New Recipes - Southwestern Salad with Chicken Taquitos

I find that Corey and I often continue to make the same things over and over - it makes grocery shopping and cooking quicker and easier, but then we eventually get sick of our go-to dishes.

I recently saw a few new recipes on an old high school friend's blog that I thought sounded both easy and yummy. And with our love for Mexican food, how could we go wrong with southwestern salad with cilantro lime dressing and chicken taquitos?

Both turned out so yummy and were very easy to prepare. Thought I'd share in case these recipes strike your fancy as well.

Happy (Early) Birthday Dad!

We packed up and headed over the pass on Friday to celebrate my dad's 57th birthday with the fam. His birthday is technically tomorrow, but we wanted to spend some time with family and celebrate with them before they head to Hawaii for two weeks (so jealous!) next weekend.

We had a great time in Yakima - lots of quality time with the family, lots of celebrating, and lots of relaxing (including a pregnancy massage that my mom scheduled for me as a surprise!). Roxy had a blast with all the attention and with lots of fetch, both indoors and outdoors. It's crazy to think that the next time we make it to Yakima, we'll not only have Roxy with us, but a Mini Moran as well!

We celebrated my dad's birthday dinner last night by heading to Creekside West Bar & Grill, which just opened a month ago or so, and it was super yummy. We were also excited to see that it was packed - gotta love when new restaurants seem to be doing well. After dinner, we enjoyed presents, cake and ice cream at my grandma's house. At my dad's special request, my mom and I make a double layer chocolate cake with vanilla frosting and chocolate shavings on top - YUM!

Happy birthday, Dad!! You are the best dad a girl could ask for - I am so incredibly lucky. I can't wait for you to become a grandpa in a few weeks!

Here are a few photos from the weekend.

And this photo isn't technically from Yakima, but was taken the night before we left...and I just love it and had to share.

Joshua Radin

A few weeks ago, I noticed that Joshua Radin was going to be in town again so we quickly bought tickets. He's one of our favorite artists and we're constantly listening to his albums at home - they're perfect for relaxing, enjoying with dinner, while cooking, etc. He definitely didn't disappoint the second time around.

He was at the Showbox this time and I think our location was a little closer to the stage with better visibility than last time at Neumos, which was great. Again he shared stories about many of the songs he performed and again, he walked out into the audience to play his final encore song, which I just think is so cool as it's not something many artists do.

It was a great date night together, especially because we hadn't been to a show in forever, and because it'll likely be one of our last big date nights before the baby arrives. And to top it off, we got to witness a major catfight between two sets of girls happen RIGHT in front of us halfway through the show - names were thrown, DRAMA ensued and security was pulled in. Who knew Joshua Radin would bring out the crazies???

We highly recommend going to see him if you ever have the chance (and not just to try to witness your own catfight)!

Nursery is Complete!

We are excited to announce that the nursery is 99.9% complete and just about ready for a cute, little boy to move in.

I am really happy with how everything came together and turned out --- the surfboard rug fits well with the beach / Hawaii photos we've taken on our trips and with the bright bedding, the light blue walls are fun and inviting, the white furniture makes the room feel very clean and calm, we have plenty of storage for books and toys between the shelves and cubies, and the glider recently arrived (which we LOVE) and looks good with the other brown accents in the room.

But my favorite part of all might just be the cute little clothes that are hanging in the closet, just waiting to be put on Piglet.

Thanks again to the Reeders for their helping with painting, my parents for the crib, and all of our friends and family for helping stock the room with countless toys and cute outfits that will be put to good use in the very near future.

Here are a few photos; the rest can be found here.

Celebrating Piglet x2

Yesterday, the gals on my work team (Stacy, Stephanie and Siiri) planned a super fabulous baby shower for me and I had a blast. Between this shower and my first shower, we have been so completely spoiled, it's ridiculous!

Everything was perfect: from the adorable rattle balloon, the 'Boy' mints scattered on the table, the delicious cupcakes (homemade by my friend Linda (who is my boss' wife) but looked like they were purchased in a specialty bakery), the fruit platter and juice options, to the presents. We received all kinds of cute new outfits, a super fun turtle nightlight which casts stars on the ceiling, a stroller, changing pad and cover, cute burp cloths, sleepers of all sizes, and the list goes on.

It was so much fun to take time out and celebrate with all the girls at work, including 3 of the other 4 preggo gals in the office!

We are absolutely stocked up and ready for this baby to come!

Below are a few photos from the shower, and the rest are here.

The lovely hostesses - Stephanie, Stacy and Siiri.

Homemade, personalized cupcakes in both chocolate and vanilla bean flavors - YUM!

The delicious spread.

This adorable "rattle" is now decorating Piglet's room.

"Older Chicks Dig Me" --- LOVE it!

Piglet Update

Apologies for the lack of blog posts lately - work has been crazy busy for both of us and we've been busy getting ready for Piglet's arrival.

I had a bi-weekly check-up today and Mini Moran looks healthy; however, he still appears to be breech. Apparently there is still time for him to flip on his own, but if he hasn't by my next appointment in two weeks, it sounds like they'll do an ultrasound to confirm with 100% certainty that he's breech. If that is the case, my options are to go into the hospital for an 'external cephalic version' (i.e. the doc manually flips the baby around) or we can schedule a c-section (and during my weekly appointments, they'll continue to check to see if he's turned on his own, in which case we could cancel the c-section). The good news with the ECV is that if they are able to flip him around, there isn't much room for him to flip back on his own; however, it only has about a 50% success rate (and looks a little scary if you ask me - check out this video to see for yourself). Corey and I have some things to think about if he still hasn't flipped over in a few weeks, but until then, we're crossing our fingers that he flips on his own!

According to my most recent weekly Baby Center email, Piglet should be a little over 4 lbs (think pineapple) and has passed the 17-inch mark. And apparently this week is a big week - he could grow over an inch! In addition, his brain should be rapidly growing as well.

Instead of kicks, lately I'm just feeling him move around. Per my doc, this is normal --- he's getting bigger and there is less room for him to kick and punch me. So for the last week or so at night, Corey and I have been able to watch him squirm around in my tummy, which is funny, but crazy and weird, all at the same time.

This weekend, we have a childbirth prep and newborn care class, which I'm looking forward to. We will get to tour the birthing suite at Overlake and learn more about what to expect during labor and birth. I'm sure I'll have some blog-worthy information to share after the class.

In other news, Roxy and I are home alone as C has been in Oahu since Saturday on business, and won't be returning until Wednesday. I told him to try to plan another work trip there between May and July, so that the babe and I can go, too!

And finally, Piglet's room is just about complete so we'll have photos to share soon...stay tuned! In the meantime, I'll leave you with a photo C set up for us last week in the nursery.

Golden Beetle

With Spence and Renata in town for the weekend and plans to get together last night, Corey and I wanted to find a restaurant that they hadn't been before. With them being foodies, much like my hubby, we thought it would be perfect to try out Golden Beetle, an Eastern Mediterranean restaurant that opened on Friday in Ballard by Top Chef contestant Maria Hines.

The decor was super fun and the atmosphere was great for a double date. With a ton of yummy tapas / appetizers, each couple ordered a few to share. Corey and I tried the tabbouleh (delicious!) and the grilled chicken wings (nice and spicy, which Corey loved). In addition, we all noshed on pita bread with yogurt sauce, which we loved, while waiting for our main course. For dinner, the hubs ad I shared turkey shawarma, which was amazing. To quench our thirst, we both tried a house made soda - lemon lime for Corey and cilantro mint for me - and they were very yummy.

It was the perfect place to catch up with the Pattersons and we look forward to returning!

Celebrating Piglet

Yesterday, 17 lovely ladies gathered at Kelsey's house to celebrate Piglet's upcoming arrival and one thing is for sure --- this little boy, who hasn't even arrived yet, is S-P-O-I-L-E-D!

Kels and her mom, Patti, were the hostesses with the mostesses and let me tell you, they know how to throw one fabulous baby shower! There were so many yummy food and desserts options and all were more delicious than the one before. The baby decor was adorable. They even planned a hilarious game where I had to hold a (creepy-looking) baby while attempting to hang up tons of cute baby clothes and gear on a clothes line to "dry" while avoiding distractions like a friendly "neighbor" dropping by (Lisa), the "wind" whipping through (Gina), my mom calling me, and so on. The goal was to get as much as possible on the clothes line and whatever was on the line at the end of two minutes, I'd get to keep. While I don't think I was able to hang up more than half of the goods, they let me leave with with the entire load of adorableness (an entire laundry basket full of new baby goods)!

After the game, it was time for presents and boy, did Piglet receive a ton of awesome gifts from everyone. He now has so many cute outfits, toys and baby essentials that I've spent the last two days doing laundry and trying to find a place for everything - I can't wait until he's here so we can start using it all! In addition, with a book theme, everyone was asked to bring a book to the shower to help start a library for Piglet and we received so many great books. It will be so fun to read them all to him soon.

I had such an amazing day with so many fun ladies and I can't thank everyone enough for helping us celebrate baby boy Moran!

Below are a few of the photos taken at the shower. All my photos can be found here. Gina's photos are posted here.

For me?

Here's some real life proof of Roxy's interest in Piglet's things. While she may have had some coaxing (only because she wasn't sure if it was allowed), she was a happy camper once comfortably situated in the car seat.

I think she may be okay when Piglet gets here, as long as we have two of everything - one for the baby, and one for Roxy.

When are you due?

Over the last three weeks, people have gone from asking me 'are you pregnant?' to 'when are you due?' Apparently I have officially popped as people I haven't seen in ages or people I hardly know are coming right out and asking without any doubt in their minds that there's a bun in the oven. There's no more mistaking that there's a little person in my tummy who is growing more every day.


Piglet has been kicking a lot more lately and I think he even had the hiccups the other morning --- I felt about 50+ perfectly timed rhythmic movements (which strangely felt just like kicks) in my lower abdomen when I woke up in the middle of the night for a bathroom break and to grab a glass of water. Some quick research led me to believe those were likely hiccups - who knew?!

So far, he seems to be both a morning person, like his momma, and a night owl, like his daddy, since he is the most active when I first wake up in the morning and then again later at night. We love to feel his kicks and watch my tummy move when we get into bed at night and sometimes, we can even feel tiny body parts in certain areas. We're never too sure what they are, but it's fun to try to guess.

To help Roxy start getting used to all things baby, we've been letting her into Piglet's room (which she loves, especially the rug - she runs around on it and drags herself all over it) and letting her smell the baby stuff we've been given by friends. She's been especially intrigued by the car seat Tyler and Katy gave us --- I found her in Piglet's room, in the dark, smelling it before our walk tonight, and she ran right back to itt after our walk (when typically, she runs right for her water bowl).

We had a follow-up ultrasound three weeks ago and things seem to moving along nicely. In addition, the previa that the doc noticed several months ago has fixed itself, so the chance that we'd have to have a c-section has gone back down. While we weren't able to see his little face (since he was folded up again), we learned that he was in the 60 percentile for growth and was tipping the scale at 2.5-2.75 lbs. (I,on the other hand, have somehow managed to pack on about 25 lbs!)

We're now in the 31st week and it is so crazy to think that in just two short months, our little man will be here! In the meantime, I start bi-weekly doctor appointments (vs. once per month), I have my baby shower this weekend (which I am so excited for!), we are taking an infant CPR class next week and then the first weekend of March, we are taking a weekend long baby class. Lots of fun stuff help make the next few months pass quickly!