My Pregnant Belly

I decided that it was probably time to post some pregnant belly pictures. I will be 25 weeks on Tuesday. So, here is my 25 week belly:Please excuse my pjs, but they are super comfortable and I wear them around the house all the time.

For comparison between this kid and Emma, here is my preggers picture when I was 7 days late with Emma:

I'm feeling sinful so here are some sinful recipes...

WARNING: if you are on any kind of be healthy diet, this post is not for you! This post contains 3 delicious unhealthy recipes that I would eat all at once if I could.


I just found this recipe on dessert.com and am thinking about making it to take to the Super Bowl party we've been invited to. It's called Chocolate Royale Cheesecake Squares.

What You Need

24 OREO Cookies, crushed (about 2 cups)

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter or margarine, melted

4 pkg. (8 oz. each) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened

1 cup sugar

2 Tbsp. flour

1 tsp. vanilla

1 pkg. (8 squares) BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate, melted, slightly cooled

4 eggs

Make It

PREHEAT oven to 325°F. Mix crumbs and butter; press firmly onto bottom of 13x9-inch baking pan. Bake 10 minutes.

BEAT cream cheese, sugar, flour and vanilla in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add melted chocolate; mix well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing on low speed after each addition just until blended. Pour over crust.

BAKE 45 to 50 minutes or until center is almost set. Refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight. Cut into 32 squares to serve. Store leftover dessert squares in refrigerator.

And since I'm feeling extra unhealthy, here is another yummy dessert recipe.

Lemon Cake

(Jeanne Trogdon)

1 pkg. lemon cake mix

4 eggs

¾ c oil

1 1/3 c water

3 oz pkg. lemon jell-o

Mix together and follow directions on cake mix box for baking. When done, poke cake full of holes with fork. Mix 1 ½ c powdered sugar and juice from 2 lemons and pour over warm cake.

I got this recipe from my Grandma Trogdon. It is THE BEST lemon cake I've ever tasted! It stays moist for a long time because of the yummy glaze you pour over it. Quite possibly my favorite cake.

And here is another recipe that I think sounds freaking yummy even though it's not a dessert.

Pull-Apart Bacon Bread

(Kraft Food and Family)

12 bacon strips, diced

1 loaf (1 pound) frozen bread dough, thawed

2 tablespoons olive oil, divided

1 cup (4 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella

1 envelope (1 ounce) ranch salad dressing mix

In a skillet, cook bacon over medium heat for 5 minutes or until partially cooked; drain on paper towels. Roll out dough to 1/2-in. thickness; brush with 1 tablespoon of oil. Cut into 1-in. pieces; place in a large bowl. Add the bacon, cheese, dressing mix and remaining oil; toss to coat.
Arrange pieces in a 9-in. x 5-in. oval on a greased baking sheet, layering as needed. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 30 minutes or until doubled.
Bake at 350° for 15 minutes. Cover with foil; bake 5-10 minutes longer or until golden brown. Yield: 1 loaf

Can you say YUMMY!?

Anyway, now that I've worked myself up into an uncontrollable food frenzy... I'm going to go make some double fudge brownies.

How to store what you eat.

Okay, I really hate to beat a dead horse but these last 4 months have been so freaking nuts! Jacob has worked probably the equivalent of a month (hours wise) out of the last 4. We had to make some big changes to our lifestyle and thankfully not too much in our diet. This experience has taught me what to keep in my cupboard when something like this happens again and also little tricks to stretch the things you have. I thought I'd share my new found knowledge in hopes of easing your burdens at some later time or perhaps right now.

During this time of financial hardship I have learned the importance of storing what you eat. We have a weekly grocery budget of $70/week when times aren't tough. That's a lot of money to spend on 3 people in one week. BUT, half of the money I allotted for the weekly groceries was used in buying duplicate non-perishable ingredients of the recipes I was making that week. I would then put those items in the pantry for another time. Now I did this subconsciously. I had no clue that I was storing away for some future date (blonde moment I know). The only reason why we had odds and ends ingredients these last 4 months was because I had created a surplus of them.

What exactly did we store? Well, we really love pizza so I would store pineapple, tomato sauce, Italian seasoning to mix with the tomato sauce to make pizza sauce, olives, hamburger and Canadian bacon. I also froze shredded cheese. So we were able to make pizza almost every week instead of buying it. It didn't really feel like a sacrifice because we still had the luxury of pizza.

I make a lot of chili too so I would store canned kidney beans, diced tomatoes, cumin, chili powder (costco is an excellent place to get these spices), and again hamburger. I also stored the boxes of corn bread mix.

We really like Mexican food too. So I would store refried beans, stewed tomatoes to make Spanish rice and of course rice, taco seasoning (from costco) and HAMBURGER. We then would make Navajo Fry bread to eat with our rice and beans and to make a kind of taco with.

We also had boxes of jello, pudding, popcorn, and mac and cheese (for Emma). I also kept on hand in the freezer hot dogs, pedialyte pop sickles (in case one of us got sick), frozen veggies, and frozen juice concentrates.

For breakfasts I had stored lots of oatmeal, Zoom, malt o meal, Cheerios (from costco) and some frozen bacon.

We also had diaper wipes and diaper rash ointment for Emma.


Things I wish I had more of stored before this happened to us:

Boxed desserts that don't require the use of eggs
Powdered milk
Canned fruit
Cereal
Diapers
Diaper wipes
Shampoo and Conditioner
Hair gel
hand soap
cleaning products
laundry soap
dishwasher soap
garbage bags

Tricks to stretch what you already have:
Use powdered milk when you cook or bake. You can't taste the difference.

Make up rice as a side dish for casseroles. It will stretch it farther.

One egg sized mound of mayo is a good substitute for an egg in baking. I used it to make corn bread and you can't taste the difference.

Either learn to make your own bread or buy a bread machine.

Whole wheat is more filling.


If Jacob and I didn't have food storage, there is no way we would've made it through this rough time. Having a savings account is a must too. We are recommended to have 6 months of our income stored away. Jacob and I had 3.

Right when this slow period started Jacob and I realized that we were behind on our tithing. How it happened? I'm not really sure. But we caught up with our tithing despite not having any money. It was hard for me to do. Jacob has never had a problem paying tithing and I learned about the great blessings of being a full tithe payer no matter what. We are just now having to pull out of our savings account. What's even more amazing is that the amount we have to pull out is only $500.

We were certain that our savings would be drained after all of this. The lord keeps his promises! There is no way we should've made it through this hard time without taking tons of money out of savings. It is strictly the Lord's blessing that we have only had to take out a little money and it's because we strived to do the right things. We aren't perfect. We still have a lot of work to do on saving money and building food storage and other aspects of our lives, but we tried our hardest and by the grace of God we have made it.

Girls Day

This morning I woke up and realized that the house was clean and the laundry was done. It's been a really long time since that has happened. Since money is still tight I was wondering what Emma and I could do today that would be fun for both of us. Well we figured it out...
We had a blast! Oh and just a side note. This last picture is of the dress my mommy hand knit for Emma. She did the hat too. I have such a talented mom! Right now she is finishing a sweater for Emma as well. It looks really cute and has a great design on it (not a Zebra or anything like that).

Today was so much fun. Right now the sugar cookies are cooling and later when Jacob gets home we will frost them together. (I may have to convince Jacob that this will be fun). As we were doing this today Emma kept giving me hugs and kisses and telling me "I love you mommy". It was so nice to get all the little loves from her. Apparently I don't do this kind of thing enough with her!

Now it's nap time for my princess and when she wakes up we will play dress up and whatever else we can dream up. Aren't little toddlers the best?

Dissapointment yet again/ A yummy recipe

Well, we thought Jacob was going to have work this week. He went into work yesterday only to turn around and come home. Apparently the work that was suppose to take 40 hours to complete took 2 people 4.5 hours. So, we play the waiting game. He will definitely have work next week out on the site. It will be 60+ hours a week for a while which means $$$$$$$$$$! For the time being I will continue to look for subbing jobs this week but with no school yesterday or Friday, the chances of me finding work aren't good. There is a light at the end of the tunnel and we keep waiting for it to come closer only for it to get pushed farther away from us.

Moving on to this weeks recipe. I'm so hungry for everything lately. This recipe is so amazing! I got it from my Taste of Home Cookbook. It's called Cashew Chicken. Usually when I make a recipe that has a picture my end result looks nothing like the picture. This is the first ever recipe I've made that looks as great as the picture and tastes AMAZING! I haven't been able to figure out a good side dish for this recipe. Maybe an oriental salad? I also forget that you need to marinate the chicken for 2 hours before you actually start cooking. If you have one of those vacuum sealers for food, then you can marinate it for less time.

Cashew Chicken

(Taste of Home)

1Tbs sesame oil

¼ c rice wine vinegar

¼ c sherry or 3 T chicken broth and 1 T apple juice

1 tsp garlic powder

1 ½ pounds chicken, cubed

3 Tbs. oil

3 c broccoli florets

1 c thinly sliced carrots

2 tsp cornstarch

1/3 c soy sauce

1/3 c hoisin sauce

1 Tbs. ground ginger

1 c roasted salted cashews

Hot Cooked Rice

In a large bowl, combine oil, vinegar, sherry, and garlic powder; add chicken and toss to coat. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Remove chicken from marinade and reserve marinade. Heat oil in a wok or large skillet. Stir-fry chicken for 2-3 minutes or until it is no longer pink. With a slotted spoon, remove chicken and set aside.

In the same skillet, stir-fry broccoli and carrots for 3 minutes or just until crisp-tender. Combine cornstarch, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, ginger and reserved marinade; stir into vegetables. Cook and stir until slightly thickened and bubbly. Stir in cashews and chicken. Heat through. Serve over rice. Yield: 6 servings

Happy

This week started out pretty sucky. Monday was the worst teaching day I have ever had. I never did gain control of either class I subbed in. Tuesday I had off and then the rest of the week was spent teaching some of the best kids I've ever taught. I taught 4th grade on Wednesday, Worked in a Resource Room Thursday (which is THE best job in the whole school), and then taught in a 3rd grade class this morning and a 4th grade class this afternoon. I absolutely love teaching! It was such a nice end to the week today and I'm sad that I have to quit teaching for a while. Jacob finally has work to do in the office next week! We are so excited for him to make some money. He makes twice as much as I do subbing in a day. It will be nice to have a steady income finally.

I am excited that my mother in law will be coming for 2 weeks in February to watch Emma so I can teach again and bring some more money in before this little bundle of joy pops out of me! (At least I'm hoping it pops out and doesn't have to be cut out!). Then on the 20th of March my little brother comes home from his mission. April is mine and Jacob's 4th anniversary and in May hopefully we will have a little one to occupy our time.

There is just so much going on for the next 4-5 months and I'm excited for all of it. I feel like a little kids that so anxious for Christmas or the first day of school.

Emma is on her way home right now and I can't wait to snuggle her again. The break away from her has been nice, needed and financially necessary but I'm ready for my baby to come home. These last couple of weeks Jacob and I have gotten a taste of what life would've been like for us without Emma. It was kinda fun. I'm not going to lie about that but Emma has just made us better people. As parents we give so much of ourselves to our children and it seems like we won't get anything back. I've realized these last couple weeks that Emma gives Jacob and I so much! It's in the little hugs and kisses and her excitement when she learns something new. It's when she wakes up in the morning and comes in our room and wants to snuggle up and read stories. And it's when she says her prayers and tells us how much she loves us. I've realized that I need to stop looking for the big things and be thankful for all the small things. The small things add up really quickly when you start to think about them.

I've also come to realized all the small things Jacob does for me. Last night while I was teaching piano he cleaned up the dinner dishes. He rubs my back when he gets home from work and before we go to bed at night. He washes and folds the laundry for me. There are just so many little things that he does through out the day and week that make me love him even more.

I feel so blessed in my life. Even trough trials and financial hardships, I have amazing people in my life who are a blessing in and of themselves. I'm so thankful to all of you for your kindness and love. I have some of the most amazing friends and family in the world!

I hope that this wasn't too random. Lately my thoughts all run together and my emotions are all over the place. Thanks for bearing with a crazy hormonal pregnant lady!

New recipe/new news

It's been FOREVER since I've done a new recipe post. Things have been so busy this last month or so. I'll get to that later though. This weeks recipe is Heavenly Hamburger. This is a family recipe that comes from my Great Grandma Hillner. It's kinda similar to lasagna but WAY better. I am not usually one to eat leftovers the next night but this recipe tastes even better the 2nd night! Okay, here is the recipe:

Heavenly Hamburger

(Marion Hillner)

2 Tbs. butter

2 (8oz) cans tomato sauce

1 pound hamburger

1 (8oz) pkg. egg noodles

1 clove minced garlic

3 green onions, chopped

1 tsp salt

3 oz cream cheese

1 tsp. pepper

1 cup sour cream

1 tsp. sugar

½ c grated cheddar cheese

Melt butter in skillet; add meat, broken into small pieces and brown. Add garlic along with sugar, salt, pepper and tomato sauce. Cover and cook slowly 15-20 minutes. Cook noodles according to instructions and drain. Set oven to 350˚ F. Chop onions, mix with cream cheese and sour cream. Layer casserole as follows: 1/3 noodles in bottom of large casserole dish, spread with 1/3 onion mixture, then 1/3 meat sauce. Repeat. Bake 20 minutes or until bubbly. You can freeze for later. Serves 6 generously. Tastes even better the second day!

I have used maccaroni noodles with this recipe instead of egg noodles (because they aren't my favorite noodle) and I actually like it better.

So, updates... Well we went to the doctor on the 6th to find out if our little bundle of joy is a boy or girl and came out with no news on that front. On the other hand we got a really good look at all the baby's anatomy and everything looks great! The doctor said that "they didn't get a good look at the spine" so we are scheduled for another ultrasound on the 3rd of February so they can look at the spine and "other anatomy". Pretty much they are scheduling another ultrasound so that we can find out what we are having is the conclusion Jacob and I came up with. After thinking about the ultrasound on the way home we realised that we both saw the baby's spine and it looked like a spine. Keep your fingers crossed that we will actually find out this next time.

Jacob felt the baby kick for the first time a couple days ago! This little one is so much more laid back then Emma was when I was pregnant with her. If you put your hand on my belly with Emma she would try and kick you off. With this one as soon as your hand leaves it kicks. This was very discouraging to Jacob because I would tell him the baby was kicking like crazy and he would put his hand on my belly and it would stop. Well, the baby gave him a good kick the other day and that made him happy.

I am 22 weeks along now and am already as big as I was at 34 weeks with Emma. I've been subbing in the Kennewick School District for the last week and one of my students yesterday said "Mrs. T, you stomach looks like you are going to have a baby." I told her that I was so glad that she could tell that there was a baby in there. It was so funny. Then of course the whole class had to come up and rub my belly and ask if they could be an aunt or uncle to the baby. Gotta love 1st graders! Subbing is going okay. Some classes are a lot better than others. Yesterday was horrible and I almost left the room crying but I'm proud to say that I stuck it out and made it through the day. I did feel myself start to cramp up in my abdominal area though and decided that that probably wasn't a good thing. I was super stressed yesterday so I'm going to try really hard the rest of the week to not let things bother me.

Emma has been at my parents house since we got there on the 18th of December. We left my parents on the 2nd and she stayed. It's been nice having a break for a while but at the same time I miss my little girl. She is having tons of fun with her Mor Mor, Papa and Uncle Kaleb though and their dog Sandy. She comes home Friday and we are so excited to have her back!

Jacob and I have been enjoying some one on one time this last week. We went out Friday night to P.F.Changs for our little date. It was Jacob's first time and it had been about 12 years since I'd gone last. The food was so good and the service was FANTASTIC! It was so nice to sit and enjoy a nice meal together and talk. We've been really bad at doing that since Emma was born and it was nice to reconnect with eachother. He's such a wonderful man and I am so happy to be married to him.

Work for Jacob is still slow and non-existant. Luckily someone in our ward has a little work for Jacob to do to earn a little money. We are thankful for every opportunity to have work and make money at this point. Subbing really sucks sometimes but I'm glad that I chose to get my degree in Education. After I graduated I was certain I didn't want to teach and even now I don't think I'd want to do it all the time. I am grateful though that my degree is one that is always in a high demand and that I can do it full time or part time and make okay money doing it. All the ridicule I got going through school about wasteing time and money if I was just going to stay at home has paied off.

Pictures from our trip to the Westside

My baby brother Kaleb

Emma and Mor Mor making dinner. That's my signature thumbs up pose from when I was a little girl... she's definitely my little girl!

Snow Bunny

Emma sledding all by herself! She LOVED it!

Remember that I'm pregnant!

Checking out the stockings

Emma and G-PaPa

Emma with Mor Mor and PaPa Christmas Morning

Me and my cousins Lisa and Erik

This is the position I sit in when I'm deep in thought. Thank you Jacob for capturing this for everyone!

Emma and her new Swedish Porcelain Doll "Britta"

Me and one of my high school friends Amy

A Quick Blog

It's been a while since I've blogged about anything. We are leaving my parents tomorrow and heading back over the mountains!!! Emma is staying behind for 2 weeks while I get in some substitute teaching time. I am going to miss her TONS!! I have never been without her for more than 8 hours so 2 weeks sounds like a lifetime for me. She's sick right now too and I feel so bad leaving her with my parents but hopefully she will get better really soon. They know how to take care of a sick child better than I do anyway.

We have had a pretty uneventful trip. The snow was horrible over here so we were house bound for a week. We had over 2 feet of snow and the city and county didn't plow the roads until it was way after the fact. We did enjoy sledding in the back yard, going to Ikea and hanging out with my family. I was even able to reconnect with one of my high school friends and go out to lunch with her. It has been a long 2 weeks though! I love spending time with my family but I think we overstayed this time. We would've left earlier but since we are leaving Emma for so long I didn't want to leave her if I was going to go home and have no work to do.

Christmas was different this year. We were planning on having it at my Grandpa's house but no one could get up his driveway even in 4 wheel drive so he actually stayed with us for a whole week and everyone came to my parents for Christmas. It was the first Christmas without my Grandma there and that was a strange feeling. She was the one that made the holiday for me and I didn't realize it until this year. Her love of family and the holidays filled the house and touched everyone that was there.

I was able to talk to my brother Tyler who is on his mission on Christmas Eve. It was nice to hear his voice. The conversation wasn't too eventful since he is coming home March 20th. It was more us giving requests for trinkets for him to bring back with him. I'm excited to have him come home. I will be pretty pregnant at that point and when I was really pregnant with Emma he was the only one who could pop my back while I stood up (I'm 5'4" and he is 6'6").

I will post pictures when we get home. I hope you all had a nice holiday!