Making plans...have you heard the one about the lotus birth?

The week is halfway through and boy has it been busy. We have so much going on!

Plans are underway for this weekends

Birthday festivities. I'm looking forward to 5 days of quality time with the hubs. We will be dining out and going to Corky Canvas (super excited) ... Plus whatever else my honey has up his sleeves. 

Today we also continued plans for the future by meeting with a potential OB. She was very informative and had great knowledge for all of our questions. 

During the appointment I found myself wondering if many couples actually spend time interviewing the OB...It's important to us that we have our plan and that our OB supports the plan. We do not want someone that does not have the time to spend with us or our best interests in mind. So we were pleasantly surprised to have our time with her for our interview. 

Let me just say I thought I had too many questions but no I had enough...and I was blessed to have a husband with just as many. :) *peas in a pod

After the meeting I am comfortable enough to say that I am pretty sure she's the one. It's great to have that decision made. Now onward. 

I will say from a facilities standpoint, Methodist Women Center really is a beautiful hospital and so that's a huge plus. The decor is calming and modern, the rooms are private and it's so quiet.Patients  get a dedicated nurse and doctor without all of the additional doctors/nurses chaos. 

We are all for a peaceful entry into this world so that definitely earned some brownie points in our book. 

When we had our son it was at St Joseph (a teaching hospital) which means it was heavily obtrusive. There were probably 10 doctors and residents/interns in there at any given time in rotation. It was chaos that I would not want to relive. Then with Em we delivered at Alegent which was a little more private but still a few additional doctors sprinkled around the room. So we are ecstatic about the privacy from a medical staff standpoint.  

Now - classes - I'm so interested in learning more and continuing on this awesome journey. So much has changed and so many studies on different health benefits and processes (Delayed cord cutting, first nursing immediately after, skin on skin contact...in addition to some other interesting things that were not for us i.e. lotus birth - if you do not know what that is look it up). :)

Exciting things to come from the Rasmussens. Happy Wednesday. 

Babies, Food and Fun

Whew what a busy weekend! But we wind down and next weekend is my birthday! Crazy how fast time flies by, we are almost a complete month into the new year. Looking forward to a long weekend and tons of quality time with my love. 

Back to this weekend. We spent lots of time with family. 

Friday night was quality time with our sisters Amanda and Alicia, brother George, Mike and our beautiful little nieces or as I like to call them our squishies Catalina (Lili), Lenyx, Jayden and our awesome nephews Kane and Gavin. 

Quick photo op of me, Annie and Lenyx

Then Saturday the fun continued. Annie, George and Lili had a slumber party at our place.  While they stayed over I reconfirmed my continued belief that my husband is absolutely one of a kind - amazing. He's so wonderful with little ones and it just melts my heart every time I see him being such a gentle man. I captured this picture of him and the girls and it just solidifies in my heart that we are meant to continue to expand our family. I am so blessed to have him. 

Enough of the heavy...I did some delicious cooking this weekend as well. 

Shrimp, Andouille Sausage and Chicken Étouffée - one of Rolf's faves. The dish has shrimp, andouille sausage, chicken, green pepper, celery, onion, garlic in a roux with some additional chicken broth to make it stew-like. Served over rice, it's rico!

Today I also spent the afternoon having a girls day with my squish Em. We went shopping and got super cute pedicures. 

All in all a great weekend of laughs, fun and memories! 

And the countdown begins...

As we sat watching The Bachelor (what I have dubbed revisit the old couples special) the other night my mind started to wander. Our 10 years of marriage is next spring in May and I have literally been thinking about a renewal every day for about the last few years. 

I know that sounds amazing! My planning kicked in already. Small, intimate and outdoors in a garden. 

But before all of that....My thoughts immediately went to vows. I know this will sound mushy but when I daydream it's about my Rolf. So vows come easily to me because he speaks to my soul every day not just one day or on special anniversaries. 

I didn't start into the where it will be and who will be there but instead went to all of the words and ways in the universe that express my unwavering love for him. 

It's probably no surprise that my love language is affirmation. And to me he is the definition of love in my heart, soul, mind and body...

I resolve to...write more and....

I decided that going into this year I wanted to spend more time writing..soo

This week has been great! 

First, I kicked it off with supporting my wonderful sister, Amanda as she brought my little squishy-niece into the world. 

Such a great honor and experience. 

Here's a super adorable picture of her and my Emma. (Name - TBD)... 😃

Then today I had the privilege of going to the O-WIN (Women Influence Network) conference to kick off my day. The conference was focused on self awareness, social awareness, relationship networking and emotional intelligence. 

The five values that mattered most to me were (to no surprise):

- Love

- Encourage 

- Integrity

- Be Spiritual

- Learn

Of the five I chose "encourage" as the key value I wanted to work harder at mastering. I find I can get distracted or focused on opportunity over recognizing the chance to encourage. So definitely something I want to work on to improve. 

Check out this super cute table-scape! 

The rest of the day was pretty packed with meetings and catching up from the long weekend. 

After arriving home I started dinner. 

I made Mexican Potpies using my ramekins that I have had for maybe two years and finally just broke them out today. Delicious!

All in all it was a great day to continue on this wonderful 2014 journey!

The year has been so great thus far! 

I look forward to all of the amazing things yet to come this year. And...Rolf and I are planning some magical things this year too. Spoilers!