Say CHEESE!

After her bath last night, I decided to give her a new hairstyle and then I snapped a few pics! She is one happy girl, that baby of mine! And SOOOOOO full of teeth!  

No wonder I'm crabby

Kristi: C'mon babe, we need to take our weekly belly pic.
Ken: I thought you said we weren't doing it this pregnancy...?
Kristi: What?! Why?! Doesn't THIS baby matter?!
Ken: You said in Florida that you didn't want to take belly pics this time...
Kristi: No I didn't.
Ken: Yes you did.
Kristi: Then why did I have my Mom take a pic last Wednesday?
Ken: You did not. You're lying.
Kristi: Why would I lie about it?
Ken: Show me the pic then.
Kristi: (15 minutes later-- after finally finding the damn picture) SEE. Here it is. God. Why do I have to prove EVERYTHING to you?! It's so annoying.
Ken: Are you getting grumpy again? Okay, c'mon let's take the pic.
Kristi: Are you sure?! I wouldn't want it to interfere with your watching TV.
Ken: (cocks his head and looks at me) Really??!!
Kristi: Just take the damn picture.
Ken: Aren't you going to smile?
Kristi: Smile?! I got your smile right here.

No question about which dwarf I would be!

That's right. I would be the GRUMPY one. I'm a hormonal bag of crabapples and I blame this pregnancy 150%. Everything pisses me off these days. Everything.


I am hoping it's the First Trimester and that in a week or two I'll be over it... along with the exhaustion & nausea. This pregnancy is very different from the one I experienced with Ava. I can't say I'm miserable, I'm just not as jolly as I was the first time around. Instead, I'm a sleepy, groggy, barfing, crabby and short-tempered beatch. 


I think I need a long spa weekend to myself with no interruptions. Hey, Mother's Day is around the corner, right? Will someone PLEASE send this link to my husband?  He does well with hints (very obvious hints, I might add). :)

Eventful Easter Eve!

The day began with dyeing Easter eggs! She said "yellow" about 1400 times.  I think it's safe to say it's her favorite color.

Next up: Baking sugar cookies!

(Recipe for these AMAZING cookies is under the RECIPES tab on this blog)

Good old fashioned buttercream icing. Yum!

And then-- Off to the Easter egg hunt!

Not afraid of Mr Bunny at all!

Her basket was just a tad big... 

Kees! Kees!

Me and my little buddy!

HIGH FIVE! 

So excited!!

Feeding her friend the goat!

No fear at all!

GUESS WHAT...?!?!?

I am stone cold sober. And no, unfortunately it's not by choice. Nope-- instead, it's the growing organism in my belly that is preventing me from my usual antics.

Have you put 2 + 2 together?! If so, then you are correct!! There's a bun in my supersonic-oven and it's expected to make its arrival in early November!! 

Can I get a Yahoooooo!?!

What is so crazy about this pregnancy? We weren't even trying. In fact, we were actively waiting until our trip to Grand Cayman was over (so I could booze with the rest of the pack), but the universe clearly had other plans-- and trust me, we welcome those plans with open arms! We were just completely blindsided by the news!

I first found out when I was just shy of 8 weeks. I didn't feel right-- I was queasy, sleepy, and some things had just gotten-- well, bigger (including what soon resembled a beer gut-- which had me completely perplexed, especially considering I had been working out so much-- "Why the hell am I growing a belly when I should be sporting a six-pack?!"). 

I decided to take a test and sure enough, two lines showed up immediately. I could NOT believe my eyes!  What is super-ironic is I wrote an article for one of my columns called "Knocked Up"-- all about how 23 of my friends were pregnant, and how I couldn't believe it; everyone and their dog seemed to be pregnant!!-- And who knew?!?-- Yours truly was already "with child"!

I am so excited to share our news. At 10 weeks I took an Intelligender test; the test boasts 82% accuracy as for predicting the gender of your baby as early as 10 weeks-- and friends of mine who have taken this test have ALL had accurate results.  With that said... the test said: BOY! The Chinese Gender Chart (which was accurate with Ava), on the other hand, says GIRL. To be honest, we could care less either way-- we just want a happy, healthy baby. 

Clearly, Mom & Jim were excited to learn the news! We shared with them when we landed in Florida last week. Call me crazy, but I don't think they care about the gender, either!

I went today for my 12 week checkup to hear the heartbeat. After a minute or two, the Dr found it, beating strong at a solid 173 BPM.  Needless to say, everything looked GRRRRRR-8! When we ask Ava if she is excited to be a big sister, she either responds "Nooooo!" or "Jessssss!"-- pretty sure she has NO clue what it means just yet. I do think she will be an excellent big sis when the time comes, though. It does make me a little sad--thinking that she won't be my baby anymore. I had better just get over that, right? Not much choice in the matter because this little nugget is coming! 

Home sweet home!

We are officially back! What a long trip! 10 days is a helluva long time to be gone-- and a helluva nice break from laundry, cleaning, etc. Needless to say, I did boat loads of laundry today, trying to catch up so we have a few outfits to pick from in the next few days.

Here are a few pics of the hubs and I:

Night #2, before dinner

Clearly I'm sucking in... the hand on the hip helps :)

Dinner at Casanova's (on the beach, watching the sunset)

Good thing we left when we did-- on the last day, the place was starting to look like a Jersey Shore Convention. Check out this douche-- "The Situation" wanna-be. The kid had bigger diamond studs in his ears than P-Diddy. And the kid's dad was fat, hairy and bald-- just like Tony Soprano-- puffing on a stank-ass Swisher Sweet while I was a mere 5 feet away, trying to enjoy my $400 continental breakfast. 


(No, breakfast did not cost $400--but I do feel compelled to tell you that the breakfast buffet was $40. PER PERSON! A mimosa even cost $35- no joke! Want a glass of OJ? Get out a $10 spot. Dead serious. This menu is not for the faint of heart. And sadly, the eggs, bacon and toast are no more delicious than your nearest greasy spoon.) Consider this fair warning: The Ritz Carlton - Grand Cayman will rid you of your children's college savings in no time.


Anwwaaaaaaaaaay, ever tried to eat while smelling cigars? Barf! That about sums it up. I wanted to give them both ("The Sitch" and Mr. Soprano) both a scissor kick to the head!

On a positive note, Ava did spectacularly with my Mom and Stepdad. She was so darling-- and appeared to have grown at least an inch upon our return. Little rascal. She did wonderfully on the plane today, too.  

Swimming with her Daddy... Wearing the hat we bought for her in Grand Cayman

Lastly- we had a star sighting! We were seated a few tables down from Jessica Simpson at the restaurant in the Charlotte airport.Here are a few pics I snapped of her, while trying not to be uber-obvious! She was with her man-- and there didn't appear to be any body guards/ security nearby. In fact, I think I was the only one that really noticed it was her.  Well, me-- and the waiter that was drooling over her! :)

Greetings from Grand Cayman!

Well, it's 9:00 AM, and I can (for the first time in about 19 months) say that I just woke up! How incredible! We are having a blast--it's hard not to, considering how beautiful everything is here. We've been beach bums mostly, lounging in the chairs. We have gone kayaking and Ken has already snorkled and paddle-boarded.  All in all, we're keeping busy-- doing mostly nothing at all-- just how vacation should be, right?  Here are a few pics of our awful view.  It's hard to take, let me tell ya!

Yesterday we received a surprise. We ordered some ice from room service and when they delivered it, I had them set it on the console table-- and it was then that I noticed our surpirse! On the table was a framed picture of Ava and a note. I freakin lost it!

Well, I'll write more later... just thought I would check in (to make you a teency bit jealous). :-)  Happy Friday, everyone! XOXO!

WINNING!!!!!!!!!

Damn, I'm good! Two big wins in 1 week. Must be all that (Missouri) Tiger blood & Adonis DNA that's got me on my WINNNNNNING streak. In the words of Charlie Sheen, "I literally woke up and it was Christmas."

Earlier this week, I scored big time at Victoria's Secret. And today... well, I scored even BIGGER!

Long story short, I belong to a Yahoo Group for Moms in Clarendon Hills. It's a great site for women in the community to sell things, buy things, borrow things, etc. Well-- today a woman posted that she had some items that she was giving away that were all in very good condition. I saw the email, ran to the car, skidded out of the driveway and raced over to her house. In her email she had a few pictures of the items she was giving away-- and I had my eye on the pink Step-2 car!! Little did I know what else she had out there! Within 3 minutes, the following items were in the back of my SUV:

She loves her new car!!

Double-Wide Navy Maclaren Stroller in MINT condition.  Not a scratch on her!

This trike... brand new... only without the Dora stickers (Thank God! Dora needs to take a hike!)

What can I say-- other than "I’m an F-18 bro." :)

Threw out my neck, walked around with a black eye for 2 hours

I "threw out" my neck this morning while making breakfast. I wasn't even slaving over a hot stove... was taking the easy way out and toasting some waffles when "WHACK!"... a sharp, hot pain shot up my neck. You know the pain... the kind that limits your ability to turn your head to the left or right. I look like I'm wearing a neck brace every time I try to turn my head.  It's bleeping ridiculous.  Well, anyway, it was bad enough that I knew I had to call the Chiropractor.

They got me in first thing this morning which I totally appreciated. What I didn't appreciate was the fact that my appointment was at 9 and it wasn't until 12:30 that I realized that I had been walking around with a black eye all morning long, because little did I know--my makeup had shhhhhhh-meared all over my eyes while my head was cradled in the chiropractor's table.

If you're a Chiropractor, then you should have one of the following:

1. A mirror in your exam/ treatment rooms, or
2. A receptionist that is kind enough to tell you that you "got a lil' somethin' somethin'" ALL OVER YOUR DAMN FACE!

Today's Big Winner: ME!

Let me first start off by saying, I never win ANYTHING! Seriously! So I feel absolutely ZERO guilt about the fact that I scored BIG TIME today!

Here's the scoop: a month ago, I ordered 2 bikinis from VS. All items were on backorder... so I ended up receiving each item, one at a time (4 separate packages). Within each package was a Victorias Secret Reward Card, valued anywhere from $10, $50, $100 or $500.

So... I had 4 cards and I took them into my local VS store today.

• First card: $10. 
• Second card: $10. 
• Third card: $10. 
• Fourth card: $100!!!! 

BAM!!! Even the cashier couldn't believe it!  She started screaming to all of the other store associates, "We got a $100 winner!!!"... which only tells me that THIS doesn't happen everyday.

Kristi: 1, VS: 0

I never get sick of this!!

Every time I see it, I totally crack up! Happy HUMP DAY people!

Tickle Time

Despite the HUGE booger in her nose, this video is pretty darn cute.

All that... for nothing!

We spent close to 3 hours of our day (yesterday), putting this _____ ___ _______ together. When all was assembled, which was no easy feat, it looked GREAT-- better than great, it looked AWESOME! We couldn't have been more pleased with how it turned out.  Too bad we couldn't enjoy it for long because the weather took a cold turn and we landed ourselves inside for the rest of the evening.   


Today, the view in back is much different. Thanks to the windy city and the 50mph winds we experienced today, there is no longer a canopy on the top of the gazebo.  The ______ ___ _______ ripped off.  


Not happy.  What a waste of time.  And now, in order to take it back, we have to tear the ______ ___ ______ down, box it up and crate it back to the store (open mouth, insert gun and pull trigger).  


Which puts us back to square one.  I suppose we'll just get a standard umbrella that sits in the center of our table. The dreams of a mosquito net surrounding a grandiose, lantern-lit gazebo under a starry sky just got shot to hell.