A Little trip to Bend

Just a quick 3 hour drive away is my parents, Kolby's parents, his Grandparents and his sister and her 3 adorable kids... although Bend seemed a little further by myself with a hungry baby squealing in the backseat. Lily actually did surprisingly great in the car, just one short fit and asleep the rest of the time, lucky momma! We had such a wonderful weekend, and both Grammy and Nana got to spend a nice chunk of time with their little Lily bug. The past few days made me so thankful I had such an incredible and fun childhood in the beautiful Bend, Oregon. Summers spent running through sprinklers, riding bikes downtown and the smell of fresh strawberry shortcake as an after dinner treat. If we can provide Lily with a childhood she looks back on and with a huge smile across her face, I will have done a job well done!

 Nana blocked off the entire hall way as a play place... lucky girl!

Thank you Grammy for saving Daddy's favorite toy when he was little!!

 playing in the grass with mommy and Papa

Mommy is the BEST jungle gym :)

Cousin Aizlynne sharing her toys

such sweet little kisses!

IMPRESSIVE:4 children looking at the camera all at once and not one of them is screaming, crying, wiggling or attempting to escape!

play dates, play dates, play dates!

Lily has gotten to an age where she not only takes interest in other babies, but LOVES them! She thinks these other tiny people are so much fun and just the right size to play with! I have 2 girlfriends close by each with a little girl, and it has been so much fun to see Lily interact with them. One friend, Emily, has an adorable 5 month little girl {Claire} who is getting so much more aware of Lily- which makes play dates a little more fun every time:

Baby Claire!

Lily got a little jealous when I played with Claire... and what do you know, they both looked at the camera at the same time- something that is hard to come by!

Lily just wants to play!

Cheeks!

my little girl is growing up faster than I ever could have imagined! She gets everywhere by crawling, pulls herself up on everything possible and a turns into a very stubborn baby when anything other than a toy is taken away and out of her mouth. She has become so much fun, giving mom and dad plenty of opportunities to take her picture :)

 Gorgeous baby blues!

one of the few items she automatically quiets down for (also included:keys)

I love this tiny toes!

she's about to get reallllly mad...

Cause for a Celebration

My parents threw Kolby and I a party last week to celebrate our marriage and to bring all of our friends and family together in one spot! It was wonderful to see so many faces I have missed the last few years, spending the weekend laughing, drinking and of course eating amazing food with so many great people. It was also Lily's debut to majority of my extended family, and possibly the most people wanting to ogle over her in one spot!

The weekend began with a BBQ at my parents house to get both sides of my family acquainted:

Kolby is ALWAYS the king of the kids... no matter where we go they love him!

My little 2nd cousin Sky meeting Lily for the first time. 

Sky and her sister Piper were mesmerized by Lily, as are most of the little girls we meet!

It was so amazing to have one of my closest friends Ashley there to spend the entire weekend with us!

Oops... Mom forgot Lily's food- nice start to the BBQ...

Followed by the big party the next evening; complete with a live band, plenty of dancing, a handful of our closest friends and a beautiful view of the beloved central Oregon:

One of  only 2 pictures of the 3 of us the entire weekend

Kolbys best friends made it down from Portland for us; he wanted everyone to see how well his tie matched my dress and to make sure everyone knew that this was the reason he chose a purple tie :)

Lily was a little overwhelmed with all of the activity but got a nice 2 1/2 hour nap in, surprisingly during the majority of the band playing.

My wonderfully supportive friends who made the trip to celebrate with us, I am forever thankful for them!!

Sister/Auntie Julie (Lily was quite content with our car key to play with-luckily no damage was done)

My Mom's side of the family: Nurmi's

My Dad's side of the family: Moulton's

The celebration was followed by a wonderfully relaxing trip to Las Vegas without our little peanut (left behind with both of the Grandmas and GiGi) and we were so busy relaxing and trying to see everything I didn't take a single picture. It was sort of refreshing to just enjoy the week without the worry of capturing it! I wanted to make it to Vegas at least once, and I am so glad we did- but it was quite possibly the last time! It was tougher than I had anticipated spending 5 days drinking, in the 100+ weather and loosing money for no particular reason... I know we had it hard :)

what we've been up to

We have had a busy start to summer! Thankfully the weather seems to have turned nice for somewhat of an extended time, which we are taking full advantage of. We were lucky enough to go home to Bend to visit both of our families- the camera didn't come out nearly as much as I would have liked [I unfortunately was working, and Kolby doesn't love capturing every tiny detail of each moment nearly as much as I do!]. We did get a few, and we get to go back in just 2 short weeks where there will be plenty of opportunity for pictures upon pictures! Here's a little glimpse of our last few weeks and a few of Lily's new favorite things:

She had such a blast with her cousins and Grammi!!

And of course her GiGi!

She thinks her reflection is pretty cool

time for solid foods? I think yes... she seems to want us to share our meals with her

Loves her new high chair and feels like such a grown up eating cereal!

She has learned to sit up from laying on her belly, which has become somewhat of a problem when its time to sleep, we often times find her screaming while sitting up because she just doesn't know why she isn't laying down!

We peek in through the crack to find her sitting up playing when she is supposed to be sleeping...

Has already become quite the little monkey! She has started climbing all over the place,  I have a feeling it is going to be trouble as soon as the crawling starts...

This amazing tiny person is growing incredibly fast, it is so hard to document all of her accomplishments on a daily basis. It is such an exciting time, I am looking forward to each and every day with this adorable little girl :)

feels a lot like summer...

At the first signs of summer, Lily, Lucky and I enjoyed an afternoon outside with all sorts of new experiences! It was Lily's first time playing in the grass, the first day she wore one of the many adorable summer dresses and the first time she tried to eat a stick... mmm just a glimpse of the summer to come!

 loves the sunshine... just like her momma!

watching the big kids play on the swing set... soon enough!

she would much rather stick the camera in her mouth!

knows crawling is the next step...

she's getting closer and closer....

looking forward to the many afternoons spend in the sunshine with my girls!

who needs doritos?

My new obsession: KALE CHIPS

when someone recommended these to me to fill the void of something crunchy at lunch time, I laughed. Ya right. I used to only eat iceberg lettuce and have just recently switched over to romaine... trying a type of lettuce with such a deep hue of emerald was beyond my eating boundaries.

3 weeks into the 60 challenge and a husband crunching cool ranch doritos in my ear every chance he could, I broke. And have now become obsessed- they are delicious and so much easier than I would have guessed!

Ingredients: 

1 bunch of Kale (I used Italian Kale and Dragon Kale)

1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil

a dash of sea salt

pepper; to taste

a quarter of a lemon {squeezed}

parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300 

2. wash and dry all of the kale

3. Peel off the greens from the "stem" and rip them into small pieces

4. Coat the greens with the EVOO, sea salt, pepper, and the lemon juice and toss.

5. Spread out the kale pieces evenly {not touching} on a cooking sheet and coat with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese

6. Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes, rotating half way through. 

{keep a close eye towards the end, its a matter of seconds between perfection and burnt}

7. Eat immediately or store in an uncovered bowl for up to 3 days 

{and you don't have to feel bad about snacking on these throughout the cooking process because they are chalked full of vitamin K, C and A!}

YUM! my new favorite snack