mmm..mmm...Carolina BBQ...

So I found a recipe for Carolina BBQ in the crock-pot and gave it a try this week. It turned out great...and made enough to last us the entire week!

Here's the recipe if you wanna give it a try, especially if you are like us and can't run to the local BBQ hut whenever you want.

~SLOW COOKER CAROLINA PORK~

INGREDIENTS

1 (5 pound) bone-in pork shoulder roast
1 tablespoon salt
ground black pepper
1 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons hot pepper sauce
2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes

DIRECTIONS
Place the pork shoulder into a slow cooker and season with salt and pepper. Pour the vinegar around the pork. Cover, and cook on Low for 12 hours. Pork should easily pull apart into strands.
Remove the pork from the slow cooker and discard any bones. Strain out the liquid, and save 2 cups. Discard any extra. Shred the pork using tongs or two forks, and return to the slow cooker. Stir the brown sugar, hot pepper sauce, cayenne pepper, and red pepper flakes into the reserved sauce. Mix into the pork in the slow cooker. Cover and keep on Low setting until serving.

Goodbye Jeep, Hello Mommy Car

Some other big news for this week is that Mike made our first family car purchase. Not ready for the minivan yet, we got a 2007 Ford Edge that has hardly been used--only had 7500 miles on it adn the inside looks brand new. It's super nice, but a far cry from the rides we are used to! We are really happy with it and it's just one more thing to check off the list as we make room for these 2 little ones.

Oh Ewa Beach McDonald's...how we love you

...okay, maybe love is a strong word, but we really do appreciate all the laughs you provide us on the weekend!

Mike and I regularly go to McDonald's on Saturday mornings, or at least we used to before getting pregnant. But now that my appetite is coming back we are getting back into our routine. There was a new cashier this morning and it should be said that we have many communication problems at this particular store, so i was thinking as we walked up to her, maybe this morning will be better.

So first I order a sausage biscuit with cheese. The cashier gets a real confused look on her face and turns around to look up at the menu behind her and this is when i think "oh no, here we go again".... so i say, "um, you just need to ring up a sausage biscuit and add cheese" to which she replies, "oh (awkward laugh), ok". Then I ask if i can get a packet of mustard. To which the cashier replies, "we have spicy mustard dipping sauce". I tell her I just want the regular mustard and then she kinda shrugs and says "we don't have that kind sorry, kinda weird, I know (awkward laugh). I decide at this point to forgo the mustard even though i am thinking ...what the heck does she think the yellow stuff on all the hamburgers they sell is?

So I give up, move over to let Mike order--he was smart and didn't try to add anything special--but at the end she asked if she could get a name for the order. Mike replies, "sure, Mike" and our wonderful cashier replies "ok sherman, thanks for coming to McDonald's".

So what can we do but laugh? I ended up trying something new-- dipping my biscuit in ketchup because i have a serious need for condiments, and Mike acquired a new nickname--Sherman. Oh McDonald's, what would we do without you?

17 week update

It's official, the clothes buying (and cutting off of tags) can begin. We had our other ultrasound this morning and "baby a" is 100% all girl. So God blessed us with one of both and we are so excited we can't quit smiling.

I am running a little short on time--but here are the pictures they gave us today. The ultrasound tech was so nice and even showed us some video of the babies in 4d which is usually very expensive to do. She also printed us a couple of 4d shots that I posted at the bottom.

Baby Girl Profile

Baby Girl looking at us straight on--showing off her alien face
4d of Baby Girl--profile shot facing the left--the blob looking stuff right beside her face to the left is her brother's gestational sac...he's still squashing her...guess they like to cuddle! And that's a glare right above her ear..not elf ears, just in case you're worried ;)
and this is Baby Boy with much more room and a great 4d profile shot--he's facing to the right with his hand up in front of his face like he's sucking his thumb and legs curled in.

Sorry I don't have time to illustrate for you ultrasound illiterates...maybe later!

Sweet Sixteen

We've hit 16 weeks now, 2 weeks into my second trimester, feeling better every week, and ever growing as you can see.

On the baby front, all things are well, we are in between clinics right now--but have our first appointment at the twins clinic in about 3 weeks. Although with the last blog i had mentioned feeling better, after returning to NC, i had a bit of a relapse and it took a few more weeks to really start feeling better. I finally started getting an appetite back, nighttime can still be occasionally rough, but manageable compared to before. I am hungry constantly and even had my first wake up in the middle of the night where i just had to have a little snack. My new multiples pregnancy book says this is a very common problem to have--but i sure hope it doesn't become a regular thing.

So for our big news, just in case you haven't heard it anywhere else...we went for our gender identification ultrasound this past Saturday. Drumroll please....

That's right...its a boy, and here's the stuff to prove it! And boy oh boy, he is taking up ALL the room in the belly. He was stretching and kicking and wiggling and basically stuffing "baby a" into a small little corner. Not unlike the sleeping situation in the Hawaii Burns Household...but to save us from a couple of unnecessary words later, I won't reveal who is the crowder and the crowdee!

And here's a look at Baby boy's body shot. His crazy alien face is looking straight at you...a ham for the camera already!

Now on to poor Baby A--brother is taking up so much room and light it was virtually impossible to get a good shot to confirm its gender. We tried for a while, even took a break to walk around and do some jumping jacks in the effort of moving them around....but even with all that action, (and it was the most action this body has seen in a while!) brother wouldn't budge. While we couldn't get baby to be still long enough for a pic, we did get a couple of quick looks, and to our untrained eyes and our techs impressively trained eye, no one saw anything that looked like little boy parts, but without a clear picture we all decided that we would only be 90% sure that "baby a" is a girl. The tech said they would fit us in next weekend just to make sure. Hopefully they will have changed positions. But for now we are celebrating the possibilities of one of each and I treated myself to a shopping trip at the Carter's and Osh Kosh outlet stores just to get some gender specific clothes..and i had a blast! They are all hanging up ready to go in the babies closet--but no worries, in the event of sudden change the girl's clothes still have their tags.

This is a pic of of "baby girl (we think) a" being squashed by her brother. And just in case you are ultrasound illiterate.....scroll down

this should help set the scene!