That’s a Lot of Cookies

That was the mantra last week. If you’ve been keeping up with my facebook or any of the last 2 or 3 blog posts, you’ll know that I’ve been working on my biggest cookie request EVER of 16 dozen (or 192) Halloween cookies.

Well, they are finally done and delivered. They did get delivered a day late because of Hurricane Sandy, but I don’t care. They are off my kitchen table and we can now eat there again ;)

But let back up a little. You might know by now that I have sent John into work several times with decorated cookies that I don’t want to keep here at the apartment…because I know John will eat them all by himself ;) My ulterior motive was so that other people might know of my cookie fabulousness (forgive me my momentary lack of modesty). And as a result, I get rave reviews from his coworkers and earlier this month, the HR coordinator at his office asked me to make cookies for Halloween for EVERYONE (that’s almost 200 employees) in the office! Whew!

So I have quite a few Halloween themed cookie cutters. I love Halloween cookies. They are right up there with Valentine cookies and Ninjabread Men. But we narrowed the assortment down to 4 different cutters (though I would have loved to use my Erlenmeyer flask again…) and this is what we came up with:
(the witch’s boot is my all time favorite!)

Now, I can only fit about 50 cookies on my kitchen table with enough room to work, move cookies around, and keep 2 or 3 bottles of icing on hand, so this whole 192 cookie business was a little tricky. There were cookies EVERYWHERE. I had to pull out our small white table from the 2^nd bedroom to accommodate more cookie-ness.

Needless to say, we did not use the kitchen table for eating for about…5 days. ;)

I had to have them all packaged up before this past weekend (and I was totally feeling SO sick…dang pregnancy symptoms getting in the way of cookie craziness ;) because of course, we went to VA to have our magical Harry Potter party and they finally didn’t take up quite as much space…

Then during the Hurricane, I made the customized bag toppers that were requested to go with the cookies and spent a good couple of hours cutting, folding, and stapling. Thankfully I could watch Once Upon a Time while doing this (seriously love that show)…once it went online on Monday ;) Then I packed them up all snug in their sliced bacon boxes I picked up from Costco ;)

I delivered them this morning and John tells me everyone loved them! And that makes me happy :)

And wow, that was a lot of cookies.

A Harry Potter Party!

So you remember how I said I was making 192 Halloween cookies? (I’ll be getting to those, don’t worry) Yeah…well…right in the middle of that, I took a quick ‘break’ to head to my parent’s place to put together a Harry Potter themed birthday party for my sister who turned 13 this weekend (and by the way – HOW did that just happen!? I mean…she’s old enough for facebook now! Weird…). So I just put my 192 cookie work on hold for the event. Let’s just say I received the Best Big Sister Award. Again ;) PS: I better be able to deliver said cookies on Tuesday despite the Hurricane “Frankenstorm” Sandy hitting us this week. I’m just sayin’.

Anyway. Harry Potter. LOVE. So I had sooooo much fun putting this together. Seriously. Where do I even start?! Well, I guess to start I made some ‘authentic’ Hogwarts letters for the invitations (and I don’t have a picture, GAH!) And we delivered them by Muggle mail (my Owl was sick that week). The girls arrived at Platform 9 ¾ with their tickets – enclosed in their Hogwarts letters – to board the Hogwarts express for their special mid-autumn session at the wizarding school.

We also had a fun surprise guest!

While the girls waited for everyone to arrive, they chatted and worked on a Harry Potter crossword my mom got from a librarian friend.

So excited the party is happening! I know this picture is blurry…But I thought it was cute anyway…

Once everyone was there, each girl was ‘chosen’ by a wand, which they got to paint

After wand painting, they were sorted into their Hogwarts houses. We ordered these plastic rings with the house crests on them from Amazon and the girls drew their house out of our Sorting Hat :) We may or may not have rigged it to suit the birthday girl and a friend who was the only one who actually wanted to be in Slytherin ;)

Once they were sorted, we divided them up for the two activities. They made fleece scarves (in their house colors)

And they played a Harry Potter board game – also from my mom’s librarian friend – and they each won a pet Nargle!
*Sidenote* Nargles are kind of the ‘snipe’ of the Harry Potter world…as in they aren’t real…even in Harry Potter. Confused yet? We picked Nargles because there is no description of them in the book, so we could make them look however we want. We found a cute idea on another website and modeled ours after theirs. Cute huh?!

As the last few girls were finishing up their scarves, others took to studying their Hogwarts issued spell books and began dueling. That got interesting ;)

Then there were presents!

And a very exciting gift from Mom and Dad to the birthday girl: her very own iPod touch!

Finally, there was shopping at Honeydukes. This was my main attraction. My pride and joy of the party: my Honeydukes dessert table. (And yes, for you diehards, I did take some creative liberties. Work with me here ;)
I found a file online of the Bertie Bott’s boxes, as well as a template for the chocolate frog boxes that worked GREAT for this project.
These were probably the favorite. We bought a frog mold that I used to make them out of chocolate and they turned out so awesome and the boxes even came with collector’s cards of famous witches and wizards!

We gathered everyone around for some group pictures

Had to have a shot with the ‘Headmistress’ Mama

And of course, me. The party planner ;)

Then they chowed down on all that fun candy and we put on the first Harry Potter movie, which they watched until it was time to go home. I also made homemade ice cream cookie sandwiches (instead of a birthday cake – I know, like we NEED more treats?! ;) at the request of the birthday girl. Chocolate chip cookies with double cookie dough ice cream in the middle. Made from scratch. So delicious. ;)

All in all: SUCCESS! But let me tell you, by the time we put that movie on, I. was. Exhausted. ;)

But there was more party fun to be had! It was the ward Trunk or Treat that night at my parent’s ward, so we of course went to that 30 minutes after we sent off the last birthday guest. But lucky for us, we had ready-made Harry Potter décor for our trunk! Complete with the Harry Potter movie soundtrack. I know. Cuz we’re that good. And I gotta say, we definitely had the best decorated trunk in the parking lot ;)

And then finally, I got to go to bed

Party Status: A magical success! ;)

Cookie Glam

I know, MORE cookies?! Just goes to show you that three things dominate my life at the moment: cookies, being pregnant and John. Though not necessarily in that order ;)

Just wait till you see the massive order of Halloween cookies I talked about yesterday.

But these were actually from a week or so ago. (I think...I can't seem to keep track of time anymore) And I've been meaning to post them. John's cousin's wife, Sarah, asked me to make some cookies for a surprise birthday party for John's Aunt Becky. The theme for the party was Hollywood Glam and while I hemmed and hawed over the design for a while (for some reason that theme always makes me think black and white and no one likes to eat a predominantly black cookie) we finally decided on some glitz and glam in the form of monograms and CHEVRON! Mmmm HMMM love me some chevron. We went with gold and silver and I found these super cool spray colors from Wilton that do lustre (shiny/sparkly colors...like gold and silver...obviously...) so I was able to make them fancy looking.

Fun, huh? I had a really good time experimenting with the sprays.

And for the sake of Aunt Becky, that number 60 was completely arbitrary ;)

12 Weeks!

So my first week taking a weekly picture, and I’m already a day late. So sue me. ;) It just so happens that I’m right in the middle of making my biggest cookie order EVER of 16 dozen Halloween cookies. That’s 192 cookies, by the way. As in A LOT of cookies. I need a dining table at least 3 times the size of the one we have to fit everything on there while I’m working! Needless to say, dinner does not happen at the table during these busy times.

Anyway, the picture. Ever since I saw THIS I knew that that is what I wanted to do for my weekly pregnancy pictures (of course, my chalkboard art won’t be as cute…). Unfortunately for me, I was not lucky like this girl and did not find a sweet framed painting at Goodwill with a wooden backing to make one on the cheap. I almost hate when people make super awesome stuff from things they find at Goodwill, because chances are I’ll never find something like that at my thrift stores. Boo.

So. I made my own with plywood and crown molding and bought my first ever can of chalkboard paint. And I had a brain lapse (We’ll blame it on the pregnancy hormones ;) and forgot to put wood glue in between the crown molding at the corners. Oh well. It’s done and the chalkboard looks super cute anyway! And as long as the pieces stay glued to the plywood, hey, I’m good. ;)

Alright. I’m done rambling. Picture: 12 Weeks! :)

No bump quite yet! And if it ever does kinda look like I’m showing…it’s probably because I’m bloated. Blech ;)

How far along? 12 Weeks
Total weight gain/loss: I actually have no idea since it’s been almost 4 weeks since my last appointment…
Maternity clothes? nope! not yet!
Sleep: Sleep has never gone well for me…but now it’s compounded with the fact that I’m getting up every two hours to go to the bathroom!  
Best moment this week: Going out with friends to our favorite burger joint out here, Good Stuff Eatery, and eating my way through a hamburger, a milkshake and half a bag of fries WITHOUT getting sick!!!!
Miss Anything? Eating and not feeling sick afterwards
Food cravings: Nothing stands out really, though I will almost always eat something potato-y…or candy ;)
Anything making you queasy or sick: Just after I eat something…anything…
Have you started to show yet: Nope, but I’m excited to!
Labor Signs: Nope!
Belly Button in or out? In
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy, when I’m not sick ;)
Looking forward to: Finding out what our baby is so I can go SHOPPING! :)

Thoughts on Being a Bottomless Pit

While my pregnancy symptoms might have taken a turn for the worse in the past week (COME ON 2nd trimester!!!!) one symptom that remains is being hungry. All. The. Time. Like I’ve connected with my inner teenage boy, though I’d like to see how a teenage boy deals with being hungry AND nauseous at the same time. Talk about being at war with yourself.

For the most part, as long as I stay ahead of the hunger, I keep the nausea at bay. Except for when my tummy doesn’t like what I ate. Like the cantaloupe two Fridays ago. Or the leftover pot roast yesterday. And THEN my tummy has the nerve to growl at me less than 10 minutes later, demanding that I eat something. Well excuse me but you’re the one who didn’t want to keep what I ate down! (yes sometimes I say that out loud, talking to my stomach – I know, I spend waaaay too much time by myself ;) Then it’s saltines for the rest of the day, until tummy and I are on good terms again.

But anywho…this being hungry all the time thing has certainly taken some getting used to.  I wanted to write some of this down because the people that I’ve told this to think it’s pretty funny, so I figure it’s worth blogging about and remembering years down the road. Because I have REAL posterity to think about now!! ;)

So. Being a bottomless pit. This is a new thing for me. When the hunger strikes, it’s not satisfied with a simple handful of goldfish crackers or a stick of string cheese. OH no. We’re talking mini meals 6…7…8 times a day. And it could happen at any time. Like 11pm. Or 4am.

John finds this all very funny (thankfully). We’ll go to bed at 10:30 and a half hour later I get up and head over to the kitchen and I hear his incredulous question: “Again?!” Yes, again. I. Must. Eat.

Then later, at 4 in the morning, I wake up hungry. Thankfully I can get by with just a banana or an apple or something and I keep them right there next to my bed so that I can just grab something, eat it, and go back to sleep. Though there are times as I’m laying there on my side, banana in my hand next to my pillow, having taken a couple bites, that I’m so tired I fall back to sleep before finishing my banana, holding it there until my tummy wakes me up again a few minutes or so later (because I’m not really sure how long I sleep between bites) like, “um, still hungry over here!” But then I have a banana, peeled and right there next to my face! How convenient.

I know. Because then I wake up two hours later to the dulcet tones of my angry tummy saying “WHY are we wasting time sleeping?! I’m HUNGRY!” I try to tell it that sleep is more important at 6am…but my tummy wins the argument. Every time. So another banana. That takes a half hour to consume because of the in-between-bite naps.

So my tummy and I are trying to work our way through the details of this new relationship. Wish me luck ;)

Simply Because I Never Want to Forget It

While General Conference was pretty awesome this weekend, one of my favorite things we did was call all of John’s siblings to announce our big news (We were at my parent’s house for the weekend, so we could tell my siblings in person). My favorite phone call was to his sisters.

We called Amy, who is in Utah right now and found out that Kirsten, who lives in Idaho, had come down with her boyfriend to see Amy and so that they could go to a Conference session in Salt Lake together on Sunday. When we called, Amy and Kirsten were walking back to Amy’s place. Our call went a little something like this:

John: Oh, so Kirsten is there with you?
Amy: Yeah, she’s on the phone with Lacey right now
John: Well, can you tell her to hang up with Lacey so we can talk to both of you?
Amy: OH! Oh yes! KIRSTEN! GET OFF THE PHONE! RIGHT NOW!
(In the background) Kirsten: Hey Lacey, I have to call you back. Yeah. I don’t know why…I’ll call you back…
Amy: OKAY! You’re on speaker! Okay, what did you want to tell us?!
John: We….won the lottery!
Amy: NO! That’s NOT it.
John: (laughing) We’re expecting!
Amy & Kirsten: !!!!!!!!!!!!! (unintelligible screaming and squealing)

*the excitement lasted at least a full minute before we were able to understand what they were saying* ;)

Amy & Kirsten: OH! When are you due?! AH! This is so exciting! We are SO going to be there. Yeah but you probably don’t want the WHOLE family in the birthing room. We’re gonna be Aunts! Ah!!!!

I guess you kind of had to be there, but we thought it was hilarious that Amy picked up right away what we were calling about and then of course they had (in my opinion) one of the best reactions to the news.

So thanks ladies, you’re the best sisters-in-law I could ask for ;)

Hmmm...Interesting…

Strange things have been happening at our house lately…

There’s been a lot of this:

Even MORE of this:

And…well…a little of this:

Hmm…

Oh! This would explain it!

That’s right!!!! We’re expecting!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Would you like to meet our little peanut? :) :) :)

And for those of you who, like me, needed the picture explained…

I know!!! We are so excited!! I am about 9 1/2 weeks along as of right now, with a due date of May 8th, 2013. We will be able to find out the gender at Christmas time! So fun! As of right now, the baby is affectionately known as “the creature” ;) So far so good! I really haven’t been feeling too sick (I’m not really barfing in that picture up there, just so you know – but I have had one or two appointments with the porcelain throne ;) but I have had a really bad cough for the last 4 weeks – though it has made a nice cover story for the fact that I’m dead tired all the time. I’m also hungry. All. The. Time. Every hour. And not just a “oh I think I need a little snack” it’s “I NEED TO EAT RIGHT NOW” kind of hungry. Which is fine unless it hits around 11pm. Or 4am. 

It’s all good though. We are so excited to meet our little person!