Belly Book

My mom bought me this "Belly Book" a couple of months ago and I just felt good enough today to whip it out and start to fill it out.  Now that we're through the first trimester and into the second, it was fun to fill out the details - how we found out, who we told, how I'm feeling, what I'm craving.  Now, I need to develop some photos from various events over the past few months to add to the book.  I also took all the "Congrats" cards we got from friends and family and stored them in here as a keepsake.  I still love looking at my baby book so I hope to make this a special memory book for our baby.

Baby Update

Last Thursday we had our second doctor's appointment (12 week). Very quick, but we got to hear the baby's heartbeat. Doctor said baby's heart beat is nice and strong. She hopes my nausea and sickness will subside soon (so do I!!!) and sent us on our merry way until our 16 week appointment in January.

On Friday, we went to a different office for our NT Scan (nuchal translucency scan) - this ultrasound is part 2 of a series of 3 tests that help to determine our risk factors for any genetic abnormalities. I also had the blood test done on Friday (part 1). Everything is measuring normally, which made us very happy, and our due date is still June 26. But what was even cooler was to see our baby moving around and actually looking like a baby (vs. blob of cells).

Baby was active and awake during most of the ultrasound and my favorite part was getting to see it move around and kick its legs and wave its arms. The machines at this office were super high tech. Our doctor told us this scan was really neat and she was right! Definitely made us look forward to our 20 week ultrasound (probably our last one!) - which is considered the "anatomy" scan. Although, we'll be asking to NOT be told the gender of the baby - looking forward to that surprise.

Christmas Cookies

I vowed that I would force myself to bake Christmas cookies no matter how well I felt. So, today I set out to do just that. I've made the usual ginger cookies, peanut butter blossoms, chocolate chip, but I also threw a new recipe in the mix. Let me tell you, this recipe is a WIN. Thanks to Food Network's 12 Days of Cookies and of course, to Paula Deen for this killer recipe.

These Chocolate Gooey Butter Cookies are TDF (to die for) and so easy!

1 stick butter (room temp)

1 8 oz pkg cream cheese (room temp)

1 egg

1 tspn vanilla

1 box moist chocolate cake mix

Powdered sugar for dusting

With an electric hand mixer, cream the butter and cream cheese together. Mix in the egg, then mix in the vanilla. Beat in the cake mix. Once the dough is well mixed, cover and refrigerate for 2 hours. Once chilled, form walnut sized balls, roll in the powered sugar and set about 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet (I always line mine with parchment paper). Bake at 375 for 12 minutes and voila! Deliciousness.

Happy Holidays 2010

Merry Christmas from our home to yours!

Love,

Brian, Gina, Riley and Baby Rogers!

Trimming the Tree

Although it took me a good 4 days to get the tree up and decorated, it's up and beautiful and I love it. Brian mowed down a lady with our tree at Home Depot trying to get through the very crowded aisles - it was hilarious. I've taken some photos of my very favorite ornaments....you will see most of my faves are covered in glitter. I love glittery Christmas decor.

Here's my glitter Jolly ornament. It sparkles with the lights and hangs so nicely.

Here's the kitty cat ornament that reminds me of Cooper. Riley loves this ornament and licks it every chance he gets. I worry one day he's going to tear it apart.
I picked up this Kiwi ornament in New Zealand...for my mom. But I wanted it so much, I took it back. Sorry, mom. I love to collect ornaments from my travels.

Here's another sparkler! My reindeer ornament with dangly legs!

Saving the best for last - an ornament with SPARKLES and FEATHERS. Love my Santa hat ornament.

Rogers'...Rogerses...Rogers?

Alright, I have a rant. As a Nardi, I knew how to pluralize my name. As a Rogers, I'm at a loss. How do I address my family? I've researched and researched and these are wrong:

The Rogers'

The Rogers

And it seems that the correct way to write it is:

The Rogerses

Which seems so dumb and sounds weird. Help me, blog readers! Ugh.

Summertime Baby!

To my loyal blog followers, there's a reason I've been MIA...we have a baby on the way! This little bambino has been making me sick, sick, sick - too sick to blog, too sick to do laundry, too sick to cook. Ask Riley and Brian, all I've been doing is laying around SICK. Regardless, we are so so excited!

Here's our first ultrasound at 8 weeks. Sorry the quality is so poor. We don't have a scanner so this is a photo of the hard copy. We get our next one on Friday - can't wait!

Here's the "original" test. The test that Brian didn't believe because the second line is so faint (so faint you can barely see it in this small photo).
Here's the test that convinced him he was soon to be a daddy!

Baby Rogers is due June 26. Looking forward to sharing this experience on the blog, for sure! Everyone asks us to tell the "story" about how we found out, so here goes.

I'd been feeling "off" - just not myself and I told Brian I thought I was pregnant. He, of course, told me it was in my head and there was no way it happened that quickly. While at Walgreen's picking up a prescription, the pharmacy line was in the aisle with the pregnancy tests....so I gave into the temptation and bought a box. Of course, I bought the box that says you can find out EARLY. That night, I begged Brian to let me take a test and he told me to go for it. So, I did and.....it was NEGATIVE! So, after some initial disappointment and some self-soothing thoughts, "well, we didn't think it would happen that fast anyway" and "I guess it is all in my head", life went on....for two more days. Brian was heading out with his friends for a night of beer pong and baseball watching and I was all alone with Riley. I still was feeling "off" and was researching early pregnancy symptoms only to convince myself yet again that surely I was pregnant. With Brian gone, I thought, "hmmmm, he'll never know if I take another test and it's negative and I toss it"....as Brian had told me not to waste anymore money on tests. Well, I did just that except the test was POSITIVE this time around. Now, I was in quite the pickle....after all, it wasn't my dream come true to call my husband while he's playing with his dude-friends and share the good news...so I danced a quick celebration jig with Riley and tried to go to sleep. As soon as Brian got home, I told him the good news...his response? "Wait, what? Wait. What? Wait.....That's awesome!". Then I showed him the test with the "faint" line and he didn't believe it. I buzzed over to Safeway for a digital test and 15 minutes later we had positive test #2! We are over the moon :)

Brrrrrrr

Well, we're having a bit of a cold front here in San Francisco. Nowhere near as cold as it gets in Denver, however much colder than it's been since we moved 7 months ago. Bri Bri, who is never cold, went to turn on the heater on Saturday only to discover that our furnace isn't working properly. It's freezing in here! Luckily, we have plenty of jackets and blankets and hopefully we can get the HVAC man out here today to fix our furnace. Last night, we had fresh, clean sheets to dive into so Riley wasn't allowed on the bed. Instead, I gave him a nice down blanket of his own to keep him warm - and what do you know? He stayed on his bed all night!

Ta-dah!

Brian won an award at work on Friday for his awesome support in Q4! We are so proud of him! And how did my wonderful husband want to spend his winnings? He got me a new phone - an iPhone 4! Wahooo! My iPhone 3G was dying and my upgrade was due, but I couldn't justify spending the dough right before Christmas....but alas, Brian surprised me with a treat! We went down to AT&T on Saturday to pick up my sweet new phone, and this amazing new purple case which I love! Thanks, Bri Bri! And congrats again on your award at work!

November Catch Up

I've been a bad blogger - oops. I haven't been diligent with the camera and I hate blog entries with no photos. Sorry, friends. It's time to catch up, nonetheless. I can't believe November is almost over!

Here's a quick recap of the last three weeks....

• Brian helped his dad and brother move and brought home lots of old family treasures as a result - to name a few....a big metal shelf thingie for the garage, some fun photos, a chainsaw, a charcoal bbq, a lawn mower
• We had lots of Christina & Nick quality time - lunch date and shopping (just the girls!) and then pizza and beer at Rocco's (yum, yum) - can't wait to do that again!
• Josh turned 29 and had a tequila tasting birthday party - Brian loves tequila and brought Cazadores as his tasting bottle. We also got to see Kristen's adorable 5 month baby bump!
• We had a Pre-Thanksgiving Feast with friends - all the trimmings. I made Apple Pie, Turkey, Stuffing, Mashed Potatoes, Bourbon Yams and Gravy. Brian also grilled up two turkey breasts to make sure we had enough turkey in addition to our 21 pound bird. All the friends brought super delicious side dishes - brussel sprouts, broccoli cheese casserole, green beans x 3, salad, rolls, pumpkin pie (with brandy!), apple pumpkin pie (from Apple Hill!), caramel pecan cupcakes, spinach dip, chili dip.....everyone was STUFFED as you can imagine and our feast was a for sure success.
• Dan turned 29 and we headed to Berkeley for some T-Rex BBQ - we fought hours of traffic (Brian fought it home, then we fought it out of the city...yikes) and were an hour and a half late for dinner, but still had a great time celebrating ol' Grandpa Dan.
• Brian's class celebrated their 10 year reunion - had dinner with Chris and Jenna followed by old high school memory reminiscing. But, not before driving through San Francisco in the hail, rain, thunder and lightning to get there!

Soup-a-loop!

Last week, the rain and cold weather called for some soup making. Lentils sounded yummy and healthy. So I unburied my Better Homes & Garden Biggest Book of Slow Cooker Recipes and tried a new recipe: Lentil-Veggie Soup. Check it out:

I doubled the recipe to freeze some for lunch and I also made some cornbread - yum, yum.

1 cup dry lentils

1 cup chopped carrots (2 medium)

1 cup chopped celery (2 stalks)

1 cup chopped onion (2 medium)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 tspn dried basil

1/2 tspn dried oregano

1/4 tspn dried thyme

1 bay leaf

2 14 oz cans of vegetable or chicken broth (3 1/2 cups)

1 1/2 cups water

1 14 1/2 can Italian-style stewed tomatoes

Rinse the lentils. In a 3 1/2 to 4 quart slow cooker, place the lentils, carrots, celery, onions, garlic, basil, oregano, thyme and bay leaf. Stir in broth, water and undrained tomatoes. Cover; cook on low heat for 12 hrs or on high heat for 5-6 hrs. Discard bay leave.

Yum, yum! Next time, I think I'll add some sliced sausage.

Halloween Polygamy

I can hardly believe it's already November and that Halloween just breezed by. Normally, I'm not a big fan of Halloween, but this year I thought of an amazing costume (at least I think so). So, our friends had a party, we thrift shopped for finishing touches on our costumes, and I found a cool cupcake idea online.

Eyeball Cupcakes! Red Velvet cake (like blood!) and fun frosting decorations.

We didn't get any great photos of our costumes (turns out my brother isn't much of a photog), but Brian and I teamed up with our friends, Cat and Andra and formed a polygamist family - the crazy kind that live on a compound and have weird hair. I had a fabulous button up mauve dress with long sleeves and a high collar - thank you Goodwill! Cat did my hair up and I had a huge fluffy bump (with no bump it!) and a long french braid.

Bentornato!

My mom is back from Italy, which of course meant a big dinner at the parents' house last night and lots of treats from her trip! Here's a photo of her in Venice at a lovely store called Nardi. Excellent.

We watched the Giants smash the Rangers in the first game of the World Series, had a delish dinner of rack of lamb, twice baked potatoes, grilled asparagus, salad and a pumpkin gingerbread trifle for dessert - yum yum.

What kind of loot did we get from Italy, you ask? Good stuff.....a really cool bracelet, a pretty necklace, a beautiful crucifix and chain (from the Ponte Vecchio, too!), a Christmas ornament with a scene in Tuscany painted on it, a t-shirt, some hazlenut chocolate candies, some lavender soap and a pasta spoon (that doubles as a Riley back scratcher). We are spoiled!

Fish Tacos & Football

It's been a whirlwind of family time in the last week or so, which is rare for us. On Monday night, for the Cowboys vs. Giants game, Tim and Brennan came over for fish tacos and football. The Rogers men live for the Cowboys (such a shame) so I thought it would be fun for them to watch the game together and get treated to dinner, too.

I found this recipe online, http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/fish-tacos-recipe/index.html, and I thought it turned out pretty good. I had to use fresh Pacific Cod instead of Mahi Mahi because Whole Paycheck, I mean Whole Foods, didn't have any. I thought about using Tilapia, too, but it was farmed. Thumbs down to farmed fish (if you ask me). I also made some Spanish rice and black beans, yum yum.

Apparently, my fish tacos are bad luck because Tony Romo broke his clavicle and is out for 6-8 weeks and the Cowboys lost. Oops. Brian claims we're now Raiders fans, but let me tell you, that will NEVER happen. I hate the Raiders.

Rain, Rain and a Concert

We had a busy, busy, but rainy, weekend. I had Friday off and I took care of lots of small stuff - trip to the vet for Riley's vaccines, a trip to Target for all sorts of goodies, spin class at the gym, cleaned the house, did some laundry - very productive.

Then, we set off in the midst of rush hour traffic for a night at Debbie & Mitch's in Vacaville - had some delish cheese steak sandwiches for dinner, played dominoes, watched the dogs play, chatted - all the good stuff.

Saturday morning, after a yummy breakfast, we headed further east to drop my ring off for inspection/cleaning, hit up REI - new snowboard bindings for Brian (a very delayed birthday present from me) and a Christmas present for Riley, hit up the Halloween store for glow sticks for my cousins....then made our way to Loomis for a visit and dinner with the aunt, uncle and little cousins. Here, we played some Barbies, wrestled (more like Brian wrestled), played with the dogs and Amy made a scrumptious tortilla soup for dinner.

We ended the night by dropping Brian off for a bar night with the dudes and Riley and I headed home to watch Glee in bed.

Sunday morning was a glorious, lazy morning - slept in, did laundry, baked some pumpkin bread....then Stefania picked me up for the Bridge School Benefit concert. We were back and forth on heading to the outdoor concert venue in the pouring rain, but ELTON JOHN was going to be there, after all. So we layered on the gortex and waterproof shoes and headed south. Grizzly Bear (who?) kicked off the concert, followed by Modest Mouse, Kris Kristofferson, Jeff Bridges, Elvis Costello, Leon Russell and finally Elton John. Although I had a great time (the company was awesome) and the music was good, we were devastated that Elton John didn't play ANY classics - only new stuff. Boo to that. We left before Pearl Jam and Buffalo Springfield as we were soaking wet, head to toes. Proof of the fun and the rain:

Thanks again to Stef and her mom, Toni for the great day!

Sweet Baby Reese

On October 5, the world welcomed little baby Reese Jennings Davis into it. I have been very fortunate and was able to visit baby Reese in Nashville at 1 day old on October 6 and again just this past Wednesday at a wee 2 weeks old. Let me tell you, that baby is pre-cious! Such perfect, clear skin, all wide curious eyes and so content. Congrats to Reese and Alli!

Holiday Fun

This starts next month less than a mile from our house.....can't wait. This might be a LITTLE weird, but I think it will also be really cool. Christmas is so close - just a little over two months! Check it out: www.dickensfair.com

Pumpkins Cont'd

Today, we made our way to Half Moon Bay for the Art & Pumpkin Festival with Stefania and Raja. We left early to beat the traffic and arrived just in time for the rain. We didn't get any photos because of the awful weather, but we did sample a slide of a pumpkin roll, pumpkin bread, pork tamale, and the boys had some pumpkin beer. Shortly after we arrived, we left to get out of the rain and stopped for lunch at the Half Moon Bay Brewing Co - the boys shared nachos and Stef and I shared a crab and prawn steamer....yum, yum!

We were home by 1 and the weather was perfect for curling up on the couch to watch football. Riley took the lead:

We had a fantastic weekend and I'm certainly sad it's over. At least Brian and I both won our fantasy football games...too bad Dallas lost. Now, it's back to the grind...kicking off tomorrow with a work trip to Nashville until Thursday.

Corn Mazed

Imagine 45 acres of 8 foot tall corn plants....bigger than the 2009 Guinness Book of World Records corn maze. That's what we did on Saturday. We headed up to Dixon to Cool Patch Pumpkins patch with some old friends to challenge ourselves to the world's largest corn maze.

Here's a photo of Riley posing in the pumpkin patch. So exhausted from the 2+ hours in the corn maze, ready to pick out some pumpkins.

Here's the family photo in the patch - had to get this snapshot!
Acres and acres of corn...

Here's what the maze looked like from a tower....

And here it is from within...

Would we do the maze again? Probably not, but it was a fun day and a good experience. We enjoyed watching all the fighting couples and frustrated families trying to navigate the maze (p.s. they handed out maps)...hello, people....it's a maze, it's supposed to be difficult.

We bought two perfect pumpkins - one is fat and round like a cartoon pumpkin. Looking forward to our carving creations this year in a couple weeks. More blogging to come on that!

Whoa, Dogs

Today, I had the opportunity to take Riley to Fort Funston for a jog along the beach, hike along the dunes and a swim in the cold ocean. While we ran around and played fetch and get nice and sandy, we ran into a Dog Walker. A Dog Walker with NINE dogs. That's right....NINE....9. It was unreal. Imagine the hair! Imagine the poop!

Fleet Week

We haven't been around for Fleet Week and the Blue Angels for four years so it was a real treat to get to watch them this year - and a double treat since we went to Angel Island to watch the show. I have never been before and it's such a fabulous way to take a look at the city on a clear day.

We started the day out by hauling a very hung over Brian off the couch, throwing him in the shower, and jumping into the car to drive to Tiburon to take the ferry. We wanted to avoid parking down near the piers in SF and also didn't want to take the bus so we bit the bullet and drove across the Golden Gate to the other side of the bridge.

The ferry ride was gorgeous. Tiburon and Belvedere are SUCH pretty little bay towns. Take a look at this view!

And here come the Blue Angels! They sored over our heads and we could see the vibrant blue and yellow US Navy paint.
There they are in a straight line flying in line with the Bay Bridge. Those suckers are loud! Check out all the boats in the bay, too.

Here they are again, perfectly arranged flying high above the city, all the sail boats and Alcatraz, too.

Had to take advantage of the perfect photo opp, too. We sat way up high on Angel Island with a beautiful view of the Golden Gate.

Nashvegas

I've spent two work trips in Nashville now....and heading back next week for a third. What do I think? LOVE IT. Such a cool city! Looking forward to going back - might even have to bring the hubster out for a visit, too.

Why do I like Nashville so much?

1) Great country music all day and night long coming from the restaurants and bars - I actually KNOW the words!

2) Delicious BBQ...anyone who knows me, knows I love pulled pork sandwiches!

3) Southern manners - men opening doors, pleases and thank yous, ma'ams, and all the pet names, too!

Sniff, Sniff...

Dear Hobby Lobby,

I miss you. No craft / home decor store could ever replace you. Kicking off the holiday decorating season is very sad without you.

Love,

Gina

Fall Campin'

So excited to get a last camping trip in this summer - and kind of bummed we only camped twice this whole summer. BUT we headed to one of my favorite camping spots - Cassini Ranch at the Russian River.

Here are some photos to highlight the trip....

Riley and his new friend, Jodi frolicking in the river.

Brian and I floating on a raft in the river....just like old times. Too bad Brennan jumped off Brian's back when the camera was pulled out - would have made for an even better photo.

Group family photo snapshot - last day of camping and in huge need of a shower.

Of course, Brennan couldn't be serious for a nice photo for 2 seconds, but it's still a cute picture.

My boy looking cute in a visor.

Top 5 Memories from the Weekend

1. Riley being such a good boy

2. Jumping off the rock into the river

3. Playing Racko (brings back old memories!) and Pusoy Dos

4. Jodi getting on the table, sticking her head in the bag of Tostitos and eating as fast as possible

5. The ratio of 4:1 dogs to people at the beach on Saturday

I Scream, You Scream...

We all scream for ICE CREAM!

A few weeks ago I was inspired to put our Ice Cream Maker to use, since we've only used it once since we got it as a wedding gift and the ice cream didn't turn out so well. I searched the Internet high and low for a good recipe, but settled on an Alton Brown recipe from an episode of Good Eats which I watched a while back.

First, I melted the chocolate with the cream (yes, this was not a light recipe) and the malted milk powder (mmmm!).

Then, I mixed up the custard (egg and sugar).
After that, I tempered the custard with the chocolate cream and cooled it in an ice bath until it was at least 40 degrees. Why was I so specific and diligent with this? I think the first ice cream attempt a couple years ago was a failure because I didn't let the mixture cool enough.

Then, I turned on the ol' Ice Cream machine...but not until the freezing cylinder sat in the freezer over night.

After about 20 minutes, the ice cream started to form and that's when I put the chopped Whoppers in....I love Malts and so I tried to recreate the flavor. Yum, yum!

We quite enjoyed the homemade ice cream. Next, I'm looking for a good frozen yogurt or low fat ice cream recipe....any to share?