Memorial Day

A few pictures from our afternoon of kite flying at Gas Works Park in Seattle. Not the best quality because they are from Justin's cell phone and the sun was so bright-- not complaining about the sunshine though!

(not flying a kite in this pic-- I was sitting with Piper, but I figured I'd include my smiling face in this post!)

Chloe with the Space Needle in the background

Piper looking adorable, as always. Don't you just want to eat her up?!

Rainy Day Aquarium Visit

One thing that we've enjoyed almost the entire time we've lived here in Washington is our membership to the Seattle Aquarium. Having a membership makes it easy to just pop in and stay for a little while instead of feeling like we need to "get our money's worth." This holiday weekend was a bit of a bummer, weatherwise. We decided to head down to the aquarium because it had been a couple months since we'd been. Traffic was terrible because of the Seattle Folk Life Festival going on and also the Pike Place Market Street Fair, but we figured that we'd be safe from the crowds down on the piers... boy were we wrong! We rounded the corner onto Alaskan Way and saw a gazillion taxi cabs and a huge cruise ship, the Norweigan Pearl, at the port. Uh-oh! What did this mean? That all the passengers on that ship had off loaded to see the sites of Seattle for the afternoon. The line for the aquarium was longer than I've ever seen-- it spanned about a quarter of a city block. Thank goodness for our membership and that special "members only" line that required no waiting! We didn't stay for long, only about an hour total, it was too crowded, but the kids were happy to be there after such a 'long' break!

A few pics from our rainy day escape:

Also worth noting is that this was Piper's first outing sitting in the stroller like a "big girl." I was afraid she'd be overstimulated or get stressed, but she seemed to enjoy the people watching!

Five Months Old!

Time sure is flying by! I made a comment to Justin a couple of weeks ago about how I felt like we were so busy all the time and time, days, weeks, months were just passing by so quickly. In our conversation, I mentioned that I couldn't wait for things to slow back down-- but then I laughed as I realized that life isn't going to slow back down for the next twenty years or so. At least we're in it together and enjoying the ride!


Piper is five months old! She has such a cute personality and adores her brother and sister. She just lights up for them. It is really fun to watch as she becomes so much more interactive with Chloe and Cooper. Love it!!

Piper, ready to play video games with Dad. She has started reaching for items we have and she gets so excited when she holds the remote control, the car keys or whatever it is she is wanting!

Piper shares a room with us and just outgrew the bassinet insert/function of our pack n play, where she'd been sleeping since she was born. She still wakes up twice a night (grrr...), so getting her in and out of the bottom of the pack n play wasn't an ideal solution longterm. We bought a 'mini crib' for her and she seems to like her new bed! She has only slept in it one night so far, but I like that she is right at my bed height and I can reach through the rails, while lying in bed, and cover her feet up or give her back her binky-- perfect!!

Here she is showing how big she had gotten in the bassinet!

And taking a nap in her new bed!

"We women have a lot to learn about simplifying our lives. We have to decide what is important and then move along at a pace that is comfortable for us. We have to develop the maturity to stop trying to prove something. We have to learn to be content with what we are." — Marjorie Pay Hinckley

Sucker.

Binky sucker. Thumb sucker. Toe sucker.

Anything this girl can get into her cute little mouth sucker.

Photo Friday

Its a Windy Day

But we managed to squeeze in a little park time. The sun was quite warm when ever the wind would stop blowing. Cooper, Piper and I found a little neighborhood park a few blocks away... it is the perfect size for a three year old!

Cooper LOVES to swing. I pushed him for a half hour before I told him my arms were tired. I think he'd have swung for another half hour at least!

Miss Piper looking quite serious- not to mention, very bald!

Back on the recipe quest

Back at the begining of March, I had posted my goal of trying at least one new recipe a week until the end of April. When we found out we had two weeks to move, all that went out the window! We're finally settled in and I'm ready to try new recipes. I've successfully tried two new recipes in the past week, one was a hit with the kids and one was not (but definately met the parents approval). Here they are:

Chuck's Favorite Mac N Cheese from Allrecipes.com
1 (8 ounce) package elbow macaroni
1 (8 ounce) package shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
1 (12 ounce) container small curd cottage cheese
1 (8 ounce) container sour cream
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup dry bread crumbs
1/4 cup butter, melted
Directions
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil, add pasta, and cook until done; drain.
2.In 9x13 inch baking dish, stir together macaroni, shredded Cheddar cheese, cottage cheese, sour cream, Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. In a small bowl, mix together bread crumbs and melted butter. Sprinkle topping over macaroni mixture.
3.Bake 30 to 35 minutes, or until top is golden.

Justin and I enjoyed this mac n cheese, the kids tolerated it, but didn't seem to like it. I do think it needs more cheese, so next time I'll probably do a pound of sharp cheddar instead of the half pound that is called for.


Tuna with Cheese-Garlic Biscuits
2 cans (5 oz each) tuna in water, drained, flaked
1 can (10 3/4 oz) condensed cream of chicken & mushroom soup
1 1/2 cups frozen mixed vegetables, thawed, drained
2/3 cup milk
1 1/4 cups Original Bisquick® mix
1/3 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1.Heat oven to 425°F. In ungreased 2-quart casserole, mix tuna, soup, vegetables and 2/3 cup milk. Bake uncovered 20 minutes.
2.In medium bowl, stir Bisquick mix, cheese and 1/2 cup milk until soft dough forms. Drop dough by 6 spoonfuls onto hot tuna mixture.
3.Bake uncovered 10 to 12 minutes or until biscuits are golden brown. Mix butter and garlic powder; brush over warm biscuits.

This was a really easy, throw together casserole. Pretty much all the ingredients are things I usually have on hand and it really required no prep. My picky eaters ate it, veggies and all, which is a pretty big feat around here. The only alterations I made to the recipe was that I added salt and pepper before baking and I used one Costco can of tuna (7oz) instead of two grocery store size cans. It still had plenty of tuna. I think next time I make this, I'll add some cheddar cheese to the casserole part for a little more flavor.

Since I last posted:

We celebrated Chloe's 7th Birthday!
Piper turned three months old.
We quickly boxed up all of our belongings and moved out of the house we'd rented for the past three years.
We moved all those boxes into a new home.
We went out of town, to Utah, for 10 days.
We came home to all of our belongings, still in boxes.
We've spent hours slowly unpacking, organizing and purging.
Chloe started at a new school.
Cooper got registered for preschool in the fall.
Piper turned four months old.
We unpacked, organized, and purged some more.

Life is busy-- but life is good.

I've been avoiding blogging because I didn't even know where to start... but now I've gotten you all caught up. Maybe I'll even post some details about some specific events. In the mean time, here are a few pictures of our adventures:

All of the cousins on the Baron side

Did I mention that the weather was pretty cruddy for half of our trip? It snowed on Easter even.

Cheering on the Sounders at Rio Tinto Stadium in Salt Lake while they played the REAL.

Loooong car ride home from vacation.