Bagel Baking

I've always wanted to make bagels, but the task seemed scary and daunting. Why try and bake something when you can get great ones down the street? Well, with a little inspiration, I did it! I used this recipe.

First, start with these basic ingredients:


Mix it all together and kneed for 10 minutes. (do I look like I'm 39 weeks pregnant?)


Then you break it into pieces and let them rest. We also used this time to toast our toppings. We chose these wonderful delights:


Then, you boil the bagels for a minute on each side.


Dip your bagels in your toasted toppings. Here's my sister roasting. She's a babe.


You have to bake the bagels and flip them during the process. After all of those simple steps, you get something that looks similar to this:


Pretty awesome, right? I think next on the list is a cinnamon- raisin bagel. I also want to try making blueberry bagels. Matt and I were coming up with some tasty creations, so get ready! Maybe I'll find some great ingredients at the Farmer's Market tomorrow. It sure would be nice to have all sorts of bagels around when the baby arrives and the family gets here. But when will that be?

Baby-izing

We learned the hard way that not all cars are good for babies. We bought our Subaru a month after getting married and we loved it. It was small, AWD, and the perfect CO mobile. It came with the "Latch" system to hook in a baby seat, so we thought we were set. The one thing we knew nothing about was how big an actual car seat is. They are ginormous. One would think that a seat for an infant would be small, but that is far from the truth. I do appreciate all of the safety features, but I was oblivious to what that meant!

We put the car seat in the Subaru after our New Parent Class and quickly realized that we had a 2 person car. Once the car seat was in, the other seat belts became impossible to use. After driving around with the passenger seat in the dashboard, it became time to go car shopping.

Introducing the 2007 Jeep Patriot:


We got a great deal, lowered our payments, and now have a family-friendly car. Welcome to parenthood, Matt and Ari!

Getting Ready

This weekend we spent some time getting ready for our little lady. Matt worked hard all week to get ready for a yard sale and I went a little nuts and cleaned out the closets. Matt preached this morning, so while he napped I worked on the nursery this afternoon. Our hospital bag is packed, the car seat is in the car, and the diaper bag is ready to go. Alright Sophie, we are ready!

My dear pal Carrie, new Mom to 4 month old Edmund, used to talk about how daunting looking at crib bedding was. I didn't understand until I started to look for our registry. There are about one million options and maybe 10 that are nice. So, when in doubt, start from scratch. I am new to sewing and still figuring out my machine, but luckily I have a lot of talented friends! Cherie, the master seamstress, offered to help me out. I picked out some fabric and handed it over. All I can say is that I could not be any more thrilled. It's amazing!


Here's the final belly photo of the pregnancy. It's not pretty, but the Grandma's would have hunted me down if I didn't post it :)


It's my last week of work, so I'm hoping to do some crafting and blogging very soon. Have a great Monday!

Introducing Baby America

My due date is July 4th, 2010, just under 4 weeks from now. From the moment we found that out, all sorts of nicknames have been floating around for the wee one in my belly. "Baby America" seems to have stuck (thank you Kim and Chase). Kim and I even found a nice red, white, and blue get-up if she decides to arrive in time to wear it. I sure would appreciate it if she made an early appearance.

We decided not to legally name the kiddo "Baby America." Not only would she have been made fun of a fair amount in school, but she would end up hating her mother and father, I'm sure!

Introducing... Sophia Maria...


This ultrasound was done about 16 weeks ago, so I'm hoping she looks a little more human and less like an alien. I'm predicting lots of hair. What do you think?