I'm a stay at home mama living in PDX with the hubs Chris, our two boys and two cats. We are living in (and slowly fixing up) our first house, a midcentury ranch. Jesus has captured my heart, and I am so thankful!
This little blog is mostly about our adventures as a family of four, with the possibility of a recipe or craftiness sprinkled in there.
I have been wanting to make white chocolate, cranberry, oatmeal cookies for a long time. I was searching for the perfect recipe and I think I found it. The woman who writes the blog used to sell these cookies but she decided to share the recipe! I made these lastnight and they turned out SO good! I used cherry crasins and added roasted pecan pieces and coconut. I was never a fan of pecans before this, but roasted ones taste like honey! These are a MUST make...trust me!
Preheat oven to 350. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
1. Place cranberries in a small bowl and pour hot water over them, enough to cover. Let them sit about 5 minutes to soften a bit. Then drain and place on paper towels to get the excess water off.
2. If toasting the coconut, spread onto a baking sheet and place in the oven til a nice golden color ( watch it doesn't burn!). Let cool.
3. In a small bowl, place the white chocolate chunks or chips, toasted coconut, dried cranberries and oatmeal and nuts if using. Set aside.
4. Place butter and sugars in mixing bowl and beat 2 minutes, til smooth.
5. Mix in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
6. Stir in vanilla.
7. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Gradually stir into the butter/sugar mixture, mixing just til thoroughly blended.
8. Stir in the white chocolate/coconut/dried cranberries/oatmeal/nut mixture.
9. Drop rounded tablespoonfuls onto baking sheet, spacing 2" apart.
10. Press each cookie to flatten slightly ( it will be kind of like a hockey puck shape).
11. Bake 14 minutes or til bottom edges are a nice golden brown but don't overbake as it could dry them out too much.
12. Let cool on baking sheet 2 minutes, then cool completely on a wire rack.
So my last post left off with us staying at the Ace which was so amazing that I wanted to share some more pictures. We took a lot, like always.
Amazing shot by Chris on our way to dinner:
Jumping on the most comfortable bed ever:
You can't go to the Ace without taking photobooth pictures:
(our fridge is a testament to this!)
It's impossible to not be relaxed at the Ace:
Sweet paneling in the elevator:
The Ace has a sense of humor:
Our bathroom:
(The toiletries are just as amazing!)
The wall behind the bed was decopagued with pages from an old book:
The hallway outside our room:
Sweet mural in the stairwell:
Chris checking out the view:
Anyways...
We started the next morning off by going back to Isabel's for breakfast which was even better than their dinner!
Chris had the avocado scramble (which I have been craving ever since we left), and I got the super yummy coconut french toast. I loved that the syrup was in a Jarritos bottle but I didn't even need it. The french toast was so good without it!'
Chris had one last surprise up his sleeve:
Our friend Keith took us on a helicopter ride over Portland to a secret place:
We both took a ton of pictures:
(who could resist)
Chris started to feel a little queazy, but luckily we weren't too far from our destination...
Thirty minutes later we arrived to our own little island in the middle of the river:
Keith dropped us off:
We took some Chinese herbs Keith gave us to sooth our (Chris' ) stomach:
Then we explored:
And skipped stones:
(Chris is good. I am not.)
And ate tiramisu:
An hour is about all you need on a deserted island before you start getting bored, so Keith came to pick us up and we flew back home!
I think my husband is pretty darn amazing...and all I got him was a bag!
Let me preface this post by saying that the reason I blog is to document the day to day life and the adventures of my little family. The two most important days in my life (my wedding day and Bennett's birthday) have passed without me documenting the details which pretty much sucks. I've tried scrapbooking but I'm too much of a perfectionist to get anything done. This blog gives me a place to document my memories when they are still fresh in my mind...I think my memory (or lack thereof) will thank me in fifty years.
. . .
Chris took wednesday off from work and Bennett stayed at my mom's house Tuesday night so we could get a good nights sleep. (even when Bennett isn't here I feel like I still hear him in the middle of the night, am I crazy?) We were hoping to sleep in but of course I was too excited for all of the unknown surprises to come.
I thought we were just going to hang out around the town and eat out at our favorite restaurants...I found out later that my husband is able to hide a whole lot from me. He had been planning this stuff for months...
This is Chris's card to me:
(does anyone get what it says? It took me a while!)
The first of many surprises from Chris was this super cute dress. I threw it on and we headed out the door for some Stumptown coffee at the Ace!
The drinks always seem to taste better when we get them in the real cups:
After we took our last sips of coffee, we walked over to Anthropologie.
Chris knows me so well and knows that I love shopping for clothes in particular.
He originally had planned the personal shopper to be helping me pick out some stuff, but she didn't call him back until we were already in the dressing room...oops!
I got a few things, including the dress below (which was being held just for me because he knew I loved it) Little did I know that it would be perfect for another surprise a few hours later.
We walked back home and I got a text from my lovely friend Lindsey who works at the Aveda salon on the first floor of our building. She said that I was in her book to get my hair and makeup done!
I was excited and wondering what the heck was going on, so he told me that we were getting family pictures taken by Tyler Gould (which we had talked about doing but never actually pulled the trigger) and that I would be wearing my new dress with these shoes that he then pulled out(nice taste huh?):
My mom brought Bennett to the park where we met Tyler and we spent the next three hours taking pictures. He showed us a few of the pictures on his camera during the photoshoot and they looked amazing even before all the editing...here's one of Bennett he posted on facebook. It will be a few weeks before we see the rest and I can't wait!
After the pictures, Chris told me that we weren't staying at our place that night, so my mom took Bennett for another night (I went 2 nights in a row without my little dude!) We went back home and packed our bag then started walking down to the Ace! We always talk about how awesome it would be to stay there but we have never had a reason to...it was even better staying just a few blocks from our house because we didn't have to pay a buttload to park our car overnight and we already knew the neighborhood.
Our room:
After we checked in, we headed out to a late dinner at a place in the Pearl called Isabel's that we always walk by but have never eaten at. It's Latin American/ Asian fusion and is SO good! Chris got the Mahi fish tacos and I got the Brazil bowl (coconut rice, grilled chicken, mango, papaya and black beans).
It's a good thing that we were staying so close to home because I realized that I forgot to grab shoes for the next day. So after dinner we walked back up the park blocks to get my shoes, but made a quick stop at Violetta for some Ruby Jewel ice cream sandwiches. They were out of our favorite dark chocolate and peanut butter ones, so we both tried the double chocolate cookie with mint ice cream which was still very good!
Once we got back to the Ace we decided to crack open the champagne that they had for us. Neither of us even like champagne but we felt that since it was our anniversary (and also free) that we should at least have a little.
Chris poured us each a glass:
And we drank:
Then we realized why we don't drink:
Chris proceded to dump the rest of the bottle down the sink:
This was only day one of the anniversary extravaganza that Chris had planned. Stay tuned for day #2!
Today is our anniversary and I can't believe it's already been four years!
Time really does fly when you're having fun.
I was going to write something mushy and lovey dovey but I'll save it for his card :)
This is the only professional picture I have from our wedding on our computer.
(we look so young!)
I love it so I thought I'd share...
Here are some that guests took...
Our cake was amazing!
(tasting and looking)
Headed to the car...
Some nice person in our bridal party wrote
"you can do it all night long" on the front windshield.
Chris' parents had to drive our car back to their house the next day so it wasn't sitting at the airport while we were on our honeymoon. I bet they got some weird looks. :)
If I were to plan my wedding all over again right now,
I would totally do everything different (except for marrying Chris of course).
Maybe that will be a future post, but oh the choices!
I just wanted to share a few more pictures from our 4th of July...a guy that was at the party is a photographer and was taking random shots.
I absolutely love Bennett's face in this, it was about 11pm and we were headed home. He was so sleepy but wouldn't sleep. We put the headphones on him because the fireworks we so flippin loud!
