saturday morning

while ben was camping with his friends this weekend, i enjoyed a good relax weekend. saturday morning, i tried a new recipe for a "breakfast cake" found here. i decided to use blackberries instead of blueberries, and it turned out great! saturday mornings are probably my favorite part of the whole week- i love waking up around 7, and making breakfast. most mornings in the week, i am rushed and never get to enjoy the morning at home so saturdays are my special time. 

after breakfast, a good friend & i visited a few flea markets in prairie grove. they have the cutest booths, and are always fun to look through. my "spoils" from the day included a cute girl jumper (a "just-in-case-we-are-having-a-girl" move), vintage lady in the tramp book, and a milk glass tray. i just love milk glass.

food, friends, & a chick flick

last night, i got together with some good friends for dinner and a movie. our husbands are all camping this weekend, and doing man things- so we decided to have a ladies night. [[side note: i asked ben what food they were going to bring, and he said deer meat. as in just deer meat. oh, boys!]] 

one of ben & i's favorite restaurants in fayetteville is burger life, and it was so fun all meeting there for dinner. at burger life, they give you menus & markers to choose what you want on your burger. my burger was pretty plain this time, but i added avocado slices and sweet potato fries on the side. so good.

 

 afterwards, the girls came over to our apartment and we all watched a good "girl" movie- pride and prejudice. we basically talked the entire way through the movie, which was fun since our husbands weren't there. all our husbands are "anti-talking" during movies so we really lived it up while they were gone. 

thanks for a great night, girls! 

summer's soccer & a tasty treat!

this past thursday night, ben & i joined part of the foltz family to watch summer play soccer. summer is quite the soccer star- she can run fast, kick far, and even scored a goal! she is the cutest seven year old, and is quite athletic for her age. we had great conversation on the ride there, all about her trip to florida, sweat pants, and if our baby will look more like ben or me. summer has a lot of spunk, and is a treat to hang out with. 

collin just got his cast off and was cracking ben & i up with showing us how he could bend his wrist. the silly boy was really just moving his arm!

afterwards, we decided to treat ourselves to some orange leaf. it was ben, jon, collin, summer & i- since marisa and the little's are still in florida. 

i love the two pictures below. the two were spying some of the toppings, and you can see collin reaching for a "sample" below. summer of course is looking eagerly on.

and... caught!

we love to spend time with our sweet family any chance we can get!

homemade strawberry jam

strawberries are one of my favorite things these days. strawberries & yoghurt, strawberries & chocolate cake, strawberries & toast, strawberry smoothies, and plain ol' strawberries are a few of my favorite things. i think baby seiler has a thing for strawberries too.

i somehow came home from getting groceries with 3 containers of strawberries, so i decided it may be a good time to whip up another batch of strawberry jam. i followed a recipe from kraft.com that was really simple. it is a freezer jam recipe, and was quick and easy. 

this batch ended up making seven jars total, so we should have a good stash for a while. we will see how long it lasts...

pregnancy diaries: week 26

How far along: 26 weeks

Maternity clothes: yep! recently i've noticed that a few of my shirts are getting tight around my tummy too. currently my regular jeans are very uncomfortable, and i have been attempting to avoid them.

Sleep: this past week has been great! i think i am learning the best sleeping positions to accommodate this growing baby.

Movement: yep- the sweet flutters are starting to be more aggressive. one night this past week, i couldn't fall asleep because of intense kicks every few minutes!

Food cravings: strawberries (more on that later)

Anything making you queasy or sick: there were a few moments this past week when i felt queasy like i was in my first trimester again. so random!

Have you started to show yet: yes, most definitely. i can feel it too in my movements when i bend down or lean over- there is an extra bit of padding on my stomach these days.

Gender: excited to find out in July!

Belly button in or out: very close to out!

Wedding rings on or off: On

Happy or moody most of the time: Pretty happy!

Looking forward to: skirt weather & swimming at our pool.

Baby is the size of a: cucumber

small disclaimer: i wasn't able to do a 25 week picture due the weather this past week. it was so cold and gross every time we had a free moment to take the picture. it was a great week though!

i learned how to make a granny square

i have always wanted to know how to crochet a "granny square". i'm really not the best when it comes to written instructions, and often get confused before even starting. i have tried to make them on my own a few times, but my attempts always resulted in failure. so here is my weekend story:

ben had all four of his wisdom teeth taken out on friday morning. one of them has causing him major pain, and after a consultation he decided to get all four out in one round. just knock em out as long as you are in there. we deemed the weekend a "relax" weekend, and made no plans. saturday morning i was looking on pinterest and found a link to a youtube video of how to make a granny square  it turned out to be really simple and i was quickly hooked. (ha!)

so, what did i do all weekend while ben was recovering? take a peek...

the top right was my first square ever!

i just can't stop! i am loving making these squares for a few reasons:

1- even though pregnant, we still are child-less and able to dedicate a lot of times to projects. i'm trying to enjoy this time while i can!

2- using up all of my "random" brightly colored yarn makes me feel so great. i am using up my stash, and having a great time with all the bright colors. i'm kinda digging pink and red together these days. 

3- probably the sweetest reason is that it reminds me of my grandma marj, my dad's mom. she was a hard working farmers wife and mother to nine children. even though i do not have that many memories of her, knitting and crocheting was one of them. i love the connection i have with her while sitting still and creating something for my family. my parent's still have a granny square blanket in thailand that she made. what a treasure.

i currently have 16 squares completed, and will just keep going until the size feels right. once finished, i will most definitely post pictures. this crochet beginner is just too excited to not show the progress!

the best banana split

if you ever visit branson, or even the ozarks- you must, must go to Andy Frozen Custard. their desserts are delicious. and if i have an unofficial pregnancy craving- you know that it's sweets. i am always in the mood for dessert, and so we decided to take bethany & michael with us. (they also went to the marriage conference).

i went with the classic andy's banana split & was not disappointed. the mixture of bananas, strawberries, & vanilla ice cream was too good to be true. luckily, ben shared with me. it turned out to be a large portion...

a walk through our college campus

while in branson, ben took me out on a date to the place where we met: college! even though a lot has changed in the three years since we graduated, it still was very much the same. we had such a sweet time together walking around campus. 

 when ben and i first became friends, we spent a lot of time talking together where a new building was being constructed. now the new building is complete, and our talking space is now off limits!

 

my favorite place on our college campus was our post office. there is nothing greater than snail mail & packages, especially for a college student who has parents overseas. 

 thanks ben for a great date! even though i was sad to transfer colleges my sophmore year, looking back- i'm glad i did to meet my ben. and graduate college debt-free. and a few other reasons too...

our weekend to remember

this past weekend, ben & i attended a marriage conference called, "a weekend to remember". it was hosted by family life, and was located in branson, missouri. it was so fun to spend time together in a town that holds so many special memories for ben & i. if it wasn't for me transferring to college of the ozarks my sophmore year, i would have (most likely) never met my true love! 

my parent's were kind enough to gift the weekend to us, and we cherished the time together before we are the seiler three! we stayed at the hilton, which overlooked the branson landing. we were blessed with amazing weather on saturday, and wore spring clothes!

the view outside our hotel room window.

this book was recommended to us by the marriage conference, and we are looking forward to reading our second parenting book together!

throughout the weekend, we enjoyed different "projects" together. one of our favorites was a letter we each wrote to each other affirming & appreciating each other, and what we are committing to working on in the future. {if you can read backwards, you can read our secret words to each other}

some good friends of our also attended the retreat, and so we enjoyed lunch together at the white river fish house. 

you may be wondering what kind of food is pictured below, and i will gladly tell you. 

alligator tails with jalepeno sauce. and they aren't too bad. 

overall, we had a great weekend together- and left feeling refreshed and ready to continue working at our marriage. so many different couples attended the retreat, from all different walks of life. ben & i have just been married a little over 2 years, but still need to pursue godliness and selflessness, to make our relationship the best that it can be. i've got a keeper!