Jonah: 5 Months

I’ve had a lot of “mommy brain moments” since I started working full time again.  Two memorable ones include throwing Jonah’s bib away instead of putting it in the laundry and pouring gatorade on my cereal instead of milk!  Ugh - haha!  

I can’t believe how quickly Jonah is growing up.  He can hold a bottle by himself sometimes!

At the end of August, we had the unpleasant and horrible task of dealing with a RAT infestation.  

:(((  I was breastfeeding Jonah on the couch when a giant rat just nonchalantly walked past me, looked at me, and then proceeded to walk into our dining room and pantry!!  I freaked out.  I called our landlord, where I found out I had to submit a maintenance request online.  They took OVER A WEEK to respond to our need, which I viewed as very urgent because of Jonah!  All I could keep picturing was that scene from “Lady and the Tramp” with the baby in the crib and the rat standing on the edge and lightning flashing.  It was terrifying!  We set out traps and finally killed one after 5 days.  It was probably (no exaggeration) 10 inches long.  I was so disgusted.  We killed the second rat after 8 days.  After we killed all the rats, the pest control people finally came.  Talk about poor management!!!  As far as cleaning up after an infestation, the CDC website said you had to wait a few WEEKS to clean out so that you’re sure all the rodents are dead.  Ugh.  So we finally deep cleaned the pantry, closets, and dining room out 2 weeks after the last rat was killed.  It took all day!

Jonah’s four month appointment went very well.  Height: 26 inches, weight: 16 pounds 7 ounces, head circumference: 41.5 cm! He is 75th percentile for height and weight!  The doctor said he is “perfect!”  That made me happy! :)

Teething has been a nightmare.  Jonah soaks a few bibs a day with drool, is pretty fussy, is getting a rash around his mouth from all the drool, and has had a low grade temp.  One night I had to give him Motrin and swaddled him, which helped him to sleep 8.5 hours straight!  

Jonah’s first laugh was awesome - we were just sitting at dinner and he was watching us eat and all of the sudden let out a laugh!  It wasn’t long, but it was what it was.  I was SO happy because I’d been looking forward to a laugh forever!

Jordan had the majority of August and the first week of September off, so he was able to watch Jonah when I worked!  It was so nice to have him home.  When he started school again, our new nanny, Olivia, worked out excellently!  She plays with Jonah, takes him on walks, and helps me out around the house.  I love her!  The first full day she watched him, Jonah wouldn’t eat from a bottle from her.  I was worried, but suggested to Olivia to feed him from a syringe.  That, along with feeding him on our bed (where he could smell me and Jordan) worked.  After that day, he didn’t have a problem with Olivia feeding him.

Once in church, Jonah had a major blowout, and of course I had only brought an extra pair of pants to church...so he showed off all his muscles to the Young Women!  

My mom came into town September 16 and stayed with us for a week!  It was awesome.  Jonah was all smiles and she was so excited to see him! We had so much fun!  We got pedicures, went apple picking at Carter Mountain in Charlottesville (SO FUN!!!) and made apple turnovers and apple pie, and went to North Carolina to stay with the Bethers!  We had a great time!  While we were in North Carolina, Jenae taught Jonah how to suck on a binkie for longer than 2 seconds. ;)

Why I Don't Cook

Since Melyn had work and a choir performance to do, it was up to me to cook dinner. Thought I could follow a simple recipe, but I think the results shown here speak for themselves. Notice how the chicken casserole doesn't go all the way out to the edges of the pan. Guess I'll stick to breakfast food and grilled cheese sandwiches.

Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving was de-li-cious!  You'll just have to take my word for it, because we didn't take pictures of all the food.  We had our friends Adaire and Will over the Sunday after Thanksgiving, because I worked on the holiday.  Here are the links to recipes if you want them...

Oven Roasted Turkey

Mashed Potatoes - 3 large potatoes, cream cheese, whipped cream, butter, sour cream, milk, salt, white
pepper

Pumpkin Pie - follow the recipe on the can!

Butter Pecan Sweet Potatoes

Whipped Cream

White Dinner Rolls

Wassail

And for the day after...Turkey Cranberry Monte Cristo.  So so yummy!!

Yummiest Bread!

So I recently decided to start baking my own bread instead of paying *cough* $5 a loaf at the grocery store!  I found this INCREDIBLE website from a lady in Utah who has devoted her blog to baking and cooking.  It truly is amazing.  I drool just looking at the pictures.  So when I saw this recipe for Multi-Grain Bread, I had to try it.  My review?  Soft, delicious, healthy, and super cheap to make, both time-wise and money-wise.  Just take a look...

Pecan Puffs

I made these at the beginning of this month and they are so yummy - like Pecan Sandies!  They're my Grams recipe.  :)

Pecan Puffs


1/2 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
4 tbs sugar 
1 cup finely chopped pecans

Cream sugar, butter, and vanilla. Put nuts in flour and add to creamed mixture. Roll in ball. Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes Dust with powdered sugar.

French Dip Sandwiches

Another delicious recipe that Jordan rated 5 Stars!

Shredded French Dip

1 3-lb. boneless beef roast
1 10.5 oz can condensed French onion soup, undiluted
1 10.5 oz can condensed beef consomme, undiluted
1 10.5 oz can beef broth, undiluted
1 tsp. beef bouillon granules
Mushrooms, sliced (optional)
Onions, sliced (optional)
8 - 10 French or Italian rolls, split
Gruyere cheese, sliced (optional)

Trim fat from meat.  Place the roast in a crockpot.  Combine soups and bouillon granules; pour over roast.  Add mushrooms and onions, if desired.  Cover and cook on low heat for 6 - 8 hours or until meat is tender.  Remove meat and shred with two forks.  Serve on rolls, with gruyere cheese if desired.  Skim fat from juices, strain, and serve as a dipping sauce.

Plastic Chef

It's Jordan. My mom told me yesterday that I needed to blog. I told her Melyn already did a post this week, but then she clarified that she wanted me to blog. So here's me blogging in 5 minutes. Last night Melyn had to work. When she works the Saturday evening shift (which is every other week), she calls a substitute to play the organ the next morning so she can just go to bed when she gets home. However, today she went to sacrament meeting herself so she didn't have to call a substitute. This meant she would be going to bed later, around 11 a.m. Keep in mind that she's been up since 9 a.m. the previous day. I don't know how she did it, but she did.

What this all means is when she finally did go to bed, she wouldn't be getting up until 7 p.m. The responsibility of cooking dinner tonight fell on me. I can cook, but really only things that don't require more than three ingredients. We had a southwestern chicken dish scheduled for tonight, and it definitely went way above my three ingredient rule. It reminded how cooking real meals is really hard. Too much multi-tasking. Among other things, I spilled lime juice in our silverware drawer, got taco powder stains on our white dish towel (Melyn hopes they'll come out), and used way more cooking utensils than I needed too. But the chicken dish turned out ok (if we got sick, I guess we'll find out in a couple of hours). Melyn even rated the meal 5 stars. Well, she really likes the recipe, though I can guarantee my rendition of it needs work. Maybe in the future I'll get more practice on how to cut cilantro, but right now I'm very content with Melyn being in charge of cooking duty. She is so much better at it anyways.

Billions of Pictures

Be prepared for the billions and billions (ok, maybe not that many) of pictures!

 My delicious 100 Grand birthday cake!

Matthew and Lindsey's wedding!  Her dress was GORGEOUS.

Hurricane Irene's damage

This is our church on the left hand side

Making homemade scones, Conference Weekend

My Halloween craftiness - this is puff paint that you use on fabric!  Super duper easy.

This wreath was super simple too.  I made the fabric flowers (you can find tutorials anywhere on the internet) and hot-glued them to a vine wreath.  Took about 10 minutes.

Love my hair-stylist!  I was asking her how to do a faux-hawk and she did it for me :)

Huge spider web in our kitchen window...and HUGE HUGE HUGE spider outside our front door!  

Our Apartment Complex

Fun park across the street from us.  It has little fitness stations!

Our apartment

It's kindof hard to tell from these pictures, but this is the crazy rain we got from Hurricane Irene.  Pounding on the windows!

Again, hard to tell from the pictures, but there are some big and deep puddles outside our back door from the amount of rain we got.

Damage in our neighborhood - thankfully, none of it near us.

They didn't cover the pool up during the hurricane, and it's almost overflowing!

This was the worst damage in our neighborhood - this is the huge branch that broke off and snapped loudly in the middle of the night.