New Year's Eve & WOW! My baby is HUGE

 Only in UT, on New Year's Eve can a person find her children playing in a giant pile of leaves while her husband mows the lawn.  Yep.  This is what I saw as I looked out my back window on New Year's Eve:

 To celebrate New Year's Eve we went out to Trav's parents' house.  It was just us, Trav's parents & his sister's family.  The kids had a ton of fun playing together.  We had lots of yummy food and the big boys played their guitars.  Later, we watched The Rise of the Planet of the Apes.  The movie was ok, but I'm glad I didn't pay $6 to see it!

Yesterday I went out to Paradise to visit my cousin (Ashlee).  She's visiting from Oregon with her new baby.  Her kids are super cute.  Her older one is only a month younger than Caleb and her new one was just born the day before Thanksgiving.  Ash's sister, Natalee, was there with her little boy too.  He is about 3 or 4 weeks younger than Brooke (and 6 lbs lighter).  Look at the difference!:  

Little sister looks like a small buffalo for sure now!  My mom told me to check my baby book to see how old I was when I hit 20 lbs.  I was 8 months.  Brooke was about 7 months when she hit that mile marker.  I'm curious to see how old my other kids were when they hit that pound mark.  I think Sam was about 9 months because that's when we turned her car seat around.  It's crazy to think she's only gained 10 lbs in 7 months (she eats like a starving horse).  She looks so HUGE next to the boys though!  I'm pretty sure she out weighs my niece who's 2 months older than her too!  How sad.  I can't believe how fast they grow up!

Crock Pot Recipe Day 4

Travis really liked yesterday's recipe.  The kids, however, were not such big fans.  I noticed that since it tells you to put the peppers in at the end, they stay crisp and maintain a stronger pepper smell.  I don't think that's why the kids didn't like it.  I think it was just a smidge of the fear of the new and untried.

Here is today's recipe:

Slow Cooked Pulled Barbecue Chicken
From Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Recipes for Two
page 108

Cooker size: 1 1/2-3 qt
Setting and Cooking time: Low for 7-8 hours

1 small white or yellow onion, chopped I used dried onion flakes because it's what I had
1 small clove garlic, minced I used 2 because I put them in my garlic press & increased the recipe
4 boneless, skinless chicken THIGHS I used 4 boneless, skinless breasts 
1/2 cup ketchup
2 TBSP cider vinegar I used regular white vinegar because it's what I had
2 TBSP light brown sugar
1 TBSP olive oil I used vegetable oil because it's what I had
1 1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp chipotle chile powder I used a Mexican seasoning because it's what I had
1/4 tsp salt
Hamburger buns

1. Sprinkle the onion and garlic over the bottom of the crock and arrange the chicken thighs on top.  I threw in some chopped green bell peppers too.
2. In a small bowl, stir together the ketchup, cider vinegar, brown sugar, oil, Worcestershire sauce, chili powder, chipotle chile powder and salt; pour over the thighs.  Cover and cook on LOW for 7-8 hours, until the chicken is fork tender and pulls apart easily.
3. Remove the chicken from the slow cooker.  With two forks, pull apart the meat into shredded chunks; return to the slow cooker and stir to combine.  Cover and leave on the KEEP WARM setting until ready to serve.  Serve spooned onto warmed hamburger buns.

Because I used chicken breasts instead of chicken thighs, I increased the garlic.  I'm thinking I should have doubled the sauce as well.  There was enough sauce to cover the chicken breasts (I spooned it on top of them).  There was also a little bit of sauce that went down under the chicken.  I'm thinking I would have liked to have put sauce on the chicken breasts, flipped them over and sauced the other side as well.
When I've done pulled pork, I've melted cheese on the hamburger buns in the oven.  That's probably how I'll toast the hamburger buns this time too.