has their system down, we never had problems living there. We did venture out with our Suzuki (which has 4-wheel drive) so Ja could play in the snow with his nephews. He had a blast, as did the nephews. Ja had to drive through a huge snow drift that was blocking the street (thanks to the snow plow) to get out of the cul-de-sac. Ja just said that was his all time favorite moment in his driving career. I'll admit it was kind of cool to have the car covered in snow for a second, but also a little scary.

I wanted to post this just for the pictures of our buried car. This is around 5 p.m. tonight after it snowed all last night and today.

This is to show how much snow was on the roof of our car.

Here is a completely buried car. It's an Escalade! Look at how high the snow is! They aren't going anywhere for a while. I took this at 10 p.m. tonight.

Most people aren't going anywhere for a few days. All the cars are buried if they didn't take the time to shovel themselves out. It's so bad they even cancelled church tomorrow! I never got a snow day growing up in Southern California, so I think it's cool so have something cancelled. I guess I should be sad that it's church that is cancelled but oh well :)

Let it snow, let it snow, let is snow! I may also have my first white Christmas!

Another Laura Sighting!

My sister-in-law Tiffany called me and asked if I had ever posed for a picture wearing a black suit with a briefcase. I told her yes, then she said yep, it's you. She was looking at a fertility website and saw a picture of me as a "business woman." We thought it was ironic because I am young and having a baby. Goes to show pictures can show up anywhere. Here is the link, just scroll down the page a little bit to see me.

Unexpected Curtain Project

I bought plain green curtains for the baby's room from Walmart. I hung them up then realized I wanted to wash them to get the creases out because ironing wasn't doing the trick. Well, they shrunk 3 inches! I didn't want to make more holes in the wall to re-hang them so I decided to add some pizazz to the curtains to make them longer. I added a few inches of pink fabric on the bottom, sewed a white ribbon on the bottom, and sewed pink and green flower buttons on the tabs of the curtains. I'm really happy with the results! They look like I bought them this way. I hope I can use them for many years to come.

9 month Belly Picture

Well, I've done it! I made it to 9 months. It's not fair that your whole life you think pregnancy lasts 9 months and only when you get pregnant you find out it's really 10 months. Oh, well. Next week I'll be considered full-term so technically I could have a baby any day. We really need to buy a car seat!

I've been having a harder time breathing and turning over in bed always comes with grunts and other noises. She's still moving and punching me a lot. When my father-in-law was here for Thanksgiving he did an ultrasound and we found out her arms are still in the 89th percentile and her legs are in the 40th. Who knows, maybe "M" stands for monkey? She weighed in at 5 lbs 8 oz. She also gets the hiccups a lot, in fact she has them right now.

Don't tell me I don't look any bigger. I definitely am. All my stretchy maternity shirts are stretched to the max, and the shirts that seemed so big just a few months ago are getting too short. I've gained 32 pounds so far. It's unnerving to see the nurse having to adjust the scale higher and higher each time I go. Anyways, here are the pictures.

8 months

9 months

My First Turkey

This year for Thanksgiving I volunteered to cook a turkey for dinner. I only did this because I knew there would be other turkeys coming, I didn't want my first attempt to be the only turkey on Thanksgiving! What if I didn't cook it right and we had a frozen turkey?

Other than taking the neck and giblets out (which was pretty gross. I was glad I wasn't in the early stages of pregnancy, I probably would have thrown up.) cooking a turkey isn't all that bad. I brushed some olive oil on the bird then rubbed spices on it. The hardest part of moving the bird from the pan to a plate. Our poor turkey got it's spine snapped in half. We laid it on the plate and it falls open for all to see it's insides. That wasn't a pretty sight so we somehow positioned it so it would stay closed.

I would cook a turkey again but I would invest in a real roasting pan. I used the throw away kind and that made it a little difficult to get the turkey out of the oven because you can't lift the pan out.

We had plenty of turkey that day. We had my turkey, Holly's turkey, and two turkey breasts. No one went hungry.

Two Good Books

I just finished reading two books that I thought were very entertaining and good reads. I thought I would pass them along in case you're in the mood for a good book.

The first is "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society." This book is a series of letters written between a lady in London and people on the island of Guernsey, which is part of the Channel Islands. I liked the letter-style of the book because it was short tidbits of everyone's life and made the book go by fast. The letters mostly have to do with the German occupation of the Channel Islands during WWII. I didn't want this story to end. I loved reading about the daily lives of the funny and interesting people.

My sister-in-law- Heather introduced me to the second book, "A Year in Provence." The author writes the book in seasons about his and his wife's first year living in Provence. They moved from England into an old stone farmhouse. He shares his experiences with the local people and their love for food, disregard for time, their mannerisms, and love of wine. It's considered a travel book, but a very fun and fast-paced one. (The first couple pages were a little slow but after that it got much better.) I really enjoyed this book too. It will make you want to go to France and eat their food. One of my favorite lines was at the end of the book. The couple woke up to a kitchen with no electricity, therefore no way of cooking Christmas dinner. What the author says sums up the French: "It is at a time like this, when crisis threatens the stomach, that the French display the most sympathetic side of their nature. Tell them stories of physical injury or financial ruin and they will either laugh or commiserate politely. But tell them you are facing gastronomic hardship, and they will move heaven and earth and even restaurant tables to help you."

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

I had some extra pumpkin leftover from Thanksgiving so I decided to make these cookies with it. They are so delicious. I've eaten almost half of them myself. They are a moist, cake-like cookie.

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp milk

1 cup pumpkin

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup oil (can substitute 1/4 cup with applesauce for less fat)

1 egg

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup chocolate chips

1 tsp vanilla

Dissolve baking soda in milk; set aside. In a large bowl, add pumpkin, sugar, oil, and egg; stir. Add flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and baking soda mixture. Mix well. Stir in chocolate chips and vanilla. Spoon onto lightly greased cookie sheet. (They don't spread out, they keep the shape you put them into.) Bake at 375 for 10 minutes or until done.