Happy Halloween!

Can't believe we're at the last day in October. I don't think we'll get any trick or treaters in the apartment here, but don't worry, we got candy just in case :) On Saturday night, we decided to go to Sea World for their Howl-O-Scream event. It starts after dark and goes until 11pm. The only way I was going was if I could get in free. I'm not all about paying 30 dollars each for a couple hours. Luckily, they do salute to troops and military can get in free once a year! It says on the coupon that you can't use it for this same event at their other location in Florida, but no mention of the Texas one. So we were able to use it successfully (after paying 15 dollars to park! it's ludicrous). They gave us a bunch of coupons to use to get 30 percent off food and merchandise for being military, too so that was nice. Let me start by saying I told James that if we go that I will not be doing any "3 pumpkin" events. They had each show/event rated 1 pumpkin to 3 pumpkins. Kids were doing 2 pumpkins so I felt that was a good level for me. I said if he wanted to do the 3 pumpkins, I would wait for him at the end. He agreed, so off we went. I used to LOVE scary movies, but something has happened in my maturing age. I also felt confident going in and thinking maybe I could do one....... boy was I wrong, add the combination of darkness and scary people/costumes and noises, NO WAY!

We saw the creepy shamu show and it was very impressive. They had 6 whales and they were flipping around. This show was 2 pumpkins so I was sure I could handle the maize we had planned. We went to a 2 pumpkin maize and the lines for the 3 pumpkin haunted houses were NUTS. Ours seemed like there was no line, well that was because the line went all inside. Our haunted house was pretty neat. They had this tunnel where the walls spun around and you walked over a bridge. I would SWEAR the floor was moving, we could not get across, it was funny/a little scary. They also had this big garbage bag like balloons you had to push your way through. There were kids behind us with their parents and I never saw them again... just saying, I don't know if they were ready for this 2 pumpkin. They would have a scary person in a corner but they wouldn't jump out at you. I think they did a nice job for someone who's a scaredy cat like me.

I of course was on a mission to find fried dough. I've also come to the conclusion that down south they don't have it. They have funnel cakes which I guess is close enough. So I was sure to partake in, mmmmmm. We sat and ate it while we watched this HUGE stick like costumed man hide behind pillars and jump out at people, it was quite entertaining.

James was going to go to his haunted house but the line was way long and he also felt bad leaving me. It was really dark and costumed scary people were lurking around haha. We decided to see what exhibits were open and found the cute penguins. They were swimming around and jumping on rocks, although some were sleeping.

We could barely see where we were going because the lighting was very minimal. James had to stop to ask for some directions.

All in all it was a fun night. I hope everyone has a great halloween.

Husband brag

Good morning everyone,
Well it's early morning as I write this because when James gets up early, so do I. I'm 37 weeks pregnant today! WOHOOO, come out come out whenever you want Miss. Hadley Emilia. We put the car seat in the car (tentatively) I really wanted it in the middle but according to my manual they want it on the side due to a couple things, who knows. I have a doctor's appointment Wednesday so I'll update more if there's anything going on.

In other news, my husband, James, completed his masters degree last year. He was away at another training (go figure) during the graduation so he couldn't be there for it. He just received his 4.0 medal in the mail Friday so I made him model it. He wasn't thrilled with me, but I think it makes a great blog picture. Way to go James!!

Have a good Monday everyone and to all our friends and family in Hurricane/storm Sandy's path, BE SAFE!! 

Maternity photos are in!

Hot off the press! I was so excited to see them, they turned out wonderfully! Check out my photographer Krystal Garcia Photography's website and her Facebook. Her pictures are amazing. She will be doing baby girl Hadley's newborn session, and has some CUTE poses on her Facebook. Take a look! I will put a few on of my favorite. I wanted to capture the time of year that I was pregnant so I had our outfits coordinated for fall..... It's just an illusion too because it was HOT like 90 degrees, but we'll just pretend it's a chilly fall day! We had the photos taken at the San Antonio Japanese Tea Garden. It was very beautiful and the backgrounds came out even better in the photos than they were in  person.

taken by Krystal Garcia Photography

taken by Krystal Garcia Photography

taken by Krystal Garcia Photography

taken by Krystal Garcia Photography

My favorite one- saw this idea on pinterest

taken by Krystal Garcia Photography

taken by Krystal Garcia Photography

taken by Krystal Garcia Photography

taken by Krystal Garcia Photography

taken by Krystal Garcia Photography

Another favorite of mine

taken by Krystal Garcia Photography

What do you think?! I was 33.3 weeks in these photos. They recommended doing them at weeks 30-32 weeks, but I knew I wasn't big enough for that early. I still was sorta smaller but I think it worked out well. I will be uploading the rest to facebook/emailing them out tomorrow.

Recipe- Chicken Tortilla Soup

Hey everyone! It's currently 5:45 am and I'm writing the blog post. I can't sleep well these days and I'm not sure if it's the end of pregnancy insomnia people talk about or the people upstairs making too much noise or the uncomfortable small bed we're sleeping in.  Maybe a combo :)

I'm 36 weeks pregnant today! Less than one month to go. I wish she'd get here, at least I'd have something to do right now, even though at that point I'll be wanting sleep. Anyway, I thought I would put a recipe up of a favorite meal from last week that I made. I found it on pinterest again. I've been making a lot of soup, nope not because it's been cool (it's still 90s) but because it lasts a couple days. It turns out it's good for you too. It's "skinny" chicken tortilla soup from here. I did not bring my crock pot here so I just did it on the stove for a couple hours. This lady does hot enchilada sauce, I did medium and it was PLENTY hot, like run your noise. I also used a rotisserie chicken to get the chicken for the soup (super easy).

Here are the ingredients:

1 pound shredded, cooked chicken

1 (15 ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes, mashed

1 (10 ounce) can enchilada sauce (I used hot to give it a kick) medium was plenty for me

1 medium onion, chopped

1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chile peppers

2 gloves garlic, minced

2 cups of water

1 (14.5 ounce) can chicken broth (I always get reduced sodium)

1 tsp. cumin

1 tsp. chili powder

1 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. black pepper

1 bay leaf

1 (10 ounce) package frozen corn

1 Tbsp. chopped cilantro (and if anyone knows me they know I did NOT put this in)

7 corn tortillas

1 lime

vegetable oil

Bring a pot of water to a boil and boil chicken for 15 minutes.  With cooking shears or a fork, thoroughly shred your chicken and place in slow cooker.  Add tomatoes, enchilada sauce, onion, green chiles and garlic.  Pour in water and chicken broth, and season with cumin, chili powder, salt, pepper, and bay leaf.  Stir in corn and cilantro.  Cover, and cook on Low setting for 6 to 8 hours or on High setting for 3 to 4 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Lightly brush both sides of tortillas with oil.  Cut tortillas into strips, then spread on baking sheet.  I sprinkled a bit of taco seasoning over tortillas as well to give them a great flavor.  Bake in preheated oven until crisp, about 10 minutes.  To serve, sprinkle tortilla strips over soup and garnish with a lime. 

Here's my dark picture. I forgot to say I added avocados to it and it's a MUST!

Have a great Monday and start to the week!

Hadley's baby shower encore post

A couple of James' family members have requested that I post Hadley's baby shower post on my own blog. If you've seen it via my sister's blog feel free to keep on moving. My sister decided to do a sweets and treats baby shower for me since a majority of my pregnancy I've been craving yummy desserts. As part of her plan she needed a skilled pastry chef and she knew the perfect person for the job. 

 Insert Jen (and Max grabbing her hair). We grew up 2 houses down from her and have watched (via her blog) her baking skills evolve. She lives in Colorado right now so she asked her if she was available for a trip home to do some baking and thankfully she was!

 We came up with a list of desserts that were also color coordinated with the shower colors. She did a phenomenal job prepping, baking and having everything ready on time. I wish you could have tasted everything, it was amazing. Not only did they look so good, they were incredibly tasty.

 Since Hadley's nursery colors are a fuchsia pink and yellow we decided to embrace it with our dress colors.

My Aunt Kathy helped host the shower and we used her beautiful house (look at the pretty trees in the back yard). Max of course had to be dressed up with his new collared shirt and overalls. 

 If baking wasn't enough work for Jen S, she also made some adorable decorations for the shower. She really is a great friend. We can't thank her enough!

 Of course we had to have a tutu diaper cake!

 I  had my brother in law, sister in law, James' grandma and uncle make the trip from out of town. It was so great to see them all and have them join in her special shower.

 My sister Jen made 2 lemonade type punches to match our color scheme with cute straws.

Check out all these desserts. 

 There were cream puffs, strawberry angel food cake cups, yellow and pink sugar cookies, jelly cookies, cupcake, chocolate cake balls, lemon cookies, and lemon squares.

The cake balls were my favorite!

 So glad my grandma could come to the shower. 

 We had yummy food brought by our relatives. 

 We played a matching candy bar game to go with the theme. 

 Unfortunately, we forgot to take staged pictures of guests so these will have to do!

 Kacy must have gotten the answers wrong by the look on her face lol :) (sorry kacy, had to post this pic, its the only one I got of you at the shower!)

 I received so many wonderful gifts for baby girl Hadley. Of course one of our favorites was this Georgia Southern cheerleading uniform for Hadley (from Jen S- so thoughtful).

The tutu on the diaper cake doubled as a birthday gift for Delilah. She looked so cute in it (mom made this one too).  I'm so glad we could all get together for Michelle's shower. I can't wait for Hadley to get here. Thanks again to everyone for coming! 

Hadley Emilia's Nursery Inspirations

I'll also do an encore post of the pictures of Hadley's nursery inspirations in case you missed that too. 

 So we've ordered the crib bedding and I did my best to do a mock up, I wish I had programs to make it better. So here's what we've settled on. The bedding won't be in until after she's born, but we will be moving when she's about a month old (tops).

The new house we are most likely buying has really nice chair rails (the panel ones you see in dining rooms) so that will go really nice our pink, yellow, and white theme.

The yellow walls, pink and white bedding/room accents we are modeling it after

Picture of the bedding we are modeling Hadley's after but in our colors

my poorly done mock up, but you get the idea

So what do you think??

35 week pregnancy update

Wow not much time left at all! I don't really have too much stats to update with because I haven't had an appointment in 4 weeks. I know you're thinking, shouldn't you be doing 1 week appointments by now, well yeah apparently this military hospital/clinic does things different? I go Wednesday so we'll know more official things. We did have those 3d ultrasounds so it was good knowing she's doing ok while we waited.

How Far Along: 35 weeks (crazy!)

Size of baby: Your baby doesn't have much room to maneuver now that she's over 18 inches long and tips the scales at 5 1/4 pounds (pick up a honeydew melon). Because it's so snug in your womb, she isn't likely to be doing somersaults anymore, but the number of times she kicks should remain about the same. Her kidneys are fully developed now, and her liver can process some waste products. Most of her basic physical development is now complete — she'll spend the next few weeks putting on weight.

Total Weight Gain: not quite accurate (because I haven't been to the doctor) but I'd say around 25 pounds

Sleep: Still up to pee a few times a night, this full bed we're sleeping on here is just not cutting it, it's growing more and more uncomfortable

Symptoms: well I think I officially declared myself miserable less than happy on Saturday :) My mid/upper back is hurting BAD. It hurts when I sit or stand or anything really. It's related to her pushing on my ribs or my rib spreading out or something like that (based on my online research). Not to mention I still have my sciatica pain in my lower back from time to time now too. Then something new! My groin muscle hurts down my left inner thigh now too which  according to my research says it's "because the growing fetus, as well as increase in body weight simply put more pressure on the hips, the pelvic joints and the muscles of the pelvic region". LOL I sound like a bundle of complaints, but I don't complain that often so there it is. 

Cravings: nothing crazy. On top for this week's dessert though, an apple pie :) 

Gender-Hadley Emilia

Movement: She's been doing a good bit of hiccuping and her usual movements. I can feel her way down low and I can feel her by my ribs so she's definitely spread out.

Maternity Clothes: I went to Pickles and Ice cream (expensive maternity store) and got a dress for my photoshoot... It's very stretchy I'm hoping to utilize it when I'm not pregnant to get my full money's worth :) 

Best Moments this week: Putting an offer in on a house and having it be accepted! More to come on that later, but the gist of it is just that. I've been researching online for months and working with a realtor as well. Unfortunately, the houses I was seeing were better than the houses that our realtor was bringing us (not her fault). I was looking on the military by owner website and sometimes they list fsbo and sometimes they have it listed with realtors. The two I liked of course would not work with our realtor so we had to proceed on our own (I feel bad for that, but it's not personal- all business). Once it's a little more final, I'll show pictures and what not. It's a nice 2000 square foot house with screened in patio (a must for me) with necessary updates to live, but also room for a little bit of improvement. 

What I'm looking forward to: Hadley's arrival and moving into our house!

Milestones: We've been using our weekends to get items for Hadley's first month or so. We just have a few more items to get to feel "ready".  I have my hospital bag sort of packed, I remembered to charge the camera and put it in the bag (most important!). We've had a couple gifts trickle in and they were part of what we still needed! so worked our great! So we'll be wrapping up those kinds of things. I'm also hoping to see some pictures from our maternity session, should be any day now! 

My big balloon

I feel like my stomach's stretched to capacity!

Odds and Ends

Due to popular demand, I took a picture of Hadley's bow hanger and filled it. It's a little blurry, I however was not the photographer.

I also made pumpkin apple bread for fall! I did not have my usual baking pans because they're all in storage so I had to make it in a cake pan.... still tastes delicious. 

We're thinking of going to a car animal safari this weekend or perhaps to Sea World's HalloScream. We'll see! Have a great weekend everyone, what are your plans?