Morgan Baby Gender Reveal

If you follow me on Instagram (samaraevangeline) or are on my Facebook friends list, you've seen this:

Yep. I'm pregnant.

Now, I don't want this blog to turn into "everything baby". However, since it is a big part of my life right now, and for those of you who may be embarking on parenthood, I thought a few posts, here and there, might be of some interest to you all. 

My husband and I found out exactly two days after his birthday (April 8th) that we were expecting a baby in December. What a (late) birthday present! We kept everything secret until about week 13. And let me tell you, that was not easy. Not only was I sick around the clock, I had zero energy, was applying for, testing for, interviewing for, getting and learning a new job and finishing my Finance (major yawn) final at school. It was all I could do to make it through April and May. On the other side, though, good things awaited. 

For starters, I downloaded this adorable and fun IPhone app--Cute Fruit--that made me look forward to Fridays even more. (We enter a new week of pregnancy every Friday, so it updates on Fridays.) The app gives you a picture of a fruit that is comparable to your baby for that week of pregnancy. 

Cute, right?

I also entered the very strange world of shopping for maternity clothes. Oh, don't get me wrong, I was one of those women who was dead set against maternity clothes because of what I thought maternity clothes represented--huge frocks with ducks, ugly colors, tent-like clothing and clothing that looked like  a floral department threw up on it. Um, no thanks.

Something told me to look, though. I thought, if the celebrities can do it and look fashionable, then who am I to turn my nose up at maternity clothes. 

OK, I don't have a gazillion bucks to buy couture maternity clothes, but I found some really adorable things to wear that don't scream "I'm pregnant and have resultantly lost all my fashion sense!!"

And then, just very recently, we decided to do a mini-gender reveal with my immediate family. 

Gender Reveal! 

I didn't want to have a gender reveal baby shower because I feel it's less fun (and more difficult) to buy for a baby when you don't know the sex of the baby. I also didn't want to turn this gender reveal party into a huge party where all our friends and guests come and feel obligated to buy yet more presents (because they already are buying for your baby shower) for us--"Yay. Celebrate us. AGAIN!" Tacky.

What I did want to do, though, was something no one in my family had done yet and create a unique way to find out together as a family what the sex of the baby was going to be.

So, after our 20 week ultrasound, we had the ultrasound tech (who was AWESOME, by the way, and turned off the monitor at all the right moments) seal the results of the baby's sex in an envelope. She was the ONLY person that knew--not even my doctor knew because as she said, she didn't like to "cheat". 

We took the sealed results straight over to my friend Scott at Events to Rent. Scott and his partner did the decór for our beautiful wedding and were kind enough to help us out with the most important party decoration--the box containing the results of our ultrasound. That's right. My event decorator was the second person to know the sex of the baby. Oh, don't you judge me! ;-)

Here I am handing over the results to Scott!

Luckily, Wednesday through Sunday (the day of our gender reveal) was insane between work, my niece's birthday party, and preparing for our mini-gender reveal, that I didn't have much time to think about the fact that we had the results sitting on a CD in my husband's car. 

Finally, the day of the reveal arrived and we hurried to get all the last minute items together and get to my mom's. 

Scott delivered the very important package.

He did such a wonderful job and it was EXACTLY as we pictured!

We dubbed our little, private event, "Mimosas and Balloons". I'd seen mimosa bars all over Pinterest and couldn't wait to make my own little version of it. 

 Along with mimosas (and a "sparkling mimosa" for me), we munched on some light appetizers.

Originally, I'd planned this to be outside with little stations, but the rain kept us inside. This makeshift station included some of the top Old Wives' Tales and where my symptoms laid as far as boy or girl.

We also laid out framed ultrasound pictures from 8 weeks and 20 weeks to give "hints". (You really can't tell at all from the ultrasound pics, but it was fun.)

And over to the right, there was a vase filled with little wooden dowels, topped off with cream-colored lips or a black mustache for people to choose from, depending on if they thought the balloons would be BLUE or PINK when we opened the box!

My cutie pie niece Ava posing by the box!

After we sipped on mimosas, had some light food and played the guessing game, we took a family picture with our guesses! (Thomas and I really had no clue, so we went with a girl guess.)

We had just one thing left to do--OPEN THE BOX!!

Fortunately, the little prayer my mom said was heard. The skies cleared and the sun came out!

It was a bit chilly for a July afternoon, but it was still beautiful outside and the anticipation was killing me!

When we opened the gorgeous box made by our wonderful friends at Events to Rent, this is what we discovered.

It's a bit of work and takes a great deal of discipline to not cheat and find out the sex of your baby, but it is OH SO WORTH IT.

It's a boy! 

We have three adorable little girls on my side of the family and our baby will be the first boy. We can't wait to spoil him!! (Within total reason, of course.) :) 

Cheers,

Samara 

Chopped Chicken Salad

The weather has  been especially pleasant lately. Sunny, breezy, a touch cool. Weather like this reminds me of eating outside on a patio or deck or setting up a picnic somewhere.

I've had this delicious looking salad recipe that I've been hanging onto for a couple summers now and until only recently, have actually tried it. Oh my, is it good. It has a delicious bite to it and would be perfect with one of your favorite summer, white wines.

Enjoy!

Chopped Chicken Salad

Ingredients:

6 cups shredded iceberg lettuce, chopped*
1/2 lb purchased fried chicken tenders, roughly chopped
1/2 cup chopped grape tomatoes
1/2 cup copped matchstick carrots
1/2 cup chopped toasted walnuts
1/2 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1 tb Dijon mustard

*The recipe calls for 6 cups of the lettuce, but I found a little more might balance the dressing out a bit more. I'm going to slowly add cups until I find the perfect amount. For your first time, I'd try 6 cups.

Again, I cheated with the chopped chicken and bought it already made at the store. I'm a working woman. No shame in my (chicken cooking cheating) game. :)

 

Toasting the walnuts created a delicious aroma.

 OK, let's get to the directions of how to put this puppy together.

1. In a large bowl, combine lettuce, chicken, tomatoes, carrots, walnuts and cheese.

2. In a small bowl, whisk together vinegar and mustard. (I'm an artsy dork. I just love the color contrast here.

3. Slowly add olive oil, whisking to combine. 

4. Add salt and pepper, whisking to combine. 

5. Pour into jar with a tight-fitting lid.

6. Refrigerate. (Umm, the easiest recipe step ever?!? )

7. Shake to combine before drizzling over salad.

 Happy Weekend, friends!

Cheers,
Samara

Blueberry Buttermilk Oven Pancakes

When Thomas and I recently went to the Pentwater Abbey Bed & Breakfast for our one year anniversary, I remember snooping around in the "Rose Room's" guestbook and seeing comment after comment about the innkeeper's delicious blueberry pancakes. I'd hoped the innkeeper had the pancakes on one of our two mornings' menus. To my delight, we were served these mysteriously delicious pancakes on our final morning!

When I remarked to the innkeeper how happy I was to try these famous pancakes of hers, she quickly offered me the recipe. And yes, the hype surrounding the dish was well deserved!

For your consideration, I present:

Blueberry Buttermilk Oven Pancakes

When you head to the store, here's what you need!

Ingredients: (Split into three different parts, based on the different parts of the recipe)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

1 beaten egg
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
3 tablespoons cooking oil

1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries, rinsed and drained
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Here's what you need to do with the ingredients!

1. In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, soda, baking powder and salt (part 1 of ingredients above).

2. In another mixing bowl, combine the egg, buttermilk and cooking oil (part 2 of ingredient list above).

3. Add all at once to dry ingredients. 

4. Spread batter evenly in a greased and floured 15x10x1 inch baking pan (the rest of the steps are from the third part of the ingredient list above).

5. Sprinkle blueberries over top of the batter.

6. Combine sugar and cinnamon. (Who else made this concoction as a kid to sprinkle over their buttered toast?? ) 

7. Sprinkle cinnamon and sugar mix evenly over fruit.

8. Bake in a 350 oven for 16 to 18 (my oven runs hot, so I only did 12 minutes) minutes or until the top springs back when lightly touched and the top is lightly brown around the edges.

9. Cut into 12 square pancakes. Serve with syrup (and OJ in a champagne glass!) if desired!

Beware, this is dangerously delicious in my humble opinion and the whole pan can be eaten quicker (especially when the husband loves it) than you could imagine. Oops!

Cheers,
Samara

Bed & Breakfast Love

I've long wanted to go to a bed & breakfast and it's just one of those things I never got around to booking or even planning for that matter. Our recent one year wedding anniversary was a perfect time to act on this "wish list" item.

Of course, I had no idea I was going on a bed & breakfast trip as Thomas surprised me with the trip. All I knew was that after my brother and sister-in-law's graduation, we were hitting the road. I was given the type of clothing to pack and off we went. My only wish for our anniversary destination is that it not be very far from Lansing and be very low-key as I was dealing with first trimester pregnancy blues (oh nausea, how I hate(d) thee, let me count the ways...).

Thomas took me to THEE most adorable bed & breakfast--The Pentwater Abbey--in a teeny tiny little town called Pentwater. Luckily, we were the only guests there so we had the whole place to ourselves, save for our adorable inn keeper, Karen.

When we arrived, we were greeted with this adorable, handwritten note on Karen's front door:

From that point on, we were treated to a wonderful, relaxing weekend with the most considerate, thoughtful host ever! I wanted to bring Karen home with us to make breakfast every day and be our live-in aunt who takes care of everything we need. She was wonderful!

Quaint view from our room of a portion of the garden

Cute little details :)

Our breakfast table

She made tons of delicious breakfast food.

 

While in Pentwater, other than sleeping, relaxing, spending quality time together and EATING, we strolled along the quaint, little town streets talking with the shopkeepers and doing some light shopping.

I loved the local barber shop's hours:

The best part about our stay is that our bed & breakfast was two blocks from the shore of Lake Michigan. 

And since we stayed through a Sunday night, we had the lovely shore front ALL TO OURSELVES. It was such a romantic weekend.

On our anniversary, we sat out at the table in Karen's garden, had a piece of cake from the top layer of our wedding cake and wrote eachother sweet notes, reflecting on our first year of marriage.

OK, we cheated a little on the cake thing. We both agreed that frozen cake is always disgusting and thusly ordered a small cake with the same exact flavors we had on our wedding cake from the same cake maker. And, I have no shame in saying it was simply delicious, darlings!

Me walking along the shore

Our bed & breakfast trip made me fall in love with the whole bed & breakfast thing. It doesn't seem like anything big or exciting when you first think about it, but that's exactly the beauty of it.

We all run around in the rat race of life and this kind of a getaway lets you decompress and truly get away and relax. This just may be my favorite new thing.

Some of my "dream" bed & breakfast getaways include a couple on the east coast, one of which is located in Martha's Vineyard and another in Peabbles, Maine:

Do these places not look dreamy? 

Cheers,

Samara