It's a....

BOY!!! I am feeling pretty darn impressed with my amazing motherly intuition. From day ONE I told Kyle, "yep.. this is a little dude!" And I was RIGHT. Boom! I wasn't surprised at all when we saw his jewels on Friday.

Jack Bradly Harrington will be here soon, and I can hardly wait. I'm already busy planning out his nursery and daydreaming about who he will look like.

He is VERY calm. He was cooperating so well when the tech was trying to get all his measurements. Oh please let this mean you will be a peaceful child!!!

This profile shot kinda freaks me out... but I just love how he keeps his hands near his face.

I am BEYOND thankful that he is healthy. His heart and brain look great, he has both kidneys, and all his fingers and toes. My quad screen came back completely normal, and I am in awe at this little miracle.

Now I'm rooting for a safe delivery... and a nice strong epidural! :)

I'm the worst blogger!

I always mean to post and fill in the details of what we have been up to... and then I don't! This will just be a short post with our latest most EXCITING news.

We are having a baby. Finally. And I'm finally in my second trimester. After our first loss back in April, I seriously wondered if and when we would get here. I am so thankful to have been given two babies, and so happy this second one has decided to stick around with us. We are hoping and praying that everything keeps going smoothly and this baby makes his/her arrival with no problems.

Me at 12 weeks.

We are so so excited, and have so much support already. This baby is going to be one loved little nugget. We can't wait to know the gender so I can start my OCD buying, decorating and organizing. (Kyle is excited for that!)

Finally... a visitor!!!

Anyone who knows me knows I've been having a really hard time. I am lucky enough to have a best friend who always comes to my rescue. Really. Sarah and I have been friends since the 6 grade. She's helped me through boy troubles, moves (honestly, probably 6 total... she's the buffest chick I know) she always acts like my baking is yummy, and she shows up on my doorstep when everyone else is too busy.

I will need to do some more picture searching to find us over the years... but here is 7th grade.

We were working on a science project and ended up having a sharpie marker fight... special? yes.

I can't take credit for those lovely Winnie the Poo stickers. That's Sarah's room back in the day. And what was I.. two lbs? Wish I could be that thin again!

Anyway, Sarah got here on Friday and sadly had to leave Monday. It was too short a weekend, but we did manage to act like nerds and eat like we are those huge people that have to get craned out of their house. (Oh wait, that was just me).

We got Sarah a visitor's pass to go on the base with us... There really isn't much else to do in Abilene! She got some sweet pix of Kyle's jet with her amazing camera. Then we dorked around underneath the jet. This is one of our suitable pictures:)

We made tutu's for the special little ladies in our lives. Sarah's is for cute Madison who is only two months old. :) We set her camera on the "10 shots" mode and went crazy. (More like special) I love the last picture because Kyle photo-bombed it. See his face under Sarah's arm.. teehee.

We went to the Zoo - Where is the giraffe? :(

 Feeding her crackers!

Sarah says their tongues look like slugs...

Really? that's a little impressive, don't you think?!

We drove to Dallas yesterday to meet back up with Charlotte and Madison... check this adorable face out.

And lastly Madison in her tutu and matching bow. Why are babies so cute?!

Thanks again Sarah for coming out to see me. You saved my sanity if only for a weekend! I hope I can be a friend like you when I grow up. Here is to LOTS more memories and hopefully more visits.

I love you!

A trip to Fort Worth

I'm sure everyone who knows us... knows that we hate Abilene. There is NOTHING to do here... no hiking trails, no campsites, no real fishing - nothing. We did buy a season pass to our local zoo, which isn't too shabby but it only takes about an hour to walk the whole park.

We decided to get out of town for a day and do some exploring! We LOVE Zoo's. (even though the whole time we talk about how sad it is that the animals are caged up). Fort Worth is only about 2.5 hours from us, so off we went!

Please tell me this guy isn't awesome?! I could have sat and watched him ALL day. Not only was he massive, but he really was beautiful. He was so funny and really didn't pay any attention to all the attention he was getting.

Okay, so this was hilarious. He would pee downstream and then lean forward and drink. Smart guy huh? Kyle too this picture by the way...

This guy had a ball he would play with in his water. His little furry ears made me laugh.

Sleepy bears - my parents would have wanted to shoot them.

 Anyone else LOVE Swamp People?!?!? Kyle does the best impression of Troy! He even does his songs spot-on. So when we saw this gator we had to take a picture. We feel cheated out of never seeing any in the South... "choot 'em Lizbeth!!! choot 'em!"

 For my brother Kyle - sent him this pic to remind him of Australia :)

This guy personally freaked me out - but Kyle loved him and took about a thousand pictures.

After the zoo - stumbled upon the COOLEST neighborhood I've ever seen in my life. It was from the movies, I swear. We drove around for about an hour just admiring all the houses. It seemed a little too freaky to take pictures of all of them  - but I wanted to. We always love to look at houses and dream of what we might be able to have someday. We definitely want some land so we can do some gardening and I want a horse!

taken from the car... but how cute is that?! All the houses were different and there were so many trees on the block. I wanted to move in right there... or even sleep on the street and call that my new home.

Okay, so I admit this was a bit of a boring post - but I did it more for my own memory of the day. Hoping we get in some more road trips and pictures before we have to leave Texas (oh darn!!!) I've already been mapping out all the amazing things we will get to do in South Dakota.. Like THIS people come on - you'll all be jealous you're not freezing your booties off in the winter..

I see home hiking and fishing in our near future - can't wait!!!!!

Distractions

I think I have developed a severe case of ADD in my ripe old age. I can't concentrate on anything to save my life. I currently have two finals to take, an entire project (have not started), and an extra credit paper - All due by SUNDAY! On top of that I just got an order for Saturday meaning now all I can think about is what type of fondant decorations I can do atop some scrumptious red velvet cupcakes. Meanwhile, I'm too busy on BBC - reading hundreds of posts and commenting away to my little hearts content.

There has to be some cure for this, I'm sure of it. Or maybe not and I'll just spend the rest of my life thinking about babies and cupcakes.

New Easter Tradition

Cinnamon Rolls!!! I hope to be the wife and mommy some day that wakes up EXTRA early to have these ready for breakfast... but as for now, these are ready for dessert. Best recipe. Kyle said, "these are phenomenal," then high-fived me? With tornados all around us today and the scariest thunder and lightning I've ever seen/heard... I already ate one in case we die. ENJOY!

Cinnamon Heaven

The only thing I changed was... to the filling I added chopped pecans and some almond extract. AND I did my own icing. Equal parts butter, cream cheese, vanilla and just however much powdered sugar I thought made it thick enough. Sometimes with these recipes all you taste is powdered sugar. No good! Keep it to the good stuff.

 this is the most my dough has ever risen, I was VERY proud!!!

 This dough is SO flakey and buttery... I want to use it for rolls!

Next time I'm going to DOUBLE the filling. It's good and there seems to be enough, but more would be better.

tell me that doesn't look cinnabon'ish?!

Happy Easter, go get yo' fat on! :)

Earth Day??

 I guess it's Earth Day today... according to Google's cute little welcome page set up. Kyle and I have tried our best to make our little yard nice this last week. We even bought a little water sprinkler and have been watering our lawn at night. (there are no sprinkler systems here as it NEVER rains) Anyway, I bought some petunias to pot in the front of the yard since our ground is ROCK hard and unbreakable to plant flowers in. I love to buy flowers that haven't bloomed yet so when they finally do it's a surprise to me! So far I have red and pink and it looks like the middle bloom will be purple. There you go Earth Day. There is my contribution. :)

March of Dimes Walk

Hi Everyone! Kyle and I are walking for the March of Dimes on April 30th to show our support for mothers and babies. I have created a page and am trying to earn some money for the cause. No pressure to donate, just trying to educate others on healthy mom's and pregnancies. :)

My Site!

In Conclusion...

Crisco makes everything a million times tastier.

I've been a TERRIBLE baker lately and have neglected my Boysenberry mixer. :( I didn't even have BUTTER for these. I know, shameful.

What I did have though was some butter flavored crisco... aside from the fact that it's extremely fatty, it's incredibly delicious.

1 block crisco
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla (although I just pour it in and stop whenever I decide to. In my opinion, you can NEVER have too much vanilla)
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
pinch of salt
2 cups of oats

350 for 17 minutes (yes, 17). Crispy on the edges, chewy in the middle. Best oatmeal cookies I've made. ENJOY!

23

So, my birthday was yesterday and I was overwhelmed with love from everyone I know. Especially my husband. I used to rate my years by the number of John Mayer concerts I went to, but now I'm rating them by the days I get to be with my Kyle. As this has been the happiest and saddest year of my life, I was lucky enough to have him right by my side through it all.

On another note we had some "wedding" pictures taken a couple weeks ago since we are not able to have our "big wedding" anytime soon. Won't they look so good in my new bedroom? Shout out to Tiffany Turk for being the best photographer in this hell hole called Abilene, Texas. We hope South Dakota is much nicer (certainly won't be warmer).

Thanks again to our family and friends for all the love and support. AND thank you to the beautiful women in my family for my flowers. You know me too well to order hydrangeas and roses. :)

PS. Isn't my Pilot Boy a stud muffin?

Bedroom Update!

So, my lovely girly duvet cover and shams came from PB this week, along with our new down comforter. I have never had a down comforter before... and I have to say, it is WARM AND TOASTY! We love it. I suggest going to http://www.beyondbedding.com/ for these! I got it for almost half the price most stores wanted. I also went curtain crazy this weekend going around town trying to find some decently priced matching sets. I am proud of myself! Coming in at $9 a panel and $11 for the rod... I am becoming a real bargain shopper. So here it is.. so far. I still need more pillows and to hang art/mirrors to fill up wall space. I'm a little bit in spend shock though, so it may wait for next month. (or should I say KYLE is spend shock?)

About US: (Kyle and Kelsey)

I guess I didn't really give everyone the 411 on the story of Kelsey and Kyle. I usually think this kind of thing is extremely corny, but in my old age I am becoming much more sentimental.

I met Kyle on the 4th of July in 2009 - thanks to my one of best friends Sarah. (She would be irritated if I didn't throw that in). I thought Kyle was a hottie and acted a fool trying to get his attention. After that night I knew I had to get to know him, so I creepily found him on facebook and added him as a friend. We like to kid around that we have a facebook relationship, but we honestly did meet in person first! We did the whole long distance thing; including lots of Skyping (which honestly is the best thing ever when away from loved ones). Kyle flew me out to see him in October and we knew we were doomed. It didn't take long for us to decide we couldn't live apart from each other. We got married on June 19, 2010. It was a small wedding and we missed our family and friends dearly, but we knew it was time.

Now we have been married 8 months (today) and I can honestly say things just keep getting better for us. We are currently stationed in Abilene, Texas and LOVING it. I never in a million years thought I would live in Texas, or be married to the military! We get to make another move to South Dakota sometime this summer or early fall. It's going to be cold, but we are so excited to see that part of the country.

We are so happy and I look forward to sharing lots of our crazy fun adventures with you all!

... Finally a grown up room!

Kyle and I have been pinching every penny to finally purchase a bedroom furniture set. I am known to be an obsessive online shopper so after MONTHS of searching, I think I found the perfect set. I also bought new bedding. A little fem for Kyle, but he doesn't have a say in this one... right?

I am so excited for it all to get here! Maybe now I will start making my bed in the morning and picking up my clothes off the floor.