Seeing Spots

I am a little over 17 weeks now, and I have been feeling much better lately.  The nausea isn't 24/7 like it had been, and now I usually only get sick if I wait too long to eat or after I eat too much.  I am feeling big- I swear I am bigger at 17 weeks with this baby than I was at 27 weeks with Joey.  Other pregnancy symptoms include lots of stuffiness at night which has resulted in waking up with a migraine every single day for the past week, pregnancy brain which resulted in me forgetting a key to the church on Wednesday night (the one night The Colony ward wasn't there early, so we ended up having our class presidency meetings outside), fat face (I always gain weight in my arms and face first), and lovely dark spots on my cheeks (I didn't have this at all with Shelby, and with Joey it happened during delivery so I thought it was just a reaction to the epidural.  It is actually a reaction to hormones.)  But on a positive note, one of the best symptoms of all is that I have been feeling the baby for a couple of weeks now.  It's just little taps, mostly at night when I am laying down, but they are getting stronger and more frequent.

Since I have been feeling better, at least with the nausea, I decided to really make an effort this past week with dinner.  I have been wanting to try out a few recipes from the "Our Best Bites" cookbook, so I wrote out a menu plan and we stuck to it all week. 

                     Sunday  -   Roast with potatoes and carrots
                     Monday -  Creamy corn and potato chowder
                     Tuesday  -  Coconut chicken tenders with roasted ranch potatoes
                     Wednesday  -  Zaxby's (Hey, I planned on not cooking this day since it is so hectic trying to get ourselves and the girls ready for mutual.)
                     Thursday  -  Red beans and rice
                     Friday  - Homemade pizzas

The girls had a lot of fun making their pizzas last night, and I love when they can help cook dinner.

As you can see from the pictures, the girls were in need of haircuts so we woke up nice and early this morning and took them in.  They had the best time at the little kiddie salon.  Joey was in Heaven because the movie they put on for her was "Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper".  Each of the girls got over 2 inches trimmed, and then they braided their hair (I hate that they parted Joey's hair down the middle.  Oh well.), and then each girl got their nails painted and sparkles on their faces.  Of course Shelby LOVED it all, but it really surprised us how Joey reacted.  She kept posing in the mirror and telling everyone to look at her.  It was cute.

We ate some lunch and got back with enough time to do a little swimming before the rain hit.  I am so proud of Shelby.  Without any lessons she has learned to swim under water, dive in and swim to the steps, etc.  It eases the mom guilt a little about not putting her in swim lessons.  I know we probably won't have too much swim time left this summer since Jeremy has to go to New Orleans next week, then school starts the week after.  And then she starts soccer soon after that.  Whew!  I am getting tired just thinking how busy everything is about to become.  Anyway, with not much swim time left this summer I am just hoping that Shelby remembers all that she has learned once we start swimming again next summer!