Its the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I love Christmas. Here are a few delicious treats that I picked up that have really been helping us embrace the holiday season. Have I mentioned how amazing Trader Joe's is?

Candy Cane Joe-Joe's, Egg nog almonds, and Pear Cinnamon Cider

What makes me most excited however is that I have finally finished my Christmas project! I decided last month to make Christmas stockings for me, Jeff, and the little man. Such a fun project and it was a little bittersweet finishing them up this afternoon. Using this tutorial I bought the supplies and got to work. I think making the stars for the tops of the stockings was one of my favorite parts

The fronts are done!

 After many hours of cutting, sewing, embroidering, and seam ripping I produced these

27 Week Update

27 weeks yesterday and feeling sleepy. I have definitely been noticing a difference in my energy levels over the past few days. I think its because the little guy is nearly 2 pounds and 14 1/2 inches long! In just three weeks he has grown 2.5 inches and has gained a pound. I have been getting tired much earlier at night and haven't been getting up as early as usual.
He is moving all over the place. We can feel him moving on one side of my stomach and on the other simultaneously, its pretty neat! He has also had the hiccups a few times in the past couple of weeks. It feels like very soft rhythmic kicks. He has more scheduled times of movement now. He moves all throughout the day but he is most active first thing in the morning and at night.
Exercise is still the same. I was having too many braxton hicks contractions during my workouts so my midwife suggested I start drinking coconut water. It has tons of magnesium and potassium in it and works so well to keep me hydrated. Contractions have definitely decreased since I started drinking it which is great!

No pictures of the baby bump this week. We want to surprise family this weekend when we fly back to Colorado:)

Cocoa Chewies

These cookies are delicious. First known to me as cocoa chewies made at Whole Foods, I found this recipe for chocolate puddle cookies the other day and knew I had to try them. I will call them cocoa chewies because I don't think the word "puddle" does them justice.
I made one slight modification and they turned out so yummy. They are crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside.

Cocoa Chewies

• 3 cups walnuts
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 1 cup semi - sweet chocolate chips
• 2/3 cup cocoa
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 4 large egg whites
• 1 Tbs vanilla

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350
• Toast walnuts for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, and chop
• Stir together sugar, cocoa, salt, and chocolate chips. Add the nuts. Stir in the egg whites and vanilla until thoroughly combined (the dough will be very thick).
• Drop batter onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet, 2 Tbs per cookie, leaving a few inches between each. 
• Bake for 10-13 minutes until the tops are cracked and are no longer shiny. 

Babymoon

Last Friday at about this time Jeff and I were boarding a bus into Seattle for a little getaway!

We chose to take the bus because it is extremely cheap. Parking for two days downtown would have cost us a fortune.

It was black Friday which meant that there were hoards of people Christmas shopping and watching the Macy's day parade. We spent the morning walking around the mall, window shopping, people watching, and exploring. I even picked out my first pair of maternity pants (jeans) from Gap, so comfortable. 

That afternoon we walked to the water for the progressive oyster happy hour at Elliot's Oyster House. The place was PACKED but luckily, with a little persistence, we managed to get a table right at the bar pretty quickly. Jeff got a dozen oysters and a martini and I got a delicious salmon slider. Yum!

It was so much fun watching each oyster being shucked. Most people were ordering 3 dozen at a time!

After our delicious snack we walked back to our hotel to check in. We stayed at the Sheraton right downtown and had an amazing view of the city from our window

After resting our feet for a while we headed to dinner at Wild ginger and had some incredible duck. 

On Saturday after stopping by our beloved mini donut stand we headed over to Key Arena to watch the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. It was an amazing show and we had so much fun!

It was such a wonderful trip and we had so much fun exploring in the city. Next time maybe we will have our little one with us!