From blob to BABY!!!

Today we had our 12 week checkup and everything still looks great! BB's heartbeat is 161 and we had another ultrasound! BB was moving all around in there and it was absolutely precious! I'm still feeling really good...I haven't been sick at all so far.

We are still working our way through the produce aisle...according to Baby Center BB is about the size of a lime and the most dramatic development this week is reflexes. Our baby's fingers will soon begin to open and close, its toes will curl, its eye muscles will clench, and its mouth will make sucking movements. I'm absolutely amazed!

Here are the ultrasound pictures. I'm not sure I'll stop smiling anytime soon!

What I want to be when I grow up...by Katie

A few weeks ago I made a cake for a baby shower. I LOVE to bake...love love love it and someone finally gave me a chance to make a cake for an event!

First comes love, then comes marriage...

In February we'll need that baby carriage!

We're having a baby!
Baby Battreal is due to arrive on February 25th and we, along with our families, couldn't be happier!



As you can see, Baby Battreal has some growing to do...but so far everything looks great! At our first visit BB's heart beat was 114 beats per minute and when we went back a week later he or she had doubled in size just like he or she was supposed to!

BB will be 8 week's old this Wednesday and according to the ever popular and handy dandy book "What to Expect When You're Expecting" he or she is about the size of a large raspberry and is looking less reptilian and more human every day! His or her lips, nose, eyelids, legs and back are continuing to take shape and is making spontaneous movements.

PS...don't skip the next post. I have lots of "back bloggin" to do!

A year already!!!

It's hard to believe that June 23rd marked a year since we walked down the aisle and said "I do" after months and months of planning our beautiful and super fun wedding! To celebrate our anniversary Jim and I went to dinner and during dinner we talked about this past year. We agreed that our favorite part has been just getting to know each other better...even though we dated for almost four years before we got married and felt sure that we knew the ins and outs of each other's personality! We are so blessed to have found each other and I can honestly say that I've married my best friend and I am so looking forward to the years to come! Oh, and for the record...we ate the top layer of our wedding cake on our anniversary and it tasted just as good as it did on our wedding day!! It still looked pretty too thank to Jim's mom who froze it for us!





Also to celebrate our first year, we went to Savannah and Hilton Head Island for a week. Neither of us had ever been to either place and we had such a good time! We absolutely fell in love with Savannah. It is the neatest city and we enjoyed learning about its rich history! One part that I found pretty funny was that General Ogelthorpe, the founder of Georgia who settled in Savannah in 1733, banned booze, Catholics and lawyers from the city! HA! We'd have been run out for sure since we have a couple of lawyers in the family, we are Catholic and we definitely enjoy happy hour! We only had two full days in Savannah but we made the most of our time! On our first day there we attended mass at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. It was absolutely beautiful!!! The church reminded us both of the church we were married in. We also did some walking and visited City Market that afternoon and the next day we took the Trolley tour. The tour has about 16 stops and you can get off an on as many times and you want to during the day. We learned about the significance of the squares and saw where Forrest Gump sat on the bench waiting for his bus! We decided to forgo the famous Lady and Son's restaurant in favor of Mrs. Wilke's Boarding House. It was fantastic! Everything is served family style and our table was big enough for eight. It was fun to talk to everyone and share a meal with the people we waited in line with for over an hour! I have to say, the wait was well worth it! We also ate at a restaurant called The Olde Pink House. It's in a old haunted house and each room has been made into a dining room. The food was awesome and the atmosphere was neat! After Savannah we went for a few days to Hilton Head Island. We didn't get much beach time...after seeing a few sharks being caught right outside our condo and too many to count jellyfish washed up we decided that the pool was more our speed...and after I actually figured out where it was enjoyed a few hours there! It was very relaxing! Jim played golf one day while I finished a book and then on our last day we went deep sea fishing! We had hoped that we'd catch our dinner but didn't get quite that lucky! I did catch a baby shark and a small whitting...oh, and I snagged a star fish but that's it! So, instead we decided we'd just go out for dinner! We had such a good time and would love to go back!!

Cathedral of St. John the Baptist...




City Walk and Willy who got to sing with the band!..




Willy, Chevy and Chevy's owner...one of my favorite pictures!


Mrs. Wilke's Boarding House...


Forsyth Fountain...



Old Cotton Exchange...


View of the bridge to Hilton Head Island from our hotel's roof...


Lady & Sons...we didn't eat there but we had to check out the gift shop!


Fun bike advertisement for my boss' daughter and son in law's BBQ restaurant in Savannah...very good BBQ!


The Olde Pink House Restaurant...very good!!


Can you see the ghost we spotted on our ghost tour? HA!


This is the shrimp boat in Hilton Head that caught our dinner one day!


Lighthouse at Harbor Town


Look closely...you'll see an aligator!!!


On the beach after a long bike ride!


One of the reasons we didn't hang out on the beach too much!


Deep Sea Fishing Boat...The Captain Hook...


We saw a lot of dophins!


Squid...aka...bait!


Definitely not a flattering picture but had to show off my shark!


and the starfish!


This fun bird was waiting for us when we got back from fishing..

"Remodel and jail time for empty nesters!"

So, a lot has been going on in the Battreal household since the last post! Easter weekend or just around then on a beautiful Sunday afternoon I found a pretty hanging basket of geraniums while doing the grocery shopping at Kroger. Knowing it was a little early in terms of Arkansas weather to make this type of purchase I decided to heck with it...it was a beautiful day and after all it was already Spring if just barely! The basket was a lovely addition to our porch and I enjoyed watching it bloom and was anxious to see how full it would get! I soon learned that an unsuspecting Robin had other plans for the new addition of pink petals! Not a week after I came home with this basket we found a nest in it! A perfectly round, well planned, beautiful nest. I will admit that my first reaction was annoyance because I just bought the thing but that disappeared after I saw the eggs the mommy Robin laid. I could see 3 perfect little blue eggs but looking was not easy! Of course I didn't want to disturb the nest but my curiosity got the best of me and I checked the thing every day from inside the house. This required that I step on the couch and then balance on a entry way table we have just inside our front door and peek through the top of the blinds! Luckily I never fell! I can't remember the exact timing of all of this but I have lots of pictures to document the growth of these little birdies. After they hatched I noticed not 3 but 4! ugly little baby birds in the nest! Yes, they were ugly! Not for long though...as they got bigger they obviously began to resemble birds more than little aliens. We had the best time watching these little feathery friends grow and when I say grow I mean they grew FAST! I serioulsy think they nearly doubled in size each day! So, as living creatures generally do, one by one our little birdies left the nest leaving us a bit sad. Now we are "empty nesters" and I've really missed watching these little fellas grow up!

Sad, empty nesters with a dead geranium...







Also, happening in the Battreal household is a minor remodel! We apparently have had a slow leak in the roof over Jim's bathroom and this caused some damage to the ceiling over the years. This is being fixed and a new shower is being installled as well as a new vanity top! It's going to look really nice! We've also painted what we call our "back room" and we are having cabinets installed in there. Sadly, I didn't take any before pictures but I'll be sure to post the afters! With all of this going on poor Zoe can't have run of the house during the day because she'll be in the way...so, we have to put her in "kitty jail". She lives in our bedroom during the day and I'm sure she's not impressed!

Poor Zoe...

Tornado Damage in Cammack Village

Most of you know about the tornado that hit Little Rock a few weeks ago. Our little area was one of the hardest hit but luckily our house wasn’t damaged at all and from what we’ve heard there were no serious injuries and no one was killed. The damage started about 5 houses down from ours and appeared to have had a diagonal path. You’ll see National Guardsmen and their humvees in a few pictures. These were taken from our front porch. The Guard had every entrance into our neighborhood blocked off and we had to show our driver’s license to get past them.
When you get to the website you'll have to enter the password which is battreal. Also, you can bypass the registration/log in screen by clicking on the "View Pictures" button.

http://lifeofjimandkatie.shutterfly.com

Puppy Chow!

A friend of mine called me a couple of days ago asking for my recipe for Puppy Chow. I'm not sure how the tradition started but we used to make this for road trips all the time and they are leaving for vacation on Sunday. I had forgotten all about it until she called asking for the recipe! If you've never had it you really must make it soon! It's awesome! If you decide to take this on a road trip with kiddos be sure to pack the extra wet wipes or your car might look like a snow storm hit!

Puppy Chow
• 1(12ounce)bag chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1(12ounce)box Crispix cereal or similar cereal
• 1 lb confectioners' sugar
Directions
Melt chocolate chips, butter & peanut butter over medium heat. Stir to blend.
Pour over Crispix in large bowl.
Pour confectioners sugar in paper grocery bag.
Add Crispix and shake vigorously until it breaks apart.

MH and HC

Thought I'd share one of the latest pictures I have of Mary Haven and Hannah Clare! They are precious!

Wonderful Arkansas Weather!

So, I'm a little late posting these but I had to share our fun snow day pictures from last Friday!
We took a drive down by the river and watched some kiddos have a snowball fight...then we came home and had our own snowball fight! By the way, if you are ever in the middle of a snowball fight and someone says "watch this!" while throwing a snowball in the air whatever you do don't look up!!! You will get pelted by another snowball and you won't be prepared! Thanks Jim for teaching me a valuable lesson! After our snowball fight we built a snowman...we named him Fred and he has no arms...oops!

We also enjoyed watching the birds enjoy the seed we put out. They were very grateful...especially this fat little Robin!

Pink Elephants, Pink Floyd, Expensive Wine, Black Jack and Love

I spent last week in Las Vegas...
I got there last Sunday and attended a Pink Elephant ITIL conference at the Bellagio. ITIL stands for the Information Technology Infrastructure Library and is a set of best practices that my team at work uses to implement processes for the IT department. I learned a lot about the framework, leadership, team dynamics and most importantly that every person there has struggled with the aches and pains of implementing processes that aren't well received in the world of IT. The conference's theme was "Another Brick in the Wall" and was centered around Pink Floyd. I heard the song Comfortably Numb way too many times and found the chairs we sat in during the sessions comfortably numbing! Overall the conference was very encouraging and extremely informational and the Bellagio is an amazing hotel! I'm pretty sure that the bathroom in our room was as big as our bedroom!

Now, on the fun parts! I sat at the same video poker machine the first couple of nights I was there. It was a nice break from the information overload of the conference! I actually did well these first couple of nights too! Left the machine after breaking even and a couple of hours of fun! Jim came later in the week and since he is a huge Pink Floyd fan I was able to get him into the closing night's Pink Floyd tribute band concert. He loved it! After that we decided to go play and as usual, our intention was to play a few games and go to bed at a decent hour...didn't happen! That night we played black jack until the early morning and when we left the table I left $10 richer than when I sat down! We were at a really fun table full of really fun people! I sat next to a guy from New Jersey who does my same job and was also there for the conference. I think we probably sat there and played for more than 4 hours! If you've ever been to Vegas and you enjoy gambling you know this is very easy to do! You completely lose all sense of time!

On Friday night we went to the Venetian for a belated Valentine's dinner at Mario Batali's restaurant B&B Ristorante. When we got there we were taken to a very quaint table located in what looked like a wine cellar.



After looking at the wine menu and flat out laughing at the prices we estimated that we were probably surrounded by about a million dollars worth of wine and the space wasn't huge! After speaking with our venetian waiter, a waiter who knew a lot about the SEC (he thinks McFaden will play for the Cowboys...yuck!) and the Sommelier we settled on a bottle of wine that didn't break our bank and was actually very good! Of course I can't remember the name of it...even after googling what I think it might have been! The menu of this restaurant allowed for appetizers, first course, second course, third course with side dishes and finally dessert. Not too uncommon...we actually consider ourselves somewhat foodies and were looking forward to trying new things...however, this menu was quite interesting. We only made it through the appetizer and first course and what we ordered was outstanding!!!!!! We had the goat cheese truffles and calamari and seppi fritti for an appetizer and I had the homemade orecchiete with sweet sauage and rapini and Jim had the spaghettini with spicy budding chives, sweet garlic and one-pound lobster for our first courses. Had we made it to the other courses I'm sure the barbecued squab, fennel dusted sweetbread or, branzino would have been wonderful (that is if I knew what any of them were! I do know that sweetbread has nothing to do with bread!). I'm still kicking myself for not ordering the Duck Egg with Guanciale and Truffle Vinaigrette or Lamb's Brain "Francobolli" with Lemon and Sage for my appetizer and first course! Time warp back to Junior High and I'll say "NOT"! Again, we consider ourselves foodies and we love good food and wine but this was a bit much for us! However, like I said what we ordered was outstanding so maybe next time we should branch out...maybe. Here is a link to the menu. If any of you are braver than us let me know what you might have ordered...
http://www.venetian.com/venetianeng/Assets/Files/BB_Menu.pdf

After dinner we went to see Cirque Du Soleil Love. This was an awesome show and I recommend it to everyone! The artists are phenomenal and the costumes have to been seen to be believed! There really aren't many words to describe it...at least none I have time to think of. It really was unbelievable to see the acrobatics, props and the way they used actual recordings of the Beatles talking and such was amazing!



We got back yesterday and while we had a wonderful time I'm glad to be home!

Oh, and I bought a few books that I can't wait to read...one of them that I actually already read is called "The Dog Poop Initiative" by Kirk Weisler. This is a very funny book with a very good lesson that inspires action, commitment, community and change! I encourage any of you who work in an office...or anywhere for that matter to read it and share it with your co-workers! Having said that I also think that someday when we have a family I will read this to our kiddos to teach them a valuable lesson! Check it out for yourself!
http://dogpoopinitiative.com/

Tax Rebates and Personal Finance...

I found this article today and found it interesting...

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Taxes/Advice/TheDetailsOnTaxRebates.aspx

Liz Pulliam Weston is one of my favorite columnist on MSN. She is "the web's #1 personal finance columnist" and I always find her columns very informative and easy to read. I have a link to her blog in my friend's list if you'd like to check her out.

Hannah Clare Hankins

Our new niece arrived on January 17th and she is absolutely precious! She looks a lot like her big sister looked when she was born and has a head full of the cutest brown hair you've ever seen! We were so excited to meet her and we are so excited that we get to watch she and her big sister Mary Haven grow up!

Last night we went to visit them and Mary Haven was so much fun! We ate pizza and played a game I'd never heard of called Hullabaloo! We also played hide and seek, beauty shop and I got a personal tour of Mary Haven's closet. She loves her outfits and carefully describes each one and I love it!

Here is a picture of Hannah Clare the day she was born.

Sarah Bussey Photography

I just found our wedding photographer's blog and wanted to share it with you! She is an amazing photographer and so much fun to work with! She posted a blog with some pictures from our wedding on July 1st. So fun!

http://sarahbusseyphotography.blogspot.com

One of my favorite things that she does is pet portraits! They are under "Furry Friends" on our website and here is one of my favorites! She is amazing...I mean really, have you ever tried to get your pet to sit still for a picture?

http://www.sarahbusseyphotography.com/

JOY! Our Charming House in Cammack Village

Yes, of course the word joy is associated with the upcoming holiday and I am filled with joy when I think about how absolutely blessed I am to be able to spend Christmas with the ones I love. However, the JOY I speak of today has come from my going through and organizing the things that were in the last 2 boxes from my condo! I probably shouldn't be too proud of this considering we have lived here in this house together for almost 6 months now but alas, I am so super excited!! We still have a long way to go to bring this house up to the level of organization that my sometimes type A personality requires but we have come a LONG way! When I moved in after the wedding you could not even see our dining room for all of the wedding gifts. Definitely a blessing yes, but I thought we'd never find a place for it all! We did and we celebrated with a bottle of wine! THEN, I found a renter for the condo I lived in prior to the wedding...yes, another blessing indeed! However, all of the stuff crammed into a 2 story condo had to go somewhere and again, the dining room disappeared...as did the living room, guest room, "back" room, breakfast area and kitchen. It felt like it would never end but of course after a lot of work and a lot of compromise* it finally did (sort of!). I am not posting pictures of the "mad house" (other than the Christmas ones already posted) until we have a "not mad house"...and our new furniture arrives! I just had to get this all out and thought this the perfect place!

*There are still too many ducks (never alive and used to be alive) in this house for me and I fear the antlers in the picture below will require a spot on a wall one day soon...but I hear compromise is a good thing in a marraige! :)

Merry Christmas!

So, almost 2 months later I'm finally posting a new blog!
We've been staying quite busy these days! We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with our families and soon after we went to Kansas to visit my grandparents and so Jim could deer hunt. He is happy to report that he got the biggest deer of the week and I'm just happy that our freezer will be full of what I pretend is meat that comes from the "grocery store". Since, we've been getting ready for Christmas. We finally decorated our house and our cute little tree. We didn't get the lights up on the outside of the house this year because we just ran out of time. Hopefully next year we'll do that again because I just love our big colored lights on our cute little house!

A couple of weekends ago my friend Andrea and her kiddos who live in Springdale came to visit for a fun day of shopping! Her boys are so much fun! Luke will be 3 in March and Sam will be 1 in April. Andrea is such a fun Mom! I really enjoy watching her with her boys. She is teaching them so much and is very patient even though at times she definitely has her hands full as most moms do with little ones! Luke is very smart and likes to talk a lot. Sam is very observant and very laid back. We started the day with lunch at DGP where Luke stuffed is pockets full of pink packages and paper towels...later to be found in the wash! Then we headed to Mid-Towne and Park Plaza to shop with the crazy mass of people! We had so much fun and Luke really enjoyed playing with the kitty and Jim. I think Santa needs to bring him a kitten for Christmas!

We are off to Lavaca to spend some time with my family and friends this Thursday and then we'll be back for Christmas with Jim's family...then we're headed to Dallas for New Year's Eve with a few of our best friends and the guys will be cheering on the Hogs at the Cotton Bowl! WOOO PIG SOOIE!

Here are a few pictures of random happenings in our world...

My Papa, Dad, Brother and Jim with his deer...


Kansas Sky...


Christmas at the Battreal house!




Luke and Sam!


Luke and Jim making funny faces...


Luke playing at Starbucks...


Cute Sam!