Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Balls

My poor husband had a really rough day yesterday. I wanted to make him a little goodie to make him feel better....plus this baby in my belly has brought out the sweet tooth within me. When i was pregnant with james i only craved healthy stuff. This time around i still crave some healthy stuff but along with lots of sweets...mainly chocolate. haha.
I found this easy no bake recipe on Pinterest. Another reason why i made it was because i already had all of the ingredients needed.

Here's what you need: Butter, chocolate candy melts or chocolate chips, peanut butter, confectioners sugar, and alluminum foil.



The recipe called for A LOT of each ingredient (made to make a lot), but i just wanted to make enough for Ryan and i for one night. So just took a little bit of each and guesstimated the amount that i would use.

I stirred together the peanut butter, confectioners sugar, and melted/softened butter until it was crumbly.



Then i rolled little balls and placed them on a plate covered in alluminum foil.



Place the peanut butter balls into the freezer for 5 -7 minutes so they are a little harder/secure for dipping in chocolate.
While they are in the freezer, microwave the chocolate until smooth and melted.



Take the peanut butter balls and dip them in the chocolate. I used toothpicks to help dip - to get it covered.



Place the chocolate covered peanut butter balls back onto the aluminum foil and refrigerate until the chocolate is hardened.



Once the chocolate is good and hardened...you can enjoy! These are really sweet and rich...almost like buckeyes.



Eat and Enjoy!

Answers to Prayers

The past few days have been such a stressful whirlwind for me. I am only 25 weeks pregnant and i was having menstrual like cramps with uncomfortable back pain....they would keep me up at night. I just felt off. It's hard not to compare this pregnancy with James' - it was wonderful! I wanted to be pregnant all the time...but with this one, it's a different story.
Anyway, all day Sunday and Sunday night i could not shake the discomfort. Monday morning i texted my dr. to see what she would say. i thought that she would say "it's normal." But she told me to come in for monitoring at the hospital. With Gammy leaving work to watch James, Ryan and i headed to the hospital for 2 hours of monitoring. Thankfully i wasn't having contractions nor was i dialating. My wonderful doctor just wanted to be safe and send me for a vaginal ultrasound the next day to check the length of my cervix.
I was so worried that something was wrong. That i could go into preterm labor. Or be put on bed rest. How does a woman go on bed rest with a toddler. It's hard to find time to even sit down sometimes. haha.
My mom went and did my grocery shopping for me so i didn't have to lift james in and out of the car or carry groceries. (thanks mama!) Since Ryan had school that night until 930, i braced myself to rely on whatever strength i could muster up. I was exhausted from lack of sleep and of course from worrying about our baby boy. As i was cooking dinner for James, our doorbell rang. It was my daddy. He was on his way home from work. He just wanted to stop by and pray over me and baby Adam. It was so sweet and i actually felt some relief after he left.
I feel so incredibily blessed to have my parents! I am so happy that our kids have them as grandparents! Even though i am an adult and a parent myself, i love that they still treat me as their child.
I had made it through the night and awoke with nerves about the ultrasound. My mom drove me to the hospital and took James out for lunch during my appointment. The nurse was extremely nice and answered all of my questions. My doctor had not called in the order for my vaginal ultrasound yet, so i had to wait. The nurse went ahead and took me back to a room and asked what the dr. said she wanted done. I told her just a vaginal ultrasound to check my cervix....just to make sure everything is okay. She said, "ok. We'll have to wait for the orders on that...but lets go ahead and check on your baby." I couldn't refuse. So for about 10 minutes she let me look at our baby from a regular ultrasound. I could not believe how much he has grown since December! Poor little thing had his feet pretty much touching his head. haha. I started to cry a little. It was just the confirmation i needed...i saw that our baby was safe and growing well. The nurse even printed off a ton of pics for me.
The orders had finally come in for the vag ultrasound. Which that was so uncomfortable. We had to wait and see if my cervix reacted in any way from it. Thankfully it did not and she measured my cerivix...and i never thought i'd be so excited to hear "your cervix is very long." Sweet words to my ears. haha. The shorter your cervix, the more likely you could go into preterm labor.
2 wonderful confirmations in one day! Such an answer to prayer! After i got all dressed and ready to go, i gave the nurse a huge hug telling her thank you and that this put my mind at so much ease! Now, i have no idea what our hospital bill is going to be like...i'd rather not think about it, but i am so happy i got to see baby Adam!
God is so good!
I still have the dull crampiness, but now i know it's just going to be something i have to deal with and that it's not threatening to our baby.

Here are some ultrasound pics of our baby (they are kinda blurry...i need to scan them)

Here he is...picking his nose. haha! When i saw that i said, "oh no!" haha.


Here he is and that little Burkart nose - he looks a lot like james.


He is cuddling with his arms and hands to the side. (Sigh) He loves have his arms and hands close to his face. Maybe a snuggler?


It was so amazing! I even saw him yawn....so cute!

He is still feet down - i feel like he is kicking through my cervix. Please pray that he turns head down so i can get some relief and also so he'll be in the right position for delivery.
Thank you to all of you who were praying for us! I truly believe your prayers helped!

Superbowl Sunday

One of James favorite things to do is help me bake cookies or cake. By help, i mean, he likes to lick the batter. haha. Truly my son. For Superbowl Sunday, we planned to go to my parent's house for dinner and part of the game. James and i made the brownies to take along.


Everytime we go to Gammy and Papa's house, James asks about Papa's truck. He loves that thing! My dad took him for a nice ride through the neighborhood. It was so cute - James was actually steering and peaking over his shoulders like an experienced driver.


And they're off!


A picture of James and his Papa.

Nesting Mode

The past couple of weeks i have been in full on nesting mode. Again, with the help of pinterest and hobby lobby coupons, i gave into my crafty urges.

James painted this valentine for Gammy. (found it for $.99)


I found this on pinterest. I took beer bottles (you can use wine bottles too) and wrapped yarn around and around the bottle. At the ends i used hot glue to keep them in place. I picked these colors because they are in the picture above our mantle...It's a nice way to add some color to a room.




For this project, i found an old shadow box frame that was in our room and glued on a piece of cardstock paper to it. The hearts were just punched out by a heart paper puncher. I just folded them in half and glued one side so that it will stick. I had a ton of hearts left over - i just scattered them out on the bottom of the frame.



I put our wedding date and the boys name on the white hearts.



I wanted something to hang up james' artwork. The fridge could not hold the amount that james would paint. Ryan had some extra wood and made a frame and painted it white. He took some wire and stapled them across the frame to hold his pictures. The cute little clothes pins i found at walmart for a couple of dollars (they are so cute). james loves it! All of the pictures that he has on there right now...he says are "trains." haha.



At hobby lobby i found some really cute scrap fabric - they have a bin full of them at a cheaper price. I decided to make james a simple guitar shirt. (i made one for Adam a while back) I really need to figure out my mom's sewing machine...would make things easier. haha.



Next post i need to tell y'all about an incredible book i have been reading. Have a happy day!