If you love something, let it BE!

After making three batches of caramel rolls for Christmas last year and everyone fighting over the "saucy" ones (sound familiar, anyone?), I tried to give them a new spin. Today I made a batch with DOUBLE THE SAUCE! Sound like blasphemy? Well, sadly, it was.

Because of the overabundance of sauce, the rolls on the bottom didn't cook thoroughly, so we were left with only about a 1/3 of the rolls even being edible. Granted, those few were still heavenly, but I'm glad I made a test batch before Christmas morning! Another drawback to my overzealousness: trying to flip over such a juicy batch resulted in quite a messy countertop.

My lesson is learned. Don't mess with a good thing!

P.S. Happy Anniversary to us! We've been married 3 years today! We're going out to dinner tonight to celebrate!

Oh, and I forgot to add... the new car has a 40 gb hard drive, and the first cd that was ripped to the car was, of course, the Osmond Christmas Album!

St. Nick's night

Getting in for the first time!
Still in shock!

This is what our new car looks like (but blue, obviously!)

Yesterday, all of the Dietrichs got together to celebrate St. Nick's Night, as the official start to the Christmas season. We were told that the night would be full of surprises, so we were all excited. When we got over to Ray and Angela's, Anthony and Ray Sr. went out to get groceries for dinner and to "run an errand". I knew that the errand had to do with Christmas, so I didn't press to hard.

Nearly three hours later, I was getting quite impatient (as hungry pregnant women do), so I was relieved when I heard all the dogs barking, signalling the boys' return. I was upstairs waking Connor from a nap, so everyone went outside before me. I walked out, and everyone turned to look at me. I didn't know what was going on, then Anthony said, "Merry Christmas, Carolyn!" and pointed to the brand new car sitting right in front of me! We'd been talking since last year about getting a bigger car, and we knew it would be a either a van or a suburban, but a suburban won't fit in our garage. Anthony said that this has been in the works for quite some time, and that all the fuss he'd been putting up about not wanting to be a mini-van owner was all for show!

10 weeks, 2 days!

We put up our Christmas tree last night, and Anthony's mom is taking Connor for the day so that I can clean the house and run some errands. Who would have ever thought that cleaning the house could be so exciting?


Week Ten
Baby is now called a fetus in "medical terms". You, however, may have chosen the name "peanut," "angel," "jumping bean" or simply "miracle."
The most critical part of your infant's development is complete. Now you are headed into a period of rapid growth.
While a bit strange to envision, your baby's head is now about half its length - Soon the rest of the body's growth will catch up but this area is prepared to keep up with the rapid brain development!
Eyelids fuse shut and irises begin to develop - Eye color is also determined by this point.
Placenta begins to function this week or next - The placenta is the organ responsible for both the provision of nutrients along with the removal of waste to keep your baby growing strong!
Your baby will be about 1.22 inch long (3.1cm) and weigh 0.14 ounce (4gm) at the end of this week [return to top]

And to mimic Marinda for the second time in one week:

We're having a baby in June, too!

The bean isn't due to arrive until June 29th, so here's to hoping we don't have a July baby!


We had our first ultrasound appointment on the 20th, and we saw the baby (looks more like a gummy bear right now) and its heart was beating at 167 bpm! Anthony and I both got girl vibes, so maybe we'll be adding a little Carolyn? I'm 9 weeks today!

We just got back from Connor's 6-month well baby appointment. He's tipping the scales at nearly 19 pounds and is 27.5 inches long! I decided today that even though he hasn't reached the weight maximum of his carseat (22 pounds), it was time to move to a big boy carseat. We bought a Cosco Scenera. From what I've read, it has good safety ratings. Of course, I wanted a Britax, but $300 is a LOT of money for a carseat. The Scenera is supposed to be comparable, just with a little bit less padding. I hope it works out for us. We will see when it comes in about 2 weeks!

Connor's got his two bottom teeth now, which are just so cute. He's recently learned that he can He's got his two bottom teeth now, which are just so cute. He's recently learned that he can make funny sounds, like raspberries, coughing, and squealing, so if Connor's awake, it's not very quiet around here! Connor's got quite the sophisticated palate now, and prefers carrots over peas or squash. I've been hesitant to introduce fruits because sweet tooths (teeth?) run in our family!

The doctor told me to quit cold-turkey with getting up to feed Connor at night. I don't know how I feel about it, because who is this man to tell me what to do with my child whom he sees every few months for 5 minutes? Granted, the thought of uninterrupted sleep is VEEERRRY tempting, but I don't think Connor is ready to cry it out. He's gradually stretching out his sleep blocks. He goes down at 9, is up anywhere between 1 and 4 to eat an entire bottle, then he's usually up at about 7 for a diaper change and a hug, then he dozes/talks until I'm ready to get up around 9. I'm worried that if I let him cry, I may lose those precious last couple of hours in the morning, and with me working late nights, that would NOT make me happy. I think I will just feel out the situation a little bit more before I make any rash decisions.

I'm feeling a bit out of the loop when it comes to Christmas. Yes, I had my Christmas shopping 90% done by October, but I've always been under the impression that Christmas time starts the day after Thanksgiving. The mall that I work in is Christmas'ed out, the stores around it are sooo busy that you'd think it was the 24th of December, and even our small little town of Castle Rock has filled its windows with sparkling lights, wreaths, and golden reindeer! When did I miss the memo that it's time to break out the hot chocolate and Rudolph?!

I was just looking through some of my pictures today and thought that this one was really cute. We're so excited to come to Utah for Thanksgiving and show off Connor's new tricks! :)