Six Months.

This little miss is 6 months old!

It's so fun to look through all the pictures on my phone and see how much she's changed.  And she still has a lot more changing to do!  

Some things she's digging right now:

- Being outside (when it's on the warmer end of things).

- Gnawing on carrot and celery sticks.

- Playing with spatulas and spoons.

- Being with mom :)

- Peekaboo!  All day, every day.

- Watching (and grabbing) the cats.  I'm talking handfuls of fur, people.

- Watching mom sing and dance and make a fool of herself.

- Hanging out with dad while watching basketball.

- Seeing dad right when he gets home from work.  She gives him the BIGGEST smile.

- Babbling and spitting.  So lady-like.

- Sticking her tongue out so she can feel the single tooth she has.

^Sorry for some not so great iPhone pictures.  But the subject of the pictures makes up for that :)

So there she is!  A teething, fun-loving little miss.  She's been quite the momma's girl lately, which I don't usually mind, but sometimes I just wanna sit by myself for like 5 minutes! :)  It also makes me feel bad for Andrew because it makes him feel a little useless.  I just keep telling him that she will go through a phase at some point where she'll only want to be with him, and that she'll realize daddy is the fun one. haha!  

Her first tooth popped through a few days ago and she loves it!  She keeps that tongue out all day long and it's hilarious.  We've started giving her some softer food to try chewing and eating, though she doesn't quite get the concept of eating food yet (we're not planning to go the babyfood route).  She likes the flavor of steamed carrots and cut up bananas, but once she puts it in her mouth she just sits there like... Why is this still in my mouth...  haha.  It's pretty funny to watch her discovering everything.

^Reading a book with dad.

^Chillin' outside in some warmer weather.  That cat loves to climb on the stroller, whether it's inside or outside.

^That face.  You can barely see her tooth about to come through on the bottom left side of her mouth.

^Lashes for days.

^Hanging out with dad while looking at basketball stuff.

^She kills me.

^Little lady.

And her hair IS growing.  I promise.

Lemon-Garlic Chicken, Potatoes, and Green Beans

Hey Everyone!

For dinner last night Andrew and I had one of our favorite meals, Lemon-Garlic Chicken, Potatoes, and Green Beans.  It's so fresh and tasty, and also SO easy to make.  I found the recipe here.

^Again, not my picture.  But it looks tasty, eh?

Ingredients- Serves 4

6 Tbsp. olive oil

2 lemons, 1 thinly sliced, 1 juiced

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp. kosher salt

1/2 tsp. black pepper

3/4 pound trimmed green beans

8 small red potatoes, quartered

4 chicken breasts (bones left in, with skin, about 3 1/4 pounds)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Coat a large baking dish or cast-iron skillet with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil.  Arrange lemon slices in a single layer in the bottom of the dish or skillet.

2. In a large bowl, combine the remaining oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt, and pepper; add the green beans and toss to coat.  Using a slotted spoon or tongs, remove the green beans and arrange them on top of the lemon slices.  Add the potatoes to the same olive oil mixture and toss to coat.  Using a slotted spoon or tongs, arrange the potatoes along the inside edge of the dish or skillet on top of the green beans.  Place the chicken in the same bowl with the olive oil mixture and coat thoroughly.  Place the chicken, skin-side up, in the dish or skillet.  Pour any of the remaining olive oil mixture over the chicken.

3. Roast for 50 minutes.  Remove the chicken from the dish or skillet.  Place the beans and potatoes back in the oven for 10 minutes or until tender.  Place a chicken breast on each of 4 serving plates; divide the green beans and potatoes equally (or not :)).  Serve warm.

Easy right?  And pretty darn healthy too.

I half the recipe since I only need to cook for 2 people.  I also make other changes to suit what ingredients we have in the house.  I use whatever potatoes we have, and I usually cut them smaller so they take less time to become soft.  I don't use chicken breasts with the bone in, I just use regular, trimmed chicken breast.  I also try to use less chicken and more green beans and potatoes.  We REALLY like our meat over here in the Brandt house, so I feel like we are constantly buying meat from the store, beef and chicken.  So to try to save money we try to eat a little less meat with our meals and more vegetables.  It also saves our bellies... cause too much meat isn't great. (Unless it's a nice, big steak cooked on a smoking hot grill smother in some steak sauce... then it's ok)

So there's an easy week-night meal!  Toss it all in one pan and you're good to go! And it's chicken, potatoes, and green beans... what kid (or adult) doesn't like that stuff?  Good for the whole family!

Like A Good Neighbor...

I went to visit Andrew at his State Farm office one day when I had the car for the day.  This little car is part of the decorations of the office and Andrew thought it would be so funny to put her in it.  Turns out it WAS pretty funny :)

I told her this is the only car she's ever allowed to drive... EVER.  Why do they have to grow up?!

Pardon my "tired eyes" look.  Looks like it'll be staying around for a while :)

The Brandt's Lately

Happy New Year! 

It's 2014! Criminy!

Andrew, Jane, and I have had a fun holiday, full of relaxing, travelling, family and friends, good food (turducken... yup, you read that right), temple work, and a new niece!

We started the holidays off with a fake Christmas tree that we inherited from one of Andrew's grandparents, which saved us some money.  We have pretty simple decorations, just some glass ball ornaments, some random ones that I've gotten over the years, and lights.  I didn't realize what an issue this would be with the cats... We decorated the tree exactly the same last year and Piper didn't really bother it.  But the only difference is that last year we had a real tree.  She tried to climb in it of course and knocked down a couple ornaments, but she never broke anything or knocked the tree down.  Yeah.  KNOCKED IT DOWN.  I guess the other difference is that there are two cats in the house this year.  That boy cat is a TURD.  The fake tree has pretty pliable branches, so I guess that made it easy to get up there and smoosh them down to make a flat place to hang out, where as a real tree doesn't bend much.  And is also prickly, depending on the type you get (Blue Spruce all the way!).  

^Good lookin' tree right? It's ok, you can tell me it's ugly.  Along with that beautiful tree skirt...

So we found a few ornaments on the floor every morning, and the tree was all disheveled every morning too.  It was so fun fixing it every day! (Not.) What made me mad was when there were broken ball ornaments on the floor.  Glass was EVERYWHERE.  How the heck do they do it? These cats.  Needless to say, we took the tree down as soon as possible.  

We took a trip up to DC with some of Andrew's family to go to the temple to do some work for deceased family members.  It was really awesome to be in the temple with so much family.  Because we were there for quite a while, we were able to see the Festival of Lights!

^I didn't get any pictures of the trees covered in lights in front of the Visitor's Center, but I did get this picture...

It was beautiful!  We were also lucky enough to see my best friend that's serving her mission in the area.  Man, I miss that girl.

^Jane and I with Hermana Adlridge! 

For dinner, just about the whole Brandt family went to Outback Steakhouse to celebrate some birthdays.  My father-in-law's birthday was the day before, one of my sister-in-law's birthday was the next day, and then mine was a week later.  So we had a ton of fun in a huge room filled with family and some GOOD food.

^Trying to get a good picture with Grandma Brandt was pretty tough.

^Jane, why are you getting so big?

^Dad and Jane with party hats on.  Too funny!

Christmas Day was really fun with Jane, even though she didn't quite know what to do with the presents.  She still lunged at them to attack the paper and ribbons.  She had a good time, I think :)

We had Christmas dinner with some good friends of ours and they brought the main dish, TURDUCKEN.  I have never heard of this creation until recently.  It is a turkey stuffed with duck and chicken.  And some other meats I think.  I still can't say I know exactly what it is, but I do know it is delicious!

Andrew took off a few days of work around New Years, so we had a nice long weekend to celebrate.  The plan was to spend it in Richmond with a couple of Andrew's brothers that live up there, but plans were changed when our little niece decided she wanted to come about a week early!  She just wanted to see us so bad that she wanted to be born while we were there ;)  It made for an exciting New Years, and we are so happy that new baby Ella is here and that Jane has another cousin to play with. 

So, 2013 went out with a bang :)

Christmas Thoughts

Christmas was a bit tough for me this year.  I can't really say why, since it wasn't the first time I haven't been with some of my family to celebrate it.  Last year Andrew and I spent our first Christmas together, just the two of us.  And Piper, of course.  This year was the same, with the addition of Jane.

The weeks leading up to Christmas just weren't very fun, as far as getting excited for Christmas to come.  It is stressful trying to find some new traditions to do as a new family.  I know it probably shouldn't be as stressful as I make it out to be, but let me tell you something.  While I was growing up in New York with all of my siblings, we had some great Christmas traditions.  They built up so much excitement for Christmas day.  They may not have all been the most spiritual Christmas traditions, but the things I remember most are spending time with my whole family.  It was the most fun I could ever have, even if we were getting sick from stuffing our faces with Slim Jims and Reese's peanut butter cups from our stockings.  

So, trying to create new traditions for our new little family is a daunting task, since I feel like they should be GREAT.  I had to keep telling myself that those traditions came about over YEARS of time.  That calmed me down for about half a day.

So the Christmas excitement and spirit wasn't really happening for me this year.  And the weather here in Virginia wasn't helping much either.  70 degrees in the middle of December??  Come on.

Despite all that I was unhappy about, we did get to go to the Night of Miracles, a reenactment of Jerusalem and Christ's birth. This happens in Buena Vista every December.  It's fun to walk through the little town they create and to see all the different animals and watch the Roman centurions ride around on their horses (obviously).  I have been to it several times since I have been living in Buena Vista, but this was the first time I went after having a baby.  For me, this made all the difference in my thoughts and feelings as I watched the performance of Mary and Joseph with Christ, the wise men, the angels, and the shepherds.

I'm not much of a baby person, if someone offers their child to me I usually say "Oh no thanks, they look perfectly happy where they are.  I'll probably make them cry, haha!" (but seriously).  Point being, I haven't spent much time around children or babies.  Jane is the only baby I have spent more than just a few hours with.  I'm watching her learn and grow and become a real person.  

When I think of Christ, I think of him as a grown man.  Even at Christmas time, I think, "Yes he was born, then he grew up to become our Savior".  I never really dwell on the fact that he was a real, tiny baby.  I know most of this if really obvious to most people, but like I said, not much of a baby person over here.  Now that I am seeing my child grow every single day, now that I see what a child goes through, it changes the way I see Christ.  As well as Mary and Joseph.  "The little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes".  Seeing a baby peacefully stare at you is such an interesting experience, perhaps because it doesn't happen all that often, especially when they are newborns.  A newborn usually just sleeps and is awake for a little bit to feed.  Picturing Christ as a quiet, little newborn is a very humbling experience for me.  Knowing just how helpless a tiny baby is, how much they need their mother and father, really helps me put Christ's life into perspective.  

I don't think I have the words to say exactly what I think and feel now after having this Christmas experience, but I just know that being a mother has helped my relationship with Christ, especially during the Christmas season.

As far as traditions go, I think this is a great one to hold on to as long as we are living in Buena Vista.

Chicken and Dumplings

Hello Everyone!

I found a really yummy chicken and dumplings recipe and feel like sharing it!  I've always wanted to try chicken and dumplings, but don't think I ever have.  It just looks so warm and cozy.  This is another one of those really easy recipes that you can tweak to make it work any way you like it!  I found this recipe here.

^Mmm, oo-ey, gooey, tasty dumplings...

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds chicken breast tenders

1 Tbsp. olive oil

2 Tbsp. butter

1 potato (I used more)

2 medium carrots, peeled and diced

1 bay leaf

Salt and peper

1 tsp. poultry seasoning (I didn't have any, so I just used some rubbed sage and dried thyme)

2 Tbsp. flour

1 quart chicken broth

1 small box biscuit mix

1/2 cup warm water
Handful of flat-leaf parsley, chopped
1 cup frozen green peas

Directions
1. Dice chicken into bite size pieces and set aside.
2. Place a large pot on stove over medium high heat.  Add oil, butter, vegetables, and bay leaf and cook 5 minutes, stirring frequently.  Season mixture with salt, pepper, and poultry seasoning.  Add flour to the pan and cook 2 minutes.  Stir broth to the pot and bring to a boil.  Add chicken to the broth and stir.
3. Place biscuit mix in a bowl.  Combine with 1/2 cup warm water and parsley.  Drop tablespoonfuls of prepared mix into the pot, spacing dumplings evenly.  Cover pot tightly and reduce heat to medium low.  Steam dumplings 8 to 10 minutes.  Remove cover and stir chicken and dumplings to thicken sauce a bit.  Stir peas into the pan, remove chicken and dumplings from heat and serve in shallow bowls.

I mixed some things up with the recipe when I made it.  I can't remember everything I did, because, well, I'll be honest, this post has been sitting half-finished as a draft for about a month.  Oops.  I do remember that it was delicious though!  So enjoy :)