My Favorite Soup Ever

I don't know what it is about Fall, but once the cool weather hits I want to eat every pumpkin thing possible (maybe also because I'm preggo). I have been making a lot of yummy pumpkin things lately-pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, pumpkin bread, pumpkin dip and pumpkin/squash soup.
The soup has been my favorite so far, so thought I would share the recipe. This was my first attempt of homemade soup, so I was thrilled with how yummy it was! The base of the recipe is from my friend, but I added and took away some things. The best part is you don't really need to measure, and you can add more or less of ingredients to fit your taste buds.

So here it is...

~Pumpkin Butternut Squash Soup~

One large Butternut Squash peeled and chopped
2 apples (I used Gala) peeled and chopped
Chopped sweet onion to taste (I used about half a small onion)
3 Tbsp of butter
One can of pumpkin puree
salt and pepper
pumpkin pie spice
1 1/3 cup of apple cider (I used the spiced kind with orange, cinnamon and clove)
2-4 cups of water or stock, depending on how thick you like your soup

 ~Melt butter in large pot, saute onions until clear
~Toss in squash and apples, saute for a couple minutes, then add about 2 cups of water and bring to a boil
~Simmer for around 20 minutes until squash is soft
Pour everything into blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Add can of pumpkin and blend again until smooth.
~Pour everything back into pot on stove on low heat. Add apple cider and the rest of water, depending on thickness you prefer.
~Add spices and heat on low (do not boil) until soup is hot.

Enjoy!!  I made enough for two lunches and then was able to freeze about 3 bowls worth. Can't wait to make it again!

My Babies

Random updates from the Leekley house, mostly about my two babies :)

Dillon's self portraits, he had fun taking pictures of himself, such a goof!!

The bump, almost 26 wks!  Third trimester will be here before we know it!! This pregnancy has gone by way faster than with Dillon. We switched from the Duke Hospital system to UNC Hospitals this pregnancy, and have been very pleased so far. This is the only time I can say I like UNC better than Duke lol!

Baby Ronan has a couple new burp cloths made by mommy!  We have had his name picked out for a while now, but I feel like its more official when I put it on things, haha!  His full name is Ronan Charles. We love it! 

Dillon's Vintage Train Room {Finished!}

Dillon's new room is finally done! It took a lot longer than I thought, but I love how it all turned out!  Dillon helped with a few of the things, and he just loves looking at all his train stuff everywhere!

The bedding was the first thing in there, I am so jealous of his bed! It is so so soft and comfy and I want to steal it from him!  The big RR sign above the bed is made by daddy. It turned out great! Just a simple 1x4 cut in half and painted to resemble the real thing. I love how Dillon picks out the signs he sees at RR crossings and says "hey, that's in my room!"

To the right of the bed is a side table we already had (Ikea). It is lower than a normal bedside table, so I had the idea of adding a suitcase to the top to make it taller. Since the room has a vintage feel going on, I wanted an old suitcase, and the one we found was perfect! My Grandpa's from the 1940's. He said he hitchhiked across Maine with it, carrying deer meat inside....Good story but I think its a stretch. :)  Under the table is a basket from his old room with all his books. Ignore the crazy mess of the books and whatnot on the floor. That's just toddler life. Be glad I got it looking this good for the pics! haha!

The bed skirt was going to be light blue, but I found some burlap I had laying around and attached it to just the end and it looked good with the theme, so I bought more and just pinned it to the box spring. No sewing, just cutting! His bed is really high, so I put this cute antique bench at the end of his bed so he can climb up a little easier. Another cheap thrift store find!

To the right of his bed is his wall collage. He loves looking at all the train pics in the frames! The white frames are all Ikea and the others were thrift store finds. I'm talkin 50-75 cents! I had some blue yarn left from a project and wrapped a letter D (this took forever) and I added some curtain fabric in frames to tie it in. The yellow RR sign was a special sign Dillon picked out at our Tweetsie Railroad trip back in July!

The wall next to the closet (behind the door) has his RR sign clock, maybe he will learn what time he can start yelling for us in the am!  :)

The wall to the left of his bed has his big train poster. This was a poster print (4 bucks at Walgreens!) from a vintage magazine my mom found at an antique store. Also in a thrift store frame!
The curtains on this wall are my favorite part (and the pillow!). I am loving the chevron in his room, and so glad I ordered enough fabric for a pillow too! I am already thinking about what to make with the rest! (something baby related!) PS- please ignore how floppy the curtains look, I need to get more ring hooks to hold them up, they are a little droopy but wanted to just get them up!
The bookshelves under the windows are something from Pinterest, Ikea spice racks, and D loved painting these! 

Crazy eyes!!

OMG TRAINS EVERYWHERE I'M SO EXCITED I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!   :)

Next up is the nursery! That probably won't be done until December!!

Maternity Must Haves

I have definitely learned the second time around what I really need and don't need for this pregnancy. These are my must haves while being pregnant, some in only certain trimesters. I'm sure there are more, but I can't remember what they are. Story of my life at the moment.  :)

Leggings-I just bought these at H&M and they are amazing!! I love how they go over the belly, makes them super comfortable. I didn't own many pairs of leggings last pregnancy, but I have a feeling, its all I'm going to wear this fall!
Bella Band- I didn't use it as much the first time, probably because I was so excited about buying new maternity clothes, that I just wore those instead. This time, I wore my regular shorts all summer instead of buying maternity ones (besides one pair of maternity jean shorts).
Boppy Body Pillow- Last time, I used three different pillows and they usually ended up on the floor or not in the right place. This pillow is great because it replaces all those pillows and helps me sleep better! This will come in handy even more in third trimester.
Sparkling Soda-I probably wouldn't have survived my first trimester without Izze. Thats all.
Gummy vitamins-Horse pills are my worst enemy, my throat always closes up in fear at the sight of them. I started using flintstone vitamins at the end of last pregnancy, but those still tasted awful. At least these go down easy and taste good!
Baby Center App-There have been a few times people ask me what week I am and I have to think about it for a second. I don't keep up with it aka someone has sucked all my brain cells away already. ha! This sends me a notification every Monday and says what week I am...it does my brain's job for me.
Water-love me some water!! Gotta stay hydrated!
Layering tanks-The long and lean tanks from target or Old Navy tanks come in handy to extend the life of non maternity clothes.
Skinny belt-In order for my boobs and belly to not be one giant blob that runs together under a shirt (I call it the short waisted, big boobed problem), I need definition between the two...so I will be wearing lots of skinny belts this fall with tunics and sweaters (that way, I can wear a lot more of my regular clothes!)
Work out shoes-My dear hubby bought these fabulous pink Nikes for me on Mother's Day. They are great because they have a lot more give to them, so when my feet grow, I can still go to the gym!

Growing!

What a difference a month can make!!

Epiphanie Camera Bags

I  have been entering giveaways for this particular brand of camera bag for a long time, hoping I will win won! They have guest bloggers hold giveaways quite a bit.  Maybe I will get lucky! Or maybe I will just buy one! lol I am running out of room in my current camera bag and these are just too cute!  I am posting this to get another entry into the contest! Go check it out!
http://www.chef-in-training.com/2012/07/epiphanie-giveaway-185-value/

Big Boy Room Progress!

We didn't expect it, but Dilly is officially sleeping in a big boy bed already! Took him about 3 nights to go down without any problems. The first night, I cuddled with him until he fell asleep, took about 45 min. The 2nd night, he asked for about 10 things before going to sleep. Now, we put him down, he talks to himself and then falls asleep! I think it was so easy because it was his idea. He wanted to go ahead and sleep in the "big bed" so we said sure, why not!

A couple things we found that are going in his room:

train bedding from overstock.com

The bedding is perfect, my mother in law found it with her awesome google searching skills. I tried to search for black and white train bedding (I was picturing something just like this one in my mind) but couldn't find anything online! We were going to get something similar in color at Ikea, but this is perfect bc of the trains!

curtains from Etsy

Chevron curtains are hard to find, most of them are handmade and super expensive. I'm going to find the fabric and make them myself to save the money! They will look similar to above with a black rod for hanging. I love the pop of yellow!

New Discoveries

There were three things I just discovered recently and are loving them all, so thought I would share! The first is a lady who makes monogrammed shirts, pillows etc and lives locally. I saw cute patriotic designs on her Facebook page and decided I wanted to have one made instead of making one myself. Lets face it, I don't have time to make things right now! Plus, I just love the clean look of embroidery!

Dilly and I drove to pick the shirt up the other day and discovered a couple places in Cary. First was Gigi's Cupcakes. I heard the name before and knew they were in Raleigh, but didn't know they were in Cary. These cupcakes were A- MA- ZING. The icing was 3 in high and the cupcakes were nice and moist. YUM. I had a white chocolate chip raspberry and D had  hummingbird. Good thing they are so far away! After we devoured the cupcakes in a non graceful way, we saw a park right below us at the shopping center. Kind of random, but they had a little park and splashground right in the middle of the center. It was fenced in and perfect for kids his age. He loved splashing in the water of course, and he was able to burn off some sugar.

Lots of fun things I hope to try or buy again soon!  :)

Dillon's New Room {Vintage Trains}

Source: laybabylay.com via Heidi on Pinterest

This summer will be a big change for Dilly man! We are moving his room next door so we don't have to flip flop bed and crib. It worked out nice since now we only have to paint one room vs two! When I saw the inspiration board above, I knew it was what we needed to do. The walls are already that grey color and Dillon is obsessed with trains! I am excited to start collecting train things for the walls and find some matching decor. We are going to hit up Ikea for curtains, blankets, duvet, sheets, etc then lots of antique/thrift stores for train things. I found a huge train book today along with 4 8x10 white frames and got started on some wall art (all from Ollie's).

This took FOREVERRRRRR. I cut out all the pictures, then changed my mind about 234364564534 times before I liked the completed collage. I am pretty happy with the results!

 Next, we are going to attempt a RR crossing sign headboard and then Ikea next month!

Bump or Bloat?

Its hard to tell these days if I'm just bloated or if there is a bump starting to show! It feels weird this go round not showing as early, but here is a little glimpse. This is more for my record, I won't be posting belly shots all the time but just a few so this baby doesn't feel left out! (sorry little gummy, you get crappy phone pics, lol)

Baby #2!

A little sooner than we were planning, but when it comes to creating a baby, we will leave that up to God! Obviously, it was meant to be for us to have a crazy end of year with birthdays, holidays and anniversaries all in the same 3 months! Something I dreaded, but now I am looking forward to the chaos!  :)  I had a feeling I was preggo at Disney, but ignored it and carried on. On the way home, I was SUPER bloated and took a test the day we got back. Well, it popped up in about 5 seconds, and then of course I had to take a couple more to be sure. :)  I didn't tell Evan until the next day b/c I wanted to surprise him! Dillon and I found a Big Brother shirt and a cute card that said something like "This world needs more people like you, glad to see we are doing something about it!" I put a preg test in the card and the shirt on Dillon. He was definitely surprised and excited! Looking back, I am sooooo glad I wasn't feeling bad yet at Disney because I don't know what I would have done. A few weeks later, things started to unfold and let me tell you, they unfolded a whole lot more than the first time! In just a couple weeks I went from having a virus or food poisoning, full body hives for four days, a UTI and then another rash from the antibiotics. Besides all of that and the all day nausea, I am thankful it hasn't been worse and things are starting to level out now that I'm in the second trimester, whoop whoop!!
I signed up to be a volunteer for a free ultrasound in a couple weeks. It is for training techs/nurses and I am crossing all my fingers and toes they can find out the sex for us! If not, we can just wait until our Dr visit and hopefully find out then! I am super happy to still fit into all my regular clothes, especially my shorts/jeans. I always heard you start showing a lot sooner the second pregnancy, so I was thrilled to still be on the smaller side! The not eating for 3 months probably had something to do with that, but the baby is making up for it now! We recently took some announcement pictures with my wonderful friend Lauren/LES Photography. They turned out so awesome! I love hanging out with their family, so it was perfect for us to trade sessions! Here are a few super cute pictures I will treasure for a long time, can't wait to make some prints for the playroom!  :)