Mommying magic #3: BBQ Sauce...and online recipes

If you are waiting on the edge of your seat to see what the 17 household uses for barbecue sauce are, you are about to be disappointed, because this is just a recipe. But your poor disappointed heart will feel much better when you have an amazing barbecue dinner made from scratch. Delicious scratch.

kinda like this, only more stubble

I really like to make things myself. I love the feeling of making something that I used to think you had to buy, and knowing that I can now have it whenever I want, whether or not I remembered to put it on the grocery list. Freeeeeee! This recipe is one I tweaked from Allrecipes.com(if you haven't discovered this site yet GO NOW), and so far everyone who's tried it has loved it. We had it with chicken the other night and Miles literally licked his plate. We're classy like that.
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BBQ SAUCE
(adapted from http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Zippy-Barbecue-Sauce/Detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Thumb&e11=barbecue%20sauce&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&e7=Home%20Page )
1 cup ketchup
1 cup water
4 Tbsp honey 
4 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 Tbsp white vinegar
2 Tbsp yellow mustard
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp hot sauce, like tabasco(I used part of a restaurant packet)
1/2 tsp granulated garlic(I'm sure garlic powder would work)
1/2 tsp black pepper

Put all the ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a full boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cool overnight if possible so the flavors can blend, and it will also thicken up a little, although never as much as some store bought sauces. YUM!
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Now, if you are really wanting a yummy dinner out of this, make a batch of sauce without the water(maybe a half batch, but I like a lot of barbecue sauce), put 3-4 chicken breasts in a casserole dish(I like to cut them into a few pieces so they get more saucy and I'm paranoid about things cooking through) and cover them with generous amounts of the concentrated barbecue sauce. Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake ~1 hour at 400 degrees. Serve with mashed potatoes and salad, or other good things. Or if you have some buns you could shred the chicken into the sauce when it comes out and make amazing barbecue sandwiches.

the other best tip today: YOU CAN FIND A GOOD ONLINE RECIPE FOR EVERYTHING. Seriously.
...but do yourself a favor and promise to do four things before diving into an online recipe:
1)Read the whole recipe before you choose it, including all the instructions. There may be crazy amounts of time/work required that you aren't ready for, and I guarantee you can find another recipe without whatever it is that you don't like.
2)Always, aalllllllways read the reviews. A whole lot of them. When you start to see a theme, pay attention to that tip
3)Substitute. You usually do NOT need dijon mustard, rice wine vinegar, or cooking sherry. It takes a little experimenting, but really you can get away with substituting a whole lot of things and still get awesome results. And reading the reviews will tell you what you can substitute
4)Skip sponsored recipe sites(...foodnetwork.com, I'm looking at you)! Look for a "real person" kind of site with lots of reviews of people who have actually MADE the recipe instead of comments like, "this looks amazingly delicious!"

Six months...halfway to ONE!

Time is flying. I feel like suddenly Miles and I are going to turn around and poof! we will be old and wrinkly grandparents. Crazy.
But for now, we're having SUCH a fun time with Colban. The older he gets, the more fun he is, with his little personality coming out more all the time. Most mornings he wakes up smiling and happy to see us, and will sometimes wait in his crib with his head down and eyes closed until he hears us move, and then pop up with a big grin.

In month six Colban's mastered sitting up alone, and his new big one: CRAWLING! Okay, it's still pretty scoot-ish, but he's so fast and mobile that I'm counting it for a crawl. Here's a video from a little while ago:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UM3OPirTUQ4

We also started him on some rice cereal, and he's getting good at eating from a spoon. He also definitely understands the word "milk" in baby sign. We haven't done too much baby sign yet, but I'm excited for when he'll be able to sign back!

First trip to the park, complete with a ride in the swing! He had a lot of fun pulling up the grass.

Travis, Kira and Jane came down for a visit, and we got to go to the Los Angeles zoo together--another first for Colban. We also slept over at the Marks's house and Colban went for a swim in the(not-so-hot) hot tub!

 His favorites this month:
--the computer mouse. He LOOOVES it, and will dive for it any time he's near enough
--spoons, and banging them on the floor, tables
--grabbing everyone's face. Ow!
--cars. He of course loves to be outside, but most of all he likes to watch cars and buses go by
--he really seems to like classical music. YAY!! He especially seems to perk up when the brass comes in.
--Daddy! He is soooo excited every day when Miles comes home, and yesterday crawled right over to him as soon as he came in. Aww my heart!

Mommying Magic #2: the packing list

Since almost all of our family lives in Utah, we travel back and forth from there a lot. The first year we moved I think we made the trip five times in six months. I always do the packing while Miles is at work, and of course I always  manage to forget something. One time it was toothbrushes, then razors, and after the time that I somehow forgot to pack Miles any underwear I knew I could no longer be trusted. Hence...

Now, this is the list I made, so of course if you don't have a baby yours will be a whole lot shorter and not include things like nursing pads and a pack'n'play, but you get the idea. It might seem silly to print off a list and check things off every time you're going on a trip, but at least for us it is a HUGE time and sanity saver! I can pack for a ten day vacation in less than 30 minutes and know that I haven't forgotten anything, because I just cross it off as I go. Lalalalalalaaaa!

I tried my best to put the pdf on here, or a link of some sort(even using Google Drive), but so far everything I've tried has failed. If anyone has a brilliant way to do that on Blogger, we should talk!

P.S. I know it looks like a ton of stuff, but usually some gets crossed off before I even start packing. And the rest usually fits into one big suitcase and a couple grocery bags, including the baby stuff and snacks. :)
Happy packing!!

Starting solids

Colban's been eyeing our food for a month now, grabbing for it every chance he gets, and even crying sometimes when I don't share. Now that he can finally sit up on his own we gave in to the temptation to give him some real food. Here's his first taste of rice cereal...

Aaaand he's mobile!

What a cutie! 

It's my favorite to see him figuring out how his little body works! SO fun!

Mommying Magic #1: dish soap

I'm toying with the idea of doing a weekly post on the little awesome things I discover while mommying. I just get really excited when I find things that make all my little jobs a whole ton easier, or when I find a legitimately no-fail recipe, so I'm going to start listing them on here in hopes that they'll come in handy for someone.

so...

TIP #1: DISH SOAP IS YOUR BEST FRIEND

Here is why:

1. A soaped-up sponge cleans all the junk off the stove like nobody's business. Super fast. Even the baked on burnt rice boil-over that you have been meaning to get to for a month(hypothetically, of course...)

***2. It is a magical fast scrubber-outer for all things laundry. Especially the big one: Baby poop. ***

I rinse the spot out, put on a little dishsoap, and scrub the stain against itself. Like you're washing your hands, only with half the stained part over each hand. Then rinse the soap out. If it's a reeeeally bad one, I might do it twice, but it never takes long. It probably will not look completely white by the time you've rubbed the clothes together a bit, but throw it in the wash and presto! Stain free! Even white onesies.

3. And while you are in the scrubbing mood, dishsoap also gets stains out of our carpet really well. Just a little soapy water and an old kitchen sponge and bonus! you get a quick bicep workout, too. I'm sure you should probably spot test before going crazy with this one, though.

4. Forget the hand soap in the kitchen--this gets you soooo much cleaner, faster. Even if you just greased a casserole dish with your bare hand(shh...). Also you can use the dispenser to squirt soap on your sponge when doing the dishes. No having to get under the sink...we allllll know it's creepy under there.

5. Super good for sticky countertops/walls near the stove top where grease has splattered. I wish I had known this in Russia when I moved into apartment #2 and discovered the oil-encased gretchka-cooking kitchen area.

6. It actually works surprisingly well for cleaning off the white rubber/fake leather parts on shoes. Go figure.

7. It is good for washing dishes. Haha.

I know there is a huge hype on Pinterest about blue Dawn dishsoap and all the wonderful things it can do for your shower walls, but so far I've been doing great with my huge bottle of cheap orange Ajax. But if there are any blue Dawn experts out there, I'd love to know if it really does have incredible powers worth paying twice as much for.

Let me know if there are other great things that didn't make my list!

Jenson family reunion 2013

From July 4-7 this year we had our biannual Jenson family reunion. SO much fun! This time it was in Lompoc, CA where my dad and his siblings grew up. I was pretty darn excited to see his hometown and just for a road trip in general. Also I don't get to see our family too much since everyone is so spread out, and I love getting together and enjoying everyone's sense of humor. 

Thursday night-HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!-we all went out to dinner and then to a spectacular fireworks show. I was interested to see what Colban would do...he watched them, fascinated, for about half the show, and then buried his head into my chest and went to sleep. So sweet! I'm sad I didn't think to take pictures of his little face, but I was too mesmerized by the fireworks myself.

Colban madly wanted to eat the KFC container and fought desperately to get it in his mouth

Friday was a BLAST! We all got onto a tour bus and rode around Lompoc hearing about the neat landmarks that were meaningful to my dad's family. My favorite was the story of my grandpa becoming the "pieman" to help pay for the building of their church, which we got to see.

I call the back seat! Finally Colban got his wish of riding around NOT in a car seat

we ended our tour at Jalama beach, where we picnicked and played for most of the afternoon. I even got to dig for sand crabs with Miles...one of my favorite parts of the beach!

Melissa wins the photo bomb contest on this one!

Sadly I didn't get any pictures of our family game night that night. We were lame and left early to get Colban to bed. Boo. Also I always forget to use the camera!

Saturday we went up to Nojoqui Falls for a BBQ and hike. The falls didn't have much water this year(see the moss below?) but the area was gorgeously pretty. We had a great time walking up there and managed to escape the crazy biting flies! Most of all I just liked hearing everyone talk and catch up during the BBQ.

That night my Mom babysat Colban so we could go to Solvang and see an outdoor performance of "Fiddler on the Roof." I definitely want to go back there for a day trip sometime! Plus the play was amazing! They had some really talented singers, a REAL violin player(yay!) and the dancing seemed professional to me--I was so impressed! My only beef was that they went to the effort of making Russian signs for things but didn't use real Russian. Why do people DO that?!

Can you find me? I'm the one with my head facing backwards.

aaaaand...bonus! We of course forgot our pack'n'play, so Colban slept in the bed between us at night. He loved it! I loved him snuggling up to me, but didn't get much sleep, since I didn't want to roll on him and he kept getting closer and closer! :) 

You can see his little smile here. So satisfied.

Five months!!

If it seems like I just wrote that four month post, it's probably because I did. :) We're back on track, though, and our little man is now FIVE whopping months!

His new thing this month is that last week he learned how to jump. He hates to sit still and won't really sit on your lap unless he's standing, so we got him a doorway jumper a couple months ago, thinking he'd love it. Up to this point he only lasted about ten minutes in it, because all he would do is swivel around with one leg and suck on the side. With his new skill, though, he's good for a loooong time--hurrah! Dinners are getting significantly better around here...

A few more things about five-month Colban?

1. He had his first time at the beach. He loooved the waves, and curling those little toes in the sand.

2. He's riding in the big stroller now...he got much too squirmy to ride in the carseat. He is a happy camper about this change. We can also go for a lot longer stroller rides now!

 3. He can hold his own bottle! ...and has enough hair on top to do a little spike :)

No new big "milestones"...he's almost able to sit up, but still needs a little support. He's been exploring his new range of sounds, and today added ba-ba-ba to the repertory :)
I'm pretty tempted to start giving him solid foods, just for the fun of it, but I'm holding off til at least a little closer to the six month mark, or at least until he can sit without much support. He is SUPER interested in what we are eating and drinking, though. Yesterday we were eating in the car on the way to the beach and he threw a little tantrum when I wouldn't share my burger with him, haha.

Eat Mor Chikin...Date Night #2

If you know me you know that I love to find free fun things to do. It's even better to me when these things involve food. I think I am truly obese at heart...I just really like food a lot, guys. Anyway, for free, fun, and good food-ish activities this date night might be hard to top.

About a week ago I found out that Chick-Fil-A was having their annual customer appreciation day, aka Cow Appreciation Day. The deal was, if you dress up like a cow from head to toe, you get a free meal.  I was stoked about this idea, and pretty soon I had Miles on board with me. The best part was, it fell on a Friday, so...date niiiiiight!

When Friday night came around we pulled out our mad cow-costume making skills, and I must say I am pretty proud of what we came up with! It wasn't even Halloween!

Here are the results:

Can you even tell it's us? Just kidding.

Colban was the cutest little smiler, but for some reason we could NOT get a picture of it. Every time Miles would take a picture Colban would change his expression right at the last second. So you'll have to use your imagination.

Except here. This picture turned infinitely better than anyone could imagine.

Oooh, check out my big muscle! haha

 You may also notice that Colban only has a hat...erhm...ears. You'd be surprised how long it takes to tape a bunch of spots on, and we figured we'd better just get going before we got too close to bedtime for him. The best part was, there were a ton of other people there dressed up with us! The others just got to admire our bovine loveliness and wish they also had a free dinner. :)

AAAaaaand the final picture! By this time I had lost a spot or two, but I still think we look a whole lot better than the cow we're standing next to!

Is it just me, or does this cow have a beak?

Four months

...and then some! Okay, so I am pretty late on this one, since he'll be five months in just a week, but I went through another "meh" phase with blogging...you know, when you think, "I should really update the blog," and then you think, "meh. I'll do it later." But I'm baaaack!

In month four Colban has been super busy. We've done a lot of firsts:

Tricked you! This is not a first but it IS a really cute picture that I love.
He has become a master roller, though...he rolled early, but now he goes all over the room.

 First really good laughs:

Miles hates this picture but I love how it captures Colban giggling.
Whenever he starts laughing hard from being tickled he stuffs his hand in his mouth.

 First balloon:

He tried to eat it, mainly

 First(of many, I'm sure) road trip:

Off to Utah! More on this trip later...

This month has flown by and I'm afraid they are all starting to blend together. I'd better get a calendar or something! Colban's really a little ball of personality, and everywhere we go we get comments about how alert he is, how personable he is, and most of all about his big beautiful eyes.
His definite favorite things right now are the cord to Miles's razor, bottles(he can grab and hold them himself now), and the alphabet song, which never fails to calm him down. The sleeping-through-the-night stint at three months was only for those two glorious days, but coming up on month five he seems to finally be really learning, and we're going on almost a week now. I hope I didn't speak too soon! Funny how if anything happens for two days in a row I just assume it's the new norm. :)

We sure love this little guy!

finally figured out how to put a video on YouTube so it won't be sideways...

While Miles is at work I am home with Colban for 9-11 hours a day. This usually results in lots of pictures and videos taken on my phone, one or two of which usually find their way to Miles in a text message.

Here's one of my favorites:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2AmkegwYJc

(his face makes me laugh every time!)

Date night!

Before we got married Miles and I decided to make every Friday night a date night, taking turns to plan the dates. We've been pretty consistent with it, and have probably kept Redbox in business, but with Colban's arrival it's been a little trickier. First of all, we're both ready for bed at eight thirty or nine, and second of all, we've been so busy between work, callings and keeping Colban fed, changed, and rested that we haven't had energy to go out much. I think we had some grocery store dates and a couple afternoon Redbox runs :)

Anyway, a while back I saw an idea on Pinterest and knew it was right up Miles's alley. I finally remembered to get mini marshmallows, and he was in suspense all day about what we might be doing with them. I was so surprised he didn't guess it, but it made it all the more fun.

Marshmallow tower building contest!

To make it a little sweeter, we set a prize for the tallest tower: sleeping in while the loser took the next morning's 5 am diaper change. We suddenly both became fiercely competitive. Miles wanted a time limit and rules, so we made it until Colban woke from his nap, and had only 50 marshmallows each. Toothpicks were unlimited. ..."and rule number four: no cheating"(name that movie!)

Here's where it made me laugh to see our personalities really come out. I was wildly stabbing marshmallows together as fast as I could and throwing together a building right away(get'er done!), while Miles carefully stuck his toothpicks in all at the same angle and spot in each marshmallow and spent minutes just looking at his budding tower to see how to make it more structurally sound. The result?

I wiiiiiiin! 

Really, Colban saved me by waking up in the nick of time, because my tower had collapsed and I had just succeeded in propping it up in any way possible and adding a "safety spire" on top. I really couldn't have built it any taller, though. If Miles had had a little more time(or his own safety spire) he would have creamed me. To put things more in perspective, the pile you see behind Miles's tower is how many marshmallows he still had left to build with. I had four.

A close-up of my masterpiece. It started out as a bunch of stacked cubes, until Colban kept napping and I was forced to make it taller...and then it collapsed and kind of turned into a tumbleweed

He was so sad. Look at the perfect angles and structure on that thing!
You could pick it up and move it with one finger--it was so strong!
Mine, on the other hand, was propped up by toothpicks like a little shanty

This is why I don't usually help Miles with his boat. Winner!

 It was a really fun and inexpensive date night--both mini marshmallows and toothpicks are only a dollar, and we had tons of both left over. We also think this would be a fun group date, and now Miles says he's discovered the optimal structure for marshmallow towers, so watch out!

Three months old already

I can't believe our little Colban is three months old already! 

He's finally starting to gain some weight and get some little rolls on those legs, and is just as strong and active as ever! This month he's learned how to use his hands, and he loves to grab for toys, Mom's hair, and Dad's tie at church. We also discovered how much he likes to see himself in the mirror--he'll coo, cough, and play shy from himself. He can still roll from tummy to back, but lately he only does it when he's waking up from a nap, and has rolled back again a few times. He's slept through the night twice, but lately seems to be remembering how much fun it was as a newborn to get up and eat every two hours! Workin' on those rolls, I guess! Oh well, he's adorable even at 12, 2, 3:30, and 5 am!

Here are some pictures from the past little while:

He was swaddled to go down for a nap, but I needed a quick
bathroom break. I came back to find him sneaking his hands out
to grab the ball, while talking to himself in the mirror

 

I just think this one is funny. It's so hard to get him to smile for the
camera, because as soon as  pull it out he gets all curious. 

This isn't the best one, but he can rest his elbows and pull his head up
to 90 degrees. Makes tummy time a lot more fun for him, and he lasts longer :)

My little smiler! Doesn't he look like a muppet here?

All ready for church. He likes to flirt with the grandmas
...and try to spit up on my skirt as much as possible :)

Ha! We were trying to stall him so he didn't go to
bed too early, so we went on a walk. He pulled on the
hat and rubbed his face on Miles a lot, but seemed to like it.