A Day of Chicken

***Warning, lots of pictures, and not the super-cute-Avery pictures I usually post!***

I think today was one of the longest days of my life! I am getting to that point in my pregnancy where everything hurts, at least when I spend the whole day on my feet in the kitchen! And today was a day exactly like that. I got up 'early' (7am) and got Avery up so we could head to the Miracle Bowl in Orem. Last month I heard about an awesome deal to get 40 lbs of chicken for $1.69 per pound through Zaycon Foods. I jumped on the deal and today was the pickup day!

 I loaded Avery in the car with some hot warm cocoa and we were off!

I was not expecting the pickup to be so easy, but it was seriously a drive through. 

I was there for maybe three minutes tops and we were hitting the road again!

They loaded it in the back of my car and put a great little tarp down underneath.

The inside bag is sealed, but I was grateful they still put this down

 After our pickup, Avery and I headed straight to the grocery store.

I have been gathering some freezer meal recipes to make for after the baby arrives

and with all this fresh chicken, I knew I had to get on it today!

 I got home and cleared off all my counters,

 and set up my assembly line.

 I cut into my bag to find 4 bags of approx 10 lbs of chicken each.

This made it easier to work with, and again, I was surprised at how convenient they made this!

I started trimming the fat and even had a bowl for the smaller pieces to

keep from wasting my precious chicken!

 I cut some into chicken tenders, some into chunks, and left some as chicken breasts.

BIG THANK YOU to my mom for letting me borrow her FoodSaver!

It took some time, but this little tool will help keep our meat for longer.

 Bags and bags... and bags!

The one thing I was NOT prepared for is how long this would take.

Avery soon left the movie I had put on to find out what mom was doing.

As it turns out, she gets really frustrated when I try to lock her out of any given area.

This is as far as she could get under the gate and then would get her head stuck...

Hold on sweetie, just let me get a picture and then I'll get you out!

Here is 30 lbs of the chicken, trimmed, cut, bagged, and in the freezer.

Now Avery got to come help in the kitchen with all that yucky raw chicken cleaned up!

So, as if I wasn't already exhausted at this point... I started on the freezer meals!

 The remaining 10 lbs of chicken got split up into different freezer meals. 

These are the scraps that got cut and ended up in a yummy casserole.

Grocery line up

 Instead of the FoodSaver bags, our freezer meals went into Freezer Ziplocks.

And I got 4 freezer meals completed and just have three more to put together tomorrow!

We tried one of the freezer meals tonight (I doubled the batch) and we LOVED it, 

Avery included. At least I know we'll have one good meal after the baby comes.

I definitely feel like I had a successful day, but now I'm ready to sleep for the last 

2 months of my pregnancy. Who knew an ENTIRE day on your feet in the kitchen would

end up making your back hurt, your feet swell, and your sciatic nerve act up?

Snow Day

Avery and I slept in late this morning (9am) and woke up to a surprising snow! We didn't get very much, but we bundled up and went outside for the heaviest part. It was so fun to see the look on her face when she saw the snow falling for the first time! I caught it on the iPad, but not on my camera, so you don't get to see it. Anyway, here are a few shots of her experiencing snow.

 Bundled up so warm in her fun new winter coat! She was thrilled to finally have a reason to wear it!

 She wasn't sure about the snow sticking to her boots, but she stomped around and played just the same. Also, I am sort of into the black and white photos of her right now, so please excuse the lack of color!

 A big CHEESE for the camera (and some color)!

I'm glad we made the most of the snowy morning with some play and pictures. 

After the photos we headed inside to enjoy some hot cocoa and to watch the snow fall.

 Hope your morning was as fun as ours!

   Today we are also missing Daddy. He left early this morning to San Francisco with the guys 

in my family. They went on a quick trip to see a World Series game and then he'll be 

home tomorrow. I'm a little jealous, but I'm so glad he gets to take a break from school 

and spend some fun time with the guys! Love you babe!

Gingerbread House

We have been busily working on our bucket list and one of the items is to build a haunted gingerbread house. When we were dating 4 years ago, we built a haunted gingerbread house and decided we wanted to make it a tradition. Well, apparently we struggle a little to keep this one going because this is the first time we've gotten around to doing another.

Our 2008 gingerbread house- wow, do we have mad skills or what?

Me gluing our 2008 house together. 

I had to post this picture because I miss that waistline too much! Darn pregnancy!

Brian making the plans for this year's gingerbread house!

Brian making the dough.

It got really bubbly when he added the baking soda at the end. :) 

At this point I was very happy to be behind the camera!

 

Cutting out the shapes in our dough before baking.

This was a new technique this year and I think it's a keeper!

 We were lucky enough to commandeer my parents kitchen to get our dough made and baked. Our kitchen wouldn't have handled such a project! Avery loved the play space and we read lots of books.

Daddy ready a bedtime book to Avery.

We spent a night building the house and starting on the decor.

I seemed to forget how big of a project this is!

Tonight we pulled it out again and worked more on the decor.

Brian has done most of the work on this and it's been so fun to spend 

some of our weekend nights working on it!

We also tend to leave quite the mess....

 The current state of our house! It's hiding on the washer from the little helping 

hands that would love to destroy play with it!

Pumpkin Patch

Tonight we went to Jaker's Jack-o-lanterns in Springville. We knocked a few things off our Fall Bucket List and had a great time together! It was fun to get some time with daddy in the midst of his busy school schedule. Also, a big THANK YOU to Tara for letting us borrow her camera while ours is in the shop. I hate to part with mine, but I figured we better get it done before the baby comes!

Avery loved seeing all the animals and feeding them hay. They had a HUGE pig that was so nasty! She went close to all the other animals, but she kept her distance from that one!

Mommy and Avery looking for pumpkins!

Easily my favorite picture from the day!

We went on a hayride (another bucket list item) and although it was a little bumpy, 

we managed to stay seated the whole time!

 

Avery and Daddy on the hayride. We saw more animals and lots of the pumpkin patch.

Avery really loved the hayride and has continued to talk about it!

We decided to walk through the patch and pick our own pumpkins instead 

of taking the ones from the stand.

Avery picking her pumpkin!

We had such a fun trip to the pumpkin patch and are loving the season!

Sunday Walk

We went for a fall nature walk today up the canyon (check that off the bucket list) and snapped a few family pictures in the fall leaves. We had a great time enjoying the gorgeous season and catching the leaves before they get snowed on.

I just love these two!

Avery was a bit of a pain with trying to take pictures, but what can we expect on a Sunday with no naps? We did manage to snap a few darling ones tho so I guess it was a success.

Avery and mommy with the leaves.

We brought our handy gorilla-pod and set it up for family pictures too! This was a little more difficult since our lens has been struggling to focus without some help.

Walking down some fun paths together and exploring.

Showing off my growing baby bump!

Snuggling Daddy

Hope your Sabbath was a beautiful as ours!