Exercise during pregnancy is a way to take control of your body during a time when it seems much of your overall health, appearance, and well being is out of your control. Despite months of feeling nauseous and fatigued I've enjoyed teaching spin and weight lifting classes and am happy that I'll have made it almost 30 weeks/ 7 months without playing the "pregnancy card." After 7 months pregnant I have decided that although I will still keep working out I probably don't want to be the one leading at the front of the class and so I am only teaching through next week (I'll still do personal training with existing clients.) Also this will give me a chance to do some lower- impact yoga and pilates I never seem to find time for.

I strongly believe that in order to make exercise a lifestyle and habit there has to be a point where it is about more than just weight loss /management. It requires too much work and there are a lot quicker ways out there to drop pounds. Also there will be times when you're exercising and still not losing weight (or like me expected to gain several pounds a month) and through those times it's important to just keep going. I believe there has to come a point where you either find a mode of exercise you love as a hobby or learn to enjoy the way it makes you feel (psychologically or physically.)

For Valentine's Day we celebrated with a fancy dinner of crab legs, baked Bre and copious amounts of heart-shaped sugar cookies. We told Liam he could have some crab so he woke us up at 5:45 am and insisted that we cook him a crab pincher. ( That's why we're all in our pjs.

My favorite place in town

(This picture was taken this fall, before I was 6.5 months pregnant)
This retro style bakeshop 3 blocks away from our house is more than just a great place to buy a muffin. It's the type of bakery you walk into and feel like you've just come home from school and mom has made you cookies. Its a place you can celebrate and be reminded of all the food nostalgia that make up family memories.

Everything is homemade in small batches with a lime green Kitchen Aide and Linda the owner tests every batch of cookie, pie, muffin or quiche batter personally before it goes into the oven. There are old fashion toys and a kitchen set that kids can play with in the corner. On Fridays a smiley guy that looks like a skinny Santa Clause in a plaid shirt plays bluegrass music on his harmonica and guitar during lunch time.
If you can't go to grandma's house, this is the next best thing.

a food streak

For me reading cookbooks and creating good food is almost more satisfying than eating. Almost. I periodically go into a cooking rut where I apathetically exist off low quality, mediocre food. Being sick for months with this pregnancy cooking and food was the last thing I wanted to think about. This flipped and eventually evolved into a reactionary, cooking frenzy where I cant wait to try my next recipe. During this time I scour cookbooks, friends' blogs and recipe boxes looking for something new to add to my cooking skills and abate my epicurean curiosity.

For those of you that have seen Julie and Julia, I haven't gone quite that extreme. No french cooking, no crazy ingredients and every recipe can be made in under 20 minutes.

My goal this next month is to cook something I haven't eaten (or redo a recipe that never got a fair chance) every day of the week, or at least 6 new recipes. I have been doing this for 2 weeks so far and despite a few inedible finishes most of the recipes will stick around.

The recipes need to be healthy enough that I would recommend it to any of my personal training clients but tasty and interesting enough that I would order it at a restaurant.

This Christmas break we spent a few days with Brady's uncle Jason who is embracing and thriving on a "raw food" diet -salads galore, & all things whole and natural. Its a little bit too hippie and vegan for me but the concept is very inspiring.

The past few weeks we've been referencing "Cook This, Not That" by David Zinczenko. It's basically healthy copy cat recipes of chain restaurants and a fun addition to our weekly menu.

A few recipes we've tried have been California citrus salad, grilled mahi mahi tacos w/ avacado/mango salsa, walnut pear salad with fresh mozzarella croutons, green chili enchiladas, apple barbecue pulled pork sandwiches....

Liam's gun

We're always trying to tell him that he shouldn't be killing people or shooting them with guns. So to get around this he came up with an equally insulting alternative to being shot dead- being shot in the face with a poop gun. Where he got this idea we have no idea.

Liams Day at the Zoo

Liam has a "Planet Earth" book and was happy to see all of his favorites at the zoo. He voiced disappointment that the lion didn't take down, and eat off of any of the other animals, nor did it roar. However he did get to see a bald eagle which came from Alaska, he thinks from by his grandma Dalene's house, and a talking raven.

Lindsey's baby

Having babies is what life is all about. We were lucky enough to be around when Lindsey (Brady's sister) and Jake's baby Molly was born. What an exciting time. I'm 5 1/2 months pregnant and it really made me a little impatient. There is nothing so sweet as holding a new born baby and it was fuin to be around for LIndsey's 1st.