Bumpdate - Boy or Girl?

It's official. As of today we know if Baby # 2 is a Little Miss or a Little Mister! We are overwhelmed with excitement and can't contain it. We want to shout the news from the roof tops! Well, not quite - it would be quite icy and slippery up there and would most likely result in a fatal injury. But we figured this would be the best way to share our news! I think once we booked this gender ultrasound appointment, the weeks began to go by slower...

Isn't that always the way!? So we've been doing the countdown day by day - with the hopes that Baby D would co-operate with us and hopefully be sprawled out like a starfish in there. Well we did get some co-operation today from the little wee one (with some convincing from Mama of course) and they were able to get a pretty clear shot of "the goods" I guess you could say! Thankfully I didn't have to get up and do jumping jacks like they had me do with Landon...

Once they did the whole anatomy scan and everything looked great, my extremely nice ultrasound tech called out to the waiting room to invite the boys in. Landon was pretty occupied with the Lego blocks and Winnie the pooh books but he seemed to be anxious enough to see Mama again when he walked in with a huge smile. 

The woman was showing us everything on the screen and she looked at Landon and said :

"So you're going to be a big brother!" 

Landon just staring at the screen said "Baby!" 

Followed by a few moments of silence...

And then a very clear "UH OH!" followed...we all couldn't help it but to burst out in laughter. It was once of those priceless moments we'll always look back on and laugh about. 

I'd say he looks like a pretty excited big brother though! 

Word's can't describe what an exciting/surreal/scary/happy time this is for us. Our 2nd child! We do feel more prepared for this wonderful gift this time around and it's very special to us to watch our family starting to grow. We both feel so blessed and we're happy we can share some snip bits of this exciting time!

I know we've been keeping people in suspense all day with this question...
He or She - what will it be????
So thank you all for your guesses and your patience! It has been a very fun day for us! Haha. And for those of you that know already - thanks for not sprinting to the phone to make those phone calls just yet! You are free to now though!

I'm trying to think of more stuff to blabber on about to keep the suspense alive but that would be cruel right? So with that being said...

                                                                   

We're excited!!!!!

OH SO EXCITED!!!!

So here it is!!!!

(drum roll)

Eeeeek! It's a Boy, It's a Boy, It's a Boy! We're having another little boy!!!...So crazy!

Ultrasounds always open the flood gates of emotion for me. Just to see that little heart beating away, the tiny little hands and feet...Life is truly Amazing. 

Just like his big brother always did - this little guy loves his hands right up close to his face and had the hiccups during most of the ultrasound.

We can't wait to meet you sweet little BOY!!! 

Especially your big brother! We happen to think he's pretty cool;)

For those of you that guessed right : Wooo!

And for those of you that guessed wrong : Maybe next time! ;) 

Thank you for all of your love and prayers during this pregnancy! It's hard to believe that it's half over already...The time is flying by.

 I'll definitely try to post a few more bumpdate's before June! 

We hope you all have a great week!

S&B

Always on & always available?

Lately I've been thinking about how I can live a more purposeful life and the topic "Meditating" in a recent young peoples bible study made me think about one issue specifically: If you watch people you see that every free moment they have, they grab their phone, check the news, Facebook, Pinterest... And it happens everywhere, waiting in line, in traffic, in the washroom, in bed before going to sleep and first thing waking up, often even in company when we go out to eat. And I have to admit I'm not much different. It can be addicting and you feel like you're missing out on the latest update if you don't check your phone which can cause stress and anxiety. I noticed something about myself. My phone is always the last thing I look at before I close my eyes at night - and the first thing I check and use first thing in the morning when I'm awake.

Couldn't we use these moments much better? How about thinking about your day so far, what you still want to accomplish. Or even better think about your last bible study, things you can be thankful for. Embrace each moment that you have. I believe Life can have more purpose if we are taking these breaks and not always keeping ourselves so busy with things that, to be honest, don't matter so much. Satan wants us as busy as possible so we don't have time for what is really important : God.

I bought alarm clocks for both Sarah and I this week so we don't need our phones on the night stand and can keep them out of the bedroom. My next step will be to replace my current Nexus 4 smartphone with a simple flip phone that I can only use for talk & text. News, Facebook & emails will have to wait for the times I am on a computer.

I am curious how this experiment will turn out. 

Begin to find joy in what really matters. 

B.D

Apple & Orange Bundt Cake

I am officially 4 months pregnant and now that the nausea has warn off I finally have my appetite back! Food doesn't repulse me and I'm actually enjoying all of my favorites again. This pregnancy I can't get enough of apples with peanut butter. They have to be mackintosh apples though - no other apples will suffice. That's right I'm one of those picky pregnant ladies. I bet you've never heard of one of those before...Ha!

I do enjoy the other kinds of apples too but if I'm eating them with peanut butter then you bet they have to be mackintosh. I have another "European Style" cake recipe for you guys that my hubby from Deutschland went nuts over. If I can help him miss home just a tiny bit less by making him food that reminds him of home - (and get to indulge in it myself) well By Golly that is what I intend to do! 

The things we do for love. 

Right hunny? 

I've been noticing how much faster I'm popping out with this pregnancy compared to my pregnancy with Landon. 

I can't figure out if that's actually normal...

Or is it because of the amount of cake, wunderbars, and Ruffles all-dressed chips I've been eating. Hmm?

Oh well - in the words of my incredibly wise brother in law...

You don't have to tell me twice...

If you'd like to give this recipe a try here is everything you'll need:

Ingredients:

1 cup of unsalted butter, softened at room temperature

1 cup of Sugar

4 Eggs

2 tsp of Vanilla 

2 tsp of Baking Powder

Zest of 1 Orange

3 cups of Flour

1/2 tsp of Salt

4 Apples, peeled, cored and cut into bite size pieces

3/4 cup of Milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease your bundt pan well and set aside. 

2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar, add orange zest, eggs and salt and mix to combine. 

3. Add the milk and whisk it all together until you have a smooth mixture. 

4. Chop your apples into bite size pieces. 

5. Add the Baking powder along with the flour and vanilla and mix it long enough to combine the dry ingredients. 

6. Sprinkle the apples with about 3 Tbsp of flour and toss them to coat. 

7. Add the apples to the batter and fold them in. 

8. Pour the batter in the prepared pan and bake it for about one hour to an hour and 15 minutes until fully cooked through. 

9. Allow it to cool completely, invert onto a platter and dust generously with confectioner sugar.

Enjoy!

Crispy Onion Baked Chicken

I was debating whether or not to post this on here in the recipe column because I'm not really sure if I'd consider it an actual "recipe". But we found it pretty delicious when we tried it so I thought I'd throw it out there for any of you that are looking for a new flavorful way to enjoy chicken for dinner. I actually just threw these ingredients together one day when I was out of bread crumbs and it turned out amazing. I later realized that there were other recipes online like this one and this one that used pretty much the same method as well.

We eat tons of chicken in this house and love it! So I'm always looking for new ways to make it to keep dinners interesting. This recipe was actually a "lets just try this and see how it turns out" kind of discovery. These french fried onions were the closest thing I had to bread crumbs at the time - so we tried it out - LOVED IT! And have never gone back to just plain old bread crumbs again. Accept for when we make Chicken Parmesan or something...

This chicken has such an intense flavor it's phenomenal. It always turns out super crispy and incredibly juicy. It's a favorite in the Dietz home.

I don't have exact measurements for this but it all depends how much you end up making. I took about 3 cups of crispy fried onions ( we get ours in the big bags from costco) and crushed them up into small chunks. You could also just use a food processor to grind them if you'd prefer them to be more fine.

Line your baking dish with aluminum foil. 

Crush your crispy fried onions. 

On separate plates I put 1 cup of flour, the crispy onions, and whisked 2 eggs with salt and pepper. 

I dredged them into the flour, then the egg, then the onions, and placed them into my baking dish. 

Put them in the oven and bake them on 350 degrees for about 45 minutes.

 (Depending on your oven and the thickness of your chicken breast it could take more or less time - you'll just have to check it.)

Mmm so delicious!

And serve with your favorite sides.

Your kitchen will smell amazing when you make this. I'm always looking for new chicken recipes so if any of you have a favorite way to make it I'd love to know what it is! Maybe it'll be my new favorite too!

Have a great night everyone! 

S