Resurrection Weekend

It's hard to believe that this is D's FOURTH Easter already!

As I say time and time again....

"WHERE DID THE TIME GO?!"

This was D's first Easter. Nick was deployed to Afghanistan. I love her little chubby baby cheeks! (Can you tell I didn't own a DSLR camera yet?!?!)

Easter 2011...by far my favorite Easter Bunny pic EVERRRRR!

Easter 2012

 Easter 2013

It seems like every year, she loses a little bit more of her "baby face". 

It makes me sad :-(

 The weather was AB-SO-LUTELY beautiful this weekend!

We are talking highs in the 50's.....

I am laughing because just over a year ago, I would have said 50 was freezing.

But for New England, it was nice.

The sun was out, and it was nice enough to go outside without bundling up like Ralphie from the Christmas Story.

 It felt like SPRING!

This is the first time since we've moved here that D has been outside without a jacket or pants!

And in true Texas cowgirl style, she's showin' off her cowgirl boots!

D and our neighbor having a tea party in the front lawn next to her Camaro. YES...she is wearing capri pants!!! It IS Spring!

   I love this picture because it truly shows a different perspective for me as a stay at home mom (SAHM). I've never truly experienced being home with D ALL DAY LONG, and the excitement and look on her face when daddy comes home after a long day of work.

I don't have a sweet tooth...AT ALL.

I am not a dessert person, nor do I really like sweet things.

It seems that this pregnancy has triggered my inner sweet tooth, but if I gave into every craving I had, I would gain 200lbs this pregnancy. 

I started looking up healthy ways to make things that I crave (like chocolate chip cookies and muffins), and most of the REALLY healthy recipes I found are vegan!

I don't think I could ever become full vegan (I'm a southern girl that loves her occasional fried chicken, brisket, and steak), but I've learned that eating little or no animal products really does make a difference in the way I feel! 

For the most part, I don't eat meat except at dinnertime, and my family has pretty much cut red meat out of our diet.

ANYWAY, before I go off on a tangent, here are some delicious pics of my vegan blueberry muffins, chocolate chip muffins, and chocolate chip cookies...and seriously, they tasted better than treats made with eggs, butter, and oil!

Nick took me out on a dinner cruise for my birthday (bday was Mar 25th) on Friday night. 

I had an absolute blast, and it was nice to spend time (just the two of us) with each other.

Plus, I don't get out into "the city" (Boston) much, so it was nice to get out of the 'burbs.

The Chanel store of course!! I love the old buildings in Boston.

This is a random giant ninja in the middle of Boston.

 Boston skyline pic taken from the dinner cruise at sunset...gorgeous

What girl doesn't love a man in uniform? 

I know I do!!!

I love the way Nick looks in uniform, and I would choose him in uniform over any fancy suit any day!

1. He looks so handsome in it.

2. I am SO proud of him.

3. I love showing him off!

He put on his deltas for our "date night"...what a special treat!

I am one lucky gal.

 The Romers dyed Easter eggs this year!

Can you believe that I have never dyed an Easter egg in my entire life?!?!

Nick couldn't believe it.

I always wanted to, but I felt like D was too young to really enjoy it the past Easters.

It was a TON of fun!

 This is Nick trying to look "badass" with his pretty pastel colored eggs......yyeeeeaaah.....

 D's Easter eggs

The "loot"

 With the weather being nice this weekend, I decided to put my running shoes on and go outside for a run.

This was my first run in almost a year.

With my knee probs, knee surgery, and everything else that's wrong with my knees, I stopped running.

But honestly, you can't tell a runner to stop running because of an injury (that's not curable).

It was painful, but exhilarating!!!!!

I never realized how much weather could affect my mood until I moved the place with the most depressing winter weather ever!

I was so used the the gorgeous year round weather of southern California for the last 10 years!

It put me in such a good mood just to hit to pavement and get some vitamin D!

Nice weather meant that Dozer got to spend LOTS of time outside.

He got super lazy over the harsh New England winter (he's a Cali dog), and after being couped up indoors for 5 months, being outdoors WORE. HIM. OUT!

With Spring finally here, we noticed a TON of cardinals and other birds chirping around, so Nick made a birdhouse for D to hang in our back yard with a bird feeder.

I know he was itchin' for some good weather to be outside all day in the garage with his electric saw, drill, and other tools to build SOMETHING.

Pretty nice lookin' birdhouse!

 I wanted to do an Easter ham for Easter, but cooking an entire ham for just Nick, D, and me seemed unreasonable.

I chose to do two cornish hens instead!

This was our Easter dinner!

We had oven roasted cornish hens, artichokes, kale salad with edamame and corn, and a fire roasted tomato soup!

Just call me the domestic goddess....lol

I will be HALFWAY through my pregnancy in THREE days!!!!!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend, and got to spend time loved ones.

We had an amazing weekend!

HE IS RISEN!

We are SAVED!

HE WILL COME AGAIN! 

AMEN....AMEN.

Easter Photos

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone for the Congrats and well wishes!

We are super excited to have a little boy in our family!

My poor dad who got stuck with my mom, two daughters, a pomeranian, and two granddaughters is obviously very excited to have a grandson! 

Not that there is anything wrong with the women and girls in our immediate family, but that's a lot of estrogen for my dad to handle at once!

The only downside is that our house is taken over by an extremely girly 3 year old and almost everything that she is influenced by in our home is either pink, flowery, or extremely girly. 

I'm also a little upset about the giant wardrobe that does not fit D anymore can not be passed down (unless Nick doesn't mind his son wearing pink...I mean come on...we are in Boston after all ;)

The weather forecast keeps changing here from snow, to rain, to no snow, to whatever! 

I figured today was my chance to get D outside in her Easter outfit to take some photos!

Also, I never watermark my photos because my blog isn't a business or anything of that sort, but I read another blog recently where a woman had photos of her family off her blog stolen and used in ways she did not appreciate.

So, until I get a blog make over redone, I'll just go with putting my blog header in corner of all my photos that I post until then.

Yes, I realize my watermark should be bigger and cover some part of the photo.

I'm working on it!

It's A...

Dannika's going to have a little brother!

She's still in denial. 

Ever since we found out we were pregnant, she has been asking me constantly for a little sister.

When the ultrasound tech told us it was a boy, she was heart broken.

She was almost in tears, and kept asking me to "change it to a girl."
It doesn't help that she is going through her "boys have cooties" stage.

We took her to the Carter's store after the appointment, and let her pick out an outfit for her new baby brother.

She's still in denial.

I'm sure she'll end up loving him once he's here.

I have plenty of time to start preparing her.

Poor girl.

But Nick and I are SUPER excited!!!

And his name...

Mattis Mark Romer

Mattis after the great General Mattis. 

One of the most influential Generals in our time in the Marine Corps, and someone that both Nick and I admire as a leader and a Marine.

Our son has a big name to live up to!

Mark is Nick's middle name :-)

Facebook...

is annoying me this week.

Oh, and we find out what we're having today!

So excited to finally get to start buying baby things that are not gender neutral!

Twenty Nine

 Just a random photo of D and her pinterest Easter craft...a toilet paper roll bunny.

 
Yesterday, I turned 29.

One more year to act dumb and blame it on my twenties...lol.

No really though...

This is the first birthday in three years that I've gotten to spend it with my husband.

This is a year of a lot of firsts for our family since my husband has always been deployed, training, or in the field for important family events the last 3-4 years.

Things like Valentine's day, St. Patrick's Day, and my birthday meant a lot more to me this year than they have any other year.

I realize how valuable time together as a family is when you're in this life (the military life).

My husband asked me about a week ago what I wanted for my birthday, and I hadn't really put much thought into it. 

I was just so excited that I was going to get to have a birthday dinner with my husband, live and in person!

I normally have a list of things I would like for my birthday, but as always, I tell my husband I don't want anything (like most women do, but we really expect something, right?).

He always gets me something anyway, and I'm always very thankful.

He was a little more persistent this year to get an answer out of me for what I wanted.

Normally, he would have given up after the first time and just got me something based on my personality.

I finally gave in and told him that I would like a designer diaper bag.

(I just laughed out loud typing that).

I never thought in a million years, I would be asking for a nice diaper bag. 

When D was an infant, I refused to carry a diaper bag because they all looked so "momish", and I wanted to be the cool, hip, and in style mama.

I carried a large Marc Jacobs purse as a "diaper bag".

Because it wasn't actually made as a diaper bag, it was a little inconvenient as far as hauling all my baby stuff around, so this time around, I wanted an actual diaper bag that was cleverly disguised as a purse.

I gave my husband a few links of different diaper bags I had researched online, and let him just "go with it".

Here's the one he ended up getting for me...

 Can't go wrong with Kate Spade!

I wanted something stylish that didn't look "momish".

I wanted a bag that I could carry long after my next baby did not need me to lug a diaper bag around.

I would totally carry this if I didn't have children, and based on the reviews, a lot of women purchased this bag to use as a briefcase for work or as just a cute large handbag.

I'm very happy with it :-)

My birthday was amazing.

We ordered sushi, and my husband brought home these amazing cupcakes from Sweet Bakery in Harvard Square!

  I never thought I'd say this, but they were WAY better than Sprinkles cupcakes!
I was so sad that there wasn't a Sprinkles Cupcakes out here, but I'm so happy we found another bakery to go to for our sweet treats!

My mom sent me jewelery. A beautiful Swarovski crystal necklace.

Twenty Eight was amazing!
I can't wait to see what the next year brings.
It's crazy that just one year ago, I was still in the Marine Corps, my husband was in Afghanistan, and I was getting ready to go in for knee surgery.
I am so happy with the way the year turned out, and even more excited for the next few years as a family!