Gingerbread House Contest Results!

Thank you so much to everyone who voted!  We had a lot of fun with our Gingerbread House Contest this year!  We also had a number of people vote in person, so it was actually a very close race!  The final vote was 10-9, so (by ONE vote!) House #1 was the winner!!  Which makes Janae the undefeated champion for two years running!  Woohoo!!!  Aaron's wheels are already turning for how to defeat me next time ;)  It was super close though, but in the end, style won over structure!  Thanks again for participating in our tradition with us! :)

Gingerbread House Contest!

Well here we go again!  Our awesome gingerbread house contest!!!  Aaron and I have created our masterpieces and now YOU get to be the judge!  Poll closes at midnight on Christmas Eve and the winner gets to open the first present Christmas morning!  :)  The poll is right above this post at the top of the blog.


Here they are!

House #1:

House #2:

Week 30

Week 29

I'm posting the photo only this week because I wrote a personal letter to the baby that I'd prefer not to post on my public blog.  I had a spiritual experience about this baby that I wanted to share with her.  I will say that I love that I have a loving Father in heaven who knows my daughter and is helping me understand who she is before she's even here.  

I feel so blessed.

You know, when I think about being pregnant and am focused on how my pregnancy makes my body feel, it's impossible to not complain!  But when I think about why I'm pregnant and focus on how my pregnancy makes my heart feel, I find it impossible to complain!  Funny how that works - perspective is everything :)  I love what my cousin's wife said in a blog comment over a year ago with my first pregnancy (JoAnne you probably don't even remember posting this, but I think about it all the time!).  She said, "Pregnancy is really amazing...the absolute most amazing feelings in the world alongside the absolutely worst feeling body in the world!!"  So true and so well said!  :)  

I've really been doing a lot better the last week or two and it's been great!  I had 2-3 really rough days last week, but otherwise I've been doing well - I can even clean my house and drive now!!  I'm loving it!  I'm actually starting a prenatal water aerobics class in the hospital therapy pool this week and I'm SO excited!  With the exception of some crazy intense heartburn and really bad back pain, I've been doing really well and I'm hoping it continues.  I'm ready to rock these last couple of months and enjoy it as much as I can!  :) 

Best Book Ever!!!

So this evening I surprised Aaron and took him out to dinner at Chili's to celebrate the end of his super busy semester taking TWO courses for his MBA (NEVER AGAIN...we're going back to the one class at a time system, two was insane!).  It was fun to celebrate and make him feel special and awesome - because he is!  He totally got A's on his assignments by the way!!  He's a hard worker, not to mention a smarty pants :)

Anyway, as we sat at Chili's waiting to order our food, Aaron suddenly remembered that he had an online meeting set up that night with his friend Mark that he was going to miss, so he grabbed his phone to text him and postpone it for another time.  The pregnant emotional version of me started to tear up because I felt really bad that my special surprise dinner was messing up his plans when it was supposed to be a positive thing, so of course I started to tear up despite my best efforts to play it cool...  Aaron saw that I was getting emotional and quickly said, "Wait wait wait - I have something to brighten your mood!" and he proceeded to tell me about how he had told his coworkers about yet another hormonal/emotional moment I had (I swear, the littlest things make me cry these days, it's ridiculous) when I saw how dang thick the "What To Expect The First Year" book is.  Seriously - I think it's thicker than the Bible!!  Anyway, Aaron's coworker decided to be completely awesome and make a much less intimidating book for me to guide me through baby's first year.  So Aaron pulled it out and read it to me.  And I LOVE it!!!!!!!!!!

Check it out...

Best Book Ever!!!  Thanks Roy!  :) I'm actually seriously going to keep this and read it multiple times - it pretty much covers everything!  Makes things feel much more manageable - I love it! :)  Although I can't be sure Aaron didn't add that last bit of advice himself...handwriting analysis is pending.  ;)

Oh and since it was his special night, I even shared my brownie with Aaron at Chili's.  

That's love people.

 (Disclaimer -- Janae would like to specify that it is Pregnant Janae who cries a lot, not her.  Thank you.) :)

Week 28 - Hospital Tour!

Curtains in the Nursery!

Last week I hung curtains in the nursery!  I snapped a couple of photos with my phone, so hopefully you can kind of get the idea.  I tried out the panoramic photo feature on my phone so you could see the wall and the curtains in the same photo.  The photos came out a little dark.  It's a plum purple.  I just love how the curtains perfectly match the wall and I'm starting to be able to visualize how this is all going to look finally!  (The curtain tiebacks are still a work in progress, but that's the green accent color we're using)  I'm just super proud of my little project since I did it all by myself (installed the curtain rod and everything!)!  Is it silly that little things like hanging curtains make me feel like Superwoman? haha, I'll take what I can get.

My parents sent us an early Christmas present and bought us the baby's crib!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  They are so awesome!!!  I am SO excited to set it up with Aaron and really start seeing the room come together!!  Maybe I've just seen too many movies, but I feel like setting up the crib together is an important pregnancy milestone :)  (I'm using the word 'important' very loosely here...)  :) So hopefully I have even more interesting nursery photos to share soon!  :)

This is the crib (stock photo) in case you're curious :)  It's a 4 in 1 convertible crib so we'll have a toddler bed, day bed and full size bed if needed down the road as well!


Oh and Week 28 is coming soon... stay tuned!

Freezer Meals: Crunchy Onion Chicken and Potato Casserole

With Christmas coming, I am gearing up to make some yummy freezer meals to have on hand during Christmas week while my family is here (yay!!) so that we don't have to spend our special family time stuck in the kitchen cooking for a crowd.  (I'm only making a few, and only some of my easiest recipes because although I've been doing a lot better, I'm still seven months pregnant and very uncomfortable and just not up for a crazy ambitious freezer cooking day)  In case you want to do something similar to have a great meal on hand for any guests that may drop by, I thought I would share one of my favorite freezer meals with you.  It's my favorite because it's the EASIEST!!!  And it's also delicious :)  I don't have a source for this recipe because I've adapted it myself from a few similar ones I've come across over time and turned it into a super easy and yummy freezer meal that we make all the time.

Crunchy Onion Chicken

1 1/3 c. French’s Original or Cheddar French Fried Onions

4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves

1 egg, beaten

1. Crush French Fried Onions in plastic bag with hands or rolling pin
2. Dip chicken into egg.  Coat in onion crumbs; press firmly to adhere

Freezer directions:  Place chicken on lined baking sheet and flash freeze until firm.  Place in freezer bags.  Seal, label and freeze.  

Serving Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Place chicken on a lined baking sheet.  Bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until an instant read thermometer inserted into the thickest piece of chicken reads 170 degrees.

Serves 4

The best part about this recipe is that you don't have to thaw it before cooking so it's great on a day when you forgot to prepare dinner and don't have a freezer meal thawed and ready to cook.  I really don't pay attention to ingredient amounts on this recipe, but I do always make about quadruple than what's on my recipe.  I just buy chicken breasts (fresh, not frozen - that way prep is faster because I don't have to thaw anything), and then crush the French Fried Onions and beat a couple of eggs in a bowl.  Super easy.  I always go with less than more when I'm crushing the French Fried Onions at first because it's easy to add some if you get low and I hate wasting it when I used too much.  You can't reuse it because it's all egg-y from dipping the egg-coated chicken in it.  Oh and be sure to trim your chicken and cut it into serving sizes - about half a breast is usually good.  Try to keep them all a similar size so they cook evenly.  Also a quick tip - the recommendation is to line your baking sheet when flash freezing and when cooking.  It is not a big deal to not line the baking sheet when you're cooking - I never do and it's fine (but I do have to soak my pan when cleaning it, so using lining could save you that clean up step).  But you definitely want to line it when you're flash freezing!  It can be tough to get the frozen chicken off the baking sheet if you don't use the parchment paper.  Also if you don't have a thermometer to check the chicken, no worries, just bake it until it's not pink on the inside.  :)  Another amazing thing about this recipe is that the chicken is always delicious!  You can freeze it up to about six months even and it's still really good.  I have a tendency to make dry chicken (because I'm so afraid of under-cooking meat!), but this is always moist and delicious EVERY TIME.  It's a no-fail chicken recipe and always a hit!  

This is really yummy served with potato casserole and green salad with ranch.  (there are TONS of sides that it's good with, but those are our favorites)

Here's a great potato casserole recipe from sixsistersstuff.com if you want to use that for the side (also a freezer meal that you do not have to thaw in advance!)  

Cheesy Hashbrown Potato Casserole:

Potatoes:12 large potatoes or 1 (32 oz) bag frozen shredded hashbrowns

2 (10 3/4 oz) cans cream of chicken soup (reduced fat is fine)

2 cups sour cream (light is fine)

1 cup grated cheddar cheese

1/2 cup butter, melted

1/3 cup chopped onions

Topping:

2 cups crushed corn flakes

2 Tbsp butter, melted

Peel potatoes and boil for 30 minutes, until just tender. Cool and grate into a greased 9x13 inch baking dish (or put frozen hashbrowns into the baking dish). Combine soup, sour cream, cheese, the 1/2 cup melted butter, and onions. Gently blend into potatoes. Combine crushed corn flakes and the 2 tablespoons melted butter. Sprinkle on top. Make at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Freezer directions:  Cover in foil and freeze.  Thaw 12 hours and bake at 350 for 30 min.  If not thawed, bake 60-90min.  

My favorite part about this recipe is that you can use frozen hash browns instead of boiling and grating the potatoes, which is normally the most time consuming part of the process!  Awesome shortcut!  :)  The only part of this recipe that is not insanely easy is that you have to chop an onion (which I personally hate doing, but I lucked out and my husband is a very willing onion-chopper, making this recipe even easier on me!).  Some people like to make this in two 8x8 pans and eat one and freeze the other.  I personally just like to double the recipe and make two 9x13 pans - takes about the same amount of work for twice the food!  I'm all about doubling and tripling recipes when it comes to freezer meals.  The recipe recommends just covering your pan in foil and freezing, but I prefer to seal everything I freeze.  I have found that a 9x13 pan with no handles will fit perfectly in a 2 gallon freezer bag.  I buy the foil pans so that they will fit.  Plus I don't like to freeze my glass pans because I never know how long I'll leave it in the freezer for and I like to have my glass pans handy for other things!  

Anyway - hope this helps make your holiday a little easier :)  Enjoy!  :)

Week 27