Oliver's Potluck shower!....and the House has some tile!

Oliver's on the way (well in mid-June) and my college "sister" Aimee, threw us a Shower Potluck that we just loved! Thanks Aimee for hosting a wonderful chill get together!

And thank you to the Bryan's, Amy, Strahl's, Bernard's, Hortons, and Kiefer's for the many necessities Oliver will use AND for your wonderful creative onesies!



Aimee had everyone decorate a onesie for Oliver...which I just loved as we will think of each of you as he wears your personal designs! :)

 

As many of you know my MD was concerned that my glucose levels may be a bit high after drinking that nasty glucola (100g glucose) but since I'm not "technically" diagnosed as a gestational diabetic and passed my test (he want's to call me borderline) I celebrated by doing what I've been waiting to do....BAKE! And as a Thank you to our host, Aimee..(and thank you JoJo for the recipe) I transformed Aimee's favorite cookies into a cake! This Italian cake has a few names....such as Italian Rainbow, Italian Flag or Tri-color.

This next part is for my "Cookie Creating" Blog followers....and since I've been watching my carb intake, busy building a baby and helping Marc build a house, there has been no time to bake :( As you can tell since my last post was in the fall. So a quick cake breakdown...Overall the Tri-color cookies are better. You loose that nice almond dense-ness of the cookies when you fluff to a cake, the hard chocolate coating becomes a lighter frosting/ganache for a cake and this cake recipe had me use a layer of raspberry and a layer of apricot preserve (Aimee and I agreed we didn't see a difference with the apricot addition). Oh and this recipe has you dye a cake yellow (no need the non-color white is closer to the Italian colors). Finally, I need to adjust bake time a few minutes to reduce dryness. Would I make this again? Yeah, only if it had to be in cake form :)...cause I'm more of a Cookie Monster :)

Key Learnings: This is my first attempt to "decorate" a cake with frosting and design (I know crazy, right!) I have learned from past chocolate coverings that if you decorate right on the glass cake stand your stand becomes dirty...so my prego brains thought I was smart by putting down parchment paper under the cake but once the cake was covered I had a hard time ripping the paper around the cake. Jojo I couldn't remember what you did when decorating but I think I'll use strips of parchment next time around the cake (not under) and simply pull away once decoration is complete. Any other ideas out there....I'll take em! :)

And YES I had to save the rest of the frosting for our Frosting Freak, Bill! hehe. I've never seen anyone enjoy frosting...straight up, like Bill. We love ya man!

Now for my FAVORITE Cookies ever! Sara you made my sugary dreams come true (how I only ate 1/2 a cookie is beyond me but I only did it for the safety of the baby! :) Here is the true inspiration to my "Cookie Creating" and she's done it again only now I have to Print a picture of these cookies and frame them! In fact, you may see this hanging in Oliver's Nursery! :) Thank you thank you for your most amazing artistic talents in cookie decorating Sara! I just loved the ducky, gator and Oliver cookies. And all by hand...you still astonish me! :) Keisha had an idea...you should start a tie-in business 919-cookie! And you can add cookies to your food orders!  Just look at this artwork!

 



You rarely find something that LOOKS and Tastes so good!:) And for my final baked good indulgence...check out these BEAUTIFUL cupcakes Sandy (Sara's Mom) made. Yes it's obviously in the genes! :) These cupcakes were a yummy orange flavor! Love the light spring flavor and nice orange tie-in to the gator colored cookies :)

Here's the artists...at work creating artful onesies....where else!

 

 

And don't worry Uncle Michael...I've included a picture of our "Princess" Juliet! She decided to dress like Cinderella for Oliver's Shower since it was "blue"! Got to love this creative Monkey! "Mommy, we are going to Oliver's Shower? Maybe when he's big he can go in our Shower or maybe the bath tub...? Where's my princess crown?..."

 



Well, as my belly continues to grow and transform.....

 



So does the house!

Ok so we were a bit disappointed since we expected a big transformation with siding but that wasn't the case:( We are meeting with our builder again Thurs for another "walk thru" and hope to see siding then. In the meantime, check out our tile! This first pic is in our Laundry room aka Mud Room.

Here's our Master bath tile:

And a few shots of the Deck area....Marc putting in one more outlet under the deck area just before they installed this wood.

And I have to include my beautiful Butterfly Princess! Juliet saw Oliver moving around in my belly for the first time and said..." Look Mommy! Oliver's trying to get out!!!". hahaha love it.

OH and some EXCITING ANNOUCEMENTS! Congrats to our good friends Bill and Keisha Bryan who are expecting their FIRST baby!!! :) Baby Bryan is due Oct. Can't wait to attend their gender reveal party!

Also SENDING LOTS OF LOVE to Matt, Mel and Wes...as baby Eleanor (ELLIE) is due any day now! We can't wait to meet her.

Love you guys
Jenny

A BIG Thanks!

It's almost week 32 for Baby and week....I have no idea for the house. Both continue to grow although I think Oliver is ahead:)

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank all who have helped us through this new home process. From listening to us brainstorm to hands on help! And again some recognition to my hubby who's worked oh so very hard on and off site.

As you can see, a lot of blood (Marc's), sweat (mostly Marc's) and tears (mine) OH and Split Pants! have gone into the creation of this house. Good thing you have underwear on...oh wait there's a hole in that too! :) hahaha (sorry baby, don't be mad, I just had to).

A special thanks to those On Site, giving Marc a hand! Dan graciously spent his time off swinging from rafters helping Marc with speaker wiring and more detailed wiring stuff I don't understand but know it will be awesome! :)

 

 

 

Another special thanks to Bill who came to help Marc as well as the project seemed a bit bigger than expected and it was crunch time for Marc to finish up!

 

 

And to our amazing munchkin who can't read this yet but maybe someday...will look back at this experience. Juliet has been amazing and just as excited to make trips out to the house weekly to follow up and see the progress.....although movies and loads of snacks helped especially for those extended periods of time we were there.

 

 

 

 

Despite the fact that Juliet will have a brother....I think Juliet will always be "Daddy's little helper!" :)

 

 

 

Look forward to seeing some real physical transformations this weekend.....as we should be getting siding and shakes on the house! :) Oh and look forward to seeing our local friends this Saturday for a Potluck Baby Shower! :)

 



House Updates!

Juliet with Kitchen Granite - Jaguar

Our new front door, ready to be finished

Framed - 3-4 weeks ago

Insulated - 2 weeks ago

And now w/ drywall - last week

Dining room ceiling, I am sure drywall guys loved this!

From the front door, thru the dining room, to the kitchen and breakfast nook

 And now for some catch up on mommy and Juliet pics:

Happy St. Patrick's Day - March 2015

Post-insulation, pre-drywall - 2 weeks ago

Juliet and Jenny 2 weeks ago in front of the house

This past weekend, Juliet and Jenny

BREAKING NEWS!

We would like to formally announce that the fetus formerly know as "Baby P" will be known as Oliver!

That is right, we have chosen a name, Oliver John Pepin.

Juliet is very excited about her new baby brother, Oliver, coming in a few short months. She has been talking to mommy's belly, and hugging mommy's belly, and kissing mommy's belly!

She keeps saying that she is going to be a big, strong sister for her baby brother, Oliver.

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Hope everyone is enjoying our blog updates! More to come as we approach house and baby due dates! :)

Happy Birthday Juliet!

Juliet just celebrated her 4th birthday and since it will be her last as an only child...we spoiled her with a stay at the Walt Disney World Resort! I have to say the entire experience was...Magical!:) Here's Juliet and Marc chillin on our room patio at the Wilderness Lodge.

 



 The highlight of the Disney experience for J was meeting the princesses! Cinderella, Tinkerbelle, Rapunzel, Elsa and Anna from Frozen....just to name a few. And yes that is Juliet all dressed up like Queen Elsa (thank you Karla, Krystal and Mei for the dress/wig) to meet her Princess peers :) It was so amazing to watch her interact with them as it was such a "real" experience for her.

 Here's our Disney Crew. Krysta, Karla and Mei drove up from Miami. The Maggio's and Marc's mom (Nana) came over from Tampa and my Brother, TiAnna and Annalise came down from Gainesville. Thank you to everyone since it was a trip for everyone to meet us. It meant so much to see her Florida Friends/Family.

The Pepin Girls....check out my shirt. It says "Embrace your Bump" and on the back is Mickey wrapping his arms around my belly. So glad I got the opportunity to wear it!

 For a belated Anniversary celebration (5 years!) Marc manned up to take me to a Disney tea party, just the 2 of us! I have to say he seemed to truly enjoy himself and surprisingly after 4 or was it 5? courses we were stuffed!

After Disney we made a pit stop at the Stanton's for some belly pics and clothing swap! How awesome is it that we had a girl and they had a boy and now...it's visa versa! And at a month or less apart the clothes should fit perfectly. Baby Ellie (Eleanor Jane) is due April 22! Wishing you all the best Mel...you are a Super-Mom and I know you will do great! Check out these awesome Beach Balls! :) And I love how Juliet's practicing to be a big sister, pushing Wes on the swing!

Our final stop, on Juliet's actual Birthday, my parents put together a Frozen themed Birthday party! Thanks mom for the special party décor, gifts and "Frozen" cupcakes!

Well, it's back to the race for us....House vs Baby. I have to say this little man is getting very active in there....

Thank you again to everyone for the Birthday wishes, we love you all! And to Juliet's many princes in her life...

 



And the race continues...

And so continues the building process, both for Baby P and for the house. To the right is my beautiful wife in front of our house-in-progress last weekend. The house is definitely moving along, framed w/roof and ready to move forward. We had our electrical walk-through shortly after this was taken. Was interesting, walking thru the house and choosing where you want switches, outlets, lighting positions, etc. Also, cable/phone placement if not in the standard locations. We did not change too much, added a few extra flood lights in the kitchen in lieu of some track lighting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To the left is from the same day, Juliet and I upstairs. We are both safely within the boundries of the house, despite how it may look in the photo. Juliet had fun exploring her new house, checking everything out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here is a pic from yesterday, windows are mostly installed w/ exception for a few upstairs. Also, exterior doors (except for the front door) are all installed, and looks like shingles were delivered, so roof likely to move forward as well. The electricial was also buisy since our visit on Friday, breaker box installed, and the majority of J-boxes and wiring run!

 

We are still optimistic for closing by the end of May, but given the bad weather we had, thinking it might be more like the first week of June. Hope everyone is doing well, and will keep you posted!