snape, the snitch, and the boy who lived...to eat a lot of candy.

it's halloween it's halloween!

i never thought having a kid would make halloween even more fun.

and it's a huge bonus to have a kid go trick or treating and you get to eat some of his loot.

for this year's fam costume theme i had another idea in mind but as i thought about how to put it together it just started getting complicated in my head.

but then i thought about harry potter.  i finished a harry potter marathon a couple months ago, reading the book then watching the corresponding movie. and even everton seemed to like the movies, i attempted to read the first book to him and he didn't give a crap.  we'll try again later. 

anyways, i thought a harry potter costume theme was in order.

 i also wanted to incorporate my round belly too and found a really cute idea online of dressing up as the golden snitch!  everton would be harry potter and brett would be professor snape.

i'm really proud of myself this year.  i feel like we hardly spent any money on our costumes.  brett used his old black grad gown (i'm glad we kept it!) and just wore his black church pants and a black sweater. simple enough!  i do wish i found him a wig though, he'd make an adorable grumpy snape.

and for my dear everton we bought a little superhero cape for harry's robes and i made his tie from felt.  i used my red lipstick for the lightning scar and my eyeliner for his glasses, i got so paranoid though, hoping he wouldn't touch his face and smudge my work.  and we thought this harry potter would be less dangerous if he didn't have a wand.  he was so cute as harry!  i loved it.

we went to our ward's trunk or treat on friday and re-taught everton the process of trick or treating.  he still doesn't talk very much but he did express his joy for all the candy he got by looking in his bucket and saying, "wowwwwwwwww."

my costumes always seem to be the most complicated to put together, probably b/c i like to be super glammed up.  it was mainly the gold "ball" and wings i was worried about.  heaven forbid i find a gold sparkly shirt this time around when i swear i've seen hundreds before.  that's my life.  but walmart had these sparkly sequin tops in what seemed like every other color except gold.  i grabbed the silver one and spray painted it gold, works for me!  i had to skype with my mom to figure out my wings and they turned out really well due to her help and to jill for helping me pin them on.

only my nerd friends really got what i was and this one lady in the ward thought i was a belly dancer.  pretty sure belly dancers wear a lot less than what i was wearing.

after everton and i made our rounds we hung out by our car and everton continued helping himself to the leftover candy from our bucket.  whatta fatty.

snape, the snitch, and the boy who lived...to eat a lot of candy.

after we got home we all junked out on everton's haul, everton had a sugar high then a sugar crash, threw him in bed, and then brett and i finished out the night eating pumpkin bars and watched hocus pocus.

it was a magical night.
(pun TOTALLY intended)

conquering cornbelly's

the kids are getting older so kyla and i really wanted to start taking said kids to corn mazes, pumpkin patches, tractor rides and such this fall.  and what better place to take em than cornbelly's down in lehi?  we've never been and thought it was a good year to check the place out.

holy crap that place was huge!  soooo much to do and see that we didn't get to see and do all of it.  next year we're definitely planning on spending all day there.

but we made sure to do the main stuff, starting with the gigantic corn maze.

check out hazel's pose.  "what's a girl to do in this huge maze??"

pretty sure everton and hazel saw no point in walking paths through a field of corn stalks.

darn kyla and her hot post-preggo bod!

and this is my current preggo bod.

and kyla's pretty amazing, feeding the baby while walking in the maze!  now that's fast food.

most tired criminal ever.

then we rode on a tractor sitting on hay that poked into our legs.

there were little wooden playgrounds galore.  everton esp loved this tractor one.

our aunt and cousins came with us too!  it was a splendid fall day to spend with family.  but it got cold and dark fast and the kids were starting to get cranky.

seriously can't wait for next year at cornbelly's and we're hoping our parents can come with us next time!

freezer meal lovin

blechhhhhhhhhh

i've spent almost 2 weeks rotting on the couch as sick as a dog.

and it's not nausea sick, it's the annoying cold virus sickness.
and being pregnant i can't take anything.

now i'm slowly getting over it but i just have the barking seal cough.

i seriously miss my dayquil and nyquil.

and being sick for so long meant no cooking dinners for most of the time.  in the early stages of my cold we used up the rest of my freezer meals.  thank freakin goodness for those.  then the last part of my illness consisted of brett getting creative with whatever we had in the kitchen/pizza takeout.

now i have a lot more energy to stock up our fridge/freezer with actual meals so i thought i'd take this post to show/tell you about my crock pot freezer meal adventures.

i would definitely say that i'm not the first person that would come to mind when it comes to cooking and cooking advice.  but whenever i post a pic of my crock pot freezer meals i have friends that ask how i do em, what my fav recipes are, etc.

so in this post i'm going to pretend i'm this awesome mommy blogger chef that is going to show you my freezer meal "SECRETS" and share some of our most fav freezer meal recipes.

as payday approaches i sit down making a massive list of recipes and groceries and aim for 2 weeks of freezer meals.  i still have yet to figure out how women out there do like, 50 meals for $90 without repeating recipes over and over but for now, our grocery budget works for 2 weeks.
i then set off for the grueling task of grocery shopping, it's really not my most favorite thing to do.  and then after ALL that shoppin we usually get a pizza or taco bell cuz seriously, i ain't cookin after all that.
usually the next day i gear myself up for a few hours in the kitchen, leaving everton with netflix in the living room or "helping" me in the kitchen.

but before i start putting the bags together i label them first and let the ink dry.  i hate smudgy sharpie fingerprints. we bought this huge box of freezer gallon bags at costco for about $10.  i'm still good on bags for a while, one less thing i have to worry about.

and i get to chopping veggies and shoving food into ziplock bags.

these are my onion chopping goggles.

i use a lot chicken in my freezer meals so i count up about how many chicken breasts i'll be needing and buy accordingly.  most of the time 2 bags will do.  just something i learned, if the raw chicken is frozen already, don't let it thaw out, then throw it in the freezer again; that causes contamination and grossness.  but if you buy them not frozen, they're ok to put in.  other meats that are ok to throw in raw are cuts of beef or pork but if you are using ground beef or sausage you have to cook it first then throw it in the bag.  anybody's who has heard otherwise let me know!

one lifesaver is my jar of already minced garlic.  a lot of recipes i use call for garlic and this makes it SO easy to add it.  i am super lazy to cut up a ton of cloves and this tastes just as good.

  just FYI, a 1/2 teaspoon of minced garlic= 1 clove.

again, i'm actually really lazy and go for ways to make life easier, simpler, and faster.

so with that being said, i SWEAR by these slow cooker liners.  since i bought my crock pot i've been in love with using it but cleaning it SUCKED!  then my mom-in-law used a slow cooker liner with her awesome pot roast and i was infatuated.

these are about 1.97 a box at walmart.

the liners don't affect the taste of the food and make cleaning up minimal.

after all is said and done i freeze the food filled bags flat on a cookie sheet then when they're completely frozen i take the cookie sheet out and line them upright so there's more room in the freezer.  and throughout the day i open the freezer to stare at my work.  i'm really proud of myself when i accomplish making dinner for the next 2 weeks.

it's a good few sweaty hours in the kitchen chopping veggies, measuring ingredients, and putting crap into bags equaling the next 2 weeks of not having to think about to do for dinner.  usually the night before i decide what we'll have for dinner the next day and take out the freezer bag to thaw slightly in the fridge and throw it in the crock pot while everton and i have breakfast.  then as dinnertime approaches i make rice or veggies to eat with the main meal.  minimum thinking/work required.  these are perfect for when someone needs a meal, you just give them a bag!  or when this little girl arrives i'm hoping to have a ton of freezer bags prepared so we won't have to worry about dinner for a good while. 

so without further adieu here are some of my most favorite crock pot meals and here's my crock pot board on pinterest full of recipes i have/haven't tried yet.--- CRACK POT

ham and pineapple with rice

swedish meatballs

*i also add a splash of worcestershire sauce and horseradish sauce and it's SO flavorful.  serve with egg noodles!

garlic rosemary chicken and potatoes

buffalo chicken sandwiches

crock pot no boil manicotti

*i totally still throw these in the freezer too.

creamy italian chicken

moist and tender turkey

*i made this for thanksgiving last year and it is truly a beautiful and flavorful turkey.

taco chicken bowls

balsamic chicken

bbq country style ribs

*i didn't add the bbq sauce in the bag but added everything else then made a note on the bag to drain the liquid after the ribs have been cooking for about 8 hours.  then add the bbq sauce to the crock pot and cook for one more hour.  

super fast chicken freezer meals

*i've made a lot of these chicken recipes and haven't made any we didn't like.  most fav-french chicken.

this next website is what i used when i was getting started in freezer meals.

she has a lot of meals, grocery lists, and i love that she even has what you write on the bag for most of the recipes.  there are multiple parts but these are what we love the most and have made the most often.

beef burritos

*this is brett and my most favorite freezer meal EVER!  it makes a ton and brett makes his brazilian rice to go with it and it is super delicioso.  one thing about it though is that it calls for a ton of peppercorns and i hate having to fish out every single one.  anybody have any tips on cooking with peppercorns and how to get em all out at once?

the teriyaki pork chops from the same page are amazing too.

delicious pot roast

*i know i've been saying "favorite" a lot but this is our most favorite pot roast recipe and doesn't require a lot of ingredients.

and there you have it.  if you have any beloved crock pot recipes you're willing to share, please do!  i'm always on the lookout for really good recipes.

seriously, if my lazy self can do this, you can too.