I was looking through old pictures on my phone last night and I came across some old photos of my nephew that make me realize how much he and Marlene look alike. He's so much bigger than she is now, that its harder for me to see the resemblance.
It was pictures that were taken around Christmastime...when he was about Marlene's age now...that really caught my attention. So I did a little digging, and found some photos where they are making similar faces to compare.
Jackson is on the left and Marlene's on the right:
What a pair of cuties!! Aside from them having different color eyes,
Lately I've been wanting to try more crock pot recipes because they are great time-savers. Also, on days when its SUPER hot outside, the oven is the last thing you want to use.
This recipe is awesome because it doesn't have a lot of ingredients
-1/2 cup teriyaki sauce (I used Mr. Yoshida's Sweet Teriyaki sauce,
and it was awesome. Not too salty!)
-1/2 cup brown sugar
-3 garlic cloves minced
I tweaked the directions a little bit so here's what I did:
1. Who the heck knows how much a pound of chicken is? So I just used three chicken breasts and that was enough for 2 people + a little leftovers. Put the chicken in the crock pot whole.
2. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well and pour over chicken. (Side note: I could have totally done without the garlic cloves, I couldn't really taste them and it wasn't worth the hassle in my opinion.)
3. Cook on high for about 4 hours (or low for 6). Pull out chicken and cut into thickest parts to make sure there isn't any pink. If chicken is all done,
leave it on plate and shred it using 2 forks and put back in crock pot.
You can either turn off your crock pot at this point,
or put it on warm if you have that setting.
5. Make some rice to pour the chicken over!
We will for sure be having this again! My only regret is that I didn't make enough rice to go with the leftover chicken.
Something about summertime that makes me love listening to The Beatles. Driving with the windows down, blasting "Here Comes The Sun," it doesn't get much better!
Our sweet baby girl is now 4 months old! She is growing like CRAZY and every day she does something new that amazes me.
Right now she is determined to be a big girl and tries her hardest to sit up. It ends up looking like she's doing "baby crunches" and its hilarious.
She is also rolling over ALL the time! First it started with her laying on her side, then one morning we found her asleep on her tummy in the crib.
Now, whenever we try to put her on the floor to play she rolls over onto her tummy almost instantly. I'm grateful she's growing up, but its kind of annoying because she usually gets really frustrated after awhile.
Here's how other things are going right now:
Marlene Likes:
Being Swaddled
Sleeping in her swing
Catching Daddy's eye
(Whenever he walks by she will watch him, just hoping he'll smile at her.)
Sitting up in the Bumbo
Eating her fists/toys/clothes
Being tickled
Facing outward to see what's going on
Mimicking sounds and faces we make
Marlene Doesn't Like:
Being covered in the car
Tummy time for more than 10 minutes
7 pm.
(Its like a switch flips the minute 7 o'clock hits...she gets MAD.)
Bath time
(We are going through a phase right now...she cries the whole time!)
Taking long naps
Figuring out her likes and dislikes is an adventure everyday. For example: Bath time has bounced back and forth on these lists. You never know!
Our little one isn't so little anymore, she's growing out of her clothes faster than I can have her wear them more than once! I mean this in the nicest way,
she's becoming quite a chunker and her head is HUGE!
I do miss my snuggly newborn but its so much fun watching her grow up and
Marlene loves playing on the floor with her toys. Its nice because usually I can lay her down and go get a few things done like shower, or cook dinner. Lately she has been wiggling so much that I never know what position I'm going to find her in when I come back.
This is the position she always starts out in:
And here are a few of the funny positions I've found her in later:
She's so funny! It cracks me up watching her little mind work and figure out how to move around. She's growing up so fast, I can't believe she's already 4 months old.
Happy hump day! Since I've started working again, its been harder for me to keep track of the awesome things I've seen on the web. Here are some of my favorite pins and blog posts from this past week.
All this warm weather lately has been awesome. Yesterday we spent the day outside at the park with family and it was great. I got my first sunburn! So with Summer almost upon us I decided to make some printables that make me smile...
Now that Marley has a room of her own, I've had lots of fun decorating the walls! Because we don't have a lot of extra money these days, and to keep the husband happy, I make sure to keep my crafts cheap.
Tutorial: Match desired printable with correct sized canvas or block of wood. These here are with canvas, because they were easier to come by. I would recommend using wood though to reduce air bubbles.
Money Saving Tips: -Before heading to the craft store, print a coupon! (Or pull up a digital one with your smart phone.) Stores like Michael's and Hobby Lobby ALWAYS have great deals.
-Hit up the DI or Goodwill first, you never know what they'll have! (And its a fun way to get inspired!)
-Lastly, The Dollar Store is your friend! You'd be surprised whats there...
So my new goal is to try one new recipe a week. I recently went through my pinterest "food board" and deleted a lot of ones that I'm never going to try.
(More than 5 steps or ingredients?! Aint nobody got time for that!)
So first up is one I've been dying to try: Meatloaf made with Stove Top stuffing.
I was eager to try this because I already have a killer meatloaf recipe (Thanks Mom!), but I seriously HATE having to tear up pieces of bread.
Verdict: DELICIOUS!!
Recipe:
-1 pound ground beef
-1 box Stove Top (I used chicken flavored)
-1 cup milk
-1 egg
Mix all the ingredients in large bowl, cook at 350 for 45 minutes.
Normally at this point I would write about what I didn't like or would have done differently, but seriously...this recipe was perfect. We'll definitely have it again.
Lately I've taken lots of short videos of our sweet little girl, because she's been acting extra cute! I wanted to get them all in once place for grandparents to see (and for future reference), so that's the reason for this post.
Hope she brings a smile to your face!
This is by far my favorite video! I've watched it a bunch of times because her face is so hilarious! She has always been a very expressive baby, but those eye brows crack me up.
We finally figured out what makes her giggle! Right now she'll laugh if you tickle her sides or mess with her feet.
This is a video of an everyday occurance: Marlene grabbing her toys. Only recently has she started talking to them.
We still swaddle Marlene to help her sleep and every time she gets unwrapped she does this with her arms...as if to say "I'm FREE!!"
I left her alone for 5 minutes and came back to find Marlene on her side! Apparently she's done this once before while I was at work. I wish I could have seen how she got to this point.
Our sweet Marlene cracks us up everyday with the silly things she does!
