Yesterday

Things have been pretty hectic around here lately.  I'm gonna keep this one short and sweet.

Yesterday, the babe said Momma for the first time.  Momma. Put a fork in me, I'm done.

That's all.

 

Tulips and BFF's

Sometimes all a little lady needs is some time at the tulip farm with her BFF.  These girls were destined to be the very best of friends before they were even born.  That is, if their parents have anything to do with it :)

Oh hey!  Yeah, this is just us being cute and making it look easy!

All the girls!

Someday they will be 16 and I will still be forcing them into these shoes for a photo.  Yeah, I'm gonna be that kind of mom.

Our wonderful friends- the Tulip family :)

Okay, she was pretty darn cute from the front side... but I think this is even cuter!

These three were obviously having a very serious talk.  Solving the worlds problems I'm sure.

One last one of my babe.

 

Maybe someday I'll let her pick her own friends- but right now I think I'm doing a pretty good job of picking them for her.

 

Lions and Tigers and Bears...

Oh my!  We had another beautiful weekend here in the Northwest.  Since we're all about taking advantage of this sunshine while it lasts we decided to spend Sunday at the Portland Zoo.  Checking another first off P's list.  There are so many opportunities for "firsts" with the babe and I feel like it's my job to make sure she experiences as many of them as possible.  That being said, we were ready to show her each animal and catch all of her reactions in pictures.  Most of the animals, however, had a different idea of how this was going to go.  Apparently when the sun comes out the animals take naps... inside... in spots the visitors can't see.

Presley figured if the animals could sleep, so could she.



While she was snoozing we got to check out the animals that were up from their naps.  A giraffe.



A zebra.



A lion.  Really such an amazing creature.  Could you imagine seeing this bad boy in the wild?  I mean, those teeth!  Yikes.



Finally!  Our little lady was awake and ready to see some animals for herself.



The polar bears were out and about playing in their pool.  They really are so cute and so huge.



He gave us a little shake.



Taking a peek through the rocks.



Whoa, there's a polar bear in there!



Meet the newest Junior Zookeeper!



Another perfect Sunday in the books.  Glad we got to spend it with Nana, Papa and Mooma!

Love it, Leave it

Love it.

Our new season ticket seats for the Blazers games.  Even though it's not so easy to make it to the games these days, these seats may make it a little more of a priority :)  Now let's just hope we have a better season next year.  Lunch with great friends and catching up.  Realizing the Mister has three weeks of vacation time to burn before mid June.  Purchasing the champagne for a good friends bridal shower next weekend.  Finding the perfect shade of coral baking cups for baked mac and cheese.  Taking 10 minutes to paint my nails.  Even though they'll surely be chipped and gnarly looking in no time... they look good for the moment.  Breakfast with good people and their adorable babe.   Meals out with the little ones aren't exactly a relaxing event, but it's always fun to get the two babes together for some bff time.  Hanging out in the 80 degree weather at the Portland Zoo.  P's first trip to the Zoo was a hit.  The sun may have made our little lady and all of the animals a little sleepy but a day in the sun with the fam is always a good day in my book.

Leave it.

The babe crawling over to me, climbing up to the standing position at my chair and fully chomping down on my big toe... and deciding it's funny so she better hang on for a while.  Ouch!  Better stop sitting indian style in my chair.  Baby girl getting her first runny nose.  Luckily it only lasted a couple days.  Blowouts.  If you have a babe you know what I'm talking about.  Gas prices.  The Mister passing his sore throat along to me.

Caught on Instagram this week...

Smiles at the Zoo.  A fresh coat of paint.  Snack time at work.  Top Ramen and champagne.

   

   

It's Friday, Dance!

If the babe hears music of any kind she starts up her signature dance moves, arms up wrist wiggling and hip swaying.  She definitely gets her moves from her Dad only it doesn't take her a few jack and cokes to bust them out.  Mooma and P were hanging out at work (not a lot of work getting done these days) and the little lady was in the mood to groove!

Happy Friday!

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/40704578 w=400&h=300]

Sweet Life: Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies

First recipe post!  Those people that know me, know I love to bake.  So- you'll probably see a lot of posts with recipes for sweets on this bloggity.  The Mister requested peanut butter cookies this weekend... and today I finally got around to making them.  When I was searching pinterest for a recipe I found this one for peanut butter chocolate chip shortbread cookies.  That's a mouthful!  I love, love, love shortbread so I gave it a whirl.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temp (1 stick)

1/3 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 1/4 cup flour

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup mini semi sweet chocolate chips

1/4 cup Reese's chips

The original recipe called for 3/4 cups milk chocolate chips.  I switched it out for the above chips.  I like to live on the edge.

Mmmmm.  You just can't go wrong with peanut butter.

-Cream the butter and peanut butter.  Incorporate the vanilla.

-Whisk the flour, powdered sugar and salt.  Add the dry ingredients to the butter/peanut butter mixture.

-Gently mix in the Reese's chips and mini chocolate chips.

-Dump your dough out onto a piece of wax paper and shape into a log.  I didn't have any wax paper so I used plastic wrap.  I feel like this is easier than using wax paper anyways.  Sidenote- see those flowers in the background?  I got flowers from TWO manly men in ONE day!  Shout out to the Mister and the babe's Guncle for making this gals day!

-Stick your dough in the fridge for a couple hours.  I didn't have a couple hours to work with so I just put it in the freezer for an hour.

-Once the dough is chilled slice the dough in about 1/3" pieces.  It may crumble a little, just smash (yes, that is the technical term) it back into one piece.  No biggie.

-Bake at 325 degrees for about 12-14 minutes on a Silpat lined cookie sheet.  Let the cookies sit for a minute before you remove them from the pan.

And here ya have them!

These cookies really are delicious.  Melt in your mouth goodness!

I can't wait to eat one (or five) of these tomorrow morning with my coffee.

Sweet Sunday: Family Day in PDX

Normally a weekend around here consists of lots of sports watching, cleaning and catching up on laundry.  We aren't exactly the couple that spends exciting weekends out on the town with all the cool kids.  Most of the time I don't even take a shower on Sundays!  There's something about the sunshine coming out that makes you want to get out of the house and get moving!  The Mister decided we needed to take advantage of the good weather and find something to do outside on Sunday.  The zoo sounded like fun... but Packy the elephant was having his 50th Birthday celebration this weekend so we knew it would be a... well... zoo.  I crack myself up.  Anyways, that idea was out, battling crowds doesn't excite me, especially not with the babe in tow.

We decided to go to lunch downtown and hang out at the waterfront.  We ended up taking a nice long walk around the loop which gave us a chance to do lots of people watching.  Those peeps definitely do a good job of keeping Portland weird.  There was a little fencing in full costumes a la "Role Models" as well as a gal walking a dog while a cat rode on her backpack.  Mmmmhmm.  And they call you the crazy cat lady, Mom.  :)

Not a bad view!

We even found a clean(ish) patch of grass to lounge around on for a while.  This didn't last too long since the babe wanted to get out on that grass and play with goose poop which would inevitably end up in her mouth.  Not gonna happen.

P's new favorite thing to do it to point, at everything she's sees.  Did I mention she grunts when she points?  Lots of pointing and grunting going on around here these days.  This picture kinda makes me giggle.  Sing it with me, biiig guy on a littlllle blaaanket.

Who can resist baby toes?  I sure can't!

That's my smiley girl!  Please ignore my awful roots!  Momma needs a dye job!  I think my hairdresser was drunk the last time she did my hair.

Back to the car after a great afternoon in the sun!

Days like this make letting the laundry pile sit untouched fine by me.