Preping for our Princess!

Yes! She is a girl! We are SO excited. The doctor's visit was so special. I cried a bit out of joy :) We have lots of pictures, a copy of the ultrasound video (2D and 4D), and a home video that Randy took of the entire thing. She was doing summersaults in my tummy, which made the technicians job difficult, but was so cool to watch. My favorite part was when we got to see her swallowing and sucking the amniotic fluid. I've been reading all about that stage of development in my books, but its so much cooler to see her practicing on screen.

Our doctor said she is very healthy, long limbed, and might be coming a week earlier than we thought (although that's not something to count on). That new combined with the great results from our last blood work make us feel so blessed to have a strong, healthy baby! Thank you Heavenly Father for giving us this blessing! (And as I typed that she just kicked me! She's so strong now!)

Its so real now! I still can't believe it. I guess to help me get used to the idea, I should start all that girly shopping! Time to start narrowing the name list down and buying frilly bottomed outfits! YAY!

Count down to the big answer....Boy or Girl???

Ahh! I am so excited. Just a couple hours to go. This weekend we got the crib and set it up, and just on Monday we found a perfectly matching changing table and shelf combo that look so lovely. I decorated it all just for fun with the girly stuff I already owned and the crib sheet that came with the crib. So, if it's a girl we have a good head start! If its a boy...well, I'll need to go shopping!

To pass the couple hour until Randy picks me up for the appointment, I have been hunting down some yummy recipes for this week's menu:

*Spinach and Mushroom Soup with Basic White bread (this week's bread comes from the Kitchen Aid recipe book I rediscovered while organizing the kitchen)

*Tomato Basil Soup with Rapid Mix Cool Rise White Bread

*French Onion Soup with Whole Grain Wheat Bread

*Sweet and Sour Chicken and Jasmine Rice

*Turkey Avocado Clubs

and my attempt to make food with in-season ingredients...

*Rhubarb Crumble with Vanilla Ice Cream

The Perfect Stroller

The Baby Jogger City Elite is my new official favorite stroller. After my sister-in-law Diana recommended it, Randy and I checked it out at a nearby store and totally fell in love. It has everything we will ever need. With a weight capacity of 70 lbs., our kids can ride this thing till s/he's 9 (not that we'd EVER do that) or I can just go hard core shopping all the time :). There is an attachment for our baby's car seat that will allow us to use this stroller from day one. Okay, also, there's a hand brake and the arm handle is adjustable! The stroller also folds easier than any stroller I've ever used in all my years of baby sitting and nannying. To see the officail demo go here, for a real life mom's demo, go here!

I'm currently stalking the pages of craig's list for the 2010 or 2011 City Elite, although I think this is one purchase we'll probably buy brand new. Happy hunting to me!

We found our perfect crib!!

Ahhh! I'm so excited. I LOVE this crib. Beautiful, solid, beautiful...I also love the price - about 80% cheaper than its original Pottery Barn pirce! Thank you Craigslist! Its an antique white color, so I might sand it down and paint it pure white, but we'll see which color scheme I end up going with. We pick up the crib on Saturday. I can't wait!

Rosemary Bread

This recipe is meant to recreate Macaroni grill's recipe and I think its pretty close!

Yields 2 loaves

1 tablespoon yeast

1 tablespoon sugar

1 cup warm water

2 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons rosemary

2 tablespoons butter


Prep Time: 2 1/4 hrs

Total Time: 2 1/2 hrs


1. Place yeast, sugar and water in large bowl or food processor and allow mixture to become bubbly.

2. Mix in 1 T butter, salt, and 2 cups of flour.

3. Add one tablespoon of the fresh chopped rosemary.

4. Knead for about 10 minutes by hand or in food processor about 5 minutes until smooth and elastic.

5. Add more flour if necessary.

6. Oil a bowl, put dough in it and cover with a towel.

7. Let dough rise in a warm place for one hour until doubled.

8. Punch down dough and divide in half.

9. Let dough rest about 5 minutes.

10. Spray baking pan or cookie sheet with cooking spray.

11. Shape the dough into 2 small rounded oval loaves.

12. Sprinkle remaining 1 Tablespoon of rosemary over the loaves and press lightly into the surface.

13. Let loaves rise again until doubled, about 45 minutes.

14. Preheat oven to 375°F.

15. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until lightly browned.

16. Carefully remove from oven, brush with remaining butter (and salt if desired – and you will desire it!).

My favorite baby resources so far:

1- My mom: General tips, heads up on weird pregnancy stuff, maternity clothes etc :)
2- My Doctor: Dr. Tsui has been so great so far, as have all the nurses at Cedar Siani. I always get called back the same day I ask a question!
3- Sisters-in-law and other experienced mothers: product reviews, nursery ideas, borrowed maternity clothes, up to date knowledge!
4-Babycenter.com: weekly updates on how baby is doing, what changes I am probably going through, pictures of the baby that week, and my favorite thing, the size of the baby as compared to different fruits! Today we are at a large banana!
5- "What To Expect When You're Expecting" by Heidi Murkoff and Sharon Mazel. Great monthly synopses, great index for specific questions, only complaint is that if you read the book month by month instead of all at once you may loose out on timely info (for instance I’m in month 5 and should signup for child birthing classes now and start them in month 7, but the book doesn’t even bring it up until the 6 month which might make it difficult to get into the class you want depending on your schedule).
6-Other blogs pages! My favorites: www.chiccheapnursery.com/ www.etsy.com/
www.ohdeedoh.com www.allthingsthrifty.com/ youhadmeatbonjourblog.blogspot.com/
7- Craigslist.org : I found my favorite stroller barely used for half price. Currently waiting to see if the couple who got to it first is going to take it! I also found a nice velvet boppy for $10 and a free baby rocker that saved us about $50. So great!

A Baby Announcement!

We are happy to announce that we are pregnant!...and have been for 20 weeks, lol. I can't be live that we are half way through! I was reallllly sick the first trimester and am just now feeling well enough to start having a normal life again.

The baby is doing really well and now spends most of the day squirming and kicking. Its so fun! Randy finally felt the baby a few weeks ago. It was so cute to see Randy get so excited! I think the baby will be a boy, but we'll see. I keep finding super cute girly clothes that tempt me...We find out the sex on May 4th!

I've been doing tons of research on baby stuff and am totally excited to blurt it all out on here. Our tax returns did a lot to boost our baby fund, so let the purchasing and decorating begin!

P.S. The picture is me and baby at 18 weeks. I'll put a more recent one up soon!

Strawberry Salad with Red Wine Vinaigrette

So this is my craving for today. I saw a strawberry stand on the side of the road today and decided that the season had come sooner than expected :) This recipe is AMAZING. Randy and I could eat it everyday! I'm bad with portions, so just use good judgment on the ratio of red onion to spinach and strawberries. Everyone has different tastes. Personally, I like a bit of everything in each bite!

Strawberry Salad:

2 bags of baby spinach
1 bag of baby greens
½ cup moon-shaped sliced celery2 sliced red onions
15 sliced strawberries1 cup sliced, caramelized almonds*
1 cup crumbly goat cheese

Toss baby spinach, baby greens, celery, red onions, and strawberries. Once portioned on individual plates have each guest take their own wanted amount of caramelized almonds, goat cheese, and dressing!

Dressing:

1 cup sugar
2 tsp. salt

2/3 cup red wine vinegar (I like the Pompeian gourmet brand. Makes a big difference!)
2 tsp. dry mustard
2 Tbsp. poppy seeds
1/3 cup grated red onion
1 and 1/2 cups of olive oil

Mix all ingredients EXCEPT olive oil. One mixed well, continue mixing fast (blender works well to mix) and SLOWLY poor in olive oil. This allows the vinaigrette to stay blended with the oil. The faster you mix the vinegar mix and the slower you pour the oil, the less separation there will be between the vinegar mix and the oil. Not a big deal, but its annoying to shake constantly.

Caramelized Almonds:

Buy a bag of sliced almonds

1-2 cups of sugar

In small pot heat sugar on low. Stir constantly throughout process. As soon as sugar starts to clump and melt into light brown liquid, get prepared with sliced almonds. As soon as all sugar is melted, stir almonds in really quickly and take off heat. When all almonds are covered, spoon out a thin layer in to a ceramic baking pan or, preferably, a flexible brownie pan. DO NOT USE WAX PAPER. The wax will melt and stick to your almonds. NOT tasty. Let the almonds harden and cool for fifteen minutes, use a spoon to loosen from holding dish, then sprinkle over salad! Or just buy some at the store :)

FOOD

FOOD
So Randy and I were talking the other day and we made an extensive list of our favorite foods that we make and a list of foods we want to work on. I want to post some of our favorite recipes but first I'm going to list our favorites and their categories (for fun, and as a kind of menu)

Foods we feel we have mastered...

BREAKFAST:
Blue Berry Pancakes and Waffles (recipe courtesy of Diana Hulme!)
Buttermilk Pancakes
Swedish Pancakes
German Pancakes
Omelets
Breakfast Burritos
Eggs Benedict
Eggs in a Basket
Fried Eggs on Toast
Egg Sandwich
Cornelius (When we have access to a double boiler)
French Toast
Sour Dough Pancakes (When we have a sour dough start!)
Smoothies
Bacon
Sausage

DINNER:
Meatloaf (Hour long and half hour versions)
Tacos
Thai Fried Rice
Chicken Stir Fry
BBQ Chicken
Hamburgers
Tritip
Onion Soup Mix Potatoes
Pizza Marinara (great for bread stick dipping!)
Basic Deep Dish Pizza
BBQ Deep Dish Pizza
Spaghetti Sauce
Guacamole
Smashed Potatoes
Zucchini (steamed)
Asparagus (steamed)

SALADS:
Cesar Dressing and Croutons
Strawberry Salad and Strawberry Vinaigrette (Can't wait for strawberry season! Only a week to go!)


DESSERTS!!!!!!!!!:
Homemade Oreos
Pazookies
Funfetti Cookies
Half Microwaved Brownies and Ice Cream (thanks to Jessie Sieminski!)
Lemon Cake
Toll House Cookies Dough
Quaker Oats Cookie Dough

Foods we LOVE but aren't mastered...

Tomato Basil Soup
Pot Roast
Curry Goat
Squash Soup
Twice Baked Potatoes
Spicy Chicken (as in SPICY)
Asian Chicken with Peanuts
Green Beans and Almonds
Toni's Pasta Salad
Orange Rolls
Prime Rib
Chicken Noodle Soups

Foods we unrealistically dream about making someday...

PF Chang's Mongolian Beef
Cafe Rio EVERYTHING
Chipotle's Stake Marinade
Panda Express EVERYTHING


So now that I've got that down, the recipes will come soon!

Graduated, Moved, Employed!

After 8 months of marriage I am finally piecing together an update :) Here is a month by month up date:

May: Got married! Receptions in SD and SB. Went to St. Thomas for our fabulous honeymoon. Felt like we were living in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies!

June: Alyssa continued with her 12 week internship at Northrop Grumman while we lived with her parents in Carlsbad, Ca. She rocked the Communications and Business Development sectors. Wrote for Aerospace Now and created Global Hawk marketing materials! Randy took a well deserved break from his internship at Oberon Securities, an investment bank in NYC. Also worked as a temp for a local lay office.

July: We moved to Manhattan, NY for 6 weeks so that Randy could finish his internship. Our apartment was only a couple streets away from Time Square, which Randy walked through each day to get to his office. We enjoyed meeting up for lunch, visiting TONS of Randy's missionary families/converts/companions/haunts, and walking all over NY. Our favorite places were the Museum of Art, Ellis Island, and a local Chinese place and their General Tsou chicken!

August: We hosted some friends on two separate weekends (thank goodness for the second bedroom!) and Randy finished his internship. We were approached by a friend of Randy's to drive their daughter's car from NY to BYU Provo to save them money on shipping it across the state. Being the clever pair that we are, we turned the cross country trip into a fabulous church tour starting in Palmyra, NY and commencing at the very end of the Pioneer trail in Utah. Our favorite place was Adam Ondi-Ahman. So fabulous! There is a very beautiful spirit there. We did a little of our own research and found out a lot about the history there and the preparations going on now for the future. I can't explain it all here, but I have a book on it all I highly recommend if you are interested! After hitting Utah, we dropped the car off in Provo and hitched a ride with Alyssa's parents back to Carlsbad were we packed up a large U-Haul truck and drove back to Utah (yes, we drove across the states and then a third of the way back again in a week and a half. We now hate fast food).

September: Moved into our tiny apartment in Provo and started school up again! Randy started job hunting and securing interviews

October: The month of interview preparation and execution! Alyssa quizzed Randy incessantly and it paid off...

November: After several offers, job offer at LEK accepted! Randy officially accepted the offer to be a financial analyst at one of the top 10 consulting firms in the nation located in Los Angeles (Westwood). Randy's job will start in July 2011! Thanksgiving with the Hulme's and Sumsion wedding celebrated with much joy and relief.

December: Final undergraduate classes completed for Randy and Alyssa (with the acceptation of one online class for her). We completed the packing/cleaning/moving process with lots of help from friends and headed back to California to move into our current apartment and to spend Christmas with family!

January: We are currently unpacking, seeking employment, and enjoying the warm weather! Alyssa is employed at the Lifetime Network as a fact checker for a new pilot episode that will be disclosed at a later time :) We are both tutoring families in the ward. Randy is teaching surfing lessons (the poor guy), music lesson (both guitar and piano), and just got a data entry job for the next couple weeks! We have a very random, continually changing schedule and are enjoying living on the brink of financial uncertainty (until July at least). But we aren't scared at all because we know that we are being blessed for choosing to put our faith in God and move down here. So far, so good! We have a fabulous apartment that is literally the closest to the LA temple as we could get. As Brandon Farmer puts it, "God is [our] neighbor!" We got to spend last weekend with both our parents and were able to enjoy a short visit with Brandon and the future Mrs. Farmer! We sneakily filmed the entire visit until it ended with Brandon proposing to Marianna...FINALLY! (lol, look who’s talking...) And of course she said "yes"! We still have one more week to go in January but that's all for now!

We will get some pictures on here ASAP. Wouldn't want to miss out on the opportunity to point out that in mid-January we enjoyed the beach and a light tan! Come visit soon! We make really good food...

Wedding Band

I just got my wedding band from the jewelers! I get to wear it for a day to make sure its what I want...darn :)
In other news Randy and I are surviving the semester and keep very busy. Midterms are starting back up, my dress arrives in Park City next week, and its snowboarding season! Woo hoo! Only a couple more months to go!

Wedding Website

I just wanted to say here real quick - I just made a wedding website! The engagement section is just a cop and paste of my last post, but there are more pictures up and you can see how we met and everything! The address is http://www.theknot.com/ourwedding/AlyssaCalder&RandyHulme

Engagment!

Randy proposed to me December 19th night in Park City where both of our families spent Christmas. He picked me up after my family arrived in Park City, gave me my favorite color of flowers (purple)and took me to get our favorite hot chocolate at 7/11. Afterwards we drove up Deer Valley and looked for a nice spot to see the valley and drink our chocolate.
Once we found a beautiful point, Randy parked and asked me if I'd like to have a car dance (we like to dance to our favorite love songs using open car windows and his car stereo). I said yes, of course, and after finishing half of our hot coco, we went outside to dance.
We talked for a while and eventually our discussion turned into Randy telling me how much he loved me and how important I was to him. He was really sweet and I thought that I might know what was coming so I let me hands brush his pockets. He didn't flinch. He leaned into his car a couple of times to change the song. I looked for signs of a box, but no go. Finally I forgot my hunt and just enjoyed the beauty of the night.
All of a sudden I sensed that Randy's words were starting to culminate into some kind of closing statement. He asked if after knowing everything about him including his strengths and weaknesses if I still wanted to be with him always. I said yes, and then he said "Then I have a question for you." He knelt down, pulled up his right pant leg, revealing a small wooden box concealed in the side of his sock, pulled out the box and said : "Alyssa Brooke Calder - Will you marry me?" I said yes (of course!!!!!!!) and hugged and kissed him while he knelt. Eventually he stood up and twirled me around a bunch of times. He placed the ring on my finger and that was that!
We have been dating since October 15, 2008 and know each other since the January before that. Most people would say that its about time. I say now is the perfect time!
We spent the rest of the Christmas break with our families and each other planning our wedding and falling even more in love! We will be sure to keep you posted!