mega bites

It's been a tasty weekend.

My first experience with a pomelo. Can't get over the size of the peel! It's thick stuff. I learned how to open it from a cute Thai woman on YouTube.

I'm working on mastering my {mom's} cookie recipe. Rather than small chocolate chips, I've been using these bad boys. giant. chocolate. disks.

Delish, and oh so fattening. Good for breakfast. Good for dessert. Good for my soul.

We enjoyed having my parents and Randy over for dinner, banana grams and my favorite episode of The Office tonight. My dad learned the ins and outs of Facebook {newbie!} and took McKay's iPhone for a spin - his Verizon account is due for an upgrade, lucky guy! We're so blessed to have both our families close - for a few more months. Harper has awesome grandparents and we'll sure miss them when we're in Brazil. Thank goodness for Skype and FaceTime!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, friends.

Asian sensation

Thanks to those of you who suggested OurBestBites.com for recipes - dinner swap went great last night! I tried out a few new recipes {found here, here and here} and aside from scrambling at the last minute to get everything together - amidst an ever growing pile of measuring cups, produce peels, and scattered spices - it was a huge success! And bonus points for leftovers.

In other news, I'm pleased to report that Harper has been napping {in her crib} for 45 minutes now. She's an absolute champ at bedtime. We're up to almost 11 hours a night now! But, naps are another story. The typical nap run-around goes something like this: I sing/pat/bounce/pace her to sleep around 9 am {this process can take anywhere from 10 to 45 minutes}. I hold her for a bit while I catch up on my facebook news feed from my phone to make sure she's really asleep. I gently put her in her crib and creep out of her room. 5 or 10 minutes later she wakes up, cries, and it's back to the soothing to sleep routine.

However, things may be turning a corner. A couple days ago my awesome sister-in-law took her for a few hours and sent me out for some me-time. And get this - Harper took a 2 hour nap for her! Later that afternoon she took a 1-hour nap for me. Yesterday was a crazy day with errands and lots of car time, but today I'm back on the nap train. So far so good! Hopefully this is the beginning of a new and beautiful thing!

ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

Exhibit A:

What? You think this looks kind of like a passport photo? What with the plain white background and straight-on face shot and lack of cutesy head accessories?

Well. It is. Harper is getting her first passport. And after that we'll get visa papers processing.

We're moving to Brazil.

what?!

McKay has an exciting business opportunity there with his brother and cousin and we're taking it! I know, it's crazy! But it will be an adventure and we're really excited about it.

Since we found out we were for sure going {about 48 hours ago} my mind has been racing with questions, concerns, excitement, and lengthy to-do lists. I've been listening to Portuguese podcasts and downloading free vocabulary apps. I found a discovery channel Brazil feature on Netflix and I've been all over Wikipedia learning about our new home!

There are still lots of undecideds and unknowns, but here are the dirty deets so far:

We'll be leaving sometime between April and June

We'll be there for 2-4 years {ish}

We'll be living in an apartment complex in a nice and safe part of São Paulo {with McKay's brother, cousin and another mutual friend - hooray for family!}

And that's about all we know at this point! When we first began contemplating the prospect of moving to a far and distant land I had mixed emotions. I was definitely intrigued and excited, but also a bit scared and apprehensive. I've never lived more than 30 minutes from my immediate family {minus my summer in the Philippines}. We want more kids in the next 2-4 years - could I have a baby in Brazil? I wondered about our house and our car and all our junk in the basement. How would Harper do on a 20 hour flight? How would she do in a new country? I really like our ward and our neighborhood, am I ready to just leave? What about my piano students? etc. etc. etc.

But since making the decision, the dominant feeling has been excitement. We know this is the right next step for us. There are still a billion questions to answer and preparations to be made. And it will definitely still have its challenges. But, thanks to Skype we'll be able to stay in contact with our families. And we'll hopefully be able to make some trips home, as well as enjoy visitors during our stay. I'm super excited to learn Portuguese, and depending on how long we are there, little Harper might just end up bilingual! It will be really great having K and D and their wives and kids along for the adventure. 

I thought 2010 was a year of changes, but 2011 is definitely a heavy competitor! 

Desejem-nos sorte! 

yaaaaaankee swap!

Okay, it's really dinner swap {Office, anyone?}. 


We really like good food - who doesn't? And like most of you, we love finishing off a busy day with a nice, hot meal before we curl up with a couple Netflix faves. But cooking for two, {while carting around a small one} can be tricky, tiring and wasteful {hard to use up all that bok choy on two people!}.

After sharing dinner with two foodie friends last week we hatched a plan to have a dinner swap every week or two between three families. Tonight we enjoyed the first meal of dinner swap 1.0.

It's really a win-win situation. It doesn't take much more time, or money to double a recipe and feed six adults and a smattering of kids once a week. And the real homerun of the whole situation is the two nights of kitchen-free tasty dinners!

There are new recipes to be tried, new meals to be enjoyed and new friendships to be strengthened over that great unifier . . . food!


{Thanks for the delicious linguini, Kim. If you're reading maybe you should share the recipe . . . and for the brownies too!}


Thursday night is my night. Any winning ideas? I've got some food-lovers to impress!

black skirt blues

This post brought to you by 11 o' clock church: where you can have a crazy morning and still be in your seat early!

When I was in high school I got my first dressy skirt suit. The jacket doesn't fit like it used to, but the skirt has been a staple in my wardrobe . . . for the past 6 years. Every girl needs a go-to black skirt. But after six years of going to it, it gets old.

In those years since high school I have gradually added to my wardrobe, but somehow, when faced with getting ready on Sunday several outfits end up on me, and then on the floor, and then I resort back to the black skirt. Today was one such morning.

First it was the cute coral jumper with bolero shrug. Scratch that. I'm nursing. Tops + skirts only.

Next it was the hip grey skirt I picked up at Nordy's rack in Spokane. Perfect if there was something to wear on top. Tried some black tops - spit up smudges. Dark sweater vest? ugly (and maternity, so kind of an awkward fit right now).

A few more things went on, and then off, and so the black skirt it was. And she delivered like an old, true friend.

restaurant review

Ten points to Grandma for watching the little one tonight so McKay and I could have a {much needed} date night. We tried out a new restaurant downtown, called Faustina. Two thumbs way up!

The rosemary foccacia bread with olive oil and balsamic was delish. And the appetizer - olives, cheeses and meats - mmmmm mmmm! My entree was decent, though I'll be choosing something other than the ultra-fish-dish next time {don't get me wrong, I love sea food, just not in the right mood}. The dessert, vanilla bean creme brulee, topped off the meal perfectly. We'll definitely be going back!

The next time you're on the look out for a special meal and great service, head down to Broadway street and give Faustina a try.   

{weekend sundries}

- kick off your weekend with this article on mormon mommy blogs {featured on salon.com}. Peruse the hyperlinks and infuse your blog curriculum with some fun and fresh hipster bloggers.

- spending your Valentine's day with a geek? {lego earbuds, geekstuff4u.com}

- new best blogging tool ever. How hard is it to get pictures right on blogger? FotoFlexer.com is the discovery of the day {thanks to Monta and Wendy!}

- can you believe Angry Birds? If you haven't played this game - on a smartphone or otherwise - you're missing out on one of the hottest hits of 2010. Anyway, I thought these iPhone covers were fun, and just reaffirmed the world's obsession with these feisty little fowl.

- just discovered this website. eye candy from A-Z

picture this

Last night McKay's mom was over for a bit with Jack and wanted to get some pictures of her with her two grandkids. As you can see, Harper was not in the mood for a photo shoot. 

She's sure a cute little grump!

Fortunately, a couple weeks ago she was in a great mood for photos and I was able to capture some fun little gems.

On a final note, Harper rolled over today from her tummy to her back - hooray! She's only done it once but she's been getting so strong and wiggly that I think it's only a matter of time til she's cruising! I'm also seeing early teething signs from her - what? Drool city, sucking her bottom lip, her hands, frozen pacifiers, and being generally more fussy during the day. I think I'll look into some teething tablets or something. Any tips from veteran moms?

pineapple glazed chicken

I've made this recipe twice now, and it is so delicious (+ easy and inexpensive) that I had to share it.

Pineapple Glazed Chicken with Jalapeno Salsa

ingredients

• 1/4 cup pineapple juice
• 2 tablespoons (packed) brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon yellow mustard
• 3/4 cup 1/4-inch cubes fresh pineapple
• 3 tablespoons finely diced red bell pepper
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 1/2 tablespoons finely chopped red onion
• 1 1/2 tablespoons canned sliced jalapeño chiles, drained, coarsely chopped
• 4 boneless chicken breasts

preparation

Preheat oven to 400°F. Bring pineapple juice, brown sugar, and mustard to boil in small saucepan, stirring to dissolve sugar. Boil until glaze has thickened slightly, about 1 minute. Season with salt and pepper.

Mix pineapple, red pepper, cilantro, onion, and chiles in medium bowl. Season with salt and pepper.

Line baking sheet with foil. Place chicken on sheet and brush with glaze. Bake 15 minutes. Brush again with glaze, then broil until cooked through and golden, watching closely to avoid burning, about 5 minutes longer. Let rest 5 minutes.

Spoon salsa over chicken and serve.

Sadly, I didn't think to take a picture of my own cooking tonight, so the one I yanked from epicurious.com will have to do. 

I haven't measured the salsa ingredients either time I've made it and it has turned out great. Just eyeball the onions, peppers, etc. The ingredients are so great together that you almost can't go wrong. This last time I did a bit of red, yellow and orange bell pepper to make it colorful and exciting! Fresh pineapple makes it so juicy and delicious. I double the sugar/juice mixture and add what's left of it (after the basting) to the salsa. Mmmm mmmm! Grab a couple chicken breasts out of the freezer and give this one a go- you won't be disappointed! And if your'e like us, you'll gobble up the remaining salsa with tortilla chips and may suffer from pineapple-overload-stingy-tongue. Worth it. 

the Harper post

Harper is peacefully snoozing on me right now, which gives me the perfect opportunity to blog.

To start with, here's what Harper is up to at eleven weeks old:

-smiling lots, with the occasional laugh. She has about 45-minutes of alert, awake time right after she eats (or wakes up from a nap) where we play and interact. She smiles and makes eye contact and babbles a bit. When we're lucky, we can get a little laugh out of her. Here's a little clip of one of her first laughs:

(because I was holding the phone and trying to get her to laugh, it's not the best filming job, but you get the idea!)

-sleeping from about 10pm-5am on average. I'm so grateful she's gotten a night routine down so quickly! I'm still waiting for her to take good naps in her crib, but when it comes to night time, she loves going to bed! I nurse her around 9 or 9:30 and then put her down. She goes to sleep without a fuss, sucking on her fingers (melts my heart!) She wakes up around 4 or 5am, eats, and then goes right back down for another three hours or so. It's really nice having some time with McKay before bed, knowing she'll be happily asleep for most of the night. 

-growing! At her 2 month appointment she weighed in at 14.1 lbs (97th percentile) and was 24 1/4 inches long (95th percentile). Her head is measuring in the 50th percentile, which means she'll probably end up in the 50th percentile after a year or two of growing and adjusting. She's a chunk and we love her chubby cheeks, big round belly and leg rolls. She gives us a good workout, too - she just loves being held and carted around the house!

-her head/neck control is getting better and better and I don't think we are too far away from some tummy to back rolling. We think she's just great!

blessing

Yesterday was a wonderful day. We blessed Harper and had lots of family and friends to share our special day with. After church was over we enjoyed a delicious mexican meal at our house. We had shredded chicken, pork, or beef tacos - with all the fixins - and tasty cheese cake and peppermint brownie desserts (thanks to the sisters-in-law). Here are some photos from the big day:

I love Harper's annoyed face in this picture!

The men

close-up of our little sweetheart

Harper with Grandma Monta - the beautiful dressmaker!

Harper loves the attention from Abbie and little Lira

Thomas Twenty-Ten Highlights

Harper has sure kept me busy today. It's been one of those I-get-why-showers-are-like-gold-to-moms mornings. But at last, I am dressed, dinner is in the crock pot, the kitchen is clean and one load of laundry made it from the washer to the dryer. Harper is snoozing in her Baby K'tan (a godsend!). With Modern Family on and a diet coke by my side, it's blogging time!

I just love celebrating a new year and looking back on the past one. 2010 was definitely the most eventful year of our lives thus far! To recap the adventures, here's a monthly look at the biggest and best of 2010.

January: New Year, New York

We rang in the  new year in Times Square! 

I planned a big secret birthday/Christmas trip for McKay and me last year. I kept it a secret from August to Christmas night! My parents made up a fake trip to Oregon to get us to "drop them off" at the airport. When we got there and got out their luggage (which was really ours that had been secretly packed and planted in the trunk earlier that day) I whipped out our tickets from SLC to JFK and officially won the best surprise gift ever contest! McKay was blown away and we had the most amazing time together. It was my first trip to NYC and I fell in love with the big apple.

February: Homeowners, and soon-to-be-parents  

This was one of the biggest - despite being the shortest - months of the year. We bought a house, moved in, and found out we were expecting our first baby. Wow!

March: Play time

Thanks to some  generous family members we became the grateful owners of a baby grand piano this month. Watching the two burley men haul the thing upstairs was quite a spectacle!

April: Pomp and Circumstance

This was another very important month - I graduated!!!! After five years of full time schooling, I got my Bachelors of Arts degree from BYU. It was an incredible experience that I wouldn't trade . . . and I'm so glad to be done with!

May: Here comes the bride

McKay's baby sister, Rachel got married this month. The wedding and reception went beautifully and the happy couple took off to Paris . . . Texas where they spent the next 8 months doing an internship.

June: It's a girl!

We celebrated our first anniversary this month, and later found out that we would be having a baby girl!

 

July: Hit the road, Jack

This was road trip month. For the 4th of July we spontaneously decided to drive to San Francisco to visit Kimball, Wendy, and Jack. Monta was in DC for a wedding so Rob came along with us and we had a grand old time! Later in July I went with McKay on a quick little business trip to Vegas. I relaxed, swam, napped and window-shopped while he went to meetings and then we had the evenings to ourselves. We saw Cirque du soleil and enjoyed the sights, heat, and good food.

August: You've had a birthday, shout hooray!

I turned 24 this month and got in my first traffic accident (read about it here)

McKay decorated the living room and made crepes for my birthday breakfast!

September: wilderness explorer badge

We celebrated Labor Day by going on a 3 day campout in the Uintas. At 7 months pregnant I was both uncomfortable and proud of myself for being so hard core! More details here.

October: Oh baby!!

Arriving 11 days early, our sweet baby girl was born on October 23, 2010. Harper Olene made her debut at 2:32 pm and weighed in at 7 lbs, 12 oz, 21 inches long. She was born with dark hair, chubby cheeks and bright eyes. We fell in love with her right away!

November: I will survive

Aside from the usual Thanksgiving food and fun, November's highlight was simply surviving our first month of parenthood, learning more about our little cutie and being a bit sleepy.

December: We are family

Christmas and McKay's birthday are always highlights of December. This year was great because Kimball, Wendy and Jack were in town to celebrate. We were excited that they got to meet Harper. Jack was especially cute with her!

All in all, it's been a fabulous and eventful year! Here's to an equally great 2011.

December in review

Well, I'll blame it on Harper . . . I haven't stayed on top of blogging like I thought I would. So here's a (mostly cell phone picture) recap of the past month:

Harper starts smiling!

We got a real tree! Step one: lights

Step two: the ribbon

Step three: poinsettias. Great idea, McKay.

Finished product!

Double birthdays! Randy and Jennie, December 12th

Date night: Grandma took Harper over night and McKay and I hit up Five Guys, frozen yogurt and a movie! We got entirely too much candy, popcorn and drinks but had a blast spending the evening together. Just the two of us!

The above mentioned frozen yogurt. Tart with pomegranate . . . yum!

Sugar cookie night with our good friends, Megan and Kyle Jones 

Ward party. Harper meets Santa!

not bad for the first meeting  

"Chestnuts Roasting" party, for all our neighbors on Chestnut street 

... on an open fire

Family Christmas carol night. Cousins Neil and Harper (4 months apart, but nearly the same size!)

goofing around

dressed up for many holiday errands

Kimball, Wendy and little Jack came for Christmas! We did lunch at In-N-Out where they met Harper for the first time. Grandpa Rob with Jack

Meet Uncle Kimball

Cousinly love. Jack was so cute with her!

The four of us ended up staying and chatting for hours

Out little Christmas Elf!

Christmas morning! We started off with stockings at our house

then we headed to McKay's parents for presents, and a day of eating and movie watching!

Christmas morning wore Harper right out! Wearing her new little cub hat and matching Thomas jammies

the embroidered Thomas T

We found some Christmas crackers! McKay was so excited for these - good memories of two Christmases in England 

Over Christmas break the kiddos came over for a sleepover. Action shot of Spencer

we ate bumblebee pancakes for breakfast. Thanks for the fun pancake skillet, Wendy!

We rang in the new year with our good friends - Bob, Michelle and little Lira. Enjoying new year's day breakfast!

10 weeks old, 14 pounds, 24 inches and 100% adored. Happy 2011 everyone!