Birthdays and Thanksgiving

November is such a busy month for us. We have so many family birthdays, plus Thanksgiving, and this year, also Mike's leaving for Korea. We decided this year to just do one big celebration for all of these things and last weekend we did it!

Josh deep fried a turkey (his favorite!) and made a pumpkin cheesecake. I made nothing. I did clean the house though! That's something! Everyone else each brought a dish and we served it all up buffet style on paper plates. We keep it classy here in Manassas Park! We had turkey, honey baked ham, mac and cheese, green bean casserole, salad, mashed potatoes, arroz con gandules (Josh's rice), and cupcakes to finish us off. I am happy to say we got left with a lot of leftovers that basically fed us for the rest of the week. And we had enough turkey left over to make two turkey pot pies, and freeze one for after the baby comes. Yay!

So now on to my latest thing - freezer cooking. I am stocking up my freezer for after the baby comes. I kind of did this with Audrey, but I think the only thing I made was chili and froze it. This time I am being much more serious about it because I already know how hard it can be to get dinner on the table with one child clawing at my leg, add in another one that I can't throw cheerios at to keep them calm for a few minutes, and this could get ugly. So I want to have meals in the freezer that I can just grab and toss in the oven and move on with my day. Yesterday I made my list of meals and went shopping. I thought (naively) that I could get it all done yesterday since Josh would be home and could be with Audrey, but that didn't happen. In fact, by the time I got home from grocery shopping (walking around for an hour at Costco and Shoppers) it was 1pm so I got a bit of a late start. I started with the easiest things - breakfasts. Personally, I could eat cold cereal every single day of my life for the rest of forever, but I know that isn't nutritious for Audrey and it won't be good for breastfeeding either. It is just SO HARD to stand in front of the oven cooking breakfast before I've even had my coffee. So anyways, I made egg/cheese/sausage burritos, egg and sausage muffins (with onions and hash browns and mushrooms, yum), and banana oatmeal muffins. I also found a great recipe for banana/almond/oatmeal smoothies that I can make for mornings when I am too lazy to even heat something up. I tasted all - they all were good. Unfortunately, after I was done it was already 4:15 and my body was aching from standing that long and I decided to call it quits for the day. Josh still plans to make a bunch of pancakes for the freezer too, and today I am going to attempt to start on the easier big meals - soups and stews. It mostly depends on how Audrey feels today. If she feels like playing with her toys, we could be successful. If she feels like "helping" me, this could be a slow process.

38 weeks

Some other recent things - we took a trip to Clemyjontri Park a couple of weeks ago and met up with Ian and Gloria and Matthew, Cristina, and Lisa. It was a fun day! The park is huge and there is so much to do so the kids definitely had fun. The adults, however, were having a heck of a time keeping up with them! All children look the same when they're all running in circles, did you know that?? Luckily Audrey had her signature high ponytail that I could pick out among the crowds. I am not sure we'll go back there for a while - it was just too hard to follow the kids around when there were so many other kids.

I also got my new washer and dryer delivered over the weekend! It is marvelous. My clothes come out smelling like clean clothes. Fresh, no lingering odors or moldy stench...just clean. I did a deep clean on Audrey's cloth diapers so hopefully we can get her back in those for the remainder of the time she's in diapers. I also scored some Black Friday deals on cloth diapers for the new baby, so s/he should be set through the newborn stage (we're using old school pre-folds and covers, and trying out a new "fitted" diaper). I think I might be able to use most of Audrey's diapers on the baby as s/he gets bigger, but I am also thinking about buying some new ones so I can be sure they'll last me through the entire diapering period. Oh, and we were able to sell our old washer and dryer on Craigslist really quickly, so I am happy with the whole situation.

Finally, I'll leave you with a video of Audrey counting. Videos are hard to get now a days because she always wants to watch herself on the camera and won't just let me tape her. Since Josh was here I was able to get her counting, now I just have to get her singing her ABCs. It is the most precious thing with her tiny little voice.