What's for dinner?

As you might expect it is not easy making dinner with a newborn on hand. It's especially hard for me since Margot detests her swing and only happy plays on her blanket as long as I sit right next to her. Dinner therefore has to either go into the crock pot in the morning before Chris leaves for work or wait to be made after Chris gets home for work. Lately we've been focusing on dinners that can be made in 30 minutes or less. Last night's shredded beef tacos were such a hit I thought I'd share. This is a recipe I've been playing with for years and I think I might have finally perfected it.

Shredded Beef for Tacos

1lb Top or bottom round steak or beef stew meat

1/2 a small onion chopped (about half a cup)

1 clove garlic, chopped

1 can diced green chilies

1 whole dried cayenne pepper broken up or 1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp coriander

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/4 tsp oregano

salt and pepper

1/2 cup tomato juice

1/4 cup water

Season meat with salt, pepper and ground spices and place in bottom of crock pot. Top with onion, garlic and canned chilies. Break up cayenne pepper over top. Add tomato juice and water. Cook on low 8-10 hours.

For really exciting tacos I like to fry my corn tortillas in a skillet. However for a quicker and healthier version you can heat them up in a microwave or dry skillet.

2 months

Margot you are now two months old! Wow you are growing so much. You are so much bigger than the pictures from last month. You had a lot of new experiences in the last month. You had your first Christmas. You went on a number of little trips to the cabin, Grampa and Nonna's, Grampa Doug and Grandma Jody's. You met friends like Zeke. You also learned to take a bottle, stay with Grandma, smile and play with toys.

You still don't like your swing, bouncy seat, car seat or cradle. You do however like to play on a blanket and kick your legs. Your favorite toys right now are Gerald the Giraffe, and Willamina the cow.

Here you are at two months--

Weight: 10 lbs 7oz

Length: 21.3 inches long

Clothes: 0-3 months and some 3 months

Another month in pictures

To play some catch up on my blog here are some snap shots of Miss Margot's second month.

Margot met her friend Zeke for the first time.


Zeke thinks Margot is beautiful.

This is a classic Margot shot taken on x-mas eve. Note her adorable sweater dress. Here she says, "oh boy Mommy I'm just so excited I must wave my arms about frantically".

Here is Margot on Christmas Day. Again note her beautiful dress. These are my attempts to get a picture of her in her beautiful dress. Clearly she was having none of it.

As Chris says--this is classic Margot.

Lastly here is a series which I like to call, Margot sleeps everywhere except in her own bed.

napping with daddy

on uncle sean's shoulder

again with daddy

with grampa dan at the ranch

with daddy

with grandma Jody

in daddy and mommy's bed

with grampa