Christmas 2010

Coco getting into the presents

Way too many presents!

Brian explaining how Christmas used to be all about him...not anymore!

Hosting our first Christmas at our house was a success!  We stayed home this year for Christmas and had Brian's parents and his cousin's family over.  His parents got in on Christmas Eve and we made a chicken in the crock pot which came out delicious.  We then hopped in the car to look at Christmas Lights and we were going to a light show in Old Sac, but they decided to cancel the event without letting us know :( On Christmas Day, we woke up early and opened presents....once again, everyone was so overly generous and got everything we wanted.  Cameron made out, and he's not even here yet!  Ryan, Rebecca and Samantha joined us later that morning and we continued celebrating with them.  We made a yummy roast for dinner (thanks for the recipe Katie)  and had, and are still having way too many sweets!  Christmas is so much more fun with a little one around. Samantha is 9 months old and is just adorable, and such a happy baby. We got to test out all of our cool baby stuff before baby boyd's arrival. Sammie was teaching us how to use everything: we got our car seat installed, used the high chair, activity mat, bottle warmer...it was a good test run! Thank you Boyd and Martino Families for spending time with us and helping out so much!!! We love you!  5 Weeks to go until our due date!

Sweet Treats....that are healthy

I know it's that time of year that we all indulge, but I've been making this recipe for a few years now that serves two purposes. One, that sweet fix and two, a healthy mid day snack.  My biggest fan, Brian, loves them and raves about them all of the time, so I thought I would share this recipe from Bill Phillips Eating For Life recipe book.  It is a Carrot Cake Muffin recipe, and to mix it up, I substitute in Bananas and Pecans, Pumpkin and Pecans (Great for the holidays) and Blueberries.  This recipe makes 12 muffins and they can be stored in the fridge in an airtight container for two days or frozen in a freezer bag for up to two months. Hope you have a chance to make them over the holidays!

Ingredients:
12 foil muffin liners
1 cup whole-wheat flour
1 cup oat flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup brown sugar substitute (I get Splenda brown sugar)
9 Tbsp vanilla protein powder (soy or whey) (I get the EAS Whey Protein from Target)
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
3/4 cup skim milk
4 large egg whites, beaten
2 cups carrots, shredded (This is where I substitute in 2 Bananas smashed and chopped pecans OR canned pumpkin and chopped pecans OR Blueberries- when making blueberry muffins, I replace the cinnamon with vanilla extract)

1. Preheat oven to 375 Degrees.
2. Line 12 muffin cups with foil liners. Lightly coat the liners with butter-flavored cooking spray.
3. In a large mixing bowl, sift together wheat flour, oat flour, baking soda and cinnamon.  Then add the wheat germ, brown sugar substitute, protein powder and salt.
4. In another bowl, combine applesauce, skim milk and egg whites (and vanilla extract if making blueberry - don't forget to take out the cinnamon).  Pour applesauce mixture into flour mixture. Stir just until all ingredients are moistened (batter will be lumpy). Then gently fold in the carrots (bananas, nuts, pumpkin, blueberries, etc) until evenly combined.
5. Spoon the batter into the foil-lined muffin cups until each is almost full. Bake until golden and a wooden toothpick inserted in the center of muffins comes out "clean," about 18 minutes.

Enjoy!

My beautiful friend Veronica is a photographer and came over on Sunday to take our maternity pictures.  I was 32 weeks on Sunday and this is just an amazing time of year where we live. We went to our park, McKinley Park, and it is just gorgeous with all of it's fall colors.  It had rained really hard the night before, so we were a little concerned, but it ended up being a perfect morning...temperature and lighting. More pictures of her work to come...

http://www.nicaphotography.com/

Nursery

Our nursery is almost complete.  Just need to hang a few frames and it will be finished. He will definitely have everything he needs...especially lots of love.  Thank you to everyone who helped complete his room.  It turned out exactly how I imagined.

Sacramento Baby Shower 11.13.10

My third and final baby shower!  Brian and I are so lucky to have such wonderful people in our lives.  Kendra, Laura, Katie and Julie put on such a beautiful shower.  They were all so generous and crafty!  Julie unfortunately could not be there because she is also having a baby boy and was having preterm labor.  She was supposed to be taking it easy, but after I saw all of the crafts she put together for my shower..that's what probably put her into labor!

San Francisco Shower 10.23.10

Baby Boyd, Brian and I are so blessed and loved!  We were showered with lots of love and gifts AGAIN!  Brian's parents, Jim and Sharon, threw us our second "couples" shower. We had a wonderful day with some of Brian's childhood friends, college roommates and family.  Sharon had an especially fun game lined up for the guys to play. They had to drink a baby bottle of beer without using their hands and whoever finished first won a prize. The big winner was Jim Nicholas (father of three) and coming in second was Matt "The Tank".  Thank you to everyone! It was such a fun day and to top off the night, the SF Giants are going to the world series which makes Brian very happy. You know what they say...happy husband, happy life!

If some of the decorations look familiar, it's because Krissy gave them to us to use at this shower.



This is Brian when he was 3 and the same trike bike in the picture



Another happy baby...Samantha Martino