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 :)