Pregnancy Update

We're Expecting

Baby Esqueda due September 4, 2013

Taken the day before I found out I
was pregnant (Dec. 30th)

 I have gotten lots of questions from friends and family and I will attempt to Answer them all at some point! Here are a few FAQs I'm getting. 

Q: Are you finding out if it's a boy or a girl?

A: No we are not finding out! We really want it to be a surprise and are both 100% happy with our decision to wait. Although I know some of our family and friends are not as excited about us waiting :)

Q: How are you feeling?

A: Now I am feeling pretty good. All things considered I really didn't have anything to complain about during the first trimester. I never threw up I was just a little nauseous and very tired. Everyday after work I came home and took a nap. I have a lot more energy now and am running, and doing yoga still! 

Q: What are you craving or having aversions to?

A: fun question! I will start with the not so fun aversions...Spinach, brussels, edamame, protein smoothies, peanut sauce, curry, and eggs are questionable too.

I am craving frozen waffles, peanut butter (nothing out of the ordinary for me), sweets, trail mix, lots of fruit especially grapefruit and oranges, s'mores, ginger ale, beer (so unfortunate) and cheese. 

Here are some pictures we've taken along the way!

17 Weeks

18 Weeks

We are so excited to meet our little one in September! I will try to post more updates and pictures along the way!

Girls weekend in North Carolina (plus my brother in law)

A couple weeks ago I got to spend the weekend with my sister (Nikki), brother-in-law (Andrew), and two nieces (Ayla & Mia)! I had a blast relaxing and getting waited on at their awesome house! Andrew was sick that weekend so he stayed in Atlanta. I felt bad leaving him for the weekend, especially because we only have one car (he ended up riding the bus to the dr. while I was gone). At the same time, it was nice to be out of our apartment and away from all the germs :) Here are some pictures that I took on my phone while I was there. 

Ayla and Mia

Nikki is the best baker and she rocks an awesome baking business here in Charlotte! I requested these peanut butter pretzel chocolate chip cookies. They were amazing

Sweet Mia

Brought this book for Mia. 

Sisters

Ayla and I 

Friday:

I got there on Friday just in time to enjoy some delicious veggie lasagna and homemade bread. Andrew's mom Nan who lives in Atlanta currently, but just retired and is moving to NC, was there for the weekend as well. She is so fun to be around. We all talked and watched tv for a while and then went to bed around 9pm (This is becoming a routine these days)! 

Saturday:

While the girls went to gymnastics with Nan and Andrew, Nik and I took a long walk around the neighborhood! It felt so good to be outside and in the sun no less! We met the rest of the gang for lunch and then back home for a nap and more relaxing. Ayla told me all about her upcoming trip to D.C. and her science fair project.  I had so much fun spending time with the girls, I plan to see them as often as I can. 

Sunday:

French braided the girls' hair for their big super bowl party, ate some breakfast, packed up and hit the road. It was so good to be with family! 

Recipe

Happy New Year!! Andrew and I had a great Christmas in San Diego. We spent lots of time with family and friends and it was hard to leave.  I will eventually post some photos from Christmas when I find my camera cord. For now I wanted to post a recipe! Last weekend I made a Lentil Quinoa Loaf with Mango Salsa and it was amazing.  I modified the recipe from one of my favorite blogs and wanted to share it with y'all!!

Lentil Quinoa Loaf

Modified from The Dailygarnish

This Loaf is hearty and satisfies the meat eaters and vegetarians alike.  The fruit salsa, dried cranberries and orange juice sounds like an odd combination, but trust me it's amazing! Enjoy. 

• 1 cup dry lentils
• 1/2 cup dry quinoa 
• 3 cups vegetable broth
• 1 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
• 3 Tablespoons chia seeds
• 1/2 cup water
• 3 celery ribs, finely diced
• 2 carrots, finely diced
• 1 red onion, finely diced
• 1 red bell pepper, finely diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 Tablespoon good balsamic vinegar 
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 1/2 cup roasted unsalted sunflower seeds
• 8 Tablespoons mango salsa
• 1/2 jalapeno (optional) 
• Salt and pepper to taste

**Make sure the veggies are diced about the same size that way the loaf will stay together

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees

2. Place the lentils and quinoa in a fine strainer and rinse thoroughly. Pick through the lentils to assure quality.  Combine Lentils, quinoa, orange juice, broth and a 1/4 teaspoon salt in a sauce pot and cook until liquid is absorbed and lentils are nearly tender. 

3. While the grains are cooking, heat a large skillet with a couple splashes of olive oil over medium heat. Once the pan is hot add in the onion, celery, carrot, and bell pepper, season with salt and pepper and saute until soft adding in the garlic when the veggies are just about soft. 

4. Place the chia seeds in a bowl with 1/2 cup water, stir to combine.  Let the chia/water mixture sit in the bowl for a few minutes for it to create a gel like texture (sounds appetizing, I know). If you would rather use eggs then use 3 eggs in place of the chia seed/water mixture.  

5. Once the veggies are cooked and off the heat add in the dried cranberries, sunflower seeds and balsamic vinegar.  Stir in the cooked lintels, quinoa and the chia seed mixture.  Make sure to mix it well. You will most likely still need salt and pepper at this point. Add a half teaspoon of each, stir and taste (unless you added eggs, in which case you might want to trust your gut on the amount of seasoning you add). If you need to adjust the seasoning, do so.  

It tastes way better then it looks in this picture!

6. Press the mixture firmly into a greased loaf pan. Make sure it is even and flat on the top.  Slice the jalapeno thinly and place the rounds on top of the loaf.  Spoon the salsa on top of the jalapenos and spread evenly over the whole loaf

7. Bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees. Allow the loaf to cool for 10 minutes before carefully slicing and serving.  

8. ENJOY!! 

Oregon/Washington Part 2

....SORRY for the lack of posts lately. Life happens and we have been going at a million miles a minute!! It's a good thing, totally a good thing.

I did want to finish my post about our trip to Oregon and Washington. So, here goes...

One of my very favorite aspects of our trip up to the NW was spending time with my parents in Portland.  Neither of them have spent time in Portland and my dad being the foodie, wine/beer/coffee lover, chef that he is had no business missing out on such a cultural driven, foodie city!!

First things first, off to our FAVORITE coffee shop. And lets be honest, Andrew and I are obsessed with coffee. So, for us to say favorite is a huge deal!

Doesn't get much better then this!

After consuming some of the best coffee at Barista we made our way to Powell's books. A HUGE book store that I could easily spend all day in.

We are total tourists

We hit up my favorite store next Anthropologie my mom bought a candle and I just drooled over the extravagant home decorative items, dishes, comforters and candles.

After a little shopping we went to Rogue for a little beer tasting and then hit up an amazing Mexican bistro in the Pearl District for dinner.

On Saturday we spent the day remembering Andrew's grandma. Her memorial service was a great time of reflection. Grandma Prebble was one of the most loving women I have ever met. She never spoke badly of anyone and was committed to loving and praying for all of her grandchildren.  She will be missed dearly and we are so greatful that she is in a better place now!

There's really no smooth transition from the last paragraph to this next part but here goes.
On Sunday morning my parents were set to head back to Spokane around noon so we took advantage of a few more hours in Portland.

First stop...

Voodoo doughnut is it's own beast. World famous for its bacon maple bar, this place is hoppin'. We took our doughnuts over to Stumptown coffee down the street to load up on coffee! My [vegan] chocolate peanut butter doughnut was to die for!

Stumptown

Social media is taking over our world :) gotta check-in, instagram, text etc. 

My wonderful mama!

It was hard to say good-bye to my parents. Of course. Although the circumstances were kind of crappy it was great to see my parents and Andrew's family as well.

Last but Certainly not least. Andrew and I went to Salem after my parents left and got to see some of our great friends and former house-mates, Nate and Kristi from Pasadena.

 Little David wasn't too excited about taking a picture. Nate and Kristi were so sweet to come to Church on Sunday night to see Andrew and his family lead worship.  They are expecting their second boy in early May! 

Vera and David became little buddies at Chruch.
It was so sweet to watch them  play together!!

All things considered, we had a great trip to the Northwest!! It was really hard to leave, but we are getting even more settled here in Atlanta!

Oregon/Washington Part 1

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving holiday! As I shared in my previous post Andrew and I traveled up to Vancouver Washington for Andrew's Grandma's memorial over Thanksgiving.  The circumstances weren't ideal, but we made the most of our time there and it was wonderful to be around family for the holiday! Since so much happened and I took A LOT of pictures I will fill everyone in with two posts instead of one long drawn out post!

We arrived in Vancouver on Tuesday and spent the afternoon grocery shopping for Thanksgiving dinner and spending time with Grandpa!

On Wednesday Drew and I drove to Salem to spend the day with Daniel (Drew's brother), Bethanee (his wife), and Vera (our beautiful niece)!! On our way into Salem we stopped and had coffee with some of our dear friends that we met (and lived with) in Pasadena! The best part of our coffee date with Kyle and Lahela was finally meeting their daughter Lucy!

After 8 months, we finally met Lucy! Cute huh?

Happy Family of 3!

THANKSGIVING DINNER:

• turkey
• mashed potatoes with gravy 
• roasted brussels sprouts with almonds currents and rosemary
• arctic Freeze
• roasted yams and sweet potatoes
• stuffing 
• homemade rolls
• traditional green bean casserole 

DESSERT:

• apple up-side down pie
• apple streusel pecan pie
• sweet potato pie with ginger snap crust
• chocolate cream pie

It was a group effort to create this Thanksgiving menu and it was so yummy! My favorites were the stuffing, roasted yams and sweet potatoes and the brussels!

Working hard to get dinner on the table!

Mr. Chef sauteing the brussels sprouts.  Although they weren't the crowd favorite (what do people have against brussels sprouts anyway) I LOVED them :)

Our favorite Thanksgiving treat...

Vera and I

Uncle Drew and Vera

Thanksgiving was yummy, filling, and loud, the way it's supposed to be. We sat around talking, drinking, laughing, eating, and just enjoying each other's company!

Part 2 of our Portland trip coming soon!

Warm Welcome

Since the minute we arrived in Atlanta we have been taken care of and in a lot of ways spoiled by all the people we are meeting.  From dinners, drinks, a house to live in, and tours of the city we feel our welcome couldn't have been warmer.  A couple weeks after we got here Andrew's Aunt Evette flew to Atlanta for a work conference.  I was so excited when I learned that she was going to be here because I knew it would feel good to see family so soon after moving away.  Evette treated us to an amazing dinner in Buckhead at Bistro Niko.

This past weekend some of our new friends took us out to an AMAZING dinner at Rathbun's.  If you haven't learned it yet, Andrew and I are total foodies.  We love eating, cooking, going out, reading & writing new recipes, and watching the Food Network.  So, we were so excited to go to such a well acclaimed restaurant like Rathbum's. The owner and executive chef has competed against Bobby Flay on Iron Chef.  The food was to die for and we felt so spoiled to eat at such a nice restaurant.  I took a few photos at dinner. It was extremely dim lighting so some of the pictures aren't that great. We started with an appetizer of bone marrow that you spread on crusted bread with plum preserves and maldon salt (a finishing salt).  It sounds disgusting, but it was pretty tasty.  And yes, like a stellar & committed vegetarian, I tasted it.  Totally worth it.

Here's a look at some of the food we had...

Drew's Pork Chops with Corn Bread Pudding

House made pasta with lobster,
edamame, and saffron Parsnip Cream

the 4 of us shared dessert.  The Toffee cake and
carrot cake doughnut were my favorite

Thanks Laura and Kevin for an awesome dinner and tour of downtown Atlanta!!

We will be heading to Portland next week to be with family on Thanksgiving (awesome) and to attend Andrew's grandmother's memorial service (not awesome). We are so thankful for the church members that used their airline miles to help us fly back to the Northwest.  It will be fun to see family, but we wish it wasn't under these circumstances.  I will have lots of pictures and updates after our trip.

Cheers!!

Stops along the way

This will be the last post of all the wonderful friends who saw us off to Roswell!

Saying good bye to Bethany, I will miss living so close to her! 

 

My Best Best Best friend Janelle drove from Seattle to say good bye! 

Our first stop on the way down was in Denver to spend some time with Rachel! We got the royal treatment while staying with Rach; A comfy bed, a homemade soy latte, a walk in Washington Park, taco lunch, wedding-magazine reading, tasty wine, and great conversation!

A walk through Washington Park!

Lunch at Marg's Taco Bistro

Drew, Rach, and I went to dinner at Cora's (my Young Life leader from High School)! It was so fun to be with Cora, we hadn't seen her since she flew to Spokane to be in our wedding in '09!

Cora and her adorable son Grant

Our 24 hours in Denver were wonderful, and after spending 18 hours in the car we needed an entire day to relax!

Nashville was our next destination! Nashville was almost 1,200 miles from Denver. We left at 5:00AM and arrived in Nashville just after midnight.  Needless to say it was a long day! We decided to drive that far to avoid staying in a hotel. Josh and Lauren, our very close friends that we met in Pasadena live in Brentwood, TN so we were so excited to stay with them and catch up on life.

Josh, Lauren and their youngest Maddy

It was fun enjoying brunch with J & L and seeing both their girls, Sophi and Maddy! We are looking forward to future trips up to their place. Since Nashville was the city we set out to move to (before Drew got this awesome job) we were excited to have some time to see the city.  I really wanted to go to Jeni's ice cream shop but it was going to be out of our way. I was bummed, but as we were driving away from brunch figuring out our plans and this is what I saw...

A Jenis food truck! It was awesome, and even better it was free scoop day to celebrate being voted best ice cream in Nashville. This is hands down the best ice cream I've ever had.

Enjoying some brown butter almond brittle and dark chocolate ice cream!

We were welcome to Roswell with excitement and Love! Thank you everyone who helped make our travels as easy and cheap as possible!