Paige's make-over

Today Paige came out of my bathroom looking like this. Pretty! :)  Also, a couple days ago she said, "Lots of boys are cute. And I want to kiss them."

Oh dear. Help!

Walnut Chocolate Chip Blondies

I made these last week and I thought they were amazing. If you serve them warm, with vanilla ice cream... you will die. Just thought I'd share. :)


Walnut Chocolate Chip Blondies  (Applebee's Knock-off)


INGREDIENTS:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
10 tablespoons butter
2 cups packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
3/4 cup semisweet or milk chocolate chips
3/4 cup chopped walnuts (or pecans)

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9X13-inch pan with foil and lightly grease with cooking spray.
In a medium microwave-safe bowl, melt the butter. Add the brown sugar and mix well. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix. Add the flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda and blend until combined.
Spread the batter in the prepared pan. Sprinkle the chocolate chips and nuts over the batter. Bake for 25-30 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs.
If desired, serve warm with a scoop of ice cream.

Easy BBQ Chicken Salad

Photo from allrecipes.com

Try this! It's really easy and really good. The girls even loved it. I'm all about super easy recipes. I don't have a grill, so I cooked the chicken on the stove with lots of spices (garlic powder, onion powder, etc.)


Amy's Barbecue Chicken Salad

Ingredients

• 2 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• 1 head red leaf lettuce, rinsed and torn
• 1 head green leaf lettuce, rinsed and torn  (I just used one kind of lettuce)
• 1 fresh tomato, chopped
• 1 bunch cilantro, chopped
• 1 (15.25 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained (I used frozen corn)
• 1 (15 ounce) can black beans, drained
• 1 (2.8 ounce) can French fried onions
• 1/2 cup Ranch dressing
• 1/2 cup barbeque sauce

Directions

1. Preheat the grill for high heat.               
2. Lightly oil the grill grate. Place chicken on the grill, and cook 6 minutes per side, or until juices run clear. Remove from heat, cool, and slice.
3. In a large bowl, mix the red leaf lettuce, green leaf lettuce, tomato, cilantro, corn, and black beans. Top with the grilled chicken slices and French fried onions.
4. In a small bowl, mix the Ranch dressing and barbeque sauce. Serve on the side as a dipping sauce, or toss with the salad to coat.

Just some pictures

 Sleeeeeepy Halle

Kate fell on her face in the garage. The poor girl falls or runs into things constantly.

Halle is 6 weeks old

Pics from Monday

On Monday we decided to check out Lake Oswego and the Portland temple .  It's a beautiful area. We ate Subway by the lake and just walked around.

 

yahoo image

Our new place

I had a request to post pictures of the house that we will be renting over the next year. Here it is:

I think it's called a "row home."  A bunch of little houses... in a row.

 Over our fence you can see the playground. It's the elementary school where Paige will be going in the fall. I found out that Kindergarten is all day here. Wow. It's going to be so hard dropping her off that first day. I can't imagine her being there all day without me. I hope she loves it. It's nice that I will be able to walk her to school and that I can watch her at recess too. :)

 We're on the market for a big, comfy rug. Changing diapers on hard floors is not the best.

Master bathroom

This is the loft area. It's a disaster and I think it always will be. Oh well.

 

A new home for my book page wreath


I would post pictures of the rest of the rooms, but everything else is a mess. :)

The last couple weeks

Well, we moved into our (rental) home in Camas, WA on May 12th, so we've been here almost 2 weeks. The few days leading up to the move were so stressful and emotional. But I did have a lot of help from my mom and my little sister, Stephanie, which I was so thankful for. My friend, Jenny, came over and helped with packing and cleaning the night before we left and then also the morning that we left. (Thank you, Jenny!)  It was so hard to say goodbye. I loved Liberty Lake, our home, our ward, our friends and family, etc. I will always miss our life there.

I was nervous for the drive to Camas because Nate was driving the moving truck and I drove our van with all 3 girls. Yikes. We planned on sticking together for the drive, but we left Liberty Lake later than we had planned, so Nate had to go ahead without me in order to meet the guys from our new ward that were going to help us move. I only had to stop twice during the 6 hour drive, but each time took an hour. Somehow, it was not that bad though. All 3 girls were surprisingly well-behaved. Halle slept really well and Paige and Kate actually got along and didn't cry and scream like they usually do. :)  Kind of a miracle.

I arrived at our new home not even 2 hours after Nate did and was amazed to find that the moving truck was completely unloaded, there was dinner on the counter, and Costco food in our fridge. 9 men from our new ward had showed up to help us. How incredibly nice is it for someone to take time out of their Saturday to help someone move in that they don't even know? And some women in the ward had made dinner and put some basic food items in our fridge. So nice.

Overall, things have been good and smooth, but moving is just hard. I don't know my way around here at all, I don't people yet, and I just feel kind of alone. I know it's going to get better, but it's just hard right now. Also, I would like to mention that taking care of 3 kids is not easy. I don't really feel like I can handle taking all 3 of them out of the house very well. It's just chaotic. So I just don't go anywhere, which makes the days really long. It's only been 3 weeks since Halle was born though, and I know it takes time to get used to these big changes. I'm definitely feeling pretty maxed out though. How do people have like 12 kids? I don't understand. Are they superhuman?

Nate is really loving his new job so far. He has a great boss and he loves learning about medical technology. He's excited about his new career, so that makes this all worth it.

Halle is doing really well. She sleeps and eats well and is a pretty content baby. I'm so glad she is healthy and hasn't had any problems. I love her sweet little face. We still have to get her blood test done to find out if she has the same condition as Kate (Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency), and I am dreading that.

 6 days old

 3 weeks old

The girls just love Halle. They want to hold her all day long.