everton probs and preggo favs

it's been precisely a month since my last post because when i have an idea for a post i would rather shnuggle up with everton and watch a movie...or stuff my face...or go to the bathroom (since i'm the urinator again.)  and my memory is that of a goldfish so even when i do have an idea for a post it flutters away from my mind.

so brett has a friend from his mission in brazil currently staying with us for a few weeks.  brett took all of last week off to hang out with him and show him the american way of eating really unhealthily and took him on the mormon tour of temple square.  and thiago (the brazilian friend) also wanted to see the sights of vegas so he and brett had a little brocation.  and while i totally didn't mind brett leaving for a few days, what was awful was taking care of everton by myself those few days.  i'm at this point in this pregnancy where i find myself thinking/asking, "how the hell am i going to take care of 2 kids when i can barely take care of 1??"  i don't know what it is but everton's been a gremlin lately.  it's been like pulling teeth to get him to eat and it's like all of a sudden he's gone deaf and would ignore everything i say to him.

BAHHHHHHHHH.

it did help going to kyla's and hanging out there while brett was gone, except the fact that everton likes to take a swing at his cousin hazel every now and then.

everton scares me.  i think he's transitioning from the terrible twos into the terrifying threes and he ain't three yet.

good thing he's so freaking cute.  his looks are what save him from his mom's wrath.  

i do love that little monster.

he still doesn't talk yet so i've been having a speech development teacher come over and help give him a boost in talking.

will everton be a superhero to our little girl?  or a super villain?

life's just been hectic with everton and whether we're ready or not, baby #2 is coming!

i'm in my 30th week of pregnancy and seriously everyone who have asked when i'm due, their jaws drop when i tell them i'm due at the end of jan.  i have 10 more weeks and i'm in disbelief.  

10 MORE WEEKS.

despite my belly being tiny, the doc said that her head is measuring a little big; that'll be an adventure to push out, everton had a huge head too.

i love the fact that as the ultrasound technician found the girl's face, she immediately said, "she has your lips!"

i'm dying to see what she looks like.

so i wanted to share with you some of my favorite preggo products.

these are what i used in both pregnancies and i swear by them.

and honestly i wanted to write these down somewhere in case i forget what i like to use in my next pregnancy...cuz you know...my brain is empty most of the time...

1. back when i found out i was pregnant with everton i did what most newly pregnant women do and i went and got myself some prenatal vitamins.  except they were horse pills!  and getting into my nausea stage those horse pills were hard to swallow without gagging.  i found these gummy prenatals and they are soooo good!  i continue taking these to this day and i love the little dose of sugar i get from them.

2. in both pregnancies i like to treat my growing belly with tons of TLC.  the next 3 items are really just for my belly.  after i've done my usual shower routine the last thing i do i rub this delicious coconut lime body sugar scrub all up on my belly.  it's SO relaxing and smells amazing.  it scrubs off any dead skin and makes my tummy super smooth.  i used to get my body scrubs from bath and body works but those can get a little pricey.  this brand is a lot cheaper and works just as well.

3. when i get out of the shower i lather this stuff on liberally.  it smells like chocolate and isn't greasy after i put it on.  (now don't hate me)  but i have yet to get stretch marks on this growing tummy of mine and i like to think it's because of this creamy cream and getting my mom's awesome filipino genes has helped too.

4. after the scrub and the stretch mark cream i seal it all in with this baby oil.  i put just enough to lightly cover my entire tummy or else my clothes will be sliding all over my belly.  these 3 things really help to prevent the major itchiness that comes with the stretching of my tummy's skin.

i know this sounds like an arduous process but i find it to be so relaxing and i make it part of my "me" time.  who knows if i'll get to continue this process when i'm pregnant with our third in the future but i'm sure as heck i'm going to try to make time for it!

tomorrow is thanksgiving!!!  i love being pregnant in the winter/holiday time cuz it means good food and spending lots of time stuffing my face with said good food (the baby needs it.)

and what i'm grateful for this year is
 my darling brett and rambunctious everton
my awesome family and family in-laws
food
a healthy pregnancy
yoga pants
church
my home
and food, oh that's the baby talking.

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.

practically pregnant in every way

being pregnant this time around is of course different.

i think back to when i was first pregnant with everton.  i slept in till noon everyday and stayed up till whenever.  those days are LONG GONE.  i value sleep now that i have a toddler and knowing that a newborn is coming next year i cherish sleep even more.  lately though, everton's been sleeping in till 9 or 10 and that's been glorious.  i have to put everton's needs before mine, except ice cream, he doesn't need that.  the nausea pretty much stopped since i hit my second trimester and man did i miss eating.  eat eat eat and sleep, they're my favorite things ever right now.  i've gotten back into freezer meal cooking and we're loving it, the trips to taco bell and mcdonald's have become a lot less frequent thank goodness.  i'll actually be doing a post on my most fav freezer meal crock pot recipes so stay tuned!

and thus begins the periodical posting of maternity pictures.

gestational age-20 weeks

i can't believe i'm halfway there already!

and speaking about life changes and stuff we recently found something else out that is going to turn our lives upside down, we're having a girl!!!! 

i had no inkling as to what the baby could be, just that on the way to the ultrasound appt brett said, "i am afraid of having a girl, not because of the girl herself but because of the shopping you'll be doing."

well be very afraid brett.  be very afraid.

as much as i love having a boy and that we have a ton of boy clothes already, i secretly did want a girl.  being in the little girl sections in target and H&M made me go crazy!

bring on the nail polish, tutus, the sassiness, the bows, flowers and the pinks but yet i will totally instill in her my love for the lord of the rings, harry potter, and anything MARVEL.  she's gonna be awesome.

it's so weird, i'm growing a baby girl!  she's getting to be quite the kicker and i'm definitely feeling pregnant.  my back's been hurting and i feel heavier even though i don't necessarily look it.  i already need a crane getting out of bed.

it's ALL WORTH it though!

ever since finding out that we're having a girl, i look at everton differently now.  he's going to be a big brother to a little girl?  is he going to be protective or totally mean to her?  i never had any brothers and always wished i had an older bro.  and from what my friends say about their brothers they were mean to them anyways.  if that's the case, i hope everton grows to love her as much as we do already.

poor kid, he probably just sees his mom slowly getting fatter and even lazier.  

he's in for quite a surprise next january!

i saw STAN LEE-SAT

LAST POST I SWEARS. i just have to write one more post about my last day (saturday) at salt lake comic con. i stayed the night at erin's apt in slc, that way i didn't have to drive from tooele really early and brett and everton could just hang out at home. we left what we thought was early enough to get to the salt palace and hit up the first panel on our schedule but when we got there, HOLY CRAP.  the line went from the salt palace, under some bridge, and i'm pretty sure it actually reached middle earth. 

standing in line pretty much sucked.  it got hot and felt like forever, but that's what i get right?  deciding to go on the most busy day of comic con?  seriously, i heard that 70-80,000 people came just on saturday and it felt like it.  that was the day my personal space didn't exist.  i'm sure the chitlin inside me lost some personal space too....sorry kid...but it was WORTH IT.

definitely missed the first panel on our list by the time we got in.  went to the next one then had lunch, which i brought a freakin subway sub in my backpack, i ain't paying 9 bucks for a sandwich.  

erin and i were darn sure we would make the next panel on our schedule, "Excelsior! Stan Lee!"  

every time we went to get into line for stan lee, the line was still for william shatner.  after spending some more time in the convention center we went to check on the line again, it was horrifyingly looooong and it was all for stan lee.  we were still able to get in, which i probably would've cried if we couldn't.  i saw him with my own eyes and he is so endearing.  i wish he was one of my grandpas.

fav Q and A's-

Q-"who would win in a fight, hulk or thor?"

A-"depends on who wrote the script!"

Q-"who would say is the sexiest character you've ever created?"

A-"i would say mary jane."

then he went on to say how after he named her mary jane, someone told him that that's another name people call marijuana.  and stan said, "i swear, on marvel comics, i did not know that!"

what a lovely old man.  i'm so grateful i got to see him live.

then we went to the, "Travels from Spartacus to Arrow to the White Orc Azog: Manu Bennett" panel.  erin and i have become quite infatuated with him.  he didn't wear colorful skinny jeans this time but he did teach some girl how to do the haka.  ADORABLE.  see vid below!

here are some of my most favorite cosplays.  it took me a while to get courage asking strangers to take pictures with them but i'm glad i did.  i got a little giddy when i saw my fav characters come to life.

logan/wolverine has always been my most favorite marvel character.

these kids are so freaking cute!  galadriel and bilbo with thorin in the back.  their mom had sewn ALL of their costumes.  i REALLY need to learn how to sew.

the cap'n and thor!

and dear loki, i'd say he's my second fav marvel man.  i seriously love this guy's costume.

our last and final panel was, "Superhero Films: What's Coming Up?  What Can DC Learn From Marvel Studios?"

this panel was a perfect way to end our time at comic con.  it was a small panel and all it consisted of were geeks galore debating the differences between DC and MARVEL films.  my kind of peeps.

erin and i were heartbroken that comic con came to a close.  i'm still a little sad now!

brett and everton picked me up and took me back to tooele.  man did i miss them though.  brett had taken everton to get his haircut and he looks like he aged 10 years and looked so different.

i loved my experience at my first comic con and hope to go back many times!

saw that erin and i are in an article on theonering.net!  we're totally famous now.

P.S. back to pregnancy news and regular life, we find out the gender this evening!  our appt is at 6.30.  

no clue why their office is open so late but this way brett doesn't have to take work off.

we're excited!