on vacation time

we FINALLY leave for our european vacation tomorrow!

we've been planning this trip for quite awhile now, and i'm thankful that it worked out to be pretty perfect timing for a babymoon. i still can't believe it's really happening, so it will be a shock when we actually get on the plane to paris tomorrow.

our plans:

• fly to paris tomorrow! arrive early saturday morning
• while in paris, my main goal is to both eat and walk a lot. hoping they will balance each other out :)
• our first day there, we're going to take advantage of a pre-reserved hop-on/off bus tour that will take us to all of the major sights (and tell us what they are in english via headsets)
• on our 2nd night, we're having dinner at the eiffel tower. can't wait!
• take a train from paris to london
• we reserved another hop-on/off bus for london that will show us all of the sights without traipsing all over town on foot
• i'm sure we'll try to find some sort of soccer (excuse me, football) activity for michael to see while in town
• obviously we'll have some fish n chips and work on our accents
• fly from london to venice
• while in venice, i just want to watch the water, take a gondola ride, and have some gelato. 
• take a train from venice to rome
• we have a pre-reserved "skip the line" pass to see the vatican, sistine chapel, raphael's rooms, etc. which will be SO cool. i have to remember to not wear a tank top that day so i don't have to wear one of those weird disposable capes.
• i'm sure we'll try to get over to see the coliseum and the pantheon
• i'd like to find some awesome pizza, and of course, more gelato

our beautiful hotels that i've heard so much about and can't wait to see! 

we planned this trip using american express travel, which was wonderful! they plan all of my work trips and are so helpful with everything. i highly recommend them if you're an american express member!

also, big shout-out to my parents for keeping our puppy babies the whole time we're gone. they got haircuts yesterday in preparation for their trip to the grandparents' house and they look SO CUTE! i'm going to miss them so much!

needless to say, there won't be much activity on the blog for the next 10-11 days, but i will be sure to post a big update when we get back. ellie has already been to japan, taiwan, and korea, and now she's making the trip to europe! busy lady. :)

baby segura/nursery updates

happy tuesday everyone!

i hope you all had a nice long memorial day weekend. ours went by too fast, as usual, but we got to spend time with good friends and family.

we've done a little work in the nursery so far, and we're starting to get some fun stuff for baby segura, so i figured it's about time for an update!

first of all, for those of you who follow me on any sort of social media, you already know that baby segura is a girl!! we had our 18-week ultrasound on the 21st, and it was SO fun! our ultrasound tech is awesome and always takes her time, making sure to show us all of the fun stuff and letting us linger for as long as we want to.  baby girl was not shy with showing off the important parts, so it was pretty easy for us to see from various angles that she's a girl. i was amazed by how big she is already! there's such a huge difference between the 12-week and 18-week ultrasounds that it's kind of hard to believe.

in related news, baby girl also officially has a name: ellie charlotte segura. michael and i have always loved and agreed on ellie as our first baby girl name, so i think we were a little relieved when we found out she's a girl! we didn't really have any boy options so far, so it's been fun to call her by her name since the ultrasound. charlotte is my mom's name, and we like that it's traditional and feminine. we want both of our kids to have family names as middle names, and thankfully this name choice came pretty easily to us!

since we found out we're having a girl, my planning and nursery dreaming has gone into overdrive. we now have 2 decent-sized registries, which have been so fun to work on. we're really only missing the big things now (strollers, furniture, etc.), which we're going to go shopping for in person when we get back from our big vacation (that start this friday--yay!)

we also got the sweetest baby memory book from my brother-in-law who lives in costa rica and was visiting family here in north carolina last week. i can't wait to start putting things in it!

a few more fun  baby-related things that have happened recently:

 this weekend was the first time we've seen my family since we found out we're having a girl, so we got lots of fun girly gifts to start filling up ellie's closet! my parents, brother and brother's girlfriend all loaded us up with the sweetest clothes i've ever seen. seriously, not much is sweeter than baby clothes on baby hangers.

uncle zack is a shoe fanatic, so it's fitting that ellie's first pairs of shoes came from him! so precious.

the diaper stockpile is growing, thanks to ellie's grandparents and our couponing skills. seriously, future moms-if you buy diapers at full price you are crazy. i routinely check the huggies and pampers websites and coupons.com for diaper coupons. the target cartwheel coupon program also pretty much always has the target brand diapers on sale. we haven't bought any diapers or wipes so far that weren't either on sale or we had a coupon for. i should've kept track of how much we've saved-it's been a lot!

the dresser in the nursery has sort of scratchy wood in the drawers, so this weekend i picked up some shelf liner and started putting a few things in there. the first drawer is currently holding bibs and ellie's first jewelry! my parents got her the sweetest bracelet and ring that are beyond-belief tiny.

i ordered this print from etsylast week (obviously with ellie instead of emma) to hang in the nursery. i want to do mostly soft pink decor, so i thought this print would be a really pretty start to the wall decorations!

since ellie will have the same first initial as her mama, i'm happy we get to keep our little shelf in that room with the big metal "e" from our wedding. we'll have to relocate michael's "m" for now :) the paint color we went with (which i am SO in love with) is "shaken not stirred" by allen + roth for valspar.

as for me, i'm happy as a clam and feeling great these days! ready for our euro trip to begin so we can take a few days away from the craziness of life and be together, just the 2 of us, before baby comes! i'm 19 weeks, 3 days today and can't believe that on saturday i'll officially be halfway there! time is flying. my belly has really grown a lot in the past couple of weeks-it's pretty undeniable now that i'm pregnant! i'm very thankful for my maternity wardrobe at this point. i've gained about 9-10 pounds so far (that's an estimate based on my last doctor's visit and how i've grown since then-i dont' weigh myself at home) and i'm still wanting sweets 24/7. i could exist solely on candy and cinnamon rolls if i let myself. i wouldn't really call them cravings most of the time though-i can live without them! i'm still doing the tracy anderson workouts. i'm currently on month 5 of the pregnancy project and loving it!

thanks to everyone who has been so sweet and supportive to us through this whole process. we are getting so excited to meet ellie and are so thankful that we have such wonderful people in our lives to be happy right along with us!

churro cheesecake

dessert recipe time!

i made this churro cheesecake for a segura family get together this past weekend, and i liked it! the original recipe came from the recipe critic, and based on her pictures vs. mine, i think mine came out a little differently.

the main difference i think is how the crescent rolls baked. in her pictures, the bread layers look thin and fairly crispy, like a crust, while mine baked up really fluffy and more cake-like. i'm sure either way is good, but i think next time i will use less crescent rolls, or maybe just one layer instead of two.

anywho, the cheesecake filling is to die for, and i love cinnamon, so this is right up my alley!

you will need:

• 2 cans crescent dinner rolls
• 2 8-oz packages of cream cheese, softened
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 egg, slightly beaten
• 1 cup sugar, divided
• 2 tbsp ground cinnamon

1. preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. using a stand mixer, beat together the cream cheese, vanilla, egg, and 1/2 cup sugar until smooth. 

2. mix together the rest of the sugar (1/2 cup) and cinnamon. spray the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray and sprinkle half of the cinnamon sugar mixture evenly on the bottom.

3. on a piece of parchment paper, roll out your crescent roll dough into a big square and press the seams together. (i used a floured rolling pin to make this a little smoother)

4. place the dough in the bottom of the baking dish on top of the cinnamon sugar and spread the cheesecake filling evenly on top of the dough.

5. unroll the other can of dough and place on top of the cheesecake.

6. sprinkle the top with the remaining 1/4 cup of cinnamon sugar.

6. bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown.

enjoy!

2 years

 today marks 2 years of marriage for me & my sweet husband! it's been an eventful 2 years full of ups and downs, but i wouldn't want to go through life with anyone else. i'm so thankful for where we are in our lives and what God has blessed us with. i can't wait to see michael become a daddy!

i also love to think back on our wedding and the great time we had with all of our friends and family. i love those memories so much!

happy anniversary baby! here's to many more.

the seguras are happy it's may!

it's MAY!

we've been looking forward to this month for a long time!

here's why...

• michael is officially done with his first semester at uncc this wednesday. so proud of him and his awesome grades so far! (he is seriously making me feel bad about my first semester college grades)
  
  
• i have my next doctor's appointment this week (also on wednesday), where i'll get my usual check-up and schedule our anatomy scan ultrasound! can't wait to find out if our little peanut is a boy or girl! i'll also hit the halfway point of my pregnancy in may-it's going by so fast already!
  
  
• i am heading to the isle of palms on thursday to celebrate my frand's dirty 30! it's not going to be too dirty since 1) i'm pregnant and 2) we're going with her mom, but it's going to be awesome! can't wait for a couple of days of relaxing in the sun.
  
  
• after the mini-beach trip, i'm heading home to spend mother's day with my mom. it's a special year and i'm glad i can spend mother's day with her!
  
  
• i'll celebrate 2 years of being married to my best friend on the 19th!
  
  
• loki turns the big 3 on may 27th (judge away)
  
  
• on may 30th, our euro trip will finally begin! we've been planning it for awhile, and i still can't really believe it's happening later this month. so ready to spend some quality time with michael in some fun new places!

thanks for showing up, may! we're happy you're here :)