The Best Pasta Salad. Ever.

Pay attention, folks. I'm about to give you the best pasta salad recipe you have ever tasted. Tommy gobbles it up and he doesn't even like food.

Exhibit A.

So, let me get right down to it. Here is the recipe. I don't have exact measurements but trust me, you don't need them. This recipe is fool proof.

Ingredients:

1. One box penne pasta

2. About a cup of pesto (best if homemade, but I get mine from the German deli)

3. Two handfuls of baby spinach

4. About a half cup of feta cheese.

5. About a cup of lite ranch dressing. (Come on now, don't use anything but Hidden Valley)

6. Cup and a half of cherry tomatoes.

Directions:

Cook penne per box instructions. Al dente is best. Drain and cool with cold water. Pour into a bowl. Stir in pesto, ranch and feta. Mix well. Add baby spinach and cherry tomatoes.

It's super easy and delicious. I hardly ever make it because I've been known to eat too much of it if left alone with the bowl. It's good in the fridge for about 3 days, but definitely better fresh.

You're welcome!

As you can see, I leave out the tomatoes. Yuck. I add them only if I'm making it for a party because it adds a pretty color.

Olive Fingers!

I had to share this picture of Tommy. He discovered olives have perfect holes for his little fingers. I couldn't get him to eat them, but at least he found some sort of use for them!

So excited!!!

Good news, and bad news. The past two days have been a mixture of both.

I woke up Wednesday morning feeling perfectly normal, went about the day as usual. Justin came home for lunch, we ate together and then when he left Tommy laid down for a nap. I decided to catch up on emails and sat down at the computer. After a few minutes I started

feeling kind of strange and I stood up and noticed my right leg was really swollen, while the left side was perfectly normal. I've been swollen the past few months here and there, but nothing like this. I was also seeing little floating stars in my vision.

So I called my doctor, as usual her line was busy. So I called the hospital and they said I should come in, swelling in just one leg is usually a bad sign of either pre-eclampsia or a blood clot. So Justin came home and we went to the hospital. My blood pressure was low, my temp. and pulse were all normal. My blood work came back and they said my iron was really low and could be causing the sparkly flecks I had been seeing in my vision the past few weeks. Pre-eclampsia was ruled out, so they decided to keep me for two days to monitor my swelling and do more tests to see if it could be a blood clot.

It was a boring two days. My swelling went away, and I had to have the baby's heart beat monitored twice a day for 30 min. each. Everything came out fine. This morning they did a really extensive ultrasound to check absolutely everything on Tristan. They said he seems to be a really healthy baby but were concerned because he's not getting enough blood flow from me. I'm going to be getting more ultrasounds to see if it gets better. The baby is really big, the doctor says the baby will probably come early since he is so long and has put on a lot of weight. He is 5 lbs and I'm not quite 33 weeks yet. Healthy boy!

I got to see a lot of the hospital and meet the doctors there, it was awesome. This hospital has EVERYTHING! I'll have a midwife that stays with me throughout my labor and delivery giving me massages, walking around the hospital with me, and coaching me through the delivery. They have several big jacuzzi bathtubs that I can stay in as long as I want to help me relax, with classical music playing. It's so cool! It has me so excited that I'm actually thinking I won't need an epidural this time. My doctor is convinced my labor and delivery will be quick, I fully dilated with Tommy in only 3-4 hours. He says I may not even have time to get an epidural if I progress fast again, which I should. So I may try to do this completely natural and see how it goes. I don't want to be stuck in the hospital bed the whole time like I was with Tommy. That is the goal, we'll see if my mind changes while I'm actually in labor. :)

So good news: the baby is big and healthy and most likely coming early. Bad news: my iron is low as well as my blood pressure, and the blood flow to the baby may not be ideal. I have an appointment next week and the doctor is going to double check everything then, I hope my iron and blood flow rights itself by then. I should have taken some pictures of the awesome hospital I'll be in but I just didn't think about it! I did find some on the internet though. You can see how big it is, and lucky for me the labor and recovery rooms are at the top, so it's a beautiful view. You can see my house in the second picture, I live literally 3 minutes away. I'm feeling good now and so excited to meet our new baby!

~Brittney

My Brother, the missionary!

My brother Jordan has been on his mission a couple months now, he sent me some pictures and I wanted to put them up so family who hasn't seen them can. Isn't he handsome in a suit?? Geez I can't believe that's my baby brother! He's serving in the Oakland/San Francisco mission and is currently in Fremont. Love you Jordie! :)

Scrapbook Pages

Here are some of my more recent scrapbook pages. I've been trying to catch up, I have a big box of photos I need to organize. I went through them the other day and categorized them by event, took close to an hour. Looks like I have a long way to go! I love doing it but it most definitely is time consuming. (and expensive!) It's actually my favorite hobby and Justin loves that I do it. When I first met him, he asked me if I could help him scrapbook his mission pictures. :) I didn't actually become a scrapbooker until my good friend Kristal introduced it to me. It's really become a creative outlet for me. Playing piano is also something I love to do, but not having a piano has made that hard, go figure!

Here are my favorites:

This one is last year's Easter. Justin was deployed and I was living in Arizona with Tommy. I rented a house right by Justin's family, it was so much fun. I loved being their neighbor. The bottom picture is my sisters Susannah and Tiffany. The top one is Tommy with my sister's boyfriend's niece. Say that three times fast!
This was Tommy's first time at the Phoenix Zoo. He LOVED it. He had a blast and was beat tired at the end of the day. When I scrapbook something that has a funny story or just something I want to remember, I add a little envelope to the page and have the story inside. Sometimes I have other people write on it too, makes it a little more special for me.
Here are some of my senior pictures. The biggest picture on the page was the same picture I sent to Justin while he was on his mission (it was smaller of course). Ahh, the memories. :)
Me and my sister Tiffany, she came to visit last New Years, it was so nice having her here with me. Miss ya lots Tiff!
A picture of me five months pregnant with Tommy, the bottom picture is me holding Tommy's two day old hand. I wrote the poem on his first birthday. I can't wait for Tommy to read it someday.

More to come!

Family pictures 2010

So much has been going on this month. We went to Arizona to visit family and friends for a month, we celebrated our 4th anniversary, finally got family pictures taken, and took a short trip to Landstuhl. The month went by in a blur! We are really relieved to be home safe and sound and back to our daily routines.

Our family pictures were taken by

my good friend Amber Cupples. Check out her store here: http://www.thekarliekollection.com/ She has been awesome, she's already made some things for Tommy and Tristan that have been so nice to have. I like buying things that no one else has, and she does custom orders. You really can't beat that.

So, we got family pictures taken! We haven't had any taken since Tommy was a baby, so we were way overdue. They turned out awesome, I've been framing them and hanging them around the house for the short time we've been home. I'm going to tackle some scrapbooking later today. I've posted all my favorites, but it was hard to choose. If you're a friend of ours on facebook, you can see more there.

While we were in Arizona we got to do

a lot of fun things. We saw a few movies (we can't see many here, most are in German)

went out to eat for practically every meal (we missed American food soo much!), went to the Ostrich Festival, saw Guys and Dolls at the Hale Theatre, and got to catch up with everyone. Justin had the pleasure of fixing everyone's computer while he was there, which he really loves to do.

The flight home was really long. Justin was a sweetheart and took care of Tommy most of the time so I could relax a little more. I usually fly without Justin so I felt extremely spoiled. When we got home we had a few days to unpack and then it was back on the road. Justin had lasik surgery scheduled on an air force base in Ramstein/Landstuhl. It was a three hour drive which wasn't too bad. It was my first time on an AF base. I was really impressed with it, they had a lot of really nice parks, houses and a huge shopping mall. They also had Macaroni Grill and Chilis. Here in Bamberg on the army base we have Subway, Burger King and Pizza Hut. So needless to say, we're bummed we're not stationed in Ramstein! Justin's surgery was delayed until next week, but it was still cool to sightsee a little while we were there.

We're really cracking down on getting Tristan's room ready for him. In the next 3 months we'll

be picking up his furniture, painting, and baby proofing. We can't wait to see it finished and to bring home our new baby boy! I'm due June 27th, only 3 months to go. We're all feeling a little anxious for June to get here. We can't wait for our little June Bug.

Thank you to all of you in Arizona! We had so much fun seeing you. We won't be coming to visit until our time here in Germany is up. That's a year and a half. We don't want to travel until Tristan is a bit older. You're all welcome to come and see us here, though!

My sweetheart, all year, every year.

Justin,

How lucky I am to share my life with you,

Sometimes it's jut too good to be true,

You brighten my life with every smile,

With every laugh & each new mile,

you mean more and more to me.

Even when you're so far away,

There's oceans between us and we're still okay,

Your return brings me such exquisite bliss,

I'll never forget how much you were missed,

Can never take for granted every moment I have with you.

You're my perfect match in every way,

It can't be celebrated in just one day,

You're my sweetheart all year round,

The greatest treasure I've ever found,

Like every day for the rest of our lives...

Be mine this Valentine's Day.