My Nameless Baby

Perhaps, much to your surprise, when this baby is born, s/he will not be legally named Squishy. It's an in utero nickname and that's it. We called Braden "Ferris" in utero, and he has NEVER been called that since, under very strict rules by me!

You have 23 weeks left, Sarah! Chill!

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Is what you might be thinking. I know! But we had had many a discussion on baby names last time around, and our names were locked in at 17 weeks. Now, I'm 17 weeks and we've had about 3.5 discussions on baby names. I just feel so far behind with this baby and this pressure to pick a name already! We have girl names, though Jay keeps bringing up a certain girl name that I have vetoed again & again. We cannot for the life of us agree on a boy name. Not one.single.boy name. But neither of us are really sold on a particular boy name individually. We like a lot of the popular names from last year, but that's the thing. They are so popular. But if we do choose a name in the top 5 or 10, those names aren't necessarily popular where we live and I'll have to just be happy with that. I guess in my insecurities I don't want people to think "oh, another '#1 on the baby boy list name' again".

It was the same with Braden. Braden's always a name that I've loved, but working in a children's hospital, it was a name that we saw so so so often. The popularness kind of "ruined" it for me. But then I reasoned with myself that it is not a popular name where we live...so that kind of justified the decision. The other thing with Braden's name...I feel like it was "the" name and nothing else will ever live up to it. It's such a strong, great name paired with James. But also, according to the "most disliked baby names of 2011", anything with "Aiden" in it, is disliked - Braden, Aiden, Kaden, Jayden, Hayden, etc. Whatever - I love it!

I wish I could get really excited about this baby's name. I feel so guilty! But, on the bright side I do have 23 weeks left! But every time I get a little excited about a name, I suggest it to Jay...and "veto". I just feel lots of pressure, especially if we have another boy, to name him as great as I feel we did Braden...as well as to have a name that goes well with Braden. If my feelings and vibes are right...we have a great girl's name that we'll get to use and hopefully that will be the end of that!

And also, if you haven't guessed by now, we don't discuss baby names publicly! Boring, I know! Team Green and no baby names to get excited about for you! All a big surprise and secret!

Did you have a really hard time deciding on your baby's name(s)? How did you and your husband decide?

Y3W: Lemon Crinkle Cookies

I cannot take credit for this recipe. It's not an old family recipe, but I found it off Pinterest and couldn't resist sharing! It won the LDS Living cookie contest and is worth making, trust me!

Ingredients:

• ½ cups butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 whole egg
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• ¼ teaspoons salt
• ¼ teaspoons baking powder
• ⅛ teaspoons baking soda
• 1-½ cup all-purpose flour
• ½ cups powdered sugar

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
• Grease light colored baking sheets with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.
• In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. 
• Whip in vanilla, egg, lemon zest, and juice. Scrape sides and mix again. 
• Stir in all dry ingredients slowly until just combined, excluding the powdered sugar. Scrape sides of bowl and mix again briefly. 
• Pour powdered sugar onto a large plate. 
• Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball and roll in powdered sugar. Place on baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough.
• Bake for 9-11 minutes or until bottoms begin to barely brown and cookies look matte {not melty or shiny}. 
• Remove from oven and cool cookies about 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

*If using a non-stick darker baking tray, reduce baking time by about 2 minutes. 

I doubled the recipe and still got about 3 dozen or so cookies. If you do double the recipe it works out to use the zest and juice of 1 medium lemon so it worked out perfectly! 

I hope you enjoy, everyone in my family who tried them loved them! 

Y3W: Hot Bruschetta Appetizer

Looking for an AWESOME appy to make next time you have company over? Heck, I'd even make this just for me and hubs! Every time I've made this it's gotten rave reviews. I thought I'd share:

Ingredients:

• 1 baguette
• 1/2 cup mayo 
• 1 cup grated mozzarella cheese 
• 2 cups medium tomatoes, seeded & diced fine 
• 1/2 tsp pepper 
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese 
• 1 tsp dried oregano 
• 1/4 tsp dried basil 
• (you can add olives too, but I don't like them!) 

Directions:

• Mix ingredients together
• Slice baguette into rounds and lightly butter
• Scoop bruschetta mixture onto bread slices
• Bake for 15 minutes at 350. 

Tips:

• Use roma tomatoes as they don't have as much "tomato guts"
• Make the mixture the night before and refrigerate
• Can substitute mozza cheese for cheddar mixture - I had to use a bag of shredded white/orange cheddar at Christmas this year and it was still delicious!
• Eat them fresh out of the oven for optimum deliciousness!

Pardon for the cruddy-ish picture...those were literally the last 4 pieces at Christmas this year and it was an "oops I forgot to take a picture of this for the blog!" moment, so it isn't all nice and artsy fartsy! And I'm glad to have a permalink for this recipe now so as not to bug my e-BFF Marie for the second year in a row for this recipe that I emailed her years ago!

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I hope you enjoy, let me know if you do!

Y3W: Beautiful Mountain View

Every now and again, usually on a crisp & clear morning, we get a gorgeous view of the Rocky Mountains looking west off of our deck. Last Friday, that's exactly what happened!

And this is zoomed in with my Sigma 70-300mm lens:

And a panorama shot:

Most mornings you wouldn't even know there were mountains there! They're about a 2-3 hour drive away from us. We still haven't taken Braden to the mountains...maybe when we get back from Maui in February we'll take him for the day just to walk around Banff! Have a wonderful weekend!

Y3W: The White Stuff

Well, we got our first dose of the white stuff this AM as I was coming home from my night shift - lovely. It's always kinda scary driving in the snow the first time of the season, you have to adjust to it all over again and get used to B-trains (big grain trucks) flying past you and swirling up a misty whiteout when you're white-knuckling it praying you're still on the road when the white clears.

Anyway, after I woke up from my sleep I bundled up Braden's new snowsuit I got from Joe last spring on a 1/2 off sale (it's a size 2...a little big still!) and we took the dog for a walk!




Then he went into the garage and brought the wagon out and wanted to pull it around.




Has it snowed for you yet?

Y3W: Video Catch Up

This is totally random! I already did tooth brushing post with pictures so I didn't know where else to put this video to show you how awesome Braden is with brushing his teeth! So randomness it is!

This is a really cute video of Lukey and Braden right after his nap! Braden just adores his big cousin and is learning so much (albeit good and bad!) from him, he just loves being around him!

Then this happened yesterday after a loooooong afternoon nap. He's too funny!

And of course...it's Flashback Friday! This takes us back to Thanksgiving weekend last year to Braden's first swimming lessons....awwww!

Y3W: Flashback Friday

(For Y3W let's pretend that "flashback" is 2 words today! :)

Lazy post. I've been putting lots of effort into my posts lately (especially yesterday) so I get a freeby and also probably the weekend off! (Going to Edmonton!)

This picture was taken exactly one year ago yesterday. Just shy of 8 months old and learning to stand on his own! I cannot believe the changes that have happened, especially this last month. Just wait until you see his 20 month update!

Have a great weekend!

Y3W: My Farm Boy

I took Braden and Kihei out for a walk with one afternoon and it felt like the first day of fall. The weather dropped about 15 degrees (Celsius, people!) and it was overcast which makes for great picture-taking! This is the wheat below our house:

I had stopped walking and wanted to go back home...he just kept on going!

My nice bouquet of wheat for my fall decorating!

Then we got back in the yard and he spotted on of mama's worst nightmares...

Tried to get a picture with the dog, I imagine this is what they were thinking

My favorite, 2 different effects:

I was so excited to post these! This was a rather impromptu photo sessions, but Braden couldn't move in the wheat stubble, which was AWESOME! He had to stay still. I should take a portable patch of stubble with me wherever I go!

Braden is wearing an adorable new jean jacket (too big, but I want it to fit for awhile!) from The Gap. I couldn't find a link to it online because it's from the factory outlet. Jeans are just eBayed from Old Navy and he's borrowing some cowboy boots from Auntie Joy's stash. We keep it simple around here for fashion!

Hope you enjoy all the pictures!




And per my new tradition of Flashback Friday...today is our one year house-iversary! We've been in our house for one whole year exactly! This is our first night in our house and Braden and Lukey were having baths in our kitchen sink. How adorable, look how tiny Braden is!