IPI...IDI - Recipes - Crock Pot Orange Chicken & Stuffed Pasta Shells

Alright here is another "I Pinned It... I did it!" post.  This time it's recipes I've tried!

First try was the Crock Pot Orange Chicken recipe that I found here.  Let me just tell you I was so excited about this recipe that I doubled it (I'm all about doubling recipes lately just so that I can freeze and have another night in the future).  That was mistake number 1.  Only double recipes that YOU KNOW are good!  Unfortunately it was such a bad recipe that I couldn't even finish mine... yuck.  It tasted like orange juice slime over dry chicken.  Just my opinion... but I would take this one off of your lists people!

The second recipe we tried were the Stuffed Pasta Shells (I found them here).  They were so delicious, and I loved how it made so many!  It made two 9x13's so we froze one and ate the other.  I will be posting this recipe this week!  YUM!

Hope y'all are trying out some of your pins as well!

IPI..IDI - Sewing- Paci Clips & Hair Bows!

My friend Bonnie started implementing the phrase "I pinned it... I did it" and I'm completely going with that title because I love it.  I told you all a couple posts ago that I am challenging myself to complete 2 things a month that I've pinned on Pinterest.  WELL I did it, yeah!

My first project was a Soothie Paci clip!  Emery can totally put the paci back in her mouth these days if it's within arms reach!  So I knew a paci clip was becoming a necessity, especially in the car!  I found one paci clip on amazon for $4.99.  But I'm happy to say, to make this project from the tutorial I found on Pinterest, this project cost me $0.50 to make two of them!  They are definitely not sewn to perfection, but I made them in 5 minutes from pillow case scraps that I had, and that's what really matters! 

Next on my list was a hair bow for Emery!  My dad gave me some Appalachian ribbon a couple years ago, and I finally found an awesome use for it!  I had no idea how easy bows were to make, again another project that took 5 minutes!  (Here are some tutorials I found on pinterest).  (Maybe next time I'll actually pay attention to make the ribbon not upside down haha)

You know Emery has to be in full ASU gear on game day! 

So that's my first "I pinned it... I did it" post!

Emery 5 month Video!

Here's a video of some moments we caught when Em was 5 months old! So fun!
(imitating sounds we make, rolling over, blowing raspberries, lots of babbles, smiles, eating pears for the first time, and her new high pitch voice)

Emery turns 5 months old!

Emery Katherine turned 5 months old on August 8th.. I so behind on this update.  We didn't have a doctors appointment this month, so I'm not sure about her weight and height measurements. Either way she's definitely growing and getting so big!

PERSONALITY!

It's been so fun to watch her little personality come out more and more everyday.  She (finally!) started giggling a little more, and oh man it's just the cutest sound.  She loves it when we blow on her tummy or nuzzle into her neck. Around week 19, she took her talking to a whole new level... LOUD!  It sounded like it was about to turn into a cry it was so loud, but she was just talking away exploring that voice of hers I guess.  She also figured out how to make her voice a high pitch, it sounds so girly! Also, when she gets excited she moves her right arm up and down and opens her mouth as wide as it can go.  So fun!

Also this month more than talking she enjoyed blowing raspberries all the time.  Her spit really flies too, you can see it got on my lens in this next picture!

EATING!

At 19 weeks we switched to Prilosec for her acid reflux (1 ml in morning and 1 ml at night) and she seems to really be comfortable because of it.  She is eating around 5 ounces at every feeding and is still on a four hour schedule.  She is SO predictable: eats & plays for 2 hours, nap time for 2 hours.  I have found that I cannot eat baked beans, it makes her so uncomfortable poor thing.  She eats so fast now I don't have to time her anymore, it's awesome!  Probably 8 minutes on each side.  We started her on pears (I posted about it here) and we are still doing that every 5-7 days to help keep her regular!  Since we don't give it to her that often her first reaction is always to spit it out and keep her mouth closed! Still haven't started rice cereal yet.

PLAYTIME!

She still LOVES her play mat and has mastered the tummy to back roll.  She refuses to be on her tummy for more than a second before she flips over!  Instead of just using her head to flip herself over (from tummy to back) she pushes up on her knees and arches her back to get herself flipped.  When she hit 22 weeks, she rolled from her back to tummy!  

She loves the Jenny Jump Up, but is just using it as a swing at the moment.  She will turn herself around in it to follow me if I'm walking though!

- She loves the Excersaucer too, thank you again Brooke for letting us borrow yours!

 

No more "awake time" is spent in the bouncy seat... she is OVER being stuck in that thing!  She'll arch her back until she practically scoots herself out of it.

We go on walks everyday at lunch, a perfect break for both of us to get away from the house and get some fresh air.  This month was the first month I put her in the stroller without her car seat, and she loves it.  She gets super comfortable even sometimes with her leg up on the brown tray.  Oh and she LOVES her sunglasses.  She has never tried to pull them off!

SLEEPING!

This month we focused on laying her down in the crib awake and letting her put herself to sleep.  (Our bedtime routine before this would sometimes last an hour between feeding and rocking). I think we picked the perfect time to do it too, as she would just talk to herself for a bit then fall right asleep.

We wanted her to master this skill before focusing on her not being swaddled... that would be next months goal!  SO she still is swaddled and loves her miracle blanket!  Still fighting this "45 minute intruder" during her daytime naps, but there are a couple days here and there where she'll sleep 2 hours.  Most days though it's anywhere from 45 minutes to 1 hour and 30 minutes.  Her nighttime sleeping is finally getting a little better to where she's back only waking up once or twice in the night.  We think last month's bad sleeping habits had a correlation to the medicine she was on and how she was still uncomfortable from the acid reflux.

RANDOMS!

- She gives us the biggest smiles, especially Kyle!  Her favorite game is for me to hold her and she smiles big at Ky then hides her face in my neck, then repeats that over and over and over.

- She has turned into such a "grabber".  Her favorite thing to reach out and touch is our cups!

- We have no clue what color her eyes are going to be!  There is blue around the edges but mostly green in the center with some yellow/brown. They have every color in them! Her "stork bite" is still going strong in between her eye brows too.

- She really enjoys the jogging stroller now and takes everything in on our walks.  She never falls asleep walking anymore!

- She's really interested in the animals this month for the first time.  Twists in all ways to see where they are walking to.

- Speaking of Puck (our cat), he doesn't really know boundaries and will lay on Emery and I if we sit down.  Oh well Emery doesn't mind!

Here are my iphone pics for this month:

5 month video coming next post!

Lazy Weekend

About 3 weeks ago (yes I am THAT behind on blogging!) we caught a horrible stomach bug around here.  Kyle started feeling sick at work and rushed home to lock himself in our basement suite until he felt better.  (YES he rushed home so fast that he got a ticket, poor guy.  The cop had no mercy on him even with a bottle of pepto and a barf bag).  About 12 hours later, I got it.  We tag teamed Emery while the other one slept/puked.... fun times I tell ya.  We had everyone praying that Emery wouldn't get it, and the prayers worked thank heavens!

So needless to say by the time the weekend came along we were still exhausted and needed a couple days to recoup.  Saturday morning we went out to breakfast to J. Christophers in downtown Roswell that's located in the old Public House.  The atmosphere was cool and we ate A LOT of pancakes since we were finally feeling better!  Here is a picture I snapped of Ky and Emery there.

The rest of the weekend we spent test driving cars (more on this coming soon), making gifts for friends and family, and making a big batch of baby food for Emery.  

Here are parts of the gifts I made!  Love making these burp cloths for people when I can find the time.  I think I ended up making 16 total just didn't take pictures of all of them.

Found some coordinating fabric that was solid color with white dots... love it!

And baby food making! 

All in all we have apples, peaches, green beans and sweet potatoes!  The portions are a little large because I didn't have more ice cube trays but I'll divide them up and we should be good to go.

And here is a picture of Emery... just because she's so stinking cute :)  I sure do love being a mom.

Hope you all have fabulous labor day weekends!

Pinterest Challenge and Hawaiian BBQ Chicken recipe

I love Pinterest.  If you are not familiar with it:

Pinterest is a virtual pinboard. Pinterest allows you to organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. You can browse pinboards created by other people to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and share their favorite recipes.

It can be totally addicting so I only let myself browse & pin from my phone when I'm feeding Emery. I love all the creative ideas, DIY projects, home decorating inspirations, organizational tips, recipes and more that I've found through it.  However, if all I do is pin things and never actually follow through with any of them it would be a complete waste of time.

SO I'm challenging myself to complete at least 2 Pinterest items a month!  Hopefully I'll be able to do WAY more then that, but since I've been struggling to find the time to even blog, we'll keep it at 2! :)

So here is the first recipe I've tried... Delicious and SO easy!

Hawaiian BBQ Chicken in Crock Pot

Ingredients:

4-6 Boneless Chicken Breasts (can even use frozen if you want!)

1 Bottle Archer Farms Hawaiian Style Barbecue Sauce (from Target)

1 20 oz. can Pineapple Chunks, drained

Directions:

Spray the inside of your crock pot with cooking spray for an easy cleanup!  Place frozen chicken breasts in the crock pot and cover with sauce.  Empty can of drained pineapple chunks on top.  Cook on High for 2-3 hours or Low for 4-6 hours.  Shred chicken with two forks while still in the crock pot so the chicken will be well coated with sauce.  Serve over rice.

Emery Models!

It works out perfectly being employed for a Baby Company.  Instead of paying for models to come in the employees just schedule having babies around our photoshoots... haha just kidding :)  Although, the timing did work out perfectly for Emery to come in and model some of our new Baby Aspen products that are launching soon.  They put her in the new frog snuggle sack and a pair of the safari socks.  We are using a lot of these pictures in our new catalog.  So fun!

She was such a content baby during the whole shoot, I was so proud!  (Although I must admit I was a little nervous before hand... the whole toddler/tiara mom thing is NOT for me!)