Happy Halloween!

Our little pup has spent the last few years as a lady bug on Halloween, but this year, my parents surprised her with a pumpkin costume! It's fitting, as I call her my little punkin', and of course, she looks adorable in it. (Never mind the fact that the hood is a bit big and may have covered her eyes the first time we tried it on her, which caused her to run into a few things.)

This afternoon afternoon, many of the shops in Ballard will be handing out candy to trick-or-treaters and in years past, there were tons of kids and doggies in costume, walking around in Ballard during this time. Joan is coming over and we're planning to take our pumpkin out to enjoy the crowds.

Whatever you are doing, have a safe and happy Halloween!

New Recipe - #22

While working out one day last week, I was reading my Runner's World magazine and came across a recipe that I thought sounded yummy: pork tenderloin with winter vegetables. Considering our weather last weekend was quite wintery, it seemed like the perfect time to try it out.


Jenny's rating: 4 stars
Corey's rating: 4 stars

We'll be adding this one to the winter recipe rotation!

Here's the recipe:
Mix two tablespoons mustard with crushed garlic and pepper. Spread on a one-pound port tenderloin (ours was seasoned with peppercorn). Roast in casserole with Brussels sprouts, sweet potato, fennel (we decided to go with cabbage instead), carrots, and seven ounces of chicken stock at 375 degrees for 45 mins, though we ended up cooking for a little over an hour. (We also added some steak seasoning, olive oil and everyday seasoning to the veggies before popping them in the oven.)

Sweet Smiles

It was a rainy Sunday but despite the weather, the Asher twins were all smiles when we came over for brunch this morning. Hannah is walking all over the place and Charlotte is starting to get her balance, which meant lots of excitement (from her and all of us) as she waddled from one person to the next.

Brunch was delicious and we had a fantastic time playing with these sweet little ladies today.

Here are a few of my favorite photos that Corey snapped. Or check out the full set here.

Smarty pants! Katy asked Hannah where her car was...success!

Rock on, Hannah!

Hannah loved playing peek-a-boo.

It was so exciting to see Charlotte starting to walk...not only because she was walking, but look how excited she is, too!

Charlotte scored some cuddle time with daddy during one of the football games.

Charlotte will be running around before Katy and Tyler know it.

New Recipe - #21

Corey and I love Mexican food. Like, we could eat it every day, we love it so much. One dish that never disappoints is arroz con pollo, which we attempted to make on our own, without a recipe this past week. Even though we (well, mostly Corey) winged it, I'd say it turned out pretty well.

Jenny's rating: 3 stars

Corey's rating: 3-1/2 stars

Here's what was in the Moran version:

- Chicken

- Saffron rice

- Chili powder

- Paprika

- Johnny's seasoning salt

- Pepper

- Steak seasoning

- Can of diced tomatoes

- Onion (strips)

- Red pepper (strips)

Celebrating Joan

October is the month of birthdays, that is for sure. Between numerous friends' and family members' birthdays (and mine of course!), it's an exciting month. And Friday wasn't an exception --- we got together with Corey's mom, Joan, his dad, and Consuelo (our dear family friend) to celebrate Joan's birthday.

It began with dinner at Picolino's, where we hadn't been in forever. Dinner was delicious and the company was fabulous as usual.

Dinner was followed by presents, a very beautiful rendition of the 'Happy Birthday' song (insert sarcasm here --- I think Roxy may have left the room at this point) and dessert at our place. We dug into chocolate cupcakes with caramel frosting per the birthday girl's request - yum!

Happy Birthday, Joan! You're the best mother-in-law I could have ever hoped for and I'm so glad we were able to share your special day with you. I'm a few days late posting this, but nonetheless, we had a wonderful time celebrating with you and wish you a fabulous year ahead.

Mini Moran on the Way!

Corey and I have some exciting news, which we're finally able to share --- on (or around) April 18, we are going to be parents!! We are absolutely ecstatic and are so excited to finally be able to officially spill the beans, now that we're in our 14th week and out of the first trimester.

We found out that we were expecting back on August 13, so it's been a long two months keeping such a great secret. Our first doctor's appointment wasn't until September 14, though, so we wanted to ensure everything checked out okay. At that appointment, we were able to see 'piglet' (as we call the baby), which was so cool. We had no idea that at only 10 weeks, we'd be able to see its little arms and legs moving around...and it even looked like he / she was waving to us. Definitely something we'll remember forever.

Once everything checked out at our first appointment, we wanted get through the first trimester, just to ensure everything looked good, which it does. We had our second doctor's appointment today, where we were able to hear the heart beat (160 bpm, which is in the middle of the 'safe' range, which is 120-180). It was so fun to hear the heart beat --- it was so fast, like this baby was running a marathon in there.

Luckily, throughout the first trimester, I wasn't too sick. I mostly felt nauseous if I got too hungry, which just meant lots of snacking throughout the day, and crackers in bed some mornings before getting up. There were a few rounds of dry heaves but no actual throwing up, so I'm told I'm pretty lucky. Aside from that, I've just been pretty tired and need even more sleep than normal. As for the baby bump, it's just started to make its appearance in the last week or so. I can't button most of my pants anymore, so the BellaBand has come in quite handy.

Our next ultrasound is scheduled for November 29, where we'll find out whether piglet will be into boots and handbags like mommy, or watching football with daddy. Until then, we're reading up on what to expect over the next six months and then what to look forward to once piglet makes his / her grand arrival in April.

Spoiled

This one word sums up my birthday celebrations...yes, there were multiple celebrations and yes, I was extremely spoiled this year.

The celebrations began with dinner with some of my girlfriends last week, followed by homemade dinner and dessert at Joan's, lunch at Purple with my work team, and then came our Red Robin date (which meant mud pie for dessert!), and finally wrapped up this weekend with my family in Yakima.

Between the meaningful cards, the numerous phone calls, emails, texts and Facebook messages, the multiple celebrations, and the fabulous presents, I am one lucky lady! I am so blessed to have such a fabulous friends and family who pulled out all the stops to make 28 the best birthday yet.

If you're my husband, birthday presents mean photoshoot time, so ultimately we both enjoyed my gifts. He loved having an excuse to take some photos and practice using some of his new equipment. Here are just a few of my new things.

Thanks to everyone for making it such a special day!

A new Husky shirt from my favorite pup.

A lovely new handbag from the husband.

Another great gift from the hubby - a Michael Kors watch. So fun!

Meet Liam...

...the newest and cutest most eligible bachelor in town! He weighs in at 7 lb., 6 oz, is 21" tall, has big blue eyes and dark brown hair, and is just over three weeks old. Wouldn't you agree that he's quite the knock-out?


My co-worker Stephanie and her husband Billy welcomed Liam Vaughan Moultrie into their lives on Sept. 14 and Corey and I had the honor of meeting him earlier this week. He's seriously adorable and I just know that he'll be breaking hearts left and right before we know it.

Corey offered to snap some photos of the little guy and Steph and Billy happily agreed. For his first photoshoot, Liam did quite well and Corey and Billy did a good job of letting him fall just asleep enough to yank the pacifier out to sneak in a few shots before he got fussy.

We're so excited for Stehpanie and Billy and look forward to getting to see Liam again soon.

Happy Birthday Jenny!

Happy birthday to my beautiful wife who loves boots and handbags. You have a husband and dog who love you. You're the best wife I ever could have ever hoped for, and I can't wait to extend our family (since Roxy, our little furry baby, was the start).

I hope you have a wonderful day--and birthday week.

-C

Weekend in Review

Another great weekend in the books, though I can't believe it's already Sunday evening and we have to go back to work tomorrow. But as they say, time flies when you're having fun!

Here's a quick look back at our fun weekend.

• Kelsey, Gina, Sara and I headed to Bastille on Friday for a delicious early birthday dinner. Gotta love when the birthday celebrations start several days before your actual birthday! I had a fabulous time and it was so great to catch up with the three of them - it had been awhile since we'd been in the same place at the same time.


• On Saturday morning, Natalie, Ashlie and I went to the Nordstrom Fall Trends Show. With beauty experts from around the country on hand, we learned all about the latest and greatest trends for fall when it comes to both cosmetics and fashion. We even scored some free goodies and enjoyed facials and makeovers. (Head over to Natalie's blog for some fun photos from our morning.)


• We had the pleasure of celebrating Hannah and Charlotte's first birthday (they're our friends' Katy and Tyler's twins) on Saturday afternoon. Corey and I hadn't seen them since January and they have changed to much! It was so fun to watch them interact with all the partygoers and to watch Hannah devour her first ever cupcake in record time. (Charlotte took a much more dainty approach to eating her cupcake...)


• That night, Corey's mom had us over for dinner and for another early birthday celebration (again, love the multiple birthday celebrations!). We had a great time visiting and we left completely stuffed after a fabulous dinner of Indonesian chicken soup and spring rolls, followed by homemade chocolate mousse with whipped cream, carmel sauce and macaroons. (I'm getting hungry just thinking about last night's dinner!)


• Tonight, my friend Brooke and I headed to Madame K's (I hadn't been in months and Brooke hadn't ever been!) for a girls dinner. I hadn't seen Brooke since her bachelorette party and we had tons to catch up on.


• And you all probably know without me telling you that Corey had a great weekend as it involved tons of football.

(That's Charlotte on the left, and Hannah on the right.)

Whew! It was whirlwind couple of days but we had a blast. And I am looking forward to more (!!!) birthday celebrations this week and next weekend - I am one lucky girl!

Doggie Duel

I listen to KISS 106.1 each morning on my way to work, and a few weeks ago, they launched their second annual Doggie Duel (i.e. a cute dog contest where anyone can enter a photo of their dog for a chance to win). Corey and I thought it would be fun to enter Roxy, not only because we think she's pretty cute, but an iPad is up for grabs and who wouldn't take a free iPad?? (Second place is a $200 gift card of some sort, which isn't too shabby either.) We went back and forth on what photo to include - do we go funny to help her stand out amongst the other entries, or do we go super cute? We finally settled on funny and went with our favorite shots of her playing fetch.


Once the contest began, we asked a few of our friends and family members to vote for her but didn't think too much more about it. Fast forward a week, and come to found today, she made it into the second round! This puts her in the top 50 of 1,400 contestants! I'm so glad we chose the awesome fetch photo Corey snapped of her --- I honestly think that helped her stand out amongst all her super cute, furry competitors.

If you'd like to help keep Roxy in the running, feel free to vote! (You'll be asked to register and then you'll have to wait for the confirmation email to arrive before you can vote, but your vote is greatly appreciated!) And make sure that when you vote, you give her a '10' to up her changes of making it further.

Who knows if she'll end up winning, but now we just think it's funny that Miss Roxy, our snorty, gasy, crazy little munchkin of a dog is up against some pretty cute competition.

Have a great weekend!